Gelato, crepes and stroopwafel

Fall break has come and gone. I would consider it a mediocre fall break... just kidding. It was awesome! So much fun with some of the best people I know.

Fall break started off with a few nights in London to kick off our "vacation." I realize this entire semester is a vacation but whatever. Thursday night, we participated in a Will Ferrell power hour and headed to this ritzy jazz club. It was very classy with extremely expensive drinks, dim lighting and live jazz music. We spent our life savings on drinks to fit in with the crowd and spent the night hanging out there. It was a good mix up from our usual destination of O'Neill's on Thursdays.

Will arrived on Friday and we took him around London! We walked around some of the general sights and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. London has been having seriously awesome weather lately it is great. After checking out the South Bank, Big Ben, Parliament, etc. we eventually landed upon Harrod's, the largest department store in London. It has tons of floors and sells everything from cheese and sushi to wedding dresses and Christmas trees. We explored around there and Jon ripped his pants while attempting to slide down the railing of the stairs. Fail. Harrod's also looks awesome from the outside at night when they light up the entire building. Afterwards, Collin, Allie and I swung by Primark again (our favorite cheap store) for some last minute goodies before fall break. Allie and I shopped separately and somehow managed to purchase the exact same gold shirt... not real life. Collin also bought four pairs of underwear for all the boys that have the British flag on the back of them. Classic.

Friday night, we had a Mexican fiesta dinner complete with fajitas, chips and guac and a singular giant margarita that we made in the giant martini glass. It was delicious. We then headed downtown and got roped into this club called Rumba by some promoter. It was a little sketchy but we definitely managed to have a good time. We also decided to indulge in shots of absinthe this night. Apparently absinthe is illegal in the U.S. so naturally it is the cool thing to do in Europe. It tastes like a mixture of black liquorice and gasoline. Nearly unbearable to drink. I think my throat was burning for ten minutes.

Giant marg!

Saturday morning, I got up fairly early to meet up with Crystal at Victoria Station since she was in London for the weekend. We walked around in the sunny weather, got some lunch and hit up Hyde Park, perfect relaxed morning. Crystal then came back to my flat and watched me frantically pack for my trip. Never again will I save my packing until one hour before departure. Love you Crys!

Saturday night, we flew to Rome! We got in around dinner time, took a bus to the city center, and found Tara in the main station there. Tara was a perfect tour guide and led us immediately to our apartment. The apartment was such a good call. It had three rooms, a loft, a bathroom and a kitchen. It was also a pretty good deal compared to a hostel or hotel. We paid the man who rented it out to us and immediately decided to do the unthinkable: more absinthe. After two shots I was struggling. However, we mobilized and headed into the city with Tara for a night on the town. It was really late so we ate some slices of pizza from a little food place that was open. We then went to this plaza with a ton of cool bars, entering none other than an establishment called "Classy in the front, Sloppy in the back." It was just that. We made out way to the back to find all of Notre Dame: London kids, Rome kids, you name it. There were about 30 of us in this bar. We all managed to get roses (I still don't know how) and had a lot of fun fooling around with those. Unfortunately, because of the riots in Rome they had to shut down the bar early. Lame. We eventually made our way back to the apartment and Allie and I engaged in some general debauchery while the boys went on an unsuccessful venture around the city for food until 5am.

So many roses

Rome was wonderful. The weather was beautiful everyday and there are historic buildings/ruins around every corner. On day one, Zack, Allie and I toured the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. This was after we ate gelato for breakfast. I got gelato five times in Rome. There is a gelato place on every corner, it is hard to resist. In Rome, you pay tour guides a little extra and they give you a tour and let you skip the entire line, good deal, so we took advantage of that while at the Colosseum. The Colosseum is way more massive than I expected and I learned a lot about its history during the tour. The Romans pretty much hung out there all day, ate free food, drank free wine and watched gladiators and other cool stuff while the slaves did everything for them. The ruins of Palatine Hill, which was a former Roman palace, still had some of the original marble used in the palace and at the top there was a beautiful view overlooking the city.

