Ireland and final wrap :)

I have spent the last few days in Ireland, which to be honest, is probably my favourite country so far. Unfortunately I wouldn't say it is my favourite food, favourite weather or favourite stuff to do, simply the people here are so warm, generous, welcoming and friendly that I have absolutely fallen in love with this place. You can do all the corny tourist things here and the local people LOVE you for it. It's wonderful.

We spent the first night drinking beer and watching Irish dancing and listening to Irish music. There was a guy who looked just like Russell Brand who played flute like a wizard!

Unfortunately I had one too many beers (make that about 3 too many) because I decided, in true Australian fashion, to finish my night with a Kebab.

I woke up at about 6am and spent the rest of day either in bed, or intimately acquainting myself with the toilet at the hostel!

Luckily I was well again yesterday, and we went on a huge adventure to the West Coast of Ireland, checking out the Cliffs of Mohar and the city of Galway. Here are some pictures!

This is me fleeing from Vikings in Dublin!

 

This is the oldest pub in Ireland, founded in 1190-something.

 

This is a castle in Ireland. Funnily enough it was built in the 16th century. The savvy ones amongst you might notice that the architecture is Norman. Yes. 11th/12th century Norman tower-house. In 16th century Ireland. As you do.

 

This is the Burren. The landscape here is covered in limestone rocks, this is what you can see on the mountain! The lines across the mountain are fences built during the potato famine. They serve no purpose at all, landlords ordered peasants to built them because there was nothing else to do and it would keep them busy. 

 

The buildings you can vaguely see here are called "the Seven Churches." They date from nearly 1,800 years ago, during the period of Christianisation in Ireland.  The reason they are called the "Seven" Churches is not because there are seven of them, but because Seven is a significant number in Irish paganism.

 

The Cliffs of Mohar.

 

Pretty Thistles.

 

This is a 5,000 year old tomb.

 

Finally, this is the Dublin Post Office which was the scene of the 1916 Post Office Rebellion in Ireland.

And this of course, brings my trip to an end! I am currently in Dublin Airport, surrounded by screaming Spanish children who seem to be on some kind of school trip. 

So, I arrive back in Australia on Saturday, I leave Dublin in a few hours, head back to London, then back to Hong Kong and then finally, back to Sydney. So, what have I learned?

1. Hostels are awesome places, if you have had enough sleep. If you are tired, your patience with everyone expires and you see them all as filthy, smelly, snotty backpackers only to realise with horror that you are one of them. Of course, if you are not tired, you see them as intrepid, path-blazing lifestyle travelers, full of interesting stories and like to think of yourself as one of those too.

2. People drink a lot in Ireland and hardly anything in France.

3. Toilets cost money in Europe. And often are such bad quality that, really, someone should pay you. 

4. I also finally feel that I understand the Australian pysche. Its like, a lot of Irish people were sent to Australia with English people to guard them, which, is, kinda what happened.

5. Australia is a very very different place from America. Very, very, very different. People who talk about rampant Americanisation (I used to be one of them) need to chiiiiillll. 

6. And on a final, horrifically mushy note, travelling has shown me that really, you should just be yourself and not try to change yourself to make other people happy. Having spent the past 2 months with people who don't know me from a bar of soap, I have finally come to the conclusion that if you be yourself, people will usually like you and if they don't, you probably don't like them!

Thanks for reading little blog - I hope it has been roughly interesting. 

:) :) :) 

Sara x

Conquering London

I am now in Dublin, so this post is slightly after the fact. However, London was amazing. I am just devastated I didn't get to spent more time (i.e. the next five years) there.

After so long in France, London felt just like home. If someone told me that this was the eight (and largest, richest and busiest state in Australia, I would believe you. The way the English welcome you is very different from the French.

France: Australie? Trop loin! Trop trop loin! (Tooo long!!!)

England: Oh, Australia. He's from Australia too. (Points to everyone else in the room.)

Highlights of my very (too) short trip to London were visiting the tower of London and the spots where Anne Boleyn, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell breathed their last, eating Indian on Brick Lane, going on Katherine and Sara's unofficial cider pub crawl and discovering Aspell's Suffock Cyder and finally meeting a bunch of awesome awesome fellow travellers and having a bunch of strange, awesome and funny conversations with all of them.

Here are some pictures which as you will see don't necessarily represent everything I am claiming to have done.

 

Kings Cross Station. Like every other Tourist, I did the obligatory sweep for platform 9 and 3/4. No luck.

 

Mackie and I at the Tower of London. As you can see I am sporting my new glasses (which French lady said I need to wear all the time, but I think she has given me the wrong script!) and also my pasty pregnancy.

 

2nd Century Roman Wall. And Trajan.

 

The Bell Tower, where Thomas More was imprisoned.

 

The Queen's House. This was built as a wedding present for Anne Boleyn, but she was killed before it was finished. Awkward. Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's 5th wife) was imprisoned here!

 

White Tower. Built by William the Conqueror when he arrived in London.

 

This is the memorial to the six people who were given the honour of a private execution inside the Tower. They are: Anne Boleyn, Lady Salisbury (Margaret Pole), Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn (Rochester), Jane Grey and her husband.

 

Graffiti inside one of the cells. The top right hand corner says: Lancaster Herald. Epic!

 

Okay. Nice armor. Look between the legs. No prizes for guessing who this belonged to. 

Henry VIII.

 

This is the Tower Bridge.

 

Tasteless, yet amusing pub name on the site of the old scaffold on Tower Hill.

 

The memorial on the spot where Cromwell, More and as you can see many many others lost their lives.

France in a day according to Sara

I thought that as a tribute to my France journey, I would make my last blog post on continental Europe a quick wrap of the most notable parts of France - according to me.

