FERRY TO IRELAND (Cherbourg to Rosslare):
• met a bunch of new people on our way to Ireland:
- on the train from Paris to Cherbourg we ran into a guy, Ezra, who we had actually met earlier at our Berlin hostel!
- met two brothers from San Fransico, a couple from Oregon, and two girls from Boston.
• hung out with everybody for the sixteen hour ferry ride, had some drinks, played Banagrams, watched the sunset. All in all had a good time.
DUBLIN:
• were going to go to Cork, but the group we met were all heading to Dublin, so we decided to tag along. Gaiety in numbers, afterall.
• for once spontaneity actually worked in our favour and we were able to stay at a really nice hostel, even though we hadn't made any reservations!
• went for a walking tour and learned a little about Irish history
• went to a pub and listened to some great Irish music: one guy on acoustic guitar, one guy on banjo.
• took tour of the Guiness factory.
• went on a pub crawl
• saw the Book of Kells
• walked through the Reading Room which is a very old, incredibly beautiful library (apparently the library in Harry Potter was modeled after it).
KILLARNEY:
• took a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry; very beautiful, very green; had a old funny tour guide who drove us around, and then sang us a few songs at the end of the tour, including Tura Lura (an Irish lullaby) and then some Katy Perry.
• saw a sheep herding show which apparently is one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland
• had Bacon & Cabbage and Irish Stew (the best stew I've ever had!) and Bailey's Cheesecake (best cheesecake I've ever had!) for lunch
• met our new friends from Oregon on this tour as well as a girl from Prince George
• made a lovely dinner with them and then went for drinks (a few too many for me) and went to listen to some music at a pub. Met two Irish guys at that pub and couldn't understand a word they said.
GALWAY:
• did a bus tour around Connemara which is the rainiest part of Ireland. Apparently this region gets more rain annually than the Amazon, and the longest period on record that it has gone consecutively without rain was twelve days.
• drove through incredible valleys beside rolling green hills
• witnessed some great Irish humour:
1) a statue of a man sitting and thinking, looking important, whose plaque says:
This is Connemara
built in 1999
for no apparent reason.
2) The sign pointing to this statue says "late 20th century antiquity."
3) There's another stone statue, simpler than the first but rather large in size (it's just a big stone triangle) which says:
In 1897
on this very spot
nothing happened
• Visited the Kylemore Abbey along with the church and Victorian Gardens there. Got rained on, but we had our ponchos, so all was well. And stylish, might I add. The Abbey was perfect. A gorgeous stone castle-looking building which sat on the edge of a lake.
• just barely caught our train that was going to Dublin
DALKEY (near Dublin):
• stayed with the couple from Oregon (Max and Julia) who were renting a condo there. The brothers from San Fransico were also staying with them.
• went for a hike in Glendolough with all of them up along a beautiful ridge that looks over lakes and valleys.
• went out for drinks at Finnegan's Pub, and realized that in the opposite corner The Edge (the guitarist from U2) was also enjoying a drink with a friend. Crazy!
• relaxed in a park while waiting for our train
• saw a double rainbow after walking up to a lookout and then felt and saw the fog literally engulf us as we sat on a rock wall.
• had delicious tuna melts for dinner, and homemade cheesecake for dessert
• AND HERE IT IS. For those who were just dying of suspense about what could have possibly happened to my foot, I will tell you. And for those who forgot all about my foot, then this counts a reminder.
WARNING: it's really not at all exciting.
On the way to the train station the next day, I went to step onto the sidewalk, missed, and fell over. No cries for help as I went. No attempts to grab onto something to lessen the fall. Nothing. I was standing one second, and the next I was lying on the ground with one huge bag on my back, one small, heavy bag on my front. This resulted in the inability to get up and I felt a little bit like an overturned turtle. Needless to say I started laughing. Then Annalea started laughing, and so couldn't help me up. It's a good thing Max and Julia were there to help me up, otherwise we probably would have been there all day. I limped the rest of the way to the train.
BELFAST:
• we decided the first thing we would try in Belfast was the medical care in the emergency room.
• I was very impressed by the Irish hospital. If you ever injure yourself while in Ireland, I would recommend doing so in Belfast, especially if you're staying at Paddy's Hostel, which is about two blocks away. Despite the sign in the waiting room saying "approximate waiting time: 3.5 hours" I only had to wait maybe half an hour before the nurse came and got me. He did an assessment, said that I had strained a tendon and then sent me to the X-ray room, just to be sure I didn't crack or break anything. I only had to wait about twenty minutes for that and then another maybe twenty mintues for the results. After that, the nurse saw me again, gave me some pain medication, some crutches (for free!) and then sent me on my way. Just lovely.
• the next day I heeded the nurses advice and stayed in bed icing and elevating my foot for the majority of the day. That evening Annalea and I walked, or hobbled in my case, to the botanic gardens for the Belfast Taste and Music Fest. This is, as the name blatantly states, a festival in which you listen to live music, while going around to different stands of about twenty different gourmet chefs from whom you buy samples of the four or five different dishes they are serving. It was expensive, but was the most varied gourmet dishes I've ever had.
• did a tour of the Giants of Causeway which is this amazing rock formation beside the sea. It's the result of lava which formed into what looks like big building blocks.
EDINBURGH:
• did a day trip to the beautiful town of St. Andrew's (outside of Edinburgh) which is known for its golf. Or possibly where golf started, I can't remember.
