Mid-Term in the Mediterranean

Wow what a week! This will be kind of a unique update as I am covering 7 days, 3 countries, and a cruise in one blog. In order to avoid being long winded.. I will write a brief paragraph concerning each city I visited, a paragraph on the cruise ship, and one describing our return travel day (I'm glad that day is over). I'll start with Barcelona, the port city that our cruise departed from...

Barcelona was very urban and fairly cheap. It was fairly warm when we got off the plane f

rom Dublin, and stayed in the mid 70's for whole time that we were there. Our hostel was nice, and once we got settled in we grabbed some Sangria (so tasty) and went to a local Kebap place for some sandwiches. The next day, before getting on the boat, we took a quick tour through the city, seeing La Iglesia de La Sagrada Familia (The Church of the Holy Family). While visiting the church there was some sort of celebration which included 4 "pyramids of people" stacking themselves to look like the church... I'm not really sure what it was supposed to mean but it was really impressive (see pictures). The beaches along Barcelona were beautiful as well..

From Barcelona, we mounted our cruise ship and had a day at sea. The cruise was fine- it had free food (with free 5-Star restaurants on the ship), pools, spas, giant chess, shuffleboard (I am undefeated at this game), a sports court, a climbing wall, and a full theatre with performances every night. It was all grand, but I immediately realized one thing about my traveling preference: I like it raw. I would much

rather be in a sub-par hostel, long train rides, and just out and about rather than on a ship, as I feel as if this is the best way to be submerged into the culture. The ship was great, however, for seeing lots of places in a small amount of time, and was fantastic for traveling purposes. All in all, I'm glad I did the cruise. I gained a bit of awareness for each place we visited, and now I know where I would like to go back to.

Malta was a unique trip, as it is an Island that isn't incredibly accessible as a traveler. We visited two fantastic churches in Malta, one being Saint John's Co-Cathedral, which had some incredible works by Caravaggio. The other church, Saint Paul's Shipwreck Church, claimed to have a part of Saint Paul's wristbone. It was a beautiful day as well, and the views from the coastline were fantastic.

The day in Napoli (Naples) was another beautiful day with sunny, blue skies. While in Napoli, we took a tour (mistakenly) through the italian ghetto in effort to get to the top of the city (Napoli lies on a hillside). After quite a few interesting scenes and places, we made it to the top of the city which had a fantastic view. While on the top of the city, we toured a small park ("Floridiana Villa") and had perhaps the greatest dessert in the world- gelato. I had a limon-strawberry flavored gelato, and it was quite literally the greatest sweet I have ever had in my life. Afterwards, we made our way back down, visiting an incredible Castel dell'Ovo (seaside fort) and a great open

square with a Romanesque church called Basilica San Francesco di Paola.

Rome wasn't built in a day, so I didn't get to see all of Rome in a day either. I did, however, get to see a lot, and I'm fortunate to have visited there. It rained all day in Rome, but that didn't stop us from seeing a lot. Our first stop was the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Next was the Spanish Steps (outside of the Spanish Embassy) and Trevi Fountain (I threw my coin in... backwards of course). Lastly was the Vatican (my personal favorite). The Basilica was naturally incredible and breathtaking, and I couldn't imagine visiting Rome without seeing the Vatican. We were able to climb to the top of the Basilica and see a great view on top of the dome. It was absolutely crazy seeing all the places where St. Peter and other countless popes were buried. I want to go back and visit multiple times; it feels like I could have spent a week just visiting the Vatican. I was also able to run through the Vatican Museum just to see the Sistine Chapel, which was completely worth it. The Sistine Chapel has to be the best work of art in the world... I am convinced of it.

Even though it took a while to get to Firenze from Llvorno (our port city) and it was raining and dreary, I liked Firenze (Florence) the best. The street layout was unique, and it seemed to me to be the epitome of an italian city. We saw many statues there (including Statue of David), visited San Lorenzo, crossed the famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), went through plenty of markets, walked along the River Arno and had pizza and gelato. There was a garden that I

wanted to go to, but we didn't have enough time. If I visit Italy again, I want to go back to Firenze.

Our last stop, Cannes, France, was a great note to end on. The weather was once again sunny and warm. After touring a museum, John and I walked around downtown Cannes, where we discovered a big food market and quite a few Art festivals. For those of you around the cities, Cannes was like Excelsior meets Beverly Hills. Lots of money, fancy cars, boats, beautiful beaches, little shops, and plenty of artists trying to sell their artwork. I loved the environment. I spent the last of my hours there swimming in the Mediterranean and sunbathing on the warm sands... probably the last time I'll do that in 2009!

Cannes marked our last excursion. That night we prepared for a big travel day on Sunday... we didn't know what was in store...

We all woke up at 4:30a.m. to ensure that we would make our flight out of Girona. Unfortunately (even though we were docked), the cruise security did not let us off the boat till 6:00a.m. and we were unable to make our flight (50 euro gone). We ended up booking a 5:25p.m. flight to Belfast. We traveled to the Barcelona airport, waited for 5 hours, and finally got on the plane. From Belfast we discovered that we could not make a direct trip to Galway. Instead, we took a bus to Dublin, and from Dublin to Galway (this would be like traveling first to Green Bay, and then to Chicago from the Twin Cities). All in all, we arrived back at the PLH at 4:00a.m. It was one hell of a day, but I am happy that we all arrived back here in one piece.

I hope you enjoyed this quick reflection on my long break.. if you have any other questions about my experiences in these places just e-mail me. I just didn't want to make an entry too long to read! This weekend I will be returning to Belfast with all of my classmates, and we will all explore Northern Ireland together. Pictures for this past weekend will be up soon! I have to charge my camera battery quick before I am able to put them up. Until next time..

mahalo

Thomas