woot for the best birthday ever. besides that thanksgiving was pretty much amazing, we did the weekend right by traveling to dublin to spend the rest of my birthday weekend there. danielle flew to rome first to be here for thanksgiving and and then we flew up to dublin with collin to meet jess. here's me and collin on the bus on the way into the city.


and there's jess and danielle on the same bus. danielle is showing everyone her man corner.


it took us pretty much the whole day to get to dublin and to get settled in, but once we got there we ate, walked around some, checked into our hostel, and then took another walk around the temple bar area since it was so close to our hostel. we ended up going to this cute lil italian style place called CafeBarDeli...one word. awesome. it was actually quite delectable and since we only were able to nap the night before (2 hours of sleep) we passed out pretty effing early.

dublin is 1 hour behind madrid, milan, and rome, so we gained an hour in the whole ordeal. we got up quite early to have breakfast where danielle was accosted by a toaster and she slowly took her revenge. we got out of the hostel early and took a walk to st. patrick's cathedral, but of course it was closed...the ONE time we get out super early to do everything stuff is closed. so we took pictures from the outside.


we then migrated toward Christchurch which was also closed but was going to open quite soon. here's me, danielle, and jessie outside of Christchurch.


and these are the two sides of the inside of the church.



As always, i lit a candle in this church in memory of all my loved ones who have passed. since we were pretty much the first ones in the church i was the first one to light a candle and my candle was quite lonely on the stand. here i am with my candle.


after the church, we headed over to dublinia...this medieval history/viking exhibit. it was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. before you even go in, they have these cut outs that you can stick your head in. here are the two rotations we did.



inside, they had a scary manequin in medieval costume. there's me, danielle, and jess with the man.


and there's jess with the ambiguous circus animal. we have no idea what that is. i thought donkey jess though trained bear.


and there are jess and danielle doing their black death faces. they were supposed to get a guy in the background but it didnt quite work out for us.


this was supposed to show a food cart in the market place. i couldn't resist and the whole time the dog was growling at me.


and i totally sexually harassed one of the dudes in dublinia. he was fake but he still was not amused.


and there's me, danielle, and collin in the viking ship.


there was also a section on slavery where they had shackles you could try on. we decided to sell jess for white slavery.


and there's collin being a viking/knight. classy.


as we walked towards trinity college, we stumbled upon a cute little cafe place called queen of tarts. it was voted best of dublin multiple times so we stopped in for tea and scones. SO delicious.


we also passed dublin castle which we are unsure what it was for. we didn't go in because collin didn't want to go in unless they had a zara in there. we all predicted they didn't so we kept walking.


we then took a tour of trinity college. it was so so cute and tour guide was meant for masterpiece theater. here's a picture of the first part of the campus.


and there's our tour guide, rory in another part of campus.


we also found my roommate's children. she's destined to marry and have our friend domenico's babies and collin and i found EXACTLY what these kids would look like.


we were able to see the book of kells also, but not pictures of that, unfortunately. so afterwards we headed to the guinness factory which was so so fun. it was 7 floors and kind of ridic. first, here's danielle and me with one of the lil exhibit thingies. we took this picture cause it said something about the head. i dont remember what though.


and there's jess and me with the barrels. they had some message on them about like the roar of raw heat or something silly like that.


and that's the guinness toucan that we did not know about. we were like WHY ARE THERE TOUCANS EVERYWHERE but then we came to learn that the toucan was actually like the main advertising character for a long time. there's one toucan with two guinnesses on his beak.


and there's collin showing me her homeland.


there was also this little area where you could post messages to show you were there. i put up two...one commemorating my amazing birthday weekend. and one showing my staten pride. can you guess which one this is?


and there was a place not as cool as heineken video messages but almost. we took a picture of the 4 of us. so silly...that's the link to it.
http://guinnessstorehouse.bitmove.tv:80/bitmove/guinnessstorehouse/receive.jsp?uid=B0BC2AE8E1ABBD7ABB63D582DC66E426

at the end of the tour, you get a free pint of guiness at this place called the gravity bar which is the highest level. the views of dublin from up there were beautiful even though i'm the only one who really enjoyed my guinness.


when we were leaving, we took our picture with the big guinness sign as everyone does. unfortunately, it's quite dark but here it is.


when we got back to our hotel, there's a huge message board that sits at the front desk to give everyone messages from their callers. of course my message took exactly half the board and said in huge letters: LISA CRUZ...FRANCINE CALLED and the rest of my message about where to meet them and what not. and as i was standing there, ate francine called! yes, we ended up meeting them at the porterhouse where we continued to a delicious lebanese restaurant for dinner. afterwards, we hit up quite a few ridiculously crowded bars where they were so amazing and bought us beers and chatted us up. i love the two of them so so much its kinda scary. i always refer to them as my two cousins even though they're really just my cousin and her husband so many a time i've had to clear up that my cousins aren't married to each other but that i consider them both my cousins even though i'm only actually related to one of them. anyhow, we had a ton of fun going to all the different bars and theyre pretty much amazing. you've made the blog a france and k rod! i love you both so so much.