• saw the military Tattoo which is an incredible, huge performance of pipe bands and marching bands. And we had perfect seats. When we went to buy our tickets, there was someone who was trying to get rid of two premium located tickets because she wasn't able to go. Also it turned out that all the regular seats were full. So we bought the tickets for half of their original cost and sat directly in front of the VIP section. You could not get better seats other than the VIP seats in which sat generals and other fancy, very important looking personnel. It was so amazing! After the performance, a very sweet couple who was sitting in the VIP section asked us where we were from and then gave us their program (which would have cost $14 in the giftshop).
MANCHESTER:
• decided on a whim to go Manchester not knowing what there was to see exactly. It was only after we asked someone for directions at the train station did we hear that there were riots in town. So, we stayed at the hostel that night and left the following morning. Then, that following day, I found out on the news that Manchester had been one of the two cities with the most violence that had taken place the night before. So once again, spontaneity didn't really work out in our favour, but at least we were safe, which is all that counts.
YORK:
• We stayed in a gorgeous hostel, which used to be a manor of a lord in the 1800's.
• went for tea at Betty's Tea Room, a famous English tea shop and spent a couple hours simply chatting over delicious tea and cake.
• went to Yorkminster Abbey which is huge and incredibly gorgeous; went to the Evensong there and then wandered around the beautiful structure taking in the intricate architecture.
• did an evening ghost tour since York is apparently the most haunted city in the world, according to our tour guide.
• did a historic walking tour
• walked around the walls which surround the city
• did a day trip to Thirsk, a lovely little village outside York, and sat by a river to draw.
• took a 1:00am bus to Bath
BATH:
• went for delicious fish and chips
• walked around and explored the city for awhile.
• went on a very funny comedy tour which also incorporated some impressive magic tricks
• did a day trip to Avebury to see stone circles which are similar to Stonehenge (also near Bath) but way less expensive when taking a bus.
• did a tour of the Roman baths (what Bath is famous for). We also had a glass of gross-tasting warm bath water. It's supposed to have a bunch of health benefits because it comes from a natural spring. So I guess in a way, it was the first Buckleys:
"it tastes awful, but it works."
LONDON:
• did a bus tour around downtown London including Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben
• took a boat tour along the River Thames and went under Tower Bridge and London Bridge.
• saw an incredible play in the Globe Theatre which is the theatre (replica of the original) where Shakespeare's plays were performed. We stood in the standing room section where peasants and commoners would have stood. It was easy to imagine what it might have been like to be an audience member back then. It was so amazing.
• saw Wicked in the Apollo Theatre which was incredible. It was really interesting watching the Globe performance and then this one in the same day. It was fascinating to see where professional theatre essentially started and then to see how far it's come today.
• saw the changing of the horse guard which was rather, well, uneventful.
• saw the changing of the guard and the marching bands that went with it (far more interesting than the horse guard) which marched to Buckingham Palace.
- did another bus tour and then went out for delicious pizza with the couple we were staying with.
PARIS:
• climbed the Eiffel Tower, or rather the first two floors and then took the elevator because we weren't allowed to climb the whole thing.
• saw the Arc de Triomphe and then essentially got kicked out (I didn't know that was possible) from the area because there was what looked like a military ceremony about to start. A rather public place for a private ceremony if I do say so myself.
- wandered around Paris for a bit and simply enjoyed its beauty.
And here's where Annalea and I split ways. I dropped her off at the bus station and waved goodbye as she drove off to Belgium for the next portion of her adventure: nannying three girls.
THE FINAL STRETCH:
I headed back into Paris for the remaining forty-eight hours that I would be there before catching my flight to Amsterdam and then back to Canada. First I went and bought my ticket for the airport shuttle, then some souvenirs, then I went and found the location of a comedy show that I wanted to go to that evening. Next on my agenda was the Louvre Art Gallery, which I wandered around in for an hour. After that, I went to look for an ice-cream shop that Annalea and I had heard about and found out that it was closed for the month. Went and bought groceries and then went to the comedy show which, unfortunately was not very funny. If fact it wasn't even kind of funny. Pity. Although it might have had something to do with going by myself which put a bit of a damper on things in the first place.
Then I went back to my hostel, which I hadn't been back to since Annalea and I had checked out that morning (I had to check out as well, since I would be changing rooms that night). I realized as I stepped in the door, since I hadn't been there all day, that I had yet to check in to my new room. The following thought was one of panic as I also realized that I was completely out of money, and that my debit/credit card didn't work with their machine. After weighing all the options I could think of at the time, as well as trying to think of some way to get money and coming up with nothing, I decided to go to the airport.
I caught the shuttle half an hour later and went and slept on a fairly comfortable chair with my pack as a fairly comfortable pillow in front of one of the closed check-in areas. At one point a security guard came along and asked to see my ticket, but didn't look close enough to see that my flight was still thirty-six hours away. My original plan for the day was to go sit on the hill by Sacre Coeur and draw and read. However, since my arrival at the airport was earlier than planned, I sat, read, and drew in the airport terminal. Not quite the same, but at least no one tried to sell me Paris memorabilia like those outside Sacre Coeur. So, there's that.
HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN, JIGGEDY, JIG:
Despite time seemingly standing still during those hours, the morning eventually crept up. And with the morning, my check-in, and with my check-in my flight to Amsterdam, and with my flight to Amsterdam, my flight home. Coming through the doors of baggage claim out to the greeting area, I was met by my mother. I definitely loved traveling/backpacking, but I did feel ready to be back in Canada. Therefore, feeling the warm embrace of my teary-eyed mother after having been in an airport or on a plane for previous 48 hours was the best welcome I could have ever hoped for. As a certain lady with red shoes once said, "there's no place like home."
