So last week, after a lot of deliberation, I made a big life decision: I’m going to run a half-marathon. In Providence in August.
My favorite response to my decision has to go to my friend Anne: “you mean like… running?” I know my pure athletic skill and grace make this such a simple task, so I really won’t have to train very hard for it…
… NOT.
I am actually one of the least athletic and least graceful humans alive, but I decided to run a half-marathon. I have been saying for a long time that I want to get in shape, but I wasn’t consistently doing anything about it. I felt that I needed an attainable, tangible, definite goal to reach in order to make an actual difference, so after some googling and research, I found the “Run Rock and Roll” Half-Marathon Series, and their first one in Providence will be August 7th.
I’m starting to train now- which means I’m being extra careful about what I’m eating and drinking, and oh yes, I’m running. Since the only exercise I’ve really gotten since I’ve been here has been walking all over the city, it’s definitely been a struggle, but I make myself run every day. Marissa, one of my best friends here, is a cross-country runner and helps me to motivate myself, so with the combination of her encouragement and my growing discipline and determination, I know I can conquer this challenge. Any tips, suggestions, or support is welcome, and hopefully after a few weeks I will no longer be driving the strugglebus while I’m running, and it will get easier!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Show Me What I'm Looking For
Part of my weekly routine at PC is 10:30 PM mass. Without it, I feel less settled, and I love to go to reflect on my past week and get ready for the week ahead. When I first got to Ireland, I had so many things to think about that I really didn’t make finding a faith community here a priority. Then I started traveling- I was in Oxford one weekend, Belfast the next, then London, Paris, and Brussels, and when I was home in Dublin, I either slept through masses (they’re all really early!), or went to Trinity, where there is a very small community who go every Sunday. So many students go home on the weekend and many don’t feel connected to the Church, so the youth of Ireland (especially at Trinity) are not as active in Campus Ministry as my friends at PC.
I was walking along the Liffey one day recently, and I walked by a Church that advertised a 9 pm mass on Sunday nights. I mentioned it to my roommates, and that Sunday, Marissa and I were off to Adam and Eve’s. I have since learned that it’s a pretty famous Dublin landmark, and it’s really beautiful inside. I like going to mass in the evening, and while it’s no 10:30, it’s really starting to grow on me. Adam and Eve is a Franciscan church, with a Friary right next door. I have heard some very interesting homilies, and Marissa and I have been going twice a week during Lent.
I miss mass at PC and with Dominican Friars, and I know that they are here in Dublin, but I’m sticking to Adam and Eve’s for now. I may adventure over to the North Side for mass on Sunday, where the Dominican parish is, but I’m starting to find a home at Adam and Eve’s.
Exams and lots of giant essays are looming, and I know I’ll be feeling the stress pretty soon- I’m glad I have found a place where I feel comfortable and that I look forward to going back to. I still have two months left here, and I think that Adam and Eve’s will be a big part of that time!
I was walking along the Liffey one day recently, and I walked by a Church that advertised a 9 pm mass on Sunday nights. I mentioned it to my roommates, and that Sunday, Marissa and I were off to Adam and Eve’s. I have since learned that it’s a pretty famous Dublin landmark, and it’s really beautiful inside. I like going to mass in the evening, and while it’s no 10:30, it’s really starting to grow on me. Adam and Eve is a Franciscan church, with a Friary right next door. I have heard some very interesting homilies, and Marissa and I have been going twice a week during Lent.
I miss mass at PC and with Dominican Friars, and I know that they are here in Dublin, but I’m sticking to Adam and Eve’s for now. I may adventure over to the North Side for mass on Sunday, where the Dominican parish is, but I’m starting to find a home at Adam and Eve’s.
Exams and lots of giant essays are looming, and I know I’ll be feeling the stress pretty soon- I’m glad I have found a place where I feel comfortable and that I look forward to going back to. I still have two months left here, and I think that Adam and Eve’s will be a big part of that time!
Wordplay
One thing I can’t help but notice is how beautiful the language of the Irish people is. I’m not just talking about the Irish language, which is really cool but absolutely boggles my mind, but the way that the Irish people speak. I have noticed it in my classes among my lecturers and classmates, and I have noticed it in little pieces among my American friends and myself- we have all started to pick up little Irishisms!
