The City of Light to the Emerald Isle

So last Monday was the first day of real classes at IES- and so began my "regular" life in Paris. That's why I haven't written in awhile- I feel like I've been going full steam ahead for a week. I like all my classes, but I don't quite have them all yet. Because of the strike at public Parisian universities, I can't take my cultural geography class at the Sorbonne like I wanted to. We were told to look for courses at the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), so I found an Introduction to Judaism that not only seemed interesting but was also going to fulfill my religion credit at TCU. I was really excited about it, until I found out the bad news: the one mistake that had been made in the ICP catalog that we had was that the Intro to Judaism class was not actually being offered this semester! It's difficulties like that which make me homesick.

Anywa, that was on Wednesday, and there was a meeting about exterior courses at IES (my school) on Thursday, so I just decided to put off thinking about the whole situation until then. Wednesday after class I ate at a really cute creperie on Rue Daguerre near IES with my friend Sarah. Right after that was when I found out about the class not being offered, so I was kind of in a bad mood. But Sarah has these walking tour of Paris cards that her mom gave her, so we decided to go on the "Tracadero Walk." It just so happened to be a beautiful day and we really enjoyed walking from one of Paris' nicest neighborhoods to the Eiffel Tower. This walk totally made me relax and realize, yet again, that I'm in Paris, and that this whole issue would resolve itself eventually.

That evening we were supposed to have a conversation club meeting with French students (one hour in French, one hour in English), but only two French students showed up because there was something else going on. It wasn't really worth staying. So I went home early and did some homework and stuff before dinner. Dinner was endives et jambon au bechamel (ham-wrapped endives in a butter-flour-milk sauce). I know I've heard of endives, but I don't think I have ever eaten them before and they weren't familiar looking. Fanou insisted one of their previous study abroad students knew what they were, so we must have them somewhere in the United States. They are bitter white and green vegetables that are apparently big in the wintertime. It was really good. And we had one of my favorite French desserts- un gâteaux aux poires (cake with pears). Yum!

I spent most of Thursday afternoon waiting in line to buy des cheques de voyage (travelers' checks) with my friend, Erik, who is a full-year student from Orange County, New York. He is fun to be around because he loves traveling and doesn't mind doing so on his own, so he has lots of fun stories about various lands (mostly Scandinavian). That evening was the meeting about the strike at IES, where I learned that French students are just having to put college on hold for the semester. Apparently they can still get credit for their classes (that they will not have attended this semester) by taking the final exam. I would hate to do that, but I feel like a lot of American students get so stressed out about graduating on time that they would just go for it. Americans are so different that the French (yet again). I also learned that, even though IES Paris requires students here to complete 15 hours of credit, if a student doesn't need all 15 hours to graduate on time, he or she can take less with the approval of an adviser from the home university. I definitely don't need all 15 hours to graduate on time, but since I (aka my family) have already paid for 15 credit hours, I decided to get my money's worth. Since absolutely no other classes at ICP appeal to me, I asked my IES advisers if IES would pay for me to take dance classes in Paris. To my surprise they said yes! They told me to take classes at the Centre du Danse du Marais, so to the website I went.

This dance center is in the Marais district of Paris, which is known both for being a gay area and for having a strong Jewish presence. In Paris, one is not allowed to identify particular areas with a predominant ethnicity as "quarters" like we do in the States. There is, of course, the Latin Quarter, but that was named a long time ago for housing the Sorbonne, where everyone spoke Latin, so that's an exception. You can't call the gay area the "gay quarter" or the Jewish area the "Jewish quarter." Anyway, this dance center has all kinds of dance classes and more: yoga, nia, singing, piano, qi cong, African Brazilian, etc., as well as lots of ballet classes and tons more. I have found some that fit pretty well into my schedule, and I need to pick two. I'll probably be picking from "funk jazz hip hop," jazz, modern contemporary, Tzigane (gypsy), salsa, and samba. The last two are pretty unlikely since I don't like the idea of learning partner dancing without my favorite partner (Taylor), but I might try them. I also want my classes to be early evening, and these two classes are later. We'll see. All of these classes are on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so they wouldn't interfere with traveling at all. I'm really excited about dancing and I'm particularly excited about meeting people outside IES. IES gave me five tickets to try five different classes, and a permanent card to use once I've selected my two classes. Yay!

