Pretty in the Distance

Posted on by
2

Pretty in the distance

Green Light, Go

Beautiful glisten

Humbled ears, listen…

Her eyes pierce with temptation

Yellow Light, Slow Down

Fall into her glare, stare past the flaws

Close your eyes, take in her fragrance

Her body’s aroma surfaces

Evaporating her rose scented perfume

Take a breath, Inhale her

Open your eyes

Slam on the Brakes

Foresee a collision

Keep braking

Slow down

Your eyes reluctantly become fixated on the curvature of her lips

Goosebumps tinkle from your toes to your spine

Onward going, gazing at her bottom lip as if it were your ticket to your pillow in Heaven.

Admire how they form into each other

Staring into her eyes, placing your hands on each side of her face

So close to her, you can smell her sweat seeping through her pores

Move in and firmly place your lips over hers

You ate the red light, now it’s too Late

You’ve succumb to the beast.

The wheels of the car screech as you try to stop

Seeing your life before your eyes, the vehicle continues to speed through the street

Every part of you trying to escape, trapped not knowing how to be released

Looking around, hoping to see a hand out, but no one is around

Gliding into your last breath

You fell for love, a one-sided love

Her beauty was only meant to distract the monster from within

You drank from her fountain and found a death note at the taste of a poisonous elixir

She drained the warmth from your body

Shriveled you into a raisin, though still ripe

She sucked the sweet out of your veins

Left you for prude

Your head falls into your arms

Awaiting an impact

The pressure of 5 tons is felt, snapping your skeletal in half.

Shattered glass enters your facial orifices

Drowning on your blood, yet still coherent enough to try to survive

Your mind wanders

Remembering the beauty of a beast

She was pretty in the distance

Now her scent lingers on what is left of your soon to be corpse

Fumes from both vehicles are released

Entering your lungs, feeling oppressed

Suffocating your soul

Eyes rolling to the back of your head

You comprehend your cause of death

A distracted distraction

Brussels is like Brussel-Sprouts…It sucks!

Posted on by
2

We made our reservations to Brussels a tad bit late which in turn ended in us having to take three trains to get there. What should have taken 2 hours took an agonizing five.  I was extremely impressed with the metro system when we got to Brussels, which  I later learned was one of the only few things I liked about the city. We quickly checked in to our hostel and went exploring the city to see what all the fuss was about. First and foremost, the city smells bad. It smells as if the entire population has decided to not shower, hell I’m surprised we had showers in our hostels. We walked down towards the Mannekin-Pis, a statue of a small boy taking a piss. I saw it bare, but apparently it has a pretty extensive wardrobe including mariachi costumes. The history behind the statue is that it was used as a drinking fountain in the 15th century and then survived a small battle from the french in 1695 resulting in the destruction of the city. Since then it has become one of the largest tourist attractions in Brussels.

Large crowds gather around the small corner to take pictures with the perverted (If Brussels can have their rebellion humor, so can I) little boy and I followed. Why not? If this was all Brussels was going to offer me, then by all means take a picture with it. The up side to the Mannekin-Pis are the chocolate and waffle shops on the street (the only street that doesn’t smell like shit). We had waffles in several places and I mean a waffle is a waffle. Every place made them differently, some were crispy and some were fluffy. I’m glad I was able to taste a Belgian waffle, but I can live happily buying the frozen kind at the supermarket.

From there we went to the Grote Markt, a local market filled with old buildings and restaurants. We happened to get there the day they were setting up an event called the Flower Carpet. I must admit, that was pretty amazing. It was bright and colorful (like yours truly) and I totally wanted to lay in all the flowers and dream of living in the clouds. I had never heard of a flower carpet event and couldn’t begin to tell you the meaning of it until I did my research. The event has been held yearly and for over 20 years. It started off as a marketing strategy, simply to advertise Begonias for selling and now it’s a worldwide event. I’d love to tell you more, but flowers don’t interest me much so moving on.

