02.24.10

It’s almost THAT time!

Posted in 1 at 8:51 am by sarahhill

Three days & counting until I am free for a month to travel!

My employer is being so gracious and allowing me to take the month of March off to go and travel around (and out of!) the country with my best friends. I am the happiest girl in the world and cannot wait for the month to begin so I can plan out my attack!

The way that it’s looking is the following:

March 5-9: Milan with Kate. We’re going during a huge chocolate festival and right before the Milan Fashion week, so there is BOUND to be lots going on to see and do!

March 11th or 12th: Travelling out to some of the locations that my ancestors came from. Going to find some gravesites and stroll through the towns that my family once lived in.

March 14th – 22nd: Kristen arrives. We’re hijacking Celeste’s new apartment and spending St. Paddy’s Day with her in Dublin and then stealing her away to Cork for a bit. At some point we plan on renting a car and driving across the country to get ourselves into some sort of shenanigans, I’m sure! Then it’s back to Cork for Katie’s birthday party and a full-hearted farewell to the ladies as I ship them back to Dublin via the Air Coach.

The tail end of the month will be filled with either some relaxing days, more shenanigans, travel to random parts of the county, and somehow within it all throwing a birthday party for the boyfriend! All-in-all, it’s going to be a slam-dunk of a month!

I can’t begin to explain how unbelievably excited I am to be travelling around. I’m finally comfortable with my financial situation and have some sure-proof opportunities to go travelling; it’s like the pieces of the puzzle are all coming together!

I’ll be updating throughout the month, but until then!

S

02.16.10

OLYMPICS!

Posted in Entertainment, Life, Random, Travel at 4:41 pm by sarahhill

I can’t stop watching the Olympics.
 
I didn’t realize that I would even be able to watch it while in Ireland so having clips of games and crowds decked out in red & white gear are making me go loopy with excitement. It makes me wonder what I chose to leave the country THIS YEAR instead of the next, but heck, it’s an experience watching your team from another country anyways.
 
I’ve started to create an “Olympics Schedule” for myself and the games that I want to (and can) watch while I’m here. The time difference between here and BC kinda of messes things up, and means that I’ll be watching some games at 12:30am or even 2am, but hells, if I can nap after work and wake up to watch a good game, I’m in. So, far I’ve caught a ton of luge and some snowboarding but the real meat & potatos is starting tonight with Men’s Hockey. After watching the equally exciting Manchester United (Beckham’s old team) vs. AC Milan (Beckham’s new team) match at the pub, I’m heading back home to catch the Canada vs. Norway game that’s bound to be a treat. : )
 
So, to show my support, until the end of the Olympics, I’ll be wearing my Canada t-shirts and mittens interchangably for the next month and make sure that no one that I work with will forget that I am anything but CANADIAN.
 
GO CANADA!

02.15.10

The Rest of Paris

Posted in Life, Random, Travel tagged , , , , , , , , , , , at 8:47 am by sarahhill

Ah, Paris.
 
I know I’ve been going on about the city for the past couple of days, but here is the full schepeel, the meat and potatoes, the story of all stories. But, where do I begin? I suppose going chronological would be the best idea… !!
 
Arriving – “Making it to the land of Baguettes”
 
Getting to Paris was a cinch. We flew directly from Cork, and doing that meant catching a bus 5 minutes away from my house that takes me directly to the airport for €3 and then going though a breezy security. Simple. We got to board the plane from the ground as opposed to going to though a tunnel, which I’d never done before and was actually pretty exciting to me! After getting into Paris and experiencing the smoothest landing I’ve ever had, we took a few trains into the city and then hiked up to our hostel to check in. We stated in Montmartre, and the hostel there was class! Delicious croissants, cereal, bread and juice for breakfast, comfy beds, a computer that was broken in the sense that you never had to pay for internet access and keys that you returned to the desk whenever you left so you didn’t have to worry about losing them! I was so impressed, especially since the warm room was such a nice change from being in the arctic in my room back home in Cork. The only downside to our hostel experience was that there was no common room with couches (or any kind of lounge area aside from the kitchen and computer area) and our 3-bed room turned into a 3-bed +1. We shared a room with 2 Brazilians (a couple, Patrick and Fluck) who occupied a bed together. It was awkward at first, but once we got to know them they were actually pretty damn cool people.
 
