Sorry for my recent lack of communication, but this is the last week of classes, and I have five papers due on Friday. However, the good news is that Friday night I'm leaving for England!! I'm going with Jess, Jaye, Julie, and Julie's friend Angela, and we're spending two days in London and a day each in Oxford and Bath. Woohoo! I finally put up the Dublin pictures (I thought I had already done that. Oops.), so you can check those out if you like.
Otherwise not too much has been going on in my life... just taking it in turns to work on my papers and procrastinate to an intense degree. Thursday night Stefania's boyfriend Davide (Dah-vee-day) came for a surprise visit! He came on a trip with three other friends, and on Friday Davide cooked, and the friends came, and Irena and Elise from across the hall, and another friend of theirs, Wendy from South Korea, and we had quite a night of it! Davide cooked fish and tomatoes with garlic and olive oil (and some hash browns on the side), and we had a cheesecake because it had been Irena, Elise, and Wendy's birthdays within the past week. Irena was having an Erasmus party in her apartment, so we all went over to hang out and dance, and it was really fun! I forgot how much I enjoy dancing, even though I'm not very good at it. I was one of two Americans there, and everyone else was either Italian or French, with an exuberant German boy thrown in and a couple other oddballs. All in all an excellent night. Saturday I took a break to go exploring with Jess and Jaye to try and get into Menlo Castle (which I now know that you can do, and lots of people do it). We didn't actually find it, due to not knowing how far it was, so we turned back too early, but we still had fun. We also found a sweet but idiotic dog, who we named Kevin, and later Caomhan, the Irish version (pronounced "kwee-vahn"). His real name was Charlie, but he didn't seem to mind being called by all different names. He continued to trot cheerily into the road and eat garbage and such.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Dublin: Rugby fun, lame tours, and history!
First of all, imagine a tiny tiny bus. Now shrink it a bit more, give it some ugly upholstery and a tobacco smell paired with windows that drip, and you have some idea of what our API bus is like. I wish now that I had taken a picture of it. The seats are actually too narrow for a real person, so Jess and I had to sort of arm-cuddle so we could stay somewhat in place. The backs of the seats are curved oddly and pitched slightly forward, and you really need to detach your legs and put them away, because there is no leg room. You can stick them into the aisle, but that's where everyone else's legs and bags are. Anyway, we all piled in at 6:30 on Saturday morning for our API Dublin trip. It takes a little over three hours to get there (shorter than the time it takes to cross Pennsylvania!), and we were all in something of a stupor induced by the early hour, lack of food, and the mist which was all we could see out of the windows.
We got to Jury's Inn along the Liffey, which was very nice, but they didn't have our rooms ready yet, so we stowed our bags in a small room and trekked down to O'Connell Street for some quick food (Supermacs and Burger King) before heading back to Jury's to meet up with the Limerick and Cork groups (still without personalities) and go on a boat tour of Dublin. Now, we were all excited for this: boating up and down the Liffey, seeing all the sights, learning some history. LAMEST TOUR EVER. The best part of it was when we had to back up for a bit before we could turn around and the driver and another guy had to sit on the roof, and all we could see were their legs. The reason it was lame is that we got about to O'Connell Street (a few blocks away), hearing some fun facts, and then turned around! We wanted to see more! So we backed up for a bit (with many mysterious loud scraping noises coming from below our feet) before turning around (hearing many of the same facts again) and heading toward the docks. We saw a reconstruction of the only Famine passenger ship that never had any fatalities, which was cool, but then got down to the ugly area, where we turned around before getting to the other interesting bit (which included Bono's house!). So really, a waste of time.
Next we walked to Trinity College, which is very pretty, to see the Book of Kells. Sadly, no photography allowed, but it was really cool to see anyway, and from there you can go into the Long Room of the library, which reminded us all of the Beauty and the Beast library ("I'd marry the Beast for this..." --Jess). Then, lunch time. API gave us vouchers for a really nice restaurant in Temple Bar, and afterwards we stood outside to hear a very funny street comedian, who told us that we all had lovely straight white teeth. The groups split off from there, and Jess, Jaye, and I went over through the shopping district, where we all bought rugby shirts for the big match that night. There's a big tournament called the Six Nations (Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, France, and Italy), and this was the last game: Ireland vs. Wales. If Ireland won they would be undefeated and so win not only 6 Nations but also the Grand Slam. More on that later. We went into the famous St. Stephen's Green, which was very lovely, and took some pictures of the memorials for the Countess Markievicz and Wolfe Tone, two famous Irish patriots, before basking on the grass in the sunlight. We headed back toward the Liffey to try and meet up with people for the match and ended up at Messrs. Maguire's, a pub right across the bridge from O'Connell Street. We found Kevin (Finn's husband and our other API director who was leading this trip), who felt that the pub with all its staircases and hidden passageways was "like Narnia!" We love Kevin. We finally found a place to stand with our pints where we had an excellent view of the tv and an enthusiastic group around us. The game was so good!! Really intense, and the win came down to a last second kick (which Wales missed!!!), but Ireland won!!! Now, I know I've never been interested in rugby before, but it's actually pretty easy to pick up, and it was just cool to be around such excited sports fans! It's been awhile, but I always like an exciting game.
We bought some celebratory baguettes and cheese for dinner before heading back to the hotel to get our rooms. Mine was huge!! It had a nook! With a couch! Jess and Jaye came in to eat, and then Julie joined us and stole my blanket because the room was cold (it had crazy windows), and we just hung out for awhile. Later we split up (Julie had a little trouble putting the blanket back on the bed) to settle in for an early night, and I think most of us ended up just sitting in bed watching Notting Hill, which was an excellent way to end the night, I felt. The next morning we ate the delicious continental breakfast before heading out for a 9am bus tour of Dublin. Now, I like to take pictures, as you know, so this tour was a bit frustrating for me. He SPED through Dublin, casually saying things like, "Oh, and that building we just passed on the left are the Prime Minister's apartments" and such. He stopped for very odd things, like to see if we wanted to take pictures of one of the famous "Doors of Dublin" that Queen Victoria might possibly have used one time back in the day. We didn't.
Next we went for a tour of Kilmainham (spell check suggests "Kilimanjaro" as well as "kilogram," "mainsail," and "chamberlain." Wharves.) Gaol, which was really great. It's the prison that held the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion and where they were executed. Our tour guide here was really good, and we watched a short video on the Gaol inside the chapel where Joseph and Grace Plunkett were married. We saw all the famous cells where the leaders were held and where other people, like Eamonn DeValera and Grace Plunkett, were held during the Irish Civil War. We went out to the yard where the 1916 leaders were executed, and it was so unbelievable to imagine that all of this terrible history happened RIGHT HERE under 100 years ago! The Gaol was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We got back to our bus to go to Dvblinia, which is all about Viking Dublin, and it was super lame. The whole thing is really more appropriate for grade-school audiences, but parts of it were fun... like laughing at how lame it was... and playing dramatic drum music while Julie and Jaye had a medieval ring toss game showdown. We didn't get to go into the attached Christchurch Cathedral because there was a service going on, and a testy Vicar in a cape pretty much chased us away.
