Italy

On my trip to Italy I got to travel around to many different cities. I visited Firenze and Roma as well as the coastal cities of Chiqua Terre. Everything in Rome is incredibly beautiful. The architecture is amazing and the fact that they built some of these elaborate churches hundreds and hundreds of years ago with hammers and nails is mindblowing. Firenze was my favorite place that I visited. The city layout is remarkable. You feel like you are just walking down a normal steet and then boom, theres the biggest church you have ever seen. Never would I have expected that. The bridges across the river in Firenze are incredible as well. Roma is a very different city than Firenze. Everyone is zooming around on their bikes and in their cars compared to people walking everywhere. Vatican City was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. To me it shows a major flaw in the catholic church though. I am a devoted Catholic and I always have been, but the fact that I go to mass every sunday and am asked for money to help the church is hard to understand. From what I have seen at the Vatican they do not need much money. Everything there is extremely elaborate and they have what looks to be millions and millions of dollars worth of jewels and elaborate robes sitting in the city. Why does a church need these things? The point of the church is to be modest not to show off how powerful you are. I think that if these things were to be sold off and that money given to help the needy then it would make me feel much more comfortable giving my money away to the church every week. These cities are very different from American cities. America does not have nearly the amount of history that Italy has due to the short existence. Seeing all of these places that have such an elaborate, diversified history is mindblowing to me. I want to go back to Italy someday and I give it an 8/10.

Ryan Air

America needs to find a way to bring Ryan Air to them. This is quite possible the smartest business idea I have ever heard of. Before coming to Europe I had not even heard of Ryan Air, but after being here for 3 months I know that whoever created this company is a genius. Flights for less than 50 euro is a steal. Why would you ever fly with another company when the price is 1/5 of the competitor. They typically fly for 1-2 hours and the maximum price I have had to pay is about 50 euro which is completely reasonable. A flight the same length in America would cost me $300 even if I booked it months in advance. By no means does it cost an airline $300 a person to fly from Cincinnati to Florida. These airlines are also charging for extra bags. Sure on Ryan Air you have to listen to commercials or advertisements for an hour or so, but for the price that I have to pay I will gladly do this. People have become spoiled because they complain about the size of the seats or the lack of comfort. You are flying on an airplane, something that one hundred years ago would be ridiculous, by no means can you expect to be comfortable 40,000 feet in the air going 500 mph. I am just happy that I am not in a compact car or on a boat where it would take so much more time. If no one else beats me to it I want to create a company like Ryan Air in America someday because I think it is the most genius idea ever!

Dublin Weather

Where I am from in America the weather is pretty average. It rains in the spring, snows in the winter, and gets moderately hot in the summer. I love this wide range of weather especially the snow. Everyone has been telling me that in Dublin it is rare for it to snow in the winter. The past few days it has been resembling my hometown in the winter for snow, which I love. The difference between Dublin and my hometown in this weather is the way that they treat it. The roads here are miserable and to me it has not even snowed a ridiculous amount. Where I come from this is a normal winter and the roads would be clear. Dublin is simply unprepared for snow and even now after a few days they still have barely done anything to change it. I have not seen a single plow or salt truck on the road and it has been negative degrees with rain, sleet, and snow coming down for awhile. My city would have had salt on the ground before it even began snowing. Snow plows would be running the streets all day making sure that the roads are clear and there is not ice all over the place. The thing I find hard to believe is that my city is not, by any means, known for its snow. So I find it hard to believe that a major city in Europe cannot handle a little bit of ice and snow. Maybe in the next few days they will change my mind, but right now I think the treatment of the weather has been pretty bad.

Paris

Paris

Ever since I took French in high school I have wanted to visit France. I have learned a lot about French history as well as famous places to visit. Before a week ago these were just pictures that I had in my head. Luckily during my time in Europe I got to visit Paris for six days. Every French person will tell you that you cannot see Paris in only six days, but I definitely gave it my best shot. I saw nearly every name brand item in Paris possible. The Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Sacre-Couer, the Louvre, Centre-Pompidou, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, l'opera, Moulin Rouge, and of course the Champs-Elysees. I had the pleasure of staying at a French's friends house in Paris which was a significant benefit. He could speak the language for me as well as drive me around to all of these places in half the time. The city is beautiful. Everything was incredible except I found some of the French to be very pompous. Not that a person should not be proud of their city and country, but there is a certain limit before it gets to the point of annoying, According to the French everything in Paris is an extremely famous place. Many of the places we went to I had never even heard of and I have studied French. So it cannot be that famous. Also, everything in Paris has a ridiculous price tag on it. We visited a shopping center where every store for the first 3 floors was named something along the lines of Gucci or Armani. Everything in this place cost over 100 euro, most of them running into the tens of thousands of euro. I cannot believe that people will actually pay that kind of money for CLOTHES. I saw a 100,000 euro watch...by no means is that necessary, but there are people in this store legitimately wanting to buy these things. Where I am from in America things are definitely different. Once something costs into the hundreds of dollars it is a big decision on whether or not to buy it and if it is bought it is taken good care of. The French were throwing their money around on these things like it grows on trees. There are much more important things in life than 300 euro shoes. Maybe it is just my short perspective from only being there a few days, but it is how I felt. Overall, Paris was incredible besides the materialistic side of the city. I give it a 9/10 and I hope to come back someday!

