Thanksgiving Weekend in France

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with friends, family and lots of good food!

My Thanksgiving started off like no other I have ever had: I woke up and went to work!  Not fun!  But it actually was not that bad because I told my teachers that I would teach the students about Thanksgiving on that day. I started in the morning with one of my best classes.  The teacher sat in the back while I taught the kids about the first Thanksgiving and what we do now on Thanksgiving.  Then I gave them a worksheet where they had to math words and descriptions.  When we came to "Sound a turkey makes", I made the entire class of 12 and 13 year olds gobble like turkeys.  It was absolutely hilarious and just what everyone needed at 8:30 in the morning.  I had two more classes that day and in the middle of my second class, it started snowing!  They were excited to look out the windows and I taught them to say it's snowing in English so it was fun!  We were having a fun class anyway, playing hangman and having races to see who could guess a word first.  After that class, I was officially free for the weekend!  And since the trams weren't running because of the snow, I got to walk home!  I was one happy California girl, that's for sure!

Walking home in the first snow of the season

Trees at the university

Once I got home, after trying to get warm again, I managed to call everyone in my family and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.  I called Stephen first, who spent the holiday in New Jersey with a friend.  After that I called Mom and Dad who went up to Oregon for the weekend and also talked to Uncle Gary, Aunt Steph, Spencer and Claire.  And after that, I surprised Aunt Teresa and Grannie in San Francisco with a call.  I might not have celebrated with any members of my immediate family but I felt that I was there from talking to everyone!  I also was very lucky to receive photo updates throughout the day from my family in Oregon.  Here are my favorites:

My parents in Oregon

My Dad in front of the Library at U of O

Uncle Gary, Aunt Steph, Spencer, and Claire

I was feeling a little nostalgic after talking to everyone but my blues were quickly cured when I went outside to take a picture with a few of my roommates...and ended up getting into two huge snowball fights.  Running around and laughing with the roomies was a great thanksgiving gift. 

Marthe, Nadege and Me in the snow

The next morning I woke up to go catch a train to Angers for the Thanksgiving dinner.  I got in by 1:30, perfect time to go get lunch with Valerie.  We walked around for a bit and then sat in a really nice coffee shop for a couple of hours to sit and chat and stay out of the cold!  Did I mention how cold it has been lately? It's been really really cold.  We walked back to the school to start setting up for the dinner that night.  The room looked really nice and Sue worked really hard to make everything perfect.  It was so fun once the families started to arrive!  I got to sit next to Valerie and her host parents and my own host parents were sitting a little ways down the table.  It was so fun to watch all of these students go from speaking English with each other to switching to French and introducing each other to their host families.  I saw Jean and Therese again, and Therese wasted no time in showing me off to her friends that were also at the dinner.  It was nice to be included in everything. 

Sue and Me 

Valerie Sue and Me

Valerie and Me

Dinner was phenomenal!  I was a little worried at having Thanksgiving dinner in France but it all turned out great.  But of course, since we are in France, this was going to be Thanksgiving dinner French-ified, and so there were courses.  We received an aperitif of champagne along with crackers and little pieces of bread with cheese or salmon flavored spread. Next, was the pumpkin soup.  Phillipe, Valerie's host dad, was very hesitant to try anything with pumpkins but he actually liked the soup and took a second helping.  After the soup, came the main meal:  turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a vegetable mix.  Complete with cranberry sauce.  And it was delicious.  The mashed potatoes were surprisingly well done and although they did not have gravy, the cranberry sauce was very good.  The turkey was very very good and even the vegetable mix was tasty.  I am never one to eat until I drop on Thanksgiving; I would rather eat a little here and there than have a giant plate of food.  Not this year.  This year I ate when I really did not think I could eat anymore. But it was all just too good to stop!

During the dinner, Sue had all of the U of O kids sing the fight song for the host families.  Luckily, the words were projected on a screen and the tuned was played.  I got up with all of the students and we clumsily sang the fight song, no one really knowing the whole thing.  The main thing was that the families enjoyed it.  Or they just enjoyed laughing at us.  Phillipe joked that he was going to throw tomatoes at Valerie when we were up there.  But it turned out great in the end and it was a fun thing to do. 