A friend of John’s told him that we needed to check out a bar called the Delirium (I tend to struggle when I say delirium and instead pronounce it derilium). The place seemed cool, they had 27 beers on tap and over 2000 beers on the menu putting them in the Guinness book of world records. If you ask me the few beers that we tried all tasted the same, so all in all that was another Fail.

The night was coming to a close so we went back to the hostel, where we learned the night was just beginning. Our roommates were wild UK girls and before we knew it we were back in the street heading to another bar. Without hesitation, John ordered us some more beer. I wasn’t feeling very well since I had a massive headache so while John continued to drink, I  chilled watching all the non-dancers drunk dancing. Playbacks and mixes of Chris Brown and Rihanna filled my ears until I was very much over the limited selection of music and went back to the hostel and knocked out.

Don’t forget to subscribe! My “Taken Moment” coming up next!

Living a Dream.

Posted on by
2

Stepping into twenty-three marked the turn of new page for me. It was proof that with enough determination I am capable of doing everything and anything that crosses my mind. Paris seemed very possible in my childhood days and as an adolescent I dreamed of traveling the world one day. As life after high school sunk in to a rhythm of college and full-time work, those dreams began to feel far-fetched. They turned into hopes rather than goals with a plan of action. Then one day I was face to face with myself, looking straight into my own eyes and asking myself what would make me happy. When I was able to answer the question, I knew sacrifices had to be made and so they were. A year off from school after my Bachelors was one of them and choosing not to work was another even if it meant I’d be broke in the long run. Everything else came with ease, the detachment of friends and family is usually always a difficult one, but we live in a world where keeping in touch is far too easy so I was okay with it.

All this to say, there are many people who travel often and the Eiffel Tower may not mean anything to them, for me it was a feeling of I came, I conquered and I’m still thirsty for more. It was confirmation of the type of person that I am, one that can’t get off on a quick fix; always at the drawing table trying to bite off more than I can chew. There is always more to life no matter where you are or what you’ve done.

My smile was a permanent one as I made my way down the Eiffel Tower, maybe it was because the champagne was THAT good or maybe it was because I had just lived a dream. Whatever it was it turned into dizziness since the stairs felt never ending (totally my idea to take the stairs instead of the elevator). Once at the ground level, we crossed a bridge over the Seine River and hung out at the gardens of the Trocadero (Palais de Chaillot). I’m sure most people have seen this in the movies, usually they show fountains with the Eiffel Tower in the background. John and I chilled on the grass for about an hour and people watched (I should mention that I was a total fat ass and ate a whole box of Madeleine cakes). Up to that point we were steady on the go and it was nice to just relax and do nothing. The nightfall came and we made our way back to Montrouge to freshen up and invite Caroline (our host) to the bar for some drinks. We all got ready and went to a cute and quaint little place with a nice terrace to have the last couple of cheers for the birthday girl.

I’m all for trying something new and the french like to drink something call Panache. It’s sprite mixed with beer and after a few of those I was ready to fall asleep. Although I didn’t party it up in Paris, I was beyond satisfied with my stay. Will I ever go back?! Hell yes! If you don’t fall in love with Paris you might want to get yourself checked out. Maybe in my next trip I’ll find my soulmate, OR NOT!

Next on the list…Brussels, Belgium. Subscribe if you want to know about my 15 minute “Taken” (Yes the movie Taken)moment in Brussels!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Posted on by
2

My birthday morning was no different from any other. I checked my phone to read my birthday wishes and then turned over to go back to sleep, forgetting I was in Paris and had another long day ahead of me. I believe I woke up about an hour later, looking at the time I scurried to gather my things and proceeded to get ready.

It was a forty-five minute journey to the city of Versailles and another ten minute walk to the Chateau d’Versailles. “Chateau” means palace and this was no ordinary Palace. You can see it in the distance about two blocks away, including the thousands of tourist at the entrance gate.

