catch up day

30 July, 2008
Today we spent all day in Dublin walking around the city…I think I walked 100 miles, or at least 10 for sure. I saw all of the typical tourist stuff like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Stephen’s Green, The Customs House, the Famine memorial, Christ Church, and St. Catherine’s. Of course we did not miss the Guinness storehouse tour! That actually may have been my favorite part of the day! Just to touch on some key points of the trip:
- When we tried to go to bed the night before, there were people in our beds….drunk passed out teenagers….American too. Oh, well. We got it sorted out and slept for a few house before getting up at 630am and walking to a coffee shop.
- We couldn’t get into Christ Church because they were filming a TV show called the Tudors. It didn’t matter too much because it was good enough just looking at the outside.
- We went to the Guinness factory as soon as they opened at 930 in the morning. It was actually really interesting and we spent over an hour walking around and learning about beer! Barley, Hops, Water, Yeast….that is all!
- I got Dad to split a Donor Kebab with me for lunch and for a man who says he doesn’t like lamb, he sure liked the Kebab as it only last 10 seconds on our plate.
- When we went to St. Steven’s Green we sat in the park for an hour and watched the Irish Army Band play. They were quite good and it was a much needed rest for the ole feet.
- We decided that we had seen enough and had enough fun (aka spent enough money) and headed to the airport a little early just to chill. We got back to England around 10 and just packed and went to bed early because our train was leaving at 853 the next morning.

31 July, 2008
Oh what an early morning it was. I woke up at 530am to shower, get completely packed, checked out, and ready to leave. I also must say that lugging a 50+ pound bag one mile is definitely not what you want to be doing at 630 in the morning. We caught a train then switched to a tube (which meant lugging that same bag up and down flights of stairs) and finally made it to Kings Cross to catch our Eurostar train to PARIS! I can’t say that I remember much about the train ride because I slept the whole two hours it took to get there…I must have been very tired and trains just rock me to sleep.
When we finally got to our stop at Disneyland, we took a quick little bus to our hotel where I had an interesting encounter with a Swedish family. I figured out that they were a Swedish family when the mother was laughing at a large American southern woman who was being rude to the bus driver for not knowing exactly what to say to her in English as he was French. When we got off the bus, the husband grabbed by bag for me and took it off the bus for me and I thanked him in Swedish. The funny part was when the mother continued to speak Swedish to my dad assuming that since I said thank you in Swedish that he would obviously know it too! Anyways, I continued to have a quick five minute conversation with her and her 10 year old daughter in Swedish of course, before parting ways. My dad was in awe because I don’t think he knew I could actually hold a little conversation with someone, and continued to ask me what I had said. I am excited to get to Sweden to learn more and try to practice!
Anyways, we checked in and walked over to the parks to check them out for a bit. We wandered around, grabbed some lunch and then walked back to the hotel to get our bags into our room. Oh it is so nice to have a big bed, and a shower that I don’t have to get out of to think. We went back to the parks later to catch some of the shows like the Lion King Stage show and of course a parade with all of the Disney characters. Side note, I sat next to a Danish dad and his 2 daughters during the parade….random I know.
All of that aside, my favorite thing about Disneyland Paris is definitely its multilingual experience. At first, I was put off that a lot of the stuff was in English and basically a smaller scale of Disneyworld in Orlando, which is nothing new for me. However, the more time we spent in the park the more I realized the real diversity of the park. We went in this one presentation called “The Art of Animation” and the last part of the show was in a theatre where they showed a movie montage of different classic Disney movies. At first I thought that they were all in English and French but as I continued listening, I realized they had almost every language recognizable. Just a few clips I saw was Mulan in Chinese, Aristocrats, Beauty in the Beast, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame in French, Pinocchio in Italian, Lion King in Spanish, Jungle Book and Lady and the Tramp in German, and Aladdin in Arabic….there were a few clips in English, but I’ve seen those so they weren’t as exciting! I honestly have not heard any Americans since we have been here and the only English speaking people I have heard have been British or Irish. I don’t mind though and I like being able to use the little bits of other languages I know ( I ordered in French today…thank goodness the menu was numbered because that is all I know in French beside hello, thank you, goodbye, and Do you speak English?)
Dad and I are spending the next 2 days in Paris which I am very excited for! I definitely am enjoying traveling a lot and may have opened Pandora’s Box. Oh well, I’ll run out of money and then I won’t be able to travel until I get a job….no fun! Oh, I’m not so happy about the fact that the wifi is broken at all of the hotels here so I can’t get online….evidently it has been broken for 2 weeks, which I don’t understand with how much people rely on the internet when traveling internationally which is the majority of the people in these hotels. I hope it gets fixed soon!
1 August 1, 2008
Bonjour and greetings from Paris! Today we spent all day in Paris and I had a wonderful time. We woke up around 6 and went and got breakfast downstairs at our hotel. One thing I love about Europe is the amazing breakfast food. I think I am permanently hooked on Yogurt and granola with sandwiches! Yuuumy! After we got all ready to go we caught a train into Paris and got off around the Notre Dame Cathedral. We took some pictures and walked around a bit and then caught a boat to Champs Elysee (walk of champions) to the Arc de Triumph! It was so cool!! There were a ton of designer stores too!! We walked around a bit and went into some random shops and then decided to walk to the Eifel tower. It was good 15 minute walk to the tower and once we got there I was surprised at just how tall it really was! Dad and I got in line and walked up 686 stairs to just the second level! What a view of the city! We didn’t go all the way up because the top floor was closed for some reason when we were there but it was still an amazing view! We saw the Socre Creaue, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, and other great landmarks. After we made our descent, which I must admit was a little painful and I am quite proud of my dad for sticking it out, we got back on the boat and made our way back to the Louvre. It was only around 5pm and I wanted to wait until 6pm when it was free for students. We walked around the area and I ended up finding a great painting of the Eiffel tower that I think will compliment the painting I have of Big Ben from London….my new decorating scheme is definitely international! Finally it was 6 and we went into the Louvre and straight to the Mona Lisa. Weirdly enough they let you take picture in the museum so I have some great ones of the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s Dying Soldier and Venus de Milo! I couldn’t believe how many people were there to see the Mona Lisa…I mean it was like a fight to the death just to get up and see the painting…people were more vicious than the day after Christmas sales.
After the Louvre we decided to head home since it was already past 8 and time for a nice dinner. We ended up having an amazing dinner with such amazing food including salmon, duck, cheese and bread, prawns, and other assorted gourmet dishes. I must say that the cheese was absolutely amazing second only to the great wine we had. Dad and I split a bottle, which we efficiently knocked out in an hour, which was a chardonnay from France…probably one of the best wines I have ever had. Oh yes, btw, I couldn’t take the heads off the prawns and I made Dad do it because it freaked me out. However, when it came time for dessert, I was slightly disappointed because they were out of tiramisu by the time I wanted dessert. I was so sad that I really almost cried. I made it through and dealt with the dilemma as best I could. By the end of the meal I think I tried everything there, and have thus determined that French food and wine is in a whole other league than the rest of the world. More to come tomorrow!
Xoxo Jackie