Not a bad view

We eventually met up with the rest of our group plus Tara and walked around the city with a jug of wine in tow. We took pretty pictures in front of the sunset and eventually found our way to both the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. We made wishes in front of the Trevi and threw coins in the water. This night, we also had the best pizza EVER. Tara led us to what is known as the "best pizza place in Rome" and it was. We indulged in pizza and wine and went to an Irish pub called Scholars with some other ND kids that night. Scholars appears to be the O'Neill's of Rome. It was karaoke night so naturally there was some singing. We then went back to the bar from the night before and made friends with the bartender Lucas. We convinced him to give us 5 shots for 10 euro, so prime. The night ended with gelato and more roses courtesy of Jon.

On Monday, Zack, Allie and I ventured to a grocery store to bring food back to the apartment. We bought some eggs, cereal, bread, meat and cheese along with a gratuitous amount of wine. They sell bottles of wine in Rome for one euro, what else are you going to do? They also sell wine in giant 5-liter jugs. We bought one jug for 8 euros and named him Lazio. I carried Lazio all the way back to the apartment and let me say it was a struggle. We also bought some Lemincello (lemon-flavored alcohol) which Roman people are clearly obsessed with because it is everywhere. After rounding up the troops, Zack, Allie, Will, Collin and I found the Spanish Steps. We chilled there for a while because it was a really pretty day. We made our way to check out the inside of the Pantheon and picked up some gelato. I got a strawberry/lemon combination that was my favorite of the entire trip. The whole group met up once again and we found an island along the river where we stuffed trinkets into a wine bottle and let is float down the river. So profound. Before this, we also stumbled upon some ruins that were overrun with cats! It was so weird. Rome has a weird cat fetish.

We found this nice restaurant on the other side of the river that had a good deal on food with a bunch of courses. I had some bruschetta, salmon ravioli and wine which was all very good. Our dinner took about 2 hours because the Italians actually enjoy their meals unlike Americans, but we definitely were not used to the extended amount of meal time. We headed back to the apartment late that night and drank Lazio along with many other things... let's just say it was a good night.

Tuesday, we were very cultured with our trip to the Vatican. We paid for a tour once again and got to see the Vatican museum, the gardens, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Until my trip to Italy I thought the Sistine Chapel was actually the Sixteenth Chapel so everyone made fun of me about that for the entire trip. The museum was full of endless sculptures and all the ceilings were unbelievable. The Sistine Chapel has all the epic paintings by Michelangelo in it and it is the personal chapel to the pope, no big deal. It is kinda like the Mona Lisa, Stonehenge, etc. in that it is nearly underwhelming when you see it but it's something you just have to see. The basilica, on the other hand, was absolutely gorgeous and is the most grandiose church I have ever seen. After our time at the Vatican, most of us walked around for a bit and found some markets where we bought bracelets and gummies. We ate dinner near the Pantheon and made it back to our apartment for our early flight to Paris. We searched far and wide for some champagne to finish off our time in Rome, which we eventually found, and prepared for Paris.

St. Peter's Basilica

We took a cab to the airport in the morning that turned out to be the fastest cab ride in history. This dude was going over 100mph, talk about efficient. We flew into Paris Beuvais which is basically rural France, haha. It was this tiny airport in the middle of nowhere so we took a fairly long bus ride into the heart of Paris. The flight was 15 euros though, so I can't complain. We checked into the Hotel des Olympidades, which is perhaps the sketchiest hotel I have ever experienced, and hit the town. We picked up baguettes, cheese, meat and wine immediately headed to Sacre Couer because our hotel was in the Montmartre area and we were only about 20 minutes from the church itself. We feasted on the steps of Sacre Couer looking out onto the entire city which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. There was an old man playing violin next to us which set the mood even further. We also checked out the inside of the church since it was free (I forgot how pretty it is from when I checked it out last time I went to Paris).