Okay, I’m going to go off track for a minute so I apologize in advance. I’ve never seen so many Asians in my life. Everywhere we go there are herds of them and they love taking guided tours. I wonder if Asia would sink if no one took holiday (Holiday=Vacation everywhere else in the world). I realize they may not all actually live in Asia, but it was just an interesting thought.

Back to the topic at hand, my beautiful smile. Oops, that’s a topic for a different category. Anyway the Chateau is a fantastic example of architecture in the 18th century. It completely embodies a bloodline that fancied the best of the best. The exterior gates are gold (I really wanted to believe that, but nothing is what it seems) and the trimming on the buildings are “gold” as well. We began our tour in the east wing, which led us to a closed off corridor full of statues on both sides. That is when I came to the conclusion that I need to fall in love with someone of royal blood so that I can live like a Queen. I can picture myself in full gala attire, accessorized in rare jewels, walking through the corridors looking for my King to inform him one of his beloved soldiers has been proved to be a traitor and must be put to death (I wouldn’t mind being with another Queen though I’m pretty sure they weren’t having that back then, so maybe I’d have a King with a servant chick on the side).

My mind wanders to movie land at times, I can’t help it. The point is this place is a must see, if you can avoid going in the summer season you can probably enjoy it more than I did. Each room takes you through artwork, sculptures, and structures passed down from generation to generation. There are windows in every room that open like french doors (I guess there isn’t  any need to say french door, if you’re in France LOL), giving you a beautiful view of the garden. I’m not talking about a small garden your abuela keeps in the back of the house to grow cilantro and culantro. I’m talking more along the lines of Alice in Wonderland gardens, so magical it can take you to different worlds.

Pressed for time we left after two hours, meaning we didn’t get to go to the back of the garden and see the Chateau of Trianon or the estate once occupied by Marie Antoinette. Sad face, I should have woke up earlier! Off we went back into the city to do what you’ve all been waiting for, climb the Eiffel Tower. We approached the massive structure and made the line for “Le tour Eiffel”. We waited about 45 minutes to purchase a ticket, after that the lines weren’t as along. Unlike the Arc de Triomphe, there IS a lift that takes you to the second floor and another that takes to the top or you can choose to walk up. Of course we hung out on the second floor for a bit and took some pictures. We met a family of four that just so happened to be from Tampa, FL. How cool is that? So we instantly became buddies for the duration we were there. The views from the second floor were pretty amazing and if you’ve seen the pictures on my Facebook then you know what I’m talking about. I think my heart started skipping beats as I went up the second elevator to the top floor.

There was a refreshing breeze at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The kind that makes you want to raise your arms, close your eyes, and let the wind enter every part of you. Although it isn’t the tallest structure in the world, at that moment I felt like I was literally on top of the world. I walked around, took pictures, walked around again, and took some more pictures. John and I had a glass of champagne and the lovely Tampanian family joined us for a Happy Birthday toast.

Subscribe if you want to know how it all ended in Paris!

Paris – On a tight schedule!

Posted on by
5

Guess who was up and ready by 9am?! No not John, I had to wake him up! I, however, was ready to go get my French on. We were in the city by 10am around the same time the museums and attractions open. We indulged in croissants and orange juice before we ventured into our mini amazing race. Since the Notre Dame was a block away from where we stopped to eat we figured that was the perfect place to start. The architecture of the cathedral is absolutely mind-blowing, so was the line to get in. I quickly decided there was no way I was going to waste hours to see the inside a damn church. Instead we entered the archaeological crypt of the Notre-Dame which is underground.The crypt are urban ruins excavated in the late 1960′s.They depict the many phases of Paris’ architecture over a 2000 year span. It took us about an hour to get through the entire exhibition, which is pretty small. Without reading anything, you can probably see the site in five minutes, but my readers would never do that!