Sue had the students volunteer to make apple and pumpkin pies the night before and Valerie made two.  Phillipe said that he would only try the one that Valerie made because of his ambiguity towards pumpkins.  Luckily, we found the one she made so we could all have some of that one.  And, no surprise, it was delicious! Phillipe even liked it and ate a whole piece! Good work Valerie.  During dessert there was a slide show with pictures from the students over the course of their time here.  Valerie even added a picture of the two of us so I got to be in it!  Sue also mentioned me and the other assistants that were at the dinner during her speech when she thanked everyone.

It was so wonderful seeing everyone, even though it was for so short a time.  My host parents have invited me back sometime in March or April to stay with them.  They are so cute!  And I told Valerie's host family that when I came back I would definitely come see them as well.  I have become really close with them too from staying with them two weeks ago and celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with them. 

Muriel and Phillipe, my other set of host parents

I only stayed in Angers for one night and then it was back to Caen.  I got up on Sunday to go to the market.  I honestly love Sundays because the only things I do are going to mass in the morning, go to the market, and hang out for the rest of the day in my room or in the house.  Today, was a little different because after the market I decided to see if the Christmas market was open...and it was! I walked around all of the little stands and it just made my day to hear Christmas carols.  When I came back last night, all of the Christmas lights had been turned on too!  It's officially Christmas season and I couldn't be more excited!  I only have three more weeks of class before I head home for the holidays!  I'm going to enjoy these next three weeks, because I have heard that Europe at Christmas time is amazing and I am definitely beginning to experience that.  I will make sure to get some pictures of the Christmas market for next time!  Until then, I leave you with this beautiful photo from the weekend. 

View from my window on a snowy morning

Cest la bonne vie pour moi! :)        

Beaujolais Season - It's time to drink a lot of wine!

France is very well known for a lot of things and one of the best of those is wine!  The French definitely know how to make their wine!  This past week, was the start of the Beaujolais season, which is the first wine released every year after harvesting the grapes.  It is always released the third Thursday in November and it's seen as just another reason for the French to celebrate!

But before I explain my own experience with Beaujolais, let me take you through my past week...

After I returned from Angers, I went straight back to work.  Work has been going really great lately because the kids seem more focused and I am getting to know my different teachers' teaching styles.  I have many teachers that let me know what they are working on in class so that I can prepare something to do with their lesson or something to do with the United States. It has been going really well.  In the past two weeks, my lessons have mostly included American Football and Thanksgiving.  The football lessons are fun because I can show clips from Oregon games and teach my kids to say "Go Ducks!"  It's also fun to watch some Oregon football since I do not get to see a lot here in France. In any case, the kids are at least paying attention and trying so I am happy.

Last Wednesday was the (hopefully) final task in getting my Visa certified.  I had to go to a medical visit and after, to the Office of Immigration with all of the right paperwork.  Luckily, or unluckily really, it was scheduled for my day off.  So I didn't miss any school, but I had to get up super early on a day that I normally try to sleep in.  The medical visit was....interesting.  I had been warned by many people that I would have to take a radiology test of my chest, meaning topless from the waist up.  If I have learned one thing, it's that the French definitely do not care about seeing naked bodies.  Well, okay then, when in France!  After getting an x-ray of my chest, I went with the group of people upstairs to wait for a physical type appointment with a doctor.  I was worried about this part too because I had heard different things from different people but it was perfectly fine and easy.  I had a female doctor and she just asked a couple of questions, nothing too hard, took my weight, height, blood pressure, etc. and I was good.  I had to wait for a little while to get my papers because she was busy but it wasn't too long.  When she came back out to give me my papers, she hands me a giant blue envelope and says I'm good to go.  I walk home and when I get there, I see that in the blue envelope are the papers I need and, an x-ray of my chest.  What?  Why do I have this? I texted Claire, one of my teachers, to see if this was normal and she assured me that yes, you always get a copy of your x-ray.  It's kind of cool actually, might be something fun to have since we never get copies in the United States.

After the medical visit, everything else was really easy at the immigration office.  Besides the place being easy to find, that part was not fun.  And it was cold and rainy.  Welcome to Normandy.  But once I got there, the paperwork went fast and I am officially able to reside in France, travel to and from the country as I please, until June 14th of next year.  Awesome!  Being a semi-official resident of France feels good.