The biggest thing you notice when you’re here is the lilt and inflection that Irish people use- it’s really hard to describe other than to imitate, but it is so easy to listen to and it keeps you very engaged. A big thing to do with inflection is when you ask a question, and at first we made fun of Kristen for picking it up, but I’ve noticed that I have started to do it too. I know this isn’t very helpful to you since I’m not being very descriptive, but while they say the same words we would, it has a completely different sound, and it’s not just the accent. “Did he pass his test?” in the US would usually imply the pitch of the voice going up a bit on the word exam, but in Ireland, it’s “DID hepasshistest?” and you can still understand it.
The way that vowels are shaped are different from American English, and especially in the beginning, we found ourselves trying to mimic the sound when someone spoke to us, often right to the Irish person’s face. I still try to mimic it in my head, but I encounter so many different accents over the course of the day, I don’t retain much.
I like to think that I know my way around a brogue- my Dad and I sometimes speak to each other in brogues at home (to the delight of many of my friends), but I feel like my brogue here has just become confused! The brogue I’m familiar with is from Co. Mayo, while the ones I hear here are from Dublin, Cork, Derry, Galway, and many other places, since so many students from all over Ireland come to Trinity to study. I think that once I get home I’ll be able to sort it out, but I’m not very good at it while I’m here.
Other than the accent that is so different, the word choices of so many people make the language so beautifully poetic. You can see it in the work of Joyce and Yeats, but you can also hear it talking to anyone. I always get a kick out of my classmates when they say that one play is “loads better” than another- not “much better” or “a lot better.” People from the West sometimes say “ye” instead of “you” (Danielle and I love this and use it in BBM all the time). Irish use “like” almost as much if not more than Americans, and it’s “em” instead of “um.” A period at the end of a sentence is a “full stop,” and they call eggplants and zucchini “courgette” and “aubergine.”
My favorite quote in the Guinness Factory Storehouse is “THERE’S POETRY IN A PINT OF GUINNESS,” and I couldn’t agree more. I also find poetry in a good cup of tea on a cold day. Between Guinness, tea, and language, I’m surrounded by poetry every day.
The biggest thing you notice when you’re here is the lilt and inflection that Irish people use- it’s really hard to describe other than to imitate, but it is so easy to listen to and it keeps you very engaged. A big thing to do with inflection is when you ask a question, and at first we made fun of Kristen for picking it up, but I’ve noticed that I have started to do it too. I know this isn’t very helpful to you since I’m not being very descriptive, but while they say the same words we would, it has a completely different sound, and it’s not just the accent. “Did he pass his test?” in the US would usually imply the pitch of the voice going up a bit on the word exam, but in Ireland, it’s “DID hepasshistest?” and you can still understand it.
The way that vowels are shaped are different from American English, and especially in the beginning, we found ourselves trying to mimic the sound when someone spoke to us, often right to the Irish person’s face. I still try to mimic it in my head, but I encounter so many different accents over the course of the day, I don’t retain much.
I like to think that I know my way around a brogue- my Dad and I sometimes speak to each other in brogues at home (to the delight of many of my friends), but I feel like my brogue here has just become confused! The brogue I’m familiar with is from Co. Mayo, while the ones I hear here are from Dublin, Cork, Derry, Galway, and many other places, since so many students from all over Ireland come to Trinity to study. I think that once I get home I’ll be able to sort it out, but I’m not very good at it while I’m here.
Other than the accent that is so different, the word choices of so many people make the language so beautifully poetic. You can see it in the work of Joyce and Yeats, but you can also hear it talking to anyone. I always get a kick out of my classmates when they say that one play is “loads better” than another- not “much better” or “a lot better.” People from the West sometimes say “ye” instead of “you” (Danielle and I love this and use it in BBM all the time). Irish use “like” almost as much if not more than Americans, and it’s “em” instead of “um.” A period at the end of a sentence is a “full stop,” and they call eggplants and zucchini “courgette” and “aubergine.”
My favorite quote in the Guinness Factory Storehouse is “THERE’S POETRY IN A PINT OF GUINNESS,” and I couldn’t agree more. I also find poetry in a good cup of tea on a cold day. Between Guinness, tea, and language, I’m surrounded by poetry every day.