Next on the exploration map was The Louvre Museum, home to Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. I have to admit I’m a huge sucker for museums and I can easily spend over an hour in one section reading about every art piece or sculpture. For me, visiting the Louvre was more of an “I can’t believe I’m standing here” moment than seeing the Eiffel Tower in person. If you know anything about the Louvre, you know its one of the largest museums in the world and totally puts the Metropolitan to shame. This place is massive, it almost feels never-ending. We spent a little over two hours inside; visiting an egyptian crypt, greek and roman sculptures, and 16th century oil paintings. Even though we were able to see a lot in a small window of time, we barely scratched the surface of all the collections. I imagine I can spend a year visiting the museum and still not see every single piece of artwork.

What better way to give our minds a break than to eat? We walked west, towards the Eiffel Tower and stopped to have what I thought was the most delicious omelet I’ve had in a long time. Our lunch break gave us just enough energy to walk over to the Musee d’Orsay, another art museum. With a smaller display of collections than the Louvre, we still managed to take about two hours walking through the entire building. They have a room dedicated to Van Gogh pieces, meaning the place was packed like sardines in a can. On the top floor of d’Orsay, there is a terrace that gives you an amazing view of the Louvre across the Seine River. We soaked in the scenery and descended back down to ground level.

It was a quarter to five and I still had tons of things to do on my list, so we headed to Champs d’Elysees passing both the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace. Champs d’Elysees is a long street that leads to the Arc de Triomphe. On each side of the street there are perfectly trimmed trees and a number of expensive shops! I said hello to Louis V from the windows and gazed at the women buying more than one purse. My thoughts? At first “Shit, that’s a damn mortgage payment!” then it quickly turned into “You greedy bitches, can you buy me one?”.  We continued our walk and before I knew it, we were gazing up at the Arc from the inside. When I read we can go to the top of the arc, I automatically assumed some sort of lift would take us. I was wrong! We entered the left tower and began our climb up 284 steps. The spiral staircase had me swearing the entire way up, not out loud you silly ducks. We reached the attic which should be called the tease room, I thought I made it to the top. I climbed the two flights of stairs left to reach the top and once I felt the wind on my skin and saw the panoramic view before my eyes, I knew the climb was worth it.

We were up there for about twenty minutes getting lost in the views and snapping pictures galore. From the top it’s clear to see that all the streets that lead to the Arc form a star, absolutely fascinating!   The walk back down the stairs was a piece of cake, NOT! Remember I said spiral staircase, well I forgot to mention the steps are small and you only have but so much room to place your feet. Ok, so I wear a size 6 in women so why am I complaining? Because I can, it’s that simple. At the ground level the is a tomb dedicated to an unknown soldier from World War 1. The site is interesting, and it seemed the guards were going to start some sort of ceremony, but we decided not to stay and head back to Caroline’s. The day was long and all I wanted to do was rest and that’s exactly what we did, then I realized my birthday was the next day.  Most say I should have probably started my birthday at a bar, instead I happily drank hot chocolate and was in a deep sleep by 12:30AM. Happy Birthday to me!

Bonjour!

Posted on by
2

Our last night in Dublin was nothing spectacular, we were in bed early since we had a 7AM flight to Paris. We left our hostel at 4:45AM to catch the bus to the airport. The flight was short, though long enough for me to sleep the entire way through. During landing we could see the Eiffel tower in the distance. I’m sure you can imagine our excitement. Well that excitement slowly diminished as we realized we were still a long way from the city centre, let alone Montrouge (south of Paris) where we were staying. We quickly picked up our bags from baggage claim and ate sandwiches at the airport café. My attempt at saying the menu items in French was awful and trying to explain I wanted a pastry to the woman was hilarious. I totally caved and defaulted to using my hands to help me. After we ate we walked over to the tourist center and purchased our metro tickets and museum pass. The woman at the help desk explained the metro routes we had to take to get to our destination.

We had to take three trains, not including the airport shuttle. The shuttle left us at the metro station and we immediately jumped on the southbound B line, which runs straight through the center of Paris. Twelve stops in and we were running up and down the Denfeurt  Rochereau station to transfer to the 6 (don’t get too excited my Bronx lovers). Two stops on that train and we were getting off at Gare Montparnasse, a station I can live with never returning to. It’s a mission to transfer trains there because it’s too damn big, I swear we walked a mile to get to our last train. At last we got on the 13 heading south to Montrouge-Chantillon. When we got out of the train station, we looked at each other and asked “now what”? The map we had with us, cut off exactly where we were at so we didn’t have anything to guide us.