Thursday night I went to a cafe with my friends down by their apartments on Boulevard Brune. I ordered saucissons de Frankfurt et frites, so I thought I might be getting some kind of German sausage. But no, they were basically hot dogs (with no buns) and fries. I felt really American but I don't feel guilty about ordering American food since I was kind of tricked.

So here comes the highlight of the week (after this initail rant). Friday morning, bright and early (ahem 5:30!) I woke up to go to Porte Maillot on the metro to catch the shuttle bus to the airport in Beauvaus, a little town an hour outside of Paris. Let me tell you, to me now Beauvais is not exactly "beau vais" (beautiful going). I actually find Beauvais to be rather "mauvais" (bad). Sorry for the bad play on words, but I really hope I never find myself flying out of Beauvais again. It wasn't really so much the town or the airport but the fact that I had to pay 13 euros to get out there and that I was flying on Ryanair. Ugh, Ryanair- don't get me started! They slipped in an extra 10 euro "handling fee" when I was paying online that they didn't tell me about until after I had already paid. We were charged 10 euros each time we check in because, since we're not European, we had to check in at the airport. They were really strict about carry-on luggage limits (10 kg), and if you had to check a bag it was going to be another 10 euros. The plane is painted bright yellow- not exactly relaxing- and the flight attendants wear these awful bright blue polyester outfits straight out of the '60s, except not as flattering. The airplain was cold both ways (I was a little chilly even with a sweater, a coat, and my gloves on), and they made announcements every 20 minutes advertising Ryanair. Awful I tell you.

But Dublin was worth it. As soon as we stepped off the plane we noticed a difference. The airport was clean and the people were so friendly. Also, everything was written first in Gaelic and then in English. The air outside smelled so fresh and clean- not like the city air in Paris- and it was a little warmer (mid-40s). We bought three day bus passes for 13.30 euros, and the buses were pretty good (double decker, like London). We stayed just off of O'Connell Street, which is a main thoroughfare. The first thing we did, even before finding out hostel, was to buy these doughnuts for .60 euros that were sooo good. They were freshly fried dough dipped in sugar. Totally worth it. Then we walked to our hostel, Mt. Eccles, on St. George's Street off of Parnell Street.

The hostel was alright. I mean, we were paying 15 euros a night so we couldn't expect much. We stayed in a six-person co-ed room with a guy from New South Walkes, Australia, a guy from Bretagne, France, and a girl from New Zealand. They were all nice, but we didn't get to talk to them at all until the second night we were there (aka read on). Since we got in around 12:30 pm, we got to have a nice leisurely time wandering around. Dublin is pretty small, so it's really pedestrian. Everything is in relation to the river, which runs right through the middle of town. We walked towards the river and onto the Quays (the streets along the river). We were kind of peeping into this pub called the Batchelor on Ormond Quay when an Irish guy saw us and told us not to go in there since it was a "hard-man's drinking pub." He recommended we go a few doors down to a place where more young people went. We took his advice and went to the Knightsbrigdge Pub connected to the Arlington Hotel. There, we got some lunch (potato soup) and cider (with alcohol). We got cider because that's what the bartender recommended we try if we wanted something really Irish. I had tried cider once when I was in Paris with my family at a creperie (apparently cider and crepes go well together?), but it was new for my friend Nikki, and she loved it. It really does taste like apple cider. Pretty dang good! We were told to come back that evening for Irish music and Irish dancing.

Next we walked over to the Temple Bar area, which is named for a guy named Temple, not after a bar named Temple, even though there is a bar named Temple Bar. Confusing, I know. Temple Bar is the cultural district that has lots of pubs and restaurants of all kinds (lots of Italian) and shops. It's all cobble-stoned and really Irish looking. Lots of different people there.

Then we walked to St. Stephen's Green, which is kind of like Boston Commons but with more trees. I haven't spent much time in either, but that's just what it seemed like. Dublin reminded both me and Nikki (who lives in New Hampshire) of Boston, which makes sense since Boston is pretty Irish. Anyway, St. Stephen's Green is absolutely beautiful and I would have loved to have spent a lot more time there, but unfortunately we got there right before it closed for the evening and we had to leave.

