Paris + Dublin (The Official Recap)

Happy Monday! And a happy day it is for two reasons. First, it's my birthday! (Holla!) And two, as I promised on Friday, today I'm going to tell you all about our recent trip to Europe. This is a long one, so find a comfy chair and refill your mug. It's picture time.

Hubsey and I were gone the week of Thanksgiving, which turned out to be a lovely time to go. It was chilly but not cold, Christmas decorations were up, and there were far fewer tourists than there would have been in the summer. I think that last part is the real thumbs-up of the situation because we barely had to wait in line for anything, even the Louvre.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

I have to tell you guys something right off the bat: French people are so nice. I'm really not sure why the negative stereotype of the Rude French Person exists, because that was totally not our experience. Maybe because we learned a few basic phrases before we left and attempted (in a very garbled way) to speak French? I'm guessing the effort had something to do with it. It was funny, though, because as soon as I'd get three words out of my mouth they'd answer in English. I only got to ask two people if they parlez-vous Anglais all week long. So that's another misconception about France: a lot of people speak at least some English. Not everyone does, obviously, but there were enough for us to easily get by.

The Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

The ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors. Totally understated.

The gardens at Versailles

Before I forget, let me tell you about the weird day we had at Versailles. We got there and went through the Grand Apartments first before sitting down to lunch in one of the restaurants on-site. We had just finished our dessert when the fire alarm went off, so we followed the servers down a back staircase and out a side door. The entire palace was evacuated, but no one made an announcement or gave any instructions. After about 10 minutes, we get the okay to go back in. We went to pay the check and I asked our waitress if all of that was a drill, kind of thinking it was because everybody was so calm. And she was like, "Uh no, there was just a little problem!"

Oh. Okay. Everyone around us was just carrying on like nothing happened, so we decided to go out to the gardens. Aaaaaand that's when we saw the group of soldiers walking toward the palace with their guns. Not the police. Soldiers. Think about how often you see the army walking around. (You don't.) It was extra strange because there were still a ton of tourists out there, doing tourist-y things, almost like you weren't supposed to notice the army stalking the perimeter. The soldiers wandered off and we didn't see them again, but it was really unnerving. We never did find out what the problem was.

The Louvre

The Louvre

But anyway! Everything else was just dandy. We were "only" there for five full days, which was obviously not enough time to see everything. We stuck to a lot of the major tourist attractions: the Louvre, Versailles, assorted cathedrals, etc. On our last full day I dragged Hubsey to the Paris Flea Market, which was AMAZING. I went into it expecting to buy a boatload of stuff, but I actually left with nothing for myself. There was a lot of furniture I wanted, but we're obviously not shipping stuff across an ocean. I found a great vintage dress, too, but there wasn't anywhere to try it on, and for how much it cost I wasn't willing to roll the dice. I still loved wandering around, though. If we ever end up in Paris again I'd go back fo' sho'.

Eiffel Tower - doesn't it almost look like a movie backdrop in this one?

Eiffel Tower

As for our accommodations, we loved the apartment we found. Instead of going the hotel route, we decided to look at AirBnb again like we had for San Francisco. I'll own it: I can be really cheap about some things, and I was getting all grumpy about having to pay $200 a night for a hotel (which isn't even that bad for Paris, but there you go). We found a teensy little studio, maybe 400 square feet, that was near the Bastille for only $75 a night. Boo ya! Hubsey ended up not being a fan of the futon we slept on, but I can pass out anywhere. It had a kitchenette and sweet, glorious wi-fi, so it ended up being a nice place to chill after a long day of walking.

The wee apartment.

Walking along the Seine

I would be remiss if I didn't show you any food! All of it was so good I don't think I have a favorite. Maybe pain au chocolate (which is a chocolate croissant--ohmygod). We did have literally the best hot dog of my life outside Notre Dame, though. It was on a baguette instead of a bun and the only topping was gruyere cheese... and then it was toasted. HEAVEN.

Foods!

We also spent a day in Dublin on the journey over. Thanks to our original connecting flight getting bumped, we suddenly had about 8 hours to spend in the Guinness homeland. We were really jetlagged that day because we underestimated how exhausting a red-eye is with that kind of time change, so there aren't a ton of great pictures from Ireland.

Guinness Storehouse

Trinity College

View from the Guinness Storehouse

If you'll pardon me being absolutely cliched for a second, it was the trip of a lifetime. So far, anyway. A lot of people never go to Europe and we're lucky that we got to. I think I'll be talking about this one for a while.

In closing, I'll tell you my favorite thing. The architecture! We have some lovely buildings on this side of the pond, but the US is too new of a country to have the old stuff. Actual gothic architecture, for example, literally does not exist in North America. It was exciting for me as a design student to have a real-life example of all the things I learned about but could only see on the internet. I'd go back just for the buildings.

Did you go on any big trips this year? Are any on the docket for 2014? What's your favorite place to visit? Has anyone else been to Paris or Dublin?