Saturday, August 18 – Galway alone and arrival in Ennis

So…Emily left…which was very sad, but I wasn’t alone for very long because the French people from last night came and joined me…they are obsessed with food, it was fun

And then I wandered again, trip is calming down, not as much to see in Ireland, doing the relaxing thing. I went to Griffins and had porridge – the porridge itself was pretty  average, but it came with strawberries and cream – it wasn’t sugary enough to be whipped cream, but it was the same texture. – and honey! So yummy.

I wandered through a mall (without much excitement, did the shopping thing yesterday) (ok, not completely, I also finished up all my gift shopping, quite pleased with myself) and then wandered down towards the harbor and found out that Seattle, Washington and Galway are sister cities.

And then a walk by the canal, which was very pretty (I was intermittently reading this entire time as well). There’s this bridge called the “Friar’s Bridge” which I thought was very nice and then later learned that it was the Galway version of a wishing well, which made me like it even more.

Then I took a walking tour for the fun of it, it wasn’t that exciting – except for two stories – one about a monkey saving a baby from a burning building. The other was about the mayor’s son, who was a complete flirt, until a Spanish guy came in and one-upped him. So, the mayor’s son went and killed the Spanish guy, which was punishable by death, so, the mayor brought him up to a window and hung him. Lovely, no? Anyways, this is what was below the window. Yay skulls!

After a late lunch (at Griffins, notice a pattern?), I wandered down to the harbor, saw lots of boats and walked around a bit. I got to go past lots and lots of adorable houses, one of which was a hotel (which I want to visit now, just because its so cute on the outside)

And then – a train ride to Ennis. I spent some of the ride talking with my neighbor, who studies French, Spanish, and Japanese at the University of Limerick – cool, no? if it hadn’t been for Finnish, I would have gone there, because, you know, three languages are better than two.

Also, I knew I loved Ennis upon arrival because the train station had an adorable bridge (which I got to walk over!)

In Ennis, I did stop by a pub for a session, which was tiny – 3 people! So, I danced for a bit, felt unwelcome, and left, but at least I got to dance (which is better than the past four weeks)

Final picture! From Ennis – I think it speaks for itself.

Friday, August 17 – Galway with Emily

So, we slept super late, woohoo! And then went to this lovely tea shop called Griffins for a HUGE breakfast/lunch combo and lots and lots of tea (because coffee in Ireland is terrible)

Then we wandered around the Latin Quarter, which could also be known as the “Quaint Quarter” or the “Tourist-pleasing District”. Its unpaved, pretty much car-free, lots of buskers, pretty awesome minus the seas of tourists.

And then we went shopping – Emily ended up with an awesome new shirt and I ended up with a new hat (!) and skirt.

We took a walk down to the water and waded into the strangely unsalty and warm other side of the Atlantic Ocean (wheeeee! Now I’ve waded in both sides of the “pond”)

(also, check out Emily’s new shirt!) We then went back to Griffins for afternoon tea, like any proper Irish person.

Then, we busked for a little bit, just for the heck of it and earned about 3ish euros (woot).

We ended the night having pub food and listening to super-amazing Irish music in the King’s Head, which is apparently a famous bar. (well, actually, we took a walk afterwards, I also met some French people at the hostel, but, you know “end” can mean a lot of things) Anyways, these are the fancy chairs we sat across from.

Thursday, August 16 – Irish Music Archives and Galway

So after a slow breakfast at the hostel, we went off to find the Irish Music Archives, and a post box, so Emily could send postcards.

The Irish music archives are awesome! I spent about an hour watching “instructional” DVDs for super super traditional, non-competition Irish step (learned an entire dance, which I have yet to try). I kind of want an excuse to just go live there for a couple of days doing research and learning all these old dances (and about all these old dancers)

Afterwards, we found a whole foods, super natural (that kind of stuff) restaurant, which was really delicious (especially the strawberry tart)

Then, off to the train, on which Emily played “competitive train photography” (we also played cards and slept and read)

Once in Galway, Emily met up with some Germans she had met when she had been there earlier, so we met up later to go out to a pub, which was fun, complete with dorky Irish music. Then we explored a little in search of set dancing and failed, so we went to their common room and played a card game called Maumau, which is basically Uno with normal cards.

