the famed ireland-paris trip of summer 2001

my wonderful friend molly is going to ireland in a couple of days!
hooray for molly! in celebration of this, i decided to dig out my
old journal entries from when i went to ireland and post them on this
here blog. i've edited them a bit, in the spots that i think were
just plain stupid, but this is more or less the straight dope. i
began the trip in new york city:


26 july '01, 7:06 pm, new york city (queens)
so new york is quite a bit cooler than i expected. there's a whole
crapload of people, but they're all from different backgrounds,
despite all being new yorkers. maybe it's just my state of mind, but
they all seem pretty unhappy, very unlike san franciscans. mary
seems to like it, though. (she's washing dishes and singing along
with "get your kicks on route 66" right now.) mary & nate's
apartment is the basement of a house in queens - the house is about
the size of mom's house on cass st. there are so many
different cultures just in this city, it's crazy. mary says she
likes getting to talk to all the different people, working for delta.
so mary took me on a tour of manhattan - we saw times square,
broadway, central park, and macy's (macy's has neat wooden
escalators). oh, and we went up in the empire state building. that
was cool, to see new york (or a part of it, anyway) from above -
there are so many freakin' people here, it's crazy. and central park
was really beautiful. we sat on some huge rocks by the lake in the
middle of all these trees, and just talked about stuff.
now i'm tired. hopefully, i'll keep writing when i get to dublin...

29 july '01, 3pm, dublin
i wake up in a park in the middle of dublin. anyway, after not
getting on the flight on friday night, we make it on saturday. nate
in first class, and me in coach next to another buddy-pass flyer, a
former monk and current public school teacher. jet lag is just
another way to describe lack of sleep, and navigation is luckily
nate's strong suit, since it isn't mine in my current mental state.
we've been wandering about, napping under a huge tree in the park,
and checking out some of the architecture and people. some of the
locals seem pretty friendly, others look like you wouldn't want to
mess with them. our hostelmates are a young couple from rome who are
just now passing out - they just got in. the hostel seems neat &
clean, and pretty cheap at 18 pounds/person/night. now it's off to
the guinness brewery.

5:56 pm. nate is a lightweight. i'm buzzed. is it me, or is
all the music in this town 80's hits? that is all.

later: no, it's not me. what's even worse than having a blast
from the past every time i walk by a radio is having one in the
middle of the night, courtesy of a crapload of drunk kids. what do
you expect from picking a room in the bar area of a city where the
average age is 25...
oh, yeah, and the guinness brewery is way cool. the bar at the end
of the tour (when the road disappears...) has a 340 degree view of
dublin, from about 11-12 stories up. very nice place to enjoy the
perfect pint.

30 july, 11:45 pm, kilkenny
spent all day driving the back roads from dublin to here (well, the
last 20 or so km were on "official" highway). whew! i'm glad i
downgraded the car to a little ford. although an audi tt
(convertible, of course) would have handled better - but that might
have scared nate even more. the back roads averaged about the width
of one lane on your standard state highway. and the folks who live
here take 'em at ungodly speeds, heedless of the massive front-end
loaders & other farm equipment (not to mention sheep!). but we
survived, save a grey hair on nate's head, or two.
kilkenny looks like it might be nice to live in. really old,
beautiful town, with a river and a castle or two and a big gothic
cathedral and lots of bars with great music and guinness and good
kilkenny porter and some cute irish lasses and generally friendly
folk. tomorrow, a daylight tour of the town, including the castle,
church tower, and maybe a shoe store.

1 august, 8:49 am, kinsale
the castle in kilkenny was fantastic. very old but very strong on
the outside, and decorated in victorian style on the inside. i want
one. we then climbed to the top of a tower outside the cathedral to
get a view of the town - kilkenny looked about 1/4 - 1/2 the size of
boulder proper. then it was back to the roads - dangerous irish
highways leading to dangerous irish byways, and eventually to
kinsale. we got a bite to eat, checked out the town - another
smallish place with narrow, shop-lined streets - and then i took a
nap, only to awaken at midnight. so i went back to sleep, until
about an hour ago.