St. Patrick's Day
Well, I’m not going to lie: being in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day was pretty cool. I had heard from so many people that it wouldn’t be a big deal here, and that yeah, people go to mass and that’s about it. I remember when my cousins came to the parade in Manhattan, they were surprised by the big celebration, and told us that it was different from home.
It was definitely a different experience than home, but it was a big deal in the city! A lot of the people who were out in all the green and obnoxious shamrock attire were definitely tourists, but over the course of the day we definitely encountered a lot of Irish people as well, especially at the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The parade was nothing like any American St. Patrick’s Day parade I’ve ever been in or seen, and it honestly reminded me more of a Mardi Gras parade than anything. There were beautiful floats and giant puppets that reminded me of a parade in Disney, and some of them had great bands playing on them as well. The music wasn’t all traditional though, a lot of it was just contemporary Dublin music. There was dancing, but not Irish Step like we have in our parades- it was more like ballet or jazz than anything else. A lot people were clowns and mimes too- a cool but surprising experience.
I had a lot of visitors for the day/weekend, as you can imagine. Danielle came out from Cork with Keely, who was visiting from PC. Brittany, an NDA friend, brought her friend Sarah from St. Andrew’s in Scotland, and they actually arrived the evening of St. Patrick’s Day. We went to a few different pubs over the course of the day, stopping back at my apartment in between to rest and just sit down for a little bit! The city was so crowded, so it was a bit overwhelming at times to be out and about. I have never seen so many people on Grafton Street, it was almost impossible to walk down it! Overall, it was a fun but rather chaotic day. Most Dubliners leave for St. Patrick’s Day, and I don’t blame them! It’s crowded and packed with tourists, and if you don’t have a flat right on the parade route or have plans to go to a party in someone else’s flat, it’s hard to celebrate!
The next day, I had a lot of work to get done, so Brittany and Sarah hung out with Beanie for the day and Danielle and Keely went adventuring on their own. I heard from them that the Guinness factory line was around the corner, as was Jameson, and I experienced the Patty’s aftermath when I tried to walk through front square at Trinity to get to the library- it was completely full of people wandering around the campus, and the line to see the Book of Kells was outrageous! I was happy to get into the library where tourists are not allowed, and I had a very productive afternoon.
That week felt like one giant vacation- St. Patrick’s Day is both a national holiday and a holy day of obligation in Ireland, and I only have one class on Friday, so it was a little weird to go back to school on Monday afterwards! It was, however, so nice to return to some kind of routine and regularity!
Patty’s was almost 2 weeks ago, which I can’t believe-I still feel like I’m recovering, honestly. It’s week 11 of the semester (out of 12!!), and my sophister level classes ended on Friday, that’s 3 out of 6 done! Today I finish my 4th, Art in Ireland, leaving me with 2 more classes to attend for the next two weeks. Sophister level classes are 3rd and 4th year classes, so what we call an “upperclassman,” Trinity calls a “sophister.” Personally, I like sophister better… I feel far more sophisticated. (Just made a vocab connection… sophister, sophisticated… Latin roots, anyone?). I have the extra time these two weeks not to bask in the sun (that’s right- Dublin is actually SUNNY), but to work on my essays! I have three 3,000 word essays due on April 8th, the last day of term. I have started two of them, and I hope to have drafts of all three finished by the end of the week. It’s nice to have more time to focus on schoolwork, but that means that I’ll be practically living out of the library this week.
This past weekend, Lauren and Kara came over from the US with Lauren’s grandmother, and Kaitlin and Anne came from London and Barcelona! We stayed in the Shelbourne, a lovely hotel on Stephen’s Green, and made a visit out to Newgrange to see a burial site/winter solstice marker that is older than the pyramids! I learned a lot about ancient Ireland, and it was SO good to see my ND friends ☺.
I come home exactly two months from today. Sometimes, that seems like a really long time, but other times, it seems so fast! I remember when I realized I had already been here for two months, and that seems like forever ago, but it also seemed like I had just gotten here… it actually still does. So, see you in two months, unless you’re one of the many coming to visit within the next few weeks! My parents will be here in about 10 days (YAY! I’m so excited to see them, this is the longest I’ve ever been away from them), and I’ll also have visits from 3 friends currently studying in England: Kari, Kristy, and Tom. I’ll keep you updated now that I have a bit more free time!
