When in Rome...

One of the best weeks of my life happened in December 2007. My good friend Shane let me know that he would be in Europe for work, so I convinced him to take a week off so we could travel around a few places. We both wanted to see Rome the most, so we made plans for that and rest took shape over the next few weeks.

Shane flew into Dublin, check that…Shane was SUPPOSED to fly in to Dublin on a Thursday night. As it turned out a connecting flight was delayed and he missed his ride from London to Dublin. I didn’t find this out until I was already at the airport to meet him. For those of you who don’t live in Dublin, it’s a real pain in the ass to get to the airport, especially if you don’t have a car. My phone rang just as I stepped off the bus at the airport. It was Shane explaining what happened. So I went home. Annoyed.

The next day Shane managed to get to my apartment and I found him waiting in the courtyard when I got home from work. We had about enough time to change clothes and then we went out on the town. We walked around some of the highlights of Dublin, ate some food, and then met up with some friends of mine in Temple Bar, that part of town with a ton of pubs. We had a few drinks there, made a bit of a pub crawl, and ended up at one of my favorite spots called Café en Seine. There were a lot of corporate Christmas parties going on there and we had a blast. If you’ve heard my story about the time I “won an impromptu dance contest against a fat chick to Footloose,” this was the night that happened. (Maybe I’ll blog that later.)

We partied til about 3 and had a flight at 730. We’re idiots. But, hey, we made the flight.

Part of the thrill of the adventure was that we made very few plans. We had a plane ticket from Dublin to Rome and a room booked there for two nights. The next place we had to be was Baden-Baden, Germany 5 days later where we had another room booked as well as our flights home. Everything else in between was by the seat of our pants. We decided Venice would be nice, so as soon as we got to Rome we booked a train ticket to Venice two days later.

Rome overtook Paris as the coolest place on the planet that I have been to. We were lost as soon as we got off the train but we managed to find our hotel within an hour with only a few wrong turns. As soon as we checked in we found a restaurant and had what will go down as one of the best Italian meals of my life. It was here that we got our first taste of the gelato and we were immediately hooked on that for the rest of the trip. Rome became, essentially, us eating 5 meals a day and having gelato at every famous place in town. When we finished, we hopped on the subway to go to the Colosseum, which was not far from our hotel.

The Colosseum, like the Eiffel Tower the first time you see it, completely overwhelms you. It is absolutely enormous. It was getting late so we didn’t go in, but we walked around the outside and marveled at its scale and beauty. There is a lot to see in this area, so we walked around a bit, had another gelato, and headed home. The next morning, we went straight back to get inside. If you ever go, you will most likely be approached by an English speaking person offering you a tour for €20. It is well worth it, take it. That fee allows you to bypass the enormous line to get in and you get a tour guide who takes you through the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Overall it lasts about 2 hours and is extremely interesting. For the entire tour, Shane and I barely spoke. We were in awe the entire time. Something about being in a place that is 2,000 years old makes you realize that you don’t really have anything important to say. Plus, you can’t stop thinking and looking and taking pictures. Construction began on the Colosseum in the year 70AD. Think about that. That’s 37 years after JC walked the earth. Our tour guide was a very animated lady who told a few stories about the gladiators and the way things went in the arena. After that she turned us over to a man who took us through Palatine Hill and showed us the Roman Forum.

Palatine Hill is one of the Seven Hills of Rome and used to be a palace for the emperors. One side overlooks the Roman Forum (more on that later) and the other side overlooks Circus Maximus, famous for the chariot races. It was big enough to have an Equestrian arena inside. It was difficult to get a grasp of exactly how big it used to be since most of it is in ruins, but the guide was able to describe it pretty well. It sounded like it would have been as luxurious, if not more so, than any mega mansion built today.

The Roman Forum was the town center of ancient Rome, sort of like a Main Street in a small town is now. There were many temples and markets, even a prison. Like most of Rome, it is in ruins, but there is plenty left standing to put you in awe again.