Moomin enjoyed the evening too.

Wednesday, August 15 – Voyage to Dublin

So, after a late night (and finally printing my boarding pass, woohoo), I left the hostel at 5am in this shuttle van, which felt a little sketchy because it was just me and the driver (and then two others joined, so it was a little less sketchy). It was about an hour drive to the Beauvais airport…the best part being that I got to watch the sun rise over pretty legit French countryside, pretty!

The flight was pretty uneventful. Really, the only exciting part was that when I was leaving, the cabin crew said “thank you” in either English or French, and they chose French for me, tehe.

Of course, in Ireland, it was raining. Actually, besides the rain, the airport was pretty unexciting.

I took a bus to Connolly Train Station and waited for a pretty long time. There were some announcements I didn’t understand about delays, so I ended up asking someone and having a decent conversation with her. In the end, Emily arrived!! *happy dance*

We were blasphemously American and had non-quality pizza and went off to our hostel (where I took a nap). Later, we went out for a walk and stopped by a church that was celebrating Assumption. Lots of beautiful music and a dragon story, we would have stayed longer if we hadn’t been so thirsty,

Then a bit of a hodge-podge dinner and kooky game of scrabble. Afterwards, we went out again in search of musical pubs, but failed, so we ended up at a pretty quiet bar to get out of the rain, and I did try Guinness. It tastes a little like cold coffee with a terrible after taste, not bad, but not amazing either.

And that was the (decently unfilled) day.

Tuesday, April 14 – Love Wall and Amelie Pilgrimage

So…last day in Paris for me and Jen…aaah! We made plans to go to the catacombs, but were separated by my need to post things, but found each other in the unthinkably long line. After waiting for an hour, we gave up (I think I’ll visit Paris in the middle of winter, and visit the catacombs then).

Anyways, we had gotten Starbucks coupon thingies…so we went to Starbucks and borrowed their wifi at the same time.

We borrowed Wifi so as to find this thing we had heard of called the “I Love You Wall”, which we then visited. It’s awesome! Basically, its “I love you” written in millions and millions and millions of languages.

I took lots and lots and lots and lots of pictures and wrote down a good number of the ones that were in roman/greek ish alphabets – language obsessive’s heaven.

Jen and Heather then went off to the Museum of Erotic Art, which sounded interesting, but not interesting enough to pay 10 euro for, so, I went back to Sacre Coeur and took the same route that Nino takes in the movie Amelie to get to the top (when she leads him with arrows and then puts his photobook in his bike…) tiring, but fun. I even looked through the telescope thing (have to reenact everything) and was disappointed to find that didn’t actually ever point low enough to see the square, like in the movie. Oh well.

We met up at the Moulin Rouge and went off to the Café de Deux Moulins (the one from Amelie) to continue the day’s theme. It didn’t look exactly like the movie, but close enough that is was kind of magical. I got to sit next to a giant Amelie poster, near the place where Nino sits the first time he visits the café.

I got my first crème brulee ever (and got to crack it with a spoon, just like Amelie). According to Heather, the crème brulee expert, it was the best even she had ever tasted…I think I can’t ever eat crème brulee anywhere else because my expectations are so high now. It was amazing. Period. The coffee was also really good. (really really really good). Basically, a worthwhile adventure.

Then we had to say good-bye to Jen, which was really sad, because our four days of togetherness were ending. Meh.

Afterwards, I went back to Saint Michel (noticing themes in my Paris trip?) to go to the theater.

