Ah, the Salisbury News...

Well, we made it back to the good ol' US of A. Back to a normal Sunday night in Ocean City, MD. Just about all of the tourists are gone now so it is very quiet. When we left, it was shorts and tank top weather and now it is definitely hat and sweater weather. Our animals and family were very happy to see us and we were very happy to see them, too (and to have a loooong hot shower). We wish we could spend the holidays here and then turn back around and keep traveling!

Almost Home

So, we are very happy with our new hostel. We couldn't check out soon enough from our former hostel this morning and after a quick breakfast, headed over to Globetrotters. Well, it might as well have been the Hilton. The hostel is clean and quiet and in a great historic building - plus they serve a full Irish breakfast in the morning!! Wish we'd been here all along.



Other than that, we took it easy today. We walked around O'Connell Street and saw the General Post Office, did a little shopping, and listened to some Irish music at the Auld Dubliner. Fortunately, there was no rain today so we're not quite as soggy.

Tomorrow, our flight leaves at 11:10am and we get into Philly at 2:00pm. It is absolutely amazing that our trip is almost over - probably the quickest five weeks of our lives. Thanks for checking in with us during our travels. We've had a great experience and are looking forward to planning to the next big adventure! ;)

City Living

It is nice to be back in the city! We returned the rental car yesterday. The Avis rep was nice; she did not charge us for the missing hubcap. The city is fairly small and walkable which was good because we walked back to our hostel. The hostel was not quite what we were hoping for; it was really the only hostel misstep of the trip. Maybe we are just getting a little too old for the party atmosphere! :) .

Despite the accommodations, we are enjoying Dublin. The city does have a long history and we have a short amount of time here, so we are cramming a lot into our days. The day started with more wind and rain, so we headed to the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail for all you English speakers). While the jail was built in the late 1700s, it is famous for housing the 1916 Easter Rising leaders. Fourteen of those were executed in the yard where we stood today - see below.



Next, we were off to the more historic districts where we saw Christ's Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and City Hall. Steve's brain was tired from all of the culture, so we headed to his garden - St. Stephen's Green. It probably was not the nicest day for a stroll in the park, but Steve felt obligated to meet his people. He was sad when no one was there, so the ducks pretended to listen to him. After that, we walked along Grafton Street, over to Trinity College, and back through Temple Bar where we visited the National Photographic Archives.



A pretty good day all in all. Then we arrived back at our hostel. Our roommate was still sleeping from the night before and the rest of the people have a full day of alcohol in them. On the positive side, we did just see a wrestling match!

We will post tomorrow and let you know about our new hostel.

The End Is Near...

We are wrapping up our second night in Galway - only four nights left on our trip! :( Galway is a cute town with medieval, cobblestone streets, brightly painted houses, and lots and lots of traditional Irish pubs. There are also lots and lots of wool sweater stores. As you can see from the photo, we FINALLY got some hats and gloves so at least we will be warmer for our last few days. Galway is also interesting because it is in a section of Ireland that still speaks Gaelic.



Tomorrow morning, we head off to Dublin and return our little Nissan Micra. Hopefully, Avis does not charge us too many Euros for our missing hubcap - a casualty of the flat tire incident. We will be giving up the luxury of driving - which would not be bad at all except that Dublin is in the middle of a bus driver strike last we heard! We are excited for Dublin and hope the stores stay open a little later than 6pm which is what time they close here.



We'll post back soon.

Free Derry

Well, Steve is ready to move to Derry. After the fiasco with the tire, we arrived in Derry happy to park the car and get back to walking. That was a good thing because shortly after we arrived at our hostel - Derry Independent Hostel (which was excellent) - the owner sat down with us to go over a map of the area and point out some highlights. She showed us where the murals are in Derry and said that there are political walking tours that leave ever day at 2pm from the Free Derry Museum. Of course, we hurried of to get something eat - two big breakfast "frys" - and make it down in time.

Before the tour, we decided to visit the museum. The Free Derry museum tells the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland and the huge role that Derry has played as a centerpiece in the struggle for civil rights. It is a fantastic and deeply moving museum. After about an hour and a half inside, we departed on our walking tour.