The bus tour continued through Phoenix Park, where the President lives at Aras an Uachtarain, and where the American Ambassador has a house. It's a pretty park, and it was cool to see the "mini White House" (the same architect designed the two buildings). We drove slowly through a parking lot in the Park to see a large memorial cross from when Pope JPII was there in the 70s, I think, giving us ample time to photograph it, but he wanted to stop there too for a photo op. We declined. We saw lots of other famous Dublin things at a breakneck pace, and then we had a couple hours of free time before heading back to Galway. A bunch of us got some Subway and ate at the base of the O'Connell monument. Jaye, Sarah, and I went to see the GPO, another cool historical moment for me, and saw the memorial statue of Cu Chulainn and the bullet holes from the Easter Rising. Next we went to the Old Jameson Distillery, where we had a lovely tour (given by, disappointingly, an American) and learned all about whiskey making. Jaye and Sarah volunteered for a whiskey tasting, where they compared Jameson, Scotch, and Jim Daniels. They all chose Jameson as the best... influenced by their locale, mayhaps? We all got a "free" whiskey, and then a quick run to the gift shop before hailing a taxi (knocking aside an old lady in the process... hey, he stopped for us, not her, ok?), who obligingly sped us back to the hotel in time to get the (small, cramped, smelly) bus home. I enjoyed my weekend, even though I had many lame tours, but the great parts: the rugby match and Kilmainham especially, made it sooooo worth it.
We got to Jury's Inn along the Liffey, which was very nice, but they didn't have our rooms ready yet, so we stowed our bags in a small room and trekked down to O'Connell Street for some quick food (Supermacs and Burger King) before heading back to Jury's to meet up with the Limerick and Cork groups (still without personalities) and go on a boat tour of Dublin. Now, we were all excited for this: boating up and down the Liffey, seeing all the sights, learning some history. LAMEST TOUR EVER. The best part of it was when we had to back up for a bit before we could turn around and the driver and another guy had to sit on the roof, and all we could see were their legs. The reason it was lame is that we got about to O'Connell Street (a few blocks away), hearing some fun facts, and then turned around! We wanted to see more! So we backed up for a bit (with many mysterious loud scraping noises coming from below our feet) before turning around (hearing many of the same facts again) and heading toward the docks. We saw a reconstruction of the only Famine passenger ship that never had any fatalities, which was cool, but then got down to the ugly area, where we turned around before getting to the other interesting bit (which included Bono's house!). So really, a waste of time.
Next we walked to Trinity College, which is very pretty, to see the Book of Kells. Sadly, no photography allowed, but it was really cool to see anyway, and from there you can go into the Long Room of the library, which reminded us all of the Beauty and the Beast library ("I'd marry the Beast for this..." --Jess). Then, lunch time. API gave us vouchers for a really nice restaurant in Temple Bar, and afterwards we stood outside to hear a very funny street comedian, who told us that we all had lovely straight white teeth. The groups split off from there, and Jess, Jaye, and I went over through the shopping district, where we all bought rugby shirts for the big match that night. There's a big tournament called the Six Nations (Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, France, and Italy), and this was the last game: Ireland vs. Wales. If Ireland won they would be undefeated and so win not only 6 Nations but also the Grand Slam. More on that later. We went into the famous St. Stephen's Green, which was very lovely, and took some pictures of the memorials for the Countess Markievicz and Wolfe Tone, two famous Irish patriots, before basking on the grass in the sunlight. We headed back toward the Liffey to try and meet up with people for the match and ended up at Messrs. Maguire's, a pub right across the bridge from O'Connell Street. We found Kevin (Finn's husband and our other API director who was leading this trip), who felt that the pub with all its staircases and hidden passageways was "like Narnia!" We love Kevin. We finally found a place to stand with our pints where we had an excellent view of the tv and an enthusiastic group around us. The game was so good!! Really intense, and the win came down to a last second kick (which Wales missed!!!), but Ireland won!!! Now, I know I've never been interested in rugby before, but it's actually pretty easy to pick up, and it was just cool to be around such excited sports fans! It's been awhile, but I always like an exciting game.
We bought some celebratory baguettes and cheese for dinner before heading back to the hotel to get our rooms. Mine was huge!! It had a nook! With a couch! Jess and Jaye came in to eat, and then Julie joined us and stole my blanket because the room was cold (it had crazy windows), and we just hung out for awhile. Later we split up (Julie had a little trouble putting the blanket back on the bed) to settle in for an early night, and I think most of us ended up just sitting in bed watching Notting Hill, which was an excellent way to end the night, I felt. The next morning we ate the delicious continental breakfast before heading out for a 9am bus tour of Dublin. Now, I like to take pictures, as you know, so this tour was a bit frustrating for me. He SPED through Dublin, casually saying things like, "Oh, and that building we just passed on the left are the Prime Minister's apartments" and such. He stopped for very odd things, like to see if we wanted to take pictures of one of the famous "Doors of Dublin" that Queen Victoria might possibly have used one time back in the day. We didn't.
Next we went for a tour of Kilmainham (spell check suggests "Kilimanjaro" as well as "kilogram," "mainsail," and "chamberlain." Wharves.) Gaol, which was really great. It's the prison that held the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion and where they were executed. Our tour guide here was really good, and we watched a short video on the Gaol inside the chapel where Joseph and Grace Plunkett were married. We saw all the famous cells where the leaders were held and where other people, like Eamonn DeValera and Grace Plunkett, were held during the Irish Civil War. We went out to the yard where the 1916 leaders were executed, and it was so unbelievable to imagine that all of this terrible history happened RIGHT HERE under 100 years ago! The Gaol was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We got back to our bus to go to Dvblinia, which is all about Viking Dublin, and it was super lame. The whole thing is really more appropriate for grade-school audiences, but parts of it were fun... like laughing at how lame it was... and playing dramatic drum music while Julie and Jaye had a medieval ring toss game showdown. We didn't get to go into the attached Christchurch Cathedral because there was a service going on, and a testy Vicar in a cape pretty much chased us away.
The bus tour continued through Phoenix Park, where the President lives at Aras an Uachtarain, and where the American Ambassador has a house. It's a pretty park, and it was cool to see the "mini White House" (the same architect designed the two buildings). We drove slowly through a parking lot in the Park to see a large memorial cross from when Pope JPII was there in the 70s, I think, giving us ample time to photograph it, but he wanted to stop there too for a photo op. We declined. We saw lots of other famous Dublin things at a breakneck pace, and then we had a couple hours of free time before heading back to Galway. A bunch of us got some Subway and ate at the base of the O'Connell monument. Jaye, Sarah, and I went to see the GPO, another cool historical moment for me, and saw the memorial statue of Cu Chulainn and the bullet holes from the Easter Rising. Next we went to the Old Jameson Distillery, where we had a lovely tour (given by, disappointingly, an American) and learned all about whiskey making. Jaye and Sarah volunteered for a whiskey tasting, where they compared Jameson, Scotch, and Jim Daniels. They all chose Jameson as the best... influenced by their locale, mayhaps? We all got a "free" whiskey, and then a quick run to the gift shop before hailing a taxi (knocking aside an old lady in the process... hey, he stopped for us, not her, ok?), who obligingly sped us back to the hotel in time to get the (small, cramped, smelly) bus home. I enjoyed my weekend, even though I had many lame tours, but the great parts: the rugby match and Kilmainham especially, made it sooooo worth it.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Some laugh, some cry, some scream and run away
Alright, if you hearken back to my earlier posts about the strange ads we have here, you'll remember that they get pretty outrageous. The most horrifying ad I've seen so far is for Cadbury chocolates, although the ad itself (in what I've come to understand is something they do a lot) has nothing whatsoever to do with chocolate. I give you... the eyebrow kids! It's pretty terrifying, but it only gets worse when the little girl pulls out the balloon... *shudder* Try to sit through the whole thing. It's only a minute long. Good luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Laura in Galway!
