Little by little, one travels far.: December 2009

Good, bad or ugly, everyone has something to say about France and the French: chic, smart, sexy, rude, racist, bureaucratic whatever. I had many preconceived notions in regards to the people of France and I went expecting the worst. Prior to my trip to Paris I was told that the French were among the snobbiest people in the world. To my surprise I did not have one bad encounter with one of the local Parisians. I learned that as long as you attempt to speak there language they are willing to help you out. So with every French encounter I started out with “Bonjour parlez vous anglais?” and ended with “Merci” and “s’il vous plaît”. My time in France was spent in Paris, the city of lights. Paris, one of the most elegant and romantic cities in the world, probably has more familiar landmarks than any other city in the world. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time in Paris and cannot wait to go back.

One of the reasons we traveled to Paris was not only to explore the city but to spend Thanksgiving with one of our friends that is studying in Paris, Katie Sell. Before we had arrived Katie Sell had mentioned that it was important that we remember the first time we had seen the Eiffel Tower. Well my first encounter was on my way into Paris from Beauvais, the airport that good old Ryanair flies into. As an aside Ryanair never flies into the main airports, but rather smaller airports that are about an hour outside the city. Although I guess that’s why the flights are so cheap. Anyways I was sitting on the bus as we began to enter the city of Paris from the autoway and we were in one of the more industrial/sketchy areas of Paris driving to bus drop and I looked to my left and there its was peeping above the old communist like office buildings into the blue sky. So my first encounter may have not been as stunning as others but it is something that I will always remember. Another part of Paris that I will always remember is the food. I think Paris boosts some of the best food in Europe. Almost every morning before we began to check sights of the town, we would hit up a local bakery and got Quiche fromage. They were so good and I think we were all addicted to those things. Also on the last evening of out Parisian adventure Katie took us to eat at a restaurant that, in her opinion, made the best French onion soup. And she was right, that soup was probably the best soup I have ever had. The broth was loaded with good oniony flavor, loaded with cheese that had the perfect oozy consistency and you could tell the bread had just been made ten minutes before being served … SOO GOOD. Normally when we travel we attempt to pack as many cities into a trip as humanly possible but for our time in Paris we strictly stayed in Paris. We spent 4 days in Paris and it was a nice change. We hung out with Katie who has a really nice apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris. We all felt as though we got to experience the Parisian lifestyle by hanging out with Katie and doing some of the things that normal Parisians do every do like get fresh groceries from the local food vendors. For those that plan on traveling to Paris in the future beware because Paris is an expensive city! When we travel we tend to take the metro everywhere that is not walkable. In most cities that we have traveled to an all day metro pass has been no more than €5 but in Paris an all day metro pass was €11,60. However the wine is dirt cheap, one could get a bottle for as little as €2. I am glad that I had the opportunity to travel to Paris as it is somewhere that everyone should venture to and Paris's beauty is quite overwhelming, especially at night, when it truly is the City of Light.

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Caitlin and I on the Metro

Thanksgiving at Katie flat in the Latin Quarter. For her first dinner she did an awesome job everything was really good. Watch out mom you may have some competition for the best Thanksgiving meal.

I am sitting in a chair that looks like Santa in the Renault Showroom. Renault is a type of French car.

The Louis Vuitton Store

(Just for you mom) You can tell how important Louis Vuitton is to the Parisians even from the address. 1 Champs-Élyées, coined as the most beautiful boulevard in the world, in the 1st Arrondissement (Paris is broken up into different areas or arrondissements). Its as if the LV store is at the center of Paris.

The Arc de Triomphe - This monument honors all that have fought for France

A view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe of the Champs Élyées

The Eiffel Tower from the Arc

The Place de Concord - One of the largest squares in Paris and at the center of Paris

Me on a bridge over looking the River Seine

Notre Dame

The Louvre - This museum is HUGE! It was calculated that if you spent 30 seconds looking at each painting without taking a break it would take one 2 weeks to go through the entire museum.

The Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is the Louvre most recognizable painting. She is behind bullet proof glass as well as guarded by two guards to the right and left of her.

One of the 5 pyramids in the Louvre. The movie the Da Vinci Code popularized the Louvre's pyramids.

The Moulin Rouge

Sacré-Coeur - The Sacred Heart Church

The oldest windmill in Paris.

