**not finished...more pics to come**
So the first week of vacation, I decided to take myself away to Ireland. I guess I worded that oddly, but seriously, I used this trip as a chance to save myself from...myself. The past couple of weeks leading up to vacation have been stress-filled. In two months I am starting an internship. What internship you may ask...well that's a GOOD question because I still don't know and it's freaking me out. When I get stressed out, I don't do to well in large crowds...ie Paris. So I needed to get the 'hout' as Emily and Nanda would say. I've always wanted to see Ireland so I went. It has been such a learning experience.
My flight was early Saturday morning so I had to catch the metro when it opened at 6am. I was flying out of Paris Beauvais which is over an hour out of Paris by bus. The metro stopped two stops away from the stop where I needed to meet the bus. I freaked out. A very nice guard/worker/man told me to follow the signs for a bus that would take me to the stop. So I did. It was actually very easy (because I followed the crowd...baaaah). So I took the €13 bus to Beauvais. Let me tell you about this airport. It is tiny!!! There was such a long line to check in...and then an even longer line for passport control. Security went quickly but then I just entered a big room with four gates. I had no idea what gate my flight was from so I just chilled. I met this very nice couple, Emily and Sage. So it ended up this flight was free for all when it comes to seating but somehow I had preferred seating so I got to get on the plane first. Yay for small favors. It was an easy flight to Ireland. Upon landing, I got my luggage and caught a bus to Dublin. The bus station was pretty close to my hostel so it was easy to get there and check in.
So the rest of Saturday I wandered around and got to know Dublin. I saw Dublin castle, Chester Beatty Library and the special exhibit Sacred Traditions (cool religious books and artifacts), Dublinia (a way kitch-y exhibit of the vikings influence on Dublin), Christ Church Cathedral (gorgeous), and Trinity College and the Book of Kells (a Latin version of the four gospels). It was a busy day.
Sunday, I got up early (and still had ten hours of sleep) and enjoyed the free Irish breakfast provided by the hostel. I took a quick walk along the river Liffey and saw Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift was dean there (it's good to be dean :-P) for awhile and is now buried there.
At 11, I took a bus tour along the south coast and saw Powerscourt Estate. It was amazing!! The tour price included admittance to the gardens. I had an hour and a half to wander around. It was sooooo windy. The fountain in the middle of the lake was getting me wet!
I got back to Dublin 3ish and went to the free art gallery. I wandered a little but was so tired I headed back to the hostel early. I had fish and chips for dinner!
Monday was another Ireland fun filled day! I got up a little later and took a tour at 10 am towards the north coast. We visited Malahide castle.
This castle has been in the Talbot family for over 800 years but the latest owener, the Honorable Rose Talbot had to sell it to the Dublin government. After the tour, I went to the Guinness Factory and learned how beer was made: hops, barley, water, yeast.
Monday was also a big day for me in another regard. I learned how to be alone...well, conquered! I ate in a restaurant alone. A full, sit down, waiter, bill, and all restaurant. Then, I went and saw a movie alone. I sat through a movie in a movie theater alone. I'm a big girl now!
Tuesday morning, I had an early (but cheap) flight to Cork. Heading to the airport, I was actually sad to be leaving Dublin. I had fun discovering the ins and outs and had made it mine in a way so I felt like I was leaving home. I slept off an on to Cork and arrived to wonderful Irish weather of rain and wind. I had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus to arrive to take us soggy travellers to Cork. I must admit I did a good job booking hostels because both the Dublin and Cork hostel were right down the road from the main bus stations. I am not, however, good at finding hostels and walked past this one also while trying to find it.
Anyway, it was about noon, I couldn't go to my room, so I left my luggage 'in good hands' and left to wander around. I walked through the fantastic shopping street (sigh) and found St. Finn Barr's Cathedral. Service was in progress and had just started so I didn't feel like waiting around. I headed back into town, checked in the hostel, and decided to head to Blarney, about half an hour away. It had been raining a little in Cork but the weather at Blarney was fantastic!! I fell in love (again) that day. When people say go to your happy place in your mind, I'll revisit Blarney. Anway, you walk through the front gate where you pay, and it's kind of woodsy so you can't see the castle.
