I'm so proud of myself
I feel like I've been going crazy for the last month with my blog because I see on everyone else's blog that they have titles to their posts and I could never figure out how to post a title on my own. I even had Libby on the phone before I left on my trip trying to help me figure it out. Now I have another friend starting a blog and he even emailed me to show me where the title box on his was. I was so frustrated because I want to have a title box too!! Well I finally sat down and went through all the different options and figured out that the title box wasn't checked. So long story short, I checked the title box and now I can start posting them and feel like I'm a normal blogger like everyone else. It's so nice how sometimes the simple things like being able to post a title seems to make my day.
I'm still here
Just a quick Hi here. I haven,t been able to get to a computer these last few days. I was in France and the keyboard is all screwy and it took forever just to try and check my hotmail. I,m on my way down to Friberg to see the Gunther,s and maybe I,ll be able to post some more there. Check back in a little bit.
Just wanted to say
Just a quick post to let everyone know how much fun it is to get your comments and emails especially from my nieces and nephews. It cracks me up to hear their comments. Hope you keep posting them. Most times I don't have enough time to respond except for my blogs but I love getting them. Keep them coming.
Florence - A room with a view
Thursday we headed from Rome up to Florence. I love Northern Italy and especially Florence. It's such a great city with so much to do and see and loads of great shopping. We got into Florence pretty late in the afternoon and had to find our campground where we were staying. I wasn't too sure about this at the beginning but it's hasn't been too bad. Until now. When we got there I realized that we were to be staying in tents!! I was a little irritated because I don't want to be in Florence camping in a tent. I had a little moment where I needed to just be by myself because I was hugely dissapointed. I'm in Europe and in Florence and I'm staying in a tent!! I admire all the people who like to do that but I'm not one of them. I like having my creature habits like a bed, a floor, a roof over my head, a bathroom that I don't have to hike to and don't have to share with 50 other people.
After we got situated we left for town to go look around. We were all a bit hungry and so we set out to find some dinner. We found this really cute outdoor cafe in the Piazza Ufesi and were enjoying ourselves when it started to rain. We all kind of looked at each other and starting laughing because we felt like it was our Sorrento dinner all over again. And wouldn't you know it Charles was the one exposed again. The rain kept coming and getting harder and the wind started up and was blowing in our direction. We asked the waitresses if we could get an umbrella to put over us becuase there were other umbrellas up but she told us that if we were exposed than we ran the risk of getting wet. So much for sympathy!! Then to add insult to injury our food was a huge dissappointment too. Dave got the pasta and they brought out about 3 scoops on a salad plate. It looked more like an appitizer. Charles and I had ordered a three course meal and our first course was soup which was really good. They brought us some bread to go with our soup but it was pretty tasteless. It was super soft and moist but it really had no taste. Then we had to wait in the rain for our second and third course. Our second course was the main meal and I had ordered the salmon which was pretty good but they served it on a bed of wilted lettuce. Charlese got the roasted turkey and it was like two slices of sandwich turkey with some gravy on it and it was cold!! They said that they serve it cold on purpose. With closer inspection he's was also served on a bed of wilted lettuce. They our third course was a salad which also had wilted lettuce and both Charles and I didn't even bother to each. We just paid our bill and got out of there. So much for a good meal in Florence.
We walked around and went to the Duomo but it was closed so we couldn't go in out of the rain so we walked to a gelateria and got some gelato. Afterwards we decided to head back to the campsite and play uno. We were trying to find the bus that would take us back and we're having any luck and were getting rained on so we were going to take a taxi but of course everybody else was trying to do the same. We decided to head back over the ponto de veccio to see if we could catch a bus there and sure enough we found one. Once back at the campground everybody was at the same covered patio area drinking and smoking and socializing. We decided to try and find what city we were going to go to next and Charles was trying to get a hold of his cousin.
