The End...

I've arrived back in Rome, which I have to say, flying over the city as we were landing was bittersweet. For one, I get to speak some Italian again! Just as I thought I wouldn't be able to practice anymore, I get to use it a little bit more. The sad part is that I am so close to the city, yet will not be spending any time in it. Even with a 10 hour layover, it wouldn't make sense to go to Rome late at night. So I'm sitting at my gate, the first flight being mine at 9:50am, collecting my thoughts about this final blog.

A quick note on my flight, I know I ranted about Alitalia in the last post, and I was pleasantly surprised to board a pretty new and nice plane after I hit "publish post". It was an Airbus A320 "Enhanced" which I guess means it is newer and has enhanced technology like TV's in the headrests (all my other alitalia flights had TV's like coach buses that pop down from the ceiling every 10 rows or so), but they were never turned on. Even if they had been, there was a credit card swiper also attached to the back of the head rest right next to the tiny screen, so I'm guessing nothing is complimentary. On my flight from Newark to Rome, they played 1 movie over an entire 8 hour flight. Lets hope I get an "enhanced" plane in the morning.

I've thought a lot about writing this last post. Ever since I wrote the first post in Rome actually, I've thought about what I would talk about, how to finish off the blog, etc. Sitting in an empty terminal in Rome, well I knew that was coming, but the complete quiet is really something completely different than any airport experience in the past 3 months.

So I guess let me start off with the list I promised, the one that is basically a brief recap of my experiences.

I flew by myself for the first time
...to my first foreign country
...where they don't speak English
...and I didn't speak the language
I attended an all girls college
...with 1 other guy
...and some really great girls
...who never made it awkward for us two guys
I lived in a 4 star hotel
... In the Center of Rome
... Right down the street from the Pantheon
I worked at the Vatican
...in the internet office
...and wore a suit every day
...at 8am every morning
I got to help make Virtual Tours for the Vatican
...had full photography rights to St. Peter's Basilica
...and St. Mary Major
...and especially St. Paul's Outside the Walls
I went Inside the Walls
...twice
...and saw infrastructures of the Vatican that few have ever seen
I went on the Scavi tours
...and saw the tomb of St. Peter
I met one of the Pope's security guards
...and he gave us VIP treatment while photographing
I learned a new language in 3 months
...enough to survive in the country
...and not stress every time I had to speak Italian
...to the point I actually enjoyed using it
I have a new love for Italian food
...Pasta
...Pizza
...Gelato
...and will never be able to eat Italian food without comparing it to its counterpart in Italy
I traveled Italy pretty extensively
...Rome
...Florence
...Mantua
...Ferrara
...Padua
...Bologna
...Ravenna
...Venice
...Naples
...Pompei
...Capri
I traveled Europe a good amount as well
...Barcelona
...Paris
...Nice
...London
...Amsterdam
...Brussels
...Bruges
...Dublin
I became a frequent flyer
...7 flights in my last 11 days
...14 flights total
...with lots of buses, trains, trams, trolleys, boats, taxis and every other form of transportation in-between
I walked, and walked, and walked all around Europe
I celebrated a birthday in Rome
...and of all birthdays, my 21st
I had 4 groups of visitors
...14 people total
...and met up with other friends in-between
I went to two concerts
...Dave Matthews Band
...John Butler Trio
I performed twice in Rome
...and was asked to play my first encore to a packed back room
I went to a European soccer game
...and survived to tell the tale
I lived in Europe for 98 days
...wrote 79 blog posts
...which had 6,440 views
...from 342 visitors
...18 countries
...24 different states in the U.S.
...and 176 U.S. Cities
and had an amazing time sharing my experiences at the Vatican, Living in Rome, Traveling Europe, and everything else that came my way...

I hope you've enjoyed the ride. Breathe easy, we've made it.

So what's next?

Well I'm going to Quebec in 3 days with BRMS, which should be an awesome experience, first time in Canada. I figured why stop traveling now?