The grounds are gorgeous and there's a small stream. After crossing a cute bridge you can see the castle. It looks like the cover of a romance novel Nish and I would read. It is gorgeous! Writing makes me want to go back. It's such an old stone castle. Visitors have free reign to walk through as they want. The spiral stone stairs were kind of steep and slippery. It is hard to imagine people living there! From what remains, you can see the kitchen, chapel, banqueting room, family room, great hall, 4 different bedrooms, and then the blarney stone is on the 'roof'. The views, by the way, are incredible from up there! So I had to do it...I kissed the blarney stone! it's freaky but so worth it! Besides, what's the point of going!? And no Drew, no mouth herpes! The grounds of Blarney castle are amazing. I wandered around for a little bit before leaving. So when I got back that evening, I researched what to do the next day since Cork didn't have too much going on and I didn't have any money to take advantage of the amazing shopping.
I ended up taking a bus to Killarney about two hours away to visit the National Park and see Castle Ross. It was so windy but it was an amazing walk through the woods and fields.
I felt like Keira Knightly in Pride and Prejudice (I like to walk; Yes, I know). The strong wind turned into a storm though so I ended up soggy. I'd love to return in better weather because it is a huge park with lots of attractions (both nature and historical castles). I stayed for about four hours before giving in to nature and taking a bus back. I had dinner with some new friends at the hostel.
My flight to Berlin was at 6:50 Thursday morning.
I slept most of the way! When I landed in Berlin, I had to take a metro-ish train into the city to the main train station to buy a ticket to Chemnitz (where Pat lives) via Leipzig (where we met to walk around). I had some issues with the metro part but after that I was fine. And I don't speak German! So in Leipzig, besides a little bit of hail, Pat and I saw the church where Bach is buried. It's a nice little town. We took the train on to Chemnitz, another hour-long ride. After dumping my stuff in Pat's room, we did a quick tour of Chemnitz, famous for its large Karl Marx head, and then met up with Pat's awesome friends for dinner at a Hungarian restaurant.
Friday morning, Pat and I took a train to Dresden. I was very excited about seeing this town because I played a piece of music in memory of the bombing of Dresden. It was a beautiful town!
After dumping our stuff at Pat's friend's place, we set off. I had a bratwurst for lunch (yum). We saw so much! We went into the Zwinger, an old Palace that is now different museums. We saw a famous Raphael painting, The Sistine Madonna, with the two cherubs at the bottom looking up at Mary. It's so pretty.
Then we
took a tour of the Opera. It must be a rule that all opera houses are fantastic. I paid two euro to get to take pictures and I'm glad I did. We then went to the Church of Our Lady which was just reopened after renovations from being bombed. It was very pastel-y as Pat would say.
We went back to the Zwinger (we had a day pass) to see something Germany is famous for, porcelain. There were some very pretty displays. After that, Pat and I met up with his friend Creed for dinner.
Then we headed to a friend's apartment for a birthday party. It was a socialist themed party (I wore red) so Pat dressed at the Karl Marx head of Chemitz. It was a late night.
Saturday, we kind of slept in...till noon. We got dressed and went to this brunch place. It was fantastic. I had some traditional German food...don't know any names though. Then Pat and I trained it to Berlin. He had stayed in a hostel there before so he took me straight there and we checked in. It was already dark, so we kind of wandered around and then chilled at a cafe and made it an early night.
Sunday morning we checked out and stored our luggage. We were out and about by 9. Oh we saw so much! We started at Alexanderplatz, two churches (almost identical) and a theater. From there we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, a famous crossing between west and east Berlin during the Wall times. It was quite moving to see remains of the wall and know the history and that peace was reached during my lifetime. After a coffee break to warm up, we walked (alot) more. We saw the new Sony Center-amazing architecture. Then we passed a holocaust memorial. This place was amazing, it's hard to describe so please take time to see the photos. Then we walked up the block to Brandenburg gate and walked down 'under the limes' avenue (lined with lime trees!). After a lunch break at this cool Italian restaurant, we went up the Berliner Cathedral. I say up because we got to climb up to the cupola and see the view from the top. Then we went to the crypts and saw important dead people. After that, it was time for culture, so we went into a museum and saw some lovely art. We wandered around a bit more after that, had Indian food for dinner, and then headed to the train station to be early for our trains. I took a night train from Berlin back to Paris. It was a wonderful way to end my week of vacation. Ok, not vacation, travel.
We also took a tour of Madame Pommery's 'cave,' one of the oldest and well-known champagne makers. The cave has different art exhibits each year which made the tour quite exciting (and the photographs really funny).
It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect semester. On Friday, some of us did a daytrip to Normandy!! We visited Caen (um, con with a snotty french accent) and drove up to the coast and saw Omaha Beach. It was a fantastic road trip...we heard crazy music on the radio...video killed the radio star, wonderwall, just crazy stuff! The beach was cold with the breeze coming off the English Channel. But it was nice to be out on the coast...we took a little walk on the beach. It was an amazing place. 