In contrast from the neutral "Black Taxi" tour in Belfast, this tour is from a more Nationalist/Republican viewpoint which makes it very interesting. Our guide led us through the Bogside neighborhood - which is predominantly Catholic - and highlighted the many murals and monuments (such as the Bloody Sunday memorial - which occured in Derry) while recounting the area's tumultuous history.



Afterwards, we revisted the museum and spoke with the tour and museum guide while getting some more insight. Then we stopped by the infamous Bogside Inn for a cup of tea. The next day, we crossed the river into the Protestant area and visited some of the Loyalist murals as well.

After much debate (we loved Derry and were tempted to stay longer), we decided to leave Northern Ireland and head west, visiting Donegal and spending the night in Sligo. This morning we got up early and headed to Galway, where we are spending the next two nights.

On an interesting note, Steve seems to have discovered a new hobby on our trip as he is taking more and more of our photos! We'll post back shortly.



For More Info: www.museumoffreederry.org

Giant's Causeway & the Coast

The next morning, after stopping at Belfast Sinn Fein headquarters, we started our drive up the coast. Within fifteen minutes we were at a seaport town Carrickfergus, home of Carrickfergus Castle. It seemed like every few minutes we were both amazed by the the scenery around us. It is easy to see why the Causeway Coast is one of the best driving routes in the world. The rain was pretty good to us; it would stop every so often for our pictures. The other wonderful thing was that the rain and sun were working nicely together. We saw at least eight rainbows in two hours, including the beginning and the end of one rainbow. We stopped several times along the way, dodging the wind and rain long enough to grab some quick photos. It is definitely time for us to get a hat and sweater.



We then stopped at Glenariff Park. The road to the park is in the middle of a glen, which gave us wonderful views of the valley and waterfalls flowing down the cliffs. Through the town, Cushendun, we took several roads that are very narrow and that trucks and buses are not allowed. We arrived at the Carrick-a-rede Bridge and again, due to the wind advisory in the area, it was closed. Giant's Causeway was a few miles down the road, but we arrived shortly. The wind was blowing into us and walking down the hill was literally like walking through a wind tunnel. Kelly almost decided to stay in the car because of the frigid weather. Luckily, she decided to stick it out because the Causeway itself was incredible, especially the small, brown bubbles that blow everywhere. We are not sure why the bubbles are brown, but we suspect some Guinness has something to do with it. We hung around as long as we could before making the trek back to the warmth of the car. As we reached the steep hill that leads to the car, we looked at each other, and though that we did not want to climb the large hill. The wind helped us here. We never went up a hill as fast as we did on this day. We were almost flying!



So far, the day was absolutely wonderful! We were in great moods, looking forward to some tea, coffee, and food. Then, all of the day's rainbows disappeared and several minutes later, Steve was outside in the twilight rain, changing a flat tire! Kelly hit a curb on the passenger side. The tire had a gash on the side, which meant trying to get a new tire. The only problem was that we were in the middle of nowhere!! We put the spare on, drove to our hostel in Downhill (which was amazing and right on the beach - see below) and tried to figure out what to do next. Of course, we both panicked that this could possibly ruin our trip and spent the night thinking about this possibility.



The next day, the first "tyre" place we stopped at, the people were friendly. The only problem was that they did not have the tyre size we needed, and could get it for us that afternoon. Usually, that would be fine, but we were in the middle of nowhere and didn't have a place to go. They didn't even really have a sitting room. We decided to keep moving to Derry and find the next one. As we were arriving in Derry, we saw a tyre shop that had the tyre we needed. So twenty minutes and 70 pounds later, we were arriving at our hostel for our day in Derry - on our way again!