Until later,
Julia
It was definitely a different experience than home, but it was a big deal in the city! A lot of the people who were out in all the green and obnoxious shamrock attire were definitely tourists, but over the course of the day we definitely encountered a lot of Irish people as well, especially at the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The parade was nothing like any American St. Patrick’s Day parade I’ve ever been in or seen, and it honestly reminded me more of a Mardi Gras parade than anything. There were beautiful floats and giant puppets that reminded me of a parade in Disney, and some of them had great bands playing on them as well. The music wasn’t all traditional though, a lot of it was just contemporary Dublin music. There was dancing, but not Irish Step like we have in our parades- it was more like ballet or jazz than anything else. A lot people were clowns and mimes too- a cool but surprising experience.
I had a lot of visitors for the day/weekend, as you can imagine. Danielle came out from Cork with Keely, who was visiting from PC. Brittany, an NDA friend, brought her friend Sarah from St. Andrew’s in Scotland, and they actually arrived the evening of St. Patrick’s Day. We went to a few different pubs over the course of the day, stopping back at my apartment in between to rest and just sit down for a little bit! The city was so crowded, so it was a bit overwhelming at times to be out and about. I have never seen so many people on Grafton Street, it was almost impossible to walk down it! Overall, it was a fun but rather chaotic day. Most Dubliners leave for St. Patrick’s Day, and I don’t blame them! It’s crowded and packed with tourists, and if you don’t have a flat right on the parade route or have plans to go to a party in someone else’s flat, it’s hard to celebrate!
The next day, I had a lot of work to get done, so Brittany and Sarah hung out with Beanie for the day and Danielle and Keely went adventuring on their own. I heard from them that the Guinness factory line was around the corner, as was Jameson, and I experienced the Patty’s aftermath when I tried to walk through front square at Trinity to get to the library- it was completely full of people wandering around the campus, and the line to see the Book of Kells was outrageous! I was happy to get into the library where tourists are not allowed, and I had a very productive afternoon.
That week felt like one giant vacation- St. Patrick’s Day is both a national holiday and a holy day of obligation in Ireland, and I only have one class on Friday, so it was a little weird to go back to school on Monday afterwards! It was, however, so nice to return to some kind of routine and regularity!
Patty’s was almost 2 weeks ago, which I can’t believe-I still feel like I’m recovering, honestly. It’s week 11 of the semester (out of 12!!), and my sophister level classes ended on Friday, that’s 3 out of 6 done! Today I finish my 4th, Art in Ireland, leaving me with 2 more classes to attend for the next two weeks. Sophister level classes are 3rd and 4th year classes, so what we call an “upperclassman,” Trinity calls a “sophister.” Personally, I like sophister better… I feel far more sophisticated. (Just made a vocab connection… sophister, sophisticated… Latin roots, anyone?). I have the extra time these two weeks not to bask in the sun (that’s right- Dublin is actually SUNNY), but to work on my essays! I have three 3,000 word essays due on April 8th, the last day of term. I have started two of them, and I hope to have drafts of all three finished by the end of the week. It’s nice to have more time to focus on schoolwork, but that means that I’ll be practically living out of the library this week.
This past weekend, Lauren and Kara came over from the US with Lauren’s grandmother, and Kaitlin and Anne came from London and Barcelona! We stayed in the Shelbourne, a lovely hotel on Stephen’s Green, and made a visit out to Newgrange to see a burial site/winter solstice marker that is older than the pyramids! I learned a lot about ancient Ireland, and it was SO good to see my ND friends ☺.
I come home exactly two months from today. Sometimes, that seems like a really long time, but other times, it seems so fast! I remember when I realized I had already been here for two months, and that seems like forever ago, but it also seemed like I had just gotten here… it actually still does. So, see you in two months, unless you’re one of the many coming to visit within the next few weeks! My parents will be here in about 10 days (YAY! I’m so excited to see them, this is the longest I’ve ever been away from them), and I’ll also have visits from 3 friends currently studying in England: Kari, Kristy, and Tom. I’ll keep you updated now that I have a bit more free time!