We walked around a bit to see if we could find a café with a wi-fi connection to mapquest the address. Instead, we found a huge map of Montrouge in the middle of the street. I took a picture of it and that’s how we navigated. I was seeing a mirage of the Eiffel Tower thirty minutes into the walk, do you know how hard it is to walk in the heat with thirty pounds of extra weight on you? Let’s just say I didn’t look cute and it’s not fun. We stopped at a local Restaurant to have a drink and chill for a bit. The faces on the staff were priceless as we walked in with our backpacks and sweaty faces. They must have been like WTF?!

We managed to have a decent break because John dragged it out as he continued ordering one drink after another.  We continued on our journey to find our “hosts” house. For those of you that don’t know, there is a site called airbnb.com. Here people rent out their rooms or couches to tourist at a cheaper rate than any hostel or hotel. I know it sounds crazy, staying at a strangers house, but it’s cool because you get the accommodation and the benefits of interacting with a local.

Our host was late, she’s a flight attendant and had a delayed flight, so we didn’t get settled in until about 4PM. Exhaustion sunk in and although I wanted to dive into exploration mode I knew I wouldn’t be able to function without a nap. When we finally got up it was dinner time! Our host, Caroline, joined us for dinner at the “Le Chateau de L’Ouest” a kitchen specializing in southern french cuisine.

Apple Tart dessert from “Le Chateau de L’Ouest”

In France, most restaurants start with an apéritif, not to be confused with an appetizer. An apéritif is a starter drink (usually a champagne of some sort). It’s no surprise our American asses wanted to down them, but we took our time and sipped patiently.Those of you that know me, know that I’m all about food and tasting whatever comes my way.  I had a carrot and leek soup to start and then baked duck leg and duck liver with freshly made fries. Yum! It was buttery and delicious. After dinner, Caroline drove us around Paris. It all felt too surreal and I couldn’t wait until the morning to walk the streets everyone dreams of touching. 

From Drinks to History

Posted on by
Reply

The music was loud in my ears and I could feel each stomp on the floor as if it were my own. My eyes were closed and I let the beat control all of my movements. The liquor didn’t seem to be wearing off so I danced until my clothes felt like they were glued to my body. Actually I danced until I had a sharp pain on the left side of my abdomen. Maybe a cramp or maybe gas pain, whatever it was, I swore I would never see the light of day again. John and I decided to leave the club a bit early and we went exploring the streets looking for fast food. The look on our faces as we approached the welcoming Papa Johns was priceless. Yay! Pizza and fries is what we filled our intoxicated stomachs with and at that moment it was the best tasting food I’ve ever had. The walk back to the hostel was treacherous, I was in so much pain and was walking hunched over the entire way. The last block was filled with “oh my god! John, this has to be gas…a cramp would have went away by now” and “oh my god, I’m going to die!” Somehow we made it back to our dorms, it was dark so I changed into my pjs in the middle of the room telling John not to look and off to dreamland I went.

I opened my eyes and realized I made it another day and without a hangover.  While getting ready, I woke up John who was hung over. We were ready by 9:20AM which meant we only had 10 minutes to get breakfast before the hostel stopped serving. We scurried around the common area filling our plates with as much as we could since we knew it would be a long day.

By 10am we were walking to the meeting spot for our Mary Gibbons Bus Tour. A hung over John could not keep up and was about 5 feet behind me the entire walk. Ms. Gibbons arrived with her tour bus and quickly took our names to get the tour started. On our way to the Newgrange Tombstone she explained the history of the area, the Boyne River Valley. The tombstone we were about to see was built over 5000 years ago which dates it older than the Egyptian pyramids. The ride was about 45 minutes outside of Dublin and well worth it. The Tombstone looks like a hill from afar, but up close it’s more than just rocks, stones, and grass.