We wandered around Grafton Street, also known for pubs and shopping, and saw some really cool street performers. There is so much street music in Dublin. It was nice to hear quality music (guitar, fiddle, drums, bass) on the street rather than annoying accordians on the metro like in Paris. This was my first encounter with the word slainte, pronounced "SLAN-cheh," and means "health." It's commonly used as a toast before drinking, but I also saw it at the end of the tourist brochure, so maybe it's used more often than just toasting. Anyway, the best street band we saw was named Slainte.

On the way back to our hostel for the evening we picked up some Irish cheese from a Cheese Monder (what a great title!). We bought white cheddar cheese called Mt. Callan that we chose after we tasted two or three. It was dry and really strong- just how I like my cheese. Near our hostel, we bought a baguette (too small, overpriced, and not as good as French baguettes, but if sufficed :) and a can of cider each. It was a pretty good snack. When we got to our hostel, we had to walk around a whole film crew that was using an apartment across our street to film a BBC film called "Small Island" about World War II. It was going on the entire time we were there, so that was really cool. There were lots of old cars and fog machines that filled up the entire street with fog. Our hostel had sandbags on the windows to block the light. We hung out in our room some, watching all of this, and left for the evening.
We first went at 9:30pm to the Knightsbridge Pub to see the Irish dancing, but we were told it was all full. There was just a DJ there and we didn't think it was worth it to stay there and waste an evening listening to American music. So we set out for Temple Bar. On Fleet Street (a side street between Grafton Street and Temple Bar), we walked past a yellow-painted bar that looked interesting. We asked the bouncer if we could go in and he asked how old we were because it was 21 and up. I replied that I found that to be very American, and I asked him why they would have that rule. He said it was because it was the "late-night," but he let us in anyway, and we didn't even have to ask. Well, this was fortunate because we had found The Oliver St. John Grogarty, the only pub in town that has free traditional Irish music 364 days of the year. Gogarty's also has a hotel, and I must say I feel sorry for the people staying there because they probably have to hear music until 2am. I'm not sure though. The music was so much fun! There were two bands that played (apparently about 40 musicians rotate throughout the year)- one with fiddle, guitar and accordian (played in an Irish way, not an annoying Parisian metro way), and the other with guitar, banjo, hand drum (that looked like a tambourine without bells), and a bagpipe that is played by having a tourniquet-type thing strapped to the arm that allows you to fill up the bag rather than blowing into a mouthpiece.

Both bands were really good. We watched two old couples get up and dance/jig together, and everyone was really into the music. It was at Gogarty's where I tried a Kilkenny, a red Irish cream beer that was really good. Look for it at Whole Foods/Central Market I guess, but I read that it's not sold in the US. We went back to the hostel at about 12:30 that night, exhausted from such a long day.

The next morning we got up and ate the hostel's breakfast- two pieces of bread that you could toast, an American single (ew), and some jam. Needless to say, not filling. But we wanted to get a start on our day so we ate it and got ready. I took a shower in the disgusting showers (the only real downside of our hostel). They had no water pressure and they were a little grimy and they were button-activated (meaning you had to keep pressing a button every minute or so). But hey, I got clean, so whatever.

Then we set off on the bus for Malahide Castle in Malahide, which is about 15 minutes away on the bus and was covered by our three-day bus pass. To get from the bus stop to the castle we had to walk through this foresty-park that was beautiful and smelled incredible.

Then we turned the corner and voila! a big, old, in-tact castle. We decided to pay to go in (6-ish euros for students but we had a two-for-one coupon so it was about 3.20 or something)- definitely worth it. They had a really good tour that was played on speakers while you walked from room to room. The castle is pretty old but the family still lived in it until 1973. It's supposed to have beautiful lawns and gardens behind it, but they aren't open in January so we didn't get to see them. They had a pretty good cafe downstairs where I bought a maple scone that came with jam and clotted cream (I've wanted some more of that stuff ever since London).

Then we walked to the actual town of Malahide to go to see the sea. It was basically just a harbor, but it was really pretty.

