The Hauswald Invasion: Part One

Since Iceland's volcano decided to take a break from canceling flights, my parents' flight was still on! I was so excited for them to arrive so I could show them my Scottish life skills. Their flight was supposed to arrive around eleven, and they told me that they would call me when they got to their hotel room. Since they were staying a few blocks away from my dorm, I would just walk down and meet up with them. Around one they still hadn't given me a call, so I called the hotel and asked if the Hauswalds had arrived. The lady informed me that they had, so I was confused as to why they hadn't called me. I decided to walk down to the hotel and see if they were in their room, so I had the reception call their room for me. After a few rings, a man's voice that wasn't my dad's said, "Yello." I was really confused, so I responded, "Uh, dad? It's Pat, I'm downstairs, can you come meet me down here?" The voice said he would, so I sat in a chair and tried to figure out who I just called. My imagination first developed a scenario in which a Russian hit man was hired to murder my parents, pose as them in the hotel, and then attempt to kill me upon my arrival. Naturally, I would vanquish the assailant with a flurry of James Bond-esque moves, save the day, and get the girl, and then I snapped back to reality. After a few minutes of waiting none other than my dad's brother Steve walks out of the elevator with a huge grin on his face. I was completely baffled as to why I was hugging my uncle in Scotland, but all became clear. While we walked up to my parents' room he told me that he talked about coming with my parents a few months ago when they planned the trip. After picking my jaw up off the floor, we knocked on my parents' door and were greeted by two zombie-like creatures named Brian and Judy. Evidently the jet lag sapped them of their energy, and they collapsed as soon as they got to the hotel. After we relaxed for a while I took the three of them to a pub called the Counting House. It was one of the first pubs I went to in Glasgow, and it used to be a bank so it's a really cool old building with a huge bar and lots of seating. We got some classic pub food, pints, and headed up to my flat after we finished. I introduced the family to Scott, Adrian, Mikey, and Jing, and we looked up things to do for the rest of the week. After spending a few hours in the flat, we left to walk around Glasgow Cathedral and through the Necropolis, which is a huge graveyard. After a bit more walking we got a cab to a different pub for supper. I realized that I had to act as a translator for my family when the waitress came up to our table, asked for our drinks, and was met with three blank stares. Slowly the three turned their confused faces to me, and I laughed and told them what she wanted. I guess the accent really is difficult to understand... We spent the night playing cards and relaxing at the hotel.For the second day, I took the advice of one of my professors and took the gang on a train and ferry ride to the tiny Isle of Cumbrae. I walked down to the hotel, ate breakfast, and then we walked down to Central Station to catch a train to the small town Largs. They really enjoyed the train ride, which is understandable because it took us along the coast and the train system in Europe is beautifully efficient. Before too long we were in Largs waiting for the ferry to take us the short journey across the water to Cumbrae. The island is only twelve miles around, so it's easy to walk around, and it's truly Scottish. There is only one tiny town on the entire island, but it still has the basics: pubs and a golf course. We wandered about the island to check out the sights, and we stopped at a pub on the pier to eat. Eventually we headed back to Largs to catch another train back to Glasgow. After we hopped on the next train to Glasgow, a young girl drunkenly stumbled into our train car. Instantly the entire car reeked of alcohol, and she did not look well. We all thought she was going to start crying and asking us for help, but the instant she noticed us her mood changed to belligerent anger. She glared at us and started yelling some very nasty things before heading through to terrorize the next car. The conductor came to the car to coax her out onto the platform (by law they can't touch her, only police can), but she passed out before he could get her off the train. Since she couldn't be moved, the train had to be canceled. On the bright side, we got to watch two huge policemen drag her off the train and down the platform as our other train drove away. Oh, Scotland, how I'll miss thee :) For the night we walked down to the Merchant City to find a restaurant, and we ended up eating at a delicious Italian restaurant called the Italian Kitchen. After we ate we had another relaxing night at the hotel.For day three I decided to give the travelers the Glasgow walking tour. We started off in the morning by walking through the city center to the subway station so we could catch a short ride out to the West End. We walked around to the botanical gardens and by some other sights before reaching the University of Glasgow and its Harry Potter-esque towers. After stopping for a pint at the Ubiquitous Chip on Ashton Lane, we walked back to the hotel to get ready for our night out to the theater! Also at my professor's suggestion, we got tickets to see the Scottish National Theatre's production of Peter Pan, which was originally written by a Scottish author and set in Edinburgh, not in London like Disney had it. We went to my friends and my favorite Italian restaurant, Piazza Italia, for their pre-theatre menu. Sharing wine, starters, and delicious main courses, we had a great time chatting and soaking up the restaurant's atmosphere. It was fun to watch their reactions to the food. I remember exactly how I reacted to my first time eating at Piazza Italia, and those three reacted the exact same way. It was precious. After we were finished we grabbed a cab over to King's Theatre, got our seats, and the show started. It was an amazing production, we all really loved it! After it was over we cabbed our way back to the Merchant City and went out for dessert. We had some delicious coffee and desserts at another Italian restaurant, which was a great way to end the night.