If you're not sick of me after all those videos... Laura came to visit me last weekend!! She got here Friday evening, so we had a quiet night in with some pasta and some Robin Hood =) Saturday we planned to go to the Aran Islands, so we got up early and walked downtown to pick up the bus, which took us into Connemara to pick up the ferry. There are three Aran Islands: Inis Mor, Inis Meain, and Inis Oirr. Inis Mor (which means "Big Island") is, of course, the biggest, as well as the most touristy, as far as they go, and that's the one we went to. It has several forts and other historical buildings, as well as just tons of gorgeous scenery and a seal colony! It takes something like 40 minutes to get there by ferry, and it was a bit rough, so, sadly, I got sick on the way there (I was certainly not the ony one), but we got there soon enough and the rest of the day went well! We rented bikes (very shiny silver things they were too... basically shouted "tourist" to anyone within 10 yards of us) and set out along the left side of the island toward Arkin Castle, which was not all that impressive once we got there, but it was a nice short ride with very nice scenery. We also made a dog friend, who kept offering me a piece of plastic he had found on the beach, and who ran along back with us for almost a mile until we met another biking group coming towards us, and he ran off with them instead. We got some lunch at a hotel near the pier before setting off again in the opposite direction, stopping in at Spar for a drink and a snack for later, and a fellow biking tourist (an Irish one) suggested we take a certain road, which turned out to be an excellent suggestion! It took us right down the island along the coast, through lovely fields and past beaches, and we found the seal colony! Mike was there with a friend of his too (they had gone Friday and stayed over), and we ran into them a few times, which was fun!
A few miles of biking took us to the base of a hill, where we abandoned the bikes to walk up to Dun Aonghasa (Dun Angus, Angus's Fort) - the best Euro I've ever spent! Although the walk up nearly killed me after all that biking (I'm no Olympian, as you know), we finally reached the top, where a great breeze was blowing. It's a ring fort built right on the cliff, so when you go in through the walls to the inner circle you find yourself in an open space where you can walk right up to the cliff and sit yourself down to look over the edge (see the pictures). I could have stayed there all day... it was oddly soothing to lie on the edge of that cliff, with the waves crashing far below, and that wonderful breeze blowing. But, no rest for the bikers: we had to head back to make sure we made it to the ferry on time. As it turns out, there were many slight inclines on the way that we hadn't noticed, but they turned into excellent downhill slopes on the ride back! Consequently it took us much less time to get back, leaving us some time to pick up some postcards at the visitors' center and to walk on the beach. I did not got sick on the ferry back, you'll be glad to hear, and our bus back to Galway was a double-decker, and we sat on the top level! Hoorah! We got home, made tacos, and crashed with some more Robin Hood after a full and exhausting day.
Sunday we slept in (yay!) before heading out for brunch at Mister Waffle, followed by a stroll down the Salthill Promenade along the beach to go to the aquarium. We were obviously the oldest ones there not accompanied by small children, but we had a grand time with the fishes and marine life! We got there just in time for a tour of the touch-pools, and (after a terrified looking boy had given it back) Laura held a big spider crab! Our favorite place was the tank with the rays and the dogfish. They kept popping their heads out at us! We petted them, and the dogfish was sandpapery (because, Laura knew, they're members of the shark family). The wings of the rays were very smooth. I was slightly mesmerized by the big slowmoving conger eels, although they freak Laura out. They're apparently pretty common in the waters around Galway, and it would DEFINITELY freak me out to see one while swimming! We went out to hear some music that night, wrapping up a lovely weekend, and she left Monday morning to spend a couple hours in Dublin (she was there all last semester) before heading up to Belfast. Yay visiting! API is going to Dublin this weekend, so more fun to come!
A few miles of biking took us to the base of a hill, where we abandoned the bikes to walk up to Dun Aonghasa (Dun Angus, Angus's Fort) - the best Euro I've ever spent! Although the walk up nearly killed me after all that biking (I'm no Olympian, as you know), we finally reached the top, where a great breeze was blowing. It's a ring fort built right on the cliff, so when you go in through the walls to the inner circle you find yourself in an open space where you can walk right up to the cliff and sit yourself down to look over the edge (see the pictures). I could have stayed there all day... it was oddly soothing to lie on the edge of that cliff, with the waves crashing far below, and that wonderful breeze blowing. But, no rest for the bikers: we had to head back to make sure we made it to the ferry on time. As it turns out, there were many slight inclines on the way that we hadn't noticed, but they turned into excellent downhill slopes on the ride back! Consequently it took us much less time to get back, leaving us some time to pick up some postcards at the visitors' center and to walk on the beach. I did not got sick on the ferry back, you'll be glad to hear, and our bus back to Galway was a double-decker, and we sat on the top level! Hoorah! We got home, made tacos, and crashed with some more Robin Hood after a full and exhausting day.
Sunday we slept in (yay!) before heading out for brunch at Mister Waffle, followed by a stroll down the Salthill Promenade along the beach to go to the aquarium. We were obviously the oldest ones there not accompanied by small children, but we had a grand time with the fishes and marine life! We got there just in time for a tour of the touch-pools, and (after a terrified looking boy had given it back) Laura held a big spider crab! Our favorite place was the tank with the rays and the dogfish. They kept popping their heads out at us! We petted them, and the dogfish was sandpapery (because, Laura knew, they're members of the shark family). The wings of the rays were very smooth. I was slightly mesmerized by the big slowmoving conger eels, although they freak Laura out. They're apparently pretty common in the waters around Galway, and it would DEFINITELY freak me out to see one while swimming! We went out to hear some music that night, wrapping up a lovely weekend, and she left Monday morning to spend a couple hours in Dublin (she was there all last semester) before heading up to Belfast. Yay visiting! API is going to Dublin this weekend, so more fun to come!
Some St. Patrick's Day fun!
I still have more to fill in between last post and this - Laura's weekend here and our trip to the Aran Islands - but in the interest of trying to keep up with Julie (I fail), here are some videos from St. Patrick's Day, which was gorgeously sunny and warm! Downtown was packed, and everyone wore tacky green accessories just like at home! I met up with Julie, Jaye, Jess, and Heather downtown, where we basked in the warmth and enjoyed the parade. The others felt it went on for too long, but it was WAY shorter than Scranton's parade... only a little over an hour! There was also a distict "ocean" theme, which sort of overshadowed any type of St. Patrick theme there might have been. There were also TWO groups from Canada in the parade (why?).
Some things missing included: the first hour of the parade being taken up by the Irem Temple guys; pipe bands (there was only one!); the Pixie Chicks (thank God); the Grump (replaced by the Easter Bunny, a penguin, and some sort of fish thing); everyone I know in some section of the parade or another; the medieval combat people (sort of replaced by little kids dressed up as Order of Malta knights... but they had no horses or billowy cloaks).
New experiences included: dancing jellyfish; hundreds of children playing the tin whistle; a meditating guy on a float flanked by women doing tai-chi-esque movements; many hurling teams made up of small chanting children; the float for the lifeboat people with one of their people "saving" a victim, who spurted realistic blood!; Pink Floyd.
Here's a hurling team (followed by a giant sliotar, or hurling ball). Sorry for all of the pitching about on my part... it was very crowded. I essentially had a small boy sitting on my face the entire parade instead of on his father's shoulders as was the original plan.
Had I known there would only be one pipe band, I would have taken a video of it, but as it is here is some other type of music. The one thing is sort of like a bagpipe:
Leprechauns!
Afterwards we stopped at Supermacs (a fast food chain) for some lunch, which we brought down to the Spanish Arch - ABSOLUTELY FULL of people milling about, eating, drinking... the side across the river was full too, and every now and then one of the sides would start yelling, and then the other would start to see who could be louder.
Jess and Jaye's roommate Fergus came to meet us, and we headed for Eyre Square. We picked up their other roommate Mark on the way. Shop Street was full too, and Eyre Square was full of teenagers (lame) - where did all these people come from?! To escape the teenagers, we went into the Skeff to hang out, and the barman made a shamrock in my Guinness! We went back down to the Spanish Arch after that, which had gotten even fuller since we had been there last, to meet up with some of the other Menlo girls.
In all that fine weather I got a little bit of sunburn!! Very exciting stuff. All in all an excellent day, even though I did miss Fergus singing the Rattlin' Bog song (see Julie's blog for a video).
