Galway

            We arrived in Dublin late at night and caught a bus to Galway the next morning.  For those who aren’t familiar with the country of Ireland, Dublin is on the east coast and Galway is on the west coast.  It was about a four hour bus ride made longer by multiple stops along the way.  Galway is a beautiful city that has an awesome downtown area that reminds me of a college town like Athens or Oxford.  It is full of shops, restaurants, and most importantly PUBS!  I know it is customary to enjoy a Guinness at the bars, but I noticed they were serving Heineken, but it is referred to as Heineken Extra Cold because the keg is chilled to 0 degrees to ensure lasting enjoyment.  It was delicious!  I hope they bring it over to the states soon.

            Obama arrived and gave a speech the day before we got to Dublin, but luckily he only stayed for one day.  His presence was still made known though as can be seen below.  We were trying to decide where to each lunch and definitely avoided that place after seeing that poster for their special burger.  The Irish were in love with Obama, or most it seemed, but not all.

            We walked around downtown our first day exploring the beautiful area.  We came upon a harbor which had beautiful views of the sea. 

            Leaving the harbor and going back to the city, we passed some apartments and my sister spotted this in an apartment window.  Raider Nation is everywhere!!!  And this would not be my last sighting of raider nation in Ireland!

            The fair was also in town although we decided to skip on checking it out as I got tricked out of some money by a carny when I was in elementary school and did not want to try my luck again (although I am much wiser now).

            A/B Bank in the picture below is located in an old castle that we kept walking past when we were looking for it, not expecting a bank to be inside it now.  We also came upon this church which my sister marveled at, and then was disappointed when she found out it was an Episcopal church.  I got a good laugh out of that as she was trying to find some Catholic churches, but it was a gorgeous church and I took quite a few pictures of it.

I also found the best printer shop in all of Ireland, although they made a typo when spelling their name:

Also found Ireland’s version of the American Dollar store:

            In the middle of downtown Galway there is this statue of the great Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde conversing with Estonian writer Eduard Vilde.  My research shows that the two never actually met each other.  It was a great opportunity for a picture with you know what!

            On our second day in Ireland we took a bus tour of the countryside surrounding Galway.  We stopped at a farmer’s home and he took us on a walking tour of his property.  We got to climb up to the top of some hills which his family owned and were treated to spectacular views of the countryside.  His family owned a few cows  and some sheep.  It was a wonderful experience and the highlight of the trip because we got to experience an Irish Farmer’s home up close.  The information pamphlet said it would be a light walking tour, and so my sister wore her best pair of hiking boots.  Turned out she was not as prepared as she thought…

            We continued on the bus tour and were taken to the Cliffs of Moher.  The cliffs rise 394 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.  It was the location of several films including Inception and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.   You had to be very careful because of the extreme gusts of wind.  A Russian tourist’s car was found abandoned at the top and his body turned up in the sea below the cliffs a few months ago.  The tower is O’Brien’s Tower built by Sir Cornelius O’Brien to impress the ladies (what great lengths men go to in order to impress the women) and to improve tourism in the area.  He thought that increased tourism would help improve the poor economy in the 1830’s.

            On the bus ride back home we were treated to more castles and cliffs smaller than that of Moher.  I was impressed with this castle’s security system in the second to last picture, I guess a moat wasn’t getting the job done.

            Galway was an amazing city and we had a blast there and I would definitely recommend it as a must see place if you ever go to Ireland.  There is so much to do and see in the city and the surrounding area.  It was unfortunate we only had two days to spend there.  Stay tune for reports on our trip to Dublin and even more Raider fans!  Time to continue my birthday celebration in Paris!

Day 3 & 4 in Paris

Day 3 & 4 in Paris was filled with visits to the major landmarks in the city.  We checked out the Louvre again, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris.  First though I had to check out Ralph Lauren’s car exhibit at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.  Some of the cars featured included: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM, a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Scaglietti, a 1956/1958 Jaguar XKS and a 1931 Alfa Romeo Monza 8C 2300.  There was also a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO and a 1938 Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic Coupe, the world’s two most expensive vehicles valued at 30-40 million each.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the cars unfortunately, but they were a sight to behold.  They also showed a video of Lauren talking about how the cars have influenced his clothing line over the years.