We headed back into town to grab some fish and chips and go to the Guinness Storehouse. The Guinness Storehouse was really cool. It is something like nine stories and it is built in the shape of a big pint (you can see the shape from the inside). We didn't see any actual brewing, but we saw how the whole process works and they had a lot of hands-on stuff. You could dig your hands into a huge pit of barley (like Amelie), you could break open roasted hops to smell them (smells like burnt chocolate... like Guinness), and they had a bar mid-way through that was giving out samples that you could taste while watching an instructional video about how to taste beer and how Guinness tasters do their job. THere was a lot of stuff about Guinness advertising campaigns and how Guinness got its start and how the barrels were made- all really cool to learn about and see. Then at the top (you work your way up the levels), there was the Gravity Bar with a 360 view of Dublin where you could cash in your voucher for a pint of Guinness that came with the ticket. I drank it, but that was the only time I had any Guinness the whole time. Guinness supposedly tastes better in Ireland- like milk. I've tried Guinness in the states and I've never really liked it that much (see earlier comment), and I couldn't tell that much of a difference. Maybe you have to have drank more Guinness than I have to be able to tell the difference. Maybe I'll brave a little more when I get back to see if I can now taste the difference.

Needless to say, I was pretty tired after running around all day and drinking a pint of Guinness. Since it was Valentine's Day, though, we decided we had to treat outselves to dessert after dinner (more soup), so we could wallow in our loneliness together. We found a little coffee shop and I had too much chocolate mousse cake. Nina, the girl that basically planned the whole trip, wanted to get a drink before we headed back, so we walked a ways down High Street and found a little hole in the wall that only had Irish people in it. She got herself some cider and we all chatted while she drank it. Although we were surrounded by Irish, I thnk we were all too tired to make the effort to strike up conversations with any of them.We ended up heading back to the hostel around 11:30pm. Sorry to disappoint those who wanted to hear stories of my crazy Dublin adventures haha!

The next morning we had to check out by 10am, so we put our luggage in the luggage room at the hostel and set out to enjoy our last few hours in Dublin. Nikki and I had gone to massa t Notre Dame, which I really liked, so we decided to go to mass at Christ Church. I am so glad we did! Christ Church is an Anglican church that is beautiful. There was a really wonderful organ and a choir that sang all the prayers and lots of other songs with beautiful harmony that filled up the whole place. It was probably one of the most beautiful services I've ever been to in my travels so far, aside from the Christmas Eve Carol Service at St. Paul's in London, but it was nearly that good. The sermon was pretty good, if a little political (about how we should be thankful that we have enough to be taxed and how we should support the government in providing services to everone and how the Body Worlds exhibit, which is there right now, showed the beauty of science but was not able to show the spirit that God gives us). The Psalm (103:1-13, 22) was sung by the choir.

On our way out, I was practically accosted by an older Irish woman who told us we had to come down to the basement for coffee and tea; "It's free girls! You can't smoke, and you can't cuddle, but it's free I'm telling you! You have to come have some!" It was so cute and welcoming that we couldn't resist. We went outside and got Nina (who had gone to a coffee shop) and went back in. Ouside there were a lot of tourists waiting to get in after the mass. Apparently it was 11 euros to get in, but everyone had seen us leave to get our friend so they welcomed us back in infront of everyone without making us pay at all. I had told the lady that we were getting our friend, so she was kind of on the lookout for us. It was so nice!

In the basement there was an exhibit with artifacts that had been in the church, including a mummified cat and mouse that were found in the petrified act of chasing each other and who were written about in one of James Joyce's books (Irish hero, by the way). There were also some monuments to various important dead people, and there was a portion of the floor that had been dug up that revealed an original foundation from something like the 10th century. Crazy. Everyone was so nice to us and wanted to make sure we had all the coffee, tea and biscuits (cookies) we wanted. I loved it.

After, we headed over to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church on Grafton Street to see the casket of St. Valentine. We figured it was appropriate since we were there on Valentine's Day weekend. Nothing too special, but kind of cool to say I saw it.

We stopped at a pub on the way back where we watched the beginning of the Ireland vs. Italy rugby match- pretty exciting and violent. Ireland ended up winning handily after starting out behind by 9. We headed to the airport and did the whole Ryanair thing again, arriving to find Paris cold and dark, but familliar. We came back to the land of .90 euro baguettes.

That was my week. I'm leaving for Munich on Thursday evening with Nikki. I'm really excited! We're going to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle that was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. If anyone has any good suggestions for other things we should do, let me know!

Bonsoir,
Ellie