We couldn't play uno because we're in tents and have no light or any access to a candle or flashlight so I opted to go to bed. But I don't know how much sleep I really got. It pretty much rained all night long and it made my bed and sheets damp which really suck to sleep in. YOu feel like you're sweating or something. During the night I had to go to the bathroom really bad but it was still raining super hard and I risked getting really wet if I tried to do it. So I opted to just do my business on the side of my tent and try to stay out the rain as much as possible. Somehow I fell back asleep and woke up again at 6:00 to go to the bathroom again. By then it had stopped raining but was muddy. Fun. By the time I got back to my damp tent I was trying to fall back to sleep. A few minutes later the driver and some other guys of a Cech bus group came over and stated having a conversation like it was mid day or something. During this they kept trying to clear their throats and cough up all their smoker flem and so trying to get back to sleep was pretty much lost at that point. I was so irritated that at one point I even yelled at them to shut up I was so frustrated.
Needless to say I unfortunately didn't enjoy my time here is Florence and couldn't wait to leave. Hopefully next time I'm here it will be under better circumstances.
Capri and the Blue Grotto
So today is Wednesday. We got up early and made several treks up to the bathrooms to shower and brush teeth etc. We got to the bus stop in time to catch it to the boat to head over to Capri. We had a really nice ride over and they did a little tour of the island and showed us different locations etc. One of the stops we made was this big cavern that someone had found a rock formation of the Virgin Mary!! I love how they can find the Virgin Mary in everything!! We were dropped off on the opposite side of the island called anticapri which is the little capri town on the opposite side of the big capri town. The island of Capri is really amazing in and of itself. The whole island is basically a big rock jetting up from the ocean. It has very little beaches and the beaches it does have are all pebble rocks. There is hardly any flatland and so everything is built into the sides of the clifts, houses, roads etc. There is a bus that will take you from anticapri over to capri which we took. Our main goal for going to Capri and staying here an extra day was to go to this place called the blue grotto. Charles has always wanted to go there so we were doing this for him. You,ll have to google pictures of it cause it is pretty amazing. We found a boat taxi that would take us over there and so we took it over. Before we found the boat we were in capri trying to find where to go and we happened to stop and ask this american couple directions. they told us where to go and when we were walking away I said to Charles "they looked almost like they could be mormon." He agreed and said I should ask them where they were from so I did. I went back and asked them and they said they were from Layton, Utah. I responded that I knew that they were mormon and they laughed and said "do we look that obvious?" To which I said yes, because you,re the only ones fully dressed and miserably hot like we were. We chatted for a few minutes and said our goodbyes.
We found our boat to take over to the blue grotto. When the boat got there I was still trying to figure out where this grotto was because all you could see was a wall of rocks. But then you saw these guys in little rowboats taking people in and out of the bigger boats they were in. Then you see them row over to this one point in the wall and then you see the little hole. It seriously is not wider than a row boat and to get in there is a chain that the men pull the boats through, but it,s not very high and so everyone in the boat has to lay down to fit underneath it, even the rower. Once inside it,s pitch black and you have to wait a second for your eyes to adjust but when you look back at the opening where you just came from you see the bluest of blue water you can possibly imagine. The further back in the grotto you go the bluer the grotto gets. It was absolutely amazing. That,s the one thing that will keep me coming back to Capri and southern Italy is how spectacularly blue the water is. It,s almost like the color of saphires or how blue the girl got in Charlie and the chocolate factory and I,m not even doing it justice in my description. It,s one of those things you have to see for yourself because I,m not even sure my pictures I took can describe it completely.
After seeing the grotto we caught a boat back to Sorrento, grabbed some lunch, went to get some gelato and ran into our mormon couple again of all places. We tried to find a biscotti bowl for Charles mom and couldn,t find anything so we headed out back up to Rome where we are for the evening. We,re catching up on our email, laundry, will head out to get some dinner and then another rousing night of Uno. Tomorrow we are off to Florence!!
