Paris, je t'aime

In September we had eagerly signed up for a student group tour of Paris through a Notre Dame grad, Andy Steves (Rick Steves’ son).  It seemed like a great idea at the time but as the trip drew near we were wondering if Andy would be as great of a tourguide as his famous Dad. 

Turns out he was great! 

Our flight left early as usually but the trip was easy.  We flew into Beauvais and took a bus into Paris.  Our hostel, St. Christopher’s, was near the Crimeè metro stop so we used the metro to get to the city center most of the time. 

In the afternoon, our tour began with the Eiffel Tower.  We had missed the morning tour of the latin quarter unfortunately due to our bus so we got food (nutella crepe, yum!) and hung out til we met up with the group for the tour of the Eiffel tower.  We had reservations so we skipped the mile long line and went up.  The tower was so much bigger than I expected and the elevators are really neat; they sort of go up and inside the tower.  The very top of the tower is closed so we could only get to the first level but that’s still pretty high up and we had a great time seeing the sights of Paris.

Our tour group then went to a great dinner at a place called Vangue.  I had the delicious duck and mashed potatoes, goat cheese and bread, chocolate cake, wine and we all got to try escargot.  It was so so good!

After dinner, we went on a night bike tour of Paris.  Our guide was great and we saw the military school and a famous church and lots of other sites.  The best part was trying not to get hit crossing the street.  Our guide told us to act like “a pod of killer whales” and stick together.  All of the bikes had names too, which was pretty funny.  My bike’s name was Mclovin’.

We rode our bikes to the Seine river and hopped on a boat for a night tour of Paris.  The city was so beautiful with all the lights.  Our boat floated past Notre Dame, some castles, the Charles bridge and more.    

boat tour!

The next day began with a visit to the Louvre.  We saw lots of famous paintings and sculptures including the Mona Lisa! 

Mona Lisa smiles?

After the Louvre, our guide Andy Steves took us to the L’arc de Triumph and then we had some free time to shop on the Champs Elysee.  It was raining and a bit chilly but it was still great to walk around and see the city. 

We then walked/ metroed to Monmartre to see the Basilica de Sacre Coeur, this huge white basilica that sits on top of monmartre.  As you walk to the church you have to walk through the racey area of Monmartre where the Moulin Rouge is.  It was kind of funny to be going to a church and walking by strip clubs!

That night we went to dinner at another great French place.  I had French Onion soup (it wasn’t made out of an instant packet!), potatoes with cheese and bacon, and apple tart.  It was so so good.

On Sunday we had some time before our flight so we went to mass at le cathedral de Notre Dame.  It was amazing to attend mass at the basilica our school is named after!

Domers at Dame

We still had time to spare so we went to “the most beautiful park in paris”, Buttes Charmot.  There’s this gorgeous cliff/ mountain that sits on a little lake in the center of the park and there’s also a lovely waterfall. 

We ended our trip with croque-monsieurs (ham and cheese sandwhiches) and hit the l’aeroport.

It was a wonderful Parisian adventure!

jumping!

The Luck of the Irish: Dublin

It was Halloween weekend and what could be a better place to visit than Ireland, the birthplace of aforementioned holiday, which happens to be one of my favorite holidays?  Jamie, Anne, Kathryn, Elisa, Lauren, and I couldn’t think of a better place so we decided to journey to Dublin. 

Anne and I had booked our flights a little later than the rest of the group so we were on our own to get to the airport.  Despite our qualms, we did a great job navigating the buses and had time for a nice cup of coffee before the flight!

We flew aerlingus, an Irish airlines, which was lovely.  Our flight was delayed a lot though, so we weren’t able to join everyone else for the Guinness Tour on Thursday (but don’t worry, we still got there later!). 

Anne and I relaxed at Starbucks (a mandatory stop) and later ended up getting Hot Chocolate at a place called Butler’s, a famous Irish chocolate company. 

We took the bus into Dublin and met Caroline, Anne’s good friend who we stayed with, at Trinity College to get some dinner.  Caroline is an ND abroad student at University College Dublin, which is just outside Dublin.  We stayed with her and her Irish room mates; she was a great host! 

