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!

Hello Holland! Our Trip To Amsterdam

Holland or The Netherlands, whatever you want to call it, is such a charming country....From what we've seen of it! We spent 3 days here in March, for our 2 year wedding anniversary and I can confirm, it wasn't enough time!

Can you see how they appear to be tipping over?

The first day, we just explored the city center and tried to get familiar with our new surroundings. I noticed right away that everyone cycled! Also, there were canals everywhere and almost all of the buildings were slanted.

Another beautiful canal

It was almost as if I was in a dream like state walking around the heart of Amsterdam. The artictecture was so....Peculiar! From what I read, this is because most of the buildings are over 400 years old and over time, have settled into the marshy grounds they were built on. Did you know that more than 2/5 of Holland was once covered in sea water? So to increase the land, the Dutch built dykes and pumped the water out. This type of land is referred to as Polder. Interesting!

On our second day, we went on a half day tour to Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken. It was so relaxing and I really enjoyed the scenic drive through the Dutch countryside. It was nice to get away from the busy city for a while and see how the Dutch really live.

Dutch cheese farm

 Our first stop was a Dutch cheese farm in Zaanse Schans. We ate loads of Edam cheese! They had so many different flavors, even pesto! We loved it! Edam cheese is made in rounds and pressed to seperate the curds and whey. It's aged 2 months for a mild taste or longer for a more mature flavored cheese.

At the same cheese farm, there were these beautiful windmills I had to capture. Don't they look like something you'd only see on a postcard or calendar?

Clogs being made in a workshop

Next, we learned how clogs are made. Back in the day when they were made by hand, it could take days to finish a pair of shoes. Now, it takes only a few minutes on a clog machine which is very similar to a key copying machine. They are still worn by the Dutch, mainly farmers and gardeners, as it protects their feet and it's easier to walk through the marshy grounds.

 Finally, we visited an old fishing village in Volendam...

A lonely dog tied to a giant sausage sign, it made me laugh so hard!

The beautiful harbor. There were tons of restaurants and stands selling fresh seafood for a very reasonable price!

Walking through the tourist part of Volendam.

Such an adorable and typical little house that really reflects the Dutch style.

As we were leaving, I noticed this message on the roof of an old farm house. It made us laugh because it pretty much summed up our tour! Gotta love the Dutch sense of humor!

On our last day, we walked around the city a bit more and came across a few crazy things:

A club right outside our hotel, we found the name of it quite funny!

These guys were laughing, drinking pints, dressed in old fashioned clothes and peddling around the city. Team work baby!

Some stray cat in the window of a restaurant. No one was bothered a bit, in fact everyone was casually petting it and eating their food!

I'm used to seeing cops on horses in Ireland, but we were right outside a coffee shop where people smoke and buy marijuana legally. We could smell it in the air with the cop right there, it was crazy!

We came across a big door in the middle of the city which lead to a secret garden...

...It turned out to be to an old nuns' monastery.

 It was so peaceful and quiet, which was somewhat eerie knowing the loud and bustling city was just on the other side of a stone wall!

Later we visited The Heineken Brewery. It took us about an hour and a half to finish the entire tour. We downed 1 1/2 fresh pints of Heineken each, which were included in the entrance fee and we even got to pull our own pints! We actually left with a fun little certificate to that says we are now certified to pull a pint of Heineken!

All of the Heineken staff were terribly nice and made us feel very welcome. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam and I definitely think it was worth the €15 entrance fee!

Paul pulling a pint

Vintage Heineken ad in the brewery that caught my eye, I thought it was cool looking!

Now lets talk about the food! Eating out was affordable and delicious, but I wish we tasted more authentic Dutch food, such as Dutch Pea Soup (erwtensoep) or Dutch Apple Cake. Anywho, here's what we did have:

Apple pancakes with powdered sugar and molasses, yum!

My gorgeous goat cheese salad, all this for only €7,50!

Paul's delicious and huge burger with more mayo!

Fries (frites) were sold everywhere in Amsterdam! Always served in a cone made of paper with a huge plop of sweet and creamy mayo. The Dutch seriously love their mayo!

We did attempt to try some not so healthy food from the famous FEBO, a cheap place where hot food is served from a vending machine. We went back a couple times but my stomach regretted it after we got back to Dublin!

Overall, we had a really good time. The Dutch are very friendly, chilled out and interesting people and the weather was quite mild for March. Not too cold and a good amount of sun. It only rained once when we were there but we found shelter in a coffee shop. We didn't have time to go inside Anne Frank's house as we showed up too late and the line was around the building!

We can't wait to go back and see it again one day!