Paris holds the key to your heart

One day after traveling to London with my parents I found myself on another Ryanair flight, this time carrying me off to France - more specifically Paris. Our flight left early in the morning, so we (Lauren, Katie, Brittany and I) convinced my dad into taking us since he and my mom were still here with their rented car. It totally beat paying €40 for a Taxi to the airport.

Once we landed in France, it was like we'd entered an alternate universe. Where people spoke French and the sky was blue constantly and the temperature went above 45 F. It was amazing. A little intimidating since it was the first time I was in a country where I could honestly say I didn't speak the language (I can communicate grandly with 5-year-old German children for the record). I'm going to go ahead and say that my grasp of the French language due to 15 years of ballet doesn't count as speaking the language. Drat. So my French consisted of "merci" for five days. That's pretty much it. And even sometimes I forgot to say that. But may I just say that my pointing skills are impressive. You really shouldn't be too intimidated. Not everyone can communicate as well as I can with a wave of the hand. Because if I'd opened up my mouth I can guarantee I would not have gotten what I wanted.

Our first day in Paris consisted of checking into our hostel, Hotel Montmartre Clignancourt, and then wandering around the neighborhood in which we were staying (Montmartre for those who couldn't piece it together). About two blocks north from our hostel was the Sacre Coeur, which is an amazing looking cathedral up on a hill with an great view of the city. It's also in a neighborhood consisting mainly of little boutique shops. With a direct line to the money in my purse. Not that I'm complaining. I bought some really cute stuff. And shopping/buying things makes me happy. Especially when I'm in Paris!!

The Sacre Coeur

Friday was possibly the busiest day my life has ever seen. We started off the day by walking up the Champes Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, which we then went up to the top of. Providing another gorgeous view of the city. We then walked back down the Champs Elysees where we ate lunch.

Mr. Eiffel and myself from atop the Arc de Triomphe

After our refreshments, Parisian-style, we continued walking towards the Louvre, and the million acres of gardens surrounding it. But the city was so beautiful, as was the weather, that none of us could really complain. After seeing the outside of the Louvre, we continued by the Seine to Notre Dam. Nothing can describe the inside of it, or the Sacre Coeur for that matter, and my camera seems to agree. So I don't have any pictures of the inside, but believe me, it was gorgeous.

The Louvre and the Pyramid - which I love. I don't care what other people think.

After we finished getting in touch with our Catholic side, we wandered around looking for more cute boutiques, but nothing compared to Montmartre. But we did get to meet up with Brittany's old roommate, Aurelia, who lives in Paris. And speaks French fluently, since she's French and all. We went to a restaurant and were able to understand the menu and waiter, since we had her to translate.

Once we finished eating, we hightailed it back over to the Louvre, which is free on Friday nights after 6 pm for students!! So we got through the line in much less time than expected - seriously Worlds of Fun peeps should figure out their secret to getting people through long admisison lines because it was amazing. Our first stop was the Mona Lisa, because we were at the Louvre and how can you not go see that creepy woman? Yes, it was disappointingly small. And yes, there was a massive crowd around it. And yes, it is protected behind a huge plate of glass. But it's Mona. And she and I bonded. Once we saw her, it was pretty much just the four of us roaming around this huge freaking building, going, "Yeah that looks cool. Let me take a picture." This eventually downgraded to, "Hey, that statue is in an odd position. Let's reenact it!" which I'm sure the other people who actually paid to get in really appreciated.

The plan after the Louvre was to go to the Eiffel Tower at night. Which we did. With a detour. See, we were looking for a metro station, and instead of turning right outside the Louvre we turned left. And then walked around the entire building because the metro station was 50 feet the other way. So, in case people want to know, briskly walking it takes 30 minutes to walk around the outside of the Louvre. But we eventually made it to the Eiffel Tower, which is really cool looking at night. We only went to the second level because the top was closed until the following day for maitenence. Boo. But the second level was plenty high for me.