Cliffs of Moher

During my time in Ireland I have made it to a lot of major cities in the country. Recently, I traveled to Galway and saw the Cliffs of Moher. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is hard to imagine that the cliffs developed on their own since the beginning of the world. A 500 foot drop to the waiting water and rocks waiting below. I walked all up and down the cliffs on a small path 5-10 feet wide. Some points the path would shrink very small and it would be difficult to travel along it without being nervous. If anyone else up on the cliff was crazy or had a problem they could easily give you one push to your death and no one would even know. Since I have been in Europe I have seen many things filmed in movies. The Cliffs of Moher were filmed in one of my favorite movies, Harry Potter. In order to get to the cliffs we decided that renting a car was the cheapest and best option. Bad idea. The infrastructure in Ireland is sooooo poor. The roads are barely big enough for one car and they have 4 foot stone walls riding all along every road that you think you are going to hit. When you are not used to driving on the left side of the road and you do not know where you are going in tight quarters it can make for a very nervous 3 hour car ride. Almost miserable. At least I got to experience a lot of Ireland's countryside. Overall, I give the Cliffs of Moher trip a 7/10 for the beautiful landscape and the long nerve-racking car ride.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is an extremely different city. Everyone is very open compared to most places. There is pretty much no rules in the city as long as you are not bothering anyone else. Coffee shops are a very peculiar place. For me, being an American where most things are illegal it felt awkward being in a public place. The traffic is insane. You have to be precautious of bikes, trams, busses, and cars all in one area. Luckily they drive on the right side of the road. There were many times that I thought I was close to getting hit by something, but I made it out of the city alive. The red light district does not seem real. Walking through it was extremely weird for me because I have never ever seen anything like it. Girls in every window "working". People on every corner trying to sell drugs. It is its own island in the world where nothing else is like it. I stayed in a few hostels while I was in the city which was different for me. Sleeping in a room with 20 other people is never something I am comfortable with. It is difficult to get any real sleep because people are always coming in and out, snoring, or making some form of another noise. I needed an entire day to recover from being in Amsterdam for 3 days. I do not understand how anyone in Amsterdam accomplishes anything because of the temptation of coffee shops everywhere. Somehow the city seems to thrive. I would guess part of that reason is because of the coffee shops.Overall, I give Amsterdam a 10/10. It was everything I had hoped it would be and then some. It is a city meant for fun.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland

I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a weekend. I had never heard of this city before a few weeks before I went there. I had no idea what to expect. The city definitely has a bigger city feel than Dublin does. The city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains which makes views of the city pretty easy to get by just climbing up one of the nearby mountains. People are bustling around the city everywhere and the buildings are taller than in Dublin. We stayed in a small bed and breakfast 3-4 miles outside of the city which was definitely a bad idea. Although taxi rides were cheaper than in Dublin the fact that they use pounds made it around the same price. The people in Scotland reminded me a lot of the people in Ireland. The nightlife n Edinburgh is pretty good, but I prefer Dublin over it even though I only got a sample of Scotland. There is not a place that compares to Temple Bar so its difficult for them to compete. The drinks are much cheaper than in Dublin, but again it is in pounds so it is still almost even. We took a 400 mile all day tour of pretty much everything in Scotland. The landscape is incredible. Huge mountains going up higher than the clouds with lakes in almost every valley. Beautiful. I got to see the Loch Ness Monster Lake which was something that I have always wanted to experience. The city surrounding the lake is a very small town, but it is very funny because they have all this tourism off of a picture that no one knows if it is actually real. They even have a fake loch ness monster in the water just to make it more touristy. To me it is a hoax, but it is nice to believe that there is something lurking beneath the water. The countryside of Scotland is pretty much empty. Every now and then there are castles that have been filmed in movies or shows which are very beautiful. I got to see a lot of Scotland in a very short time so I feel that I accomplished the area. Overall, I give Edinburgh, Scotland a 7.5/10 because of the lacking of city and the greatness of the terrain outside the city.

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland is not the city that I thought it was going to be. I have been here for 2 months and the first month I thought it was the greatest city ever because of the culture. I found out a pretty interesting fact that there are about 1.5 million people in Dublin and the average beer sales each day is around 1 million. That is craaazzzy.  How can the citizens accomplish anything productive if most of the people have been drinking or are drunk all day. I walk into any given pub at noon for lunch and there are ten or more people inside having multiple beers or betting on horse races. The idea of this sounds amazing, but with a closer look its kind of depressing. After being here longer I have gotten a closer and more detailed look and I have found it to be just a decent city. A good way to describe the city of Dublin is that one of the tallest buildings in the city is the Guinness Storehouse. Priorities right there. The city is very dirty with the sidewalks lined with dog droppings. I still do not understand what kind of person lets their dog shit on the sidewalk and leaves it for other people to walk over. I have had multiple taxi drivers from the city ask me how I like it and I say good which they reply with why? its a shithole. At first I wondered why they responded with that, but after being here longer I can actually understand what they mean. Since I have only been here a short while I still enjoy the city, but I can understand how you would hate it after a long period. Everything in the city is overpriced compared to other cities. There is not many great or exciting attractions to be proud of and the country is not very good at sports besides rugby. Overall, I give Dublin a 6/10 because any night of the week you can go to a pub and there will be enough people there to forget about your troubles.