It was a Ionesco, called “La Lecon”, which was so wonderful and absurd and was a great play on language and education and creepiness (three things that are very dear to me)

My day out ended at Notre Dame, watching a group of fire spinners. This one person did poi, it was probably the best poi I have ever seen – just so graceful and artistic, on top of just making fire do awesomely cool things. The thing was also designed so that the audience wanted to watch the fire spinner as well the fire, which was cool. (Said person also did poi with fireworks, which is just awesome).

Anyways, got back late to the hostel and am now hanging out in the kitchen. I need to print my boarding pass, but the guy at reception was super rude to me earlier, so I kind of want to wait for the next person to come on duty, but its also becoming kind of last minute and whoever ends up helping me will be rude because I should have done it before…oh well, such is life.

Monday, August 13 – Breakfast and the Marais

So, terrible, blurry photo, but here are three of the four awesome people I hang out with in Paris, alongside the Moomins. Klara is on the left with Little My, Eli in the middle with Moomintroll and Jen on the right with Pippi Longstockings.

And this is Heather (who had already gone off to a museum when we took the Moomin picture) (Though actually, it is worth noting that Jen had just finished going through the entire Louvre over the span of two days when this picture was taken…so she kind of wins the museuming prize…)

Anyways, it was a very slow day. We woke up late and wandered (slowly) over to Monoprix to buy breakfast and then ate it in the park nearby.

Then, Eli and Klara had to check out and leave for Barcelona, so we walked back to the hostel and got completely distracted by Moomins and German childrens’ TV shows (I have  a list of things to watch for practice, woohoo!)

They left, which was very sad, so Jen and I went off to the Marais, which is the “gay, Jewish quarter” of Paris. Its also the quarter of Victor Hugo’s house and lots of big pretty buildings and gardens and galleries. We wandered through some galleries, and then stopped in a park and fell asleep. (Waking up at 6 and going to bed at 1am is not that good for the energy level)

Afterwards, we walked over to Place de la Bastille, which is where the Bastille used to be (duh) and walked all the way around it. (Yay French history!)

And then we went and had really good falafel and went back to Notre Dame, and Jen went off to look at the crypts while I went in and sat by the Joan of Arc statue to listen to mass. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but the music and the atmosphere was beautiful (despite the obnoxious tourists) and Joan of Arc was there, so…cool…

And that was pretty much my day – I went back to the hostel, pretended to be productive, ate food, and went to sleep (midnight! Woohoo!)

Sunday, August 12 – Musee D’Orsay and Notre Dame

So, I went out pretty early this morning to attempt to find a dance class, but I think google maps led me to the wrong place. I ended up in a decently sketchy area, where I got coffee and then left.

I then wandered from Saint Michel over to the Musee D’Orsay, where there were lots and lots and lots of cool paintings (and sculptures). Including my favourite Degas sculpture – Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans. There were exciting sculptures outside too. (and, of course, I made a point of standing on the place where the tardis landed…though the TV version and real version are a little different…)

After the museum, I wandered back over to Saint Michel, which is super super touristy (literally, seas and seas of tourists), but has cheap crepes and even cheaper books (which I now need to send home…ugh) (and there’s a pretty fountain)

And then, of course, I visited Notre Dame because its big and pretty and has a Joan of Arc statue in it (it was the church where they decided to rehabilitate her reputation, because she was burned alive as a witch even though she’s now a saint) (that person isn’t supposed to be in the picture…there were just too many people…)

After Notre Dame, I went back towards the hostel and, walking through the park, I happened upon a local salsa dance. It was just a huge community of people (all ages) doing salsa in a park, pretty freaking awesome.

Then I met up with Heather and we had dinner together again with the Germans, Eli and Klara. Jen finally came back (she stays out very late), but, instead of sleeping, we took a late night voyage out to the Quartier latin, which I think we missed, because it was very un-studenty. However, it was a nice walk through super-late Paris before bed.

Additions to August 11

I was super tired when I wrote it, obviously, still am super tired (for the record, the title of this post was originally "Additions to July 12", I think that explains all you need to know about where my brain is right now). Yes, I know I am extremely behind - I've been leaving the hostel around 7.30 and coming back around midnight (or later) and we all know sleep is more important than blog posts, right?

