So Monday was my birthday. I am now the ancient age of 23. The day I put my poor mother through 11 hours of long labor. I weighed 10 lbs when I was born and I was 2 weeks late. I was supposed to arrive in time for my grandfather's birthday on July 10th but I was feeling lazy that day. I sincerely believe my mom deserves sainthood after all I put her through. As the problem child, I spent most of my young years either at the doctors office or in the hospital. Anyways, you don't really want to hear my life story and I don't really feel like telling it today. So I'm going to talk to you about Europe!
I still haven't decided how I'm going to tackle this. I think I'm going to talk today about my top 4 favorite cities. It would be top 3 but 2 cities are tied for 3rd so you'll just have to deal with it. And this may not be too surprising but most of these cities are outside of the major towns. I HIGHLY recommend when you go to Europe that you get out of the big cities because the countryside in Europe is 1000 times prettier than the U.S. countryside.
Now let me preface this by saying it's really hard to pick a favorite city because all European cities are AMAZING! Each had its own feel, personality and smell. Eventually I will talk about all of them but here are the ones that were most notable to me.
1. Firenze (Florence)- This was definitely my favorite city in Europe. When Americans think of Italy, they think of Florence. The atmosphere of the city just screams Italy. It is also by far the most beautiful of Italian cities. It's surrounded by the hills of Tuscany and the Fiume Arno goes through the city. I think the beauty comes from the Renaissance feel to it. All of the architecture is based on Renaissance themes! I mean their centre of political life is Palazzo Vecchio and it was built in the 1400s. Michelangelo's sculpture, David, used to sit outside of thing place. I was reading some travel articles about Florence and it's ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Florence has a very rich cultural history. There are SO MANY art museums and different opportunities to learn about the Italian Renaissance. If you have any interest in Renaissance at all, Florence is the place for you. It's at art lovers' paradise. You can see Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Botticelli and even Caravaggio. The Uffizi is their art museum and you probably haven't heard of it but it is one of the oldest and premier art museums in the world! I can't pick a favorite part of Florence because I ADORED the whole city. The residents of Florence are VERY proud of their heritage and history. This is one city where you DO NOT say anything bad about it because the locals will string you by your toes. But let's be honest... it's impossible not to fall in love with Florence. I guarantee that if you go to Florence, you will love it the moment you step onto the old cobblestone streets. However, the residents of Florence are incredibly nice and very helpful. Most speak English (since it is a huge tourist destination) and are more than glad to help you get on your way. All the rich people live just outside the city in the hills because that's where the best views of the city are. If you get up out of the city, the views are exquisite. We walked up this one hill and oh.my.gosh. I didn't want to leave. The view overlooking the city was so beautiful I actually cried. Florence is so incredible I cried. I felt like I walked into the middle of a Renaissance painting and I never wanted to leave. I could have died in Florence and been perfectly happy with my life. If you go nowhere else in Europe, if you do nothing else... spend a week in Florence.. I swear it will change your entire outlook on life.
2. I love the UK! I love the British people... they are the kindest, most-outgoing, craziest people ever. They are so backwards and make everything so complicated but they ARE SO WONDERFUL! We drove through the UK (which was probably a mistake) and they were so helpful even when their dumb turnabouts got us lost. Oh and Chicagoans... most Brits know where we are because most flights to the U.S. stop in Chicago. The Brits are the kind of people to introduce themselves and discover your whole life story in about 10 minutes. And it's not just a few of them... it's the ENTIRE country. Every Brit we met learned our life stories. Anyways, my 2nd favorite city in Europe was Bath, England. For those Austenites, Bath is the setting for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and it's exactly how she describes it in the book. Exactly! Austen actually lived in Bath for a while and our tour guide said she hated it. If you are an Austen fan, you must go to Bath. You must! It's written in the Austen law books. Besides being known for Jane Austen, Bath is actually named for the hot springs beneath the city. They are the only natural hot springs in the entire UK and the Romans discovered this way back in 43 AD (yes... the Roman empire stretched all the way to the UK). It was actually a pretty small town until the 1800s (about Austen's time) and then it SPRUNG up because all the wealthy people decided it was stylish to go to Bath to soak in the hot springs. So the entire architecture is purely Georgian and the stone used to build the city comes from the surrounding area. Bath definitely surprised me. We thought we were only going to stay the night but we actually ended up staying the whole next day too. It's absolutely splendid!!!! And it still has a spa that you can go to and it's supposed to be really good! Or if it's open, you can go to the public pool, which is supplied by the hot spring. Bath is only 3 hours outside of London and if you go to London, you must take a day and go to Bath! London is very nice but I think going to Bath lets you get to know the true Britain. It may not change your life like Florence will but I promise that you will thoroughly enjoy yourself. There is a lot of history in Bath and if nothing else, just go to look at the cool buildings.