After the Adventure.

My haste to get back to Glasgow was rewarded not only with the comfort of being safely back in my humble abode but with a wine-tasting the next day in Beverage Management. A wine saleswoman came to our class with a few different types of wine, and she taught us how to properly analyze and taste each wine. The proper process is to first hold the wine up to light and analyze its brightness, clarity, and freshness. After making sure there isn't anything wrong with its look, you put the glass to your nose, tilt it, and take a full whiff to pick out the scents and fruits given off by the wine. To enhance the flavors you have to add oxygen by swirling the wine. It was surprising how much stronger the smells were after doing that! Finally you get to take a drink of the wine, let it sit in your mouth for a bit, and swallow it. To enhance the flavors of this step we had to suck air in over the wine while it was in our mouth, which was a bit difficult but fun to try. It seriously made the wine taste like a different drink! We got to try a few sauvingnon blancs, a few chadonnays, and a few cabernet merlots. They were from all around the world; a few from South Africa, one from Argentina, another from Australia, and (of course) one from France. They weren't the most expensive wines, but some were pretty nice. Tasting and talking about wine for a few hours was a great classroom experience, and I highly recommend it to other college programs.

The rest of the week was filled with a few classes and reuniting with friends and hearing their crazy spring break stories. People were stuck in France, Spain, and even Greece! Eventually everyone made it back, and we enjoyed going out to eat to celebrate everyone's successful return. I had to write an essay, which proved to be a bit difficult because of the reunions and a bit of writer's block. After starting and re-starting the essay four or five times, it came down to me cranking about 2200 words on a Sunday afternoon. Such is the life of a student... On the bright side, I was looking forward to my parents' impending visit! The ash cloud backed off just enough for flights to resume, so the Hauswalds would be invading Scotland after all!