Once we checked in and dropped off our belongings we decided to start the tri off right by heading our and doing some low-key sight seeing. First on the chopping block was Sacre Coeur Cathedral, a stunning white cathedral on the top of the hill in Montmartre that resembled something that you’d see in India with round towers and gold trimmings. We toured the cathedral and sat for some of the mass and then took in the stunning views from the entry way while we watched some (awful) street performers. The day was bright and sunny and up to probably about 12 degrees above zero; perfect weather for roaming the city.
 
We left Sacre Coeur and heading down towards the Moulin Rouge and the red-light district, stopping in random boutiques and shops along the way. One thing that I found really exciting about being in Paris was the fact that I could converse with everyone easily, from the ladies in line for the bathroom to the shop owners and airport security. It actually made me feel like I was finally putting all of that schooling into use and made my French immersion actually work for me! Anyways! We made it down to the Moulin Rouge as the sun was setting and were half awestruck that we were standing in front of the windmill and half disappointed that it wasn’t as old-rich that we thought it might look. It was about 100€ to get into the place a see a show so we said nuts-to-that and decided instead just to roam some more and got find a place to sit down and have dinner. We ended up just marching through the red-light district (I felt like I was in Vegas) and having dinner at a restaurant before realizing that we were completely pooped and needed to go home and sleep before we fell under at the dinner table.
 
Friday – “Notre Dame isn’t pronounced Noter-Dayme”
 
We woke up bright and early on Friday, ready to hit the streets (and subways) to go see the Notre Dame, Pompidou Centre and do a little shopping. Notre Dame was first on the list and although we were trudging through rain, it was nice enough to be able to walk through the old city, cross the river and just gawk at different buildings that were so pretty, and even through we had no idea what they were, they were important enough to us. As we got to the cathedral we were able to get some photos of Katie & her Olympics mittens in front and then watched and little Quasimodo’s shelled out some serious cash to climb the towers and ring the bells for everyone. We toured the interior, saw a little more French mass, and even saw my very first nun! Yes, I realize that the Mount still has tons of nuns, but (a) they hide away, and (b) they don’t wear the get up. Anyways, so saw the nuns, gasped a little and went on our marry little way.
 
After the Notre Dame, the weather brightened up a little and we managed to trot around and visit some shops as we headed towards the Pompidou Centre, a museum of architectural art… it was pretty much a piece of art itself! The exterior is pretty much scaffolding, pipes and tubes, but works in a way that you can almost imagine a little metal ball rolling around through tubes and raising platforms like in the game of mousetrap. Oh, mousetrap. Why couldn’t life always refer to that imagination-busting board game?
 
Anyways, we got to the Pompidou Centre and saw that the line was pretty much 300+ people, so we decided to not bother. Instead, we rummaged through the touristy shops, got some coffee and roamed around some more before heading back to buy some cheap food at the supermarket for supper and nap before going out on a pub crawl in the red-light district.
 
The pub crawl was funny enough; all of the 13 others out with us were from Paris, and although they spoke English and were really fun to hang out with, we were still constantly wondering why they were even on the pub crawl to begin with. We ended up being given one too many strawberry-flavoured shots and pints at the four bars that we made it to before we decided that we just couldn’t function anymore and needed to go to bed. Not before crepes, singing in the street and running away from strangers, that is!
 
Saturday – “Wait a minute…from Sackville?”
 
The agenda for Saturday went as followed: Pere Lachaise Cemetery to see some famous graves, Bastille and then back to the Sacre Coeur area for a little more browsing before buying some supper at the super market and resting before the heading over to a Canadian Bar, the Moose, for some awful Moosehead Beer, Poutine and the Superbowl!
 
We made it to the cemetary early enough to roam the huge maze that it is for Jim Morrison’s grave. At first we tried to just b-line for it and then go see everything else, but we ended up getting lost in the mass of graves and after we finally found it we were too tired and hungry to even go searching for Chopin or Oscar Wilde (who were on the other side of the cemetery, anyways). We eventually found our way out and headed over to the Bastille, or what’s there now.
 
Funny Story. We didn’t realize that it was destroyed in the 17th Century. To us, the tower was still there and Marie Antoinette’s body was probably rotting inside. Yes, we were a little uneducated. We didn’t realise that it didn’t exist until we came up from teh subway and saw a monument instead of a tower. Shucks. T’was a pretty monument, though!
 