From there, we walked through this part of town a bit more. It seems like everywhere you look there is something interesting to look at, some old and some new. We had a meal and of course some gelato. We eventually made our way over Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps which are both worth a look. As we were walking around in that area we wandered into a cathedral where a choir was singing Christmas carols in Italian. They were VERY good. It was a great setting for Christmas carols. After that we sat at a nice Italian place for a few hours drinking wine after our dinner.

Now backtrack a little bit. Our first night in town, which was Saturday night, we decided to check out the nightlife. My guidebook had reviews of some hotspots, so we decided to go to the most recommended one. The nightclub was wild. The center of the dance floor was occupied by men in drag that looked like professional wrestlers. Drinks where a whopping €15 a piece but it only took two to give us enough courage to dance with the non-cross-dressing crowd. It was a fun night. We met some interesting people and ended up staggering home pretty late after unsuccessfully attempting to “borrow” a Vespa.

For our last day in Rome we decided to take the open top bus tour. I highly recommend these for any city you go to. They are well worth the money and you get to see everything with commentary. The main thing on our list was Vatican City. Unfortunately, we got there too late for the Sistine Chapel. If you go, get there before noon (grr.) We were able to go into St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the burial site of St. Peter, who was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. Much of it was designed by Michelangelo and the thing I found most interesting was a marble sculpture by Michelangelo called Pieta, which shows Mary holding Jesus’ body after the crucifixion. He was very young when he completed it, and many people suggested that it was the work of someone else, that no man so young could create it. When he heard this, Michelangelo went back to the sculpture and carved his name into the sash that Mary wore. It is the only thing he ever put his name on, and he later regretted it.

Once we were done at the Vatican, we finished the bus tour and it was time to head to the train station to go to Venice, which I’ll cover in the next blog. (Cliffhanger: we almost get arrested!)

Paris is en Seine

I didn’t really make it out of Dublin until November, and my first trip was to Paris. My good pal Julie was going to be there so I went to meet up with her. She had lived there for a few months once so it was nice to have a pseudo tour guide. Travel is cheap here so my round trip ticket was €40 (~$60).

Part of the reason it was so cheap, I later found out, was because Ryanair doesn’t exactly fly into the local airport. They fly to a "nearby" airport. In this case I was an hour and a half away from Paris. I did not know all this until well after I landed. I guess I was expecting to get off the plane at the base of the Eiffel Tower with a welcome committee made of French supermodels handing out berets and cappuccinos or something magical like that. I mean, it IS Paris. Back to real life: When I got off the plane and onto the runway (because there was no terminal, we literally went down a ladder and onto the tarmac) all I could see was open skies and farmland. I immediately panicked a tiny bit but continued to follow the rest of the sheep into the airport. I was thinking "maybe there is more than one Paris in Europe (there are a few in the USA after all) and I flew into the wrong one. The smaller one in the middle of nowhere that is famous for its...open plains and tall grass?" Keep in mind everyone else was speaking French. I'm familiar with the bread but a little sketchy with the language. I saw a bus and figured "what the hell, might as well check out Other Paris" and bought a ticket. 1.5 hours later the Eiffel Tower appeared and I was able to breathe again.

I had a few hours to kill before Julie arrived at the hotel so I decided to wander around. I was near the subway so I went for the map. At first glance, the Paris subway system looks like a small child’s first attempt at tying his shoes: a complicated twisty jumble. Once you take it a few places it becomes clearer. I’d say I stood there for about 40 minutes the first time. 20 minutes to figure out where I was on the map and another 20 to figure out how to get to the Eiffel Tower.