Sorrento
Well last night we went back to our American Cafe for dinner becuase it was so good from the night before. We got there and about five minutes later it started to rain, lightly at first and then it started coming down really hard. It was lighting and thundering and then zap, the power went out. We had just gotten our appitizers (mine was the procuitto, which is a cured ham and really tasty and mozzeralla, Charles got fried mozzeralla and Dave got these fried rice balls). We laughed because it seemed like one bad thing after anther was following us that day: missed boat to capri, couldn,t find a hotel room, etc. In Sorrento they have a siesta where at 1:00 pm pretty much all of the shops close for lunch and they don.t reopen until 4.00 sometimes 5:00 pm. So we had to wonder and could shop in the stores that were open but we couldn.t use the internet and were pretty much wandering. The stores that were open we did find some really nice things. Charles got his mom this really beautiful nativity scene that.s set in a Naples setting. But back to dinner, after our appitizers we ordered our meal and needless to say it wasn,t as good as the first night. I got shrimp scampi. I figured that since we are so close to the ocean the shrimp would be really fresh and yummy. When I got my plate it was full of pasta kind of like linguini with these two kind of small lobster looking like things on each side. Now mind you we.re trying to decipher our meals in the dark with only a little tealight candle on our table to see things. I was a little freaked out by these "shrimp" on my plate. I fine with eating things as long as they don-t have their heads still attached which wasn.t the case this time. Plus in the dark I couldn.t figure out how to eat these things. We had to keep moving our table in under the canopy becuase the rain kept coming down harder and was getting us wet. We finally had to move inside the restaurant because there was no further place for us to move without getting wet. What a night. We were going to drive to Positano but cancelled that idea because we didn.t want to be driving the roads with the weather. I.m kind of bummed that we weren.t going because ever since I saw "under the tuscan sun" I.ve wanted to go there but I.ll just have to do it another time over here.
the next goal for the evening after dinner was to find a place to say. We decided to go back to the campsite and see if we could sneak into one of the bungalows since they don.t lock the windows. Wouldn.t you know it they were all full so we went and did the honest thing and paid for a bungalow. Unfortunately they didn.t have any that had a bathroom included and so we had to hike up to the bathroom and showers. It.s not so bad except when you have to go in the middle of the night like I did. One of these days I.m going to only stay in hotels and be spoiled when I.m over here, like being in europe isn.t being spoiled!!
Right when we go into our room the power came back on and so we whipped out uno and played that the rest of the night. It was so much fun because Dave and Charles kept cheating with each other and calling each other on the carpet that I just laughed at the both of them and silently laid my cards down and won quite alot. It turned out to be a fun night after all.
When in Sorrento eat gelato
Monday we got up and I finished drying our clothes and then we packed and headed out down to Naples. It only took about 2 hours to get here but we actually are a little further south of Naples in a town called Sorrento. It,s a really cool town that,s built right into the mountain side. Around the bend is the town called Positano and there is also the isle of Capri off the coast. We stopped along the way and took pictures because it is so beathtakingly beautiful here being right on the coast. The water is so clear (but a little cold) but so tempting that you want to jump right in.
Once in Sorrento we had to find our campground that we were staying at. It,s built right into the mountain and has a little beach (but it,s rocky) and the boys said that it is a nudie beach when they went down to check it out. I took a nap because I had gotten up so early to do laundy that morning. We found a great little restuarant for dinner and I had the best pizza and also got for an appitizer the procuitto ham and mozzerella with bread. Yum Yum!! Our waitress was super nice and freindly and she gave us some good info on where to go to take a tour of Capri. We ended the night we some gelatto (strawberry and coconut - my favorite) and headed to bed.
We must have been more tired than we thought because we slept in and missed taking the boat to Capri. We ended up walking around Sorrento and doing some light shopping today. We had another great lunch (lasagna and some more gelato) and just wandered around the city. We met a lady on the street that told us where to go for our trip to Capri and we decided to stay another night so we can do Capri tomorrow. We,re going back to the same restaurant for dinner tonight (for some more procuitto and mozzerella) and of course gelato!! When in Italy........
Rome and Christina
Sunday. We,re in Rome and we are going to tour the city after lunch. There is the same kind of tour bus like we had in Dublin where you can hop on/off kind of thing. First off it is hotter than a stuffy day in the kitchen. There really wasn,t any point in showering that day because all you did was sweat and sweat some more. We toured around Rome and decided to get off at St. Peter,s Bascillica to take a look around. It,s interesting because they have a dress code and the women can,t be in sleeveless shirts and the men also plus they can,t wear shorts. So first you pass through a metal detector and put your bags in an x-ray machine, then you pass through another set of men who look at what you,re wearing and then take the innappropriate dressers out of the line. On our way into the basillica we saw some guards standing post and we wanted to take their picture. In the Vatican it,s its own country and they have their own post office, rail system and zip code. They also have their own guards which wear a very unique uniform. You,ll have to google it to see for yourself, but it,s very court jesture like. While we were taking pictures we saw a couple pass by and I said jokingly to Charles that it was Christina Aguillera and her husband. Charles thought that it really was her but why would she be in Rome. So we continued on into the basillica.