and here are the 4 of us in the last pub with the dancing man. there was one really really drunk guy in this pub who was trying to dance with everyone. i offered danielle up to 8 euro to go dance with him and even pulled the birthday card but it didnt work. cute picture nonetheless.


ok well that was my wondrous weekend. it was pretty much the best and worst thanksgiving and birthday ever...leaning towards to best. poland next weekend!

thursday night was pretty much one of the best/worst thanksgivings ive ever had. it was the worst because i missed my family so so much and wished i could be with them but it was also the best because i got to be an adult and plan my own thanksgiving for the first time and have my friends at my house for it and just really enjoy this ridiculous american holiday in italy with my american friends. jessie and i prepared most of everything (with help from collin, emily, and gretchen) and it was kind of a ridiculous ridiculous fiasco. not only did we start early with wine and sangria, but we were also rockin out to christmas music the entire time.

this is the beginning to thanksgiving...thursday morning, my last day of being a teenage (mutant ninja turtle) and so jesse and i decided to deck ourselves out in stickers that christina sent and then hand them out to our friends at school, too. that's me and jesse on thursday morning before leaving for school.


then we went through a whole day of school and i ventured into trastevere to find a place that sold gravy (though they didn't) and then came back and started our thanksgiving festivities. step 1 was pumpkin pie. after putting it in the oven we continued to celebrate with all kinds of random activities. first, here are the girls watching true life as jesse peels potatoes (in our newly washed and DRIED clothes).


then we were burning water and doing all kinds of maneuvering on our tiny little stove and somehow managed to set a pot holder on fire. here we are, a bit distraught, with our burnt pot holder.


and there me, jesse and collin taking a little break just for a pretty picture.


and then another short break for emily, collin, and me to show our asian pride. in case you dont remember, in assisi, emily decided to let the two asians know that this little ghetto trekky symbol meant asian pride.


and here's jesse with her pie straight out of the oven. can you say SO DELICIOUS?!


and here's the tuesday night crew. every tuesday, after our obnoxious film class, collin and emily join me and jesse in apartment 5 of corso trieste 142 to have dinner and watch 90s teeny bopper movies. i love these girls <3


and theres emily and collin rockin out in the kitchen.


while putting the potatoes in to huge pots of boiling water, we splattered water in all different directions. there's jesse with her burnt stomach. see, the water splashed all over our feet and the walls and somehow managed to hit her on her stomach on burn her. luckily, i had some aloe vera lotion to soothe that monster.


and here me and jesse with our silly faces. we had so so so so much fun doing up thanksgiving our way.


and here are the five of us who shared thanksgiving together.


collin also brought me the most magnificent fruit birthday cake from my favorite pasticceria, marinari. it's like the most amazing place ever and she picked the most wondrous fruit tart that was so so so good. for some reason i only have a picture of me and jesse with it, not with collin.


after our immense meal, collin and emily assumed the digestion position on our cold cold floors. i would imagine it helped considering the ridiculous amounts of food that we ate.


and here are the four of us with more funny faces. i think we took like 10 pictures before it was properly centered and had all 4 of us.


and so danielle was supposed to arrive in rome around 730 but missed her flight, so she caught the next one. my friends and i, after our wondrous meal, all headed out to termini to get her. now, given the time she was getting into rome, my 1201 was either going to be spent on the bus or walking to the bus stop, so we grabbed some bubbly and popped it along the way. first, here's emily and collin walking with us to the bus stop.


and this is my 1201! the very first minute of my birthday where i was no longer a teenager and now just a plain mutant ninja turtle. i found it fitting that i spent the turn of my birthday while walking the same route i walk to school. nonetheless, so so much fun. there we are popping the bubbly on the street.


and there's collin participating in her own biathlon - the two events being running and climbing.


and there we all are at the bus stop. notice how my roommate is caressing my leg.


and there's me and jesse water skiing on the bus. no wonder all the italians hate us americans.


and so we get to termini to pick up danielle and finally find her and have the reunion of a lifetime. danielle is one of 3 best friends from tufts and i havent seen her since august when i went to boston. so there's me and danielle.


we quickly run back to the nomentana neighborhood so danielle can have some thanksgiving dinner and then we can pack it up for dublin. i've already returned from dublin at the point where i wrote this entry, but the next entry will how the wonder of dublin and all the fun we had <3