Switzerland. Part I.

So, a few months back, Suzi and I decided that we wanted to take one more trip (in addition to London and Paris). We wanted it to be somewhere neither of us had ever been and also a place that we could get a flight to directly out of Cork. The city that fit these requirements happened to be Geneva, Switzerland. We left Cork Saturday, December 19, in the afternoon and arrived in Geneva a little after five. It was already dusk by the time we landed. We took a quick taxi ride to our hotel - The Hotel Residence St. James. I'm thinking it is the cheapest hotel that also happens to have a good location. It was nice enough for what we needed, but a pretty horribly uncomfortable bed. Other than that, we did have a kitchen which was enabled us to buy a few groceries and save money by eating all of our breakfasts and a dinner at our hotel.

After checking into St. James, we wandered around town to find a place to eat. We settled a cute little Italian pizzeria. It turned out to be quite an interesting dinner. First, three children came in dressed in costume and sang a song. After the song, they asked for money. Then, a large band of adults dressed in silly costumes came in blasting songs. They stayed for a good twenty minutes. After all of our entertainment and good dining, we headed back to our hotel. Before going to our room, we stopped in a small convenience store and bought some cereal, milk, and orange juice for our breakfast for the following few days.

Picture 1 - Holiday decorations in the park right next to our hotel.

Picture 2 - Dinner entertainment take 1 - priest, soldier with angel wings, and police officer.

Picture 3 - Dinner entertainment take 2 - ragtag band dressed for the holidays.

"Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such." - Henry Miller

Better late than never . . . Belfast Part II!

After visiting Dunluce, our next stop was the incredible Giant's Causeway. The Irish like to refer to the Causeway as "the eighth natural wonder of the world." Formed as a result of a volcanic eruption, Irish legend has it that the Causeway was created when the Scottish giant Benandonner fled Ireland and his Irish counterpart Finn McCool who, with the help of his wife, tricked Benandonner into thinking he was much bigger than he actually was. Believe what you will, but the causeway is really an amazing site to behold. It resembles in many ways a giant game of Jenga turned on it's side - with random slices of rock sticking out much further than others.

After finishing up our bus tour and returning to Belfast, we walked around the city some more. We got dinner at a fun local restaurant. After dinner, we visited a beautiful Christmas market that was being held in town. I got a crepe with Nutella, naturally. Tired from our long day of sightseeing, we headed back to the hotel and watched, interestingly enough, a documentary on the Obama campaign for presidency in 2008. Good stuff. After that, it was off to bed and up the next morning and back on a bus for 6 hours to return home to Cork.

Picture 1 - All of us girls with my new idol - Tim. He works for IFSA in Ireland and is extremely legit. He invented, to put in in his own words, "some thing which connects to telephone lines all over Europe." Like I said - legit.

Picture 2 - Giant's Causeway - truly incredible.

Picture 3 - Suz and myself (notice the Causeway behind us).

Picture 4 - Again . . . at the Christmas market in Belfast.

Picture 5 - Myself plus a giant Christmas tree in Belfast. Tis CHRISTMAS!

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

Better late than never . . . Belfast Part I!

So - in a final attempt to get us to like them, IFSA-Butler took us to Belfast over Thanksgiving weekend. Since we are in Cork, we had the longest bus ride out of anyone. The driver picked us up in the morning and we stopped in Dublin to pick up Dublin and Maynooth students. Our bus ride in total was about 6 hours. We arrived in Belfast just in time to check into our hotel - Jury's (it is a four star chain of which for some reason the one in Cork is much nicer than in Belfast). After checking into the hotel, we walked about a block next door from Jury's to another hotel where we all went to the top floor where a special Thanksgiving dinner had been prepared for all of us. The food was alright, although the hotel is pretty famous for A) being the place that Bill Clinton once dined and B) is also supposedly historically the most bombed hotel in Belfast. Not scary at all. After surviving dinner, we walked around town some and then it was back to our hotels.

The next day IFSA had lined up a day long bus tour. We drove all along the Northern Ireland coast, even being able to see the coast of Scotland at one point, which was gorgeous. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in Antrim, Northern Ireland. At first we were all like "oh, how scary can a swinging bridge be," but to be honest it was definitely pretty freaky at the middle point of the bridge, especially when the person behind you decided to start shaking the thing. The cliff and water below did not look too friendly. After visiting the bridge, we stopped for a quick lunch and then continued on to the Dunluce Castle (seen in pictures 2 and 3).

Picture 1 - The whole gang after crossing the swinging bridge.

Picture 2 - The swinging bride.

Picture 3 - Five of us cramming into an oven in the Dunluce Castle . . . nbd.

Picture 4 - Sharlett, Lincoln, Jenna, and me enjoying Dunluce.

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Henry Miller

Blog Makeover!