This place is gynormous!!! I can,t even begin to describe how huge it is. The piazza outside it even bigger than gynormous but the basillica inside is huge. It,s incredibly long and tall and absolutely beautiful. I still can understand hwo they built it with all the carvings and frescos etc. They were having mass when we got inside and so I went up to the very front to hear what was going on and I look over to my immidiate side and guess who,s next to me? Christina Aguillera!! She was there with her husband and body guards checking out the place. I tried to be discrete and take her picture but I still had my camera on video mode so I got a video of her and then changed it real fast and tried to snap some fotos. It was pretty crazy.
But back to the basillica. I,ve never seen another chapel outside of our church that left me totally amazed. Becuase of the size, the architecture, sculptures, really the whole thing. It was very impressive. They even had a sculpture of the Saint Camillo so I took my picture with him.
The whole day was so incredible hot and humid that we were so wiped out by the end of the day. We took the subway and bus back to our campground and on the bus it was really crowded and there were some young boys trying to pick pocket us and take atvantage of all the crowds, but Dave figured it out and actually grabbed they kid,s hand and held onto it until our stop. It was pretty funny. Luckily our bungalow that we we,re staying in at the campground had air conditioning so we did laundry that night and headed to bed.
On a clear day you can see Scotland...
Well we took off from Dublin and made our way up the coast. Our first stop was a place called Larne which on a clear day you can see Scotland and fortunately for us it was a clear day (finally!). We really did see Scotland and we thought for about 10 minutes of taking the ferry across and making land over there. But where we would land there isn,t a whole lot to do and so we decided against it (but we really wanted to go).
Once we saw Scotland we got back in the car and headed to a place where they have a rope bridge that goes from the main island over the ocean to a small island. It is really beautiful with the ocean and the huge rolling hills that cut off into the sea, but are so green and lush with grass and ferns etc. The water is really clear in that part because the ocean floor is made up of chalk with a really fine powdery level of sand. It,s really tempting to want to go wade in the water but you know how cold it is so it brings you back to reality.
The bridge is really cool. We were told that this is the new bridge having been replaced by the old bridge a year ago. After walking about 3-4 of a mile down there you have to walk down this really steep stair way and then cross the bridge. It swings not only from someone being on it but also from the wind and it,s made out of rope with little wooden planks on the bottom. You.re about 90 feet up from the ocean and it,s a really great view but that,s kind of blocked out because you,re trying to hold on from swaying. A bit scary but exhilerating none the less. After checking out the view from the other side and crossing back over we headed on. Next stop was some more castle ruins. These are right on a hill overlooking the coast. We saw part of them but you have to go along a narrow path right on the edge of a hill and they have all these warning signs encouraging but freaking you out about going to we took a picture of the one part you could see and called it good. We ran into a gal whose was walking this whole trek and she asked how far it was to the ropebridge and so we offered her a ride over there (our good deed for the day).
Once we dropped her off we made our last tourist stop and saw the giant,s causeway. This whole part of Ireland we are in is called Northern Ireland and is actually seperate from the rest of the country. Northern Ireland is part of Brittan and is on their currancy which is the pound so we had to change our money again and lost more due to the exchange rate (the price of traveling). But I only got so much out and so when we got to the causeway I didn,t have enough to take the shuttle down to the area so that left the only other option: to hoof it. The going down part isn,t bad it,s the coming back part where you,re hiking up quite a huge hill that sucks. But the causeway is really kind of cool. It,s a bunch of I guess you can call them rocks but they are shaped in a hexagon and some are short and some are quite tall. They say that it,s a lava flow thing that when they cooled they cooled in that shape. There,s one part of the beach that has just hundreds of thousands of them and then there,s an area that have super huge tall ones right into the mountain that are poking out and they call it the organ cuz it looks like organ pipes. It was very interesting.
After leaving there we made our way down through Londonderry (which looks like a really cool town and we need to go back and explore there somemore) and headed into Donegal. I,ve been waiting to hit this place because this is where Mom,s side of the family came from. It,s really a neat little town and it has loads of great shopping. We woke up the next morning and checked out the castle and then hit the shops. Most of my purchases came from here. Some are really cool (like hand woven scarfs, sweaters etc) and some might leave you scrating your head. I,ll have to show you when I get home and leave it as a teaser.
