Day two in Paris

For our first full day in Paris we woke up early and went straight to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Now I love Notre Dame the college and the movie, but the cathedral is so beautiful. It has so much history and different touristy collections inside but still functions as a church too (we were able to sit in on mass while we were there -- so weird to recognize the different parts of mass but hear it in a different language). There is so many interesting parts of Notre Dame that I can't possibly type them all, so here are some pictures that will do the explaining instead hopefully :)

 The next stop was Luxemburg Gardens which was so green seeing at how cold it was (and the lack of rain). There was a palace here that the senators now do their business in (behind us in the second picture).

 We stopped for lunch and I got a super french dish called Croque Monsieur which is basically a much much much better version of grilled ham and cheese. It was a quick but delicious lunch to get us energized for...........

......THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!! I remember seeing it from a distance the first day and thinking that it wasn't anything special, but then seeing it closer it was so cool! My friend Amy and I tried taking jumping pictures and it actually worked (for the first time in my life :) )

After the Eiffel Tower we had nutella crepes that were so beyond amazing words can't even describe. I devoured mine in under two minutes and wanted five more. We then went to the Louvre which was HUGE!! You could easily spend 3 full days in there and not see everything so we decided to see the famous stuff; Mona Lisa and the Aphrodite statue. Then we went back to Carole's apartment and made pasta for dinner. Then we planned on going on a cruise on the Seine River but we couldn't find the boats, so we ended up getting dessert at another Parisian restaurant, guess what i had? That's right, another nutella crepe. We were so exhausted by the time we got back that after a little wine, we went straight to sleep to gear up for our last day in the city of love.

Paris- Day Three

Our last day in France may have been my favorite of the whole weekend. We wanted to get an early 8am start and go to Versailles. Turns out we set our alarms for the right time, but France is an hour ahead of Ireland. So we didn't leave the apartment until about 9, but we were all so exhausted that it all worked out for the best! So we took the metro and a train to Versailles, about an hour ride from Carole's flat, got some McDonalds breakfast to get going, turned the corner and saw....

 King Louis the 16th decided to build this excessively massive palace and decided to put gold in every nook and cranny of the house. Literally every room seemed to be fake just because the gold was SO gold. I wish i could explain it better, but every room had an insane amount of gold, paintings, and was usually color coded (in order of the rainbow too, very creative). The picture above is of the Hall of Mirrors, a very famous part of the palace. The other pictures are of just half of the palace, so imagine that times two. Now imagine that and add about 20 of those. That's around how big the grounds of the palace are. Behind the actual building are massive gardens. There is a canal and few ponds going through the grounds (not to mention the couple restaurants, biking routes, ice cream shops, and the other buildings on the grounds). So after we walked through the palace we walked the grounds to Marie Antoinette'a house (after a stop for nutella crepes and hot chocolate). I would say we walked about 6 miles easily just from our strolling around the grounds to and from the different houses (and it was freezing while we were walking too. So cranky and tired but in awe of how beautiful the gardens were we went to lunch at a local restaurant. My favorite part though (big surprise) was the dessert. I literally wanted each and every item that is in the picture. It took me about 5 minutes to decided what i wanted, and I finally decided on a strawberry tart that was beyond delicious. My friend had an eclair at the same shop and I don't think I've ever seen either of us so happy.

I can't figure out how to change the picture so its right side up, but this is the Sacred Heart Basilica. Goregous. Breathtaking. Amazing. I was semi speechless when we saw this. I'm not sure if it was the building itself or the combonation of being sentimental it was our last night in Paris along with the beauty, but it was my favorite part of our trip. After taking tons of pictures we went inside and saw all of the paintings. I must say that I think Europe has a good idea making all of their churches so goregous with all their paintings on the walls and the murals on the ceilings because church was packed. After our quick tour of the basilica we went to Montmarte, the town surrounding the church. It is known as a town full of artists and it still holds true. At 9 at night in freezing temperatures artists lined the streets showing off their work and offering to draw a portrait. We ended the night with dinner then wine and cheese at Carole's apartment. She tried to make us crepes but we had a batter malfunction so ate brie and bread along with a french dessert she made!

We had such a fun trip, full of sighseeing and visiting with Carole. Wish we could have spent more time there, but I have to say, it was good to come home and relax!

and we still kept walking....

This weekend we thought we were going on a nice fun trip around eastern cork. The six of us spent an hour to figure out what kind of outfits we would need to trek around towns we knew nothing about. So we packed up and got onto the bus and SURPRISE! this wasn't a weekend trip around eastern cork but a spiritual retreat. Our weekend turned from being a tourist to a simple relaxing weekend with the coolest monk ever. Brother Richard was the first monk I have ever met, and he completely negated the image of a meditative quirky stereotype I had in my head. He was a down to earth guy with an iphone 4 and made everyone feel at ease. We had a few "sessions" on Saturday where he brought up really interesting topics and even read people's personalities. 

The place we stayed at was on the beach, so we took a nice long walk. The houses were right next to Youghal, the town we visited the first weekend here. We thought the town was right near the hotel, which it was but we went the wrong way on the beach and ended up walking 45 minutes the wrong way. Eventually we figured it out and walked the other way and made it to town after a 2 hour walk. Thankfully the beach was gorgeous so it made it worth it!

 This is the six of us on the retreat! This weekend was not what we expected, but we still had a ton of fun!

just keep walking, walking, walking....

