[I was in Paris from July 13th to 15th]

The night before I left for Paris, I decided to buy the deluxe verion of the Before You Know It program in French. I somehow convinced myself I could master French during the five-hour train ride from Zurich to Paris.

False.

When I rolled into Paris, I realized I didn’t write down the name or address of the hotel I was staying at, so I spent the better half of three hours looking for the Louvre (I knew my hotel was near there), hoping to see the hotel’s name and jog my memory.

Well, I knew I’d recognize the Louvre by the giant glass pyramid I’ve seen in the movies.   The movies failed to tell me that the giant glass pyramid was inside the courtyard and is not visible AT ALL from the street.

I finally popped into a Starbucks to steal some Wifi, which was not working.  The baristas guided me to an Apple Store in the Louvre (which I realized I had been walking around the entire time).  I went in there, stole their internet, and found my hotel.

Then!  I used my professional tourist skills to hit up the exterior of the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eifel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe (I spent like two hours here journaling and writing postcards), Avenue des Champs-Élysées,  and the Jardin des Tuileries in a couple hours.  I figured I could see everything else the next day.

When I returned to my hotel, the receptionist informed me that everything would be closed the next day because it was Bastille Day.  Yes, I was accidentally in Paris on Bastille Day.

So, since everything was closed, I decided to do another free New Europe tour.  It was POURING outside, to the point where after an hour and a half of doing a walking tour and hoping the rain would let up, we collectively decided to cancel the rest of the tour.  It was still really fun, and my guide was such a trooper.  She even gave her umbrella to someone on the tour who didn’t have one.  I spent the majority of the remainder of the day in my hotel room wishing my only pair of jeans and my only pair of shoes would dry faster.

The weather cleared up in time for the Bastille Day fireworks at the Eifel Tower.  I went out and watched them from Champ de Mars.  After a month of going going going, I looking forward to my one good night of sleep and decided to leave at 11:30 to beat the crowds to the metro.

The fireworks ended at 11:35.  The armed cops promptly shut down the metro to prevent the 2,000,000 attendees from causing riots below ground.  I was forced to walk from the Eifel Tower all the way to my hotel which was on the opposite side of the Louvre.  It took exactly one hour and twenty-seven minutes to walk from the Eifel Tower to my bed, and it was miserable.  I then had to pack and wake up at 5:45 to catch my plane to Dublin in the morning.

Well, in the meantime, please enjoy my ten thousand pictures of Paris including a wonderful Bastille Day Fireworks montage.

Oh hey look!  I’m not dead!

Please enjoy this blog post from almost two weeks ago.

I had so much fun in Switzerland!!!  Andy and Philipp were wonderful hosts. My train into Zurich from Bari via Milan was ohhh, just an hour late (which apparently isn’t actually that bad for an Italian train).  Luckily Andy was at the station regardless waiting to pick me up!  He took me home and I had the pleasure of meeting his boyfriend, Philipp.

On Sunday (the 11th, I apologize for how far behind I am), they took me out to Lake Luzern.  IT WAS SO PRETTY.  I’ve decided that someday when I have money, I’m going to buy a house on the lake and a sailboat to sail around Lake Luzern. We went on a ferry ride so I could see Switzerland in all of its mountainous and glacier-lake-filled glory.

Then we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain and hiked down To Rütli (where the Swiss Confederacy was first founded).  Near Rütli, I saw some really cute cows and went to go take a pictures of them.  Swiss cows are undoubtedly the cutest cows of them all.  While I was focusing my camera, I suddenly felt like I had been run down or hit really forcibly by some REALLY HUGE animal.  Then I realized I had managed to walk into the electric fence, and I electrocuted myself.  Perfect, self.

Afterwards we saw the oldest wooden bridge, Kapellbrücke, and then returned home to watch the World Cup Final at a public viewing place in Wohlen.