Thursday, as I mentioned before, was the kick-off of the Beaujolais season.  Before I knew this, I met up with some friends at one of our apartments to play Apples to Apples and drink some wine.  As you could imagine, the game became more and more fun as the night went on.  After we just couldn't play anymore, we decided to go to one of our favorite bars.  I didn't get any Beaujolais this night, but I did try some and it was pretty good.   A little fruity, and not tart.  It was actually pretty smooth.  Beaujolais is the fastest produced wine.  It only takes about 6 months.  It has a semi-decent reputation in France but I think the French care more about the tradition rather than the taste of the actual wine.

The next day, I met up with the girls again.  I hadn't seen them for awhile when I was on my UK vacation and then again when I went to Angers so this weekend, we hung out a lot.  We went back to our bar but I had an Embuscade this time.  That bar makes the best Embuscades so that is normally what I drink when we go there.  Because it was a Friday, there was a live DJ.  He always plays pretty good music and tonight, it was even better.  I'm talking to the girls and all of the sudden I hear Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Let's Groove Tonight" and I could do nothing to stop myself from dancing.  I LOVE that song, so I got up and danced.  By myself.  In a French bar.  Here is the proof:

Getting my groove on

The next day was Saturday and lunch at Rose and Grey.  I don't know if I was extra hungry this day or what but the galettes and the crepes tasted better than ever before.  I was a happy camper leaving the restaurant.  We walked around for a little bit after that, and looked at some stores.  I have put a little halt on my shopping for now, I might let myself buy somethings for myself for Christmas but I need to cut back on the shopping if I want to do all of my traveling!  Saturday night, we met up again because there were two out of town assistants staying in the Caen for the weekend.  We took it easy this night, just stayed in and played card games.  And of course, drank more wine.  I managed to get out my camera for a few pictures this night.

 Nicole and Muna

Whitney and Me

Elizabeth and Nicole

Isabel hiding behind her cards

So I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I woke up sick the next morning.  Three nights in a row, drinking wine and staying up late?  Yep, shouldn't be surprised.  I made it to church in the morning and went to the market for a little bit but then retired to my room for the rest of the day.  I would have gone out to get some medicine for my cold but unfortunately, everything is closed on Sundays.  And I mean literally everything is closed.  So I just stayed in and slept.  I went out the next morning to get some stuff and I am already feeling better by the second day of taking some medicine.  Another thing I have learned about France is that everything is stronger here.  The medicine, the coffee, the wine.  They do not joke around.

And now you have caught up to the present in my life.  I have tomorrow off and about 3 hours of class on Thursday.  I am going to be talking about Thanksgiving seeing as it will be Thanksgiving.  I am very sad that I won't be in Oregon with my family but Angers will be a nice substitute with my family there.  I have so many things to be thankful for in my life, this is not a holiday to forget about, no matter what country I am in.  

Until then, my loved ones!  Happy Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all of you!  

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)   

Angers, une belle ville!

Many of you probably know that I studied abroad during the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college.  I went to a small town in the Loire Valley called Angers, and absolutely loved every minute I spent there!  This semester, my very good friend Valerie is doing the same program that I did! She is living with a host family that lives in the same town as my host family and are very good friends with them! Valerie told me that as soon as her host mom found out that I stayed with the Berthelots and I was living in Caen, that I had to come visit and stay with them!  So over Veteran's day weekend, I returned to this amazing, beautiful city!

I took a train on Wednesday because I do not have classes that day and the vacation started on Thursday.  I got off the train and walked straight to l"Universite Catholique de l'Ouest where the AHA office is located as well as all of my friends who are studying.  When I studied abroad, I became very close with the site director, Sue.  Sue has lived in Angers for about 10 years now and takes care of all of the students in the AHA program.  She was in her office when I arrived and Valerie got there about 15 minutes later when her class let out.  We talked for a little bit before Valerie and I went to lunch at a small creperie.  Valerie had another class in the afternoon so I went out for coffee with Annika, who is an assistant in Angers.  I met Annika at the University of Oregon and we have had a few French classes together.  It was good to see her since we hadn't seen each other since graduation in June.  When Valerie got out of class we took the bus back to her host parents house where I met them when they got home from work.  They are a young, very sweet couple who hasn't been hosting students for that long.  They have a beautiful home, with a very chic feel to it.