One final crowd shot:
Some things missing included: the first hour of the parade being taken up by the Irem Temple guys; pipe bands (there was only one!); the Pixie Chicks (thank God); the Grump (replaced by the Easter Bunny, a penguin, and some sort of fish thing); everyone I know in some section of the parade or another; the medieval combat people (sort of replaced by little kids dressed up as Order of Malta knights... but they had no horses or billowy cloaks).
New experiences included: dancing jellyfish; hundreds of children playing the tin whistle; a meditating guy on a float flanked by women doing tai-chi-esque movements; many hurling teams made up of small chanting children; the float for the lifeboat people with one of their people "saving" a victim, who spurted realistic blood!; Pink Floyd.
Here's a hurling team (followed by a giant sliotar, or hurling ball). Sorry for all of the pitching about on my part... it was very crowded. I essentially had a small boy sitting on my face the entire parade instead of on his father's shoulders as was the original plan.
Had I known there would only be one pipe band, I would have taken a video of it, but as it is here is some other type of music. The one thing is sort of like a bagpipe:
Leprechauns!
Afterwards we stopped at Supermacs (a fast food chain) for some lunch, which we brought down to the Spanish Arch - ABSOLUTELY FULL of people milling about, eating, drinking... the side across the river was full too, and every now and then one of the sides would start yelling, and then the other would start to see who could be louder.
Jess and Jaye's roommate Fergus came to meet us, and we headed for Eyre Square. We picked up their other roommate Mark on the way. Shop Street was full too, and Eyre Square was full of teenagers (lame) - where did all these people come from?! To escape the teenagers, we went into the Skeff to hang out, and the barman made a shamrock in my Guinness! We went back down to the Spanish Arch after that, which had gotten even fuller since we had been there last, to meet up with some of the other Menlo girls.
In all that fine weather I got a little bit of sunburn!! Very exciting stuff. All in all an excellent day, even though I did miss Fergus singing the Rattlin' Bog song (see Julie's blog for a video).
One final crowd shot:
Monday, March 16, 2009
Visitors!
Before I went to Belfast, Hannah (my cousin, for those of you not related to me) sent me a message to say that she was going to be in Ireland that weekend for a funeral (some of her mom's family still live down in County Cork), and would I mind a visit? Pssh, of course not, says I! So, on Monday evening Hannah and I met up, and she stayed with me until Thursday morning! That night we stayed in to catch up, and she went to bed early after all her travels, and I finished a paper (crazy times here, let me tell you). The next day I had classes, and she wanted to explore, so she did. We went to McDonagh's for dinner, which means delicious fish and chips, then headed to Tigh Taaffe's for some music, where Ethan met up with us for some craic. We swapped over to Quays and heard another excellent band before heading home.
Last year, I took the best class ever, Tolkien and Lewis, and met a girl named Brittany, who, like the rest of the class, shares my geekish love for all things Tolkien and Lewis. We never really saw each other after the class, but this semester she is studying abroad/interning in London, so I've been following her blog on here. She was coming to Ireland for her spring break, so we agreed to meet up when she came to Galway. As you can read if you choose to stalk her blog, she had a generally lovely time on this fair isle, as I knew she would =) So, she got into Galway late on Tuesday, and Hannah and I wanted to spend Wednesday on a day trip to Connemara, so we invited Brittany along. However, we woke up to a heavy snowfall, so we decided to cancel that plan. The weather was pretty gross all day, so it was a good call. Brittany ended up going to the Cliffs of Moher for the day, and Hannah and I did some Galway wandering, which included a blissful hour browsing through Kenny's Bookstore, the best place ever. We went for dinner with Brittany, but it was too early to hit the pubs, so we all went back to Corrib Village for some tea, which, sadly, Brittany spilled on her sweater. BUT the good news is that Heather sent me some Oxy Clean spray, which worked like a charm (go Heather!). We went downtown to the Spanish Arch Hotel to meet up with Jess and Jaye to hear another band, who were a cool mix of Spanish and Irish members, and I bought their CD.
Hannah left the next morning to spend a couple days in Dublin before heading home. It was so good to see her!! I haven't really been homesick, but I miss my family... there are so many of them, I'm used to having at least some of them around! And I hadn't seen Hannah in a really really long time, so that was a bonus. I met Brittany for dinner that night (McDonagh's! Score!) but, due to a cold of doom, I was forced to be lame and head home instead of joining her for some music and a pint. I can't always be winning, you know. But it was really nice to see Brittany again! The rest of that week and the weekend were spent recuperating from my cold (so many tissues... even the mansize! And yes, they have a classification of large tissues here called "Man size") and not writing my papers, so that was all very quiet and restful... getting me ready for this weekend, when Laura came to visit!!
Last year, I took the best class ever, Tolkien and Lewis, and met a girl named Brittany, who, like the rest of the class, shares my geekish love for all things Tolkien and Lewis. We never really saw each other after the class, but this semester she is studying abroad/interning in London, so I've been following her blog on here. She was coming to Ireland for her spring break, so we agreed to meet up when she came to Galway. As you can read if you choose to stalk her blog, she had a generally lovely time on this fair isle, as I knew she would =) So, she got into Galway late on Tuesday, and Hannah and I wanted to spend Wednesday on a day trip to Connemara, so we invited Brittany along. However, we woke up to a heavy snowfall, so we decided to cancel that plan. The weather was pretty gross all day, so it was a good call. Brittany ended up going to the Cliffs of Moher for the day, and Hannah and I did some Galway wandering, which included a blissful hour browsing through Kenny's Bookstore, the best place ever. We went for dinner with Brittany, but it was too early to hit the pubs, so we all went back to Corrib Village for some tea, which, sadly, Brittany spilled on her sweater. BUT the good news is that Heather sent me some Oxy Clean spray, which worked like a charm (go Heather!). We went downtown to the Spanish Arch Hotel to meet up with Jess and Jaye to hear another band, who were a cool mix of Spanish and Irish members, and I bought their CD.
Hannah left the next morning to spend a couple days in Dublin before heading home. It was so good to see her!! I haven't really been homesick, but I miss my family... there are so many of them, I'm used to having at least some of them around! And I hadn't seen Hannah in a really really long time, so that was a bonus. I met Brittany for dinner that night (McDonagh's! Score!) but, due to a cold of doom, I was forced to be lame and head home instead of joining her for some music and a pint. I can't always be winning, you know. But it was really nice to see Brittany again! The rest of that week and the weekend were spent recuperating from my cold (so many tissues... even the mansize! And yes, they have a classification of large tissues here called "Man size") and not writing my papers, so that was all very quiet and restful... getting me ready for this weekend, when Laura came to visit!!
Belfast, continued: Exploring the city
We slept in on Sunday, tired after a day of sightseeing (and sprinting up hills) and a late night watching episodes of a great BBC show called Merlin (pretty amazing). When we eventually got up, we decided to stroll through the Botanical Gardens next to Queens before heading downtown to explore. The gardens were lovely, although it was still too early for some of the parts, but daffodils and other early spring flowers were all over. We went into the tropical building and saw fishes and Spanish moss and other cool plants and things that made us think of Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. You walk around the upper level, and there's a path running down that takes you into the lower section, but it was closed off, and we were sad. Next, to the greenhouse to see lovely flowers all in bloom. A mother and her little boy came through, and she was in raptures, "Aren't they lovely, just lovely." The boy, however, had screwed up his face, "It's a horrible smell, ugh..." This exchange repeated itself several times, all in their charming accents. The accents of the North are closer to Scottish accents, which was interesting to hear after getting used to the accents here. Sidenote: yesterday, at mass, we had a visiting priest who is from Ireland but is currently in the Diocese of Atlanta, so his accent was SO Americanized, and it was very strange to hear. Not, of course, that I never hear American accents, but every now and then his Irish accent would slip back in, and the combo was strange.
