London!

My last adventure on this study abroad trip was going to London. It was me and two of my good friends crossing the pond to the notorious London! The trip was perfect. We did everything that we wanted to do but still took time to relax. The first night we took the underground to Tower Bridge and saw the city skyline. We enjoyed the view so much that we decided to eat dinner right on the water. We could see the bridge, the river and the city. It was a great start to a great trip!

The next day was another day to scratch an item off on the bucket list. We started at 8 am with a bus tour of the city. It was like we were in the movies, touring London in the double Decker buses with the look of amazement painted on our faces. At 11 the tour bud dropped us off the see the changing of the guards. Usually, people crowd in front of Buckingham palace to just get a glimpse of the guards. The tour guide knew a way for us to get front row seats! Instead of heading to the palace we went to the building where the old guards marched out and walked to the new guards. I was able to stand on the sides of the street and see them up close and personal! Something that not a lot of people have the chance to do. Then we hopped 

back on the bus where we finished the tour at Harrods.

The next two days we walked around the city taking in the sights and the history of London.  We went from one end of the city to the next. Stopping in between sights too of course do a little bit of shopping J We spent half of our day walking through Portobello market near Noting hill.We took a water cruise down the river that passed under the Tower Bridge, London Bridge and the bridge that was filmed in the Harry Potter films. We also went to King's Cross train station and took pictures at platform 9 3/4. And of course we wandered the streets taking pictures in every classic telephone booth we could find! :)

It was a trip filled with quirky crazy moments with friends that are dear to my heart!

Sachsenhausen concentration camp

When I was in Germany we went and toured the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It is an experience that will stay with me forever. In eighth grade we spent the entire year learning about the events of the Holocaust. I thought after spending a year learning about this and then refreshing our knowledge every year after in high school, I would be prepared to visit the camp. I was wrong. I knew the events that happened there, but to stand in the same place that the horrific events occurred at was overwhelming. It was surreal to be there. I had seen pictures and heard testimonies from survivors but the camp was not what I expected. The feeling that you get as you enter the camp is bone chilling. We toured the medical center. It was not a place of nursing people back to health but a place of experimentation. Then we walked the grounds and ended up at the sleeping barracks. The museum kept the barracks the exact way they were years ago. You really got a look into the conditions that the people were surviving in. I am glad that I had the opportunity to visit a place of such significance. I believe that if everyone has the opportunity they should visit a camp. It brings a reality to the stories we have been told. 

Dripping in Crystal

The last day that my family visited we headed to Waterford to tour the crystal factory. We were all so excited to visit the place where the infamous crystal products were crafted. The tour started with a fantastic video of the process that the crystal went through in order to become a beautiful piece of art. When the show ended, we headed straight to where the magic all started. The first stop was learning about the tools that the craftsmen use. The main material for their tools are wood, which I found surprising. About every other week the carpenter has new make tools because they wear out so quickly. Then we went to the station where we could actually see the guys molding and blowing the crystal. We watched the crystal go from a blob of shinny stuff into a vase. It was incredible! As we continued on the tour we learned about the designs cut into the crystal. Did you know that a craftsman has to go through 8 years of training and memorize over a hundred patterns to cut before he can actually work in the factory! That’s a lot of hard work and dedication! You can actually get face to face with a craftsmen and see what they are doing. They absolutely love it when you start talking to them. They love to brag about the work they have done J This one guy made a people’s choice award and showed us on Google Morgan Freeman receiving the award that he crafted! He was very very proud! Then the tour ended in the shop.  My dad was like a little kid in a candy shop when we were looking around the store. If he had the money he would buy every single piece in there! Instead of buying the whole store he bought my sister two wine glasses. Now she has the start of her Waterford crystal collection! 

The Perfect Pint

The first day that my family was here we walked around Dublin and saw the sights. Of course the most important attraction was the Guinness factory! As you walk into the “tourist” part of the factory you feel like you walked into a different word. The tour is self-guided and very interactive. You could spend hours upon hours there reading all the signs and experiencing the elements that go into a Guinness. There is even a waterfall in the middle of the tour that depicts the pour water they use. As we are going through the tour of course my dad is the one stopping at every single sign and reading in depth what it says. On the other hand my little sister is practically running through this tour so she can get to the end where they give a free half pint of Guinness. My family did not want to leave that tasting room! Everyone in the Rochon family and of course Allison fell in love with the Irish beer. We even went to their academy where we learned how to pour the perfect pint. There is a lot more to pouring this beer than I originally thought. There is a lot of science and math involved. And let me say I passed this course with flying colors! As we drank our perfectly poured pints we ventured up to the observatory. Here all of the walls are glass windows so you are able to look out and see the entire city of Dublin. This is one of my favorite views in the city. It is like looking from the Empire state building into NYC, just not that tall! I could spend hours up there drinking Guinness and looking at the city that I love so much. And I am glad that I could experience it with my family J

Pouring the perfect pint :)

We graduated!!!! 

View from the top with of course a Guinness in hand!

Guten Tag

I never imagined that I would fall in love with the city of Berlin, Germany. Everywhere you turned there was something inspiring. It was impossible to get lost and be frightened because where ever you ended up was a new adventure. We were given day passes to practically any museum or tourist hot spots. In the few days that we were there, we crammed as much as we could in. The first task though was transportation. In order to get anywhere you need to take either the U-ban or S-ban subways. Let me say we conquered that subway system effortlessly! The slight difficulty we had was not knowing German lol So in the end we just gave nicknames to all of the places. For example O’hamburger street was really  Oranienburger strabe. Once we figured out the subway system we moved about the city with ease.

There was so much that we did I could dedicate an entire blog to it! On our first day we took a walking tour around the city with our teacher. We saw where the Berlin use to stand and the place where it fell. The tour ended at Check Point Charlie. Here my small group of friends and I spent a good two hours. It was a museum dedicated to depicting what life was like for both sides while the wall was it up. They had amazing stories of escape attempts. Some people would hide in the trunks of cars and another curled up into a ball in a speaker. The stories of people trying to create peace were inspirational.

The next stop was the Anne Frank museum. It was not too large. It was about the size of a long hallway. On one side of the wall was the life of Anne Frank. It had pictures and stories from her childhood. On the opposite wall it had what was occurring in Germany at the time. Then at the end, displayed in a clear box was her first diary that she received when she was 13. It was incredible to actually see the handwriting of Anne right in front of me.

After this we needed a slight pick me up and went and found a Haagen Dazs. Now I know that this is not REAL German ice cream, but man did it taste better in Germany. We made it a thing to get the ice cream every night we were there J

 We also spent an entire day seeing museums. My favorite was the Pergamon museum. Here they have entire pieces of Greek alters and parts of the Byzantine Empire and so so much more. It was like walking back in time. My second favorite was an art museum where I got to three real life Monet’s. Not only could I look at them up close and see the texture and dynamics of the paintings put I also got to take pictures of them. Incredible!

 Berlin is a city that is on my bucket list to go back to. I did so much the small time that I was there but there is still so much more to see!

I do believe in faeries!!

Ireland is a country that has strong beliefs in the magic and fairy tales. If your keys go missing, you blame the fairies. If something goes awry, the leprechauns are acting up again. Folklore is a large part of Ireland. Here in Dungarven they have a fairy tree. It is said that if you truly believe in fairies then if you put your car in neutral, the car will begin to go uphill backwards! My family and I needed to check this out for ourselves. So we took the car up the mountain and put the car in neutral. THE CAR BEGAN TO ROLL BACKWARDS UPHILL!!! It was unbelievable. Everyone in the car was in complete shock! We tried multiple times and each time we went up the hill and at a rapid speed! There must have been a lot of fairy magic that day! 

The Magical Fairy Tree 

The Gift of Gab

It is said that if a person kisses the Blarney stone then they receive the gift of gab. Here in Ireland it is a character trait to be able to tell stories. And let me tell you, all Irish people have this gift! When my family visited me, I took them to Blarney Castle. The grounds were breathtaking. There were rivers and flowers covering the land. There is this one section of the grounds with mystical powers. There is a witches hutch and a wishing stairs. If you walk up the stairs forwards and backwards with your eyes closed then your wish will come true within the year. Of course my little sister was the first in line to make a wish! Then my dad followed after her. The Rochon family now has wishes galore!

When we finished with the enchanting forest we headed to the actual Blarney Castle. I thought that the blarney stone was at the base of the castle but man was I wrong. It was way at the tippy top of the castle! The journey to the top was over 100 steps of winding, shoulder width apart steep steps. We had my grandmother with us and she climbed the stairs like a champ! Although we did have to stop a few times and was asked if we were there yet we finally made it to the top a half hour later. At the top of the castle you could see for miles and miles, all the way into the next town.  

Then it was time to kiss the stone. In order to do this you have to situate yourself so that your butt is practically hanging off the side of the castle. Then you have to do this backbend to reach these poles. THEN these guys only hold you on your waist to lower you down to kiss the stone. The only thing that separates you from the ground is two bars that a person my size could easily slip through! It was the most thrilling and scariest experience. As you kiss the stone there is a camera that takes your picture. At the bottom of the castle you can choose to purchase this.  The face that the camera captured from my grandma was priceless. It was pure terror and excitement about kissing the stone. It was so epic that we bought the picture for her J