Before I add some posts from Belfast (they're coming very soon), the blog has had a makeover. I wanted to switch things up a bit and change the format. I like the new look and think that it is a little more simple and easier to see the pictures and read each post. I hope followers of my blog agree! Enjoy - more posts to come (as promised) AND today also marks the beginning of my last 20 days in Ireland! Hard to believe how quickly the semester has gone. I hope that you guys have enjoyed this blog as much as I have enjoyed making it. Thanks for following and I promise 20 more days of great posts!

Not one to break tradition, here is a quote - (in honor of December . . .)

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." - Calvin Coolidge

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IV: Paris with Nathalie

Sunday, November 22

For our last full day in France, Emmanuel stayed home with the children so that Nathalie could take us into Paris for the day. We started our day by going to Notre Dame. After Notre Dame, we took the metro to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées

where we enjoyed lunch at Ladurée, a luxury cake and pastry brand in France, famous for being the inventor of the double-decker macaron - 15,000 of the little cookie are sold each day! After lunch, we wandered into a few more shops and then hopped back on the metro and headed home to play with the kids and enjoy a tasty dinner - Chinese takout - delicious!

Picture 1 - Suzi with Capucine and Tiphane

Picture 2 - Nathalie and me in front of Notre Dame!

Lyrics from another great song -

Every time I look down on this timeless town
whether blue or gray be her skies.
Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears,
more and more do I realize:

I love Paris in the springtime.
I love Paris in the fall.
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.

I love Paris every moment,
every moment of the year.
I love Paris, why, oh why do I love Paris?
Because my love is near

- I Love Paris

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IIIB: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

Saturday, 21 November
After an incredible day at Disney, we left the park and headed over to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show! Note - this was my second time attending the show and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. This time we were on the green team - also known as the lovely state of Montana. Sadly, our team did not win and I did not get to volunteer to help Mickey and friends guard all of the gold, but we had still had SO much fun and Arthur stayed awake through the whole thing!

Picture 1 - Enjoying our final moments in the park - trying on Disney's fall 2009 fashion line!

Picture 2 - Our place mat from the show - gives you more of an idea of what we're dealing with.

Picture 3 - Nathalie and Arthur after the show in front of the arena.

Picture 4 - Suzi and me enjoying one of many picture locations. You can't fully see it, but we are sitting on saddles!

Picture 5 - Arthur, Suzi, and me posing in front of the wild west frontier!

"I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained." - Walt Disney

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IIIA: Disneyland Paris

Saturday, November 21

Judging from the title of this post, I'm sure you can assume we had an amazing day. Once arriving at the park around eleven, Suzi and I broke off to ride Space Mountain. After that, we all met up for lunch at Walt's - a really cool restaurant, in which the whole place is decorated with old photos of Walt Disney. So great! After lunch, Suzi and I did some more grownup rides - the Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. To top it all off, the entire park was already decorated for Christmas and they would make it snow throughout the day. Incredible!

Picture 1 - Arthur with Mickey - pumped for a day at Disney!

Picture 2 - Suzi in front of Space Mountain!

Picture 3 - Suzi and me at Walt's before our lunch.

Picture 4 - with the whole park behind us, waiting for the Haunted Mansion.

Picture 5 - about to ride Thunder Mountain - my personal favorite of the day!

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse." - Walt Disney

***NOTE: I forgot my camera for our day in Paris on Friday, November 20. As of now, I have no pictures for that day, but I hope to get some from Suzi and add a post for that day at a later time.***

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IIC: Dinner with Borden

Thursday, November 19

Right after our bike tour, we took the metro to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and rushed into the closest movie theatre to see New Moon - the latest film in the Twilight Series. Luckily for us, movies come out on Wednesday in Paris and so we were able to see the movie before people in the United States. After the movie we met up with my future roomie at Wake, Borden! She took us to the Cafe du Marche, where we had a wonderful French dinner. After dinner, we went to another place and shared a nutella crepe. After that, Suzi and I went to visit the flat that Borden is living in for the semester - she has view of the Eiffel Tower! Little bit jealous.

Picture 1 - roomie picture take 1

Picture 2 - Suzi and Borden (who are both from Chicago) planning what to do for their photo, which in itself made for a really good picture

Picture 3 - Sorora Squat. Roomie picture take 2.

Picture 4 - and again . . . Borden and I on the patio of her Madame's flat - yes. that would be the Eiffel Tower sparkling behind us!

French lyrics from a great song:

"Des yeux qui font baiser les miens, Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche, Voila le portrait sans retouche De l'homme auquel j'appartiens Quand il me prend dans ses bras Il me parle tout bas, Je vois la vie en rose."

