What better way to spend Halloween than… traveling???Well, actually, once we got to the airport (K and I seem to have this amaaaazing luck with travel… our bus to the airport was… errr… delayed… and we thought we were going to miss our flight) and got through customs, I heaved a large sigh of relief… for several reasons… a. we made it, relatively unscathed… b. we were leaving Paris (no, there’s nothing wrong with Paris… I just was ready to leave… and I understand NO French… which was more than slightly annoying…) and c. I was going to a country where everyone spoke ENGLISH!!!! You honestly have no idea how starved K and I felt for a familiar sounding conversation… no, I don’t mean eavesdropping, I mean, not having to filter and translate constantly… I mean actually feeling like you belong somewhere!! Really, I love Italy, and traveling has been great, but knowing that I was going to Dublin kind of felt like going home…
Once we arrived in the Dublin airport, and lugged our huge bag onto the waiting bus, I felt better… I could zone out and actually understand the people around me… I didn’t worry about asking for directions, or making some gigantic cultural blunder… I just felt… at home!
Upon arriving at our hostel, K and I met up with M, who had arrived the day before… she was asleep on the couch… recovering from her first night in Ireland… definitely a good sign :-pThe three of us threw the big bag into the storage room, grabbed our stuff, cleaned up in the bathroom, and went to go get fooood!
Now, at this point, anything that was not over-salted airport food would have been a gourmet meal, but M took K and I to this great pub for some home-cooked Irish goodness… while we were eating, catching up, and planning our night, we saw out the window a rather straaaange sight… a parade of people dressed as oompa-loompas (at first I thought leprechauns, but realized, right country, wrong holiday)… apparently this was the Halloween Parade… no, it didn’t rival the Macy’s Day parade, but it did make me smile… though… with the amount of sleep I was running on the giggles were inevitable…
From there, we headed out into the streets of Dublin… to complete our costumes, and enjoy the city…
I felt like I was at home… walking through the streets of Cambridge… with the shops and cafés, restaurants and foot traffic… not to mention understanding the language…it was honestly the best feeling… the people were friendly, the atmosphere was just warm (despite the temperature) and comfortable… Having only been there few hours I had already decided Dublin was my favourite… and Halloween hadn’t yet begun!
Still having some time to kill, M, K, and I wandered back over near the hostel (Temple Bar area!!!) and found a little outdoor market selling all sorts of cakes, torts, cookies, and other wicked heavy goodies :-pClearly we needed dessert, so we each bout a piece of pie, sat down, and listened to a street cover band sing the Beatles… Yep.I love Ireland.
By the time we got back to the hostel, we took to settling in, taking quick naps, it was time for dinner… so we headed to a place M had already found, and had the one thing K and I had been craving for way too long… BAGELS!! Honestly, I don’t know what it is about Italians and their breakfasts, but bagels are an essential part of life… and should never be overlooked…
And then… back to the hostel, getting ready for the night…M, K, and I getting ready for anything is already ridiculous… three girls, one mirror, and way too much fun involving crazy makeup, costume adjustments, stick on nails, and a boot debacle… :) By the time we were finished it was time to meet up with M’s friends C and A… the five of us headed out into the streets for some bar hopping and Halloween craziness…
After trying my first Guinness, taking some group photos, and really getting into the Halloween spirit, we ended up spending the entire night in this one pub listening to this awesome live band, red kid.... several hours, bulmers, and songs later, we walked back in the pouring rain.... but not before stopping to get Chinese at possibly the only place open at (****) in the morning :)
good night.
Last day in Paris, and what haven’t we seen yet??? Notre Dame!! And more importantly??? THE OPERA!! Okay, so while I was a little overzealous about just sitting and staring at that building for hours on end, I realized that that was my own eccentricity that I had to suppress until we finished the more common touristy adventures… so? Off to Notre Dame! As K and I walked off the metro, a freezing gust of damp air nearly blew us over… reminding us we were a. not in Kansas, but b. we were most definitely in Paris in the pre-winter weather… it was COLD!!! So, arms linked walking along the river, we made our way to the massive cathedral I could only imagine from a Disney movie (everything relates to Disney… it’s a wonderful thing…)After taking a few token shots outside, we rushed into the warm sanctuary. While K took a look around, I found myself drawn in yet again to another holy place… I spent several minutes near the altar meditating… I’d say praying, but it was more contemplation than anything… I found myself in one of those places where you could literally feel the history around you, and it was overwhelming… After having breathed a sigh of serenity, I found K and began to take in the beauty of this massive place… the dim lighting from the candles, and soft music from the choir blended into the incense-laced air and created an intoxicating atmosphere… I don’t know if it was my body thawing from the cold, or the true spirituality of the place, but I was filled with a dizzying excitement, and could barely contain my joy… I think I may have stared at the figure of Joan of Arc for 15min… I’ve always felt tied to her story… for no reason other than it inspires me, and has stuck with for as long as I can remember… this place was amazing…Once we had had our fill of the inner cathedral, we forced ourselves to head back into the cold and join the crazy mass of people waiting to climb to the top… yep… K and I waited for over an hour in the cold to see the gargoyles up close :) and it was so worth it! Anyone who has ever seen Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame knows how awesome the gargoyles are… and seeing the real ones turned me into a 5 year old, giddy with excitement… not to mention the incredible view of Paris… through the freezing grey skies you could really hear the words of Victor Hugo, Gaston Leroux, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery…And then… to the opera… unfortunately for me (and probably fortunately for K) there were no tours running, so I couldn’t go and sit, and stare at the stage for hours on end… but, I did get to see it. And make the promise that I’d return for a different reason… for a more exciting reason… and actually step foot on the stage… next time… there will be a next time… And so, au revoir, pour l'instant Pari!
If I were to begin to try to explain how excited I was to go to the Louvre… I think it would take about as long to describe as it would to tour the whole museum… so, in consideration of the word ‘brief’ I’ll just give the reader’s digest version…
The Louvre is one of those places you always hear about but never imagine actually going to… at least for me it was… I’m still in somewhat of a state of shock… and no, I did not spend enough time there… after walking off the metro into the museum, I realized I could have spend my entire time in Paris within these walls, never having gotten bored (or hungry for that matter!)… Everything from the Venus de Milo to the Mona Lisa was literally within walking distance… I’d try narrate everything I saw, but honestly, this is one of those times where a picture is worth a thousand words, and I’ll let them speak for themselves :) And after such a spectacular day perusing the halls of that 'little French museum' K and I spent another night snapping shots of the Eiffel tower... before crashing into our beds, fully exhausted from trying to take it all in... who knew culture could be so exhausting?? :)
Me and my interruptions… so it’s taking far longer than I expected to upload all of those fall break pictures… I’m doing the best I can to provide an uninterrupted narrative of all of these crazy adventures, but realize that I’m somewhat lagging in the timeliness aspect…
I did, however, want to take the chance to describe a few events from my contemporary Florence class, and just how they’ve impacted me in the past few weeks…
So, you know that picture of Italy that you get when you close your eyes and make-believe that there is such a thing as perfection?Well, I think I’ve found it… it’s located in the section of Florence known as the Oltrarno… the other side of the Arno… it’s a world where time seems to stop, where nothing modern matters, only tradition and passion… it’s a world where you can forget every bit of modern struggle, and simply exist.
For my contemporary Florence class, E took K and I to several traditional businesses located in the Oltrarno district (specifically San Frediano)… we got to see people living their lives in a way that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years… the old world feel of the whole experience gave me goosebumps…
One of the most memorable moments of that class was our meeting with an old blacksmith… he wass short, jolly, course, and spoke with a thick Florentine accent (the Bostonian equivalent of someone who’s lived in Southie or Revere their entire lives) that neither K nor I could completely understand… what I did understand though, was his story… it wasn’t just an explanation of his job, but rather, who he is… because for him, the two are so intertwined the meanings have become inseparable.He’s a blacksmith by trade, who worked his way up from apprentice to master… he’s traveled all over the world for commissions and experience… he makes beautiful metal sculptures and rod-iron structures by hand… even his tools have the same aged course look as his face… underneath all of that soot and grease was an unmistakable sparkle that lit up his face… it was his love of life… when asked why he was creating a particular piece, he said because he wanted to… there was no commission… if someone bought it, wonderful… if not, well, he’d find it a good home somewhere in his own house… but he could not stress enough the importance of love in his work… he does things the traditional way, not because he couldn’t employ new technologies, but because this is who he is – he creates.We spent over an hour just sitting and listening to him speak about the good old days when people knew how to wait for art… now, his commissions are fewer and far between, because people want things done and delivered yesterday… and without any quirky imperfections… his pieces may not be cookie cutter perfect, but they all have the same sparkle shining in his eyes…
After some time, he invited K, E, and myself to take a break with him, and go get coffee… where he not only proceeded to buy us coffee and pizza, but further regaled us with stories of his youth (most often translated through E… that accent was even thicker the more animated he became…)
It’s these experiences that I’ll remember Italy by… not the museums, shops, and gifts, but the moments that leave a lasting impression… every now and again, all I can think of is how much I admire that little old blacksmith, and his passion… that’s who I want to be like… fifty and sixty years from now, I want to be living life with as much fervor and passion as that old Florentine…
Its moments like these that make me remember what’s really important… who knew all it took was crossing a river…