Until later,
Julia
Monday, March 7, 2011
Ca Marche
So, yes, I promise, I am still alive! So sorry for all the delay- between geology tests, two essays, and a very long trip, I have been SO busy! I am now safely home in Dublin and will be for a while now, but I am expecting an awesome crew of visitors in the next few weeks, which will be awesome.
As Maria from the Sound of Music says, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Two weekends ago, I grabbed my bag after class and yet again made my way to the airport via aircoach, this time to London! I landed at Gatwick and took a train to Farringdon Station, where I met Kaitlin and Anne, two NDA classmates. Kaitlin is studing in London for the semester at City University, and Anne is in Barcelona, but she was also visiting for the weekend! We dropped my bag off in Kaitlin's room and then hopped on the Tube down to the London Eye, which was absolutely breathtaking to do at night. It was so cool to have the whole city lit up in front of us, and a great introduction to London. Then we went to grab some fish and chips for dinner at a pub that was Sherlock Holmes-themed, and after heading back to Kaitlin's apartment for a bit we went and met Kristy (another NDA girl in London!) at a karaoke bar, which was a lot of fun. Kaitlin and Anne were great- at one point they took over the mics completely (right out of the two theatre majors' hands) to finish up Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." We also sang a fine rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the Lion King, and had quite a lot of fun in the process. Afterwards, Kaitlin took us to Tinseltown, an American-style diner where we had really delicious food, not to mention Kinder Bueno (an AMAZING candy bar that is all over Europe but so hard to find in the US) milkshakes- YUM. Saturday we walked all over the city of London and saw so much, which was great! We went to Kensington Palace, spent a lot of time in Westminster Abbey, and ate at Pret-a-Manger, which are delicious and all over London. That afternoon we went to Portobello market, an awesome really long street with everything that you could ever want, for pretty reasonable prices. We had awesome crepes and Kaitlin and I got matching purses that are so great for traveling- and were only 10 pounds each! That night we just kind of hung out in Kaitlin's room since we were so tired, and the next morning we got up to meet Kristy again for a treat that none of us had been able to have in a while but were all craving- Bagels! We went to Brick Lane, a section of London that is highly populated by Bangladeshi people and has an awesome food market on Sundays, where we saw so many amazing ethnic foods and cool clothes, but kept pushing through to find our bagels. For 1 pound I had a delicious bagel with cream cheese, and then we wandered around for a while, got coffee, and said goodbye to Kristy. Anne, Kaitlin and I went down to Buckingham palace, took some photos, and ran back to Kaitlin's room for me to grab my bag and get on my way. It was an all around amazing experience, but altogether too short, and I will definitely have to go back to London!
The next weekend I was here in Dublin, but I stayed around in order to work on essays- that week was our reading week, and I had two essays due today that were a very big part of my grade, so I wanted to make sure I got them done! Nam and Kristen were both on their own adventures in Spain, leaving me by myself in the apartment, and though it sounds lonely it was actually really nice to be on my own for a little! I went to a farmer's market and had Queen of Tarts breakfast with my friend Sarah, cooked for myself, did all my laundry, and caught up on American TV. Very peaceful! Tuesday morning, however, was a different story.
After packing (overpacking), watching the rebroadcast of the Oscars (thanks for alerting me of that Danielle!), and scrambling around the apartment trying to get everything together, I made it to bed around 11:45, only to have my alarm go off at a painful 3:45 am. I felt like my head had only just hit the pillow, but I somehow forced myself to get up and get moving, and by 4:15 I was up, dressed, and out the door with my bag on the way to the bus. Once boarding a 6 am plane to Paris (and losing to Ryanair- my bag did not fit their ridiculously tiny restrictions, therefore I had to check it at the gate and pay a lot of Euro), I finally slept again. I landed at Paris Beauvais airport (another reason not to fly Ryanair- Beauvais is about an hour outside of the city), hopped on a bus and slept some more, waking up in Paris! I negotiated the metro on my own, took two different trains, got off and found my hostel!
