*Sizzle-Sizzle*

Goes my skin! EEEeewwww....Sorry.

So, Mallorca. GORGEOUS. And slightly painful in the sunburn department, but that's what I get for being my pale winter self and laying out on the beach for something like five hours. But I digress...

EARLY on Friday morning Alexis, Alyssa, Eden, Kristi, Zach, and I headed to the airport to catch our flight to this lovely island off the east coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. When we boarded the plane, the sun still wasn't up, but that's ok, because we got to board not via one of those stupid hallway things but like this!!!

I felt all old school and like I needed a hat like old-fashioned ladies would wear when they would fly.

When we landed in Mallorca, we grabbed a cab, and by that I mean two cabs because apparently there is some sort or lame law that there can only be five people in one cab, including the driver. I really just think it's to further rip off the many tourists that go there, but hey, what do I know?

Our hotel was nothing short of amazing. First off, it was an apartotel, which means it had a little kitchen area and a little living room area. So awesome! We had two rooms* which both looked over this beautiful courtyard and a really cool pool and all the men that were there. And I say that not as a swooning twenty year old but as a cold hard fact that I'm pretty sure we were five of maybe twelve women there. No. Joke. And they were all from the United Kingdom so obviously I didn't needto spend all that money in London a couple of weeks ago because I literally experienced mini-England in Spain.

*Just a note: these two rooms, for two nights, literally cost fifteen euro for both nights, which is about twenty US dollars. This just made it that much more awesome.

We spent most of the day at the beach on Friday. It was

spectacular. First off, the water was crystal clear. It was cold but ok to put your feet into for like 30 seconds. The sun was amazing and I got a lot of sunburn and now I'm all goldeny. :)

Favorite tan line: fell asleep on my back, woke up to my bikini bottom string across my waist. Moved it and BAM tan line.

Saturday I walked around with Zach and Eden and we shopped and jus

t bummed around. It was a really nice day. I bought a floppy hat! that I'm totally in love with and will be taking with me to Aruba when I go there next summer with two of my favorite people ever! But that's a later story...

You know what I loved about this trip? Well, two things actually...

1) I got to relax. It wasan actual vacation and it was lovely. I returned home on Sunday and the only thing that hurt was my lobster-ness. 2) No. Drama. Everyone that went I liked and we all had fun. We laughed. We talked. It was fantastic. :D

Oh, Mallorca, be in my life again.

Eden, Me, Alexis, Kristi, and Alyssa

Pictures!!!

I know that I promised to post these LAST week but I've been busy at the beach and I suck. But these are some of my favorite pictures from spring break! :D

City Centre in Dublin during the parade. So. Many. People.

Beer :D

"This just in: Hellman's has gone global!"

River in Westport, Ireland

Bridge to Achill Island

This is the house that my great-grandfather, Bryan Kilbane, grew up in.

My fourth cousin, Sarah, and her daughter, my fifth cousin, Selina.

Ignore how sick I look...this is Annie, my third cousin.

'Ello Ben!

The London Eye

Westminster Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Had to.... :D

Ellen in Wonderland

Hey hey everyone! I have been gone WAY too long! I have missed blogging a bit but at the same time I've just had wayyy too much fun exploring :D

I kicked off my spring break like any smart person would do who is travelling in Europe: Dublin for St. Patrick's day. Oh. My. God. Best day!!! We landed in Ireland just before noon on the day of green and let me tell you, a swift punch to the jaw probably couldn't have taken the gigantic smile off of my face. I was SO happy. To be honest, happy probably isn't an accurate word. Ecstatic? jumping for joy? None seem to do my level of happy any justice. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel we were staying in and hit the city where anywhere you looked you saw a mass of green moving. I loved how many people we everywhere. It made it that much more fun.

The bars we stuffed with people. I tried my first Belfast Bomber (aka-Irish Car Bomb), which was quite tasty to be honest. And I think I may have drank an entire keg of Guinness by the end of the day...So good! I also met a bunch of really cool Irish people that I got to hang with for the majority of the day and they took me to the most exclusive club in Europe (apparently-I'm not positive on this information) called Coppers. It was so much fun! What a great day of my People! lol!

