London and Dublin and Paris, oh my!

      Well, its been a few hectic weeks. Fall break in Europe means travel, travel, and more travel. From Italy to England, Ireland to France, I've seen more of Europe in the past three weeks than I have seen of America. The trip began with a class trip to Rome. Rome is...an experience. Not the place to be if you have a fear of large masses of people or questionable sanitation. Despite the hustle and bustle of the city, the sights were unforgettable. Rome has a rich cultural and architectural history hiding within its busy streets. Giant palaces, ruins of ancient cities, and feats of human engineering that seem to defy all laws of physics. It was really cool to explore the city and its many historical monuments, like the Colosseum and the Pantheon. After five days exploring Rome and the surrounding Italian countryside, we split off from the others and began our real fall break. First stop was London.

      London was an absolute blast. Like a smaller, less crowded New York, London was a welcome departure from the grimy streets of Rome. Riding through the city on the top floor of a double-decker bus is probably the best way to get around London. The skyline of the city is beautiful, especially at night when everything is lit up. Although I didn't ride the London Eye (tickets cost like 50 dollars and I'm a cheap college students), it was still an experience standing at the base and looking up at the towering structure. Unfortunately, Big Ben was under construction when we were there, and only the face of the clock was visible behind all the scaffolding. Buckingham Palace was a quick stop on our sightseeing journey through London, as was Westminster Abbey. Although they were interesting, we didn't spend too much time for anything more than a couple pictures at these stops. All in all, London was an awesome experience and was by far one of my favorite stops during the break.

     Despite having a fairly good time in London, we did run into some trouble the second nights stay at the Airbnb. Shaken awake at 2am by Bree, I knew immediately that something was wrong. There was panic in her eyes and her hushed whisper had an intensity to it I'd never heard before. Then came the knocking. A man, probably drunk or on drugs of some sort, was pounding on the door of the apartment, screaming for the host to open the door so they 'could talk'. This went on for about a half hour, with the pounding becoming more intense to the point the man was throwing himself against the door trying to get in. He also tried to talk to us through the mail slot and the kitchen window, but luckily we had most of the lights off in the house and just stayed completely still hoping the man would lose interest before we had to call the cops. After a half hour of fear and panic, not knowing if the man would find a way into the home or not and arming ourselves with corkscrews and butter knives from the kitchen, the man left. It was an experience I hope to never have again.

     After our long night in London, a flight to Dublin cleared our heads with gorgeous scenery and amazing food and drinks. As one does in Ireland, I had to try a Guiness. While I am not a huge drinker, especially of beers, Guiness was a decent beer that I actually enjoyed quite a bit. Kudos to the Irish for knowing how to make a good beer. While Ireland was our shortest stop of the break, it was probably my favorite place we went. The countryside is beautiful and the people were nice beyond compare. The first day we did a lot of souvenir shopping in downtown Dublin. It was probably the cleanest city we visited. After a night in a cute little Airbnb apartment, we booked a tour to the cliffs of Moher. I have always been particular to craggy shorelines as I love the sound of waves as they crash against rock but these cliffs just took my breath away. The shear natural beauty of the area was astounding, and despite the dreary conditions we visited them in, the cliffs were still able to awe all three of us into near speechlessness. Also, shout-out to our tour guide Wes for being the best part of the trip. Probably one of the nicest guys you'll meet, he even offered to drive us to a pub after the tour was done since we had a few hours to kill before our flight to Paris.

     The final stop on our European tour was Paris and man did it start out with a bang. As we were heading for our Airbnb, we needed to get tickets for the metro. While trying to figure out the machine, a man came out of the blue and started beating the daylights out of a poor woman in line. He kicked, punched, and pulled her hair before eventually being torn off her by a couple bystanders. We were left speechless as we had been in Paris for less than an hour and already witnessed a physical assault. The most interesting thing about this story, however, was that the man worked for the metro line. We are not sure if the woman was a pickpocket or what, but it was definitely a very bizarre experience. After recovering from our shock, we quickly bought our tickets and boarded the train before we became the next victims of the metro man's rage.

      The Airbnb we stayed at was probably the nicest and most compact house I've ever stayed in. The host was super nice and even left us tea and snacks. Paris was a nice mix of Rome and London. It had all the amenities of London with the history and sight seeing aspects of Rome without the people and clutter. Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person was the experience of a lifetime. Exploring the catacombs of Paris was also very cool, as well as a bit morbid. To see how many people have lived and died in the city was a sobering experience. I would highly suggest seeing the Eiffel Tower at night around the hour as it does a little light show for onlookers every hour on the hour until 5 minutes past for the entire night. I would also suggest taking the stairs up to whatever floor may be open at the time because looking out at Paris at night is amazing.