There are also some preliminary plans for a documentary about Haiti that I would work on, which we would travel to Haiti for 3 weeks to film over the summer. Very preliminary plans, nothing solid yet as far as I know, so I'll keep you all updated about it.

How will I keep you updated? Clearly I'm not Inside the walls anymore, and this post is called The End?!!

Due to the success of the blog, and how much fun I've had with it, I've decided to start another blog, "After The Walls" which will let me to continue writing a blog. Mind you, this will not be an every day thing. Maybe not even a weekly thing. But when I feel like it, or when I'm on a trip like in Haiti, I will be sure to blog like I did in Rome. I will setup an email notification system on that blog so that you can receive emails whenever I update so you don't have to check constantly for new posts when there are none. The URL is: ramlax13.blogspot.com

I will also be posting pictures into the posts that don't have pictures, so be sure to check back within the next few days for the final versions of all of those posts.

It's 7am here, just about 2 hours until the plane boards, and I'm ready to get going.

What am I looking forward to at home? Here's the final list.

Seeing my friends and family
Living in a house, not a dorm or hotel room
Summer Vacation
...The Jersey Shore (Silverton, not Seaside)
Visiting Villanova, and celebrating Matt going to Villanova next year
All my musical equipment, Guitars, drums, you name it
Playing with my band again (They've been hard at work, name change, roster update and all, wildmonicaband.com)
Working on more films
Speaking English, American English, not British English
Driving (not the paying for gas part)
And in 5 months, the start to Senior year at Villanova

Thank you all again for your support and continuing to read as I posted every day. I plan on having this blog printed into a hardcover book sometime over the summer, comments included, so if you haven't left your name in a comment yet, or you have commented and just want to make one last comment, please, please, everyone and anyone, comment in this last post so that I can have your comments printed in the book, as a record of people who read and enjoyed this blog. I'm going to leave the blog up, hopefully as a source of information for people who will be traveling to Italy or are just interested in the topics I talked about, so feel free to come back and visit anytime.

Sincerely, and with an overwhelming appreciation for all of the readers,
Ryan Mahoney

24 hours to go...

In 24 hours I will be in Newark airport, arriving home after over
three months of being in Europe. Even though I'm sitting in London
heathrow airport beginning this 24 hours of waiting, and flying, and
waiting and flying, I still can't fully realize that concept.

I have a nice 2 and a half hour flight to Rome at 8pm London time,
arriving in Rome at 11:30pm Rome time. Then I have a 9:50am flight
from Rome to Newark.

10 hours in FCO airport? I'm going to get to know that airport pretty
darn well.

And of course I am flying my absolute favorite airline, alitalia. If
there is one tip I would give to anyone ever studying abroad in Italy,
or traveling to Italy on vacation, it would not be to see something or
go somewhere or eat at a certain restaurant. No it would be to never,
ever, fly alitalia. I cannot even begin to tell you how horrible this
airline is (they filed for bankruptcy, how's that for a start?). They
are like the ryanair "regular" airlines. No, they are worse,
considering at least I get what I pay for with Ryanair. Their planes
are old, service is terrible, and they are always in the furthest gate
from the security check in. I just walked halfway to Rome to get to
the gate, and will probably have to take a bus to the plane.

I hope I have Internet in Rome so I can do one last final post, or
several since I have so much time. If not I will write the last post
and put it up when I arrive home. Just sit tight, could be a wild (or
extremely boring) last 24 hours.

When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Sorry for not posting last night, but I'll make up for it by covering our entire Ireland trip in this post.

So we arrived to the Emerald Isle early in the morning after an always interesting RyanAir flight (got to love that people clap when the plane touches down). We checked into our hostel and then went for a walk along the river and towards city hall to get our bearings. We also had plans to go on the free tour in Dublin run by the same company as the one in Amsterdam, (Sandeman tours, or New Europe is what their called for anyone interested) so we had some time to kill before the 1pm tour.