1 august, 11:52 pm, killarney
sent off postcards to the ops crew & my roommates while in kinsale
last night. this morning, had a huge irish breakfast of ceral,
toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, black pudding, orange juice, and
coffee. then it was back to the road, headed to moher head,
ireland's most southwesterly point. the view was incredible, as was
the drive thence to killarney (accompanied by techno, of course).
killarney is filled with tourists, even more so than dublin, and it's
built for it - this place has the first actual hotels i recall
seeing. there's plenty of pubs, and they all seem to have music - we
listened to a fellow from riverdance in one bar, and there's a packed
house downstairs listening to another band. we did take advantage of
the carnival being in town, and took some turns on the bumper cars
and tilt-a-whirl. then it was out to the pubs to try - rather poorly
- to meet girls. but i just thought of girls back home. 'night.

2 august, 9:40 am, lahinch
more driving yesterday, this time to live, bright eyes, tori, nine
inch nails, and tool. first stop was torc waterfall, after a bit of
wandering about in the forest. climed around, got some cool
pictures, checked out some cute tourists, then back on the road. i
inadvertently took us on most of the kerry loop, which was very
beautiful. then it was up through limerick, past the dingle
peninsula, and out to this peninsula & the seaside town of lahinch,
with plenty of time to watch the sunset (and pasty irish folk
swimming in the frigid atlantic). i spent a good deal of time just
sitting by myself on the seawall, watching the sun go down. i got
in a bit of writing, finally, interrupted briefly by some school-age
girls who were hiding from some older girls. they got me to say some
words ("candy" being a favorite) so they could laugh at my american
accent, then took their dog and went home. there's a lot of young
people in this town - maybe it's the surfing. then it was off to the
pubs, where nate got drunk off of one glass of harp's, and i was
inspired to write more by my pint of guinness and the music. today,
the cliffs of moher and then back to dublin for my 6am flight
tomorrow.

4 august, 4:03 pm, paris
we headed straight for the cliffs of moher yesterday, after grabbing
some pastries and bananas in lahinch. the cliffs are an eyepopping
several hundred foot drop - overhanging in parts, including where
nate & i stood on the edge to look down - into either some rocks or
the atlantic. then there was a bunch of driving i can just vaguely
recall, along more very narrow roads with hedges or other vegetation
on both sides, sometimes so narrow that i or a would-be passing car
had to back up to let the other pass. but we arrived, eventually, at
these really nifty caves, which were our final sightseeing
destination. i think i'll get a map of ireland when i return so i
can figure out where i was. those little roads are confusing.
(aside: i now have the map, and i still don't know where we were.
end of aside.) anyway, we got a tour of this little cave (really
just a big crack in the hill with some million-year-old bear
hibernation beds in the front) from a cheeky fellow with a very
deadpan sense of humor. then it was back to the little roads, then
the big roads, and eventually to dublin, doing 95 in some spots. (we
did stop for lunch in a little town just before the caves - fish
cannelloni.) a bit more driving found us a hotel, then a lot more
driving got us back into downtown's temple bar area for a persian
dinner - one of the more flavorful entrees i had in ireland. we then
cleaned out (many fanta bottles) and returned the car, and i had one
last night of listening to nate's snoring - i probably shouldn't have
forgone a final guinness or two before bed. this morning, i didn't
hear my alarm, i think, as the first thing i remember hearing is nate
asking me when my flight was. i still had plenty of time to shower &
get on the shuttle to the airport, where they made me check my
(admittedly large - 15 kg, their limit was 8) backpack, silly
british. the plane to heathrow was late taking off - both in leaving
the gate and actually taking off, then had to hold over london, then
had to wait for some stairs, as the jetway was broken. the flight to
paris was uneventful, although i had to wait almost 45 minutes for my
bag. it took probably an hour and a half to get to the hotel, as the
shuttle stopped at 3 different terminals, picked up 7 more people,
and drove to the center of paris to drop them off. i did get a
lovely tour of the city, however, narrated by a canadian lady who was
showing her niece the city.

