Rome in April

So we went to Rome, a first trip to Italy, between Easter and the double-canonization of the popes. Papa Francisco was in town, the weather was lovely and the tourist season had begun. It was a ladies and Matt trip.

Matt taking a photo of his lady travelling companions.

We ate lots of tasty foods, including an amazing amount of gelato and some wonderful pizza and pasta. One particularly nice pizza was in our Travestere neighbourhood (yay staying in apartments and not hotels- airbnb to the rescue).

Ai Marmi, with a great giant outdoor patio on the sidewalk and very efficient service. The diner of pizza joints.

We hit the major tourist sites, including the Spanish steps (we got there by accident), Colosseum, St. Peter's square the Vatican museum and many a church. All I can say about the Vatican museum is that I have heard it is always very crowded but it seemed to have reached a new level while we were there. I have never seen so many people rush by Matisse and Dali (and many other incredible artists) to get to the end of the tour, or had security guards yell at me for trying to stop and look at art in a museum "keep moving" was the chorus from the museum guards. We entered the Colosseum from a quiet entrance with no line and felt like telling everyone in the long lineup at the major entrance "There's a better way!" Basically, Rome is a smallish city with the "tourist" locations being insanely busy but with it being a pretty chill city once you get two blocks away.

Pretty view of Rome from a random park

Another view of Rome

Trevi fountain surrounding by insane numbers of tourists!

Trying to take an inconspicuous photo of funny cop hats.

St. Peter's square with my mom (did not wait in the insanely long line to get into the Basilica- get there early in the morning for a visit)

The Forum

The Colosseum

A selfie

Deep conversations at the Colosseum

Inside one of the million churches in Rome- all with amazing ceilings.

Trastevere neighbourhood

Trastevere neighbourhood

Random cheese shop- we bought some cheese (but not that much) which stank up our entire luggage when we got home. But it was worth it. FYI to other cheese lovers, you can bring hard cheeses across borders-little known fact.

Bir and Fud- a hipster joint full of delicious microbrews

For some less touristy/busyness we went to another neighbourhood, Testaccio and discovered a very cool collective of coops, restaurants etc. combined with a modern art gallery offshoot of MACRO, all housed in the grounds of an old slaughterhouse. Of note, the gallery is only open 4pm-midnight.

We also took the train one day to Bracciano, a town on a large lake with an impressive castle.

Odescalchi castle. Fun facts: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married here. Funner fact: in the 16th century, Princess Isabella had lovers in her room, then opened a secret door and pushed them into the hidden well with sharp blades and lime at the bottom to a grisly death with no remaining evidence.

Even in the small town of Bracciano, the Euro way is all apartments all the time.

Good times were had by all.

Ireland in February: A trip to Dublin

Another very delayed post. Matt had never visited Ireland before so I thought mid-February would be a perfect time to visit the country and get some of its typical weather only to discover during one of the rainiest years in Ireland, we got great weather and blue skies in Dublin! The universe was on our side for this trip.

We started out by staying with wonderful friends Maeve and Frank, and Frank gave Matt and I a personal tour of downtown and Trinity College for our first day (oh yes, and cooked an amazing meal in the evening).

Frank, our wonderful tour guide

One disappointment- with all the delicious Canadian beers being made, the only export we found in Dublin was Molson Canadian...

We then met up with some family- my incredible aunt made the trip up from Kerry to meet us and my cousin Gene not only put us up, but showed us all around as well! And then for a final treat a cousin from the other side of my family, Evelyn, meet up with us for our last half day where we explored the botanical gardens in the north end of the city (free entrance, unlike some Canadian botanical gardens...) A far too short but wonderful trip. We'll make it back sometime and find our way out of the big city...

Me and my aunt Bridget

Gene and Matt at the Guiness museum

At Croke park (stadium for Gaelic football and hurling-sadly no games while we were there)

In the Croke park change room in front of the Kerry jersey (did I mention Gene and his three brothers are/were all serious hurlers)

Matt trying to convert his childhood baseball skills into hurling skillz

Istanbul

We went to Istanbul in January when we found some very affordable direct tickets and hotel rooms from Valencia. We even got to travel on a real airline (Turkish Airlines) that had some tasty Turkish delights and delicious fresh mint lemonade. Similar to the two for one whiskys on Ryanair, but a little different. I would recommend Istanbul to anyone- delicious foods and lots of history. Also a giant city (20 million) so be prepared to stay a long time or want to come back and wander the streets with the many, many stray cats.

Our very short trip involved only the most basic of tourist destinations. Our first tourist stop was the Hagia Sophia, originally a Greek orthodox cathedral (for ~900 years), then briefly a mosque (for ~500 years) and is now a museum (since 1935 according to Wikipedia) where you can see both aspects of the mosque, and uncovered mosaics from it's time as a cathedral. Well worth a visit

Outside the Hagia Sophia

Inside the Hagia Sophia

We also spent some quality time on the public ferry to the neighbourhood of Kadikoy so we could say we went to Asia during our trip (Istanbul is half in Europe and half in Asia, technically).

A view of the less touristy Asian side of Istanbul

Some random grafitti art in Kadikoy just because

Yes, this teddy bear machine will grind your beans for you. I was tempted but did not buy...

Lots of great spice shops!

Some random band and passersby dancing on market day

Tea, tea and more tea. We spent enjoyable times drinking tea and people watching on the streets. We were amused by tea cups left everywhere (look carefully at left pillar in foreground)

Coming back to Europe

We visited the "Blue Mosque" downtown. We had plans to visit more, but time/laziness dictated that we only had time for this one.

Inside of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque)- the biggest mosque in Istanbul.

We visited the Roman cisterns- I liked that they were low key, no interpretive signs but not expensive to get into and very cool to wander around.

Roman Cistern- very impressive and large.

We also wandered the city eating lots of delicious food and buying various edible and non-edible items.

Fishing at night is a popular activity all along the bridges.

The Grand Bazaar- a huge indoor market worth visiting for the throngs and to look at the pretty items

Istanbul is a very hilly city and it is well worth going to a restaurant/bar with a view. There are lots to choose from and the view at night is impressive.