Hop Across the Pond

Whew, it's been a while since I've updated! The last few weeks have been insane (as usual) and it's been hard to keep up! Today is officially December 1st which means I have less than a month left here in France. It's really hard to imagine that my adventure is coming to an end, but I get to see my mom, Clare, and Alex in two short short weeks!

November 11th is Armistice Day, so it was a holiday in France! The french also have a wonderful rule that if a holiday falls on a weekday, the rest of the week is also a holiday! Sadly the 11th was a Thursday so we only got one extra day off, but it was a prefect opportunity for me to head off traveling once again! My dear friend Charli from high school is living in Limerick, Ireland right now, so I decided to venture to the UK for the long weekend.

I left early on Thursday morning on the Eurostar headed to London, and met up with my friend Carey who had arrived on Wednesday. We dropped our suitcases at the hostel she was staying in and started walking around the city. London is really gorgeous, it reminds me a lot of being in an old school New England town. We saw all the big attractions: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Trafalager Square, and Piccadilly Circus. It was a cold and blustery day but this was offset but lots of to-go coffee, something France is severely lacking in! We finished the day off with some fish and chips (a London essential) and then I hopped a train to the Stansted airport to catch my flight to Ireland. London is definitely my favorite city that I've seen in Europe so far besides Paris and I'd love to go back and spend more than just the day there!



Looking out over the Thames!



Trafalager Square! (x2)



London Eye

Typical tourist

Big Ben!

I landed at about midnight in Ireland and took the shuttle to Charli's college campus. I went to one class with her on Friday and then we explored her campus. It felt amazingly good to be back a lot of other college students in a university environment; that is something I have really been missing in Paris. Although it has been absolutely perfect to only have a few hours of class a day so I can spend more time in the city, I'm actually excited to go back to real classes at UW!

On campus we found an old ruined mill dating back from the 1800s. Not something you'd see on a typical US campus!



Later that evening we went into the city center of Limerick, the town that Charli lives in. I shouldn't say town because it is the third largest city in Ireland, but it felt very small compared to Paris! King John's castle (think Robin Hood) sits in the middle of the city on the banks of the River Shannon.


Saturday morning we got up early and went on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher! We made several stops along the way in County Clare. Our first stop was at Limenagh Castle. Ireland is amazingly green because of all the rain, so the old buildings stand out even more in comparison.


The next was at the Poulnabrone Tomb. At least 30 people are buried here, and the top stone weighs over two tons!

We drove along the coast for a while and stopped at a gorgeous lookout point called Ballyreen. Ireland's coastline is spectacular in general (I must have taken 100 pictures out the bus window), but the two places we stopped on our tour were even more unbelievably beautiful.

A fishing boat off the coast. All those white dots behind the boat are seagulls!

Ballyreen (x2)



We stopped in an adorable little town called Doolin for lunch, and then made our way to the day's main attraction: the Cliffs of Moher! I can't even describe how amazing these cliffs were. There is a panoramic view of the ocean on one side and the Irish countryside on the other. The weather in Ireland is pretty temperamental and it was POURING while we were on the bus, but luckily it cleared up just as we got to the cliffs!



The fog rolling in over the cliffs.




After spending a few hours at the cliffs, we headed back to Limerick. Sunday we again got up early and caught another bus, this time headed for Cork! I was really excited to see another one of Ireland's larger cities. From Cork we took a short city bus ride to Blarney, home to (obviously) the Blarney Stone! I can't believe how lucky we were with the weather; the day was sunny and perfect for exploring some Irish countryside.

Cork!


Guard tower at Blarney Castle

Grounds of the castle

Blarney Castle

Some really awesome shadows!

The Dolmen in the Blarney Gardens (x2)


Monday morning I got up very early and had a long day of traveling back to Paris involving a missed train (and class), but it was an amazing weekend! Ireland is really beautiful, and again, I hope I can spend some more time there someday.

Traveling is a habit.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy (I feel like I start all my posts off this way!). The weekend of Halloween was a three day weekend, so two of my flatmates and I headed off to Amsterdam for the weekend! The city was SO beautiful, crisscrossed with canals and full of cute, crooked brick buildings. We did a ton of walking and exploring and saw a lot of different parts of the city. It was a wonderful trip overall, and we headed back to Paris on tuesday morning just in time for me to take a midterm!


The hostel we stayed in.





Anne Frank's house!








Then on Friday, my whole study abroad group headed to Barcelona for a four day weekend! Another absolutely beautiful city. The weather was perfect, 70 and sunny every day. We took a bike tour of the city, watched flamenco dancing, and enjoyed large amounts of delicious spanish food.













That is some big toast.






Tomorrow (Thursday) I am heading to London for the day with one of the girls from my group and then going to Ireland for three days to see the lovely Charli Johnson! I am super excited about seeing some of the Irish countryside, although I feel like I've been cheating on Paris too much lately. Out of all the places I've seen so far, Paris is still hands down the best.

Chateaux Galore!

Another beautiful day at the Jardin du Luxembourg! This amazing fall weather impresses on me on the daily.


Last weekend, my friend Ashton from UW who's living in Spain right now came to visit! We went to Versailles for the day on Saturday and visited the chateau, garden, and surrounding area. We had to take the RER, the train that runs through/around Paris, to get there, and since the transportation workers are on strike we had some issues! The train stopped three stops from the end of the line and the conductor came on the loudspeaker and told us this was the last stop and everyone would have to get off here. Luckily, we were able to follow the huge crowd of people that also had the same destination as us and walk the rest of the way to Versailles.

When we finally got there, there was a huge line that we were resigned to stand in since we'd come all the way. After we'd been waiting in line for about fifteen minutes and estimating we had another hour to go, we heard an announcement about students not needing tickets. Of course the announcement was in French so my translating was a little sketchy, but we decided to take our chances. We got out of the ticket line and headed to the entrance we thought was for students. When we approached the woman at the gate with our student cards at the ready, she told us we needed our passports with visas to prove that we were students in the EU. We turned to go back to the huge line, but apparently our sad American faces worked because she said, "OK, I didn't see you", and let us go in!





My favorite part of the gardens was a set of cottages that were built for Marie Antoinette. She wanted to have her own little village on the grounds of Versailles, and there are ten cottages still standing. This was my fave!








We rented a rowboat and rowed around the Grand Canal!

On Saturday, our group took a day trip to the Loire Valley, about 3 hours south of Paris. We went to Chateau Chenonceau, one of the most famous in the area.








We also went to Leonardo de Vinci's house which was pretty amazing! Sadly some of the rooms were closed for renovation, but we still got to see a lot.






The Louvre has been scamming us!