They were going to dinner at their neighbor's house that night and Valerie and I were going to dinner with my host parents.  I was very anxious and excited to see them because it has been more than two years since I was there.  But I quickly felt right at home walking through the familiar roads and paths to their house.  Therese answered the door looking just as she did two years ago.  She is quite a bit shorter than me and commented that I have grown within the first few seconds!  I told her that I hadn't but then Jean said the exact same thing when he came around the corner!  It was so wonderful to see these two and start speaking with them again as if I had never left.  We all had dinner in the living room and of course, Therese made a feast!  We had some nuts and chips for an appetizer.  Next came artichoke hearts with shrimp and a salad with fantastic, most likely homemade dressing.  And for our main course, we had salmon in a white sauce with very flavorful rice.  It was one of the most amazing meals I have had since I returned to France!  Oh, and for dessert: homemade apple tart.  I don't know what it is about these families but they keep wanting you to eat and eat!  Jean cut the apple tart into 4 pieces! Then gave Valerie and me a quarter each! Think of it as eating a quarter of an apple pie after eating a huge meal! I was so stuffed but the tart was so good that I managed to finish it!

I don't know what it is about Jean and Therese but they are some of the easiest French people to talk to.  I feel that if I were staying with them for the year I would be fluent by month 4.  They are very patient, they speak slowly enough, and they help you when you are stuck and can't think of the word.  We talked about everything that night from our families, to US politics, to what I'm going to do in the future.  These are two people very close to my heart and I can't wait to see them again soon! And it's easy because I live so close now.

Therese, Jean et moi

The next day, Valerie and I met Sue to help her with some shopping and then we all met up with Annika to have some coffee and a crepe.  The weather was absolutely terrible this last weekend.  It was the trifecta of all storms: rain, wind, and cold.  Not a fun combination! But we managed to stay out for awhile with our friends and returned home afterward.  Thursday night, Valerie's host parents wanted us to have dinner with them.  They wanted me to try Racklette, which is basically like fondu.  They have a grill type thing that has slots, to insert pans of cheese.  The cheese melts and then you cover potatoes and meat with it and dig in!  It was absolutely delicious and I swore I could have kept eating the cheese and food forever!  Marielle made tiramisu for dessert in our own little cups.  It was another phenomenal dinner.  That combined with the wine we drank and we slept great that night.  

The next day was our adventure: Nantes and St. Etienne de Montluc.  We got up early in the morning to catch our train to Nantes.  Once we got to Nantes we visited the Cathedral and the Chateau.  It was another miserable weather day so we tried to get inside at most places as to get out of the cold, but more specifically the wind!  The Cathedral in Nantes was absolutely gorgeous with the tallest arches of any church I have ever seen. 

Beautiful Cathedral

Altar

Someone was practicing the organ here

We wandered around the church before going to the Chateau that was just next to it. 

The Chateau of Brittany Royalty

There was actually water in the moat around it! Very cool!

After wandering around for about 2 hours came the real adventure and reason why we were there: St. Etienne de Montluc.  Valerie's great great grandfather owned a bakery in the small town and our mission was to go find it and take lots of pictures of it!  We got on the train and only had about 20 minutes form Nantes.  Good thing we were paying attention because if we blinked, we might have missed it.  The train station was so small, I'm not sure it could even be called a train station.  We were the only two to get off and there was literally nothing around.  

Definition of small town France

It wasn't hard to find where we were looking to go because there were maps of the city everywhere and signs pointing to all of the major landmarks.  We started walking toward the church, because the bakery was apparently right across from it.  It only took us about 10 minutes, and we were laughing the whole time at just how ridiculous our little adventure was turning out to be.  Who would have ever guessed that we would be searching for this small bakery in a tiny little town in France.  We came up on "centre-ville".

The heart of the city

And then we found the bakery,  right where her mom and grandma said it would be.  I took lots of pictures of Valerie in front of it for her family.  It is still a bakery to this day but no longer in Valerie's family.  

The bakery we came to see!  

After taking lots of pictures of the bakery and probably weirding out all of the townspeople, we found a cute little place for lunch.  Since it was still cold and storming, it was so nice to sit down in a warm restaurant.  Valerie tried to see if our really nice waitress knew anything else about the town or about the bakery but she didn't.  We did have a wonderful meal though so we were happy.

Valerie with her wine and the really cool water glasses

Me with my wonderful lunch! 