3. These two cities are tied for third. Caernarfon, Wales and Dublin. You probably haven't heard of Caernarfon, because let's be honest... I hadn't either. You will also have a hard time pronouncing the city name because we couldn't even get it right, even after the hostel owners tried explaining it to us. It's also in the Welsh language which is REALLY trippy. We kept hearing people talk in Welsh and I swear it was like hearing Parseltongue. They rarely use vowels and I have to post this picture of this town we passed through. The name of the town was 30 letters long and had 2 vowels (I'm totally not kidding). Anyways... Caernarfon is a small town of 9000 people on the Northern coast of Wales. If you know where Liverpool is, it's about 1.5 hours west. The only reason we went to this town was to return our rental car but Wales is about 20000 times prettier than England, especially if go to the Northern coast line. If you drive along route A487, it will take you right along the coast line and you will see dramatic cliffs, quaint little fishing towns and TONS of castles. In the 45 minutes we spent on A487, we saw a castle about every 5 or so minutes. They are everywhere! And these are like old school medieval castles that haven't been renovated or added on to in 700 years. The minute you step into Wales, it's like stepping back in a time machine. Life just seems simpler and you seriously feel like they never quite made it out of the 1800s (which is one of the charms). The people of Caernarfon make their living from fishing and other maritime activities. There's also a small tourism industry because they have a castle in the smack dab center of town. There's still a thriving community within the original castle walls (where we stayed) and the rest of the town probably extends about 2 blocks outside of the walls. They don't have any street lights because the sun doesn't set until almost 11 p.m. during the summer and you will be lucky to find any internet cafes. They finally got a big chain supermarket that opened 2 weeks before our arrival. It's probably the busiest place in the entire city. So I want to you to think of small town America, add fishing and the Welsh language and you will still fail to get close to the atmosphere of Caernarfon. There's only one hostel in Caernarfon called Totters and it's run by this married couple in their 30s and they are SO cool! Apparently, they don't get many people from the states since their town is so small but they even gave my sister a ride back to the hostel after she returned the rental car. Absolutely wonderful! If you want to go to Wales, like truly experience Wales, go to one of the towns along the Northern coastline. You will be greeted by uber friendly Welsh people, adorable little villages and the MOST amazing coast line I saw in all of Europe. And if you're worried about getting around, the public transit between these small towns puts ALL of American public transit systems to shame. L.A., New York, Chicago have nothing on the transit systems in Wales.
Dublin is the most populated of the cities on my list. (Just so you know, I really did like the big cities but I just liked the smaller ones better.) I have to tell you that starting and ending in Ireland was incredible. Ireland may be bankrupt but the Irish are SO proud of their country. We went on a walking tour of Dublin and our tour guide (who I would call a borderline anarchist) just oozed nationalism from every pore. He doesn't like the Irish government but by golly, he is Irish to the bone and he will be the first to tell you. It just seemed strange to me that he would hate the government but still take so much pride in his country. It seems to the me that a lot of Irish felt the same way but there is so much pride, they take the country for what it is and will beat your head in if you bad mouth anything (government included). I think it was partly the stifling sense of pride that made me fall in love with Dublin and mostly heritage.
I've been told that my lineage is mostly Irish. My grandfather Burge thought the first Burge came over from Ireland in the mid-1800s during the Great Potato Famine (although the Irish just refer to it as the Great Famine... they're very particular about leaving the potato out). Although to look at me you wouldn't see Irish, someone once asked me if I was Greek because I have a slight olive complexion (which I get from my mother).
It was like returning back to one of your favorite childhood haunts where you can still hear the voices of the laughter of you and your friends. It just tugs at you somewhere deep inside that you didn't know existed. It was a very spiritual experience, not so much in like a God-sense, but like a reaching back to embrace the spirits of my ancestors. I've been home for about a week and I've already dreamed of Ireland 4 times. I close my eyes and I can literally see the River Liffey and the O'Connell St Bridge like I'm standing right there. There has never been a place in my life that has left such an impact that I can close my eyes and literally feel like I'm standing there.
Now you might wonder why Dublin didn't come in at no. 1 if I seemed so moved by it and I don't have an answer. Dublin's not as picturesque as some of the other places, it's cloudy most of time and drizzles at least 10 times a day. I think part of the reason is I'm still processing whatever happened over there. In the 3 days I was in Dublin, I felt I knew more about the city and it's culture than Chicago. And I've lived in the Chicago suburbs my WHOLE life. I was born and raised in the 'burbs and up until 3 weeks ago considered Chicago the BEST city in the world. The scary part for me was that nothing about Dublin felt foreign. The entire city seemed familiar and comfortable and I forgot that Chicago even existed. People asked, "so where are you from?" And I wanted to say, "I'm from here. What do you mean where am I from?" Dublin turned some switch in my brain and now I can't move it back and the U.S. just feels foreign. And you could argue that it's some form of culture shock, but I honestly believe its not. My experience in Dublin goes beyond the no. 1 spot to have affected me in almost every possible way.
I looked out the window this morning and saw a clear blue sky and a summer sun and it just felt wrong (and summer is supposed to be my favorite season). Maybe this Pride and Prejudice analogy will help you Austenites out there, I'm Mr. Darcy and Dublin is my Elizabeth Bennett.
Oh and to all of you red-heads with fair skin, that's actually not originally from Ireland. It's from the Vikings that came to Ireland from Scandinavia. So be proud of your Viking heritage! My brother-in-law seemed excited to find out he was actually a Viking.
No comments:
Post a Comment