The Spring Break Adventure - Chapter 5: Sunshiny Sorrento

Our train ride took us through the Italian countryside to Naples where we hopped on a local train down the Amalfi Coast to Sorrento. The view of the Bay of Naples was astounding, and Mount Vesuvius dominated the distant landscape. We met a nice older couple from England on the train, and they had spent their day exploring the ruins in Herculaneum, Pompeii's sister city. When we arrived in Sorrento we walked through one of the town's bustling squares and asked for directions to our hostel. We had to walk along the main street until we reached the hospital and then go down a hill. We found a hostel but couldn't believe it was ours. It was WAY too nice. This place was nicer than most hotels I've ever stayed in! It was amazing. Our room was enormous, had a working tv and its own (huge) bathroom. All for 25 euros a night? We were spoiled. After dropping off our things we asked the man at the front desk what to do and he suggested we walk around the tiny fishing village, Marina Grande, and get some supper from one of the family-run restaurants. So we did! Just down the hill from Sorrento on the water is a tiny village full of boats, ridiculous hotels, and restaurants. We walked in one restaurant but the lady told us they weren't open quite yet, so we continued exploring for a little while. It was a beautiful night! No wind, warm, and a wonderful sunset. Italy is amazing. After we explored a few neighborhoods, witnessed a proposal, admired the view, and found a few stray cats, we made our way back to the restaurant for food. The restaurant was run completely by a family. The mom cooked everything, and the kids/husband were the waiters and waitresses. We ordered the basics: spaghetti/ravioli with tomato sauce and some of the local wine, which they kept in a barrel right in the restaurant! Biting into my ravioli led to an explosion of the greatest flavors I've ever experienced. It tasted like a bite of tomato soup every time, and the wine was beautiful. It's almost beyond description. Once again, it was the best thing I had ever eaten. After a bit more walking around we made our way back to our super-hostel to crash for the night.To celebrate being in Sorrento we partook in the local resort culture and slept in until noon. It was another beautiful, warm day, so we walked through most of Sorrento. Away from the main street were tons of alleyways and small roads filled with shops, apartments, and restaurants. After navigating the roads and getting to a few views of the bay, we stopped at a pizzeria and ate lunch on the outdoor patio. We had some amazing pizza and people-watched for a while before heading back to our hostel to relax and watch a movie. I could get used to the resort lifestyle. After a short nap it was suppertime, so we headed back into town for a short walk and found an outdoor restaurant. I had Italian sausage and a salad. Molto bene! (Very good!) The Italian custom is to go for a walk before and after supper, so we took another walk through town, made our way back to the hostel, watched another movie, and called it a night.
Tuesday morning was rainy, so we postponed our day trip to Herculaneum. Instead, we had breakfast at the hostel and relaxed. I know it sounds like all we did was eat and lay around, but that's the beauty of Sorrento :) Around lunchtime we walked up the hill and found a little shop that made fresh Italian sandwiches. We picked up a few and ate them back at the hostel while watching another movie. Since our day trip was postponed we had to find something else to do for the afternoon, and that's when we found the spa. That's right, our hostel had a spa. It was located a few stories underground and was full of pools, baths, showers, saunas, various other awesome relaxation things, and the relaxation room, which was full of super-comfortable chairs, soothing music, and herbal tea. All you had to pay was twenty euros and you could spend the entire day in that haven of relaxation. After 4.5 hours of the most intensely relaxing experience of my life, I felt like a beautiful prune. We emerged around suppertime, so we found a tiny family-run pizzeria in town. We walked in and an elderly Italian lady greeted us with a huge smile. She was so happy to have us! Their sign said to ask about the house special, so I did. She got really excited and said that it was her homemade lasagna. I was sold, and the lasagna was a masterpiece. After yet another amazing meal we returned to the hostel, and I skyped with my parents for a few hours, trying to explain the amazing spring break experience.Wednesday we slept in, got sandwiches from our little sandwich shop, and hopped on the train to Herculaneum. On the ride we met a few nice families visiting from Australia. They were headed to Pompeii, and we had a good time swapping stories along the way. Herculaneum is another small town on the Amalfi coast, and it has preserved ruins similar to those in Pompeii. The couple from England that we met told us that Herculaneum was like a smaller, better preserved version of Pompeii. Although Pompeii was huge and had 'the atmosphere,' we decided to explore Herculaneum's ruins. It was really sweet seeing the preserved houses, roads, pottery, paintings, and statues throughout the town. Herculaneum was buried in much more ash than Pompeii; that's why it's better preserved. It was nice to explore because it wasn't so huge that you spent your entire day there. We saw everything we needed to in a couple of hours. After the train ride back to Sorrento we crashed back at the hostel. Cassandra borrowed my laptop, and I took a three hour nap, exhausted from the few hours of actual activity. When it was getting a bit later we decided to take another pre-dinner walk and find a restaurant for our last meal in Sorrento. I found a place called 'il Leone Rosso' (the Red Lion) online, and the place looked amazing. It definitely didn't disappoint. When our dishes arrived and we tried them out, we were both speechless. We didn't say a word for at least two full minutes. This food was definitely the best I'd ever had. After enjoying every bit of our final meal, we walked around a bit more of the town and ended up back at the hostel. Four days of relaxation and amazing food made Sorrento one of my favorite places in the entire world. I had an unbelievable time, and I can't wait to go back!
Little did we know that Mother Nature had quite the surprise waiting for us in the morning...
*for the conclusion to my Spring Break Adventure, see the post "Beginning with the End" from April 19