After lunch we still had about an hour until our train so we decided to try and find the cemetery.  As soon as we walked out of the center of town, we saw another huge map which was very very helpful.  Because this was such a small town, the cemetery was about two blocks away.  We walked over to it and found the entrance.  It was a green door in a stone wall, and Valerie said she felt like Mary in the Secret Garden when we went through.  It was a beautiful cemetery with lots of flowers on every grave and beautiful tombstones.  It was also quite large and we only had about a half hour before we had to be back at the train station.  Valerie suggested that we might send up a quick prayer to Saint Anthony for some help finding her relatives' grave.  I think my exact words were, "So Saint Anthony if you could just throw us a bone, we would really like to see Valerie's great great grandfather."  And the search began. 

Cemetery when you first enter through the door

We searched and looked at many graves and names looking for "Soulorde" which was Valerie's great great grandfather.  There really was not any rhyme or reason to our pattern, we just each took one side and walked all the way around.  Fifteen minutes later, we found the graves of "Soulorde".  Thank you Saint Anthony!

Valerie's family's grave in St. Etienne de Montluc

We were incredibly excited and I actually got chills at one point.  We had to leave shortly after that but it was a really really great day and a good adventure for a long weekend.  We went back to Nantes and looked around for awhile before heading back to Angers for dinner and sleep.

The next day, we didn't do a lot in the morning but relax.  We were so exhausted from the day before.  But then we thought of all of these other things we wanted to do so we completely jam packed out day from 2 pm on.  At 2, we walked to the Berthelots again for some coffee.  Therese, of course, had a little tart waiting for us as well.  We all sat at the kitchen table and talked for about 2 hours.  Then Jean went and ran errands, and Therese took the bus with Valerie and I into town.  We went to a few different shops with her and then she left to finish her day and we went to go see a movie.  It was a French film but there was an American character, so much of the film was in English with French subtitles.  The film was "Elle s'appelait Sarah" and it was wonderfully done although very sad.  The movie is based on a novel called "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay.

After the movie, we got dinner at a Greek restaurant that sold kebabs and then we decided we would stay out and go to a couple of different bars around Angers, some that we had never been to.  It was a fun night even though it was just the two of us!  We made our own fun!  We would have taken pictures but we felt that we already stood out so much that we didn't want to draw anymore attention to ourselves by taking lots of pictures!

The next day was Sunday and I was leaving at 4 to head back to Caen.  I took all of my stuff with me and Marielle dropped off Valerie and I at church.  After church at the Cathedral (which I had never been to so that was a fun new experience), we met up for lunch with Sue at a creperie.  We sat there talking for about 2 hours.  It's always nice to catch up with Sue especially since I do not see her that often.  Before we all parted ways, Valerie and I had Sue take the only picture of the two of us together just to show people that yes, we did hang out all weekend.  And good thing we did, because it is adorable!

Valerie and I in Angers

It was a wonderful long weekend and I am so happy I was able to visit with all of my amazing friends living in Angers right now! And, I am going back in just over a week for Thanksgiving!  Every year, AHA does a special Thanksgiving dinner and this year I was invited!  Even though they do not celebrate in France, it will be nice to have an authentic dinner with people that I have come to see as family!

Until then, I am back to teaching in Caen. Nothing new to report; my classes are all going really well.  It seems that everything has calmed down since the strikes and I can actually hold the kids' attention.  Hopefully it stays that way until Christmas break.  We will see!  Lots of love to you all!

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)

Sunday decisions...

To get out of bed or not get out of bed? That is the question.  Do I get up and go to church?  Or do I stay inside because I am still feeling a little sick.  Hmm, maybe if I look outside...It's raining.  Annnddd I'm staying inside today.

That was the decision I made and I am happy that I stuck with it.  Today, I just needed to rest and relax and not worry about going outside.  It's Sunday anyway which means nothing is open in centre-ville and the only place to buy any food is at the market.  The outdoor market.  Did I already mention it was raining?  So I decided to stay inside today.

I went back to sleep, confusing my roommates who thought I had gone to bed super early the night before and couldn't understand why I was so tired.  I don't think the French sleep for the sole purpose of sleeping.  They must not have that gene in them, but I do. So I am sleeping throughout mid-morning and one of them knocks on my door to ask if I want to eat lunch with them.  I tell them I am fine, I just had breakfast anyways.  Back to sleep.  Some time later, not sure when, in my deep sleep I can hear them talk to each other and say my name downstairs.  Then, a different one yells out "Elizabeth!" Ignore it.  They will know you are sleeping. Wrong.  Again comes the, "Elizabeth!" from downstairs.  So I get up and venture to the top of the stairs where they ask again if I want to eat with them.  I said no again, but they kept saying yes, yes.  So I got up and went downstairs.  I think they were still confused to why I was so tired.

