Videos of Dublin & Venice

This is way overdue, but I finally uploaded some videos that I took in Europe last summer. You'll notice [if you watch it, that is. I hardly ever watch other bloggers' videos, so my feelings won't be hurt if you politely move along] that we can't stop talking for even one minute for a good video! That's always how it is...

This first one is from the first day of my trip when I arrived in Dublin. It's a live Irish band performing at Temple Bar - Irish music is so fun!

Here's one from the same day. We were outside of Dublin Castle and this group of people was singing. I creepily recorded them because they were so good [The images are capturing the buildings so that I wasn't just pointing my camera at them. You really only need to listen to the audio.]

And finally, one from Venice, Italy of the gondolas floating down the canal. Isn't it so beautiful?! I think it's probably the prettiest city I've ever been to. It doesn't even seem real.

If you're interested in reading all the posts about my 2-week European adventure last summer, click here!

What I learned in Europe

My two weeks in Europe were an amazing experience that I'm so thankful for. I hope I can return one day soon and see Spain, France and more of Northern Europe. To conclude my vacation recaps, I thought I'd put together a collection of my thoughts, lessons and tips.

What I learned about myself...

• One thing I am excellent at is deciphering light rail and train maps. I think this is due to my year and a half working for a transit system.
• I cannot drink enough water when walking around all day!
• I can easily adjust to 8-hour time differences :) Both arriving and coming back home were a breeze.

What I learned about bathrooms... (Yes, I learned so much about bathrooms that it needed its own section!)

• Don't ask people where the "restroom" is, because they'll have no idea what you're talking about.  "Bathroom" has a better chance of being understood, but call it the "toilet."
• Look for signs that say "WC" if you're searching for a public toilet. This is more common than the man/woman icon. I never would have known this!
• Don't expect to find seat covers. You're not going to, so just get used to the germs.
• ...and when in the Greek islands - don't even expect toilets! The public restroom in Fira is a hole in the floor that you squat over. Just call it an adventure!

Other things I learned...

• In Greece we were a little worried that no one would speak English and furthermore, all the signs would be in Greek. In Italy, even if signs are in Italian we at least know the alphabet and enough Spanish to figure it out. Greek is completely different! However, wherever we went, signs were mostly in Greek and English, and most people spoke at least a little English.
• They say the time differently in Europe. 4:30 would be "four thirty" in the U.S., but in Europe it's "half four," "half five," etc.
• Many hotels and hostels only accept cash - no credit cards so you need to be prepared for that.

Read all of my vacation recaps...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece
Day 11: Santorini, Greece
Day 12: Santorini, Greece
Day 13: Athens, Greece
Day 14: Dublin, Ireland
Day 15: Travel

Europe Day 15: Travel

The very last day of my trip consisted of all travel. I left the hostel and took a bus to the airport at about 5 a.m. I said goodbye to Rose, as she was staying in Europe for several more weeks (p.s. read about her interrailing adventures! She went to Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Interlaken and Paris after I left).

I flew into JFK in New York and had a layover there for a few hours, then back to San Francisco. Because of my cold, the air pressure during landing was unbearable for my ears! :(

James picked me up at SFO and it was good to be home! I loved the trip and all the experiences it allowed me, but it's always nice to sleep in your own bed again.

That's the end of my vacation recaps! I hope they were helpful, or at least entertaining!

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece
Day 11: Santorini, Greece
Day 12: Santorini, Greece
Day 13: Athens, Greece
Day 14: Dublin, Ireland

Europe Day 14: Dublin, Ireland

My last day in Europe :( And sadly, I was too sick to enjoy it as much as I wish I had. We really wanted to go out to the pubs like on my first day in Dublin, but that was a no-go. But it was okay. We slept in and then went out for an Irish fry, which is a traditional breakfast with lots of delicious, greasy food! My favorite was the black & white sausage.

We walked around Dublin a little bit and I bought this awesome sweatshirt, and gifts for people back home too.

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece
Day 11: Santorini, Greece
Day 12: Santorini, Greece
Day 13: Athens, Greece

Europe Day 13: Athens, Greece

Our ferry got to Athens about 6 a.m. and we went to meet Sam at her hotel. Because I was so sick, I slept there while Sam & Rose went to get breakfast. That sleep was so needed!

After checkout time Sam went to the airport to fly back home, but we were staying in Athens until that night, then flying back to Dublin.

Rose and I did more walking, sitting and talking. We also did some shopping and I got this painting at the Athens Flea Market.

It still needs a frame but it will live in my home forever and remind me of this fabulous trip! I was also very proud that I was able to haggle with the salesman and pay only 15 Euro when he wanted 20 Euro for it. I saw similar paintings for that much when we were in Athens previously, so I knew it was a fair price.

In the late afternoon/evening we took a bus to the airport (we would have taken the train but the workers were on strike!). We flew to Dublin and arrived around... midnight, maybe? We were staying at the same hostel as previous nights.

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece
Day 11: Santorini, Greece
Day 12: Santorini, Greece

Europe Day 12: Santorini, Greece

Sam went back to Athens early because she was sick and what we were about to do on day 12 was a horrible thing to do while sick! I started to feel sick the previous night as well, and this day I had a really bad sore throat and all-around exhaustion.

