I wrote this on the plane between Dublin and Atlanta today. Now I'm sitting on the couch in the main floor living room of the house we rent in Seattle. I'm here.
written at 1646 (my body's time) over the Atlantic 21 Aug
I just woke up to a snack of Haagen Dazs ice cream on my little trans-Atlantic flight and realized that I've lived the past 10 days in a blur of activity - none of which I've shared with the world. So this will end up being a very long blog entry probably - who knows - since I'm writing on a flight and where do I have to go? My battery's full and there's a really old episode of Alias on the inflight tv channel.
So, hrmm - what do I have to say? Well, there's France - you heard most of the things I wanted to write about the Riviera, but there's always Paris. And then there's my "last week in Ireland" and all the mumbo jumbo that involves.
France:
I amazingly didn't miss my train from the Riviera to Paris or anything of the sort (grrr to the man in front of me who decided just now to lean back in his seat). Instead I arrived in Paris to find that my hotel was the cutest thing known to mankind. It was a little narrow "building" (more like a row house) just a few blocks away from St Germain (thus perfectly situated) with decor reminiscent of medieval times - including a coat of arms in the foyer. My room itself had a closet which was converted into a bathroom, a bed that was much larger than the room should hold and thus it was easier to walk across the bed than around it, a fake armoire and ceiling beams. Fantastic quiet street and beyond what I'd hoped for. I wandered to a cafe and a wine bar Monday night doing nothing special - just reading, writing and basking in Paris and a good glass of wine (or two).
Tuesday I attempted to go to the Louvre but having not read my little guide book carefully enough, I didn't realize that the Louvre was closed, so I saw the glass pyramids (they fascinated me - forgive me if you look at my photos) and then started to head towards Notre Dame only to find myself having to.... SIT DOWN... when a friend of mine from Dublin decided he was going to take an impromptu vacation and join me in Paris since it would work out for him. A visitor was more than welcome on this trip as honestly, I was getting rather lonely. In reality, I'll never do a trip that long alone again - it was hard to keep going at times. So that invigorated me to no end knowing that he was going to try to arrive Thursday morning and we'd have the weekend to explore as 2 people, which is vastly different than exploring as 1 person. So Tuesday flew by in a whir of walking walking walking and texting and seeing beautiful stained glass windows in St Chapelle and Notre Dame (the free tour in Notre Dame was wonderful!) and visiting the Conciergerie and enjoying some good ol' Parisian cafes. I also managed to eat a few crepes, some glace, have some wine and go shopping in the Latin Quarter that day before feetsies had enough.
Wednesday did find me at the Louvre - this time successfully getting in. I liked the outside of the Louvre more than the inside - and that's just sad. I think that the Met has a much more easily navigated layout and just as good of artwork. Yes, I did see the Mona Lisa and all that stuff. I also happened to run into a student I taught AP Computer Science to my first year of teaching which was surreal to say the least!!! I was just sitting in a sculpture garden in the Louvre reading having pushed my way through the crowds to see the Venus D'Milo and I was ready for a break when this former-student walked up to me and said excuse me and I knew how I knew him right away - I just couldn't place his name. I still can't place his name, I just know that he was late to my class (and school since it was 1st period) more days than you can possibly fathom. Ridiculousness and what an odd moment. That evening I wandered and window shopped in St Germain, I walked through Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne and I sat in another Parisian cafe after having a glace that had a presentation to die for - the glace was nothing more than really really really good glace, but the presentation made it phenomenal. I then ended up doing my normal "dinner find" of going to a random cafe with a lot of people, and in line met a woman from CA who was also traveling in Paris alone (although she was unexpectedly alone) so we shared a table and after a delightful dinner we took a river cruise on the Seine which was really really pretty.
Thursday through a bit of well timed text messages and my thankfully good sense of direction and mental map, I managed to find my friend in the large city of Paris and we dropped off his stuff before beginning our wanders for the day. Our wanders took us to the Eiffel Tower where we had a picnic of crepes and then decided to "stare up the skirt" of the tower. He was indifferent about going to the top and I got scaredy-catted so I didn't make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Don't regret it though either. After some good lounging in the unlikely sun, we continued wandering to make our loop past the Arc de Triomph, down the Champs Elysees (with a stop for some coffee along the way) past the Louvre and some funny sculptures and then on for dinner in the Latin Quarter. Hours and hours later with a bottle of wine split between us, a lovely day had been had and no one was dead from traveling with Yvette.
Friday brought us to another wander in the opposite direction - first I was aiming for the island that doesn't have Notre Dame on it in the Seine, but we missed that and instead ate paninis on the banks of the Seine where they should've been having a raucous Paris a Plage but where it was far too cool to lounge about outside scantily clad. Then we hiked on - having the destination of the Picasso museum in mind. It was marvelous and I made more kissy faces at statues on the wall. Then off on another ramble to see that section of Paris, stop for coffee, walk past the Pompodou Center and just enjoy our time in Paris. Nothing really eventful, but more laughter and smiles than you can possibly count.