Then, they tried to find Pierre.  They did the same by shouting up to his room.  Poor guy, I know what he is going through.  He doesn't answer for several more calls than me.  So, instead of assuming he is not there or wants to keep sleeping, my roommates toss a rock at his window Romeo and Juliet style.  Pierre gets the hint, and like me travels to the kitchen looking much the same way I did when I woke up.

We had lunch together and it was actually really good so I'm glad my roommates made me get up and eat.  Then, of course, because the other two had cooked lunch, Pierre and I had to do the dishes.  I was joking with Pierre saying the only reason why they wanted us to eat was because we would have to do the dishes.  But in reality, it's nice that we all take care of each other here and I think it's really endearing that they will wake me up just because it's lunch time and I need to eat with them.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV series, updating my blog, emailing teachers about next week, and getting in some much needed catching up with Justine.  It was a great day and I finally feel a little more rested after my long vacation.  Things have gone back to normal somewhat.  I have already had one day of class and will have to go to work on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Then, there is another short break.  I know what you are thinking, these kids never go to school.  And that is partly true, but really it's the French version of Veteran's Day here so they get two days off.  And that is good news for me because I get to go to Angers to see Valerie, Sue, Annika, and my host family!  I leave Wednesday morning and I am really excited to go back!

That's about it for now!  I'm back to reality after my vacation.  Kind of.  If you can really call this reality!  More like living the dream! Happy Sunday everyone!

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)

Les vacances part III - Ireland

And lastly on this amazing epic adventure of ours, we crossed the sea to Dublin, Ireland where we ended our vacation.  We spent three days here, and while I feel like we saw a lot, we were so exhausted at this point I do not feel that I gave Dublin a lot of energy and attention.  But here's what I have!

We flew to Dublin and landed at 11 pm at night on the 30th of October.  Because this was a Saturday, most people went out for Halloween on this night.  We were welcomed to Dublin with zombies, aliens, loads of other fun characters roaming the streets.  After a brief time trying to find the hostel, we finally found it and grabbed something to eat before heading to sleep for the night.

The next day, we woke up with every intention of going on the free walking tour to see the city and get to know all of the cool sites.  As we were walking there, we decided to skip the walking tour and head straight to the Guinness factory which we were really excited about!  It was quite a walk but once we got there, it was awesome!

This way to the Storehouse

Lots and lots of Guinness at this place

The factory was pretty amazing and really well put together.  They showed you the ingredients used in a Guinness, how they make it, gave you a taste test, showed advertising campaigns, and finally on the top story at the Gravity bar, you received your pint of Guinness that came with admission.  I have never been a big Guinness drinker before but I definitely liked it when I tried it.  Some people told us this wasn't worth going into and paying the admission fee, but I definitely enjoyed the exhibit and thought it was worth it!

Yay for Guinness

Margaux and I outside the Guinness Factory

That night we did not do much, just had dinner at an American style diner which was called Eddie Rocket's.  It was the exact same thing as Johnny Rocket's so it was nice to have some food from home.  I have to post this picture I took there because it reminded me so much of my Mom.  She is always making sure that everyone eats at my house and she has said this phrase to me several times! I couldn't believe it and I had to get a picture of it:

My mom's motto

The next day we got up to go to the walking tour again. This time we got all the way there, and walked with the tour for about two stops, and then decided that we both didn't want to do the tour so why were we doing it.  We decided to do it the next day and walked to Starbucks instead.  I had woken up not feeling very well so it was nice that we skipped the long walk in the cold weather. And because I didn't feel like being outside, we decided to do something fun inside: shopping!  They have a greta discount store in Dublin called Penny's and Margaux and I were there for probably about an hour and a half.  I didn't spend too much money but I got a bunch of jewelry, a scarf, and a sweater.  It was definitely what that day called for!

The very last day, we slept in, and got up for the walking tour and...we actually went on the walking tour.  Third time is a charm.  The tour was good, we didn't know that much about Dublin so it definitely was informative.  However, it rained all day long so it was a bit miserable at times.  But we met some really cool people from all over the world so it was fun talking to them!  And we saw some cool sites of Dublin as well!

