Pre-Halloween

Book of Kells

Most of my travel writings are brief to make it easier for me to give you the gist of everything, but now that I have some time I'll tell you a bit more about the book of Kells! The book of Kells is what's called an illuminated manuscript and this name comes from its extremely decorative text. It was written by Celtic monks around the year 800 making the book of Kells about 1,209 years old, nearly 60 times my age, wrap your mind around that. 

The manuscript contains the four gospels of the new testament all illuminated by very lavish images of animals, people, and celtic knots.I believe there were about 3 or four different artists that worked on the illuminations, one artist solely for adorning the pages with gold. Though this book is considered one of the first "treasures" of Ireland, it actually was never really finished, and no one knows the exact place the book was produced (though it derives its name from the monastery it was found which was in Kells).

 It is also a mystery how this book survived through the mediaeval period because the Kells abbey (where it was found) was often pillaged by vikings(but the book may not have been present for these raiding). I also  find it very interesting that since it was all written by hand, there are many mistakes trhoughout the book. But the mistakes were no big concern to the monks because this book was created more for appearance than function, in fact even when it was used for mass the speakers would not usually be reading from it, instead reciting from memory.

To give you an idea of what it look like here are some pictures I pulled off the net

Side note before i forget

If you want to send me lots of wonderful letters and gifts this is where to do so:

Piazza Strozzi 2
50123 Florence, Italy

And if you want me to send you a wonderful postcard (I have about 23 that I need to send...) then email me your address (or comment it on this post). Even if you've already given it to me, chances are I've lost it.

Barcelona and Girona

And my last stop, Barcelona. My Travel buddy actually decided that she really did like Ireland too much to leave it, and so she stayed to tour other part of Ireland. I would have loved to do this but it was going to cost a very large sum of money that I wouldn't be able to explain to my folks...But Barcelona was fantastic. I stayed at a Hostel called Kabul where many young travelers are traveling alone and want to meet others. Plus happy hour at the hostel bar starts at 6, so by the time I arrived at the hostel around 9 everybody was really friendly. I met a bunch of nice people and we went out to a couple of other bars and pubs during my stay. During the daytime in Barcelona, I toured the city where I saw a beautiful cathedral, a cliff-hike, and the lovely coast. I learned that all the palm tree's in Barcelona are not actually native, but are rented from Hawaii (they wanted to pretty the place up for the Olympics many years ago and ust decided to keep renting).But one thing I didn't expect was the Gaudi buildings! If you don't know who Gaudi is, the best way to explain his architecture is for you to see it! I consider him the Salvador Dali of architecture (which is great because Dali was also from spain).

I also spent one day In Girona which was a lovely city, kind of like a smaller Barcelona (only it has canals). I spent the day exploring the city and hiking along an ancient castle wall that extends around a portion of the city, surrounding beautiful gardens and at the top there is an amazing view of Girona and the surrounding mountains! Sadly that was mostly the end of my adventure, though I did run into a friend at the airport and when we discovered our flight was and hour delayed, we had a bit of sangria (to go out Spanish style).Arriving back in Florence was surprisingly comforting (I almost said ahh, home sweet home), and the weather is perfect here, 70's in october! 

Dublin

After all the airport complications I somehow found my way to Dublin. When I arrived at the Dublin airport everybody wanted to help me, everyone was smiling (despite it being 12pm) and wanted to know where I was going. This was quite different than the airport personnel I've encountered everywhere else. After arriving in the hostel I met up with my long lost travel buddy and we went straight to the pub. Of course I was bought my first pint of Guinness in Ireland by a singing irish man. In the bars in Florence they play crappy American hip-hop music almost exclusively, but every pub we went to in Ireland had great music, and everybody was dancing for fun (not like the "sexy" dancing you see al too often in the clubs). I was so in love with Ireland (mostly because of the people) I never wanted to leave (let alone go to sleep).

The next day I explored Ireland (the good thing about hostels is that if you want free breakfast you have to wake up by 9am, so it forces you to get up early) and discovered beautiful churches, an exhibit on an irish poet, and lovely parks. That afternoon we went for a tour of the Guinness factory. The man who originally made Guinness was so sure that his product was going to do well that when he signed the lease, it was for 45 Pounds a day for 9,000 years! But he was right and after touring the factory (which is purposely shaped as the worlds largets pint glass) we went to the 7th floor and had our free pint, and a spectacular view of Dublin! That night I was feeling really sick (a cold that I was finding hard to shake while travelling) so I did not drink, but I did go to an amazing free jazz concert and a couple pubs with my new friends.

