5 Cities in 2 Weeks

I have only been gone for two weeks and I feel like it was a month! Yet I could have spent a week in each city we visited: Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice and Barcelona. The trip also made me long to visit so many other cities. So here's a brief review of the trip: Aileen, Catherine and I booked our flights into Rome and out of Barcelona through Aer Lingus for very cheap. We then booked hostels in each city we wanted to visit. The one part that I was hesitant about was not booking the transportation (trains) between cities. Fortunately it worked out very well. For the young, on-budget traveler it was ideal. We did not mind being on trains for long periods (regional trains versus Eurostar are much cheaper) and we could buy tickets the day of and be fine. If we would have booked the 4 train rides through Rail Europe online beforehand, we would have paid 100 or 200 more Euro. No one was pick-pocketed and nothing was taken from our hostel rooms. No one got sick from food or water, and no one ran out of money. The typical travel fears did not come true. But I must admit that when we were waiting in line at the Barcelona airport to check in for our flight to Cork, it was wonderful to see all of the friendly Irish faces. And almost each person was sun burnt, like me and my Irish skin! So even though the wonderful trip is over, being back in Eire makes it all okay. (Posts to come for each city. This picture is of me in the ancient ruins of Palatine Hill in Rome. Such a beautiful place! And I love the purple tree :))