After heading home, doing the regular baguette supper, and resting again, we headed down to the Moose for some good ol’fashioned Canadian hospitality. The night was full of hilarity, some surprises and too much fun for my little body to handle. First off, we arrived, grabbed a Moosehead (apparently they didn’t realize that it is absolutely nobody’s drink of choice) and watched the remainder of the Penguins vs. Capitals game. Yes, they were playing hockey. Yes, they were playing the penguin’s game. Yes, I was excited. Anyways, they lost. So, we grabbed two empty seats at the bar and got ready to eat some poutine and drink a few more beers while we watched football highlights and waited for the game to start. I started talking to the guy next to us who ended up being from Vancouver. At some point I asked him whether or not he was from Van City or the outskirts, he smirked and I said that I tell people that I’m from Halifax but I live on the outskirts, and he said, “Oh, like Sackville, right?” We’ll golly gee. My jaw must have hit the bar because I turned around to Katie and was like, “Listen to THIS”. Turns out that his brother just moved to Sackville from BC! How on earth would someone who even knows of Sackville be sitting next to me in a bar in PARIS? Of all places? I almost died.
 
Anyways! We stayed until the end of the half time show and I was able to pinpoint that the Who look more like a group of Philosophers than a rock band. We left the bar around 2:30am and started heading towards the river in hopes that the busses in the city centre would be easy enough to find. That, however, was not the case. We were both tired, a little tipsy, and terrified of walking around Paris in the middle of the night, which made finding the right bus to get on almost impossible. We finally jumped on one bus to ask them how to get to our area and then bus stop that he told us to go to ended up sending us further South of the city. Drat. That bus driver was nice enough though to explain to us what bus to get and what stop to go to to finally get back home. After two bus rides, about an hour and a half of walking, we finally strolled through the doors of our hostel at about 5am, exhausted and ready to sleep. So much of going to the Louvre early, we needed to crash.
 
 
Sunday – “To Louvre, or Not to Louvre”
 
Katie and I woke up too late for breakfast on Monday, but ended up somehow snagging two fresh croissants each from the kitchen for breaky. We dragged ourselves to the Metro station and headed down towards the Louvre through quite possibly the LONGEST metro connection of LIFE.
 
I was a little dumb-struck when I saw the inverted triangle hanging from the ceiling of the entrance hall, and even more so when I realised how HUGE the museum is. We made sure that the first thing that we did was b-line for the Mona Lisa, then do our rounds of everything else major that we wanted to see. The line up went Egyptian artefacts, Greek artefacts and statues, a PLETHORA of paintings, medieval times stuff and then finally the history of the Louvre. We got to see TONS of really neat things like the Venus de Milo, statues and artefacts that were over 5000 years old, two Vermeer paintings (swoon!) and lots of other really interesting paintings and statues.
 
I think that the most mind-boggling thing about being in the Louvre was, aside from the extremely elaborate architecture of the building itself, that the items displayed were so old and intricate and have gone through so much history themselves that I can’t even wrap my head around it. I saw spear heads that were over 6000 years old… they existed before Jesus, before the Acropolious, before any of our ridiculous wars and even the founding of the North American contenent. Maybe I’m just a sap, but I just find that all so extremely overwhelming. Our history as a whole is something that won’t ever stop fascinating me and something that I definitely look forward to learning as much as I can about.
 
I left the Louvre feeling full of art and toting a gift for my mother and a poster of my favourite painting, the Girl with the Pearl Earring, which is now hanging in my room and staring at me when I try to sleep : ) After taking photos with the Pyramids outside we decided to head back to the hostel to grab some supper, then off to the Eiffel Tower for our last-night-in-Paris hoorah.
 
The Eiffel Tower was just as wondrous as I thought it would be. It didn’t hit us that we were standing in front of the Eiffel Tower until we were there for about 45 minutes. We didn’t go up the tower for two reasons; (1) The view from Sacre Coeur was so magnificent that we didn’t want to try to trump that. (2) We have seen the image of the Eiffel Tower our whole life and known it as a specific shape, and didn’t want to go all the way to the top of it and alter our perception of the structure. So, we walked around the tower for near to an hour and a half, while avoiding both the jingle men (hagglers who try to see you crappy Eiffel Tower paraphernalia) and the armed guards with machine guns patrolling the area around the tower, before heading back to the hostel to sleep.
 
We caught the plane after only a slight hiccup with our Metro tickets and made our way back to Cork safely and soundly. The amount of time we took for our trip I think was ideal, 5 days was the perfect amount of time to see the city with the places that we wanted to go and things that we wanted to see. Enough time to feel ready to go home at the end, but also reeling for the moment that you can go back.
 