Part of Trinity College

A beautiful park on a rainy day

We didn't get to go out into the countryside of Ireland which is something I would have like to do but I have seen a lot of the country over the last two weeks traveling, mostly by bus.  Someday, I will have to make it back to Ireland and spend some more time there but I am really happy with our trip there and what we did!

Until next time, Ireland!

The next morning we had to take about 5 different methods of transportation to get home to Caen but we made it safe and sound! This was a great trip and I am so happy we were able to fit so much in!  I am going to need a long rest before another big trip like that one!  

Hope you enjoyed my 12 day version of the Odyssey!  It's been a great adventure to share! 

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :) 

Les vacances part II - Scotland

I'm not sure of my motivation to visit Scotland, but I can distinctly remember really wanting to go see it.  And now that I have, it was probably one of the best decisions of my life!  Scotland is unlike any place I have ever been to.  The buildings and the architecture are breathtakingly beautiful and the atmosphere of the city of Edinburgh is indescribable.  But nevertheless, I am going to try and explain all of it's amazing qualities in this one blog post!

Although we were only in Edinburgh for 3 full days, I felt like it was enough time to see all of the city.  It is pretty small and divided into two towns: old town and new town.  The castle is on a giant hill and can be seen from many different points in the city.  Leading up to the castle is a ridge, in which there is a street with a series of shops called The Royal Mile.  To our luck, our hostel was right off of the Royal Mile, and we could see it from our bedroom window.  We arrived in the morning on our first day because we had taken an overnight bus from London.  After finding our hostel, we took a bus ride of the city.  We found the main sites of the city and decided what was worth going back to.

View of New Town Edinburgh

We were pretty tired from not sleeping well on the bus so we decided to take a nap in the afternoon.  When we went back out for dinner and our Terror Tour, we explored Old Town which puts the New Town to shame.  Here's why:

Part of The Royal Mile

More of The Royal Mile, it's so pretty!

After walking around and getting a good dinner, we met at the meeting spot for our Terror Tour.  Now, a lot of old cities in Europe have ghost tours because there are stories that date back for hundreds of years.  But Edinburgh, by far, has the most ghost stories, hauntings, and poltergeists than any other city I have been too.  I found this out from the tour we were about to take.  I was already getting nervous standing outside waiting for our guide to come.  Margaux was very excited and Jesse seemed to be as well.  When our guide showed up dressed in a black cape, black pants, black eyeliner, with boots and a walking stick, I literally hid behind Jesse.  That should have been my first indication this was going to be one of the scariest things I have ever done.  But they convinced me to go on the tour and that I would be fine.

We walked around outside first, and went to the old church that is in the center of The Royal Mile.  Our guide explained to us the history of witches in Scotland and what used to happen if you were tried as a witch.  He needed examples for the group and naturally picked me because he knew I was so scared in the first place.  But this didn't even come close to the scariest part of the tour.  When he was finished explaining about the witches, he told us where we were about to go: down to the underground city, into the vaults, where criminals, murderers, and thieves lived and where multiple crimes took place.  He warned us that this was not Ghost Hunters International or Most Haunted; this was real, and while there are some nice spirits, there are also a lot of mean ones.  He warned us to not antagonize them because things could happen.  In this past, people have been punched, scratched, felt nauseated or dizzy, even kicked when inside the vaults.  This was about when I realized that this wasn't a tour meant to scare us, this was real and if anything did happen, it was not an act.

We first walked into a room where they had instruments of torture.  Everything in the room was authentic, minus a few pieces.  This was not the most encouraging welcome into the vaults.  When we walked past the room, onto what used to be an old street some 400 or 500 years ago, it was completely dark with the exception of a few candles.  Off of the street were the vaults which used to be stores when the path was used as an actual street and then storage units after that.  We went into about 4 different vaults and they all had a story associated with it.  There were some places we were not allowed to go, because of things that have happened to people in the past when they have ventured to certain parts of the underground.  In one room, there was a stone circle in the middle.  Our guide specifically warned us to not enter the stone circle when he was in the room because of the demonic spirits inside.  He said he believed they were there and whether or not we believed it, he did not want to be around us if we tried to go inside.  He told the story of a healthy 22 year old boy on one of his tours who didn't believe anything about the tour and wasn't respectful in the vaults.  He stepped inside the stone circle and had a heart attack on the spot.  That was the only convincing I needed, so no, I did not tempt fate or my life and go inside.  