            After checking out the car exhibit we walked to the Louvre courtyard and I was able to snap a picture of this statue.  She was a great model for my Raider’s hat.  She is referred to as Monument a Cezane and was created by Aristide Maillol. This was also where I spotted the pug featured in my other blog post. 

            Along the way to the Arc de Triomphe we spotted the Luxor Obelisk, and Egyptian Obelisk that stands at the center of the Palace de la Concorde and is 75 feet tall.  There was a person dressed up as an Egyptian standing next to it that you could take photos with but I passed and just snapped a picture of him. 

            There is some great shopping along the way to the Arc de Triomphe according to my sisters, but luckily I was able to keep them from the shops and encouraged that for another day when I was not with them.  My sister pointed out the Abercrombie and Fitch that just opened, the first in Paris, and there was a line to shop there that went down the block.  I could smell the A&F cologne from across the street (you know that smell if you’ve ever walked by an A&F store, so overpowering).  I thought Paris was suppose to be fashion forward, but I felt like I had gone back in time with the craze to buy A&F clothing. 

            Finally after a lot of walking we arrived at the Arc De Triomphe.  It is an amazing structure, but I was most fascinated by the crazy drivers doing circles around it.   Motorcyclists were touching their inner knee to the ground as they circled it and horns were constantly blowing as the crazy Parisian drivers tried to maneuver around the Arc.  They say there is a wreck there every day but I did not see one on my visit.  Below the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a grave for unknown soldiers that died in battle.  Below are multiple pictures of the Arc and the tomb. 

            After checking out the Arc de Triomphe I got to witness the French police force in action.  An Asian man had a girl who I presume was his girlfriend in some sort of a headlock.  She was crying and he was poorly attempting to console her which drew the attention of the French police.  They separated the two and frisked the man.  I stealthily snapped this photo of the police in action.  He has a pretty sweet handlebar mustache.  I bet the drunks in Athens would be a bit more intimidated by the Athens Police if they could have handlebar mustaches!

            After the Arc it was time to check out the Eiffel tower.  There were some street hustlers on the sidewalk leading to the tower and I withstood the temptation to lose 50 Euros to one of the hustlers.  There were other tourist traps as well such as caricature artists and people peddling miniature Eiffel tower knock offs.  My sister had the great idea to picnic by the Eiffel tower so we stopped by a stand similar to the one below and what do we buy, but hot dogs and French fries, so Parisian!  The hot dogs were on a huge baguette and instead of having one foot long dog like at baseball games, they had two hot dogs on there.  It wasn’t quite the same as a ballpark dog, but still quite tasty.

            In the park there were some kids playing rugby and I snapped a few pics.  The girl in the second picture thought it would be funny to sneak away with the ball as the guys were in the middle of their scrum.  I love how active the Parisians are because it seemed like the parks are always packed and the ping pong tables are always in use.

            The following day we checked out the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, better known as the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, which is located at the highest point in Paris.  Once up top, you have a breathtaking view of the city.  There are a ton of artists up there selling their work and offering to paint your picture on the spot.  I even saw one artist painting a recreation of a couple’s romantic dinner from a photograph.

            We decided to check out the red light district since it was close by, and ran into this guy who was stuck in the wall.  There was also this cool art display hanging between two buildings.   I snapped a couple pics of the Moulin Rouge and then it was time for dinner.  We ran into a fried chicken restaurant on the corner of the red light district (reminding me of Georgia), but decided on a Canadian bar instead.  I had the most Parisian meal ever: cheeseburger and fries!  I washed it down with a cold glass of Newcastle as I watched an Arena Football game.  It isn’t the NFL but it will have to do until the lockout is over. 

Stay tuned for my trip report from Ireland!