After shopping we hit the road to explore this area and see the Conveigh National Forest. We followed our map and was making really good time through the area. We stumbled onto a caostal town out there for lunch and had this really good homemade vegitable soup (probably my favorist meal in all of Ireland). From there things went downhill. Although we saw a lot of scenerey and it,s all still really beautiful and would be even prettier in the spring time with all the flowers, the thing we realized is that in County Donegal all the signs are printed in gaelic which is Irelands orginal language spoken by the vikings I think (but don,t quote me on it, it,s early to think). Needless to say you can,t decipher what they say and so you spend a lot of time scrating your head and stopping to find out where to go. We were doing pretty well but it go to the point where we were pretty much lost and didn,t have a clue where we were. We stopped to ask a guy where we were and asked him if we were close to I can,t remember which town but his response was :bloody hell no!: He was kind enough to tell us how to get back to the main road and when other roads we needed to take to get through the rest of the national park and on our way.
Oh I forgot before we got lost we found this really cool waterfall and this beach floor that went on in this valley for about almost 10 km (about 6-7 miles). As for pictures, those will have to wait because I can,t download to any of these computers plus it would take way too long and would be too expensive right now. Sometimes I.m lucky just to find a computer that isn,t too slow and have the time to post. I woke up early to do it right now and I,m not going to have time to post everything. I,ll have to try to catch up again tonight if possible.
Well we finally made it though the national forest but then we got a really late start to our last stop of the night; Galway city. We didn,t get into town until around 12:00 am-ish. We tried to find a hotel/hostel but found out that there were big horst races that weekend and everything was booked. We found a hotel but it was a bit more expensive than we would ever want to pay but we were in a bind, tired and didn,t have too many other options, so we had to take it. It was a 3 star and very nice so that was a good change. They don,t believe in air conditioning here in Ireland and so even though it,s muggy from the humidity, you can,t try and cool off, even in their cars. Well my laundrys done and we have to head out again so I,ll try to finish tonight. But a teaser for you: What do Rome, the Sistene Chapel and Christina Aguilara have in common?
On to Italy
Just a quick post to let you know that I,ve left Ireland and am now in Rome. This place closes is a minute so I,ll have to come back in the morning to add some more blogs. All in all Ireland was really awesome and I highly recommend going if the opportunity ever arises. I definitely want to go back in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom and it,s even more green than it was while we were there. Ciao for tonight.
Dublin and Belfast
Dublin. It's another town I recommend coming to see. I really liked it alot. The great thing about Dublin is that they offer a tour of the town on what they call a "hop on hop off" bus. It's a double decker bus that takes you to 21 different points of interest in town and at any one of the stops you can hop off to check it out and when you're done you can wait for the next bus and hop back on and resume the tour. A brillant idea because Dublin's street are so compact and narrow and crammed with so many people that we didn't even want to try and navigate it if we didn't have to. Plus we didn't have to try and find each location which would have taken a long time. Plus the things we didn't want to see in detail we could just stay on the bus, take a picture and be on our merry way. We did see St. Patrick's cathedral and the Guiness factory (which is a very popular stop because you get to try the beer after the tour and who doesn't want free alcohol?). A lot of Ireland's history took place in Dublin. There are a lot of statues erected to honor those that helped shape Ireland's history. Plus I learned a few things like Oscar Wilde is Irish, and Shaw who wrote Pigmaleon (aka My Fair Lady) was from Dublin too. We saw a hotel that U2 stayed in and the national park which Central Park in New York was created after. I found a really great teapot here in Dublin that is made by a really well known China company here (and I can't remember it's name right now) but it has shamrocks painted all over it and I thought that was pretty appropriate. It'll be a nice addition to my collection.After touring Dublin we headed out and up to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Here things change a bit. They are part of the UK and so they do not use the euro but the pound, so our money (US Dollar) becomes even less valuable and we have to find a place to get some pounds. Plus we need to find a place to stay. The nice thing about each city is that they have a travel center and they can give you a map of the city plus point you in the direction of a hotel, hostel internet cafe or whate ever you need. They recommended a hostel and then we tried to find our way there. Belfast is a bit trickier to get around it because they have a lot of one way roads. Once we figured out where we were going, we found our hostel and were able to get a room. We have a private room with a private shower and we don't have to pay hotel prices. It's so nice. Plus they have internet access, a private parking area that's gated for our car and we can do laundry. YOu can find some really nice places like this that are inexpensive which makes traveling possible.One of the things I've learned is that Belfast is where the Titanic made it's last stop before heading out to see and it's sinking. There is a memorial here to honor the lives lost. It is also a stone's throw away from the Giant's Causeway which is right on the ocean and they are large octagon shaped blocks that go on for miles. You'll have to google it to get a better picture. We're also going to do the Carrick-a-Rede ropebridge which they describe a an Indiana Jones experience over a rope bridge over the ocean. It should be a fun day tomorrow.The thing that I've noticed about the people here is that they are not all redheads with curly hair, they all smoke loads, and they all like to drink their Guinness (Ireland's national beer). I can imagine that it must be very difficult to be a missionary here and try to teach people the gospel and have them change their lives, by not drinking and smoking.