The Luck of the Irish

As we walked down the street from city hall towards the Temple Bar area, we passed a venue called the Olympia theatre. Old charming theatre look on the outside, looked like a really cool place. Well as it turns out in the window there was two large posters advertising an upcoming show for the John Butler Trio, a band I've been listening to for the past year or so but have not seen live. Further investigation (reading the poster, of course) we realized the show was that night, April 8th, 2010. Shocked, surprised, and frantic, I went into the ticket office and asked if they had any tickets left for the show. They said they did, but they were obstructed view tickets, in other words a column was in the way of the view. Becky hesitated about that, but before she could contest I had already bought the tickets. 8 hours until show time.

Excited about our ticket purchase we grabbed a burger down the street and then made our way to our tour.

The tour was once again really awesome, our tour guide kept it interesting and the weather was really nice (unlike Amsterdam) so I didn't mind walking around the city. We heard some pretty interesting stories and saw most of the major sites in the historical parts of Dublin, and on our short visit, fitting it all in quickly is always a plus.

After the tour we walked along the River Liffey and all of the different bridges that cross it. There are some really cool foot bridges that go across the river, but the river itself, not so pretty (probably as ugly as the Tiber in Rome).

We headed to a pub to get dinner early before the show. I got some great beef stew (can always count on the Irish for a good meal I suppose) and we were on our way to the show.

Music is the best Medicine

Around the time we were entering the Olympia theatre, I seemed to have developed a nice little fever (don't tell my mom!). I've been sick as I've mentioned before, and I seem not so be at the peak of my sickness. I thoroughly enjoyed the opening band, Mama Kin, but I was feeling pretty miserable in the headcold department. Then John Butler Trio came on. About an hour into my set, right as John finished playing a solo version of his instrumental song "Ocean", my fever had broken. I'm pretty sure that song did it to me too, because it is about 15 minutes of the craziest acoustic playing you've ever heard (I have video, I'll post eventually). The band absolutely blew me away, and rocked the theater for almost 3 hours. And that "obscured view" that we had? Yeah it was a pillar about 7 rows in front of us and the only thing that it obscured was my view of the far right stage which was completely empty. Luck strikes again.

Today we did some shopping on the main streets and in the Temple Bar area. I say area because Temple bar (for Lord Temple who owned the Barr land of the River Liffey, hence the name "Temple Bar"). It's a nice neighborhood of pubs and shops, and with a big rugby match later tonight it was alive with fans wearing lots of (sometimes ridiculous) yellow and blue outfits. Lunch was a bowl of chicken soup which was really good, and a chicken panini, which was so-so.

We then went to the "most visited tourist attraction in Dublin". Any genius guesses? The answer would be the Guinness factory. This tour was much different from the Bruge brewery tour we went on. It was self guided, much larger, and not in the actual factory but more of a fake setup (much like chocolate world in Hershey Park, even though the Guinness "storehouse" as they call it was actually exactly that, the Storehouse where the beer fermented up until the 90's when they stopped using it). The information and displays they had were equally as interesting and impressive as the Bruge tour, and given the uniqueness of Guinness its no wonder the factory is one of the most visited places in Dublin.

After the factory tour we picked up our bags from the hostel (which was awesome by the way, top 2 I've stayed in, tied with the Barcelona hostel I used) and headed to the airport to catch another Ryan Air flight.

It's too bad we didn't get to stay in Ireland longer and go to another place besides Dublin, but we had an awesome time, fit as much touring in as we could, and even had a nice surprise last night with the concert.

An early post today, well at least I am typing it early (2:34pm my time, which is about 10 hours before I normally post) I'm not sure how that time difference and when I post works for the readers. I normally post around midnight or later, so for the east coast that is around dinner time. When does even read the blog anyway? Late at night after dinner? At work during the day? In the morning? Or do yo do like I do when I'm waiting for a website to update, like when concert tickets are going on sale, and mash the refresh button as quickly and often as you can until finally the update finally shows up? I hope that doesn't happen, I guess i Should have implemented an email subscription system which would email you when I posted a new blog. Oh well too late now...