We took a long walk into the heart of the city and hit the main tourist areas, including Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. We picked up more baguettes/cheese/meat (story of our lives) as well as champagne to pop in front of the Eiffel Tower that night. We waited until the tower sparkled and then drank some champagne out in front. We then got some crepes, mine was nutella and strawberry and was absolutely phenomenal. Paris was much colder than expected so we headed back to the hotel since we were so cold. Collin, Allie and I fell asleep for a bit while the others headed to Clin's Bar right across the street. To our surprise, when we went to join them, we found ourselves locked inside the hotel room. That's right, INSIDE. Apparently when you take the key and lock the outside there is no way to exit the room. This is how sketchy this place was. Collin waved miscellaneous items out the window in hopes and gaining their attention and we had a good laugh about the whole situation. After an hour or two, we caught the group's attention and escaped from Hotel des Olympidades to join the group at Clin's Bar. Once there, we had a few drinks and closed the bar...not surprised. The boys were messing with some Italian dude and were speaking a mixture of English, Spanish, Italian and French the entire night. We left and bought some items at a convenience store near the hotel (things are open very late in Paris, unlike Rome), Collin got iced (per usual) and we had a mini hotel party.

Louvre

On our second day in Paris, we took the metro to the Champs-Elysees and walked around the Arc de Triomphe. We took some scenic pictures and eventually made our way to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. Beforehand, we picked up more crepes, this time mine was ham and cheese with fries in the middle, and it was the most delicious and filling dinner ever. Climbing the Eiffel is officially my favorite thing ever in Paris. We went up just as it was getting dark and took the lifts all the way to the top. The view at night is spectacular. We took a lot of pictures and I made my way to the Champagne Bar, obviously. Ten euros per glass never tasted so good. Five orders of champagne equated to fifty euros, which we later equated to fifty bottles of champagne since you can find it in Paris for one euro a bottle.... Crazy stuff! The tower sparkled as we were sipping our champagne which was perfect timing, and it also sparkled as we walked down the metal leg of the tower. The Eiffel Tower never gets old. That night, we found Jon and Caroline at a Mexican restaurant called Fajitas, shared some excellent nachos and ate another crepe (standard) before going back to the hotel. We formed a line of 7 walking through the streets of Paris and refused to unlock arms which proved to be very fun.

Champagne atop the Eiffel Tower

The next morning, we woke up very early for our train to Amsterdam. We made mimosas for the train and watched the sunrise. We arrived in Amsterdam around 11am and navigated towards our hostel. We took the tram all the way there but then realized we could not check in until 2pm, buzz kill. So we lugged around our bags and drank some champagne in one of the parks. The parks there were very pretty and full of dogs, my kind of place. Amsterdam itself is also quite scenic. There are a series of canals around the city, lots of great food vendors and bikers everywhere. I have never seen so many people ride bikes... the bikes paths were nearly as wide as the road.

We eventually checked into our hostel turned hotel (there were not enough spots in the hostel so they just put us in the hotel, win!) and walked around the city. We checked out the "I Amsterdam" sign which is a tourist must-do and ate some food. Then Allie and I went off on our own to find my roommate Abbie. We somehow located her downtown and went to a pub with her and bunch of other ND kids. Allie and I were getting pretty tired so we ordered caffeine instead of alcohol, ideal. We eventually met back up with the boys and made our way to the Red Light District... talk about weird. So weird. Prostitutes just chilling in the windows left and right with tourists everywhere snapping pictures. It is so totally opposite from America it is ridiculous. The night, we went to a cafe/bar and chilled to some good music and games of pool. We stayed out late enough to catch the last tram at 12:40 back to the hotel.

For our final day of fall break, we checked out and ventured to the Heineken brewery for a tour. It was pretty cool and now I know exactly how beer is made. We went to the tour around noon without eating, so the only issue was the large amount of beer we were forced to consume for breakfast. We (meaning the girls) struggled through our half-pints and eventually walked to an outdoor market filled with food, clothing and other miscellaneous items. We bought freshly-made stroopwafels, these thin waffles filled with caramel that are to die for and sampled some other free food. Our final day in Amsterdam was gorgeous with completely blue skies, we really lucked out on the weather. We bought some kebabs in the city, which were also delicious, before taking the tram towards the airport. We eventually made it back to London late Saturday night and were very glad to be back. I was beginning to miss some of the luxuries we have here in London plus the idea of my own bed was starting to become very appealing.

Heineken tour

The trip was quite a success. I very much loved all three cities and they all had something different to offer. We took literally all forms of transportation possible over the past 8 days. I am looking forward to a more relaxed academic week, plus Allie and I are going to go to the UK women's ultimate practice tonight which should be awesome! It's good to be back home in London.