Eventually I made it there and I was not disappointed. When you first see the Eiffel Tower, you walk around the corner and all the sudden it is there, bearing down on you, this behemoth of steel and rivets. It was 10x bigger than I imagined. It will leave you speechless for a second and you will walk about 100 feet with your head tilted back and your mouth open. Careful not to bump into people. **Side note: if a woman approached you and asks if you speak English, either say nothing or say no in a French accent. They are beggars and if they find out you speak English they will not leave you alone.** The line for the elevator to the top was short and the ticket was surprisingly cheap. (€11.50 to go all the way to the top.) The elevator is wild. It goes up one of the legs, so the track is at an angle but the car stays upright. The first level is not far up and has a souvenir shop, museum, restaurant, and post office. It’s neat to send a post card from here because the post mark says Eiffel Tower. Level two is another observation deck and from here you take the elevator straight to the top. The top is where you realize, again, how big this tower is. There is an observation deck with diagrams that show you what you are looking at, and you can go up a few more steps to the outside deck. Even if you are afraid of heights you have to do this. In the daytime you can see every famous thing in Paris and at night the lights are spectacular.

I was there for a little over an hour and then had to head back to meet Julie. The hotel room had only one key, which you are supposed to leave at the desk when you leave. (oops. I wondered why the key chain was so big…) When I got there, I found Julie waiting in the lobby with her luggage, where she had been for 45 minutes (oops again.), slightly annoyed, very tired, and excited to see me. (Either that or just excited to be in Paris. We’ll say it was a bit of both.) It was still fairly early so we went for some dinner at a little café and straight back to the Eiffel Tower. It’s that neat, I didn’t mind going right back. It’s especially amazing at night with all the lights. They sparkle for about 10 minutes every hour on the hour.

The next day was mostly museums. The Louvre holds some of the most famous works of art and artifacts in the world and I was quite excited to see some of it. Like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre is about 10x bigger than I expected. There is a nice park leading up to it with many trees and ponds and even some artwork outside. There is an arch here that lines up with the Arc de Triomphe and the Modern Arch which is downtown. All three of these are perfectly aligned and point right at the Louvre. The outside of the building is a work of art in itself. Every wall, every window sill, every brick is ornate. The entrance to the museum is through the big glass pyramid. This along with the smaller pyramid and the inverse pyramid were added recently, to the dismay of many Parisians who feel that it an eyesore on an otherwise beautiful landmark. I’ll admit it does look a bit out of place, but nonetheless it is very cool to look at, especially the inverted one that is directly under the smaller one outside. Go past the gift shops inside to see this one. Once we were inside we got a map and chose the high points we wanted to hit. We saw the Mona Lisa, which was behind bullet proof glass and you couldn’t go within 10 feet of it. It was quite smaller than I imagined. The other major attraction was the Venus de Milo. In between we saw countless other paintings, statues, jewels, and artifacts. You could spend a week there and not see it all. We were there about 4 hours.

Next we went across the Seine to Musee D’Orsay. The building used to be an old train station and the architecture alone is worth looking at. Inside they had tons of statues as well as paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt. We also walked through a neat exhibit on photography, most of it very old.

From there, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s about a 15 minute walk through the Louvre Park and down the Champs-Elysees. Napoleon had the Arc built and it is inscribed with the names of French generals and the battles they fought. Each of the four pillars has a sculpture on the outside that depicts a battle scene. I thought these were the coolest part. You can go all way to the top by way of a spiral staircase. The view from the top is well worth it, especially around sunset. You can see for miles and take in almost every monument or building in Paris.
My other favorite attraction was Notre Dame Cathedral. I could sit outside and look at this building all day long. Every square inch is intricate, and it was built in the 1100s. It is still a functioning church but tourists are let in, you can even go up in the bell towers (which I did not do on this trip because I couldn’t find it, but I did the next time I was in Paris with my ma. I highly recommend it.) There are enormous stained glass windows on all four sides. I became obsessed with the gargoyles, especially the ones on the bell towers. I took a lot of pictures of those.

Those are the highlights of the trip. In between all that I managed to eat some amazing food (crepes!) and drink some great wine, ride a Ferris Wheel, walk past Moulin Rouge and about a hundred sex shops, go inside the Pantheon, shop, get lost, and make my way back to the bus to take me back to my airport on the other side of France. Paris is now one of my favorite cities. How could it not be?