The Eiffel Tower all lit up!

Saturday we started out visiting Napoleon's Tomb for Lauren's sake. But I'm really happy we went. But I must say that it is one large tomb for a very small guy. After that we met Aurelia again at the Eiffel Tower during the day, which looks completely different during the day. I thought it was going to be ugly, but I kind of liked it. And then we went to Saint Michel (another neighborhood just south of Notre Dam) and ate lunch. Then we walked to Jardin de Luxembourg, which is a really big garden in the middle of Paris.

Napoleon's Tomb

The Jardin de Luxembourg

Sunday morning we got up early to go to Versailles. And found out that there isn't always perfect weather in Paris. So we got our piece of Ireland in France after all. Versailles was amazing, but after a while it all kind of looked the same. One ornate room after another kind of blurs together. Which is sad because it really was a really cool building. But I liked the other buildings on the property waaay more. They too were ornate, but felt more like places you could actually live and not a stiff museum. We didn't really walk around the grounds much because of the weather, but we paid €6 for a trolly ride to Marie Antoinette's house and the surrounding area. Which was worth it because, as I said, I liked these places much, much more.

The Petite Trianon - Marie Antoinette's residence

The entrance to the Versailles palace

Sunday night was a night of complete and total bliss for me and Brittany. We had tickets to see one of our favorite musicians, Joshua Radin, in Paris and we jumped on it. The theater maybe held 200 people, and Josh proclaimed that it was the smallest concert he'd ever had. And it was the first time he'd played in Paris with a microphone - which oddly enough he didn't really need since the venue was so small. But whatever. After the up close and personal concert he stuck around to sign stuff and take pictures. If Brittany had put up her pictures on Facebook I could steal some and put them up, but alas she's been doing things like homework...

Monday we bid au revoir to Paris and France fairly early in the day since Katie and I had to be back in Limerick for our 4 pm class. Which was kind of a let down after Paris, but oh well. It was still nice to be home. And yes, I do consider Ireland home now. So coming back to the US this summer should be interesting...

I thought I'd include some of my musings from France to wrap things up after my detailed (and probably boring) recap of Paris:

1.) Crepes should be a requirement at every meal. Especially ones made with Nutella and bananas. A++ French people for that. And the Tunisian men who ran the stand we frequented every evening for our bit of chocolate pancakeish delight.

2.) My mind is officially confused by driving. I literally had a dream where I got in my car to drive and the steering wheel was on the other side. But as soon as I got in on that side, the wheel had moved to the other side. My subconscious is confused beyond a shadow of a doubt. Why do Irish/British people have to drive on the left when the French/Germans/Americans drive on the right? Can't we all just be friends?

3.) Whoever says French people treat Americans like dirt when we don't use French obviously wasn't at tourist locations or in stores. Because at these places, all they wanted to do was communicate with us. To take our money, but still. I never got looked at rudely by anyone. Which was nice. I got confused looks a few times when I tried to read things in French, but nothing even closely bordering on hostility.

4.) Standing on streetcorners must not necessarily mean the same thing in Paris. Because our first morning we got yelled at for standing in this guy's spot. Apparently this man sits on this corner every morning to smoke his cigarette. OK...

5.) It's kind of quaint that the proprietor of a store stands in the doorway to smoke his/her cigarette. I mean, it does very little in the way of sheltering the customers from the smoke, but something about it screams "I am French" that I kind of liked. A lot. Which is odd since smoking might be my least favorite habbit anyone could ever pic up.

Traveling with my parents

So this past week has been quite the adventure. So much so that it's being split up into two posts: one of my time with my parents in Ireland and London, and one of me in Paris. This first one, obviously, will encompass the first of those.

