London at Christmastime

Unlike so many other euopean cities only accessible from dublin, i can fly directly to london from cork in under 2 hours. The journey is so cheap and quick that i couldnt forgo the opportunity to visit with a friend from home. Especially because we stayed with a friend of his in a very central part of London, we had an amazing opportunity to jampack our 2 days with as much fun as possible. By 8 am friday morning, we were headed to the Harry Potter studios for a tour. We walked through the actual sets of every notable Harry potter location, from Dragon Alley to the Great Hall and, of course, the cupboard under the stairs. The great hall felt especially magical because it s been decorated for the Christmas season with massive trees and wreaths. My favorite of all, though, was a ten foot tall replica of the Hogwarts castle standing alone in a darkened room, covered in fake snow. Though my interest in HP dropped off over the years, "going to Hogwarts" still felt like reliving a childhood dream.


After the studio tour, we took the tube to London bridge for a day of unabashedly touristy sightseeing. In every nook and cranny of London holds something signifciant, be it historic, artsy, royal, simply a scenic view. In between the obvious, magnificent destinstions like the Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace, we happened upon modern art galleries, a stunning Christmas market just next to London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe theatre, and street performers blowing 2 foot long bubbles for audiences. London holds so many different personalities- historic, professional, touristy, hip, stylish, bohemian, young- all of which tend to overlap within one block. Just wandering around the city allowed me to experience it all , which I found i enjoyed more than following a packed itinerary of touring the big tourist attractions.

Several hours and eight miles of walking later, we grabbed dinner and stopped at the apartment, our host took us on a tour of Londons Piccadilly circus and soho areas, the center of (rich) London nightlife. Ive been on Michigan Avenue during Christmastime, so i didnt think this in particular would blow me away but Piccadilly was a life changing experience. Four or five story designer stores decked in christmas decor and neon lighting, theatres flashing neon advertisements for musicals, endless throngs of people and music flooding the tight streets. We went to a six story toy store called Hamleys, where the workers dressed as elves play with kids and adults alike, as well as the original Topshop boutique. compounding all of its beauty were, shocker, its unreal Christmas lights. Surrednering myself to its flash, grandeur, and effervesence made me feel so alive. So yeah, currently taking donations for my starter place there.

On Saturday morning, we made the twenty minute walk to Camden Market. The market is essentially a sprawling maze of pop up stalls with exotic food vendors, boutiques, bohemian tapestries, music memorabilia shops, souvenir dealers, and anything else conceivable. As with piccadilly, camden defines sensory overload. Even at 9 am, the place was teeming with the aroma of incense, constantly changing music, and always another corner leading to more shops. I easily could have lost myself in the crowd for a whole day (not to mention my wallet, but I digress).

After camden came a trip to Buckingham place to watch the chance going of the guard, which we missed by 24 hours. We did stare at a guard standing at his post for a few minutes before heading to Harrods, a castle like luxury department store featuring among other things a 15,000 pound Rolex. There were chandeliers in the elevators, so that about says it all. Thankfully, our host kept us to a 40 minute time limit, otherwise I might still be in the Jimmy Choo showroom. After harrods, I unfortunately had to leave for my airport bus home. The fact that I could do all of this in less than 48 hours really speaks to how special London is. However, I did miss a few Beatles related spots, so who knows? I could be back soon.

Rome: the beginning of my love affair with Ryanair

An hour bus ride, a three hour flight, missed bus, and another three and a half hour bus ride later, I am finally home from rome. My friends and i left our hostel in the heart of rome at 730 AM today, not to arrive in cork until 6 PM. If I think about the amount of money I spent on airport food today, I might throw things. But justifying that marathon voyage was my weekend in Rome. This trip was particularly special not only because its my first trip outside of ireland, but because a bunch of my friends from my study abroad program and I have been looking forward to this since school began.

Half of my friends and i arrived late Thursday night and got our bearings in the city naturally by hitting up a hole in the wall pizza place. On Friday, we woke up early to visit Vatican City. Every square inch of its eight miles of hallways is an artistic masterpiece, with giant tapestries and frescoes hanging from the walls and these unfathomably elaborate and vibrant sculptures etched into the ceilings. All of these served as appetizers to the sistine chapel, however. Although Its more iconic images have been reproduced everywhere, I was still totally blown away by its grand scale. At 60 feet high and 120 feet long, it's a sensory overload of painting, symbolism, and emotion. I would insert a picture, but the sistine chapel has incredibly strict no camera/talking/anything policies. Over an intercom, an announcer constantly asks for silence in various languages security guards walk around the throngs of people and if they catch someone taking a photo, they stand over the person and make them delete it. Very weird vibe.

After the sistine chapel came st Peters basilica. More incredible art and sights. Two fun facts: couples can get married in a side chapel at the basilica. However, it's an unpopular venue since guests usually consider the basilica more beautiful than the bride. More morbidly, the bodies of 5 popes are shown preserved in glass coffins. Their faces are painted in wax but otherwise they've been mostly untouched and are shown on display. Really. On the whole, though, the vatican is so steeped with history and art that you could spend days without seeing everything,

After the vatican, we climbed up to one of the highest points in rome for a breaktaking aerial view of the city around sunset. We wandered through a few quieter streets, which I enjoyed because of its more laid back atmosphere. Far from the overcrowded mess of tourists at the vatican, people relaxed outside of Ivy covered restaurants with the sounds of classical music filling the air. Our next stop was the significantly more amped up Campo dei Fiori, or the "American" part of Rome. With performers dancing on the cobblestone streets, vendors setting off lighted flares into the air, and huge crowds coming and going, its a really exciting area.

If Fridays theme was Papal Rome, Saturdays theme was Ancient Rome, as we saw the Colosseum and Pantheon. On our colosseum tour, we saw the underground tunnels where gladiators were held and some of the original ruins from thousands of years ago. As we took in the sights, our tour guide told us a few eye opening stories about just how brutal the Romans were. Once we left the colosseum, we explored the high end shopping district of Via Nazionale (there was a 3 story FendI house, I died) before stumbling upon the pantheon. It's so typical of rome, where at every corner there's some grand monument or fountain waiting to wow you. But the pantheon was beautiful, especially because we visited at sunset. The temple was mostly dark except that its statues were illuminated by spotlights, which gave it a cool mystique.

After the Pantheon came more wandering through quieter streets before we reached the Spanish steps. Especially at the night, it was stunning. At its feet is a fountain shaped like a boat, which a few of my friends drank some water and posed with speaking of fountains, the Trevi fountain is currently under construction and almost totally hidden by scaffolding. But those wanting to make wishes into the fountain can still throw their coins into a tiny little wade pool, which is what my friends and I did. Only one of us actually made it into the pool, though, do I'm not making a million anytime soon.

Looking back at everything we did, it's crazy to think that it only happened over the course of two (intense) days. But that's very indicative of Rome, though- this beautiful, effervescent, grand city that's constantly packed with millions of people ski g to squeeze the most from every moment. in 2 days, I could barely scratch the surface of what rome offers, but it was still a mind blowing weekend.