While in Dublin my group hit up the Guinness Storehouse where we learned how Guinness is made and I bought a t-shirt. I'm still trying to figure out what color it is...I think I've finally narrowed it down to black or really really really dark green.

Just a side note on the food...DELICIOUS. Holy cow! is it good! And there is so so much of it I think I about died. I had stew and tried a couple different pies. OH! And I ate some lamb liver...that was...interesting. I would probably never in my life eat lamb liver again, but hey, had to try it once.

Saturday a group of seven of us rented a car to drive to the western part of Ireland. This is the thing, and let me tell you, there was MUCH laughing in the situation probably to keep from crying to be quite honest. We were supposed to get a seven seater van that our sokindfriend Terence would drive seeing as he's twenty-seven oldest and could rent the car there. BUT the car company neglected to inform us that the age to rent that car was 30. REALLY?! ugh...so instead we got a Savoy. For seven of us. And all of our crap. :D So Alyssa and I sat in the trunk yes there were seats AND seatbelts...not that we would have gone anywhere if we had crashed anyway... with the giganto suitcase. It was sooo fun...

We made it to Galway though. A little smushed but in one piece. We walked around in the rainy Irish weather and just hung out. Laughs were had. It was all good. But the super cool part happened the next day. I met my Irish family!!!!!! EEEE!!!! :D

I took the train to Westport and they picked me up. It was so nice to meet them! They are such sweet people and they took good care of me. I especially fell in love with my fifth cousin Selina. She's nine and adorable and reminds me of my cousin Maura. They even look a little bit alike which is supah cool!

Note: Gigantic meal of Achill Island, Ireland: 7 regular sized pieces of roast beef, a small mound of somekindof fried potato, bread pudding, a mound of mashed potatoes, a large side of garlic mashed potatoes with cheese on top, AND a large salad. I almost exploded.

I left for London on Monday from the Dublin airport to go and see the city and a friend who is studying there at St. Mary's in Twikenham (about 30 minutes outside the city). It was great to have a tour guide! I even got to be on his radio show that he co-hosts! I loved the city, but since I was sick at this point I didn't have as much energy to do and see as many things as I normally would....which is totally unfortunate! But I still had a blast! I loved seeing this city that has been the center of many of the stories (Harry Potter, what?!) I have read over the years.

It was a great break! (Minus the sick part) I'm really looking forward to my beach vacation this coming weekend. Oh what a life I live... ;)

To quote my non-existent Jewish grandmother..."Oi, vey!!!"

I like to think that I have a lot of patience with people. Like, a lot. Longest fuse ever. Do something to piss me off and it will take a lot for me to explode. For real.

For example, on this little trip of mine, I have the most disgusting house mates ever. Most people don't do their own dishes regardless of the fact that we a) have a dishwasher, b)it's empty and c) it's OPEN. I mean, how PATHETIC is that?! They don't even have to open the flipping door to the dishwasher. They just have to put their dishes in and then walk away... It's been just about two and a half months and I clean the kitchen at least once a day. And no, I don't do this to clean up after them, I do it so that I don't have to cook in their cesspool of disgustingness.

That's just a gross example. Sorry to diverge from the reason of this post... :D

I'm saying Oi, vey to people that are condescending and rude. Who are you to speak to me like I'm nothing?! I hate that!

Why do people think that they're better than others?! I don't understand....I really don't. Yes, some people are as annoying as hell and need to be cloistered so as to get the HECK away from me, but come on. If someone asks a simple, yet important question, you don't need to look at them like they just asked you why breathing is important.

Anyway, on a better and more exciting note, my break starts this week and I'm heading to wait for it, wait for it... IRELAND!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I can't even tell you how excited I am. Ahhhhh!!!! :) After that I'll be heading to London and Paris. It's going to be the best thing of my life!

Oh! And another exciting development. I'm going on a date on Wednesday. I know no one but me and Denise cares, but hey, I think it's cool! He's from Scotland. I'll just call him Scottie. Or maybe Macaroni because yesterday the Scotland rugby team lost to England and he was upset so he said he was changing his nationality to Italian and his new last name was Macaroni. Makes sense right? More like, makes sense to as why you would like him, Ellen...because obviously the crazy people all hang out together.

Happy Monday!

Mama Mia!!!