After so many hours of traveling, all I wanted was a cat nap, but unfortunately I couldn't check in for another few hours. I left my luggage at the hostel, grabbed a demi-baguette from the boulangerie on the corner, and hopped back on the metro headed for the Musee D'Orsay! I had been there before, but it was so nice to go back- I saw so much amazing impressionist work, and the museum itself, which used to be a train station, was breathtaking. I finally surrendered to my body, which was aching for sleep, and wandered back to the hostel. I woke up and grabbed some dinner, and when I got back to my room, Nam was there! We planned our next day and I was quite happy to get a good night's rest.
The next morning we woke up a little late (we were both exhausted!), but grabbed a metro to Montmartre and had some brunch on the steps of Sacre Coeur, one of the most beautiful places in Paris. I had a baguette with brie and tomato on it- SO delicious. That's one of my favorite snacks at home, but to have it on a fresh baguette with delicious French cheese was nothing like my recreations in the states. We then took a metro to the Place de St. Michel, a beautiful fountain of St. Michael, which is right near Notre Dame. From there we took an awesome free walking tour of the city. It was 3 1/2 hours long, but our tour guide Bryan was awesome! He was funny and made both pop-culture and historical references throughout the tour, and after it was done, he offered to extend the tour to those who were interested. We were, so we got to see more places and have some amazing dinner with fellow young travelers. I had some delicious quiche Lorraine, and it was very reasonably priced. Bryan gave us suggestions for where to find great falafel in Marais (that my friend Mary Emily who had studied abroad in Paris had already suggested, so I knew it was a must) and where to have some good duck. That was a Wednesday, so the Louvre was open late. Naturally, I dragged Nam there right away, and we stayed until it closed. It was so cool to be there at night- it gave the whole museum a different feeling, and I was happy to just plop myself down in front of David's famous painting Napoleon's Coronation (at this point he has already crowned himself and is crowning Josephine) for almost 30 minutes, trying to remember everything I learned about it in AP Art History and using every option on the audio guide.
The next day, Nam and I went back to some of the places we had seen on the walking tour- it had been a great introduction to Paris, and we saw a lot, but we didn't get to experience a lot. First we went to Notre Dame, which was absolutely amazing. I loved having so much time to wander around and take it all in, and it was so cool to experience mass there. Nam, who's not Catholic, said he felt really at peace in the Cathedral. After our time there, we went to this amazing AMAZING amazing falafel place in Marais, where we kept talking about Notre Dame (and how delicious the falafel was). We both agreed that it's a very comforting, peaceful place, which might be surprising since it's so big and could be intimidating!
After falafel that Nam and I still dream about, we went to the Eiffel Tower. walked around/under it for a while, but since it was so cold and would take so much time (and money...), we didn't go up to the top. Had I not already been up there, I would have definitely done it, but I was freezing on the ground and we had a lot to see that day! We wandered over to Sainte Chapelle (amazing), and then Nam went to go meet one of his friends who's studying in Paris for the semester and I went back to the Louvre. I saw the Napoleon III apartments, wandered through sculpture galleries, saw La Liberte, and for the first time I really saw the Louvre as a palace, which is what it was originally used for. I of course got wildly lost inside, and was there until it closed again. I then got back on the metro to meet Nam for dinner, where we had AMAZING duck, potatoes, baguette, and wine... and of course, a street crepe on the way home.
Overall, Paris was wonderful. Amazing food, amazing art, and I was so so happy to be able to practice my French! I was able to get us around the city pretty well, and I was able to explain to the ticket offices in museums that I counted as an EU student even though I didn't need a visa to study in Ireland, so I could get free admission into both the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay!
The next morning I got up and made my way to Gare du Nord after stopping at the corner boulangerie one more time for pain au chocolat, which is like a croissant with chocolate in the middle- I remember Mlle. Stine telling us about her love for it in French class, and it was the best breakfast ever. I also grabbed another sandwich (goat cheese and tomato, yum) for the train ride to Brussels! The train was so nice, and it was amazing riding through the French and Belgian countryside. It was only an hour and a half on the train- nice to get some reading done! I got off in Brussels, where there was a public transport strike, and after a bit of confusion and having to go into the tourism office a few times (do you have a map?... could you show me where to go on the map?... which door should I leave through?), I braced myself to wander through an entirely new city.