Kissing the Blarney stone
Monday night we got into Kilarny and found a hostel to stay in. We were quite exhausted from all the driving we did especially since the weather was so horrible it made us even more tired. We slept well and got up bright and early the next day to start another day of driving through the ring of Kerry. The ring of Kerry is the Ish-something pennsula is the county Kerry. There are a lot of towns there that still speak the traditional Gaelic language which is cool to listen to. Unfortunately the weather wasn't copperating with us again and to try and drive the ring with bad weather wasn't appealing to us since we had done that the day before.
We opted instead to drive into Cork and go to the Blarney castle. We got to Blarney castle and headed up to kiss the Blarney stone. Who ever came up with this tradition is raking in the euro!! Basically this is it: You scale the castle climbing up a very narrow and round staircase that gets only more narrow as you get to the top. Climbing the stairs could be an experience just in itself. Once at the top of the castle you head to one side where there is a gentleman sitting on a ledge and lowering people backwards, head first down to kiss the stone. Legend has it that if you kiss the Blarney stone you are given the gift of gab. And then to make more money off you they have a photographer there to take your picture. Well being a tourist that we are we had to do this. It was a bit of fun because while waiting in line you can chat up the crowd. When it came to be my turn I told the gent to go easy with me becuase it was my first time. He thought it was pretty funny and had a good laugh. What I was really trying to do was bide my time so that Dave could get some good pictures, which he did!! I out tricked the Blarney. Whether or not I got the gift of gab is still to be seen.From Blarney we headed out of town and made our way towards Waterford. Our sole purpose in going there was to go to the Waterford Crystal factory. We got to the factory and made it on the final tour for the day with literally only seconds to spare. NOt even enough time to use the toilet so I had to hold on. Waterford is extremely nice crystal and it's a bit amazing how they make it. To produce their usual pieces they have cast iron molds that they use. For their rarer and more expensive (think $50,000 to $100,000 worth) items like trophies they used wood molds that only last for about 7 uses before they are no good. They make trophies for a lot of the major sporting events like the super bowl, tennis and golf events and they did they ball that's dropped in Times Square each year. For trophies they make two of them, the one the winner gets and they the spare. If they don't need the spare they bring it back to the factory to display. Once the glass is molded they let it cool before they send it to be cut. The cutters have to have so many years experience before they can start cutting and they have to memorize all of the cuts the factory uses. They also have master cutters who have to have over 20 years experience and they have over 100 different cuts memorized. It was all amazing. During this whole process if any piece doesn't pass any inspection they it gets sent back to be melted down and started over again and the people don't get paid for that piece. The tour ends up in their showroom with everything they have to offer to buy. I got me a nice vase and some toasting flutes for when I want to celebrate a special occasion. Luckily they'll ship my stuff home so I don't have to worry about packing it in my luggage. After leaving the factory we hit the road again and made our way over to Dublin. We found our hostel where we wanted to stay but it was full, so I hit the street where there were some hotels on and was going to start checking them out when a gentleman stopped my and asked if I was looking for something. I told him I was looking for a room and asked him if he knew any good hotels to recommend. He said that he owned and then pointed to three different hotels on our street and said maybe he could help me. He asked how much we wanted to spend and I told him we were on a budget and were trying to stay at the hostel but it was full. Long story short he told the front desk guy at one of his hotels to give us room and he knocked off $20 euro. I shook his hand and thanked him for being so generous. Again that's the beauty of traveling, that you get to meet really nice people who do nice things for you. Already I was beginning to like Dublin loads. We got to our room and found that we had a double bed for me and Dave to share. That's not even the funny part!! Our room also came with a shower but it was right in the room not in a seperate bathroom like we're used to. So this morning when I took my shower Dave got to stare at the wall till I was done. Then when he jumped in I dried my hair as I looked at traffic out the window the whole time. It was pretty funny to say the least. I guess my mom's nightmare is coming true: she was scared that I would have to share a bed with one of the guys, but the good thing is that these guys are just friends and there's nothing romantic so it end up being like you're sharing a bed with you brother.