I think I want to move to Rome. It's so gorgeous there. I can't even describe it...and as of right now I can't even should it because I haven't been on the ball enough to actually upload pictures onto my computer, but it's not like those pictures would do any sort of justice to just how gorgeous it was there.

We arrived Thursday night at nine and found our hotel. And by that I mean the WRONG hotel because we got incorrect directions, but it was ok because the nice little Italian man there apparently loved me because he showed us to the correct place by saying to me, "Ok, bab-ay! Let's go!" And as we walked out of the hotel he stops to yell at this guy for not wearing pants. He had boxers on, don't worry... But he proceeded to follow me down the stairs going, "Mama, mia! Who is that guy!? No pants?! Mama, mia!!" It basically made my life.

When we found our real hotel, the lady there was real mean. We wanted our Italian man back!!! But we stayed and it was a beautiful place. In the morning we left and went to find out apartment. It took for.ev.er. to find. Along the way we stopped and got the most epic pizza of my life and that made the day a bit better. Once we found the cutest apartment I've ever seen which was right near the Vatican and we could see the dome through the window we went to pick up another girl from the train station. The rest of the evening was a waste of my life and I was annoyed because we didn't do ANYTHING or see ANYTHING. We got a great dinner, but what about the sights!? I don't like being a tourist but that's what I am, damnit! So while they were getting ready to go out and party-hardy, I got ready to go e'splorin'! Which I did. And it was just splendid!

I saw sooo many things! I walked by the river, saw a bazillion piazzas, AND the Trevi Fountain! I LOVE the fountain! Omg....Just. Omg.

I made some poor, unsuspecting tourist take my photo for me...but I don't care! And I made a wish! Great, greatness!

I went back and basically passed out from walking half the city. But, it was TOTALLY worth it.

Oh! Another cool thing that happened was that I called my mom when I was standing in Vatican square on the way back to my apartment and the bells starting ringing for her! Perfecto!!

Saturday the group of sixteen that went met up at the Vatican for a tour. Though only fourteen got in because that is how many signed up and the other two were trying to sneak in..., we saw the Catacombs underneath the Vatican, which was eerily awesome, and then the Grottos, where the Popes are all buried. After looking through the Basilica, Elliot and I went up to the Cupola, which is the very top of the huge Dome of the Basilica. Apparently he and I enjoy climbing large amounts of spirally staircases together to see really awesome views from the top of churches... It was a looooong way up, but it was totally worth the five euros and the walk. Omg, so great! :D

After a nap, Elliot and I got ready, couldn't find ANYONE from our group* and headed to this restaurant called "Le Fate." It was delicious! For only ten euro, we both got a glass of wine, an appetizer (bruschetta), pasta (ratatoullie), and tiramisu! Ooo...sooo good! During dinner we met a bunch of American students who were eating there as well and we went out with one of them. Her name was Raina and she was sooo cute!!! It was SUCH a good night!

*We all have these stupid little baby phones here and they're pay-as-you-go phones, like most phones in Europe apparently. Anyway, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was out of minutes by Saturday afternoon. I came home with a negative balance. It was SO stupid...

I woke up a little later than I wanted to on Sunday, but it's ok because I still got to see most of what I wanted to see. Luckily I'm planning on going back at the end of April!! I saw the Pope speak, which was something that, as a notveryreligious Catholic, I never thought I would EVER see. I walked what I believe that OTHER half of Rome that I didn't quite get to on Friday night. I saw all the ancient ruins and saw was I really wanted to see....THE COLOSSEUM. dundundun!!!

Even though we had to SPRINT to both of our trains* so we wouldn't miss them, it was a great, great weekend. I loved it! I cannot WAIT to go back...I love Italy.

*Our first train to the train station to go to Milan NEVER showed...so when the next one came, we had about ten minutes to get from the BACK AND UPSTAIRS tracks to the downstairs, front tracks. We barely made it. It sucked because I had to deal with annoying bitchy people who didn't want to walk through all the train cars, but GUESS WHAT?! You didn't miss the train so you can kiss my butt...Then that train decided to stop for twenty minutes for no good reason in a tunnel. A TUNNEL?! Then again for about ten minutes right outside the station...it was annoying and made us almost miss out connecting train. We ran all over the place looking like idiots, but I don't care! I made it home and that's all that matters... :D

P.S.-Pictures to come!