So, after seeing the plantlife we went downtown, which is very large and full of a mix of shopping and historical buildings. During our explorations, we came across an alley-thing with a statue mounted on the side of one of the buildings in it, so we went through the muralled (as in, covered in paintings) tunnel to explore and found it was of Jim Larkin, who we had never heard of, but who I found out later is pretty famous for his work in the labor movement. Fun stuff. We also saw Prince Albert on the clock tower, which leans a bit due to the river running underneath it, and lots and lots of rainbows! We pondered the Salmon of Knowledge, whose scales are covered in pictures of historical people and events, and then it started to rain, but we found ground chimes!! A square on the ground of nine metal squares that each produced a different tone when you stepped on them!! It was great!! We made some lovely songs, but then it really started to rain, so we sprinted to a nearby courtyard to hunker under something for a while. We headed to Victoria Square, which is a semi-indoor, semi-outdoor shopping mall with a huge dome that you can go up into and see all around the city, which we did. We also went into the swanky department store and picked out furnishings for our apartment next year before heading to the really great toy section, where we were entranced by a jet-propelled penguin that can magnetically catch baby penguins on its back through the cunning use of magnets that they had in a small pool of water. I still rather regret not buying it. We also saw a beautiful building that, inside, had a beautifully painted dome - and it was a Tesco's supermarket. Ah Belfast.
We went to mass at 5, and after that we went to wander a bit more and find some dinner. The catch: downtown Belfast pretty much shuts down around 6 or 6:30. No one is around. Stores are no longer open. There are no restaurants except for a couple expensive ones. What to do? Well, we headed back to Victoria Square for some good ol' Irish Chilis. Yep, you heard me. It was really good. We wound our way home after that, passing one store in particular that had really stellar mannequins (see shutterfly), and stopped in to the Crown Pub for a pint, which is a cool, cozy little place with little booths that have doors. The next morning I was catching an uber-early bus, so we woke up at some obscene darkish hour of the morning and I headed off for my long, long bus ride back to Galway. It's always nice to get back, even though I had a really great time exploring Belfast and especially at the Giants Causeway. Whenever the bus passes the Oranmore stop, I know we're almost there! I'm so lame.
So, after seeing the plantlife we went downtown, which is very large and full of a mix of shopping and historical buildings. During our explorations, we came across an alley-thing with a statue mounted on the side of one of the buildings in it, so we went through the muralled (as in, covered in paintings) tunnel to explore and found it was of Jim Larkin, who we had never heard of, but who I found out later is pretty famous for his work in the labor movement. Fun stuff. We also saw Prince Albert on the clock tower, which leans a bit due to the river running underneath it, and lots and lots of rainbows! We pondered the Salmon of Knowledge, whose scales are covered in pictures of historical people and events, and then it started to rain, but we found ground chimes!! A square on the ground of nine metal squares that each produced a different tone when you stepped on them!! It was great!! We made some lovely songs, but then it really started to rain, so we sprinted to a nearby courtyard to hunker under something for a while. We headed to Victoria Square, which is a semi-indoor, semi-outdoor shopping mall with a huge dome that you can go up into and see all around the city, which we did. We also went into the swanky department store and picked out furnishings for our apartment next year before heading to the really great toy section, where we were entranced by a jet-propelled penguin that can magnetically catch baby penguins on its back through the cunning use of magnets that they had in a small pool of water. I still rather regret not buying it. We also saw a beautiful building that, inside, had a beautifully painted dome - and it was a Tesco's supermarket. Ah Belfast.
We went to mass at 5, and after that we went to wander a bit more and find some dinner. The catch: downtown Belfast pretty much shuts down around 6 or 6:30. No one is around. Stores are no longer open. There are no restaurants except for a couple expensive ones. What to do? Well, we headed back to Victoria Square for some good ol' Irish Chilis. Yep, you heard me. It was really good. We wound our way home after that, passing one store in particular that had really stellar mannequins (see shutterfly), and stopped in to the Crown Pub for a pint, which is a cool, cozy little place with little booths that have doors. The next morning I was catching an uber-early bus, so we woke up at some obscene darkish hour of the morning and I headed off for my long, long bus ride back to Galway. It's always nice to get back, even though I had a really great time exploring Belfast and especially at the Giants Causeway. Whenever the bus passes the Oranmore stop, I know we're almost there! I'm so lame.
In which I go to Belfast to visit Laura
Alright, I'm going to not be quite as longwinded as I usually am (or try not to be, anyway) in the interest of getting caught up with my blog, which has fallen sadly out of date. My friend Laura from Pitt, with whom I will be living next year, is studying at Queen's in Belfast this semester after having spent last semester in Dublin, so I haven't seen her in forever, so when we both had a free weekend I decided to head up and crash at her place for a few days. I left on Friday (27 Feb.) later than I probably should have (it's a 7 or 8 hour trip), but I wanted to go to my classes (lame, I know). The trip involves changing buses in Dublin, and I got to the station literally 3 minutes after my other bus left, so I hung out for an hour at the Dublin station before catching the next one. I got into Belfast at 12:30, and the bus let us out in a dark alley, no lie. So I called Laura, who was waiting in the nearby hotel, and she came to get me, but she had a new haircut that I was unaware of, so this small, short-haired, bespectacled person is coming towards me down the dark alley... but it was her, so that was lovely. Her housing is dorm-style, and her floor was having a pirate party, which was enthusiastically attended by what looked like the whole building and then some. We retired to her room to chat and relax until about 2 am, when the fire alarm went off, so we went for a walk and got food.
The next day we took a bus tour to the Giants Causeway, which is an incredible section of the Antrim coast formed by volcanos 60 million years ago (or by dueling giants... hence the name. Long story.). On the way we saw lots of stunning coast and countryside. Taking a bus tour in the North had distinct differences from tours in the Republic: as we drove through Belfast on our way out, our guide pointed out which buildings had been damaged by bombs during the Troubles, and as we drove along he pointed out the highly fortified police stations and gave us a short history of the military movements in the area during the Troubles up to the present day. It was surreal the following week, when those soldiers, pizza boys, and policemen were shot, to know that I had seen similar fortifications only a week earlier, had heard the guide talking about how much better it was now that the violence had stopped after the Good Friday agreement. Crazy.
Our first stop was the castle at Carrickfergus, and yes, I sang the song. It's very pretty and right on the water. There's a statue of William of Orange (I shook a righteous fist) next to the car park and a statue of a guard along the battlements, which made me laugh a little. Laura and I scaled the wall a little way up and had general climbing merriment (the guard continued to point his gun in the opposite direction... he had no idea...). When we walked over to the water, there were tourist children in little grated openings in the walls, looking like they were imprisoned, and that was sort of funny too (don't worry, they were eventually released after a short spell in the stocks). The countryside continued to be gorgeous as we traveled along, seeing more of the coast and mountains, driving inland a bit through the glens, and through villages. According to our driver, the smaller villages are pretty much either exclusively Catholic or Protestant, and you can tell by the presence of the Union Jack (or lack thereof). Also, we saw some murals, which I was really interested in, in one of the Protestant villages, which was cool. They also paint the stones along the sidewalks red, white, and blue.