Going into this trip, I knew that the European way of living was very different than in America. What i was not prepared for was how much my feet would hurt. Walking 20 minutes to each place you want to go seems to be the norm here. The grocery store, our friends house, school clothing store, really any store is a 15 minute walk. The best is going to the grocery store. At home, sometimes trying to carry all the bags just to the car seems to be a endless task. Imagine carrying those same groceries for 15 minutes up a hill, on a sidewalk, and through crowds of people trying to get to where they need to be. Also, in an effort to "be green" customers have to provide their own bags when you go to grocery stores and bag their own food. This would not be a big deal, but it usually takes awhile to bag up all my stuff, and the cashier doesn't start checking out the next person until I get all bagged up. I usually have a very angry Irish native behind me who is so efficient at packing their bags they look at me like a crazy American.  So we usually carry all of our groceries in this one huge bag and our backpacks after spending what seems like 15 minutes to bag up our groceries (really only takes 2 but I'm telling you those stares really put pressure on the situation). Needless to say, I have come to appreciate both baggers in the grocery stores as well as cars SOOOO much.

Another thing I appreciate is my mom's home cooking. I never realized how much effort goes into thinking about what to make for dinner. We have to plan our dinners every week when we go to the grocery store so we don't have to make a ton of trips (if you aren't sure why, read the paragraph above). Our dinners pretty much consist of chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, and these amazing sandwiches that are made right by our house. I'm amazed by how anyone gets any more variety to their diet. I was thinking about a week's dinner at home, and I don't think we repeat any meals for about a month. How my mom does this still baffles me. So for any moms reading this, I have so much more understanding and respect for all the effort that goes into making dinners!

The visit to Meghan's favorite city!

.....GALWAY!! Unfortunately I was not very good at taking pictures here. There's only a few, but the town was so quaint and cute. Meghan recommended some sights to see and some pubs to visit that were so much fun! We left at 930 in the morning at got to Galway around 1pm. It was so rainy and windy that all of my friends umbrellas broke! We walked around and aquainted ourselves with the city. We went to this delicious resteuraunt called Busker Brown's then walked around and went shopping some more! Then we made dinner in our hostel that was SO SO SO nice. We were supposed to be in a room with 4 other people, but it turned out we were the only ones in the room. The next day we went to see the sights of Galway!

 This is Oscar Wilde, apparently an Irishman

 This is what I thought was a spanish arch, but it was actually a gift from stingy Italians celebrating Columbus' visit to there in 1477.

 Cathedral of St. Nicholas! The church is filled with history and unique stain glass windows, but when we went church was in session so we couldn't take pictures. Below is another church called the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas.

There was an amazing cupcake place in town. These cupcakes wern't just cute, they're really tasty :) 

I had the cupcake on the lower left hand corner and a Bailey's cupcake. My friends also got some, and they were all SOOO good!

Galway was such a fun and exciting city, I can see why Meghan loved it there!

the time i kissed a wall 5 times....totally worth it

On Friday of this week (i have no classes yay!) a group of us went to Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone! Luckily, it is only a 20 minute bus ride from Cork so it was  easy to get to! The views at Blarney were beyond amazing. Green grasses everywhere and the castle was so huge and gorgeous! The house was owned by a family that was supposedly loyal to the Queen, but eventually fell out of favor because he never did anything the queen asked. She dubbed the family full of "blarney."

 This is the watchtower that I can't figure out how to switch the photo the other way.

Now to understand this whole kissing the stone thing, you have to know where it is. Its about three feet below the level of the floor you stand on. So you have to hold on to two bars and dip your head back REALLY FAR. I didn't realize how far back this was, so i saw stone and just kept kissing. However, you have to keep going until you feel like you're about to fall. After thinking I kissed the infamous stone four times, on the fifth try I finally got it! Hopefully like the legend says it'll bring me good luck!

This is the Blarney House that was absolutley amazing as you can see. The house wasn't open the day that we went, but hopefully we will be able to get inside when my parents and Karly and the Barretts come! There is also a stable where we saw horses, a lake, and a fern garden on the grounds. This is yet another spot that is full of gorgeous views and amazing sights. I think I'm going to need to find some new adjectives!

Ardmore

 We had the perfect weather while on these trips. The day before it POURED so we were thankful for the sun :)

 So pretty! Seems to be a reoccurring theme in all my scenery pictures!

St. Declan's rock- its rumored that St. Declan wanted to find a sign of where to build his church. one night he set a lantern on this rock in scotland and the rock traveled to Ardmore, pointing to where Declan eventually built his church

 Sarah and I with our new friends Maggie, Sarah, and Hillary! This is St. Declan's wall that protected his "hermit house" with is directly in front of where this picture was taken.

 Then we went on a cliff walk! It took about an hour and a half to go on the walk and the sights were unreal

 All of us again, it was SO windy, as you can see by our hair

 This is one of Declan's holy wells which has water trickling out of it 24/7

 Gaurd tower by Declan's gravesite

 Declan's actual house. Apparently the graves closet to the house are the "most holy" in the town becuase that was prime real estate to be close to a saint's house

 The first church in Ireland built in the 3rd or 4th century. It has no roof and was expanded as the town grew.

The back of the church had bible stories on the back of it. If you look closely, the big semi cirlcle on the right is Adam and Eve, and on the left is King Solomon. The smaller ones above it are the stations of the cross.

We had such a fun time during out Heritage trip with the Chaplaincy that we decided to go on their weekend long trip with some of our friends next weekend. This weekend we are visiting the Blarney Stone and Castle as well as Galway and possibly the Cliffs of Moore! Hopefully I'll have this updated by Monday!