Ahh Paris...

To be honest, I've gotten sick of updating my blog. It was exciting at first, but now it feels like a burden. So, to speed up the process, I've decided to basically copy and paste from Kari's blog about Paris. Lazy, I know, but so much easier.

Wednesday, April 29:
I decided not to go to my optional Modern Irish Society class, and instead spent the morning finishing my Management of Change paper and packing. Dear Johnny Stewart came to pick us (Kari, Baz and I) up and take us to the International airport for our 6:30 PM flight. After a wee cuppa and some snacks, we bid Johnny farewell and headed through security. Our trip with EasyJet was absolutely wonderful - much better than RyanAir. We got into Paris around 8:30 PM and proceeded to find our way to our hotel's shuttle stop. After waiting for a good 25 minutes, our shuttle arrived and we were on our way to our beautiful stay for the evening. We were pretty tired and starving, so we decided to walk to a pizza place and get ourselves a very large pizza which we proceed to devour upon our arrival back to the hotel. After getting our daily dose of Swine Flu updates and French music videos, we called it a night pretty early. I slept so well that night in my very comfy and clean hotel!

Thursday, April 30: We left our hotel around 8:30 AM to get to the train station at the airport. We thought that would be plenty of time to catch our train to Bayeux at 10:30 AM. Little did we know we were a good 45 minutes outside of Paris proper by train. We rushed, but alas, we did not make the train. We needed to make that train because we needed to be in Bayeux for 1:00 PM in order to make our afternoon tour. After a quick phone call to the tour company, we changed our tour to the next day, so everything worked out. We caught the next available train around noon and headed to Bayeux. It was quite the train ride. Those who didn't have a seat reservation (like us) had to either stand for the two hour ride or try to find a comfortable spot on the floor. Baz, Kelsey and I opted to sit on our suitcases until the train was moving so much we couldn't keep our balance. We then decided to sit on the floor all knowing that we'd have to get up and move every 15 minutes or so when people walked past. When we finally arrived in Bayeux, we immediately walked to our hotel, which we got lost going to because we all forgot that the French drive on the 'right' side of the road, unlike the Northern Irish...therefore when it said to take the first exit at the roundabout, we should have gone right rather than left. After a 10 minute detour, we got to our hotel, checked in and laid down for a nap. It was pretty dreary out, so when there was a break in the rain, we took a walk through the quaint and quiet city centre. As I was walking, I kept thinking to myself how much history the walls, buildings and streets have seen. I could picture troops marching through the streets as Bayeux was liberated. It was almost like Band of Brothers coming to life.

We opted for dinner at our hotel that night and it was delicious! I had a roasted half of a chicken with some amazing gravy and fresh vegetables. After dinner, we went back up to our room and pretty much crashed. Baz and Kari both took a long nap and I tried to find anything in English on TV. By the end of the weekend, I was so sick of hearing about swine flu (BBC news was the only station in English).

Friday, May 1: Wake up call was around 7:00 AM and an awesome breakfast was awaiting us downstairs. French breakfasts are the best! Croissants, bread rolls, coffee, tea, cereal, fruit salad, and hard boiled eggs. Yum, yum. After our hardy breakfast, we grabbed our things and waited for our tour guide to pick us up from the hotel. We were going on a full day tour of the D-Day beaches and other major sites in Normandy. Specifically, we went to Gold and Omaha beaches, various bunkers and hideaways, Pointe du Hoc, the German Cemetery, the American Cemetery, and a civilian Cemetery. There is such a drastic difference between the American and German cemeteries, the American having all white crosses as headstones and the German having black. You can tell who won the war based on these two places. The weather was picture perfect while we were at the American cemetery. It's so difficult to imagine the horror and death that took places on the beaches. Sitting in the cemetery, all I could think about was how many tears that places has seen, especially since so many of the men buried there were really just kids; most of the tombstones showed ages between 18 and 24. These brave young men sacrificed their lives for our country. It is such a powerful place! Our tour ended at 6:00 PM with a final stop at this bunker in the middle of a field of grass that most tourists and tour guides don't even know about.

Our tour guide, Matthias, dropped us off right at the train station. We were able to enjoy a relaxing train ride back to Paris because we each got our own seats and there was enough room to spread out a bit. We got back into Paris and met Kara at the airport and then headed back to our hotel. Since we got back so late, no restaurants were open and we were forced to satisfy our hunger with 10 euro frozen dinners. They were disgusting.