The next day, Andy and I got a late start due to my catch-up blogging.  We went to explore Bremgarten which has a lot of really well-preserved buildings, and then we made our way into Zurich.  Andy showed me around the most important parts (see the pictures!), and then we met up with Philipp so we could all go swimming in Lake Zurich.

As we approached the lake, an ominous cloud approached and brought in like the strongest winds Andy and Philipp had ever seen in Zurich.  So, we decided to go swimming anyways.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN.  The water was really surprisingly warm and clear and wonderful, and there were actually huge waves in Lake Zurich (also extremely uncommon).

I wish I could better explain all of the fun things we did.  They also introduced me to lots of yummy Swiss foods like Zopf, Cervelat, and Meringue, amongst other things.

It’s almost midnight now.  I’m going to go to bed.  Please enjoy these pictures of Switzerland, and expect a post about Paris coming soon :]

Oh, also, for those of you who don’t know I’m in western Ireland right now studying the Irish Language in a really intense immersion program.  I’ll be writing lots of stories about that later!  I’ve been studying too much to write yet…  Unfortunately I’m completely serious.  I have over 200 notecards from the last two days.

This is the picture I submitted for the TOMS contest

So, I realized I never said it had to be the first person to find the picture, so Karly, Ms. Ballarini, and David are all winners.

I believe I owe you cupcakes.

I apologize for my lack of posts.  This past week has been a complete whirlwind with two days in Switzerland, two days in Paris, one day in Galway City, and then starting up my Irish Language class yesterday.

AHHHHHHH.  Overwhelmed.

I also have to start doing actual “work-related” things that need to be done before I move into school (i.e. making schedules for three different staff teams… ugh).

In the mean time, this shoe company, TOMS (which I love), has a contest going on to see who has the best TOMS tan line.  I submitted a picture of my feet next to the Eifel Tower, and SUPPOSEDLY the picture is on this site.  If you find my picture, take a screen shot, and send said screen shot to me, I will bake a cupcake for you.

I just spent an incredible couple of days with my friend Rosangela and her family in Triggiano, Italy.

It was really nice to have a few relaxing days as opposed to the go go go go go craziness I’ve been living in for the last month.  I have never met more hospitable people than Italians.  Rosangela, her family, and her friends welcomed me in and treated me like family despite the fact that no one other than Rosangela really spoke English, and my entire Italian vocabulary consisted of “gratzie” and “ciao.”  It was wonderful.

Rosangela’s mom is an amazing cook.  She made things like parmeseana, rizzoto, focaccia, pasta, and this really good noodle thing with peas.  The family tried to get me to try “trippa.”  Luckily Rosangela talked them out of it because I later found out that trippa means tripe.  AHHH.  I love Italian food, but tripe is not my thing.  Haha

I think my favorite part of the trip was when I went to Rosangela’s grandfather’s house.  I had the great fortune of meeting her entire extended family, only a few of which spoke English, but I LOVED it.  Something about foreign languages and foreign cultures just fascinates me, even when I can’t understand what people are saying.   I loved listening to them talk to each other and trying to figure out what they were saying.

I had so much fun in Triggiano and Bari.  The people I met were so interesting and kind (Rosangela’s mom even made me a bunch of sandwiches for the train ride to Zurich!), and I cannot wait to go back and visit them again.  Hopefully I’ll have a little more Italian so I can converse more :]

The last little chunk of photos from Florence

Here are most of my pictures from Firenze (Florence, Italy).  Enjoy!!

(I just realized I have more which I will post later!)

It has been SO HOT, but that’s fine.  I got into Firenze on Sunday afternoon and wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself.  I quickly realized two things:

1)  80% of the things I wanted to see were closed on Mondays

2)  I had approximately three hours to get in as many of them as possible

SO I booked it from my hostel to Galleria Academia to see Michaelangelo’s David.  I had to wait about an hour and a half in line, but that was fine because I ended up talking to this really nice family from California.  After that I ran to the Uffizi Gallery to see The Birth of Venus.  My guidebook said I should have booked a reservation months in advance.  Perhaps I was just lucky, but I waited in line for literally less than twenty minutes.  I took my time wandering around in there because nothing else would be open when I was done.