The Wall of Love - This wall says "I love you" in over 300 different languages and is in the Montmarte district, the very artsy area of Paris.

The night we went to the Eiffel Tower there was an unexpected light show coordinated to music. We thought it might be for the holiday season

Caitlin and I at night behind the Eiffel Tower

Our crazy yet funny tour guide. There is a company, New Europe, that gives free tours in certain major European cities and I went on the one in Berlin and enjoyed it so much that I went on the tour in Paris.

The Pont Neuf - The oldest bridge in Paris

This building is dedicated to maintaining the French language. The main purpose is to prevent any English, German or other foreign words from assimilating into the french language. Apparently when the computer was invented the French began to use the world le computer but this institute wasn't happy and decided to change the word to l'ordinateur. So now the French must officially refer to a computer as l'ordinateur.

Me holding the Obelisk in the Place de Concord

Now for an update for my life back in Ireland. I can hardly believe that I have to end my European adventure in a little over two weeks. I am looking forward to going home but will truly miss my European lifestyle. Even though I want to stay in Europe my bank account, or lack there of, is forcing me to come home and get a job. All is well in Cork and the Irish are working hard to restore the city after the flood. The school is back open and students are beginning to prepare for end of term exams. I have been writing papers like mad. So recently my time has been spent in the library on Q+3 hiding in a corner with my computer writing papers on the ethics of torture and European integration with regard to the formation of the European Union. I intend on taking more pictures of Cork city as well as picture of my flat. Recently it has been raining a lot in Ireland. In Cork there has been non stop rain since Wednesday. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Christmas festival and Christmas market so I plan on checking that out to see how the Irish celebrate Christmas. So far it seems that they have many of the same traditions as we do in the U.S. According to the RTE news this year Ireland will have a shortage of Christmas Trees, just a little fun fact.

After our Polish experience we hoped on a plane for the capital of Scandinavia, Stockholm Sweden. I had many pre-conceived notions of this place, for instance I envisioned it as being the land of the snowbound winters with lots of meatballs, herring, Vikings, Volvo's, and Ikea. However my notions were both confirmed and confounded. There is so much more to Sweden than Volvos and Vikings. In fact Sweden is the sight where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. After arriving in Skavsta we caught a bus that took us through some of the Swedish countryside to Stockholm, and I was mesmerized by the pastoral beauty and visions of intense green countryside, impenetrable forests, wooden red roofed houses atop remote islands and Sweden’s famously clear blue water. That bus ride made me wish that I had the opportunity to travel throughout the Swedish countryside, but we eventually ended up in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital. Stockholm, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, a mirage of terracotta-colored buildings dotted with light in the winter. Stockholm is a vibrant, modern city, famous for producing sleek designs, edgy and trendy fashion, and world-class nightclubs. One thing to note about Sweden is that because of its high latitude on the globe it gets very few hours of sunlight in the winter and many hours of light in the summer. Thus, while we were in Stockholm the sun came up at around 8am and was down by 3pm so needless to say we had to pack a lot of sightseeing in a few hours. We arrived in Stockholm late Saturday evening and after arriving we walked down the main part of town known as Sergels Torg on our way to our hotel, which by the way was the smallest hotel I have stayed in. One thing I noticed is that Swedes love to shop in that I have never seen so many shopping centers in one city. I know that Tayler would love Stockholm since there is a five level mall next to a seven level mall next to an underground mall and H&M is literally all over the place. Sweden is a member of the European Union but has not adopted the Euro and are still on there own currency, the Swedish Kronor ( kr or :- ). So €1 will get you 11kr and a burger at Max, the Swedish version of In ‘n’ out costs about 29kr or €2,50. Max, by the way, had the best fries because they pile cheese, bacon, and jalapeños on top. Overall Sweden is a place that I want to go back to, not only to explore Stockholm more since we clearly did not have enough time or daylight, but also the countryside which is among the most stunning I have seen so far in Europe.

The Swedish countryside on our way from Stockholm to Skavsta to catch our flight back to Ireland.

Sergels Torg -Both of the high rise buildings are shopping centers and bellow the circular square is an underground shopping center.

The Gamla Stan - Meaning old town in Swedish. Since Sweden remained neutral throughout both world wars the Gamla Stan is considered on of the most in tact old towns in Europe.