Holy crap I live in Ireland

Most of the locals say "why in the world did you come here?" like there is nothing to see or do here. But, to a guy who has lived in the open plains of Kansas in a town of 1,000 people, the barren desert of Texas in a town of 100 people, and a dirty gutter but medium sized city in Oklahoma, it has more culture and fanfare on one bus ride than the first 24 years of my life put together. (I will say that I spent a few years in Oklahoma City and it is a great town that I will always be fond of.) The main thing they mention is the weather, and I wont lie, its not great. It never really gets above 75F in the summer, and it rains. Alot. The conditions outside change frequently and without warning. I've seen every weather type you can think of, all in one day. You can look out your window and see that it is raining, so you put on your jacket and grab your umbrella but by the time you get outside there isnt a cloud in the sky. You can never be too prepared for the weather here. In general, it stinks. Once you are over the weather and you learn to be prepared for anything, you should just get over it. You know it will never be hot, you WILL need a jacket, and be prepared to get wet.

<--The Famous Temple Bar area: I've never been there but I hear people drink beers there from time to time. ;)

After you have the weather part figured out, get ready to drink. Everything in Ireland happens, or at least starts out, in the pub. There are countless pubs and they are always occupied. Everyone has a "local," which is simply the pub nearest their home that they go to the most. There is a local to work, which is the pub closest to your work that you often go to with coworkers. Any planned or unplanned occassion starts off with "meet me in ____ pub for a swifty and then we'll head off." As few dates as I've been on here, they all started in pubs. You go to the pub after work, for sporting events, for no reason at all, even after funerals and weddings, etc. I've yet to find an occassion when it wasnt appropriate to go to the pub, and you'll never be unable to find at least one person to go have a beer with you. Despite all this, alcoholism and drunk driving are rare.

<---Grafton Street: one of the main shopping areas in the City Centre.

Be prepared to shell out the Euros. Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe and ranks pretty high worldwide as well. A pint of Guiness is about €5. A decent meal at a restaurant will be between €20 and €50, and they can easily go higher than that. One thing that helps with this is that tipping is not necessary. Although it is appreciated, it is not expected. You can go a full bus route for €2 but they are rarely on time, usually crowded, smelly, and on weekends they are full of loud teenagers. That being said, I take the bus everywhere. Traffic is terrible most of the time. Cab rides can get expensive but cut the travel time in half. They are the only way to get home after a night on the town. There is also a train service called the Dart that runs along the coast that is relatively cheap. It doesnt work for every trip but is a great option when it crosses your path.

Never: try to talk with an Irish accent, mention leprechauns, Riverdance, leave a drop in the pint glass, ask for a "ride" (say lift), look a pikey in the eye.

That's a good lead in to another interesting aspect of Irish culture: pikeys. Also known as knackers, tinkers, or travellers, they are essentially Irish white trash. They live wherever they feel like parking their campers, which is often in a really conspicuous and annoying place. I've seen them lined up in the grass inside a roundabout. When I first moved here there was a pack of them set up on a narrow patch of grass along a construction site, inches away from the road. They are vandals and thieves for the most part. If they cant steal it, they break it. Entire neighborhoods can be completely turned upside down by their presence. They light campfires on the sidewalk! I am a pretty big guy, but there is no doubt in my mind that a 1o year old pikey could whip me in no time. Their main source of income is squatting on a piece of land until someone finally pays them to leave. (Unfortunately, they arent hiring at the moment.) If you happen to see them, which is inlikely, avoid them.

That's basically all you need to know to survive. It's a very pleasant place to live with plenty of good people. There are neat things to see and fun things to do. I hope you get the chance to visit.

Bloggy blog

I created this profile ages ago and this is the first entry, inspired by Big Sis. Thanks Big Sis! It will be mostly a travel journal so I will try to back track as much as I can and catch you up on what you've missed. I will occassionally rant and rave about things of this world that I dont understand (women), and for that I apologize. I promise not to go political or religious, but most of all I promise to make this blog extra bloggy. Enjoy.

PS here is a funny picture of me in a too small bicycle helmet for you to laugh at.