I will update about my next adventure in another post, as this one is already so long! I know I have a lot to catch you up on, and I'm sorry it's been so delayed- I promise the next one will be soon!
Catch me up on what you've been doing too! Obviously, traveling has been wonderful, but I miss home too!
xox
As Maria from the Sound of Music says, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Two weekends ago, I grabbed my bag after class and yet again made my way to the airport via aircoach, this time to London! I landed at Gatwick and took a train to Farringdon Station, where I met Kaitlin and Anne, two NDA classmates. Kaitlin is studing in London for the semester at City University, and Anne is in Barcelona, but she was also visiting for the weekend! We dropped my bag off in Kaitlin's room and then hopped on the Tube down to the London Eye, which was absolutely breathtaking to do at night. It was so cool to have the whole city lit up in front of us, and a great introduction to London. Then we went to grab some fish and chips for dinner at a pub that was Sherlock Holmes-themed, and after heading back to Kaitlin's apartment for a bit we went and met Kristy (another NDA girl in London!) at a karaoke bar, which was a lot of fun. Kaitlin and Anne were great- at one point they took over the mics completely (right out of the two theatre majors' hands) to finish up Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." We also sang a fine rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the Lion King, and had quite a lot of fun in the process. Afterwards, Kaitlin took us to Tinseltown, an American-style diner where we had really delicious food, not to mention Kinder Bueno (an AMAZING candy bar that is all over Europe but so hard to find in the US) milkshakes- YUM. Saturday we walked all over the city of London and saw so much, which was great! We went to Kensington Palace, spent a lot of time in Westminster Abbey, and ate at Pret-a-Manger, which are delicious and all over London. That afternoon we went to Portobello market, an awesome really long street with everything that you could ever want, for pretty reasonable prices. We had awesome crepes and Kaitlin and I got matching purses that are so great for traveling- and were only 10 pounds each! That night we just kind of hung out in Kaitlin's room since we were so tired, and the next morning we got up to meet Kristy again for a treat that none of us had been able to have in a while but were all craving- Bagels! We went to Brick Lane, a section of London that is highly populated by Bangladeshi people and has an awesome food market on Sundays, where we saw so many amazing ethnic foods and cool clothes, but kept pushing through to find our bagels. For 1 pound I had a delicious bagel with cream cheese, and then we wandered around for a while, got coffee, and said goodbye to Kristy. Anne, Kaitlin and I went down to Buckingham palace, took some photos, and ran back to Kaitlin's room for me to grab my bag and get on my way. It was an all around amazing experience, but altogether too short, and I will definitely have to go back to London!
The next weekend I was here in Dublin, but I stayed around in order to work on essays- that week was our reading week, and I had two essays due today that were a very big part of my grade, so I wanted to make sure I got them done! Nam and Kristen were both on their own adventures in Spain, leaving me by myself in the apartment, and though it sounds lonely it was actually really nice to be on my own for a little! I went to a farmer's market and had Queen of Tarts breakfast with my friend Sarah, cooked for myself, did all my laundry, and caught up on American TV. Very peaceful! Tuesday morning, however, was a different story.
After packing (overpacking), watching the rebroadcast of the Oscars (thanks for alerting me of that Danielle!), and scrambling around the apartment trying to get everything together, I made it to bed around 11:45, only to have my alarm go off at a painful 3:45 am. I felt like my head had only just hit the pillow, but I somehow forced myself to get up and get moving, and by 4:15 I was up, dressed, and out the door with my bag on the way to the bus. Once boarding a 6 am plane to Paris (and losing to Ryanair- my bag did not fit their ridiculously tiny restrictions, therefore I had to check it at the gate and pay a lot of Euro), I finally slept again. I landed at Paris Beauvais airport (another reason not to fly Ryanair- Beauvais is about an hour outside of the city), hopped on a bus and slept some more, waking up in Paris! I negotiated the metro on my own, took two different trains, got off and found my hostel!
After so many hours of traveling, all I wanted was a cat nap, but unfortunately I couldn't check in for another few hours. I left my luggage at the hostel, grabbed a demi-baguette from the boulangerie on the corner, and hopped back on the metro headed for the Musee D'Orsay! I had been there before, but it was so nice to go back- I saw so much amazing impressionist work, and the museum itself, which used to be a train station, was breathtaking. I finally surrendered to my body, which was aching for sleep, and wandered back to the hostel. I woke up and grabbed some dinner, and when I got back to my room, Nam was there! We planned our next day and I was quite happy to get a good night's rest.
