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!

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!

Barcelona Baby!

I thought I'd share some photos of our recent trip to Barcelona, Spain. I never got around to it in May, but it's better late than never right? Of course I already posted these to Facebook, but I feel that's not telling the entire experience. So, here it goes!

After about a 2 1/2 hour flight from cold and cloudy Dublin, Paul and I landed in the beautiful and warm city of Barcelona. It took us a while to find the place to get our car we hired as the directions on our confirmation were somewhat lost in translation. But that was fine with us as we were soaking in the warmth and practicing what very little Spanish we knew. Once we found the pick up point, we were driven to the car place, then we collected our car and headed into the city. It was around 10:30pm but we still wanted explore. Our first stop? Las Ramblas!

For some delicious.......Italian gelato! 

I know I know, we're in Spain and yet we get Italian food! But hey, it was really warm and the selection looked amazing! This is something I haven't seen in a long time as the Irish aren't big on ice cream. I can't blame them, it's just not the weather for ice cream in Ireland! Paul loved the pistachio gelato and I loved the cinnamon. It's heavenly! We're really looking forward to our trip to Italy to get some again!

Anyway, we walked around for a bit and found tons of tapas bars. These originally were meant as a means of slowing down the intoxication process while drinking alcohol socially. Back in the day in Spain, when you'd order another drink, they'd give you a little bit of bread or some meat with your alcohol to hold you over. It must have caught on because there's tapas bars all over the world now!

One of many tapas bars

We eventually did try some tapas later on in the trip, as well as Paella and Sangria (not the first time we've had these but the first time in Spain). Here are some delicious pictures of what we ate throughout our trip:

Marinated artichokes, mussels, and cubes of Spanish cheese

Potato croquettes, deep fried squid, and fish with fresh garlic aioli

Meatballs, slow roasted pork, marinated mushrooms and chicken wings. I was quite fond of the slow roasted pork :)

This Sangria cost us €16!!!! There were no prices on the menu so there's no way to argue. It was directly on Las Ramblas so it's bound to be expensive I guess!

Very delicious seafood paella, but we had it twice and it looked and tasted the same at both places. Still worth trying though!

Not wanting to get to sleep too late, we headed out to our hotel an hour away from Barcelona City. I'm actually really glad we didn't stay in the city, as convenient as that may have been, because the drive along the Balearic coast was definitely worth it. Especially at night! The rest of our trip was amazing, I'm so glad we went. I just love exotic cities, so this was another great experience just like the rest. Here's some photos of the rest of our trip:

Barcelona City during the day

Our trip to the beach:

The Balearic Sea

I have never had a Spanish tortilla (omelet) so addictive in my life! And the chorizo was unforgettable!

I found the same kind of fish that was in our tapas!

We first did this in Crete in 2010 and is now a photo tradition we've started at beaches we visit :D

Our visit to the Dali Museum in Figueres, about 1 1/2 hours drive away from Barcelona City:

A cute little side street

Paul in a tourist shop I dragged him into :D

Outside the entrance to the museum, kind of reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas!

He was a mad genius. His work is insanely captivating. If you ever have the chance, go see it in person!

Outside the museum on the main street

Gaudi highlights in Barcelona City

La Familia de Sagrada...I regret not going inside but we just didn't have the time!

Casa Mila from the outside. Crazy to think this was once an embarrassment to Spanish architecture!

From the inside of Casa Mila

At the top, stunning!

These reminded me of ice cream cones :)

The apartments had an opening in the middle where you could see the sky. Couldn't believe people still live in these yet there's millions of tourists that come each year to look at it! I don't think I could live inside a tourist attraction!

 And here's the castle we found by our hotel. We saw it glowing on the mountain top with artificial lights and like little mosquitoes, we had to explore:

Las Ramblas

Street performer 'statue'

This woman attracted a huge crowd around her! She painted these trippy pictures in pure silence!

Barcelona is a magical and romantic city indeed!

This is the famous fountain with supposed magical powers. It's said if you drink from it, it will magically bring you back to Barcelona one day...I guess this guy didn't want to come back since he was spitting it back out...

Barcelona Port

La Boqueria, a foodie's dream come true!

All in all, alovely city. Would I go back? For sure!