We stopped off at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which was so cool. It's really for fishermen crossing over to the little connecting islands, but it's also a stellar tourist spot (come pay to walk across our bridge!). Anyway, we had a good time, touristy or not. It's sort of cliffy, and there were cool little caves at the bases that you could see while on the bridge. We went from there to Giants Causeway, and the rocks there are just incredible: perfect hexagons, and pillars, and piles of them to climb around on, and crashing waves. We took pictures standing in the Giant's Boot (a rock that looks like a boot) and climbed the paths up the mountain to more cool pillared stones amid the grass and plantlife. We did much exploring and scrambling on rocks and being queen of the elements and/or mountain, and just soaking in how incredible of a place it was. Such an unpicturesque island I chose to come to... The visitor's center and car park are at the top of a pretty steep hill that you walk down to get to the Causeway, and there's a shuttle bus that runs up and down regularly, so we decided to catch it on the way up. We waited. And waited. And waited. Our own tour bus was going to be leaving soon, so we headed off at a quick pace and ultimately sprinted up the hill (I hate physical exertion. So much.) to get back to the bus, which was starting to leave without us. We had to endure the walk of shame as we walked down the aisle to our seats, red and sweaty and windblown from our trek up the cliff. We stopped again to see a huge sprawling castle ruin on the edge of the sea, which was really lovely. A little way out from the castle you can see something pointing up out of the water, which is the spire of a church. There was a town there on an island that is now submerged. This happened relatively recently, our driver told us. It was so weird! Knowing there was a village out there. It's terribly sad, but I really want to take a little boat out and see it, you know? Our final stop was the Bushmills Distillery to pick up some whiskey and observe the making-process. We were cutting it close to closing time, but we had just enough time to get in and get out, but as we started to go in we were shunted back by a security guard... apparently THAT day they were closing a little early. Lame. Our fault? I think not. The driver told some lame jokes on our drive back into Belfast while we alternately dozed and appreciated the lovely scenery. We went out for pizza that night (delicious!) and got some snacks to settle in to her room for an evening in. Turns out I was still longwinded, so I'll continue the Belfast tale soon.
The next day we took a bus tour to the Giants Causeway, which is an incredible section of the Antrim coast formed by volcanos 60 million years ago (or by dueling giants... hence the name. Long story.). On the way we saw lots of stunning coast and countryside. Taking a bus tour in the North had distinct differences from tours in the Republic: as we drove through Belfast on our way out, our guide pointed out which buildings had been damaged by bombs during the Troubles, and as we drove along he pointed out the highly fortified police stations and gave us a short history of the military movements in the area during the Troubles up to the present day. It was surreal the following week, when those soldiers, pizza boys, and policemen were shot, to know that I had seen similar fortifications only a week earlier, had heard the guide talking about how much better it was now that the violence had stopped after the Good Friday agreement. Crazy.
Our first stop was the castle at Carrickfergus, and yes, I sang the song. It's very pretty and right on the water. There's a statue of William of Orange (I shook a righteous fist) next to the car park and a statue of a guard along the battlements, which made me laugh a little. Laura and I scaled the wall a little way up and had general climbing merriment (the guard continued to point his gun in the opposite direction... he had no idea...). When we walked over to the water, there were tourist children in little grated openings in the walls, looking like they were imprisoned, and that was sort of funny too (don't worry, they were eventually released after a short spell in the stocks). The countryside continued to be gorgeous as we traveled along, seeing more of the coast and mountains, driving inland a bit through the glens, and through villages. According to our driver, the smaller villages are pretty much either exclusively Catholic or Protestant, and you can tell by the presence of the Union Jack (or lack thereof). Also, we saw some murals, which I was really interested in, in one of the Protestant villages, which was cool. They also paint the stones along the sidewalks red, white, and blue.
We stopped off at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which was so cool. It's really for fishermen crossing over to the little connecting islands, but it's also a stellar tourist spot (come pay to walk across our bridge!). Anyway, we had a good time, touristy or not. It's sort of cliffy, and there were cool little caves at the bases that you could see while on the bridge. We went from there to Giants Causeway, and the rocks there are just incredible: perfect hexagons, and pillars, and piles of them to climb around on, and crashing waves. We took pictures standing in the Giant's Boot (a rock that looks like a boot) and climbed the paths up the mountain to more cool pillared stones amid the grass and plantlife. We did much exploring and scrambling on rocks and being queen of the elements and/or mountain, and just soaking in how incredible of a place it was. Such an unpicturesque island I chose to come to... The visitor's center and car park are at the top of a pretty steep hill that you walk down to get to the Causeway, and there's a shuttle bus that runs up and down regularly, so we decided to catch it on the way up. We waited. And waited. And waited. Our own tour bus was going to be leaving soon, so we headed off at a quick pace and ultimately sprinted up the hill (I hate physical exertion. So much.) to get back to the bus, which was starting to leave without us. We had to endure the walk of shame as we walked down the aisle to our seats, red and sweaty and windblown from our trek up the cliff. We stopped again to see a huge sprawling castle ruin on the edge of the sea, which was really lovely. A little way out from the castle you can see something pointing up out of the water, which is the spire of a church. There was a town there on an island that is now submerged. This happened relatively recently, our driver told us. It was so weird! Knowing there was a village out there. It's terribly sad, but I really want to take a little boat out and see it, you know? Our final stop was the Bushmills Distillery to pick up some whiskey and observe the making-process. We were cutting it close to closing time, but we had just enough time to get in and get out, but as we started to go in we were shunted back by a security guard... apparently THAT day they were closing a little early. Lame. Our fault? I think not. The driver told some lame jokes on our drive back into Belfast while we alternately dozed and appreciated the lovely scenery. We went out for pizza that night (delicious!) and got some snacks to settle in to her room for an evening in. Turns out I was still longwinded, so I'll continue the Belfast tale soon.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Paris!! Day 3
I was GETTING to this point, Julie, but since you insist, I will mention it first. One of the biggest parts of our trip to Paris was a man named Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Technically, it was a large ad of his for a clothing line, I believe. If you don't recognize the name, he's an actor, so go imdb him, and he's also the one true love of Julie. There are many large multi-sided signboards throughout the city with advertisements and posters on them, and basically, wherever we were in Paris, Jonathan would lead us down the right way: "Um, I'm not really sure which road it is... oh look, there's Jonathan!" and that would be the correct way. "I'm really hungry, I could really use... oh look, Jonathan!" and there would be the perfect restaurant. It was really uncanny, but I tell you the complete truth. Anytime we needed something, he was there, smirking down at us with those lovely eyes (and, frankly, an unfortunate goatee as well), leading us on.
So, Sunday came, and Finn (my program leader) was taking whoever wanted to go to mass up to Sacre Coeur, the beautiful church on the top of Montmartre. There are many, many, many stairs up to the church, giving the Rufus Wainwright song "Complaint de la Butte" from Moulin Rouge a whole new meaning: "the stairways up to the butte can make the wretched sigh, while windmill wings of the Moulin shelter you and I." Anyway, ponder that as you will, and I refer you to my pictures for a visual. At the base of the staircases is a carousel, which is fun, and as you go up there are people selling things for tourists and things. Now, if you look back at my pictures of the Eiffel Tower, there is one that shows a line of men holding large metal rings, which held Eiffel Tower keychains and things to sell to you. Here, on the stairs of Montmartre, there are "string salesmen," or so I have termed them. They form a line across the stairs, and if you pass too close to them and they can grab your arm, they wrap a type of string around your wrist and apply heat to it to make it into a bracelet of sorts, then insist that you pay for it. I didn't know this at the time, but as we approached where the men were, Finn hissed "keep your hands at your sides, keep them down, don't make eye contact." We all made it through un-stringed, you'll be glad to hear.
When you finally reach the top (Julie and I took the last flight Rocky-style), you are treated to the dueling gorgeous views of the church in front of you and a panoramic of the city behind you. Mass was in French of course, but we could follow along in the programs (written, French and Spanish are similar enough that I could pick out some things). The singing was breathtaking... I'm really running out of adjectives here, people, I'm sorry. Anyway, they were Benedictine nuns, and they sang in multi-part harmony sometimes and other times it was just the one, but it was beautiful, especially in combo with the super-intense organ music going on. We also joined in the singing, since it was printed for us, and I think we did pretty well.