1. Real vespers. With real French people on them. 

 

2. Bookshops, with snobby philosophical names. Not to mention bookshops being called libraries and libraries being called bibliotheques.

 

3. Beautiful romantic spots....and no one to be romantic with!

 

4. French couples getting rather too romantic. Right next to you. 

 

5. Everyone, and I mean everyone, being a political hack during the election period.

 

6. The Metro.

 

7. Crazy crazy Paris traffic.

 

8. Eating raspberries out of a little box.

 

9. Really, really, really pretty streets.

And now I am in London. Tomorrow I shall update you all about how that is faring.

The Museum of Jewish Art and History and back in Paris

This is my second last day in La France. I cannot believe it.

I am in my hotel room now, enjoying to the sounds (and smells) of Paris.

Today was spent traveling for the most part, the train from Caen to Paris took two hours, although I was lucky to be able to nab a ticket exchange to get on a direct train. This was a substantial relief because my many impulsive book purchases have meant that my bag is now heavier than I am (this may be an exaggeration) and every time I lift it I have to use all the strength in my body.

When I got to Paris I headed back to Le Marais in the 3rd Arrondisment because I wanted felafel. Last time we were here, I wanted felafel, but Dad was being a spoil sport and mentioned something about not coming to France to eat felafel. Three hours of wandering around, one raspberry icecream, one "pistachio delight," a mojito and one nutella crepe later, I STILL had not found the elusive Jewish quarter and it's tasty tasty felafel. By this stage, it was already late afternoon, and I figured my felafel peeps had probably shut up shop for Shabbat. RAGE. The moral of this story is when you find something tasty in Paris, eat it. If not, you may never find it again. The other potential moral of this story is that the Jewish quarter of Paris is like Diagon Alley...or even the room of requirement. Sometimes it's there...sometimes it's not!

I was able to find the Paris Jewish Museum, so it wasn't a total loss.

The Museum, which contains historical artifacts from Jewish communities in Europe and in India/Arabia was pretty impressive. Unfortunately photos are not allowed, so I will have to just tell you about the Siddurs from the 13th century, the actual writings of Theodore Herzl and the awesome garment displays of crazy costumes from 17th century India.

 

This however is a picture of the building the Museum is housed in. 

And this, dear friends, is a picture of one of the many, many, many, many wig stores which surround my hotel. I just had to put it in here. Nothing will remind me of France more than a wig store!

 

And tomorrow, last day in France! Oh my golly-gosh. I'll be spending the day exploring Paris, followed by a quick train across the English Chanel and then, voila! London. I have been warned in advance that the hostel doesn't have internet, so you might have to await my next post for a little longer than normal. 

 

William the Conqueror and the irony of "English Spoken Here"

Greetings blogfriends!

Today I journeyed via train from Caen to Bayeux, a little town just 15 minutes away which is also known as "Tourist-topia." Seriously, more tourists than Paris. SO. MANY. TOURISTS.

They are there, I can only assume, to see the D-Day beaches. However, there were more than enough of them at the Tapestry as well, which is the reason I went to Bayeux.

Okay, so let's start at the beginning.

Bayeux is home to, among other things, the Bayeux Tapestry an 11th Century masterpiece measuring nearly 70 metres. It depicts William the Conqueror's conquest of England. Legend has it his wife Mathilda completed, although most historians now believe it was commissioned to adorn the Cathedral at Bayeux.

Unfortunately, you are not able to take pictures of the tapestry, but I did take some photos of the exhibit, and a few other pretty things in and around Bayeux.

So here begins, Edition Two: William the Conqueror Journey through Normandy.

 

Cute little house with a view of the Cathedral in the background.

 

The Cathedral. 

 

Inside the Cathedral.

 

Here's a picture of Thomas a'Beckett being murdered. Thomas was one of the chief advisors of Henry II who made him Archbishop of Canterbury. However, after becoming Archbishop, Henry's fast friend became a bit more religious than he had hoped, notably taking the Pope's side in a big stoush they were having. After a screaming match with Henry, Thomas fled to France and stayed briefly in Bayeux and celebrated a Mass in this very Cathedral!

He was murdered by Henry's knights after Henry declared in a fit of rage upon hearing about a'Beckett's exploits abroad "will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest!" The knights snuck out after hearing that, and did what Henry asked. Henry was stricken with guilt for the rest of his life, and claimed he never wanted anyone to take him seriously (that time!).

 

If you can't see it, the sign says: English Spoken. 

This amuses me greatly. The Norman conquest brought French to England, and it took another four hundred years before the English Monarchs were speaking English again. Now, come to Bayeux and see most important document of the Conquest, and have your Norman waiter speak in English to you! 

 

This is a far more sophisticated version of the same amusing irony. This monument, outside the British War Cemetery at Bayeux declares, in Latin: 

WE WHO WILLIAM ONCE CONQUERED HAVE SET THE CONQUEROR'S HOMELAND FREE.

 

The war cemetery was chilling.  I am very glad I went. It really does just give you a new appreciation for the scope of the conflict and just how much was lost in human life and potential.

 

These are images of the tapestry from the exhibit upstairs. 

 

Norman Warrior. He was about four feet high. I could have taken him! (If I had a spear, or you know, could belly flop him). 

 

Itsy bitsy mail for an itsy bitsy warrior.

 

Romanticised painting of Queen Mathilda embroidering the Bayeux Tapestry.

 

And on that note, back in Caen, here is her Abbey. It was founded at the same time and for the same reason as William's Abbey, which I visited yesterday.

 

Here is her tomb. It's the original.

 

These banners, which hang around her tomb depict women from the bible and saints. I think it is really nice that the church have used her tomb to make a shrine to women who led before their time. 

Tomorrow, heading back to Paris at midday. Second last day in France! London, here we come!