The next morning we woke up a little late (we were both exhausted!), but grabbed a metro to Montmartre and had some brunch on the steps of Sacre Coeur, one of the most beautiful places in Paris. I had a baguette with brie and tomato on it- SO delicious. That's one of my favorite snacks at home, but to have it on a fresh baguette with delicious French cheese was nothing like my recreations in the states. We then took a metro to the Place de St. Michel, a beautiful fountain of St. Michael, which is right near Notre Dame. From there we took an awesome free walking tour of the city. It was 3 1/2 hours long, but our tour guide Bryan was awesome! He was funny and made both pop-culture and historical references throughout the tour, and after it was done, he offered to extend the tour to those who were interested. We were, so we got to see more places and have some amazing dinner with fellow young travelers. I had some delicious quiche Lorraine, and it was very reasonably priced. Bryan gave us suggestions for where to find great falafel in Marais (that my friend Mary Emily who had studied abroad in Paris had already suggested, so I knew it was a must) and where to have some good duck. That was a Wednesday, so the Louvre was open late. Naturally, I dragged Nam there right away, and we stayed until it closed. It was so cool to be there at night- it gave the whole museum a different feeling, and I was happy to just plop myself down in front of David's famous painting Napoleon's Coronation (at this point he has already crowned himself and is crowning Josephine) for almost 30 minutes, trying to remember everything I learned about it in AP Art History and using every option on the audio guide.
The next day, Nam and I went back to some of the places we had seen on the walking tour- it had been a great introduction to Paris, and we saw a lot, but we didn't get to experience a lot. First we went to Notre Dame, which was absolutely amazing. I loved having so much time to wander around and take it all in, and it was so cool to experience mass there. Nam, who's not Catholic, said he felt really at peace in the Cathedral. After our time there, we went to this amazing AMAZING amazing falafel place in Marais, where we kept talking about Notre Dame (and how delicious the falafel was). We both agreed that it's a very comforting, peaceful place, which might be surprising since it's so big and could be intimidating!
After falafel that Nam and I still dream about, we went to the Eiffel Tower. walked around/under it for a while, but since it was so cold and would take so much time (and money...), we didn't go up to the top. Had I not already been up there, I would have definitely done it, but I was freezing on the ground and we had a lot to see that day! We wandered over to Sainte Chapelle (amazing), and then Nam went to go meet one of his friends who's studying in Paris for the semester and I went back to the Louvre. I saw the Napoleon III apartments, wandered through sculpture galleries, saw La Liberte, and for the first time I really saw the Louvre as a palace, which is what it was originally used for. I of course got wildly lost inside, and was there until it closed again. I then got back on the metro to meet Nam for dinner, where we had AMAZING duck, potatoes, baguette, and wine... and of course, a street crepe on the way home.
Overall, Paris was wonderful. Amazing food, amazing art, and I was so so happy to be able to practice my French! I was able to get us around the city pretty well, and I was able to explain to the ticket offices in museums that I counted as an EU student even though I didn't need a visa to study in Ireland, so I could get free admission into both the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay!
The next morning I got up and made my way to Gare du Nord after stopping at the corner boulangerie one more time for pain au chocolat, which is like a croissant with chocolate in the middle- I remember Mlle. Stine telling us about her love for it in French class, and it was the best breakfast ever. I also grabbed another sandwich (goat cheese and tomato, yum) for the train ride to Brussels! The train was so nice, and it was amazing riding through the French and Belgian countryside. It was only an hour and a half on the train- nice to get some reading done! I got off in Brussels, where there was a public transport strike, and after a bit of confusion and having to go into the tourism office a few times (do you have a map?... could you show me where to go on the map?... which door should I leave through?), I braced myself to wander through an entirely new city.
I will update about my next adventure in another post, as this one is already so long! I know I have a lot to catch you up on, and I'm sorry it's been so delayed- I promise the next one will be soon!
Catch me up on what you've been doing too! Obviously, traveling has been wonderful, but I miss home too!
xox
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