In the last room we went into, he separated the women and the men on two different sides of the room.  He said there was lots of poltergeist activity in the room and women often have more experiences on one side of the room, so he put us on the opposite side.  This was our last room of the night.  The only thing we experienced while being down there were sounds.  I didn't see anything but we all definitely heard a few noises and there was not a tour behind us.  I don't know what they were, but I didn't really care to find out.  I went down there and probably will never try to do anything like that again.  I had fun though!

The next day we took a walking tour around the city.  We had a great tour guide, Owen, and he gave us more information about the city and places we saw in the city. 

Edinburgh Castle

My favorite part of the tour was he nonchalantly said, "See that window up there? That's the window JK Rowling looked out of when she wrote the first two Harry Potters!"  All of the history of 500 years probably did not excite me as much as this did!  I could not believe it!  I knew she had written the first couple in a small cafe, trying to make a living as a writer, but I did not expect to see the actual window she looked out of!  I was way too awed by this.

The famous window

Then we walked into the coolest graveyard I have ever seen in my life.  I know that it might seem weird calling a graveyard "cool" but honestly, there was so much history there as well as the beauty of the old headstones and the leaves changing that it was pretty awesome to experience.  In the graveyard, we could see the school which was the inspiration for Hogwarts.  There are even four towers at the school which could be said she used to form the four schools but our tour guide informed us that four is a solid number and many building in Scotland have four towers.  

Greyfriars cemetery

     

One tower at the original Hogwarts

Our tour guide, who had a wealth of information on the Harry Potter Scotland, also told us that JK Rowling had used names in this graveyard for characters in her novels.  He told us we could find a Granger, McGonagall, and Moody.  Then, he led us to the most famous name she took for her books: Thomas Riddle. For all of you Harry Potter fans, you could imagine how exciting this was!

Tom Riddle's grave

We also learned a lot about the Black Mausoleum on our tour.  This is where George MacKenzie is buried and his poltergeist spirit haunts.  This is the location of the most reported poltergeist activity in the world.  Many people have discovered scratches on their bodies, or bruises after leaving the place.  The poltergeist is also said to kick and punch people.  In one extreme case, a girl was shoved so hard out of the mausoleum, that she fell and slipped into a coma.  George MacKenzie was not a good guy while he was alive and his spirit definitely still haunts the place.  They allow specific tours inside, but it is closed to the public.

Scary place, don't get too close

We finished our tour and then spent the next two hours relaxing and using the internet at a Starbucks.  We do not have a Starbucks in Caen, so when we first arrived in London and I was seeing them everywhere, I decided that I needed to take advantage of that during my two weeks.  I definitely got my fix by getting Starbucks almost everyday.  Hopefully I can last until Christmas! 

That night we went on a pub crawl to about five different pubs.  This was really fun because we did not know where all of the good places were to go out in Edinburgh so it was nice to be with a group that took us to all of the places.  We also met some other people from around the world who were staying in our hostel as well.  

The next day was our last day in Scotland and we really wanted to go on this hike to a look out point and see the city from up high.  The intentions were good and we got some good pictures, but it was not fun walking up a giant hill in jeans and boots.  What was even worse was the wind and the cold.  But the pictures are awesome so it was worth it!

Beautiful Edinburgh

We then went to get a better picture of Hogwarts:

Standing in front of the original Hogwarts

And then we decided that we could take a couple of hours to hang out at The Elephant Cafe, which is the place where JK Rowling wrote.  We managed to grab a table right by the famous window.  It was a very relaxing afternoon. 

Having some hot chocolate at The Elephant Cafe

View from the window out onto the cemetery

And after that, because we were so close to the cemetery we thought, why not go back and check everything out again?  And of course, we wanted Jesse to antagonize the poltergeist to see if anything would happen.

View from inside the cemetery

Beautiful day

After walking around a bit, we went back to the hostel to get our stuff ready to go.  There was something special about this city that I can't quite explain but I loved it.  The old architecture is everywhere so no matter which was you look, you see these beautiful buildings that not a lot of cities have anymore.  We also had some great weather that made for a perfect fall day. I definitely want to return to Scotland in the future to see more of the amazing character and personality of the city.  Not to mention, on any given day you can see men in Scottish kilts playing the bagpipes on The Royal Mile.  That was pretty cool as well.  Until next time, Scotland!

Okay, last part coming up: Ireland! 

C'est las bonne vie pour moi! :)