My parents came to visit me last Sunday. Yay! Their flight got in 40 minutes early, which is normally exciting, except when the flight is originally scheduled to land at 5:45 am, which theirs was. So when I got up at 4:20 am to meet them, their flight was almost to Shannon, a 30 minute drive from Limerick. So I had to quickly get dressed in order to meet them at the airport. Which I did. Right as they walked out of the gate. What timing. After waiting in line forever to get their rental car, my dad had his first experience attempting to drive on the left side of the road. It was interesting. But aside from a few curb checks, he did ok. With me yelling "LEFT!!" at every intersection, but whatever.

Once we got to Limerick, my parents checked into their hotel, where we ate breakfast, and then we walked to campus. It was a really pretty morning, so we walked around and visited Brittany in Cappavilla before coming over to Kilmurry where they met my American housemates (it being the weekend so no Irish people around). Then my parents, Brittany, Katie and I went on the river walk along the Shannon River that runs right through campus, which was gorgeous!

In the afternoon, my parents and I went to Adare, which is this really small little town about 20 minutes south of Limerick. Here we walked around a little bit, shopped and ate lunch. We didn't spend much time there, but it was nice for me to actually get to stop in one of these small Irish towns instead of just driving on through it on a tour bus or in James' car. By the time we left it was almost 3 pm and my parents needed a rest. Understandable. So I went home and they went back to their hotel.

Monday was a busy day for us as we went to the Rock of Cashel and the castle at Cahir, all before 2 pm, since I had to be back for class at 4 pm. Both of them were absolutely amazingly beautiful, especially Cashel. It was more of a run down abbey than a castle, but it was originally built as one. It's high up on this hill, built there for it's strong defensive position originally I suppose. It was pretty windy up there, so it was kind of chilly, but the view from there was amazing. It would have been nicer had there not been an American high school band group there as well. Stupid Americans. And worse, high school band members. I know lots of my friends were in band in high school, and I respect them for that, but when traveling in packs, they're just annoying. Especially when you're trying to take in the peaceful scenery.

The view from here was amazing

The Rock of Cashel

Cahir was the stereotypical castle. And I loved it. There were turretts and walls to climb on, and a really cool view of the city and surrounding area (including the neighboring golf course). I can only imagine how many daydreams this visit would have inspired in me if I were 10 years younger when I'd visited. I had some anyways!

The castle at Cahir

The castle again

Tuesday was an even bigger day, in Ireland and London. It was St. Patrick's Day, but weird person I am, I went to London with my parents. It was worth it, since all people did in Eire was get drunk all day. I cultured myself instead. We flew out of Shannon at 6:30 am, so we had a pretty early jump on things. The airport into which we flew was 45 minutes away by train, so I managed to take multiple naps before actually entering the city. Where we had to figure out the complicated Underground system. Paris has it much better (but that will be covered in my next post!)

I honestly can't remember everything we did, we did sooo much. I know we started out with a view of the city from the London Eye ride (which was cool but totally overpriced). From there we walked past Big Ben and Parliament to Westminster Abbey. Then we walked somewhere else, I don't remember...Is that bad? I know we saw Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, St. James Park, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and the Tower of London before heading back to the airport for our late flight home. The weather was amazing up until the sun went down when the wind no
longer felt good.

Big Ben and Parliament

Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial

City Hall? I think. This is from the Tower of London Bridge at sunset.

But that's all for this post. I'll update my one on Paris hopefully soon. I kind of have lots of other more important things, like writing papers, that I should probably do this week. Since they're due this week and all....

It's been a while

So I'm sitting here, trying to figure out ways to not write these two papers that are due in two weeks (one on the way leisure culture changed social order in Europe in the '60s - not boring, but still a paper - and the other on how Irish music made in America is as much about America as it is Ireland - once again, could be worse but still a paper) and since no one interesting is on Facebook to distract me, ditto with Skype, and my Irish housemates are off being productive future teachers of Ireland, I thought I'd update my blog! That may be the longest sentence I've ever written.

