Arrivederci Roma

Due to some unfortunate events I have rescheduled my flight to come home early. I leave tomorrow. This beautiful, inspiring, and amazing place that I have grown to call home is no longer my home. Tomorrow I leave behind Rome geographically but take with me memories, experiences, friends, and amazing stories. I'm incredibly lucky to have had the privilege of living in Rome and it wouldn't have been the same without a few of you :) (in no order because I don't pick favorites, duh)

ROOMIES

Greer: Thank you for doing my makeup, letting me borrow your clothes when I hated the three shirts I brought, sharing food with me, and always having that lovely smile on your face. I'm so glad I got to meet you, dance with you, and laugh for days :) This is definitely not the end of our friendship! 

Lauren: LERN, thank you for watching WAY too many youtube videos with me, always sharing your pasta, laughing when nothing was really funny, and always having your dancing shoes on when this girl wanted to boogie! I'm happy you already have a plan for when I visit this summer, because it's happening. Meet me in San Diego sweet cheeks! :)

Jazzy Jazz: Babbeeeyy, thank you first and foremost for being the girl in the house that brought her entire closet. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are so grateful that you like to share clothes. Thank you for having the same obsession with peach tea as I do and for always making me laugh even when I was having the worst of days. 

Jaime: I mean, you're from Wisconsin...what's not to like? Thank you for loving the packers, the brewers, and knowing the struggles of living in the mean streets of Wiscompton. Thank you for being the house sugar momma and feeding everyone with all your extra points and thank you for knowing and understanding my Culvers withdrawals. Only Italian in the kitchen...lasted long!


MONTEVERDE LOVERS


Dan: Darling dear, I'm so glad we decided to get married this semester. But in all seriousness I'm so thankful I met you, you not only made me laugh more often then not you were always there when Ma Che was necessary. Obviously we share a love for Dr. Steve Brule and that automatically means BFF's. I will see you soon, you can't stop me.

Trevor: TERV, thank you for always being willing to adventure, for always being the noodge that kept everyone on their toes. You and Dan together were the highlight of my day everyday. I'm really glad you and Lern have each other because when I come visit it will be insanity. P.S. sorry for the pink eye...

Derek: Durkin Smerkin, thank you for cutting everyones hair and uhh...Cat Litter.



Like I've said over and over I'm so incredibly grateful for the time I got to spend in Rome and for the friendships I've started. This won't be the end of this stone cold pack of weridos. 

Arrivederci Roma..Until next time, 

Emily Evers

Ohhhhh, It's Good Friday?

My last stop for my spring break trip was Dublin, Ireland. We got in late to our hostel and exhausted from the many events of Brussels so we decided to stay in the first night. As we were checking in the man at the front desk kindly explained that tomorrow was Good Friday and that basically all of Ireland is legally unable to sell alcohol and that there would be many attractions closed. We pushed this aside to sleep. 

Unfortunately we should have taken his tip a bit more seriously, most restaurants were either closed or served a special menu with no meat dishes. Although that was a miner bump in our trip we then went to see the beautiful city and found that everything was really closed. The only tour that seemed to be open was Kilmainham Gaol, which was a prison later turned into a museum. So we made the trek across the city only to find that all the tours had been full for that day. I'm full of luck, and bringing my roommates down with me :)

Sooo, we did a little exploring and made a plan for a packed day on Saturday! 

The Irish love me.

All touristy and such.

Guinness Storehouse...that was close :) 

The oldest pub in Dublin! Enjoyed a fantastic traditional Irish stew here. 

The rest of the night consisted of some light reading and watching the party that started in our hostel lobby. Then on Saturday we took a walking tour of Dublin that lasted three hours and then went right to the Guinness Storehouse. 

Saw this castle which was basically a juxtaposition of different types of architecture. 

The most recent part resembling Lego land. 

We visited Trinity College which is the most popular college to attend in Dublin and also has a rich history. 

Saw this church. 

Then went to the Guinness Storehouse! 

Because the tour was quite long but very interesting we didn't get to experience the museum in it's entirety as we wished we could of but we did get up to the gravity bar in time!

Then in true Irish fashion (?whhatt?) we took a horse and carriage back to our hostel.

Although I wish we could have planned our Dublin trip a bit better when it came to Good Friday I am so glad I got to experience a small part of Ireland.

Every place I've been privileged enough to go to has only fueled my fire more to see more and more of the world. I'm so blessed to have had this opportunity. My next blog post will be all about my recent trip to Corfu, Greece. Let me tell you, it was BEAUTIFUL! 

My program has one last trip planned for this weekend to Sorrento, Pompeii, and Capri! Then my brother will be here the weekend after that, I'll have to give him a world wind tour of Rome :) Home soon to see my lovely family (minus Tim and Brooke because they decided to up and leave for California while I'm gone) and my friends! 

Until next time, 

Emily :) 

Brussels or Bust!

My second stop for Spring Break was Brussels, Belgium. Brussels was by far my favorite trip!  I didn't only see beautiful things I enjoyed fantastic craft beer, amazing food, and like Frankfurt great company. 

Our Hostel was in a perfect spot right next to this square!

The square looked phenomenal at night!

The first night we went to a small pub and got delicious food. I had meatballs in an apple chutney with a poached pear. I know, I'm drooling too.