The Spring Break Adventure - Chapter 4: Roma

We spent a few hours in Dublin's airport waiting for our plane to arrive, which gave us a chance to take a breath and review the events of the past week. Before we knew it we were on the plane heading to Italy! The flight took us over the alps, which were extremely impressive, and landed in Rome around 9:00. The airport and parking lot was pretty busy with arriving passengers, cars, buses, and taxis. We both noticed the language difference right away. Neither of us spoke Italian, so we were equally confused. After wandering about the parking lot trying to find a way to the city, we asked a bus driver if he spoke English. He replied, "Yes," so we asked him if his bus went to the train station. He responded with a blank stare. I guess his English wasn't so great :P Eventually we found out that his bus went where we wanted, so we hopped on for the short ride into the heart of Rome. The city was absolutely massive. Its suburbs extended for what seemed like forever, and the inner city is a jumbled maze of cramped streets that always seem to be full of people and parked cars. My directions told us that our hostel was located right across the street from the train station, but all we saw were huge, neon signs with Chinese symbols. The block was full of family-run shops and Chinese restaurants, but we eventually learned that this was Rome's Chinatown. Eventually we found our hostel - it was above a family-run Chinese place and run by a Chinese family. They were super friendly and we were pleasantly surprised when they asked us what time we wanted breakfast! After dropping off our things we met up with Anna and relaxed in our room for the night. We walked Anna back to her hostel (where a bunch of people from Cassandra's program were also staying) and then wandered the streets looking for food. I was starting to sway while walking and stopped talking, which I'm told are the telltale signs that Pat is hungry. We found a little pizza takeout place, and I got to enjoy my first piece of real Italian pizza. It was the best pizza I've ever eaten. Period.
We didn't know what to expect for breakfast, and it arrived at 8 a.m. It wasn't much, and most of the stuff was strange. It consisted of a funky orange-ish juice, some awful cappuccino/milk-like substance, a lemon pudding filled croissant, and a coffee cake kind of thing. We found this all oddly hilarious, so we attempted to eat what we could. We planned a huge walking tour of most of Rome the night before, so we met up with Anna and Elizabeth (a girl from Cassandra's program) and got to walking. Our first stop was the Colosseum, where we got in line for tickets and then found out that Anna and Elizabeth's tickets from the day before didn't let them back in, so we decided to come back to go inside later. After walking through Constantine's arch and around the ruins, we stumbled onto the Mouth of Truth. It's a giant stone slab with a face carved into it. People go to the Mouth of Truth and put a hand into its mouth. The story is that if you're a liar, the mouth will bite you, but if you're a truthful person it won't. Fortunately our group was bite-free. We walked through more confusing streets, found a few back alleys, and made our way to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. The way Rome works is that you use your map as a general reference to your location since there are millions of streets all over the place. You wander along a makeshift path through the maze of streets and enjoy the monuments and enormous buildings that seem to be on every street corner. It's an amazing city, but it would take a ton of time to fully explore it. After making our way along a few more streets we found the Pantheon and then traveled along to Trevi Fountain. After tossing our coins behind our backs (to find true love) into the fountain, we walked to the Spanish steps. It seemed appropriate since the girls were spending half a year in Spain, and the steps didn't disappoint. There were tons of people just chilling at the steps and at the fountain. We went to a sandwich shop to buy some things for lunch, and we made our way up the steps and a hill to a huge park, Villa Borghese, where we had a picnic in the Italian sunshine. After lunch, Elizabeth and Anna went to explore more of the city, and Cassandra and I headed back to go inside the Colosseum and the ancient ruins. Both were amazing to explore, but our cameras had died and our legs were killing us, so we walked back to our hostel to nap for a few hours before finding food for supper. After relaxing and watching half of a movie, we decided to find an Irish pub to watch some football while we ate. We got pizza from a takeout place, watched Barcelona play Real Madrid (two of the best clubs in Spain), and chatted with the Irish bartender for a few hours. The pizza was, once again, the best thing either of us had ever eaten. After the game finished we called it a night and made our way back to the hostel to crash into our beds. We decided to evaluate how we felt in the morning to determine whether or not we would venture over to the Vatican City or sleep in and take an afternoon train to Sorrento.Sleep won. The day had taken all of our energy, so we attempted to enjoy our breakfast a second time, took showers, packed up our things, and ventured out to find a market to buy supplies for lunch on the train. After a little walk around Chinatown we found a local Italian supermarket. We stocked up on drinks, snacks, and sandwich material so we could have lunch on the train. After grabbing our bags and checking out of the hostel, we got our train tickets and navigated the tunnels underneath Termini station to find our train's platform. Rome had taken tons of our energy, so we were happy to sit through a train ride down Italy's coast to Naples, where we hopped on a local train down the Amalfi coast toward Sorrento. Little did we know that we were in for four of the most relaxing days ever!

