Have You Been to Dublin?

Sean and I have will be taking a trip to Dublin in a few weeks and since I know my blog readers are so well-traveled and helpful, I thought I'd ask you guys for some advice.

Now, we don't have time in Dublin. With the way our flights worked out, we have about two and half days to spend there.

I do know that we want to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells and I think we'd like to take one of the tours out to the countryside to see some of the places away from the city.

So, if you have tips on where to eat, drink, things to see or any tours, let me know. I don't need any recommendations for accomodations, as I've already got those booked.

Thanks!

Seville, Spain in Pictures!

This post has been a long time coming! In my defense, I've hopped back on the fit-train this past couple of weeks and between gym and errand time, I haven't had a lot of extra blogging time. So without further ado, my pictures from Spain!

Tapas menu outside one of the many, delish tapas bars. We seriously ate our weight in tapas while in Seville.

Cute little cafes  were all over the city. So were these oranges. As a side note, these oranges aren't really eaten. They are made into cat food, medicine and sent to England to be made into marmalade.

There were gorgeous parks in Seville with lots of trees, tiles and oranges. I loved how beautiful this fountain full of oranges was.

Another shot of one of the parks. Such a beautiful place to relax.

This was some sort of statue down by the river. I'm not sure the significance of it, or what it is even supposed to represent.

This is one of the two main markets in Seville. This one was not as busy as the other, but the outside was very pretty.

This is inside the other market (Triana market) These are all legs of ham. A common sight in Spain.

I love the markets in Spain. We got some fresh (cheap) strawberries that were sooo good.

Waiting on our tapas and sipping some sangria.

When we travel, I'm always on the lookout for cool doors or doorknobs. These did not disappoint!



Seville was full of these close alleyways and back corridors. I loved the asthetics of this one.

Paella! Something you have to try if you go to Spain. Or so everyone says...



More oranges along the walk to the park. I told you these things were everywhere!

The above two pictures are from the flamenco show we attended. It was called Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus. It was a smaller, more intimate flamenco show and it was amazing. Totally not what I expected. Sean and I got lucky and got to sit on the first row and the tickets were way cheaper than any other flamenco show in town. I highly recommend it.

This building is VERY photographed and is on one of the main pedestrian streets in Seville. It looked so pretty at night, that I couldn't resist twenty, a few pictures.

This is the cathedral in Seville. It *apparently* holds the remains of Christopher Columbus and is the third largest church in Europe. Sean and I planned on seeing the cathedral, but were foiled by poor planning. The first we were there we ran out of time, the second day it was closing earlier than normal so we missed out on it then and the third day it was closed for a celebration. Can I just say I was super sad that I didn't get to see Christopher Columbus' bones?

This is one of the inner courtyards of the Real Alcazar. First built by Moors and later added on by later monarchs, it is an amazing sight to see in Seville. It was probably my favorite thing in Seville, as I LOVE Moorish-style architecture. I think it's so beautiful.

Some inner rooms in the Real Alcazar

Tiles inside the Alcazar

One of my favorite parts of the Alcazar were the many peacocks in the gardens. I love peacocks!

This was one of Sean and I's favorite tapas. It's jamon and bread with quail eggs on top. Delish!

This is part of the Plaza de Espana, which was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American exposition of 1929. There are tiles all over the plaza, depicting different cities all over Spain. It is a beautiful, beautiful place.

Another view of Plaza de Espana

Plaza de Espana at night. One of my favorite pics from the whole trip.



This was taken at the fountains at Plaza de America. I beautiful spot that I found on Flickr and knew I had to take some photos there as well.

Fountains at Plaza de America at sunset

Plaza de America. Loving those palm trees!

I have a ton of pictures of Seville, so if you'd like to see more, email me and I'll send you the link to my Facebook album.

And...just as an FYI...some of these pictures are already on my Etsy shop for sale, so if you see anything you like and want to buy it, let me know!

Well, I've Never Been To Spain

Ok, actually I have been to Spain, but I thought it made a good title.

Anyway, Sean and I decided for the upcoming four day to head to Seville, Spain for a bit of warmer weather, tapas and flamenco.

So, my question is this: Has anyone been to Seville? Any advice, tips, must-see or must-do activities?

Trips!

I know my last post was kind of a downer, (and thanks to everyone who commented, it made me feel loved to know so many of you out there understand where I am coming from). Anyway, I wanted to focus on the positive aspect of being here in Italy longer than we thought. The most obvious plus in being in Europe longer is more travel. That's honestly my favorite part of living in Italy, although the delish wine and food is a close second.

So, Sean and I have been discussing some places we are wanting to go with our remaining time in Italy. There are also a couple of trips that I plan on taking with some of my friends, as Sean is not interested in going there.

We have a couple of ideas for long trips that we would like to take.

1. A driving tour of southern Spain and parts of Portugal. Since we've already seen Madrid and Barcelona we'd like to hit up Sevilla, Granada, some of the towns along the southern coast of Spain, Salema and Lisbon, Portugal and if time Salmanca or Toledo, Spain.

2. Eastern Europe tour. This one could also be broken down into weekend trips, we haven't decided yet which way we'd like to do this. We'd like to see Krakow, Poland, Prague, Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungary and Kiev, Ukraine.

We have quite a few shorter trips that we'd like to do.