You know, I have never seen so many naked statues before.  I’m starting to wonder if Romans ever actually wore clothes.

On day two in Firenze, I started off wandering around the San Lorenzo Market, which despite what my guidebook told me was actually open on Monday.  I bought some really beautiful purple leather gloves, a really neat green leather bracelet, and a cool mask magnet (pictures coming laterr).

Now, whenever I don’t know what do do with myself, I just go stand wherever I see a line because there’s a pretty good chance it’s either something interesting or something touristy.

I found myself in line for the Basillica di San Lorenzo, and for three euros extra I could go to two more places.  Score!!  I am all about the cheap.

So, I went into the first place.  Turns out it was a crypt.  Lots of dead bodies.  I walked around looking looking at the little displays of what looked like mantle pieces with saints’ names on them.  As I stood looking at what I thought was a weird twig on a candlestick holder, I noticed the caption said “Reliquia del san Mattia.”  Now, I don’t speak Italian.  But I quickly realized that I was looking at the shriveled finger of Saint Mattia.  AHHHHH.  And then I walked around and took a second look at all the other relics which were mostly bone chips.

Afterwards I went into a library designed by Michaelangelo (super cool) and finally into the Basillica di San Lorenzo.  As I was walking in, the people working in the church pulled me aside to tell me my short were too short.  Now, I don’t know if you know me, but I hate really short shorts.  I believe I was actually wearing long track shorts on this day, but nonetheless, I had to wear the giant, blue potato sack they gave me.  WORTH IT.  The paintings inside this basillica are so beautiful.

I walked around a little more around Florence.  I made it to Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.  The outside is ornate and amazing.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red and green church before.  The inside is really wide and open.  It gave me childhood flashbacks of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  It was open like that church.  Haha

The main part of that cathedral is the Duomo (the giant dome on top).  I got in line and paid eight euro to climb the 446 stairs to the top of the Duomo.  Yes, this is the second religious trek I’ve made during this trip.  I made it all the way to the top and stopped to take in the view of Firenze.  It was breathtaking.  Pictures do not do it justice.  I also needed to take a break because I’m 99% sure my pit stains were down to my ankles.  It was SOOO HOT in Firenze, and my hostel did not have air-conditioning.

Next on the list were Chiesa di San Croce and Cappelle Medicee, but they were both closed.  Instead, I went to the food market and bought some yummy Italian grapes to munch on.  I hiked a little bit and watched the sun set from the top of Piazzale Michaelangelo.  It was amazing.

Then it was time to call it a day.  I was exhausted and had to pack for the train to Bari in the morning.  Couldn’t wait to see Rosangela!!!

I will post pictures later

So, because I had to take an overnight train to Rome/Florence, I only had about twenty-four hours in Vienna.  I wish I had stayed at least another half day.

On Friday afternoon//evening I decided to take my guidebook’s advice and go to this Austrian vineyard just outside of town.  Poor decision.  It was almost 90 degrees farenheit and humid, and I had to sit on a tram without air-conditioning for forty minutes and walk around for about a half hour to find the place just to find out that it’s a regular restaurant that sells wine they made in their vineyard.  The wine was great, but no one there spoke any English at all and I ended up just pointing at something on the menu hoping it was food because I was starving.  It turns out I ordered some fancy block of goat cheese.  Great.

Saturday was much better.  I started off right with my first real breakfast in a while and hopped the train into town (my hostel was in like the armpit of the city).  I spent most of the day doing a hop-on-hop-off tour which was nice because I got to see pretty much everything there was to see.  I also walked around and went back to some things I wanted a closer look at like the Opera Museum, Butterfly House, MAK Museum, and Café Central.