Luck of the Irish
So Sunday night we left Paris and took a flight over to Ireland. We landed in Shannon and got our car rental. I made Dave drive because I don't want to have to worry about driving stick and on the left side of the road. We headed to a town called Bunnratty to a pub someone told us had good food for dinner. Ireland is so green and the land is all devided by either a stone wall or trees. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm already inlove with this place and want to come back someday.
We found Bunratty and our pub, the Durty Nelly. It's located next to the Bunratty castle. The castle does a dinner and show, kind of like Medevil Times but a lot more money. $52 euro which is probably around $75 or so. A bit too much and we settled for pub food, which was ok. After dinner we drove into Limmerick for the night. Our hotel lady was quite chatty and told us that she used to work for Prince Charles and started telling us a few stories about him and Princess Diana. It was quite funny.
Monday morning we were back in the car trying to get to the castle in Limmerick called St. John's castle. He was the brother to King Richard (think Robin Hood days). I can't remember if he even went to the castle or not but it's more of a fortress right on the river than a castle. After seeing it and the cathedral we decided to head out and drive down to a town called Dingle. It's the pennsula before the ring of Kerry and all of our books say that it's a prettier drive, plus in Dingle there is a dolphin named Fungi that has decided to stay and become a resident and is quite the tourist attraction now. We tried to leave Limmerick but the streets are crazy and there's no rhyme for reason with this country and it's streets. It ended up taking about an hour to find our way out of that place before we could get on the open road.
Ireland really is just green and more green everywhere. And between houses there's fields of sheep and cows. They mark the sheep with different colors to distiguish what belongs to who when the sheep get out. As we got closer to the Dingle Pennsula the weather started to get worse. The fog came in and the rain started pouring down, which made it hard to see anything. We started to go up a hill or more like a mountain and the higher we got the narrower the road got. The turns got steeper and the water started running onto the street. It was getting pretty hairy. I even took a picture of Dave's knuckles cuz they were literally white from him gripping so hard. There we some places where you had to stop to let the oncoming car pass you because the road was so narrow. Once we got through that we were on our way down the what we know now is Connor's pass. The locals in Dingle said that it's really bad to drive in weather like we were having. Lucky us!! I guess we're just getting the true Irish experience!!
Dingle town is one cool place. If you every come to Ireland you have to make it one of your stops. It's right on the ocean, but due to the weather being stormy we weren't able to go see Fungi!! What a bummer. To make up for it we did some shopping which there was plenty to do. There were tons of different shops that sell art, jewerly, pottery, things Irish and everything else. It's a great little beach town. And I found out that Dingle is where they filmed "Afar and Away" with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. After shopping we hopped back in the car to drive around the pinnsula. We stopped at a fort and also another fort but these were in the shape of beehives. Pretty interesting. They built them that way to help keep the weather and wind out and you'll get both there. Unfortunately the weather got bad again and we couldn't see too much. But what we did I can imagine that with good weather it is quite lovely there.
After dinner we headed out of Dingle to Kilerny for the night so that we can do the Ring of Kerry on Tuesday which is the next pennsula over from Dingle.