1. Dublin, Ireland. If time we'd love to add other parts of Ireland.
2. Switzerland. I have a friend from college that actually lives in Geneva. I'm thinking about visiting her and possibly seeing a bit more of Switzerland along the way.
3. Plitvice Lakes, Croatia and possibly Zagreb as well.
4. Morocco. This is one trip Sean doesn't want to go on. My friend Sarah and I are tossing around the idea of Marrakech sometime this spring.
5. Istanbul. This is another city that I'm thinking of doing with my friend Sarah.
6. Spa trip to Slovenia.
7. Dolomites. These are so close to us, but yet I've yet to really explore them.
8.Normandy beaches

There are obviously a lot more places that I'd love to see before we leave, but these are the main ones on  my list. I've been lucky though that I've marked a lot of places off my To Do list these last three years.

If you've been to any of the places that we are thinking of going and have any tips or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Poland Recap

I've been trying to write this blog for a week with no success. After I got back from my Poland trip, I turned right around and accompanied Sean on a trip to Landstuhl to visit the doctor. Although we had internet, it was a bit spotty, so it made uploading pictures a bit difficult.

Anyway, a couple of my friend and I decided we wanted some Polish pottery. The best place to do this is Boleslawiec, Poland, where all the pottery factories are located. Although we considered driving, we found some 18 euro round trip tickets on RyanAir that we couldn't pass up and instead, decided to fly. The only downside to flying on a budget airline is that there are small weight limits. So, even though I paid to check a bag, I only had 15kg to work with. With that in mind, Polish pottery shopping was on!

This is where we stayed while in Boleslawiec. I had several blog buddies who stayed here and loved it, so I booked it right away. Let me just say, this place is amazing. It might be my favorite place I've stayed since I've lived in Europe. The service was top-notch and the food there was amazing. You can also schedule cooking classes, massages, pedicures and manicures too. I had a 30 minute foot massage for 10 euro and it was heavenly. Seriously, I wish I could have one everyday. 

I had several different soups while I was here, two different types of pierogies, the breakfast buffet each morning and lots of different types of beer and alcohol. Everything was delish (although I'd stay away from the vodka) and the raspberry jam was so good that my friend Sarah and I both bought some to take home.

This is my friend Sarah in one of the many pottery shops/factories we visited. I think in all we visited 12. The first day we knocked out 9. Our hotel gave us a list of recommended shops with some info on each, which I found very helpful.  A word about Polish pottery, some times there are more common patterns that you'll find at several shops. Most of the time though you won't find similiar patterns at different shops. We also went in a few shops to get an idea on prices before we bought anything, which I think worked out well in our favor.

Most of the time we ate at our hotel since the food was so good, but one day for lunch we stopped in at a little place had a bite to eat. I had these pancakes with smoked salmon and a cream sauce with caviar mixed in. For that, a bowl of soup and a beer, it came to 7 euro. That was with the tip included. Poland is seriously the cheapest country I've seen when it comes to food. And it's all tasty! I told my friends I wanted to move to Poland just for the food.

Check out this nest! It was outside one of the more rural shops we visited. We tried asking the lady who owned the shop what kind of bird made it, but she only spoke Polish and since I don't speak Polish, the only thing we could learn from her was that the bird showed up in April and left in September. Later, looking at some postcards in Wroclaw we found out it's a stork that lives in it and this stork is one of the national symbols of Poland.

Although we went to Poland for the pottery, it wasn't all pottery all the time. One day while we were there we took the opportunity to go visit a castle about 20 minutes from where we were staying. Just so happened they had a medieval festival going on at the castle that day. The above picture is some of the scenery we passed along the way to the castle.

This is part of the castle I was talking about. It was foggy, rainy and chilly that day, but I'm still glad we braved the weather to see a little bit of the surrounding area.

This was the delicious soup we had while we were at the castle. I believe the soup was traditional, as we saw it on several other menus while in Poland, but it was very filling and quite tasty. I couldn't even eat my bread bowl when I was done with the soup!

One of the towns we passed on our way to the castle

After our time at the castle we headed back into the town of Boleslawiec to check out some of the downtown area. This is in front of the church in the main square.

Colorful buildings in the main square of Boleslawiec

For some reason when I'm traveling, I always happen upon black cats. This is the fourth time it's happened. This cat was all about posing in front of city hall.

Some of the various pottery we encountered in our shopping.

These are the beef pierogis I had the last night we were in Poland. Although they were good, the traditional filling is my favorite.

There were big pieces of (fake) pottery around the town of Boleslawiec, so my friend Sarah and I took the opportunity to pose with some of them.

Our last day in Poland, we headed over to the bigger city of Wroclaw (which is actually where we flew in and out of) This is the town hall. It was beautiful!

This is just one more reason why I loved Poland. Do you know how long it's been since I've had Starbucks? Too long my friends, too long.

All over Wroclaw they had these little dwarf statues. There were about 100 in all and they are scattered throughout the city. Each dwarf is in a different pose. We found about 10 or so while we were walking around.

My friend Sarah and I posing as dwarves.

One of the many outdoor cafes, too bad it was too rainy and cold to enjoy them while we were there.

My view of the Wroclaw airport as we are getting ready to fly out.



These are the goodies I got, minus a Christmas tree, as it was in my friend's backpack and I neglected to get it from her.

All in all, I highly recommend going to Poland. I'm really wanting to go back and explore a different part of it before we leave.