Black Taxi Belfast

We haven't had access to the internet lately, so we are catching up on our posts. Hopefully, we didn't lose too many of you. Belfast was great!! We booked a "Black Taxi Tour" - a neutral tour of the troubles - that took us around to all of the Belfast murals. We had the opportunity to stop in the Sinn Fein's Belfast headquarters and giftshop. We tried to buy a few postcards, but they didn't have enough change for a twenty. We then walked around the city, visited St. Anne's Cathedral, and the historic Cathedral quarter of Belfast. We talked with the hostel owner Arnie for a while about how Belfast has turned the corner with all the fighting. It was amazing seeing the huge peace wall - dividing the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods - and hearing that is still locked at night and weekends. It is also advisable not discuss anything about it unless you are in close company.





We decided to go out for some traditional Irish music at a place that we heard was a local Republican pub. The pub was closed for some reason that night, so we went to the tourist pub. The band was pretty good, but could have played some more lively music. Arnie, our gracious host, entertained us with his travel stories and the best routes to take along the Causeway Coast - our next day's journey

Welcome Home, Steve!

We were a little scared about our flight to Dublin. First, the airport we had to get to was 80km outside of Paris. We found the RyanAir transport bus fairly easily, paid our 26 euros, and we were off. The other thing was that we have heard RyanAir is very strict about the baggage. If you are over your carry on weight – they will charge you an exorbitant amount per kilogram. Fortunately, this wasn’t an issue. They did not weigh our bags at all. In fact, they barely looked at them after all our obsessive weighing and planning.

The flight itself was uneventful – the best kind of flight. Although, Steve does have a bad cold and he thought his head might explode during the landing due to the high pressure. RyanAir was a very good bargain at $70.00 for both of us to get to Ireland (plus their colors are blue and gold). *Kelly’s Note: Notre Dame football colors for all those not in Steve’s family. ;)

Now the fun really began. Kelly got a crash course on driving on the right side. She actually did fairly well. No accidents to report yet. She managed to get us to Belfast in 2 hours. We did have some trouble figuring out that the left lane is the slow lane on highways. Kelly kept forgetting that one at first, but after a few minutes on the highway she was fine. The hardest thing is actually staying in the middle of the lane; with the driver’s side on the right, you want to keep drifting over to the left. That is bad when you’re in a rental car with lots of tight streets.

The driving in the city itself wasn’t too bad either. Somehow, we made it to our hostel without getting lost. The hostel itself - Arnie's Backpacker's - has a nice homey feeling to it. We were given tea and cookies upon arrival. We sat and ate our cookies with our new friends - two friendly Jack Russell terriers - in front of a nice coal fire (it is cold here). Today, we are off to see the oldest part of the city, the murals, and possibly a Black Taxi Tour. Hopefully are pictures will be up soon.

Our Last Day in Paris

We were sad about our last day in Paris. The food here was excellent, especially the pastries. We visited the Luxembourg gardens – a beautiful park filled with kids playing with toy sailboats. We walked around the backside of Notre Dame from across the river. We also saw the Jardin Des Plantes – another park that included a zoo. Kelly had fun in the labyrinth. We didn’t get a chance to visit in the zoo (too expensive for our budget). We spent the rest of the day walking in the Latin Quarter – eating pastries and window-shopping. We did have an excellent piece of chocolate from Jeff de Bruges (a famous chocolatier in Europe).

The people here were helpful and pleasant. We did not have any negative experiences due to the fact we are Americans. The people spoke English to us when they could or got someone who could. Overall, Paris has been a wonderful experience and we hope to visit again.

Paris Free Day!!

Today, we started out a little rough. We awoke after a restful night's sleep in our sleep sheets, dressed, and we were downstairs ready to go at 8:30am – we thought. Then we saw the hostel’s clock- 9:30am. That meant we were an hour late for the opening of the Louvre and an hour’s worth of people were already in line!

We are still not sure if we have been an hour off the time sine we have been in Paris, or if something happened to our computer clock (we didn’t have the foresight to bring a watch) last night.

We got to the Louvre and before we even went in, Steve was ready to leave. There must have been a line of 300 people. Fortunately, the line moved fairly quickly. The security staff also moved our part of the line to the Porte des Lions entrance, which is about a half a kilometer away from the pyramid entrance.