My last day in Dublin was horrible weather, just downpour rain, but I managed to walk to Trinity college and check out the book of Kells, a necessity for anyone that visits Dublin. It was, of course, amazing. I wish I could have looked through the whole book, but the few pages I did get to see were astonishing. I'm constantly in disbelief at how old things are here, it was so hard for me to really grasp the fact that the books of Kells is so ancient. I have the same problem here in Florence, I can't believe that all of these gorgeous, well preserved buildings date back so far, it seems like a trick!

Unfortunately my friends camera was pick-pocketed in Dublin, so all the wonderful pictures of us drinking Guinness are lost forever. 

Amsterdam

Next stop, of course, was Amsterdam. I mean if your already in Belgium, you have to make the short train ride to Holland, especially if its to see the famous Amsterdam. I believe this was the third day of my travels and still no word from my traveling buddy. I decided to take the train to Amsterdam with a couple of other travelers that I met in Brussels Logan, and Kristin (both from Florida but living in Paris). We arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon and as soon as we check into our hostel, we began exploring. Our first destination was a rasta colored cafe where I had a cup of tea and, well, a good time... We continued to go to a couple more cafe's and then we discovered the red light district. though not entirely up my alley, the red light district is something that everyone had to see once in their life (though I did see a smaller version in Brussels). 

Amsterdam almost reminded me of Venice because throughout the city there are small canals that you can travel on by boat. Amsterdam got quite cold at night though. I ended up gong back to the hostel bar and having a couple drinks, exploring a bit more that night and then waking up early to catch my flight. After a long train ride without my ipod (it got pickpocketed in the station) I made it to Brussels airport. Unfortunately instead of 6:00 pm my flight was at 6:00am and I completely missed it (even though I was concerned I was too early and would have to stay in the airport all day). I ended up having to pay 100 Euro to change my flight and had to wait in the airport for about 10 hours, oh the joys of traveling.

Brussels

Just got home from a long, crazy, not long enough vacation through Europe. I suppose I'll start at the end and work my way back, I ran into a couple of friends on the train ride back to florence and we were able to share a couple bottles of champagne together and now I'm attempting to record my wanderings (so bear with me).

1st stop Brussels. Not a very popular tourist stop, and I probably wouldn't have gone there except that the flight was 10 Euro's, but Brussels was a grand time. I stayed in a hostel called Van Gogh Hostel, in a 10 person dorm. My travelling buddy took a later flight than mine and never showed up at the hostel, of course I was worried, but I though perhaps she had just missed her flight so I decided not to worry. I spent the first part of night one at the hostel bar where I met many kids my age (plus older and younger) from all over europe. I ended up going with a french girl (who had an extreeeemly thick accent) and a swiss girl to a blues bar in downtown Brussels. The next day I explored  Brussels a bit and this is what I saw...

Somehow the most famous statue in Brussels is of this small boy peeing. Down the street they put a small girl peeing (for equality...) I think they have gone a bit mad.

Greetings from Spain!

A little bits about italy/italians.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHWBL9_alKshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHWBL9_alKs

View of Firenze

Wine country

Spent the day in Chianti yesterday at a CASTLE! Not just any castle either, a castle that has been producing Chianti wine for over 800 years. We learned a but of history about wine, particularly Chianti wine. This Tuscan wine is the red wine that comes form the vineyards only in Chianti. A long time ago others were trying to use the Chianti name for their red wine as well because of the great reputation that it carries, but winegrowers in Chianti didn't approve and this started a bit of a fight. The fight resulted in the black rooster that you will see only on authentic Chianti wines (as well as a pink seal on the bottle).

We were able to sample many different wines made at this vineyard as well as a delicious Italian meal including homemade balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil! I also had the chance to tour the beautiful castle and enjoy the wonderful views!

View on the way.
Wine Tasting!
Our guide stressed that wine is life and you have to love and respect it.

Venice!

Just got back from the most beautiful city in Italy, Venizia! Its almost magical to be in a place where the roads are full of boats instead of cars... I felt like I was swaying back and forth the whole time from being on so many boats. They have boat busses, boat taxi's, gondolas (of course) even boat limousines (although I only rode on the busses). I also had a chance to explore the beach on the island of Lido (which is the island our hotel was on).

But the most spectacular thing I did in Venice was a trip to the Bienalle, an international art show.  For those of you who have ever been to epcot you would know that it is a grouping of different buildings each representing a country and the insides contain representative shops and restaurants of that place. The Beinalle was similar to this only inside of each was filled with artwork from each country. There was so much amazing artwork and inspiring ideas my head was spinning.

The last thing we did in Venice was a trip to Murano to a glass blowing demonstration. In order to be a glass blower you have to be very talented, then go through about 25 years of training! In Murano the whole city is just shops full of glass. They had glass jewelry, glass sculptures, chandeliers, animals, anything you could think of, I even saw a glass violin.

http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html