Then we reunited with the Rome people and went to an Irish pub, O’Doneghy’s and heard what Anne’s guidebook described as, “the heart-stopping, toe-tapping essence of Irish music”.  There was a violinist and a guitarist and an accordian and some drumming.  It was very casual and they all just sat in a circle and played their favorite songs.  The pub is pretty old and it’s famous because the Irish group, the Dubliners, met or performed together at this pub.  Jamie and I discovered something new: cider! 

Friday we decided to venture outside of Dublin and see some of the Irish coast so we took a train to Bray.  We planned to do the Bray Cliff walk, which is supposed to end at Greystone, and take the train back to Dublin from there.  It was a pretty rainy day so Lauren, Elisa, Jamie and I invested in some lovely, neon salmon-colored rain ponchos, which we wore shamelessly during our whole hike through Bray. 

Walking a lot and getting lost have been common occurrences throughout our travels and the Bray Cliff walk was no exception.  A kind speedwalker from Dublin or the Bronx (we weren’t sure) advised us to hike up the mountain/ hill instead of going around it so we did.  It wasn’t too far up and we’d almost reached the top when there seemed to be no trail.  Fortunately, Lauren and Elisa were mountain goats in their past lives and scampered up the mountain so Jamie and I followed along. 

The views were amazing; we had a panaorama of the Irish countryside and sea!  It was beautiful! 

The problem: getting down.  The path was clear for a while and we spent some time spinning in fields Sound of Music style.  But then it got kind of cloudy and started to rain harder and the path kind of disappeared and the Town of Greystone looked like it was really far away. 

Somehow, we ended up on a horse farm.  The horses were really pretty; we tried not to scare them with out neon ponchos.  We walked down this long hill through the mud and ended up on a road in a town that could have been Greystone but it was not for sure.  There was a bed and breakfast that we considered asking for directions but the pint-sized terriers were too intimidating. 

First case of Irish Luck: the bus stop we found just happened to be the line that took us all the way outside of Dublin to the UCD campus!  And we only had to wait like 20 minutes in the rain (as opposed to an hour)!  And a rainbow came out!  Pretty amazing.

That night was the ND Dublin kids’ mandatory Halloween dinner party so we tagged along for a bit.  Anne, Jamie, and I went as the Italian flag (I was the red part).  Then we got some dinner at a place called the Oriental Cafè.  Our waiter was so nice to us (I may have won him over when I asked if the water was free) and gave us a complimentary desert of “Toffee Lump Bumpy” which was a yummy, strange cake with wipped cream and ice cream.  We also got pumpkin lattès in the spirit of fall.

Saturday was a day for exploring Dublin.  We began with Trinity college, and we saw the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library.  Then we walked through Christ Church and the grounds of Dublin Castle.  Lunch was fish and Chips at Banker’s Pub.  Then Anne, Caroline, and I did the Guinness Factory Tour.  The factory tour is a huge building with seven different floors that all explain a different role in the making of Guinness.  We only had half an hour so we sped through the floors so we could enjoy our complimentary pints in the gravity bar that has beautiful views of Dublin.  We did get to see the barley sandbox and the huge water fountain that sort of represent the most important elements in the making of Guinness.  The elevator of the storehouse is cylindrical and glass so it looks like a pint of Guinness.

After a day/ afternoon of Dublin sight-seeing, we went to a mixed-rules rugby game with the Dublin kids.  It was Ireland vs. Australia and there were a ton of people there.  Although Ireland lost, it was a close and awesome game!  That evening we went to local pub for food and fun.

Sunday was a rainy day but the perfect day for an expedition to County Cork to see (and kiss) the Blarney Stone.  We had to take a bus, a transfer bus, a train, and another bus to the castle but it was worth it!  The Castle is really old and in ruins but the explanatory signs made up for it. 

Kissing the Blarney stone was an interesting experience.  The stone is actually a part of the castle, on the roof top.  You stick your head sort of down this hole and hold on to these iron bars and kiss it upside down.  There’s an attendant who has you lie down on your back and helps you slide forward to kiss the stone.  They’ve really got it down to a science; the whole kissing the stone took about 10 seconds!  We barely had time to get pix.  Regardless of pictorial documentation, we were granted the gift of gab thanks to the stone. 

The Blarney Castle also has an interesting poisonous plant garden, which we thought was appropriate for Halloween. 

That evening we watched the exorcist and Caroline’s Irish room mate made Brac, an Irish Halloween bread. 

We woke up at 3:30 am for our 7:00 flight and made it back to gianicolo residence exhausted but happy!