So, we made it in!! The Louvre was enjoyable and one can easily spend three days walking around. Steve was even taking longer in the galleries than Kelly. Some highlights were Gericault, Vermeer, and of course, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa which was absolutely mobbed with people - see below. We did have to hustle through though, so we did not get a chance to fully appreciate the museum. We set a new land speed record of 2 hours in the museum.



Then we moved on to Notre Dame and the Conciergerie. The Conciergerie is the formal royal palace that was used to hold select prisoners. One of those prisoners was Marie Antoinette. The old prison is still one of the most beautiful prisons in the world. Right down the block was our next stop - Notre Dame cathedral.

When we arrived at Notre Dame, we thought our luck really had changed – a short line! We were in within five minutes. The other bonus was that mass had just started.



It was good for Steve to get back to his Catholic roots after the synagogue yesterday. The church is massive! We walked around and thought about how could they build this thing. It was stunning. We were looking how to get to the tower and finally found where it was – just outside to the right. The line won this battle. All the way down the block. After careful consideration of about three seconds, Steve was ready to move on. The church was the important part - not the view - he chanted to himself repeatedly. The line was just about a block long and rarely moved, so we decided it was time for lunch: Berthillon’s famous ice cream.

Naturally, though, the shop we headed to was closed for the week so we tried Amorino instead – delicious. After our ice cream we headed back over to the Louvre for some hot chocolate at Angelina’s (Kelly had heard that it was fabulous), but that nasty line was following us around. The line that bad, but the price was unbearable. Almost seven euros for a cup of hot chocolate! That is 11 American Dollars considering it reached another all time low versus the Euro. For one cup!! Paris is expensive!!!

Then we ran into another little snag - Steve was out of cigarettes and it was probably not a good time for Kelly to get him to quit. After searching for about 45 minutes (many shops in Paris are closed on Sunday), he finally found a pack. Luckily, the store was next to the Musee d’Orsay – our next free destination. Housed in a gorgeous former train stations, this museum has many famous Impressionist paintings from 1848 to 1914. Some highlights included Monet, Manet, Degas, Gaughin, Cezanne, and Van Gogh. Just like at the Louvre, Steve even recognized many of the paintings!



After the second art museum of the day (and some very sore feet), we tried to get back to Notre Dame to try to win the war and make it up the tower, but the line closed about an hour before we returned. When someone quits, they forfeit, right?

Moules and frites (mussels and fries) were calling our names when we got back to our hostel. We finished the day with one of our better values of our trip: nine euros for a huge basket of fries and about 100 mussels. We had a very nice day today and Steve feels a little smarter (don’t worry – he’ll get over that).

Now, only one full day left in Paris before moving to Ireland.

The Real Moulin Rouge, Bar Mitzvahs, and the Latin Quarter

After finishing our laundry last night, we took a walk around the neighborhood. We were about three blocks from the famous Moulin Rouge, so we took the main street to take a few pictures and see what all the buzz is about. Moulin Rouge is overrated(according to Steve). The real action is the two blocks between the Moulin and the Pigalle metro stop. Nothing but neon signs for Girls, Girls, Girls!!!! It will put any adult block in the U.S. to shame. No matter what you are looking for, you can find it here. We hear only the red light district in Amsterdam is better. We will post some pics, but put the kids to bed first!!! No nudity though, we would have had to pay for that.

When we arrived back at our hotel around 10:30pm, our two roomates were just getting in from their night out. They are two 18 year olds who are traveling for the same amout of time we are before they do their three year manadatory service in the Israeli army. We talked about Israel a bit and that there is still some anti-semitism in France. They invited us to a Bar Mitzvah the next morning. Since we did not have any plans and the weather was supposed to be rainy, we decided to attend (Steve will do anything for a free lunch).

As we walked down to the temple, our new friends informed Kelly that the men and women sit seperately. Kelly was very surprised. Also, they said that the temple is closed to the public. We severely underestimated the level of anti-semitism; when we arrived at the temple, we saw that it is guarded every day, all day, by the French police. We had to show I.D. to get in. Since our friends are Israeli and speak Hebrew, it was no problem.