The MAK Museum was so cool!  Well.  I like weird things.  So you should take that with a grain of salt.  The MAK has exhibits on things like furniture, porcelain, oriental rugs, metal, architecture, and lots of other seemingly ordinary things that you don’t normally think about.  What I like most about this museum is that it finds the interesting in the ordinary, which is what I feel like I’ve spent my life doing.  I highly recommend stopping by if you have the chance.  It was actually free admission when I went.  (AWESOME)

Café Central is one of the most famous cafés in Vienna, and they have a lot of cafés.    This particular one was once frequented by Lenin, Trotsky, and Freud who were all known to meet here for chess games.  I was just going to get an espresso, but then I saw the word “goulash” on the menu and I was sold.  MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.  Really though.  Who can turn down a good goulash?  It was sooooo tasty.

I also managed to run into another gay pride parade.  It’s like they’re following me haha

Everything in Vienna is beautiful.  Every building is architecturally stunning and ornate.  There are statues on every corner.  There are more public gardens than you can count.  And the city is on the Danube River.  SO PRETTY.

So, I just spent about a half hour going through and putting captions on all these picures, and the internet crapped out when I clicked save.  SO.  Enjoy the pictures for now, I’ll put captions on again when I stop hating European internet connections.

[written on the morning of July 4th]

Well, good morning, Italy.  Last night I took a sleeper train (which I am still sitting on) from Vienna to Rome (where I am still headed).  I’m trying to get to Florence.  I was not aware that Florence comes before Rome.   Guess who didn’t do so well in Geography:  Meeeeee! Oh well.  I get to spend a little extra money and a little extra time watching the beautiful Italian scenery roll by when I hop a train back to Florence.  I’m not complaining a whole lot.

I thought about just jumping out at Florence, but something made me decide not to.  Know why?  I later realized that the train stewardess still has my very expensive Eurail Pass.  Thank you, subconscious!  That would have completely sucked.  I also get to spend a couple more hours in the air-conditioning.

Last night I shared a car with these two really cute Austrian grandmas.  They were really funny, especially since their English wasn’t so great and they kept asking me questions about my trip.  Now, the way a sleeper car works (for those of you who don’t know) is there are bunk beds stacked about three high.  My ticket said I had the bottom bed, but am I really going to make an old lady climb all the way to the top and hoist herself into bed?  NO.  So I offered to take the top and was looking forward to a night of good sleep without drunk people screaming outside my window.  Pardon my French, but it was hot as BALLS up there last night.  I couldn’t sleep at all even with the A/C turned up all the way.  So, yet again, I was robbed of some well-deserved shuteye.  I don’t think I’ve slept well since I’ve been out running around Europe on my own.

At least my ticket includes a free breakfast.  That was a pleasant surprise.

On Thursday, I went on a tour to the concentration camp in Dachau.  All kids in America grow up learning about WWII and concentration camps and how horrible it was, but nothing really drills that into your mind like actually going to a concentration camp.

I cannot explain in words the feelings I had as I walked through the buildings here.  To walk through the gate where they lost their rights, to be in the room where they lost their belongings, and to stand on the ground where so many people lost their lives, it’s surreal.

Many rooms in the concentration camp are section off to protect returning survivors from having to relive some of the worst parts of their time there.  There is also a walkway that was created after the war that goes around the front gate so survivors don’t have to walk through it again.

At the end of the tour, we had the chance to walk through the crematorium and the gas chamber.  I couldn’t do it.  I literally ran through the exhibit because I couldn’t handle being in there.  I took lots of pictures of the grounds, but I did not take a picture of that.

If any of you ever have the chance to visit a concentration camp, do it.  Please.  I think if more people were able to experience what I experienced, we would not have had so many genocides since then, and we most certainly would not let what’s happening in Darfur continue.