Anyways, thing #1, Jen doesn't go to art school, she's majoring in art and religious studies at a liberal arts college.

thing #2, we also visited a flea market! I ended up getting a gorgeous dress that was too expensive for a trip that I'm trying to save money on, but its absolutely gorgeous - reminds me a lot of the witches from the Philip Pullman books, hand made, all that.
Anyways, here's the flea market

Saturday, August 11 – Montmartre

So, I spent today with my two roommates – Heather and Jen. Heather is the one I met last night and Jen is the other one – she’s a yogi, was just coming from a long yoga festival thing in Lyon, goes to art school, cool stuff like that.

Anyways, Jen and I got up super early to do yoga in the park, but the park was closed, so we walked to Monoprix to get breakfast, but it was also closed, we ended up finding cheap coffee and baguette and stealing (not really) nutella from the hostel’s free food shelf, yay.

Then we collected Heather and went off to see the Catacombs, but the line was absurdly long, so we decided to go another day and went off to Monmartre (stopping through Pigalle, of course) We started with the Moulin Rouge and then went up towards more actual windmills and passed La Café de Deux Moulins!!!! That is the place where Amelie works in the movie. It was an exciting moment for me, and completely incomprehensible to the other two.

Then we saw some windmills, including the one in the big famous Renoir painting. And more wandering, and sitting in parks, until we finally arrived at Sacre Coeur!

We wandered through the church, which is big and beautiful, but then we went to the crypts (which I usually don’t do, because it costs money). However, it was totally worth it – lots of more beautiful  churchy things, a tiny chapel, a memorial to members lost in WWI and it was really dramatic because it was so dark and suddenly there were these little pockets of light in the chapel places.

Then we wandered though Montmartre a little bit, looking at galleries and touristy shops. There was a mime, and we ended up getting crepes for dinner (well, they did, I waited until the hostel, where I still had my rice concoction waiting for me)

Then I separated from the others to go to sleep, and they went off to drink wine at the Eiffel Tower. Yay for a good day!

Friday, August 10 –Arrival in Paris

So, another boring travelling day. Started off going from Freiburg to Basel, Switzerland…let me explain. Basel is the point between Switzerland, Germany, and France, so even though its Switzerland, its included in my railpass, its about 30 minutes by train from Freiburg and makes the entire connection into France things ten times easier.

Its actually fun, you know the exact moment you’ve made it into France (which is in the train station), because there’s a HUGE sign that says “France” on it. I breathed a sigh of relief – I loved Germany, but I speak French.

Then spent most of the day on trains…I had two layovers after Basel. One was long enough that I could visit the river that was across from the train station (Mulhouse)

I managed to navigate the metro and the neighborhood and got to my hostel, where I met my lovely roommates. One came in soon after me, American, from Nevada. She had missed two of her flights and, yeah, had some really exciting experiences, including sleeping in an airport before she arrived.

We went off exploring the neighborhood and ended up at Monoprix, the French Walmart type creation – buying some dinner type things, and made an experimental rice concoction (well, I made it, but she washed the dishes, so its ok). We ate dinner alongside some Germans, fellow 18 year olds (well, follow for me), really nice people.

And that was another day of travelling, woohoo!

Thursday, August 9 – Freiburg

So, despite the difficulty getting there, Freiburg is a very nice city. Its tiny, I can walk across it in less than 20 minutes, so yeah, its tiny, but a lot fits into it. The best thing is the canals, tiny little things that run along the sides of many of the roads.

I spent most of the day in the Old Town, pretty much wandering aimlessly. I went into a few book stores, got myself a German grammar book, wandered into a lot of other shops – jewelry, papeteries, tpy shops etc. and, of course, spent a lot of time looking at the pretty streets.

There was a market (woohoo!) outside of this old church, where I had a bretzel (one of those gigantic pretzel things, except yummier because its in Germany)

One special flavor of this market that I haven’t seen elsewhere were toy stalls – lots and lots of toys – yoyos, tops, dolls, marbles, wooden trains, it was really fun.