We had to check out of our hotel during the day, but our ferry back to Athens didn't leave until midnight. Luckily the hotel let us leave all our luggage there while we killed time in Santorini all day.

We hung out by the pool through lunchtime, and the hotel staff graciously let us eat lunch there even though we had technically already checked out.

Then, we took the bus to Fira. We found the beautiful side of the city that we didn't know about previously. So pretty!

We essentially sat on benches, walked around and talked for hours and hours. I was feeling really bad. Later in the afternoon we bussed to Oia to watch the sunset again.

We walked around the other side that we didn't see the previous day and ate dinner at a restaurant with a great view.

We watched another beautiful sunset.

After sunset, we took the bus back to Kamari (after a switch in Fira) to get our luggage then head down to the port. That late at night they don't go to all the stops... before they stopped right in front of our hotel but this time they dropped us far away and told us how to get there.

It was far! And it was completely dark. So even if we recognized our surroundings from previous days, it looked so different at nighttime. Somehow we found the hotel. I really don't know how!

We took a taxi to the port and waited there until our ferry came at midnight. Then we tried our best to get a night of sleep on board, in our airplane-like seats.

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece
Day 11: Santorini, Greece

Europe Day 11: Santorini, Greece

Day 11... it was finally time to relax! We slept in a little, then walked down to the beach - about 1/3 mile down the road. It's actually not a very nice beach - very rocky and painful on the feet!

We hung out for just a little while then sat out by the pool for a good portion of the afternoon. I accomplished goal #66 on my list - swim in a pool (I did it at my friend's house last weekend too, but this one was first :)

As it got closer to sunset, we took a public bus to the Oia on the other side of the island (pronounced eee-uh). It's said to have one of the best sunsets in the world. Oia was beautiful! It has the traditional Greek architecture that we'd been imagining all along. Definitely one of the prettiest towns I've been to (Venice is on that list as well).

We walked around the town and took about a million pictures.

As sunset came along we found a restaurant with a view.

It was disgusting! I ordered a salad and I don't know how you can mess that up, but it was so salty that I couldn't eat it. The service was also the slowest I've ever experienced. To make up for it, they gave us free dessert that was (you guessed it) disgusting. But whatever, we got a sunset view and it was a beautiful building and setting.

I don't know about "the best in the world," but the sunset was really, really nice.

We took a taxi back to our hotel at the end of the night.

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece
Day 10: Santorini, Greece

Europe Day 10: Santorini, Greece

To get to the Greek islands, you can either take a huge ferry or a small plane. We were planning to fly (45 minutes), but waited too long and prices went up... so 8 hour ferry it was for us!

It left around 6 a.m. and made two stops at other islands before we arrived in Santorini (on the way back it was only 5 hours because there were no additional stops). I meant to remember the names of these islands we stopped at, but I didn't! Here's the view from the ferry, though:

Buses leave from the port to the city every time a ferry comes in, which is about twice a day. That's the only time. You can't walk because the port is in the middle of nowhere, at the bottom of a very long, steep and windy road.

Well, we missed the bus and had to pay some guy 20 Euro to take us to our hotel! It actually worked out well, we didn't have to figure out a bus system in another language, and we got dropped off right in front of the hotel. It was an adventure though.

We stayed at Hotel Makarios, an all-inclusive resort in Kamari.

Our room:

Views from our balcony:

Our pool:

It was great to have an all-inclusive, especially because that inlcuded beer, white wine and a Greek liquor called ouzo (ooo-zoh). We enjoyed that! Also included were all three meals and grilled cheese sandwiches (they call it toast) and ice cream between meals. However, while free food was nice, it wasn't very good! Only a small selection of the food offered at the buffet was actually appetizing.

On the day we arrived in Santorini, we walked to the tiny town of Kamari to buy bottled water. You can't drink tap water on the islands because it's desalinated.

We hung out by the pool for the afternoon, and in the evening decided to go out in Fira, the main city. We took a taxi and found a bar but the nightlife wasn't exactly great... lots of smoke and bad music.

Took a taxi back to the hotel after getting some delicious snacks at a bakery!

Previously...

Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy
Day 9: Athens, Greece

Europe Day 9: Athens, Greece

We took a short train ride to Plaka, the cute touristy area of Athens next to the Acropolis, where we had the most amazing brunch ever!

spinach cheese pie (my fave):

stuffed potatoes:

mixed omelet:

chicken souvlaki:

We split all of it! :)

Then we headed over to the amazing Acropolis. Admission was free that day! We walked up the trail, which was a lot easier than it looks. Okay, well it doesn't look that bad in this picture but it really is on top of a small mountain!

Parthenon:

View of Athens from the Acropolis:

Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Acropolis

(we walked down to it later):

We did a bit of shopping and people watching, went back to the hotel and rested, then headed back to Plaka for dinner. NOT as good as brunch, that's for sure! I can confidently report that I've tasted the most disgusting, plastic-y tasting pork chop ever made.

I'm not sure what I expected of Athens, but it was not what I expected. It was better!

Previously...
Day 1: Travel
Day 2: Dublin, Ireland
Day 3: Dublin, Ireland
Day 4: Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland
Day 5: Venice, Italy
Day 6: Rome, Italy
Day 7: Rome, Italy
Day 8: Ostia Antica, Italy