Hello from Dublin!

I'm at the halfway point on my trip through Europe at the moment. Myself and four of my med school friends are doing a post-match/pre-graduation trip to celebrate they joy and freedom that a fourth year has before reality sets in and intern year begins.

We started out in Italy. We were exhausted the first day and didn't do a whole lot our fist day. We landed fairly early and our hotel wouldn't let us actually check in until 2 pm. Unfortunately, it was rather rainy, so each of us shelled out 3 euro apiece for cheap umbrellas from one of the street vendors. Oddly, even once you have an umbrella, the vendors still come up to you trying to sell one.
Our second day we went to the pantheon and did a guided tour of the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. It cost more than twice admission would have but we got the skip the line and we learned a lot. Our last day we went to see the colosseum. We turned down the guided tour this time and had a lot of fun taking pictures all around. The tickets in included admission to the roman forum and the palatine. We went to see the forum but without a guide we weren't sure what we were looking at. We still aren't sure or we saw the forum or not.

When we got the the airport and were checking in, the lady at the ticket counter convinced two of my friends that the plane was so full there wouldn't be room and they had to check their bags. The ticket lady tried to convince me too but I absolutely refused. Of course we get on the plane and not only was there more than enough bin space, there were several empty seats.

Our next stop was barcelona. We noticed in Italy just about everyone spoke English to some degree but they tended to be very rude. I suppose being constantly surrounded by tourists might do that to you. In Barcelona, English was less widely spoken but the people were more friendly. We got in late, but the gentleman in charge of the apartment where we were staying was very friendly and wanted to tell us about getting around in Barcelona and the sights to see despite the late hour. We got to see some of Barcelona's georgeous architecture and I took lots of pictures, but for some reason I can't post them on here.

One unfortunate thing about Barcelona, and Europe in general, it is very difficult to find vegetarian food. In Spain I couldn't even eat cheese. Some people in my group are less understanding than others, and I don't enjoy feeling like a burden when my presence restricts where we can go eat. Having five people decide what to do and where to go is cumbersome and we found splitting into two smaller groups made things go a lot smoother for our last couple days in Barcelona.

We are currently in Dublin. We got a free walking tour this afternoon which was a lot of fun and very informative. Our guide apologized for all the walking but compared to all the walking we did in Rome and Barcelona, it was nothing.  My friends are out on the highly recommended Pub Crawl now while I'm at the hostel reading. I don't really me joy drinking and since I've been headache-y at nights here I figured I'd better not risk it. I also skipped the night they went out in Barcelona but it didn't sound like I missed much and I don't regret the extra sleep.
Tomorrow we're planning on more sightseeing and some shopping, preferably all indoors given the cold and rainy weather we're expecting.

After that we have 4 days in London and then 2 days each in Frankfurt and Berlin.