Of course, I then had to visit the church. (Der Münster). Its big and beautiful, like most European churches (not all…but most)

After much more wandering through the old town, I wandered down the Dreisam, the river in Freiburg.

And then went up Schlossberg, this mountain (hill, really) that’s kind of in the center of town. (ok, really the edge, I just managed to walk around it before I got onto it…skills…). I was too lazy to go to the top, but there’s a nice viewing place (Kanonenplatz) not too far up, where I could see lots and lots and lots of roofs.

After Schlossberg, I started moving slowly back towards the hostel and stopped by a pair of street musicians. It was a saxophonist and a hurdy gurdy player and pretty cool AND they played the Waltz from Amelie, so I was quite happy just standing and listening for a while

And then back to the hostel – roommate was a very very very outgoing Scottish person, which was kind of fun…I also met a French person and practiced French for a little bit…I love hostels!

Wednesday, August 8 – Icky Travelling

So, a total of one picture today…basically this is a short me-whining and letting you know travelling in Europe is not always daisies and roses.

Anyways, my train from Berlin to Mannheim was late, so I missed my train to Freiburg (I was going to Freiburg to meet a family friend, Lucia), so I took a random train to Karlsruhe, which made sense at the time, I really don’t know if it helped or not. By that time, I was pretty late to meet Lucia, so I tried to use a payphone to call her – apparently German payphones prefer calling the US to calling Germany…basically, I ended up calling my father, who helped sort things out, I got on a train and arrived in Freiburg.

Of course, because nothing’s ever easy, I spent an hour wandering around the train station looking for Lucia, even attempting to call her over the loudspeaker (but they heard me wrong and called the wrong name…errrr). My savior was…Starbucks! Which has free wifi…I managed to use skype to call her and we found each other eventually…it was an adventure.

We then went off to my hostel in Rieselfeld, this suburb of Freiburg, the hostel was very annoyed that I was late, and made me pay for internet, which doesn’t work (kind of annoyed, did you notice?) but it’s a place to sleep. After dumping my stuff off, we wandered around Rieselfeld and stopped in a nice café for drinks – I had tea, yay!!!!! The waitress was really nice and told us she wanted to visit Boston to do swing dancing. So yeah, a nice relaxing end to a super-stressful day.

And, of course, here’s my one picture – a lovely view of the German countryside from the train.

Tuesday, August 7 – Memorials and Dance Class (finally)

So, another early, but slow day. After making breakfast, including an adventure in making coffee with one of those machines that are just pitchers with a plunger thing (wheee! So easy, why do we make coffee with machines when we can do that?), I headed off to revisit the Holocaust Memorial.

In itself, the memorial is amazing, its just acres and acres of these cement blocks, but its completely uneven and unaligned (it looks square, but it isn’t).

Then, I went underneath it, to the Information Center, which ended up being much much much more powerful than expected. It was very well done – historical time line, quotes, personal stories, biographies, everything. You know the whole thing about how we study history to avoid repeating the past? I really really think Germany cannot repeat the past with things like this memorial and information center right in the middle of Berlin. Its not just this, there are statues and memorials all over, it’s impressive.

Anyways, after a super-emotional morning, I then went to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which is this open-air walking place with lots of information. It was between the two walls that made up The Wall (der Mauer), in the “Death Zone”. It was really freaky to think about the fact that if I had been standing there at an earlier time, I would be shot (and killed) (plus, I wouldn’t be standing there, I’d be running as fast as I could…).

Ouf, too much heavy stuff. I then took the S-Bahn (subway, except not really, because that’s the U-Bahn) to Schöneberg, where I got to take a dance class in German! Nice and easy, but fun…and in German, I got most of it, though, which was exciting.

And now I’m back at the hostel. The Swiss roommates have been replaced by Australians (who are quite happily avoiding winter). They’re quite fun too, even if they speak English.