It’s amazing when you put to thought that the neolithic people managed to build over 40 of these tombstones (Newgrange being one of the biggest) without the help of levels or any kind of machinery. We got off the bus and met up with a local archeologist who gave us a run down of how we would be entering the tombstone. There was only one way in, thus we had to exit in the same manner we entered. Upon entering, we had to keep are arms in and if we had any bags to carry they had to be held in front of us. The entry way was not only very tight, but short in height (means I didn’t have to bend down). There isn’t any way I can possibly explain how magnificent  the internal structure was. I wish I could show pictures but they weren’t allowed. All I can say is, it’s one of those things you have to see for yourself. The place is secured with large stones and thousands of small ones to hold them together and they are angled so as to not become wet inside when it rains. The archeologist gave a small presentation inside the tombstone to show us how it illuminates every winter solstice for ONLY 17 minutes, the rest of the year its remains dark.

Before we knew it, we were exiting Newgrange and heading to a local farm for lunch. Still pretty stuffed from breakfast, I had a small bowl of soup (made fresh by the owner of the farm). From there we got back on the tour bus and went to the Replica of the Newgrange site which is similar to a museum. We were able to capture some great pictures of the Boyne River since the museum is practically on the river. We were there for something over an hour and then headed to the hill of Tara. It is one of the highest peaks in all of Ireland. At the very top you can see almost two-thirds of  the country. Pictures don’t do this place justice. Oh, I forgot to mention the grass IS REALLY GREEN! We also gathered at a wishing tree nearby. The rule? Attach whatever you have in your pocket to one of the branches and make a wish. I scrambled in my purse to find something I didn’t mind leaving and found a band-aid. Don’t judge me! There were even receipts on those branches. There I was in the middle of tons of land and participating in an Irish experience, making a wish!
Stay Tuned, Paris is next!

Can I be a Dubliner?

Posted on by
13

Waking up in a room full of 6 people whom you do not know is nothing less of interesting. At 7AM I was up and not so ready for “hostel breakfast”. To my dismay, it was simple enough to be good. Some toast, jam, cereal, and milk that tasted like it was fresh off the farm. John and I left to go jogging, but to his surprise I was only walking. He jogged while I strolled and took pictures of Phoenix Park. The park is huge and we only saw a third of it, enough to see the Wellington monument and the beautifully kept garden. After, we freshened up and met up with our Georgia buddy for the Sandeman’s Walking tour which met west of City Hall. Now city hall is not the real city hall of Dublin, only the historical site which once was. Our tour guide Eleanor was superb and gave the history lesson in a comedic language as to not bore the hell out of us. We covered areas such as Dublin’s Castle, Dublin’s Garden, the forty steps (the building above it was were Jonathan Swift, the writer, lived in his first few years), Christ Church, Temple Bar, Trinity College, and Stephen’s Green. The tour was 3.5 hours long and was followed by lunch at a local pub called O’Neils. There we met an Italian couple from Florence, which I’m already friends with on Facebook!

Next stop was the Guinness Storehouse, a massive brewery. At least it was massive to me, but it was the first I’ve ever been to. Who knew making beer was such a tedious process? Not me! You even have to pour it a certain way in order for it to be perfect. Guinness isn’t for everyone and I learned that about two days into the trip. I didn’t enjoy the taste and I felt tipsy after a pint. I actually should have drank more since it is high in Iron. Apparently doctors used to prescribe it to patients even to pregnant women, thanks to the tour guide for that bit of info! Did I mention the tour guide was pretty HOT?!  Her and her spanish co-worker, yum! Great eye Candy! Okay, back to the brewery…John and I learned how to pour our own pints of Guinness. I felt like I was in lab class, taking an exam, “keep the glass at a 40 degree angle”…blah, blah, blah. The point is, John and I both passed and drank our beer, but couldn’t keep it as a keepsake because we peed it out about 30 minutes later. Our 12 hour day was slowly wearing us down and by 11PM we were in our bunks ready to knock out.