The next day we went to the City Museum located in the same square. The whole museum was on the history of Brussels and was quite interesting. My favorite part of the whole museum was when they explained Manneken Pis. Manneken Pis is the small statue of a young boy peeing. There are many legends and stories dedicated to the creation of this statue but my favorite one is about a two-year-old lord. It is said that this young lord was placed in a basket in a tree to encourage the troops but instead he peed on the troops who in turn lost the war. 

Whatever the story may be the best part about this little boy is that they dress him up fairly regularly. He has hundreds of costumes gifted to him from all around the world. The oldest dating back to the seventieth century. 

This costume was gifted to Mannekin Pis from England. 

And lovely Elvis was gifted from America!

That night we went to a famous bar called Delirium Café. Delirium is home to over 2,500 craft beers. Obviously I couldn't try them all but I did try a few and sips of my roommates and I must say I fell in love with this place. So much so I took notes on the beer I drank. My favorite being Trappistes Rochefort 8.

FRIENDS!

The next day we walked around, bought amazing Belgium chocolates, ate french fries everywhere and enjoyed some delicious Belgium waffles. After a hearty lunch we ran into...oh no...not again...Håagen Dazs. 

I don't regret it.

I really really enjoyed my trip to Brussels and plan to return some day! I will be blogging soon about the last leg in my Spring Break Journey: Dublin. 

On a side note, I only have 25 days left in Rome. I go to Corfu, Greece this weekend. The next weekend I go to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri, and the weekend after that my brother Adam will be here!!!! Then I leave the next weekend for the good 'ol USofA. Only so much time left! But I am very excited to eat delicious burgers when I get home :) 

Until Next Time, 

Emily :)

"I Need to Get to London as Quickly as Possible"

On the first leg of my spring break trip we got a cheap ticket to Manchester, England. Boy do I have a story for you. To tell my story about England I have to give you a little background information first.  As a few of you reading this may know I lost my passport on the way home from my trip to Sweden. It wasn't stolen I just simply dropped it, because I was going on my trip to Germany just days later I had to file a police report and hurry to purchase an emergency passport. Sadly, just hours later I got a call from the Carabinieri (Italian Police) and they had found my passport. When I picked up my passport I asked what passport I should use from then on out..."Go ahead and use your original passport" they said, "That will work fine" they said, "You won't have any issues" they said. ALL FALSE. 

Getting into the Manchester airport the man in customs says "This passport has been reported lost or stolen." The blonde in me snapped back by saying "Yeah but like then I like totally found it so like it's totally like okay...like" (Atleast that's how I should have sounded making a mistake like this.) OF COURSE you shouldn't use your passport that has been reported lost/stolen, they might think you found/stole it. Oh Emily please tell me you brought your emergency passport just in case... I flash back to packing for spring break, "I shouldn't bring both my original passport and my emergency passport, I might lose both." Oh sweet sweet Emily, nooooooo. 

The kind man in the airport asked me to stay behind while my friends enter freely into England and I glance at a poster that read "IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE A VALID PASSPORT OR VISA YOU MAY BE SENTENCED TO JAIL TIME OR FINED." I tried my best to keep my composure. Here I am thousands of miles away from home with no phone, no passport, and now I'm going to be put into jail. I'll have to learn to be tough, learn to fight for food, and I'll definitely have to get a barbed wire tattoo. This was my future, a young American girl turn British thug by the tough British jail system. 

Obviously, my imagination got the best of me. The security worker gave me a sheet of paper stating I am allotted six months in Manchester to get everything figured out. Because I was gong to Belgium in just 3 days I didn't need six months. The next morning after a few tears and deep breathes I set out on the journey to London, England to purchase yet another emergency passport. Fool me once Europe shame on you, Fool me twice shame on the Carabinieri. All jokes aside, I should have known not to attempt to use a passport that had been reported lost/stolen. 

Thankfully my roommate Jaime was more than happy to accompany me to London which was about a 2 hour train ride from Manchester. We both feel in love with London after only being there for about 5 hours. We made a day of it! 

Jaime's Mom collects pins from Hardrock Cafe's. So After 3 hours of discussing the fact that I actually am Emily Evers and yes I have spent a lot of money on passports recently thank you for asking with the lovely lady in the US Embassy we ventured to the Hardrock in London. Which is in fact the very first Hardrock Cafe! 

Had to get a photo in a telephone booth

Had a pleasant experience with fantastic public transportation in the Tube!

Then Jaime being the Harry Potter nerd she is requested we go to Platform 9 3/4. I have to admit I was also very excited!

The line for pictures was really long, but what else did we have to do?

After a long day of marveling at the beautiful city of London we had a long train ride back. On the train we had long discussions about possible grad school options in London, and finding, marrying, and starting a family with a nice boy from London. Just finding the positives in a bad situation :) 

The next day in Manchester we went to Nando's a spicy chicken restaurant that isn't largely present in the US but all over the UK. 

We were all very excited :) As we should have been too because it was a FANTASTIC meal. 

Because it was so cold, and I had spent tons of money already we didn't do much else in Manchester except go to a few shops, walk around, and naturally..eat Nando's a second time.. 

I'm sorry this blog took me so long to get up but I will try to blog about the next leg of my spring break soon! I hope you enjoyed laughing about my bad luck in Europe thus far! 

Until next time, 

Emily :)