The temple is rare for the Jewish community. First, it was built under Napoleon but bombed during WWII and rebuilt; the unique thing is that it was designed and built to look like a Catholic church. It even has several stained glass windows and an altar. Of course, Jesus was not in attendence - he was replaced by the Menorah. The ceremony itself was very pleasant and we were honored to be invited. Everyone we met were friendly, helpful, and gave us a good sense of the french hospitality.

We then moved to our new hostel in the Latin Quarter - Young and Happy. We are overlooking Rue Mouffetard - a street that is a combination of meat markets, vegetable stands, cheese shops, cafes, and local and designer clothing boutiques. There are also several restaurants that show off Paris' reputation for serving cuisine from around the world. There is everything from Iraqi to Argentine restaurants.

We are having a ball in Paris - Steve even got his haircut. He does recommend knowing the same language as your hairdresser. You may not get the haircut you are looking for but it was a fun experience and he looks as good as he gets. Our racy pics will be up shortly!!!

Day Three in Paris

Dinner last night at Aux Lyonnais was wonderful. We had rabbit and prime rib as our main courses - not too many vegetarian options here - and an escargot soup and baked egg dish as starters. For desert, we both had souflees with apple ice cream. Delicious. Steve even ate au gratin "rotten" potatoes.

Today, we spent the morning exploring some more of Montmarte and then headed over to Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise - the world's most visited cemetary and resting place of Jim Morrison of the Doors. The cemetery is quite beautiful. First, we visited the grave of French painter Theodore Gericault and then headed over to Jim Morrison's location (thanks to Steve's terrific sense of direction and map reading ability). Hs grave was surrounded by visitors including a tour group and to our surprise the bust covered with grafitti has been removed and replaced with another headstone. We tried to figure out what the story is from eavesdropping on the tour guide but since he spoke French just about all we understood was "The Doors." Afterwards, we headed over to Marais for a leisurely walk and some lunch.

A funny thing about our new hotel room: As we have at pretty much all of our hostels/hotels, when available we book the multi-person rooms because they are much cheaper. There is normally some combination of bunk beds and single beds and it is no problem at all. Here, we booked a three person room. When we arrived, we were informed we would be in a four person room - no big deal to us. When we got to our room, we realized that the hotel had just converted the three person room (which is really the size of a regular double room) into a four bed room - crammed with four single beds (Kelly's actually being a cot). In order to maneuver whatsoever in the room, the beds had to be pushed together to form two double beds with about one foot of space between the two sets of beds. Okay for us, but the looks on our two Israeli roommates' faces when they came in and saw this setup was priceless. Luckily, they are really good sports about us all basically having one huge bed the size of the room.



Other than that, the hotel is really nice.

Luckily for us as well, there is basically no language barrier here in Paris. Most people know enough English that we can communicate (and we are working on improving our French) and when people learn that we speak English they always try to speak to us in English. Everyone has been incredibly nice here to us.

Now is laundry time but we'll post back soon.

Walking Off The Beignets

So we are definitely getting a workout here in Paris. We now know that the real reason that French women don't get fat might have something to do with the insane amount of stair climbing here in Paris. In our last hotel, we were on the fifth floor of a five story walk-up and at our new hotel - Andre Gill - we are again on the fifth floor (with yet another lovely spiral staircase). That combined with the steps of Montmartre, the steps coming out of the Catacombes, the steps coming out of the Abesses metro station, and the steps up to the second platform of the Eiffel Tower (which was beautiful at night), has made Kelly realize just how out of shape she is. Luckily, all the exercise is allowing for more croissants. :)



Today, we took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and then walked our way down Champs-Elysees (past some very wonderful shops) then past the Louvre, the Concierge (former prison), Ste Chappelle, and Notre Dame Cathedral. We also crossed the Seine several times (much to Steve's sighing) for some photo opps. This Sunday (lucky us) is free day for many of the sites and museums so today we were just looking.



Tonight, we go for Kelly's birthday dinner at Aux Lyonnais. We have reservations for 9:30pm. Kelly is a little concerned about being severely under dressed but hopefully they still let us in!

Thanks for all of your posts - we love reading them. We'll post back soon.