An early post today, well at least I am typing it early (2:34pm my
time, which is about 10 hours before I normally post) I'm not sure how
that time difference and when I post works for the readers. I normally
post around midnight or later, so for the east coast that is around
dinner time. When does even read the blog anyway? Late at night after
dinner? At work during the day? In the morning? Or do yo do like I do
when I'm waiting for a website to update, like when concert tickets
are going on sale, and mash the refresh button as quickly and often as
you can until finally the update finally shows up? I hope that doesn't
happen, I guess i Should have implemented an email subscription system
which would email you when I posted a new blog. Oh well too late now...

My guess, judging by when people post comments, is that you read after
dinner mostly, maybe because you're accustomed to that being the time
it normally gets updated.

How did I get off on that tangent? Oh right, writing mid day for a
change. Well I hate to say that a day in Europe is waste, but if there
was one this would be it. I'm not going to say it's a waste though so
don't quote me as saying such. Let's call it more of a limbo day,
shall we? Okay, so why a limbo day you might ask? Well I'd be happy to
tell you!

Long version or short? Long? Okay. (is it bad i'm talking to myself?
I'll answer that, no!) So the original plan was for me to return to
London with Becky on Monday night. But then after the plans were made,
about two weeks ago Nate decided he was going to meet us in Amsterdam,
and he didn't have any plans until the 7th, today. He had plans to go
to nice on the 7th, originally from Rome. So we both adjusted our
flights so that we could stay in Brussels for an extra couple days and
then continue on with our previous plans, he to Nice and me to Ireland
with Becky. So I pushed my flight off until the 7th and he switched
his to fly out of Brussels. But with these changes and the cheapest
way to do it for both of it, he left at 9am this morning with my
flight at 9pm tonight. So here I am in Brussels, sitting on a main
shopping road, listening to some Belgian butcher some American classics.

The day hasn't been all that bad though. I've been on a hunt to find a
store with an ipad, (so I can see it not buy it) and have been walking
around the streets just enjoying the culture and trying out a little
French.

Dublin tomorrow, leave at 8am(I'm just living in airports at this
point) and sadly was only able to fit one night in, so we have to plan
well to get it all in. Still have a head cold and cough, this needs to
go away asap.

A Belgem

Today Nate and I took a day trip to Bruges. What a pleasant surprise
it was when we got there.

The train took only an hour from Brussels, so we slept in a bit, and
when we got to Bruges it was sunny and warm, quite a change from the
weather so far this week.

I got a Belgian waffle in the station in Bruges with chocolate on top
that was so good I'm not even sure how to describe.

We then made our way to center city where we got our bearings for the
day and went into the church with michaelangelo's Madonna with child.
This is one of the only michaelangelo pieces outside of Italy, and was
as always amazing to see.

From here we went on a brewery tour of the last running brewery in
Bruges. The amount of breweries in Belgium has dropped dramatically in
the last 80 years or so, from 3000 to under 400 I believe was the
statistic. Bruges itself used to have a modest double digit amount of
them, but now only has the one, which is still family owned and run.

It's amazing to hear how much goes into making a beer, and how
passionate these Belgians are about it. They argue that everything
from ingedients used to how it is bottled to how it is served and even
what type of glass it is served in makes a difference for each beer.
And they say it with such conviction that you can't help but believe
you understand what they're talking about, and can actually tell the
difference when they let you taste some of their beer at the end.

After this we did a lot more walking around, a little shopping in gift
shops and chocolate stores, grabbed a light dinner at a pub and headed
back on the train for Brussels.

The city had such an old world feel, and it feels like that on
purpose. We were told while standing on top of the brewery that
nothing can be more than 4 stories tall, and new age "ugly" things are
not allowed to be visible from ground level, like satelite dishes for
tv. There are some canals that provide for really scenic photos, a
couple awesome belltowers, and lots of small quaint side streets that
are frequented by horse drawn carriages. Seriously, the horse drawn
carriages outnumber the automobiles on the streets.

I love day trips that aren't well researched and turn out to be one of
the coolest places you've seen.

Also, hope the title didn't confuse anyone. I know quite well how to
spell Belgium (and even if I didn't spellcheck would correct me) but
it is another one of my poor attempts at a play on words.