Saturday, May 2: We got up and hopped on an 8:30 AM shuttle to the airport to catch our train into Paris proper. The FREE walking tour that we were taking began at 11:00 AM in the Latin Quarter, but first we stopped for our daily dose of croissants and cappuccinos. The tour took us to some of the coolest places in Paris, including:

• Notre Dame de Paris
• The Latin Quarter
• Ile-de-la-Cité
• Pont Neuf
• The Louvre
• Palais Royal
• Haussmann's Renovations
• Tuileries Gardens
• Les Invalides
• Académie Française
• Opéra Garnier
• Musée d'Orsay
• Pont Alexandre III
• Napoléon's Tomb
• Assemblé Nationale
• Champs-Élysées
• Grand & Petit Palais
• Place de la Concorde

The tour last about 4 hours, after which we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. Although the Tour de Eiffel was such a long wait, it was completely worth it. It gave us the best view of the city, although I was only brave enough to go to the second stage. The elevators were a bit scary, but the experience was completely worth it! After the Eiffel Tower, we grabbed some dinner at one of the many street cafes in the Latin Quarter and then decided to wait until it was completely dark out so we could see the city at night, including the sparkling Eiffel Tower! As we were walking back to the train station, we grabbed a soft serve ice cream and took our last pictures of the city. I thoroughly enjoyed Paris at night. At night, you can't see all the dirt and graffitti and garbage. We got back to the hotel around 11:00 PM and went to bed straight away.

Sunday, May 3: Our 8:30 AM wake up call was shortly dismissed for another half an hour of sleep. We got into Paris proper and immediately saw the Arc de Triomphe to snap a few pictures and then made our way over to Notre Dame. En route I grabbed a crepe with nutella from a streetside vendor. Uncle Andy was right, that's definitely a must-have treat while in Paris. When we got to Notre Dame there was a mass going on when we got in, so Kari and I found a place and tried to figure out what the priest was saying. I got frustrated with the language barrier after a short while, so Kari and I ventured to a couple touristy shops to wait for Baz and Kara. From there, we grabbed lunch at a really cute cafe, then headed over to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre. It was a bit chilly, but the break laying on the lawn in front of the church was much appreciated! This being our final stop, we then hopped the train back to the airport to grab the shuttle back to our hotel to grab our luggage in order to get back to the airport to catch our plane back to Belfast. There was a lot of waiting around at the airport...like a couple hours, but after so much walking in the last few days, we were ready to kick back and relax. We were all able to get our own rows on the plane and seeing the Eiffel Tower from the plane at night was beautiful!

Overall, I'm really grateful that I had the chance to experience Paris. The Eiffel Tower was my favorite site in the city. I don't think I'll be rushing back to Paris any time soon, however; it was just too dirty and busy for me. I will, however, be going back to Normandy as soon as possible. My WWII buff of a dad would be happy to join me I'm sure.

Highlights of the past 13 days...

Monday, April 27:
I went to The Fray’s first concert ever in Belfast. After standing outside in the cold wind and short spurt of rain, they finally let us in. The show was awesome! Of course, since the concert I’ve been listening to their new album over and over. Favourite songs are Where the Story Ends, Happiness, and Ungodly Hour.

Tuesday, April 28:
We had a small group Bible study outing to mark the end of the semester. Paul, Stu, Rebekah, Bethany, Kari, Amanda and I all went to the adventure golf course for a round of mini-golf. Stu won with 43 and I was a close second with 44. After mini-golf, we kept up our tradition and drove to McDonald’s for a snack. Johnny Stewart met us at McDonald’s and then came back to campus with us where we spent a couple hours in the chaplaincy playing cards, drinking tea, and chatting. It’s nights like that that I will miss the most.

Wednesday, April 29-Sunday, May 3:
I flew to Paris and took a side-trip to Bayeux for a tour of the Normandy beaches. Look for details in a separate post.

Monday, May 4-Friday, May 8:
It was revision week on campus, which means we had no classes and we were meant to be studying all week. Did I actually do any studying? No. Instead I did things like clean my bathroom, vacuum my floor, bake and go grocery shopping, all to avoid studying.

Tuesday, May 5:
I went with Amanda and Kara to see 50 Dead Men Walking, a film about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Perhaps it was such a powerful movie because I was watching it in Northern Ireland in a theatre filled with people who could very well have lived through the troubles. Whatever the reason, I definitely recommend seeing this movie.

Thursday, May 7:
Since a bunch of our friends had been studying and doing coursework all week, Amanda and I decided to organize an outing to The Empire Basement for Blues night. We had a small pre-party here first and then took taxis to The Empire. The live blues band was brilliant. Even more brilliant was the 70-something year-old, white-haired man dressed in black busting crazy dance moves out on the dance floor. It was very comical! We also met some interesting characters at the bar, one of which appeared to be stuck in the 80s with his leather jacket and long, poufy hair. A lot of our Irish friends joined us and we had a fabulous night, which was made even better with our stop at the chippey down the street before taking the taxi back to Jordanstown.

Saturday, May 9:
Bethany and I went to see State of Play at the cinema. It was another intense, suspense-filled movie – just the kind I like! When we left the cinema, the sun had finally come out after six-days of rain, wind, and clouds. Later that evening, Acky picked Kari, Bethany and I up for a night of banter at his house. Leanna, Gav, Charlie and Emma were helping at the church’s youth night, so we stopped and visited them for a wee bit and then we went to Tesco to stock up on junk food for the night. I think I ate enough calories for an entire week in that one night. We had four different kinds of pizza, grilled cheese, Cadbury chocolates, crisps and dip, ice cream with cones, and Hob Nobs with Nutella. I get sick just thinking about it. When we could eat no more, we played two games of Articulate before calling it a night at 1:15. I’ll miss nights like that too.