Julie and I met up with Jaye, Jess, and Shaina after mass for our first foray onto the transportation systems of Paris and from thence on to Versailles! Finn had given us day passes for the Metro, so we took that to Notre Dame, where we would pick up the train. We stopped off for some lunch (paninis and crepes from an outdoor shop) and then headed out. After some initial difficulties trying to buy tickets (yes Julie, you were right) our train came conveniently quickly, so we hopped on and headed out of the city. Versailles is a whole new kind of insane: I've seen my share of castles at this point, but I'd never seen a PALACE. Certainly not one with gold everywhere, and statues, and incredible ceilings and paintings and fabric-covered walls and decorative pillars inside of rooms and huge long halls of paintings and busts of war heroes and battles and of course the Hall of Mirrors. Go look at my pictures please. We stood in a long long line to get in, but totally worth it: not only did we get to go in, of course, but we also got to be treated to "Monsieur le Desk," the very cute French man working at a desk in the ticket office (he gives out information, we had to pass him to buy tickets), who very charmingly talked to us in French until I said we didn't understand, so then he swapped over and gave us English maps of the palace. Such a nice boy... I liked his hair so much (name the quote!). After making our way through the many sections of the palace we went out to the famed gardens, which, despite the fact that it was not quite prime viewing season, were nonetheless great. We met up with Ethan, Mike, and some of the others while we were out, which was nice, and they wandered with us for a bit before heading in, since they hadn't seen the inside yet. The shrubbery (with a path! a path!) was in lots of fun shapes, including "umbrella" and "pointy cone shape," the former of which Jess and Jaye crouched under, and the latter of which Mike said "I want to go touch that tree," and proceeded to do so, because it was so perfect. We also found thrilling statues of "Lion Crushing Scary Boar Thing" and "Lion Crushing Genitals of Large Hound."
We had just enough time when we got back to Paris to hit up a bakery for some baguettes and pain au chocolat before meeting up with the group to go to the airport. We were at the airport FOREVER waiting in a HUGE security line from hell, but we eventually got through and back to Shannon, where our driver was waiting, and we headed home. We dropped off the Menlo people first, leaving the seven of us Corrib Villagers to stretch out after a long cramped ride, and arrived at the village to find that RAG week had indeed started. We were met by the extra security, who checked the outside of our bus (for clingers-on? are we in a James Bond film?) before letting us through. The merriment had started, the "party patio" below us was getting into gear, their playlist (which would haunt us throughout the week with songs like "Who Let the Dogs Out?: Remix" and a selection of odd techno-like sounds) pounding. We made it through the week alright, it almost died out by Wednesday, but picked up for Thursday, the final hurrah. It was definitely an experience, and apparently it was so crazy this year (there was a mass arrest, I hear) that they've canceled it for next year. A pity, really, since I hear they raised a good chunk of money. Ah well. *Hums "Making Memories" from the Disney sing-a-long songs video*
"Ou est la piscine?"
So, Sunday came, and Finn (my program leader) was taking whoever wanted to go to mass up to Sacre Coeur, the beautiful church on the top of Montmartre. There are many, many, many stairs up to the church, giving the Rufus Wainwright song "Complaint de la Butte" from Moulin Rouge a whole new meaning: "the stairways up to the butte can make the wretched sigh, while windmill wings of the Moulin shelter you and I." Anyway, ponder that as you will, and I refer you to my pictures for a visual. At the base of the staircases is a carousel, which is fun, and as you go up there are people selling things for tourists and things. Now, if you look back at my pictures of the Eiffel Tower, there is one that shows a line of men holding large metal rings, which held Eiffel Tower keychains and things to sell to you. Here, on the stairs of Montmartre, there are "string salesmen," or so I have termed them. They form a line across the stairs, and if you pass too close to them and they can grab your arm, they wrap a type of string around your wrist and apply heat to it to make it into a bracelet of sorts, then insist that you pay for it. I didn't know this at the time, but as we approached where the men were, Finn hissed "keep your hands at your sides, keep them down, don't make eye contact." We all made it through un-stringed, you'll be glad to hear.
When you finally reach the top (Julie and I took the last flight Rocky-style), you are treated to the dueling gorgeous views of the church in front of you and a panoramic of the city behind you. Mass was in French of course, but we could follow along in the programs (written, French and Spanish are similar enough that I could pick out some things). The singing was breathtaking... I'm really running out of adjectives here, people, I'm sorry. Anyway, they were Benedictine nuns, and they sang in multi-part harmony sometimes and other times it was just the one, but it was beautiful, especially in combo with the super-intense organ music going on. We also joined in the singing, since it was printed for us, and I think we did pretty well.
Julie and I met up with Jaye, Jess, and Shaina after mass for our first foray onto the transportation systems of Paris and from thence on to Versailles! Finn had given us day passes for the Metro, so we took that to Notre Dame, where we would pick up the train. We stopped off for some lunch (paninis and crepes from an outdoor shop) and then headed out. After some initial difficulties trying to buy tickets (yes Julie, you were right) our train came conveniently quickly, so we hopped on and headed out of the city. Versailles is a whole new kind of insane: I've seen my share of castles at this point, but I'd never seen a PALACE. Certainly not one with gold everywhere, and statues, and incredible ceilings and paintings and fabric-covered walls and decorative pillars inside of rooms and huge long halls of paintings and busts of war heroes and battles and of course the Hall of Mirrors. Go look at my pictures please. We stood in a long long line to get in, but totally worth it: not only did we get to go in, of course, but we also got to be treated to "Monsieur le Desk," the very cute French man working at a desk in the ticket office (he gives out information, we had to pass him to buy tickets), who very charmingly talked to us in French until I said we didn't understand, so then he swapped over and gave us English maps of the palace. Such a nice boy... I liked his hair so much (name the quote!). After making our way through the many sections of the palace we went out to the famed gardens, which, despite the fact that it was not quite prime viewing season, were nonetheless great. We met up with Ethan, Mike, and some of the others while we were out, which was nice, and they wandered with us for a bit before heading in, since they hadn't seen the inside yet. The shrubbery (with a path! a path!) was in lots of fun shapes, including "umbrella" and "pointy cone shape," the former of which Jess and Jaye crouched under, and the latter of which Mike said "I want to go touch that tree," and proceeded to do so, because it was so perfect. We also found thrilling statues of "Lion Crushing Scary Boar Thing" and "Lion Crushing Genitals of Large Hound."
We had just enough time when we got back to Paris to hit up a bakery for some baguettes and pain au chocolat before meeting up with the group to go to the airport. We were at the airport FOREVER waiting in a HUGE security line from hell, but we eventually got through and back to Shannon, where our driver was waiting, and we headed home. We dropped off the Menlo people first, leaving the seven of us Corrib Villagers to stretch out after a long cramped ride, and arrived at the village to find that RAG week had indeed started. We were met by the extra security, who checked the outside of our bus (for clingers-on? are we in a James Bond film?) before letting us through. The merriment had started, the "party patio" below us was getting into gear, their playlist (which would haunt us throughout the week with songs like "Who Let the Dogs Out?: Remix" and a selection of odd techno-like sounds) pounding. We made it through the week alright, it almost died out by Wednesday, but picked up for Thursday, the final hurrah. It was definitely an experience, and apparently it was so crazy this year (there was a mass arrest, I hear) that they've canceled it for next year. A pity, really, since I hear they raised a good chunk of money. Ah well. *Hums "Making Memories" from the Disney sing-a-long songs video*
"Ou est la piscine?"
