Well my European adventures are coming to an end. France was just great. My first real stop was Bayeux in Normandy. I saw the D-day musuem, the American cemetery, and a 90 meter long tapistry almost 1000 years old depicting the history of the region. It was pretty sweet. Then I headed to Mont St Michel. The abby is pretty incredible, but the walk across the bay at low tide was the real adventure. I met two girls who were studying in Paris and we had a heck of a time. We returned to Paris together, and the next night they had me over for dinner, laundry, and internet. What a perfect combination. All in all, their hospitality was incredible. That day I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, but it was the arabic art that was my favorite. I also saw the Paris Opera House, Sacre Couer, and Moulin Rouge.
The next day I toured Versailles with Ashleigh and Tommy, two Seattle natives that I was sharing a hostel with. That fulfilled my aspirations of seeing the home to Louis XIV and later Marie Antoinette that developed in European History AP sophomore year of high school. The audioguide was pretty good and the gardens were beautiful.
Brittany and Jeff met me that night at our budget hotel and we stayed up way too late just chatting. The next morning we went to see the Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier... we are talking architecture with a capital A. Its kind of a big deal. Then we saw pretty much every museum on the planet over the next two days (including pompidou center and the Musee d'Orsay), as well as going to the top of the eiffel tower, seeing the Arc du Triumphe, the Pantheon, Jardin du Luxembourg, Notre Dame, etc.
Thursday night was the Summer Solstice, and the scene of the night of music for Parisians (Fete de la Musique)... as the longest night of the year all the musicians perform on the street until the wee hours. Fun... except that I needed to get up at 5:15 this morning. And so the adventure of budget airlines begins.
Ryanair is so cheap. Supposedly. But they fly out of Paris Beauvais... a hour and 15 minute train ride followed by a 30 minute bus outside Paris. Oh and that 15 kg checked bag allowance... that wasn't per bag... that was total. So I had to pay 88 euro for my second bag to come with me. Painful, but I had no choice. And Im going to have to do it again when I go to London... sigh. So my flight is going to end up costing about the same as a regular one would have... oh well.
I can't be too sad right now because I am in Dublin. Despite rain, today was filled with exciting activities such as seeing the book of Kells, a book of 4 gospels made by Monks over 1000 years ago with detail that could barely be acheived today. I also toured Trinity College and got to see its old library... its "long room" is the largest single volume library in the world and its books (some 400 years old) are organized by size... so if you want to find one you have to know its exact dimensions and go around measuring. Pretty hilarious.
After that I took the Guinness factory tour. I enjoyed it... and the building is pretty neat. There is a light well through the middle of the building shaped like a large beer glass... its cool.
Oh, and when I got here I went through a small culture shock... I haven't been submersed in an english speaking culture in close to 5 months now... it was a shock at first but I have to say it is really nice now that I have had a few hours to get used to it. My brain doesn't have to work so hard all the time! Thats pretty much it for now. Cork tomorrow. Ciao.
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