The following day we slept in a bit later and decided to split up for half of the day. John went souvenir shopping (Not doing this folks because I really don’t want to carry around with the extra weight) and I went sightseeing. I should say that I kind of got lost and loved every second of it. Walking without a destination and not knowing your surroundings is something I recommend to everyone. I hate looking like a tourist so I ditched the map and found myself at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which I thought was cooler than Christ Church. There was a park to the left of it, full of bright colorful flowers and clean-cut grass. I even joined the locals and sat in the grass for a while and people watched. I guess every park has its similarities; kids playing, lovers romancing, photographers trying to capture what so many before them have tried to, singles walking their dogs, and tourist like me trying to blend in with the crowd. After five minutes of some much-needed sun, I continued on my walk and went through gates I shouldn’t have and even lonely alleys. The streets have so much history, you can’t begin to imagine all the timeless memories each square foot has.

The time quickly approached 6PM so I headed back to the hostel to meet up with John. I freshened up and prepared for a night I was not expecting. We purchased tickets to go on a pub crawl, similar to bar hopping except Irish and loads of fun. We met up with our group at 8PM and guess who was one of our guides?! No, not Eleanor but her cute spanish co-worker. Short lived expectations, during the walking tour he eyes wandered  but at the pub crawl he barely checked me out…seriously? Well that didn’t take away the fact that we went to five pubs, danced to Irish music, met a ton of people, and got hammered. I had my mix of tequila shots, horrible beer, better beer, strawberry beer, and more shots of tequila. John was more of a man and had some Jagerbombs, needless to say he was trying to river-dance in the middle of the street with a med-student we met from Chicago. The night ended with a club that played nothing but old school hip-hop. I hadn’t heard half of those songs since I started highschool. I felt like a teenager again trying to pull off the choreography from the videos, of course influenced by the amounts of alcohol in my system. And so the night went on; full of beverages, several trips to the bathroom, and stars circling our heads.

Want to know how the night ended? Subscribe!

The start of my Journey

Posted on by
6

The car service picked me up at exactly 4:15PM on Sunday. The trip to JFK was quiet and quite long, it didn’t help I was feeling a bit car sick.  As the car pulled up to the terminal, I saw my friend John waving at me and kindly asked the chauffeur to leave me there. I greeted John and headed to check in. We were able to get through security about an hour after we arrived, leaving us exactly an hour before boarding or so we thought.

I was very eager to begin boarding the plane since I was exhausted, I knew I’d be knocked out before take off. This, however, was not the case. A storm decided to pass and caused all the flights departing to be delayed. Unfortunately for me, I could not fall asleep sitting at the gate and the wi-fi absolutely SUCKED!! I decided to call a friend and annoy her until my flight began boarding, almost 3 hours later (poor thing, she fought the urges to fall asleep until I boarded). Upon sitting at my window seat, I made myself very comfortable and I can’t tell you much else because I was dreaming well before I closed my eyes. I’m pretty sure I woke up when meals were distributed, but maybe I was dreaming about that too…I don’t even know what I ate. What I do remember clearly is waking up while we were slowly approaching our gate in Dublin. So you ask, how was my flight? Nothing but lovely! In my eyes, 7.5 hours of being in flight felt all of maybe 15 minutes.

We arrived in Dublin at 10:30AM (5:30AM EST). I emailed the hostel letting them know we would be arriving shortly and they responded quickly with a map of their location, how to get there, and a list of must-see’s in the city. When we approached customs, I left John in the longer line and went through the E.U. Citizen. What a breeze! Customs barely looked at my Spanish passport, the only downfall is it won’t be stamped with all the cool cities I’m going to, but hey I’ll have enough pics to show as proof. I took advantage of the time John was on the line and updated my Facebook, instagram, and twitter. I will not deny that I AM a social network addict. Can you blame me?!  No? That’s what I thought! John made it to baggage claim in one piece and well composed from his small interrogation. We picked up our bags and out the airport we exited. We took a local bus to our hostel and arrived 15 minutes later.