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Paris, Part 2
Sorry I fail at keeping this blog... So, Saturday morning we partook of the stellar breakfast offered by the hotel before heading out for a bus tour to hit the tourist highlights, including the Champs D'Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, the Trocadero (which serves as an excellent viewing place for the Eiffel Tower), and Les Invalides. The Arc was fun, because it's surrounded by the roundabout of ruination and despair (if you even think about crossing it, a car will hit you, just to save time), but there's an underground passageway that takes you right up under it, so you can see all the gigantor sculptures and things (quote: "That guy's hand is all over that guy's thigh!"). There was also a very cute policeman there as well - bonus! We finished up the tour at Notre Dame, where we were once again made paranoid about pickpockets before going inside. GORGEOUS. SO incredible (or, should I say, incroyable?). And no one was pickpocketed! We then had the rest of the day to as we liked, so we walked around outside a bit before setting out. There were a group of three immigrant women taking it in turns to dress up in shiny gold robes and Egyptian masks in the hopes of collecting money, and I took a picture because, well, she was shiny! An old homeless French man came up to me and asked why I would take a picture of that, and I said "something to look at, I don't know" (clearly I was full of wit that day), but he didn't quite understand me, so I said, "it's just sort of fun," and he shrugged but looked satisfied, "ok," and walked away. Ah Paris.
We (Jaye, Julie, Jess, Shaina, and I) went down a sidestreet to find some lunch and got gyros at an adorable restaurant. We ate in their underground cave, all nicely decorated with Greek paintings and such. We went across the road for gelato and did a little touristy shopping, then headed off along the Seine to look at the vendors and make our way to the Pere LaChaise Cemetery. We walked past the Bastille Memorial and through the hipster part of town, full of cool stores and people in lots of black leather. When we got nearer to the cemetery, we found ourselves blocked by a vibrant rally/protest thing. Our French skills (hello, the check please, I would like a baguette and cheese) were not quite sufficient to allow us to know what it was all about, but many people had identical stickers (see picture on Shutterfly) that mentioned the Antilles. Many of the people in the rally were black, so I don't know if they were all immigrants and that was what it was about or what, but there was much shouting by the rally leader, and singing, and you couldn't help feeling a little stirred up yourself. Mob mentality, I suppose. There were some fears that we might be tear-gassed if we lingered too long (we were only there for about a minute), so we found a break in the parade line and moved on.
Pere LaChaise Cemetary is the resting place of many many famous people in the arts world, as well as regular families. We went because Julie wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave, but we also wanted to see Oscar Wilde. We also saw Moliere and Proust. I looked and looked for Chopin (they give you maps to help you find the famous people) but I just couldn't find him, and sadly Georges Serault was in a different part of the cemetery that we didn't make it to. It's an incredible place, eerie and beautiful and awesome, which is why I took so many pictures. If graves skeev you out, you should avoid that section of photos. We then headed the long long way back to our hotel to rest before dinner - Jaye has a friend studying in Paris, so she was going to come out with us. We had a lovely walk, past the Place de la Republique, but it did go on for ever and ever, so it was nice to get back to the hotel. Shaina and I collapsed in my room and watched some Pink Panther. At one point later in the night, we were in the lobby, and some boys walked past us to leave the hotel, and said "bonjour!" to us, to which I replied, "bon nuit," and then one of them said "nighty-night" in his regular British accent, to which Julie replied "g'night." The boy laughed and called to his friends, "they're English, you twats!"
So we went to dinner, and had delicious food, and had some awkward conversation with the waiter, who was from Algeria, and who, through a sad combination of overhearing part of something Jess said and misinterpreting a joke, thought that we were on the prowl for men. After he gave us the check, he very very awkwardly stopped an acquaintance of his from leaving (we were sitting in the enclosed outside area) and asked us, "he's handsome, isn't he?" After he gave us the check, he hovered, not even kidding waiting for us to ask for his number. We refrained. We walked the couple blocks down to see the Moulin Rouge by night, and it's cool with the windmill all lit up and people everywhere. Crepes were purchased, and we headed back towards the hotel, and our walk was peppered with catcalls and things. Julie and I walk a little faster than the others, so we were walking in two groups, and at one point, as we came upon a group of boys around our age I guess, one of them took a swig of beer, turned to us, and spat it at us. Technically, it skimmed my scarf and the front of my coat, and Julie got the brunt of it (all on her hand-knitted-by-Grandma scarf!). We said nothing but walked on, faster, and speedwalked our way back to the hotel, where we waited and commiserated over our beer-spit smell while the others walked Jaye's friend to the Metro. Not the highlight of the trip. The others came back and we hung out a little before heading to bed, because Sunday was a big day: Sacre Coeur and Versailles!! Which I will tell you about another time. And my trip to Belfast. Eventually.
We (Jaye, Julie, Jess, Shaina, and I) went down a sidestreet to find some lunch and got gyros at an adorable restaurant. We ate in their underground cave, all nicely decorated with Greek paintings and such. We went across the road for gelato and did a little touristy shopping, then headed off along the Seine to look at the vendors and make our way to the Pere LaChaise Cemetery. We walked past the Bastille Memorial and through the hipster part of town, full of cool stores and people in lots of black leather. When we got nearer to the cemetery, we found ourselves blocked by a vibrant rally/protest thing. Our French skills (hello, the check please, I would like a baguette and cheese) were not quite sufficient to allow us to know what it was all about, but many people had identical stickers (see picture on Shutterfly) that mentioned the Antilles. Many of the people in the rally were black, so I don't know if they were all immigrants and that was what it was about or what, but there was much shouting by the rally leader, and singing, and you couldn't help feeling a little stirred up yourself. Mob mentality, I suppose. There were some fears that we might be tear-gassed if we lingered too long (we were only there for about a minute), so we found a break in the parade line and moved on.
Pere LaChaise Cemetary is the resting place of many many famous people in the arts world, as well as regular families. We went because Julie wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave, but we also wanted to see Oscar Wilde. We also saw Moliere and Proust. I looked and looked for Chopin (they give you maps to help you find the famous people) but I just couldn't find him, and sadly Georges Serault was in a different part of the cemetery that we didn't make it to. It's an incredible place, eerie and beautiful and awesome, which is why I took so many pictures. If graves skeev you out, you should avoid that section of photos. We then headed the long long way back to our hotel to rest before dinner - Jaye has a friend studying in Paris, so she was going to come out with us. We had a lovely walk, past the Place de la Republique, but it did go on for ever and ever, so it was nice to get back to the hotel. Shaina and I collapsed in my room and watched some Pink Panther. At one point later in the night, we were in the lobby, and some boys walked past us to leave the hotel, and said "bonjour!" to us, to which I replied, "bon nuit," and then one of them said "nighty-night" in his regular British accent, to which Julie replied "g'night." The boy laughed and called to his friends, "they're English, you twats!"
So we went to dinner, and had delicious food, and had some awkward conversation with the waiter, who was from Algeria, and who, through a sad combination of overhearing part of something Jess said and misinterpreting a joke, thought that we were on the prowl for men. After he gave us the check, he very very awkwardly stopped an acquaintance of his from leaving (we were sitting in the enclosed outside area) and asked us, "he's handsome, isn't he?" After he gave us the check, he hovered, not even kidding waiting for us to ask for his number. We refrained. We walked the couple blocks down to see the Moulin Rouge by night, and it's cool with the windmill all lit up and people everywhere. Crepes were purchased, and we headed back towards the hotel, and our walk was peppered with catcalls and things. Julie and I walk a little faster than the others, so we were walking in two groups, and at one point, as we came upon a group of boys around our age I guess, one of them took a swig of beer, turned to us, and spat it at us. Technically, it skimmed my scarf and the front of my coat, and Julie got the brunt of it (all on her hand-knitted-by-Grandma scarf!). We said nothing but walked on, faster, and speedwalked our way back to the hotel, where we waited and commiserated over our beer-spit smell while the others walked Jaye's friend to the Metro. Not the highlight of the trip. The others came back and we hung out a little before heading to bed, because Sunday was a big day: Sacre Coeur and Versailles!! Which I will tell you about another time. And my trip to Belfast. Eventually.
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