Next stop is Milan in March, where Katie and I will be eagerly taking part in the biggest and best chocolate festival in this part of the world, if not THE world. Then I’m off to Dublin to have Paddy’s Day with Celeste & Kristen and then K & I are travelling around the country for the rest of the month!
 
It’s going to be an interesting month, to say the least! I’m sure I’ll have some stories – regardless!!
 
 
Until then,
 
S

02.07.10

Paris, encore!

Posted in Life, Random, Travel tagged , , , , , , at 3:14 pm by sarahhill

There is definitely something about this city. Katie and I can’t walk around the different neighborhoods for more than 5 minutes without gushing about how we would LOVE to live here. Everything is just so…french. It’s actually very hard to explain, but I love this city for a few different reasons:

(1) The architecture and history of the city bash you over the head at every turn. We’d wander for hours just looking at the buildings and the wrought iron window grates and it just makes you feel like you’re in a book or Disney movie or something. Plus, the amount of history behind every brick of these buildings, or the cobble stone streets is just astounding.

(2) The french are nothing like their stereotypes; at least in my experience. Everyone that we’ve met so far has been nothing but pleasant and friendly, and the amount of times that someone has bumped into me, then looked directly back at me with an, “ah, pardone!” is definitely refreshing!

(3) It’s so huge, but so accessible at the same time. You could never see the entire city, but you’ll still spend all of your time trying. At the same time, the different districts and neighborhoods are so distinctively different that it’s an exciting surprise to see what the city will look like when you emerge from each Metro stop. Some areas are littered with old stone palaces and courtyards while others are bustling shopping streets with vespas zooming down the cobble stone roads while pedestrians fight to get from point a to point b. I love not knowing what to expect, and having my expectations trashed when I do.

(4) The food. Oh, good golly the food. From the fresh baguettes and cheese to the delicious pastries and macaroons, Id stay just for the food. There is actually nothing that id like ,ore than to eat french bread for the rest of my life… I bet no one could do the Atkins diet here. Its really just a tad depressing when you think about how unoriginal and bland the Irish food is, and now I’m mocked and taunted with delicious french cuisine… its not fair! On our first night here Katie and I went out to dinner and i had quit possibly the most delicious meat Ive ever tasted; duck covered in this spicy brown sauce with roasted red peppers on the side… delicious. I want to bring it all home with me.

(5) Its actually pretty affordable here. Before we left, Katie and I were both warned by various people that Paris is so expensive and will gouge our pockets, but really that hasn’t been the case at all. We had a delicious baguette sandwich that we made and a bottle of wine for dinner last night and it cost us probably 4€ all together. Its cheap just so long as your not eating out everywhere you go. The difference between buying food here and buying the exact same thing in Cork is also painful and makes me never want to go back. But, alas, our time must come!

 

I`ll recap the rest of the trip once I’m back home, but just so you know, its been an incredible trip thus far. The past couple of days have been filled with loopy subway riders, discovering streets specific to random things like wigs and cheese graters, and a pub crawl where we were given one too many free shots. Stay tuned for the full details : ) 

 

Until then!

 

S

02.06.10

J`adore Paris!

Posted in Life, Random, Travel tagged , , , , at 9:08 am by sarahhill

Ive been in Paris for less than 24 hours and I am already in love. The streets are aancient and the people are beautiful and I never want to leave. I`d like to continue using my broken french to get around and shooing off men in the red light district. This is fun.

Yesterday, Katie and I arrived in Paris around 2pm and immediately began roaming around the city. Once we found our hostel and dropped off our belongings, we set off to sight see for the rest of the day.  We climbed a beautiful hill to get to the Sacré Coeur Cathedral where we watched some street dancers and I got to see my very first nuns : ) Next was the somewhat disappointing Moulin Rouge which was really just a modern looking pinwheel in the middle of the red light district, and then we grabbed a two hour long, absolutely delicious, dinner at a very french restaurant.

After that, even though it was only 8 o’clock, we headed back to the hostel to sleep, we were zonked. I cant wait for today though! Were heading over to the Pompidou Centre and Notre Dame and Le Jardin du Luxembourg. I just want to roam around the city and get lost in everything french.. and maybe acquire an Eiffel Tower souvenir or two!

Too much blogging and not enough sight seeing. Im off to be a tourist!

 

S

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