The Spring Break Adventure - Chapter 3: The Emerald Isle (Part 2)

After sleeping in until 10 a.m. we woke up and headed to another café in Temple Bar for breakfast before heading off in search of a bike rental company. Cassandra and I looked up a company that rents bikes and gives you a self-guided course down the coast South of Dublin. We walked to where we thought the shop was but couldn't find it. We stopped in a different bike shop to ask directions and a worker directed us to a bus stop that would take us another fifteen minutes out of the city to University College Dublin. We were way off! Eventually we got to the right shop, got our sweet rides and map, and were on our way down the coast! It was a really nice day and our route took us along a few busy streets, through some really nice parks, and eventually to the coast. Since the route was self-paced we got to enjoy the scenery and take our time riding. If you rode straight through to the destination, the route wouldn't take you more than an hour. We made our way through multiple small communities outside of Dublin until we reached the town of Dalkey. We rode through a bit of the town and up a killer hill to get a great view overlooking the bay. Some of the coastal houses were insanely nice. Bono and the Edge from U2 each had a house there; Enya had a castle, too. After riding into the center of town we stopped at the visitor center to get directions to the train station so we could get back to Dublin. We were definitely tired by the time we got back to the flat, and we were surprised to see two new couchsurfers had arrived to stay for a few days. One girl was from the Netherlands and the other was from Germany, but they were both studying abroad for a semester in none other than Glasgow. Small world gets smaller. They were studying at Glasgow Caledonian, but they were still nice and we had a good chat about our favorite things about Scotland. Jip cooked us a great stir-fry for supper and we spent the night chilling in the flat talking before everyone went off to bed. We had an early call because we were planning to go to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher for the day!We groggily woke up bright and early at 5 a.m. to catch the 6:00 bus from Dublin to Galway. In something much like a zombie state of mind, we made our way down to the bus stop, got on the bus, and promptly passed out for the few hours' journey to Galway. After spending an hour exploring some of the town, we got onto our tour bus. We decided that our best option was the cheapest tour, much to the dismay of the tour guides throughout the bus station peddling their tours over the others. "You get what you pay for!" was what they kept telling us. At the first glance our tour seemed a bit sketchy and the bus may or may not have smelled a bit funny and been made in the '7o's, but it eventually grew on us. Our tour guide was hilarious and told us tons of jokes and history. He even sang us an Irish song! Our route took us to a few castles, a medieval cathedral, and numerous little communities. The scenery throughout the countryside was amazing, and the cliffs were even more impressive. Although I had some trouble staying awake for the last few hours, the tour was definitely a great idea. The tour ended at 5 and we decided to catch the next bus back to Dublin since neither of us was very hungry, so we hopped on what we thought was the direct, 2 hour bus. I fell asleep straight away and woke up after about an hour. I asked Cassandra where we were, and she told me that we had been on a back highway and stopping every twenty minutes. We had gotten on the alternate bus to Dublin. Disastrous, right? Trapped on another bus for an undetermined amount of time... but it was actually a nice way to see even more of the Irish countryside. We stopped in tons of tiny towns and saw Ireland from coast to coast in a day.
We eventually got back to Dublin around 9:00 and decided to grab some food at a pub. Afterwards we made our way through Temple Bar, listened to a street band for a bit, and randomly ran into Frank and Irene on the way back to the flat. They were out on a walk and meeting Jip and the other girls at a local pub that had live traditional Irish music every night. We were super tired from the trip, but a pint and live traditional pub music was an irresistible option. We talked about our days with everyone over our drinks, and the music was really cool. After our glasses were empty we went home to go to bed early.
For our final morning in Dublin, Cassandra and I walked down to a market and got some breakfast before heading to the Jameson Whiskey distillery for the tour. After going on a few whiskey distillery tours for beverage management, I considered myself a bit of a connoisseur. Jameson's was definitely the best tour I'd been on. At the very beginning our guide asked if anyone wanted to be a volunteer whiskey taster. As exciting as it would have been to drink three or four samples of whiskey before going to the airport, our better judgment told us just to watch. After the tour was over and our sample of Jameson's whiskey was gone, we got back to the flat, packed up our bags, said goodbye to our amazing hosts, and headed to the airport. Ireland was everything I thought it would be and even more. As fun and fulfilling as it was to live in Ireland for five days, I want to go back for more :) Next stop: Rome!