It's been so long I don't even really know where to start. I guess with last weekend, well the weekend before last weekend. On Saturday, Feb. 28 I went with the UL International Office to Lahinch, as well as the Burren (including the Ailwee Caves). Lahinch is a little coastal town where lots of people go to surf, and don't really care if it's February in Ireland. I couldn't imagine soaking my body in cold Atlantic water, but apparently the threat of frostbite didn't phase the surfers at all.

The beach at Lahinch.

More beach at Lahinch.

Still more beach. Cool sidenote, see those really big cliffs in the background? Those link up to the Cliffs of Moher. See last post for more info.

The Burren is not a place so much as an area. Apparently, before the last Ice Age this part of Ireland was somewhere else? I don't know I didn't listen all that closely to our tour guide. If you want to know more, I'm sure Wikipedia has a very thorough explanation (even if it doesn't have "collegite-level reliability").

I do know that after the last Ice Age, plants and stuff from the Mediterannean ended up in this part of Ireland, making the ground pretty much a sheet of limestone. Rich in calcium but also makes for shallow soil. So the cattle that are graized here are worth a ton, but most of the land is rock. I do also know that the Pope is the bishop of one of the towns because when choosing bishops this town got forgotten and rather than going through the process again the pope said he'd do it. How kind. I also know that the actor Brendan Gleeson has a home in one of the towns we went through and when he and Colin Farrell were rehearsing for "In Bruges" they went there. I also know that the way to tell where the center of town is in a small town is to look for the local pub. Our tour guides's town had more than one, so she felt oblidged to make fun of the towns that only had one. I think her town had just over 100 people. The number was about to jum two since some woman is pregnant with twins. Oh small towns...

A horse, just chilling all by its lonesome. Next to the ocean. FYI, my little pony, next landmass isn't for a mile or two.

The Burren. Not joking about all the limesone. And also the Atlantic is back there. You know, that big oceany thing.

The Ailwee Caves are, well, caves. That once again have to do with evolution and land masses moving around. Whatevs. They found the skeletal remains of bears. Bears that have been extinct in Ireland for thousands (or millions? Once again, I didn't listen that closely to the science chatter - Wikipedia it) of years.

A stalagmite and a column.

Praying hands or an overflowing pint of Guinness? A question for the ages.

A bear bed for the bear that's been dead a looong time.

Sunday night we weren't going to do anything because none of us felt like it, but it was Kieran's birthday, so how do you not? And since my parents read this blog, that's all the information I'm going to include. See me for details.

Last week was pretty much normal. We went bowling Tuesday night with James. I scored over 100 for the first time ever, and would have won if James hadn't been a bad sport and ruined my last roll. But whatever, I still did amazingly well for me. The next game I bowled a 53, which is more my style. Then we got ice cream. Because it was snowing, so why not? We tried to have a snowball fight with Kieran, but the loser wasn't home. So James started throwing his snowballs at random drunk girls trying to get into taxis. That didn't fly with Katie, Lauren and me, so we turned and threw our balls (originally meant for the ambush of Kieran when he was supposed to open his front door) at James. And then ran screaming the 100 yards from House 31 to House 82. And locked the door, with James on the other side. Other than that, a pretty quiet week. They just seem to fly by!

This weekend I did absolutely nothing exciting. I checked books out of the library for the first time, which probably makes my mother happy but no one else really cares. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do the self check-out. They should really have better directions for stupid people like me. Especially if the darn computer is going to beep loudly at me every time I do something incorrectly. So that everyone in the quiet library knows the blond at the self check-out is clueless. I can broadcast that all by myself. I don't need extra sound effects ok?

And now it's Monday night and I have managed to procrastinate from the time I got out of class at 4:45 pm to now. I'm pretty proud of myself actually. It takes hard work to go 6 hours without doing anything, including sleep. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Too bad most people pick it up in high school. I'm a little slow I guess. But now I really should do stuff. Or go bug Katie and Lauren since James and Brian are still being studious at the library. Shouldn't have let them leave. First mistake.