5 august, 10:23 pm, paris
i like paris. we decided to forgo barcelona, since the drive is on
the order of 1100 miles. hopefully i can get squeezed on a flight
from paris - it sounded kinda dubious. yesterday i spent some time
just sitting by the open window in our hotel, reading & writing.
then we went to the general area of the eiffel tower to find some
dinner, then walked along the seine for a bit. today, we got a new
hotel (slightly cleaner) after a late start, then went back to the
eiffel tower area. we took a tour of the sewer system, which hasn't
changed much since the 1800's, then went to the top of the eiffel
tower. the view was spectacular - paris is huge, old, and full of
trees. the people in paris seem very laid back, unless they're
arguing (i think). i could definitely live here if i spoke french.
now meagan's watching german mtv... tomorrow, shoe shopping, then a
walk around one of the characteristic neighborhoods.

6 august, 10:03 pm, paris
got another late start (though not as late as yesterday, as we got
more sleep during the night in this quieter neighborhood) - mom &
meagan seem to take forever to get ready, especially meagan. i had
us stop by the underground mall first, so meagan could help me find
some funky new shoes. then we walked around the jewish quarter,
stopping at the nifty picasso museum and the also-nifty jewish
museum. both museums were housed in cool chateaux with marble steps
and that sort of thing. after all that walking, mostly on very hard
stone floors, it was back to the hotel room to rest our feet and
watch more german mtv - with mom's inevitable commentary on the
overwhelming amount of sexuality on mtv. my brain is still too fried
from all this culture absorption to explain my views on that (if i
understand them myself...). then it was a bit of laundry in the
sink, then an alright dinner followed by crepes with nutella. i
almost want to wanter about to try and find a shop that sells
absinthe, but i don't know if they sell it in france.

7 august, 8:01 pm, paris
probably my last day in europe, and i have yet to find some presents
for people. i might do that in a minute, assuming shops aren't
closed (the food mart across the street just closed). meagan decided
to sleep in this morning (just as i might have at her age), so we
didn't get going until nearly noon. first stop (i think) was notre
dame, preceded by a bit of lunch in view of the cathedral and the
seine. i took some photos and debated lighting a votive for nana -
i'm still not sure why i didn't, something to do with not feeling
spiritual enough to do it. we then headed behind the cathedral,
through a park, to a beautiful underground memorial for the french
who were taken to concentration camps in wwii.

9:35 pm
after the memorial, we walked to the cathedral sainte-chapelle, which
was much smaller, more guarded, and had more intricate stained glass
than notre dame. we then headed to the samaritaine department store,
where we went to the 11th floor for a great panoramic view (only
slightly lessened by a bit of rain), then around the corner to the
enormous and beautiful luxembourg gardens. there was a little pond
with little sailboats, some music, and a nifty art exhibit with
really nifty wood collage. we then got some tex-mex food (really
bland), then came back to our hotel. i just got back from a walk; i
bought a (hopefully good) little bottle of wine for kari (aside:
it was very good wine. end of aside.), but couldn't find
anything for rachel or any absinthe. tomorrow, a long trip home
(hopefully starting tomorrow).

so there it is. what i didn't write at the time about the return
journey is that it involved sitting for hours and hours in a little
stuffy room in the charles de gaulle airport with all the other
standby passengers (including this huge kenyan family with tons and
tons of luggage and boxes), trying to keep myself entertained but
always listening for someone to call out my name in a french accent.
but i got the flight i wanted at the last possible moment, and dashed
what must have been across the entire airport to the gate just in
time to return to denver, via atlanta.

and, um, yeah, i took a lot of photos. but my web site is kinda
broken, because i'm too lazy to fix it. so, um, maybe i'll get it
fixed so molly can look at the photos from my trip.