- La Vie en Rose

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IIB: The Return of FTBT

Thursday, November 19

After having such an amazing time with our Fat Tire Bike Tour in London, Suzi and I knew for sure that we wanted to tour with Fat Tire again in Paris. We met our guide under the Eiffel Tower at 11AM. After that, he walked us to their offices and we picked up our bikes. The tour was so much fun, although a little scarier than London because we spent a lot more time on the actual Paris roads. At one point we all had to bike through Place de la Concorde - his advice to us - "never look back." Also (true story), I got separated from the group at one point and had to maneuver around some parisian cars - rough. Overall, it was an amazing tour and I hope to someday do more Fat Tire Bike Tours!

Picture 1 - early in the day - just after meeting up with our guide under the Eiffel Tower.

Picture 2 - taking a stop and learning a little bit in front of the Ecole Militaire.

Picture 3 - Crossing my favorite bridge in Paris - Pont Alexandre III.

Picture 4 - enjoying the view and a rest from biking in the Jardin des Tuileries.

Picture 5 - Suzi and me with our bikes and the Eiffel Tower.

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind." - Seneca

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part IIA: The Eiffel Tower

Thursday, November 19

While waiting for our bike tour to start, Suzi and I took an excessive number of pictures with the Eiffel Tower. The following are some of my favorites . . .

Picture 1 - its a little blurry, but I still love this one - throwing leaves into the air.

Picture 2 - photo shoot with the leaves take 2.

Picture 3 - So, we made some Italian friends who gave us their e-mail addresses so that we can contact them the next time we visit Italy. Yeah, ok.

Picture 4 - By itself.

Picture 5 - This was taken separately, but I still love it - on the metro on our way into the city.

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." - Jawaharial Nehru

"I love Paris in the fall" - Part I: The Arrival

Wednesday, November 18

Suzi and I woke up bright and early to catch our flight out of Cork. We landed in CDG around lunchtime, so we grabbed a baguette and some pain au chocolate and hopped on the next RER to le vesinet le centre. Once there, Nathalie picked us up and we went back to the house where we played with Capucine and Arthur for a few hours. After the kids went to sleep, Nathalie took Suzi and I out to dinner at La Crepiere (my favorite crepe restaurant).

Picture 1 - Nathalie and me after a delicious dinner at La Crepiere.

Picture 2 - Soon after landing in CDG - happy to be in Paris!

Picture 3 - Suzi waiting in the Cork airport - excited for our trip.

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

So, we went to London . . . Part III: Harrods

Saturday, November 7

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD***

Today, our last full day in London, we all decided to visit none other than the famous department store, Harrods. It was within walking distance from our hostel, so spent the morning finding our way. Along our walk, we stopped for brunch at a nice French restaurant. Harrods more than lived up to its name. We especially loved it because the entire seven floors were decorated for Christmas, which was pretty incredible to see. We especially enjoyed rediscovering our childhoods on toy floor as well as seeing what spoiled British children get for Christmas - a 15,000 pound miniature Hummer. After Harrods, we grabbed a quick lunch across the street at a nice restaurant and then headed back to the Hostel for a nap before grabbing dinner at a really good Chinese place - Kym's. After dinner it was back to our Hostel to pack and go to sleep. We were up the next morning and sadly in a taxi headed for Heathrow. We all agree 100% that our visit to London was quite incredible and I especially cannot wait to go back!

Picture 1 - Beautiful homes on the way to Harrods.

Picture 2 - Oriel - cute French restaurant where we had brunch.

Picture 3 - cutest Harrods teddy bear!

Picture 4 - some musicians providing Christmas cheer outside the store.

Picture 5 - #1 Hans Street - just for Em!

“You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson

So, we went to London . . . Part II:Fat Tire Bike Tour

Friday, November 6

Another amazing day in London. First, we had breakfast at our hostel where we had to wash our own dishes. After breakfast, we hopped on a bus to find the meeting place for "Fat Tire Bike Tours." For those of you who have never heard of this company, I highly recommend it. For about 20 pounds (18 for students), you have two tour guides who take you around the city on really comfy bicycles. It is hands down the best way to see a city. You stop about an hour and a half in and have a break for lunch. The tours are also offered in four cities so far, including London, Paris, Barcelona, and Berlin. In London at least almost all of the tour is flat and not too hard for anyone. Also, the tour in London took also through most of the major parks in the city, which in early November were gorgeous. After the tour, we grabbed Starbucks and headed back to our hostel. We got dinner and a really cool restaurant, Giraffe, which had edamame! After dinner, we walked the town some more and then headed back for a great night's sleep.

Picture 1 - All of us at the beginning of our Fat Bike Tour of London.

Picture 2 - Lindsay and me - rather excited to bike.

Picture 3 - One of our two tour guides, David, getting into his story about the infamous Wellington.

Picture 4 - Westminster Abbey - along the route.

Picture 5 - What to do after a three hour bike ride? Starbucks!

For more information on Fat Bike Tours, visit this website:

http://fattirebiketours.com/london

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine