Farewell, Ireland.

The last day of traveling is always nice. The time when you realize that you have a pocketful of currency that will soon be foreign and your budget goes out the window.

Laura and I had a rather nice dinner last night. Our last dinner abroad. It was at a lovely restaurant whose name escapes me. We were waited on by an extremely nice woman, and the food was excellent.


That is something I did not appreciate the first time in Ireland: the people here are extremely friendly. It shows itself especially well in the kind demeanor of people who work in customer service. Even the fellow who stamps passports all day is nice. It is a very nice country. And a stark contrast to some of the places we went.

But now all my foreign currency is spent. On food, drink, and trinkets to bring home. And it is farewell to Ireland. Though, I am not terribly sad to go. We have been traveling a long time, and it will be nice to be home and enjoy the comforts of privacy and my own bed.

So, I suppose that about wraps things up for this blog. By the time this posts we should be well on our way to the States. Thank you for reading and overlooking my probably poor grammar and sporadic posting schedule.

Our time in Prague

Prague was good. At this point in the trip we are both pretty tired of traveling, so we took it easy for the most part. For the first few days we were staying at a hostel that was alright, save for the fact that our window looked out into a courtyard where there were drunk people shouting until the wee hours of the morning every night. After that hostel, however, we moved to a splendid hotel.

It was bizarre. The hotel [Hotel Golf] from the outside looked terribly rundown. The paint was faded and the sign on the building was ugly and fairly old. However, as soon as you stepped inside it was gorgeous. The lobby floor was marble, there was a spiral staircase of marble that led up to the restaurant, the lobby was full of marble tables, and even the bases for the chairs at these tables were made of marble.



After staying in rooms of 16+ people for so long, this was absurd luxury. And not only that, but the hotel bar and restaurant were extremely affordable. Half liter beers for just over a euro and three course meals for around 10 euro.

Aside from our wonderful hotel we checked out some of the sights in Prague. We went to the Kafka museum, which was interesting. It was chock full of audiovisual effects, which was not what I was expecting for the museum, but made for an interesting experience.

There was also a very nice modern art museum that we looked at one day. My favorite bit being the enormous, brightly colored statues of animals that surrounded the museum.



Our third adventure was a mirror maze located in a park set atop a rather large hill. It was a pretty steep climb for the 80+ degree weather, but the maze was fun, and the view from the top of the hill was gorgeous.



Now we are in Dublin, and I should probably try to blow a little bit more money while I have the chance.

Prague

We're in Prague now. We got in a couple of nights ago. Prague is a nice city. It feels very authentic, even if we are situated in the most touristy area of the city.

Perhaps the best thing about the city so far, however, is that our dollars stretch a little bit further here. I think we are going to have enough money to eat dinner out every night, so in that regard it will be a good way to wind up our trip. We are both a little tired of traveling, so it will be nice to take it easy and enjoy some good food and drink. For reference, beers at a grocery store cost around 10-20 czk [.5-1 euro], at a bar beers cost around 30-40 czk for a half liter [1.5-2 euro], and food at an average restaurant is around 100-200 czk [5-10 euro], with asian restaurants frequently as cheap as 70-80 czk for a meal [3.5-4 euro]. So, while it is not absurdly cheap, it is much more affordable than most of the other cities we've visited.

Febo

There are a lot of interesting restaurants in Amsterdam. There is a very large selection of ethnic cuisine, with extremely cheap falafel and shoarma [which is a lot like a kebab]. My personal favorite place here, however, is Febo.



Febo is a bizarre fast food restaurant that you would expect to see in Japan [or the future], in which you do not have to interact with anyone in order to get your food. There are a number of coin operated compartments in which food is kept, and you just put in the right amount of change and take your food out. There are people in the back constantly making more and refilling the compartments, so the food is not as old as it sounds. The only flaw is that in order to get fries or a drink you still have to talk to a man at the counter. But they are on the right track.

Amsterdam

So, I got a little behind on my blogging. We have been in Amsterdam for a few days now. We actually leave this evening for Prague. It is certainly an interesting city. Coffee shops that sell marijuana are all over the city, and the smell of the smoke equally pervading.

The city itself is beautiful, canals everywhere, and boats tied to every available space. I have been slightly disappointed with the use of these boats, though. It appears the only boats that actually use the canals are those giving tours. Everyone here gets around by bike, car, or tram, creating the most confusing traffic patterns I have ever encountered. I have probably come close to being run over a number of times by each of those modes of transit.


The red light district is another bizarre aspect to the city. Laura and I went there a couple of nights ago. The streets are lined with windows in which women stand in the glow of red lights and try to draw in passersby. However, most of them appear bored and frequently are seen talking on cell phones. I didn't take any photos of them, as I have read that this is not allowed, and there are people around who would try to confiscate my camera, but I took a couple photos of the district.

Moules et Frites

Mussels and fries is a traditional Belgian dish. All over the city there are restaurants offering this dish for varying low prices [around 11 or 12 euro for mussels, fries and a beer]. Each of these restaurants also has a man standing out front who will try very hard to convince you that his restaurant is the best.

For our last night in Belgium we decided to give the moules et frites a try. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking. I have a pretty serious problem with shellfish, and this certainly did not fix it. They brought us each and enormous bucket of mussels and a small bowl of fries with a miniscule beer. I have never had so much trouble eating a food in my life. I struggled through ten or fifteen of them, but the bucket was enormous, and it wasn’t getting any better as I got further into it. Laura, who normally does pretty well with mussels didn’t enjoy them much either. I am sure they were well prepared, but there is something very difficult about eating that many shellfish.

We each did our best pushing the mussels around and taking out all the empty shells in order to make it look like we had eaten a lot, and then in similar childish fashion went off to get ice cream for our second dinner.

Alcohol in Belgium

Belgium is a wonderful country for beer. There are quite a few wonderful beers available for very cheap, which anyone over the age of 16 can enjoy. Liquor is reserved for those over 18, but wine and beer are available at 16. My favorite beer I consumed there was Blanche de Brugge, a wheat beer that was available almost everywhere. Laura, on the other hand, stuck to the fruit flavored lambics, enjoying the extremely common cherry flavored kriek as well as a rasberry flavored beer.

One of the nights we were in Brussels we went to a bar called Delirium. Delirium advertises something like 1000 beers, with around 40 varieties on tap. It was quite an experience.

The other notable drink in Brussels is the half and half, which supposedly started at a cafe called Cirio. We went there to try it, though it is now apparently available all over Brussels. The Story behind the drink is that one day a woman at the cafe ordered a champagne, but there was only half a glass left, so the waiter topped it off with white wine. The woman ended up enjoying the beverage, so it stuck. I can see why she enjoyed it. It was extremely good, and very relaxing on a hot summer afternoon.

Belgium and Comics

Brussels, as a city, really loves comics. Tin Tin and the Smurfs both originate from Belgium, and there are comic shops and murals of comic characters scattered all over the city. Laura and I had a chance to peruse a few comic shops while we were there. I have never really been a huge fan of comics [exception: I loved Tin Tin when I was younger], but there were some really neat ones there.


We also went to the comic museum one day. It was very interesting, even if it was mostly in French and Dutch. The museum showed the breadth of comic book variety, and was very neat. They also had a decent section on the process that goes into making comics, which is surprisingly intense, particularly for color comics.

Brussels

Brussels is a wonderful place. Laura and I only sort of tacked it onto the trip at the end because we had too many train days. It is good we found it, though, because we both agree that it is our favorite place so far.

Sunday was our first full day of Brussels. We started early by going to an enormous market full of all manner of cheap and knock-off goods. According to one source it is supposed to be the largest market in Europe. It was quite an experience, but nothing compared to our next stop, a giant second hand market. There were all kinds of amazing trinkets here. A few of the most bizarre were a rusted out flintlock pistol, several Belgian WW2 helmets, and a table full of rusty, old swords and battle-axes. It was quite an experience, but we got there around 1 and it shuts down at 2, so we did not have much time. We are going to try to go back again before we leave Brussels.


After the secondhand market we wandered around town and stumbled upon a craft market. Honestly, on Sunday this town is filled to the brim with markets. At this market we enjoyed a couple of the cheaper Belgian foods one can get. Laura had a waffle and I had a cone of fries with mayonnaise. They were both excellent. I expected to be slightly put off by the mayonnaise, and they certainly are quite liberal with it, but it was unlike any mayonnaise I have had before, and I actually quite enjoyed it. And what better to follow that with than a couple of pralines. Honestly, how much better does food get than this?


Another fantastic thing about Belgium is that the beer is great, and since it is all from nearby, it is cheap as well. That night we went to a bar around the corner and had a couple of drinks. Laura had a Kriek, which is a cherry flavored lambic, and I had a Maes, which is a rather nice and cheap pilsner, and a Blanche de Brugge, which was a splendid Belgian wheat beer.

This country [or city at least] is wonderful. If you ever travel to Europe, be sure not to miss it.

Paris part 3

I am going to lump Thursday and Friday together so that I can get on to Brussels. I am a few days behind now.

Thursday morning and afternoon were spent in Gare de Lyon, one of the big train stations in Paris, trying to reserve a ticket to Marseille. Unfortunately, not very many people there spoke English, and the station was not very clearly laid out. We spent a couple of hours waiting in different queues, only finding the proper one after quite some time. As I have mentioned before we were unable to book a train to Marseille, so we ended up booking an earlier train to Brussels. This created a slight problem, as we now needed to cancel our booking in Marseille and find a place in Brussels for a couple of days [we also needed a place in Prague for the first few days, because I think Sam has flaked on us], and our hostel was without internet. This meant an internet café. We found one, paid the 4 euro for an hour, and spent almost all of it booking two hostels [even the few altered key placements on the French keyboard give someone who uses the computer as much as me quite a bit of hell when trying to type]. We succeeded, and despite the monetary loss decided that our budgets could handle a nice reward dinner.

We headed over to Pigalle [the red light district in Paris], and walked around a bit, eventually making our way to Montmarte. Montmarte was probably my favorite part of Paris. I felt like it exemplified the romantic ideas one has of Paris. It was at the top of a hill, and full of cobble stone streets and cafes. The restaurant we ate at was one suggested by Lonely Planet, Le Maison Rose [The Pink House]. The way the food worked, which was rather nice, is that for a set price you get to choose a starter [soup, cheese, or salad], a main course, and a dessert [yogurt with sugar or cheese]. It was not something we could afford every day, but it was nice, and nothing feels fancier than having a lot of courses at dinner. I had French onion soup as my starter, for my main course I had chicken with rice and a wonderful cream and butter sauce with a strong anise flavor, and for dessert I had the French yogurt with sugar. Laura had the same, save for her main course was pasta Provencal, with all manner of vegetables. The food was excellent, and the restaurant was beautiful.

That about wraps it up for Thursday, now on to Friday:

Friday we went to Versaille. We did not actually tour the palace, because they charge quite a bit for that, but the gardens are free and beautiful, not to mention absolutely overloaded with statues. We prepared a picnic with some nice bread, cheese, pate, and wine, and ate it near the enormous pond in the center of the gardens.

After Versaille we headed back to Paris and finished off a few of the last things we had to do there, like have an éclair at a café on the Champs Elysees.

The next morning we had a light breakfast at a café and caught a train to Brussels. I will update further about Brussels soon, but for now allow me to preface it by saying I have never been to a place where I felt more like I could live there. It is a really wonderful city.

Paris part 2

Wednesday, Laura and I again had a rather busy day. In the morning we checked into our new hostel and headed to the Catacombs. The catacombs were pretty cool. For a bit of history, the catacombs were created in the late 1700s when the graveyards of Paris were overflowing and causing rampant disease among the local community. To deal with this problem, three new suburban cemeteries were created, while the rest of the bodies in the graveyards were exhumed and the bones were placed in a decorative fashion in an old limestone and gypsum quarry underneath the city.

To get to the catacombs you descend something like 130 steps into the old quarry. The total distance walked on the self-guided tour is 1.6 km [or about a mile]. For the first portion of the walk it is mostly like being in a cave except for the slightly bizarre feeling of knowing that you are in a quarry beneath an enormous city. The highlight, of course, is the walls of bones, which don’t start immediately, but go on for an impressively long time once they do. The patterns are usually not terribly exciting [stacks of thousands of femurs with rows of skulls around the middle], but the sheer quantity is amazing. It is not hard to see why there were sanitation problems with the graveyard if it was housing this many bodies.

After the catacombs we wandered around the Luxembourg palace area looking for an internet café with wifi and failed as I mentioned before. We did, however, manage to find some very pretty gardens and a fountain in which to dip our feet. Dipping our feet in fountains became sort of a theme of our time in Paris, as it was around 90 degrees the first four days we were there and we were unable to keep cool without these wonderful fountains. Later in that same day, after a bit more wandering and window shopping in Paris, we ended up back at the Louvre, where we again took up seats around the fountain and watched the people around us. We considered the Louvre, but even after 6pm it still costs 6.50, and we found better ways to spend that money. I've no real desire to see the Mona Lisa.

As dusk approached we found a grocery and picked up some supplies. We then headed over to the Eiffel tower and had a picnic with a little bit of dinner and champagne while we waited for it to get dark and the tower to light up.

When it finally got dark enough [around 10 or so], the tower was lit up with blue lights and covered in strobe lights which would light up for 5 or 10 minutes at a time and were very interesting to watch.

We caught the last train home, and that was the end of Wednesday.

Paris part 1

So, first off, sorry for not updating for so long. Our second hostel in Paris did not have internet, and we could not find any manner of internet cafe that had wifi. We paid for an hour at one internet cafe, but ended up spending it all booking hostels and such. We were supposed to be in Marseille this weekend, but when we went to the train station on Thursday, apparently all trains to Marseille over the weekend were already booked. Instead we decided to head to Brussels a couple of days early, so that is where we are now. But, to go back a few days, here is a post I wrote a while ago about our first full day in Paris:

Our first impression of Paris was that we have never been to a place that looked so much like what we expected. Paris, at least so far, greatly embodies its stereotypes, with the slight exclusion that most of the people are not as rude as I was led to believe they were going to be. Unfortunately, some of them are just as rude as I expected.

Tuesday morning Laura and I had a fairly long day. It started at about 9:00 am with a surprisingly nice free breakfast at the hostel we were staying at. It consisted of cereal, croissants and jam, orange juice, and bread to take with us. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

After that we headed over to the Eiffel tower. Let me tell you, there are some enormous lines at the Eiffel tower. I am not sure I have ever queued so much in my life. There were huge lines for tickets, for the lift to the top, even a line to come down.

Laura and I chose to walk the stairs up the first two levels and take the lift to the top. It is about four euro cheaper than taking the lift the whole way. At this point in my life I thought I was pretty much done with my fear of heights. For example, I was completely comfortable laying over the edge of the cliffs on the Aran Islands. But something about the stairs up the Eiffel tower scared the piss out of me. I finished it fine, but I sure didn’t like it on the way up. The way down I got to enjoy it a little more, despite my legs being exhausted by climbing up and down an absurd number of steps.

The view from the top was amazing. I had always thought of the Eiffel tower being a bit small, because when compared to other giant buildings it looks a little sad. It sure is big in Paris, though. When it is surrounded by four or five story buildings, this thing is giant. From the top, Paris stretched out nearly as far as the eye can see. It is an absolutely enormous city. Not to mention gorgeous. Never have I seen a more beautiful city.

After the Eiffel tower we decided to check out the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. We were starving, so we stopped into a grocery and got sandwiches to eat at the Arc. It was impressive, and certainly an icon of France, but after the Eiffel tower, the Arc is small fries.

The Champs Elysees was not terribly exciting for me. Laura, on the other hand, had a great time. There was plenty of clothing browsing, but the highlight for me was the Pugeot store. Not because I am particularly interested in cars, but because they had an upholstered Pugeot. It was absurd.

Our final destination for the day was the Louvre. Not to go inside, just to see it. The Jardin des Tuleries and the Louvre are both lovely. At the garden we sat for a while in chairs surrounding a fountain, then continued on to the Louvre, where we dipped our feet in the pools in the courtyard.

And that was Tuesday. I will be blogging furiously now that we have internet [even if it is a bit spotty], so expect more updates soon.