We were greeted by what seemed to be a happy Irishman and he explained everything we needed to know about staying at the hostel. Our beds weren’t available until after 3PM so we decided to walk around the city for a while and get lost in some of the back streets. I guess no matter where you go, it is impossible to escape “Real New York Pizza”. They even have a Papa John’s here!  Once we were more than tired we came back to the room and took a 3 hour-long nap. We woke up around 7pm and some of our roommates were hanging out in our dorm. It’s funny how in an 8 bed dorm, all but one was American. We hit it off with a fellow southerner from Georgia that was studying abroad since may and Dublin was his last stop before heading back home. We were starving and figured it would be a good time to grab a bite to eat. Temple Bar here we come! Now temple bar isn’t really just one pub. It’s actually an area full of pubs and live music. Our first stop the Auldubliner, there we had our first encounter with real Irish Guinness and boy was it more than a kick in my rear. It was strong and well the taste, umm different and it smelled of coffee. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I hate coffee. All in all we enjoyed the food, but there was no way I was finishing that pint of Guinness so John drank it for me.

We then proceeded to stop number two, The Quay. There isn’t any other way to describe this pub other than, it’s the Shit! Live Irish music, happy people, great atmosphere, and of course ALCOHOL. My stomach wasn’t  feeling all that great so I decided to shy away from the liquor. After about 10 minutes of walking through the crowd we found a small spot to watch and listen to the live band and observe the locals. Keep in mind this was a Monday night, I can’t begin to imagine what a Friday or Saturday would look like. We met some cute Greeks whom gave us a tip or two about places to go in Paris and I got my share of eye candy. After about an hour and a half we decided to get back to our rooms and finally get some decent rest.

More of Ireland to come so stay tuned…

Bye Bye U.S.A, for now that is!

Posted on by
9

My day started by waking up at 5:30AM in hopes of finishing all last-minute details for my trip. Did I finish? Let’s just say I’m still working on it. By 8:30AM I was in East Brunswick, NJ with my dad having breakfast at my unofficial “godparents” house. By 11AM I was in Pennsylvania completing my family duties . At 2PM I was back at my dads house in Edison, NJ rushing to get ready before the “car service” picked me up to go to the airport. Yeah you heard right, “car service”, I’m not too fond of it, but when your dad has a very selective memory you simply have to deal with the outcome of situations. Now that I’m done complaining about the overpriced (not paid by me) car service, I’ll begin by saying OH MY GOD…I’m really EFFN doing this.

Today I leave the states and begin a journey full of history, food, and well things I probably shouldn’t go on record stating now. Over the past couple of months I’ve been running around like a mad woman in attempt to make this trip as amazing as I can. As most, I love to leave things for the last second and so I’ve only had three hours of sleep. I’m overly excited, but I must admit while laying down, last night  all I could think of was, “my goodness, it’s going to be a couple of months before I sleep in a comfortable bed”. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I do not encounter any horror stories of bed bug infestation. If so, I’m armed with an aerosol spray-can that reads “Good Nite, Bed Bug Killer”. I’m not sure how effective and safe the chemical will be, but it will keep my mind at ease.

I’ll be meeting my friend, John, at the airport and catching some well needed Zzz’s before the plane takes off. I, unlike many, sleep very comfortably on the plane and most likely will wake up half way through the trip,surely when we’re flying somewhere over the Atlantic. Maybe I’ll decide to start practicing my french since I’ll be in Paris towards the end of the week, or maybe I’ll just turn my head and drool on the person next to me. Ehh, who knows what will keep me entertained during those 7.5 hours? All I know is at 3:30AM, 8:30AM (Ireland Time), I will be landing in the country known home to the greenest of green.  I’m hoping John gets some decent sleep, because I plan on checking into the Hostel, dropping off my backpack and walking all throughout Dublin for the day. Well folks, my ride awaits me. I’m excited to share my adventures with you and hope I serve as a good form of entertainment. Until next time…