Spring Break WOO

It's been a while since spring break (and since I've written), but I shall briefly recount those two weeks. It was a great trip. We quickly got into the cheap-travelers routine of sleeping wherever we could and finding inexpensive food wherever possible...which was a fun routine for a while, but also nice to get out of. Our huge backpacks became extensions of our bodies, albeit heavy, uncomfortable ones, but by the end we were almost used to them. As Bill Bryson put it (so much better than I could)...

"The backpack took some getting used to. Each morning when I
donned it I would stagger around for a minute in the manner of someone who has
been hit on the head with a hammer, but it made me feel incredibly fit. It was
like taking a wardrobe on holiday."

So true.

Traveling by train is definitely the way to go when it comes to Europe. We had so much freedom with our Eurail passes (which led to an impromptu trip to Luxembourg city on our last day). And train travel leads to so many more unexpected adventures and beautiful views than any other transportation form...which for us included a 12-hour overnight train in a 6 person compartment, with some of the most eccentric people I've ever met, resulting in one of the strangest experiences of my thus far short life. It also led to an unexpected mini-cruise (I'm giving myself license to call it that) when, on our way from Hamburg to Copenhagen, our train unexpectedly boarded a ferry, with us on it. We were made to get off the train and go hang out on the ship, with our train just chilling on the bottom deck. Hayley had told me about this phenomenon before it happened (thanks to our trusty friend Bill) but I just couldn't wrap my head around a TRAIN on a BOAT. Turns out I was wrong however, and it proved to be a wonderful little surprise.

Beyond beautiful, Bruges was by far my favorite city. Perfectly preserved, its as if the moment you step into the city you go back in time. I love the Flemish architecture, and its all over Bruges. It's a wonderful place. Hamburg was a nice surprise. We weren't expecting much for some reason, so it far exceeded our expectations (even with our hotel on the Reeperbahn in the center of the red-light district). Copenhagen was great, but I'm sure is much better when everything, especially the Tivoli, is open (after April 1st, people!) and when you have more time. Amsterdam was fun...especially because we stayed in the fabbbbulous B&B Barangay, owned by the most wonderful gay couple. We got a small taste of Luxembourg (only a few hours in the city), but was enough time to stumble upon Luxembourgers celebrating St. Patrick's Day. That alone made it worth it...but it was also a nice little city, definitely worthy of more time. Brussels was my least favorite. The Grand Place is undeniably beautiful, a place I could (and did) spend hours in. But aside from that and its surrounding streets, the city, or at least what I saw of it, is less than impressive. My view may be colored by the fact that its train station, which we spent hours in, is one of the sketchiest I've ever been in, the kind of place where a drunk/drug addict would and did try to steal Hayley's mammoth backpack from right under her feet. Fortunately, we escaped with her backpack and awe at his stupidity/courage, along with more distaste for Brussels. Ah, well, the hours I spent in the Grand Place made up for it. If you should so desire a more detailed account of our wanderings, refer to Hayley's blog...she's much better at recounting and storytelling than I.

I found myself, on the mere week-and-a-half we spent traveling, strangely missing Ireland. So coming back, on St. Patrick's Day no less, was great. Sandy and Derek had already been here for a few days so I managed to meet up with them (after a night of very light sleep in the Brussels airport) at about noon on O'Connell Street. After about 20 minutes of craning our necks over the thousands upon thousands of people that had pored into Dublin for that day, we accepted the fact that we weren't going to see any of the parade. So we went to O'Neills, staked our ground, and proceeded to spend probably about 7 hours there. It was a great day, filled with new Irish, Australian, and Austrian friends, as well as the inevitable bumping into friends of mine from UCD. So much fun. The rest of that week was great, spending time with Sandy and Derek, both in Dublin and Cork (which I loved), and then the arrival of the rest of the Schmidts. Having the whole family here made me beyond happy. It definitely kept the continually creeping homesickness at bay, at least for a little while. We did tourist things all around Dublin, always, but not always successfully, trying to keep the boys happy. The last day of their stay (after Sandy and Derek had already left), we took a train/ bus tour to County Wicklow and Glendalough. It was wonderful. It's so beautiful out there, and so close (relatively) to Dublin. And great to do with the family. All-in-all, their visit was wonderful.

Since spring break, its been back to my regular routine of Dublin-exploring and schoolwork...to be honest, more schoolwork than I would like. Yes, I am here to study, but I am also here to experience, something I feel I'm often missing out on more and more because I have work...turns out there are more papers than I expected. I know it's worthwhile to study what I'm studying while I'm here, it's just that after hearing about so many people's study abroad programs where work seemed to be an afterthought, mine seems a bit different. Chances are I'll look back next semester and wonder what on earth I was complaining about. I suppose its just that I still haven't fully accepted the idea of doing actual work while in another country...and if I haven't gotten used to it by now I'm fairly certain I won't by the end of the term. Now, I must go write an art history paper!