Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 376

Hey all!! Sorry that it has been soooo long since I have written a proper blog, but the internet has been few and far between and extremely expensive so you will pretty much get all of my blogs when I make it back home and when I can match the photos up with it all... But even though I am now in the last 8 days of my tour I thought I would start back at the beginning since I keep getting emails asking me what has happened to the blogs!! On the first day of the tour we had our bags weighed and by some stroke of a miracle mine ended up coming under the 20kg limit and it is a good thing that they don't weigh carry on luggage as I am sure that ... read more

Finals finished up on Friday. It was two two-hour exams... nothing incredibly stressful. I was very happy to get the tests out of the way so that I could shift my complete attention to our european tour. After exams, I spend much of Friday afternoon simply getting things in order (packing, cleaning, trip planning, details, details, details, etc.). That night our group spent one last night together at the Molly Darvy's restaurant before we headed over to the Trinity Rooms club. Just drinking and dancing. It was funny... over the course of this trip we've made good friends with our bus driver, Paul (a former British soldier). He became especially close with Lisa from our group and he's actually bought a plane ticket and is heading over to the states (Nebraska and Kansas) in early September. ... read more

Things have been pretty fast paced since we left Limerick. We finished finals last friday and got really smashed to celebrate our mediocre performances. It made for a great last night and we ended up staying at the Trinity Rooms in city centre until they closed. It was great fun, but we had a terrible day of traveling saturday morning when we had to get up at eight because of it. Nonetheless, we made it to Paris. Though Nick and I really didn't feel right until we went to sleep that night. But before we did that, we managed to work in a few hours of strolling, climaxing with a night-time view of the Arc de Triomphe. The next morning, we woke up and decided we'd knock out the Eiffel Tower as a means to A) ... read more

Paris is a great city in many ways. In other ways it can be terrible. One of the ways in which Paris is absolutely horrific is its traffic. Observing this seemingly organized chaos from the sidewalk café can probably be exotic, interesting, and entertaining. Observing the Paris traffic from a moving vehicle for which you yourself are responsible for maneuvering is a completely different world. Paris may be the city of cities, but the traffic is pure jungle. Going into close combat with the Parisians on wheels is one of those adventures you will look back at laughing one day, a story to tell your grandchildren. However, when you are actually in the smack middle of it you are closer to tears or a mental breakdown. Having said that...The Paris weekend for us four Swedish out-of-towners ... read more

Well, I've made it to Europe safely - rather sick, but getting better! There has been so much to see and not even enough time to write about it so I am sorry to be putting some of you on hold. I will put some of my journals up some days from now, because I need time to catch up on my writing and then put it online. The sights have been phinomenol and we have seen so much. I am amazed that my trip is not even half over yet. I miss everyone and will have many funny stories to tell when I return. ... read more