Paris, the city of lights
Finally!!! I'm in an area where there is a normal computer and I can put my blog on and know what I'm doing. I thought that it would be easier to do this blog but the last couple of days I've been questioning that decision. First off I'm in Belfast for the night but I need to back up and try to remember the last couple of days. When traveling like this you forget which day it is.Sunday we were still in Paris. My friend Charles got up early to leave for Italy and his family reunion. Dave and I took off for downtown Paris and to see some more sights. We took the subway and started our journey at the Arc de Triumph. This monument is outstanding and amazing. It's so big. From pictures and whatnot you wouldn't think that it is but it really is quite large. It's a tribute to the soldiers for I can't remember what war that was won. There is the tomb of the unknown soldier there also with an eternal flame like in Washington DC. From the Arc we made our way down this very large and long street called the Chanze de Lezee. I am butchering the French spelling. This is a huge thoroughfare that's as wide as a major freeway. It's probably a few miles long or more and all the shops that line it are very upper class (think Beverly Hills). While walking down this street we stopped at the Grande Palace but it was closed for construction. There is a smaller palace called the Petite palace that we could have gone into but we decided against it due to time. We continued down the chanze and came to the oblisk which is a monument in the middle of the road (I can't remember what for right now) and there are also quite a few fountains, which weren't running. I think Paris closed down cuz they knew I was going to be there that day. We made our way into the park and headed over to the Louve. I wanted to see the Mona Lisa, since I was in town but those darn French people visit their own country and there were tons of people in line just to get in. We opted to try again when we come back to Paris on our way home and took in the scenery before heading down to go see Notre Dame. While walking there it started to rain on us but not for very long. But the time we reached Notre Dame it had stopped. There was all this security around the church which we thought was due to security and once we got past them we headed in. But were stopped again because the church was closed!!! Can you see the theme here? So we got a good look at the outside and decided we needed to head back to get our luggage and go to the airport to catch our flight to Ireland. We took the subway back and when we got off and were rounding the corner to the hotel we quite literally ran into someone. When looking closer at them we discovered it was CHARLES!! He got lost and couldn't find his way out of France and gave up and came back to Paris. How crazy is that? So he gave us a ride to the airport. All in all I liked Paris and I think I would like it even more if things were open to see. The one downside is that it is incredibly humid even though it's not too hot but I still was uncomfortable and sticky. Not my favorite thing to do: sweat but oh-well, I was in Paris.
Ugh, posting sucks right now
I'm here I just am having problems with computers. Hopefully I'll be able to find a better one tonight. Ireland is fabulous and absolutely beautiful. Will write more and hopefully it will save this time. Ive written some great blogs that aren't being posted and lost. Such frustration.
I really am in France!!
Hello from Paris. The keyboards on these computers are a bit different so it takes a little longer to write. I:m on this trip with my friends Dave and Charles: We got to LAX at 4:00 am on Friday and we:ve been on the go ever since: Right now it 12;30 am Paris time:We arrived in Paris at 7:00 AM Saturday morning and it took a while for us to get our car; Once that was taken care of we made David Merrill drive and I am quite impressed; I don;t think I want to drive here cuz all the cars are manuel and the streets are so narrow; Since it was so early and we couldn:t check into our hotel quite yet; we did a little sightseeing: First stop was the Sacre le Cour or Sacred Heart Cathedral: It:s this beautiful old catholic church right in the middle of Paris: There were a gazillion stairs to climb to get to it but the view from the top was worth it: You can see all of Paris and at first light it was beautiful: The Cathedral inside is enormous and so tall it;s dizzing: There are lots of stainglass windows and a beautiful mural of Christ done it gold: After leaving the church we headed west: The guys wanted to show me something: Out of nowhere right in front was my first viex of the Eiffel Tower and then it really hit me that I:m in Paris; It:s so crazy: We stopped and got a beaguette to share for breakfast then hopped back in our car and drove around: We passed the Seinne river and Notre Dame: We:ll go back there tomorrow during the day: We came and checked into our hotel and slept for about six hours got up and showered and then headed out again: My body clock is a bit messed up right now: After dinner we walked over to the Eiffel Tower: I can:t believe how huge it is: We got there right before the top of the hour and when the hour cqme it lights up with all of these twinkling lights: It is so beautiful and I had to remind myself that i really am in Paris: When you read and see pictures about these places It still amazes me to see them in person: We finished the night Parisian style and had a crepe with nutella and it was good: Tomorrow we;re going to the arc de triumph and louve before we have to head to the airport and catch a plane to Ireland:
