Climbing ALL the cliffs!
Kissing the Stone!
‘Twas the night before port and all through the ship, visions of shamrocks danced through our heads.
I don’t think I could have possibly been more excited for Ireland than I was. I had already been trying to figure out how and when I was going to go back before I even left the first time. I’m not sure what it was about the country- the people, the countryside, the culture, or a mix of everything- but something about it just felt right…I felt like I belonged. I absolutely fell in love. And I was so beyond happy to be going back again. I had such high hopes for this port, and, as expected, it lived up to everything.
Our first day was incredible. I was BURSTING with excitement (literally jumping up and down). Me, Dani, Kait, one of Kait’s friends, Emily, Ashley, Shari, and their friend Matt all headed out to Howth Head for a day of hiking. Howth is one of the islands off the coast of Ireland that is just south of Dublin. There are four different trails you can take that vary in length and take you around the coastline and then cut back up through the middle of the island. We decided we wanted to be out there for the whole day, so we started on the longest trail- a full 10km. The trails start off together by heading up to the cliffs and follow them around. Our group quickly split up so we could all go at the pace we wanted. I was glad that we did because almost immediately, we veered off the path to explore the cliffs. Dani, Ashley, Emily and I went off on other beaten paths, climbed some of the cliffs, and just sat and looked out over the ocean. We had so much fun and it was so beautiful. The flowers were just nearing the end of their season, so there was still so much color in the fields that really popped from the green landscape. It still continues to amaze me just how colorful this country is. We eventually started back on the path, but made MANY stops along the way. There were wild blackberries growing in bushes along the path that we stopped to pick, and we explored a few beaches we stumbled upon along the way, spending so much time looking for shells and seaglass. We were supposed to meet up with the other group at 3:30, but we didn’t finish our hike until closer to 5:30. We had hoped they decided to just leave since we were late, and fortunately they weren’t there when we did get to the meeting point. So, we decided to wander around the town for a bit and go to dinner along the dock. We found a market that sold some gluten-free goods, so Ashley and I got pasta and fudge. We then found a restaurant called the Brass Monkey. We looked at the menu outside, and the entire menu marked which items were gluten-free! It was a little more money than we usually like to pay, but my friends felt so bad that we never eat at places I can actually eat at that we just went for it. And it was amazing. I had incredible seafood chowder that came with gluten-free bread!! I also had BBQ shortribs that were quite good. I spent way more money than I had hoped to for dinner, but it was one of the most delicious meals I’ve had since leaving home. Between the huge meal and the exhausting hike, we were struggling to stay awake on the train. We didn’t want to go out, but we also didn’t want to miss having a drink on our first night in Ireland either. So, before we got to the ship, showered, and got settled, we decided to just stay out while we still had some energy left in us. Fortunately, there was a bar right next to the train station that was open, so we headed straight there. During my last time here, I fell in love with this one particular local cider, and unlike other English ciders, I’ve never been able to find it in the U.S. I was SO looking forward to having it again in Ireland, and I FINALLY got it! It was just as good as I remembered! It was the perfect end to a great day.
The second day was the beginning of one of the best trips I’ve had on this voyage so far. Dani and I decided that we wanted to try hitchhiking to Cork with Jillian. We had a rough start in the morning, however, and nothing went to plan. By the time we figured out where to go and how to get there to even START hitchhiking, it was already late morning. We went to the bus station to check out whether we could take one as a back up plan, and we discovered we could get them for very cheap. Dani and I not only wanted to hitchhike, but we also wanted to actually see Cork and Blarney, so we decided it would be a good idea to just take a bus up. Jillian ended up deciding not to come and headed out on her own. Dani and I caught the next bus, and three hours later, we were in Cork!! When we pulled into the station, we saw that there was a bus leaving for Blarney almost immediately, so we hopped on!
Blarney is your quintessential small Irish town…the little we walked through was so cute. As with every other place, I really wish we had more time to spend there than we did! We made our way to Blarney Castle and it was absolutely beautiful. The layout was a little different than I expected (although I don’t really know what EXACTLY I expected either). There is one steep and winding staircase that leads you up through the different rooms of the castle to the top, where the Blarney Stone rests. Kissing the stone blesses the kisser with the gift of eloquence. In years past, visitors just bent over backwards across a gap between the inner and outer walls to kiss the stone that lies on the opposite wall. Now, however, there is a man there who helps you lean over, and there are bars on the outer wall that you grab to support yourself as well. It was so much fun!! We were even allowed to take pictures because no one else was there (usually you have to buy the pictures that they take themselves). Unfortunately, because we got such a later start that we had hoped, we didn’t get to Blarney until about an hour and a half before the castle grounds closed, so we only had about 45 minutes left to explore. We headed over to the “Poison Garden”, which is home to dozens of weeds and plants that are either poisonous or detrimental to your health. It was so interesting! They had everything from poison ivy, to wolfsbane, to marijuana. While we were walking around, we met an older couple from New Zealand who told us all about the holiday they were taking. They were nearing the end of it and had been to nearly ten countries already!! It was so great to talk to them…they were SO sweet! I had mentioned that I couldn’t wait to go to New Zealand and Australia, and they gave me their e-mail address so I could let them know when I finally make it out there so I can stay with them!! They host travelers all the time and live in an absolutely beautiful area, so it is a great connection to have. We still had so much more that we wanted to see, but there was no way we could spare any more of our following day.
We bid adieu to the castle and made our way back into town for dinner at a pub we passed. It was another gluten-free friendly establishment! I was able to have pot roast with vegetables, mashed potatoes, AND gravy (with a side of STRONG Irish coffee!). It was AMAZING. After dinner, we headed back out on the road.
I had a contact in Ireland who offered to let us stay with him for the night. He told us to meet him at a pub called An Spailpin Fanac. The inside of the pub was what you would imagine if you were told to think of a typical Irish pub. It was a bunch of locals drinking beer and listening to trad music. We found Peter and joined him and his two friends. They had a front row seat to the sessiun going on, and it was one of the most fun nights I’ve ever had out. The Bulmers was cheap and the music was amazing. There was one guy in particular who was like a real life Gerard Butler from P.S. I Love You. He was GORGEOUS and had an absolutely beautiful voice. He sang one song I fell in love with, although I haven’t had any time on the Internet to look it up. Once I get home, I need to spend time and download every Irish trad song ever made- I absolutely love it all! We were there until the bartender had to physically kick us out…no one was even drinking anymore, they just wanted to listen to the band play. When she wouldn’t let them play any more songs, they continued it out on the streets. We wanted to go so badly (especially since some of the band members had actually talked to us and wanted to get to know us), but Peter and his friends were ready to go to bed.
The next morning, we woke up to coffee and breakfast that Peter made and we all ate together before we went our separate ways. He lived on the outskirts of downtown, so we had about a twenty-minute walk to get where we wanted to go. We spent the remainder of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon exploring a few of the sights within Cork that we wanted to see. We wanted to make sure we got back to Dublin in time to go on a pub-crawl that night, so we took a fairly early bus back. We were so exhausted, though, that by the time we got back, I decided to take a nap instead of heading out early. We did end up going out, but it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. Between my last time in Dublin and the night we had the previous night, I expected to have an amazing time. ESPECIALLY since Dublin won the big hurling match that afternoon. Because it was such a big night of celebration, however, most bars weren’t letting people under 21 in. We finally found a place that everyone could get into, and it seemed like it would be okay. The drinks were exorbitantly priced, though (especially in comparison to what we were paying last night), and there weren’t a lot of people our age there. On the bright side, I don’t think I would have had energy to have a crazy night out, so it ended up being okay.
The last day I spent showing Dani around Dublin. We were going to go on the tour, but I had already done it and we didn’t have time to do that AND get internet before we had to make Eddie time. Instead, I brought her to all my favorite spots from the tour. We also got to do things I didn’t have time to do my last time there, such as going inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, going to a service in Christ Church Cathedral, and have a mini picnic lunch in St. Stephen’s Green. It was great seeing Dublin again, especially since it was so warm (my last time there was FREEZING!).
I couldn’t have asked for a better time in Ireland. Our night out in Dublin wasn’t ideal, but few things will compare to my first time there. Hiking Howth was amazing and Cork was such a crazy adventure. My love for Ireland just continues to grow, and I’m even more determined than ever to make sure I spend some time living there.
Belgium and France were the first countries where overland travel (meaning traveling between countries off the ship) was allowed. My friend Sam and I decided that we really wanted to spend a day touring Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery, so we registered ourselves as overland travelers. Our first few hours in Antwerp consisted figuring out how to we were going to get there. I finally found that we needed to take a train from Antwerp to Brussels, a bus from Brussels to Paris, a train from Paris to Bayeux, a bus from Bayeux to Omaha Beach and back, then a train to Caen and a bus to Le Havre. It was going to be quite the trek, but we both wanted to do the D-Day beaches and memorials more than anything, so we made the decision to do whatever it took to get there.
The rest of our day was spent wandering around Antwerp. The two best things we found were a hidden medieval street and an amazing little café called The Chocolate Box. We HAD to make a pit stop there to try the necessary Belgian chocolate. We all got Bailey’s hot chocolate. They give you the hot milk and the Baileys in a glass and a bowl of chocolate chips for you to stir in yourself so you can make it as chocolatey as you want. You then got to munch on the remaining chips and they gave you two complimentary truffles as well! It was some of the most amazing chocolate I’ve ever had. I was going to buy some to bring home, but I fully acknowledged that there was no way it would last all the way back to the States…sorry Mom and friends! I met up with a few friends that night and we ventured out to go find chocolate wine that was rumored to exist…we tried every bar we saw but everyone told us that no such thing exists. Instead, we got delicious Belgian chocolate liquor, which certainly helped ease the pain of that realization! I absolutely loved Antwerp, but despite the limited amount of time I had there, I felt like we had seen enough for this trip. I was definitely ready for the rest of our adventure to begin!
We decided to spend a half-day in Brussels the next day since that’s where our train was leaving. NewEurope offers a tour in Brussels, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, it was raining for a majority of the day, which didn’t make the most pleasant of tours. I was interested in learning about the history, but overall I didn’t particularly love Brussels. I thought it was pretty and interesting, but I liked Antwerp more. The tour ended just in time for us to walk to the bus station, use the bathroom and get some snacks in preparation for the four-hour bus ride we had ahead of us.
We left about an hour and forty-five minutes in between the arrival of our bus and the departure of our train. Between leaving late and traffic, however, our bus ended up being close to two hours late. After sprinting through the bus and metro stations to get to the train station, we got to there at 2052...our train was at 2045. We missed it by seven minutes. Panic started to settle in. We had planned to couchsurf in Bayeux, and had nowhere to stay in Paris. I sent out a mass CouchSurfing request to the Paris area, but since it was close to 9pm, no one responded. I checked hostels, and everything affordable was booked. Our backup plan was to sleep in the train station, but the station closed around 1am. I called my mom crying on FaceTime, but the wonder woman that she is was able to find us a hotel that was three minutes walking from the station at a fairly decent price. Even from thousands of miles away, she’s always there to save the day! We got the hotel were told how lucky we were…the receptionist’s boss had just come and told him to lower the price. The average night at this place cost 450 euro! After we got settled, Sam and I decided to go out into the city to make the most of the couple hours we had in Paris. We had both been to Paris before, so we were in agreement that there was only one thing to do: buy a bottle of wine, a block of cheese and head to the Eiffel Tower. It was just as perfect as the first time I saw it! What had started off as an extremely stressful situation ended up turning out wonderfully…there are definitely worse places to be stranded than Paris! Even though the Metro closed earlier than we anticipated, we had a gorgeous walk back. It was a warm night, and all the monuments were still lit. We saw the Tower, Pont Alexandre, the Palace, the Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and the Madeleine. What was even cooler was that once it hit 1am, we saw everything turn off, one after the other. It was amazing.
The next morning, we caught the earliest train to Bayeux (which fortunately we didn’t have to pay more money for). Unfortunately, there were only a limited number of buses running going out to Omaha that day, so we had a few hours to kill before the next one left. I couldn't imagine a more perfect place than Bayeux to have some extra time in, though. It was the most quintessential French town I’ve ever seen! There was a giant, gorgeous cathedral in the center of town that we spent a lot of time exploring. I actually wish we had more time to spend in Bayeux! We were both very excited to finally get on our way to the cemetery, though…especially after all we went through to get there!
As soon as we stepped onto the cemetery grounds, I instantly knew that everything we dealt with was worth it…I would have absolutely regretted not doing this. It was an extremely solemn and peaceful place, and I can’t possibly envision a more beautiful spot to be buried. You walk onto the grounds and all you see is ocean and thousands of white marble crosses against the greenest grass. It was astounding. We started off by making our way down to the beach. It was so hard to think that a place so incredible could have such a gruesome and devastating history. A few minutes after we got down there, a priest arrived. Amongst the dozen or so people who were exploring, he stood there in silence, praying. It was a very moving moment to witness. The hill down to the beach had stairs built into it in order to make the trek up and down easier for visitors. We made our way back up the hill and I was struggling. I was carrying my heavy backpack with both of our things, up the steep hill, and I didn’t think I would make it. About halfway up, however, I realized something. These stairs were built into the hill when the cemetery was built…meaning, the soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day had to climb the hill through sand and grass with packs heavier than mine, guns, and trying to avoid being killed. This realization quickly humbled me and stopped my mental complaining. If they could do that in conditions much worse than my own, I could make it up the rest of the stairs. After making it up to the top again, we started wandering around the cemetery.
We made our way down the rows of crosses to the tomb of the unknown solider that stood in memorial of the soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around thousands of white marble crosses. We looked for soldiers from our home states, or those with last names we knew. In many cases, graves were marked with crosses that read, “Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms, known but to God”. Those stones mark the graves of soldiers whose bodies WERE recovered but couldn’t be identified. I felt a lot like I did at the concentration camp- it was very hard to process the feelings that the site brought on. Towards the end of our visit, we sat down on a bench to give our backs a rest. We were still carrying around our trash from the lunch we had on the bus, which drew the attention of the cemetery director. He assumed that we had been eating on the grounds, which is strictly prohibited. We explained the situation to him, and he understood and took the trash from us. Before he left, however, he turned to me and asked, “Are you Lauren?” I was incredibly creeped out and confused! He then told me that he saw me on Couchsurfing, but he didn’t see the request until it was too late. We spent the next ten minutes telling him (Alan) about our travels and learning a little bit about him. He asked us how we were getting back to Le Havre that night and we told him about our bus and train situation. When we told him that we were taking a bus back to town that would get in at 17:08 and a train from Bayeux that was leaving at 17:12, he told us that there was no way we were going to make it. He then told us to meet him at the visitor center in about ten minutes and he would see what he could do. When we made our way to the center and met up with him, he told us that he checked with all his tour guides and with his schedule to see whether he or anyone could give us a ride back. When that didn’t work, he checked to see how far Le Havre was and considered driving all the way back. He then told us that he ensured that we would make it back in time via bus…apparently he talked to the bus driver to make sure it was a safe call. Alan then took our bag and drove us to the bus stop. He walked us up to the bus, talked to the driver and handed us our bag. We were all set to go! We got on the bus, and it even left several minutes early! Sam and I started talking and we were sure that he convinced the driver to take care of us. He was so incredibly nice! I really wish we could have stayed with him…he lives on the cemetery grounds and must be so knowledgeable about everything! It would have been the most incredibly interesting experience.
We got to the station just in time for the earlier train to leave, which meant we got to Caen early and had time to get dinner. I had an omelet and fries and after several days of living on chips, cheese, and salad, and it was the most delicious of meals! We finally made it to Le Havre…and in one piece!! After the events of the past couple of days, we were more than ready for a good nights sleep and passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
The next morning, we met back up with the ship as it was docking to leave on a field program going to Mont Saint Michel. When we got to the docks, they were still in the process of lowering the gangway, so we went into the reception building to hang out until they were ready for us. I was so incredibly excited for this field program…I had been waiting for the opportunity to make it there since I first saw a pin about it during my first semester abroad. It was going to be an amazing day!! I tried so hard to stay awake during the drive there so I could see and hear about everything, but I was so tired from the previous days’ traveling that I couldn’t fight off sleep. I woke up just in time to hear the tour guide point our attention to the right hand side for our first glimpse of Mont Saint-Michel. We were still miles away, but it was already everything I had imagined it to be. Three hours after we left the ship, we were finally there. Walking into the walled town was like walking into a fairytale…it felt as though we were stepping back in time into an enchanted medieval world. Our program included a guided tour, which definitely made a huge difference in my experience. Even though I could have explored the abbey on my own for hours, I wouldn’t have known what anything was. Mont Saint-Michel is something I’ve never studied, so it was all new information for me, and I was absolutely fascinated. It was so cool, and unbelievably beautiful. After the tour, we had some free time to get lunch and explore on our own. I found a bunch of little nooks and crannies to venture into, and then we grabbed a light lunch and I picked up a bottle of cider to try (I heard cider in northern France is just amazing…and it was). We met back up with the group and walked down the causeway to the dam that the professor who was with us was going to talk to us about. The various things that people throughout the centuries have done to help with the tides was actually extremely detrimental to the environment around the Mont, and there’s currently a new initiative going to fix the previous damage. It was so cool! We finished the lecture, took some final pictures, and headed home. I was so tired that within twenty minutes of finishing dinner back at the ship, I was already asleep.
My final day in France was spent on a field lab for my Photography class. We were supposed to be doing a walking tour and photographing the city, but it was POURING all day. Walking around in the rain with extremely expensive cameras is not the best idea in the world. Fortunately, we were able to time our different locations so that we were inside during the worst of it. I was soaked the to bone, but my camera survived. We even ended up seeing some really cool things, getting some incredible pictures, and having an AMAZING lunch. It included two courses, and a third would only cost an extra four Euro…EVERTYTHING was gluten-free, so I went for it! For my first course, I had “Parmentier de hareng fume (smoked hering); for my second, I enjoyed “Poulet rôti frites” (chicken and fries); finally, for my dessert, I had the most delicious “Mousse au chocolat” I have ever had in my life. It was the best four Euro I’ve spent! The two coolest things we saw were the beach and one particular church. At the beach, I found more seaglass than I’ve ever seen in my life. Despite the wind, it was absolutely beautiful! The church was one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. The brochure I picked up read, “St Joseph Church: An aesthetic and spiritual vertigo.” All I could think about while I was walking around inside was how I felt like it was going to take off to enter back into orbit at any second because it looked so much like the inside of a spaceship. I was very concerned about what the day was going to be like at the start of the lab, but it ended up being a pretty decent day! I was certainly happy to be back on our warm ship and head to my most anticipated port: Ireland!