I forgot to mention that on the first day, I also did the Beer Challenge.  Now, that does not mean that the drunkest person wins.  It was quite the opposite.  This beer challenge was about remembering the most facts about Munich’s different beers and breweries.  The lack of beer in my life resulted in me not winning the challenge.  Oh well.  The group I was with was relatively small (only about twenty people) and we all bonded pretty well.  There were these five Scottish guys in my group whom I had met earlier in the day at the free tour.  I LOVE those guys.  At the end of the night, everyone was toasting and singing and just having an all-around great time.  No one was sloppy drunk.

On Wednesday (day two in Munich) I decided to go on the beer challenge again since I had so much fun the night before.  That was a poor decision.  Seventy people showed up, and a good-sized group of people from Texas were already drunk when they got there.  I think they were expecting a pub crawl, which the beer challenge is not.  I ended up hanging out with these really cool newlyweds from Boston and a few other people older than me.  People don’t believe I’m only twenty when I tell them.

Wednesday during the day was nice.  I wandered around the city trying to find the things I wanted to go back to.  One thing was the Tower of St. Peter’s Church.  So, I think I walked past this church at least six times.  I kept asking locals for directions and they all looked at me like an idiot because this church is huge and one of the symbols of the city.  Well, I found it, and I climbed up all 336 stairs to the top.  SO worth it.  That is the #1 best view of Munich.  I highly recommend it.

I also ran through traffic when I saw a gelato shop, took a picture of a Glockenspiel that actually works, went inside a church that was almost completely destroyed during the war and was rebuilt with the help of the whole community, saw some really creepy dolls at the toy museum, and contemplated stealing the Maypole.

Munich was awesome.  On my first day there, I decided to do the New Europe free tour (shocking, I know).  My tour guide Michael (from IRELAND of course) was really entertaining and knowledgeable.  He had all the answers to all the questions and showed us a lot of things we would never have known otherwise.

One cool thing about Munich is the way they do memorials.  In Berlin, the Holocaust memorial takes up basically an entire city block.  In Munich, memorials are small so they’re there for those who want them and out of the way for those who don’t.  The memorials are often small plaques with very few words like “Until 1946 here stood the Something Something Shopping Centre.”  What’s interesting about this is that it forces you to become actively involved with history, similar to the Jewish Museum in Berlin.  These plaques make you think “Hmm, what was this shopping centre, and what happened in 1946?” in hopes that you might go and do a little research of your own.

A spot you need to check out is where a memorial used to be.  Near Theatinerkirche, there’s a wall where you can faintly see the remains of two plaques and two wall hangings.  In 1923 Hitler and a group of Nazis marched down this street during the Beer Hall Putsch and were met by German police.  Shots were fired, Hitler hit the deck, twenty people died including fifteen Nazis, four police officers, and one innocent bystander.  When the Nazis came into power they placed a plaque and hung two wreaths to commemorate the twenty “Nazis” (they spun a story claiming that the other five were also Nazis), and everyone who passed by this memorial was forced to raise a Nazi salute to the guards on staff twenty four hours a day.  Many people passively resisted this gesture by turning down a nearby alley to avoid the memorial.  Eventually, Nazis caught on and began beating and killing people who went down the alley more than once.  After the war, the memorial was taken down, and a very subtle bronze trail of bricks was placed amongst the cobblestone in the alley in remembrance of all those who were willing to give their lives in order to protest the Nazi authority.  What did they put where Hitler fell?  A sewer.  Well played, Germany.  Haha

Another interesting fact about Munich is that almost all of the buildings are only about fifty years old.  Munich was a major city for the Nazis, and as such it was very heavily bombed during the Second World War to the point where practically the entire city had been destroyed.  Now, Germans are smart.  Munich knew what was coming, so prior to the bombing, the people of Munich took photographs and made extremely detailed sketches of the city so that after the war they could rebuild it.  And to this day, it looks exactly the same as pre-war Munich, thanks to the help of different parts of the community coming together.