Saturday it was rainy. So after being lazy bums because of the rain (hey, it was a holiday after all!!! No need to rush around on a holiday when the point is to relax and enjoy!) we set off to wander I can't remember where. We ended up doing a lot of window shopping, Yvette did a lot of hopping on one leg (I bruised my knee by falling on a slipper step) so we were slow going and we collected edibles for a picnic that evening when we thought the rain had let up. Y'see, I was determined to get "a view of Paris" and since I didn't go up the Eiffel - Sacre Coer seemed like a must. A 4EUR bottle of wine (it was the only screw cap available), bread, brie, grapes and berries later, we were ready to head up the hill (after a quick stop for glace after all). We made it up to Sacre Coer after twisting and getting more lost in Paris than I'd previously been (who'd've thought it could be so hard to "go uphill") and with my body reminding me that I am very out of shape. The view was amazing except there were so many tourists you couldn't figure out where to put yourself. The sun was up, and I wanted to see the lights after dark so we sat down and drank our Orangina (being the lateral thinker I am, I wanted us to have non-clear repositories for our red wine so that we wouldn't get in trouble with the police or anyone should they come along. Apparently this makes me a "good lateral thinker").We had our lil' picnic and it started to sprinkle so we put up and umbrella and cowered under it with the food. 4EUR wine is as bad as it sounds. YUCK! But after the first can, it goes down pretty smooth... Trust me, this was unforgettable to the two of us on the steps!! I was staying remarkably dry so I wasn't worried about things, but my partner in crime claimed that he was acting as my "sanitary pad" (his words - I promise - too disturbing even after more and more wine). Apparently his rear was not so dry..... Tee hee! Somehow we managed to stay there and not get horribly wet till the last 15ish mins when our wine was gone - so we scurried down to the metro and went back to the hotel to get dry - and it was late anyways).
With a slow start on Sunday, we headed out to a leisurely lunch and then made our way to the airport oblivious to the recent changes in airport security for travelers due to the threats in the London area. We didn't run into anything other than ridiculously slow security that wasn't any different than normal (it was just the French!) so that was good. All good. And home to Dublin safe after what was a great trip - I got some good me-time in, I learned a lot about how I travel by myself, I had a fabulous time in Paris with my friend, I lounged on the beach, I saw what I wanted to see, and I went back to Dublin thoroughly relaxed and in shock of my imminent departure for the US only 8 days away.
My last week in Ireland:
My last week in Ireland flew by. I was oncall at work from 6am-6pm every day but Monday and I packed a lot into that time. I almost can't remember what. I worked only what was required (and in that time got mounds of work done - huh!), I laughed with my coworkers tons and tons, and I just had a good time. Went out for burgers to prove to an Irish bloke that you can eat any hamburger with your hands (after having seen him very politely cut his burger and chips and eat them with a fork a few weeks before). It was a challenge of sorts since these were massive burgers of odd shapes, and he wanted me to go for the one with chili on it. It all worked out for the best and that's what we ended up with. And I finished the entire burger eating with my hands without a single spot on me - much to his shock. Apparently this was a feat worth documentation from his point of view.
I also got some fish and chips to prove that the fish in the states is significantly better than that in Dublin, however, the chips are not.
I went on a final Irish pub crawl after my last day in the Dublin office (Friday). It was a much smaller gathering than I'd initially thought there would be, but all the people that I wanted were there with me - so that's what mattered. We went to a bunch of pubs and I got genuinely tipsy. We even went down the stairs and past the glass door at the pub I had the "unfortunate incidents" at. There wasn't too much embarrassment on anyone's part, but lots of drunkenness. And the night ended with some good ol' kebabs at a late night kebab house when pubs without late licenses were starting to close.
Saturday was a rainy day so I took that to mean it should be a lazy day. And yesterday I was treated to a trip to the Irish countryside which I saw far far far far far too little of during my sojourn to Ireland. That was amazing - so pretty - and somehow it was mostly sunny the entire day. The company was fantastic, the views were brilliant, and it was a great way to end my stay in Ireland. I then went back to my apartment and did a whirlwind of packing.
And this morning, through tears, I departed Dublin and am now flying to Atlanta.
I've been busy and my head's been a swirl of thoughts. I wish I weren't leaving Dublin. I was planning on living there for 6 months, so 4 not only feels still a bit like giving up, but it also feels like I just didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to do at an Yvette pace. Then there's the fact that I was finally finally finding my place in the world in Dublin - work's been great (and work not being great was the reason I'd been forced to decide to leave - grrrr to that), I've got friends, people ask me to "do stuff" and I'm still traveling a lot. I haven't had any complaints for my last month in Dublin.
Then again, I'm happy to return to my friends in the States. They'll all be different and some might not live in Seattle for much longer, but they're good people and I'm looking forward to hanging out with them again. I just need to train them to call me again now that I'll be back. I can't believe I'm going into the office tomorrow.
I know things I'll miss about Dublin. I know things I'm looking forward to about Seattle. I'm all torn up inside in some ways - but overall it'll work out. Life does what it's supposed to - I just have to kick it along sometimes. I'm wondering if I'm kicking it in the right direction at the moment.
Cheers ladies and gents!
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