The City of Lights

So! I went to Paris. It was a while back, May 8-11, but hey, better late than never? So the trip started out with Alayne and I getting completely lost in the outskirts of town thanks to poor directions from the hostel. However, we eventually found the sought after Rue de Harpignies (best road ever to ask for directions to with an American pronunciation by the way). The hostel was pretty nice, and we immediately slept, woke up and had a wonderful French dinner, then went to sleep to prepare for an epic day. The next morning we went straight to the Eiffel Tour and it was so impressive! We were walking around looking for it and just as I suggested we get a map, Alayne pointed to the sky and said "Look!!" It was so amazing seeing it in the distance!! Once we actually found it, we had a grand time taking oodles of pictures and fighting with a mob of fellow tourists for free spots to shoot. Then we hopped on the "Hop on Hop off" bus and toured the city. It was a wonderful day and I learned tons about the city as we drove through.

Eventually, we hopped off at the Champs de Elysee, which is the main shopping street of Paris. We walked down to were it ended, at the Arc de Triomphe. We had planned to go up top and take a look around, but decided to just go on to the next site when we couldn't figure out how to cross the street =) Our next stop was to this super tall building that offered a wonderful view of the city. It was really interesting to see the city from that view, and quite relaxing to sit in the cafe and enjoy a drink. Finally, we ended the night with a riverboat tour. Although we were super exhausted, I still really liked hearing about the history of the city and seeing it from a different perspective -- the river! We saw a lot of the same sites as we did on the bus, but from a different view. I had a wonderful time, and had a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tour at sunset on the river.

The next morning we woke up early to get to the Louvre! With our Paris Passes we were able to cut the ridiculously long lines and walk straight in! This museum was huge. And it was so amazing to look up through the glass pyramid and see the beautiful outside of it. The first thing we saw was the Mona Lisa (of course), then we saw Venus, and then some neat Egyptian statues, including the Sphinx. Eventually, we made it out of that crowded, hot mess alive. Although the art was beautiful and it was all well worth it... the Louvre was very difficult to maneuver.

After that, we headed over to see Notre Dame. We walked around and enjoyed the calming atmosphere, only to follow that up with a bargain hunting spree on the neighboring street. We bought all our souvenirs and then sat down with a crossiant and coffee, watching the gypy ladies charm and trick American tourists. Fun =) Then we took a stroll around Paris, taking in the city for the last time in daylight and appreciating our trip. I had an absolutely wonderful fun and got to know my new friend Alayne better, which I am so grateful for =)

Belfast

So I'm back from my week-long trip to America and enjoying Ireland in full bloom! Spring is upon us, and the Emerald Isle is finally living up to it's name! Everything is green. Everything. I've been trying to take as many pictures as I can, but that's proven to be a harder task than I imagined. The other day I went around campus with my DSLR and snapped some shots of my favorite places. There's a secret little garden behind my religion classroom that I'd visited in February, but it wasn't anything to look at back then. Now it's covered with green ivy and vibrantly colored flowers. I love this town and I'm gonna try to take even more pictures of downtown Maynooth later this week.

Anyway! The point of this post was that I went to Belfast yesterday with Brendan and Katt! It's the capital of Northern Ireland, which is a different country and part of the UK. The train ride over was breathtaking; we followed the sandy coastline of the Irish Sea up into the rolling hills of Ulster. Once we arrived, we had to immediately find an ATM to withdraw some pounds! It was different from English pounds though, because it's the only currency in the world that says "Ireland" on it. I almost kept 5-pound bill as a souvenir, but it's worth like seven dollars... so the one-pound coins were enough for me ;)

We took a short bus into the city and walked around a bit, admiring City Hall and Victoria Square. Once we located the tourist office, we arranged to have a bus tour after a quick bite to eat. I had a traditional Irish lunch of bread, cheese, and and tomato. Yum! Then we got on the bus, snatched a seat on the upper level, and prepared for a flash of Irish history.

Northern Ireland is a separate country from the Republic of Ireland, which is mostly Catholic-dominated. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, is mostly Protestant. In the 1970s a conflict arose between the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. The Catholics, or nationalists, wanted to unite with Ireland and the Protestants, or unionists, wanted to stay in the UK. Many people were killed as the conflict escalated, and the deadliest city at the time was Belfast. As a result, peace walls have been erected to prevent the two opposing groups from fighting. They were quite a sight and reminded me of the Berlin Wall.

On the tour, we passed by the headquarters of the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was the main army for the unionists during the troubles. Bus tours had previously not been allowed to pass by the area, because it was so probable that they would be a target for violence. Oddly enough, it was located right next to a KFC and I was traveling with my friend Katt, who's from Kentucky ;)

There were murals up all over the city commemorating those killed and the people involved in the troubles.

 We also passed by the Stormont parliament buildings of Northern Ireland. I was pretty excited about going to Belfast because Brendan and I had just learned about it in history class on Monday. In class we discovered that the parliament buildings are waayyy too big for Northern Ireland (it's a tiny, tiny country), but they built it anyway because they wanted something impressive. After that, we found out that the Titanic was built in Belfast. It's a popular saying that "The Irish built it, but the English sank it". Ha! -here in Ireland, I've come to hate the English just as much as they do ;)

I got plenty of pretty pictures of the city and thoroughly enjoyed its history. I'm thrilled that I got to go to another country, even though it's still on this tiny, little island. Well, I have a busy week ahead of me, full of religion papers that need writing and English finals that need studying. I miss you all and I'll see you again in FIVE WEEKS!!