J'aime Paris - Oh How I Miss You Paris!

 Since our recent trip to Brittany and Normandy, it's got me thinking about when we got the chance to see Paris last year. Although the skies were grey most of the time, the orange leaves and crisp air made our Paris trip in October 2010 most enjoyable. I often think about when we'll go back just to make sure it wasn't a dream, that it all really does exist! While on that thought, I'd like to share some of our trip from when my mom came all the way from Utah to experience with us...

Just a walk through a park in Paris was like visiting a museum...

My mom and I in front of the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous landmarks in Paris (aside from the Eiffel Tower of course!) It honors those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. It took 30 years to build!

Below it is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI. With an eternal flame that burns in memory of all the soldiers who were unnamed in WWI as well as WWII.

My mom and I outside the Louvre, one of the world's largest museums displaying 35,000 artifacts from history before the 19th century!

Inside the Louvre, even a museum has an Apple Store!

The famous Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek masterpiece created somewhere between 130 and 100BC

THE Mona Lisa...There were crowds of people around this painting! And I couldn't believe the size of it, it was tiny! For some reason I always envisioned it much bigger...

Paul and I in front of the Eiffel Tower, also known as The Iron Lady...I think it's what every girl in a relationship sets out to see in Paris! Ooh la la!

There were all these guys as the bottom of the Eiffel Tower selling little replicas of it for super cheap. It's illegal to sell on the street without a permit so when cops would come, they would all warn each other, scoop everything into the bag underneath their displays and run! Then come back a few minutes later when the coast was clear. It was hilarious!

By the way, the food is beyond words over there! People do not lie when they say this about France. It was good enough to just look at, let alone taste!

A crèpe stand using a long slab, the first time I've seen that! I thought they only made circular crèpes...So good with Nutella! I no longer say it the American way, 'Na-tella' but now 'New-tella' like the rest of Europe does. Fancy!

Outside the Notre Dame

The Père Lachaise Cemetery

We searched forever for Jim Morrison's grave, one of the main reasons tourists come to this cemetery. Once we found it, there were a few other people there taking pictures as well.

Chopin's grave, peaceful.

Oscar Wilde's grave, covered in kiss marks from all his lady fans...

And what good is a visit to Paris without hitting up Disneyland? I'd never been to the one in the States, so I thought, 'Hey, why not in Paris?!?'

I'm assuming it's just like the one back home, however everyone here says 'Bonjour!' and 'Merci!'

 So did I fall in love with this city? I did indeed. Will we go back? We have to! We didn't have time to go inside the Notre Dame, it was closing up just as we got to it. That's like going to the store for cake ingredients and leaving without the sugar! And I still have to try frog legs and escargot (snails)! Yum!

Giant's Causeway, A Giant Must-Do!

Being a travel junkie has it's perks...You become more open minded and a much more confident person. You get to learn so much by observing new ways of living and brushing up on history. You also get to taste delicious, authentic foods from all over the world, not just from the local restaurant down the road. It also has it's downfalls...Emptying your wallet of that hefty paycheck you worked for all week long. Exhaustion from walking around for 3 days straight looking at old dusty buildings, vowing to yourself you never want to see another map again as long as you live! And the worse one, causing you to go insane from withdrawals when you're not out exploring a new city or site-seeing!

We had only just got back from Sweden just over a month ago and here I was, already wanting to see something else! I'd been to Northern Ireland before, but didn't get a chance to see Giant's Causeway. And having the luxury of it only being a 4 hour drive away to Bushmill, N. Ireland, I was sure it would hold me over until our next trip...At least I hoped!

The country part of Northern Ireland is a lot like Republic of Ireland, just Ireland to the rest of us down here. Stone walls, rolling green hills, 40 shades of green, cows, sheep and farms at every bend.

And lots of windy roads

I was really excited to see these. The last place we went site seeing in Ireland were the Cliffs of Moher over 3 years ago!

How cool is that? They even did the cobblestone outside the visitors center to look like the Causeway stones! (I'm easily amused)

It was quite a walk down but they had tour buses as well for a little extra that would drop you directly at the stones. We enjoyed the walk.

This is Ireland for ya!

So beautiful

Science says 50-60 million years ago, Co Antrim experienced intense volcanic activity, when basalt came up through the chalk beds and created a lava plateau.

The lava cooled rapidly then contracted and to shorten it up a bit, left about 40,000 basalt columns. Some of them lead down into the sea. Eerie!

Legend has it - Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), an Irish warrior, fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn...(Yes I copied and pasted that from Wiki!)

This is probably one of my most favorite photos of all time...

Enjoying the chilly August weather. That's right, it was freezing! People ask me if it ever gets warm here, it's an Irish joke to say we had Summer, it was on a Thursday!

Trying some yoga on the rocks...Didn't work too well!

Yet another farm animal on the side of the road. This donkey was by far the coolest I've seen so far.

Afterward we had some lovely Irish potato and leek soup at the Causeway Hotel. Divine! (Mine's the best though)

And yes, we ended the day with, you guessed it, rain! Oh and a €600 towing fee to get us back down to Dublin! Our car wouldn't start...Luckily it's fixed now but what a pricey trip this turned out to be!

Go see this place if you can, it's a must do!

Stockholm, Sweden It Is!

The home of Ikea and good old creamy meatballs, our next destination could be none other than Stockholm, Sweden! What brought us to Scandinavia you ask? To be honest, I'm not really sure, other than the fact that it's a completely different culture than the rest of mainland Europe, and well...the tickets were on sale! Ryanair, you save the day yet again! If you're a hardcore penny pincher like me, you cannot pass on a good deal! Boy am I glad we went, it was seriously such a great experience.

It was extremely hot compared to Dublin, we were both sweating like crazy trying to adjust to a 'real' Summer!

The scenery there was just beautiful.

A cute little duck boat with heart windows we found on our walk

Kayaking in the middle of the city, how cool is that?!?

Tried the pickled herring and cracker bread...Not everyone's cup of tea but pretty good.

As I do in every country we visit, I have to try the food it's famous for. These Swedish meatballs were delish. The lingonberries are very popular over there and very tasty!

Being from Utah, I found this funny. It means 'exit' or 'departure'....Hmmm that's odd because that's exactly what farts do!

We randomly saw this marching band on it's way up to the Royal Palace.

Arriving outside the Vasa Museum on our hop on hop off boat tour

The Vasa itself

Knocking on a piece of the Vasa...Hope that brings a lot of good luck!

It took us ages to find a tourist shop in Stockholm. For a second, we thought they just didn't have any. When we did find a few, they all had tons of trolls in them. A popular fairytale in Sweden, yet another thing I learned while over there!

Little did I know, Pippi Longstocking's author is from Sweden! I loved that movie when I was a little kid!

By the end of the trip, I was completely knackered! (tired)

Our trip was so interesting and I learned quite a bit about the current lifestyle and history of the Swedish while in Stockholm. Paul and I were also very impressed with their English, sometimes we barely heard a hint of a Swedish accent, they almost sounded American in some parts!

Only a few things I regret: Not visiting Ikea, not going to the Nobel Peace Museum and not trying moose burgers and reindeer blood dumplings (not mixed of course)...Next time!