To begin, never spend a night in an airport in order to avoid taking the expensive bus in the early morning. This is a bad idea.
I haven’t done this “travelogue” thing in a while; been too busy traveling to blog about all the traveling I’ve done.
We went to Amsterdam what feels like months ago, but it’s only really been three weeks or so. We hadn’t originally intended on making the trip (it seemed like the ultimate college-kid thing to do; “dude, have you been to Amsterdam yet?”), but a sincere recommendation from my friend Johnny, and promises of many flowers and canals convinced us to arrange the trip. For the sake of brevity, I will say that Amsterdam was beautiful, and very much unlike any other city we’ve been to so far.
In between our trips “abroad,” Bonnie and I headed west to the coastal city of Doolin, which is in a unique area known as the Burren, and only a ferry ride away from the Aran Islands, popular for their production of wool sweaters. Doolin itself was a very small town (no ATM’s, which turned out to be a bit of a problem), but its size offered an opportunity to take it easy at night, and enjoy the amazing views of the Cliffs of Moher. We traveled to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, the next day, and got nice and close to the cliffs on a ferry tour. The morning after, we departed Doolin (with some help from an unnamed Boston-er suffering a hangover) and caught up with a tour bus on the Cliffs of Moher, which then took us through the Burren on our route home.
We did the “overnight in an airport” thing for our flight to France. This might be a good idea if one is 1) on the last leg of their travels, 2) returning home to rest, and 3) equipped with warm clothes and sleeping equipment. It is, however, a terrible idea if you’re like us, and decide to start a week of traveling by staying up all night, unable to sleep on the cold, hard floors of the security entrance. We were displeased. Please don’t ever do like us in this situation.
Beyond the woes of our prolonged stay in Dublin Airport, our time in France was quite amazing, and by far our most successful travel-intense trip so far. Beginning in the south of France with Marseilles (think Mediterranean weather), we traveled north, hitting Avignon (a beautiful walled-in city along the Rhone), Lyon (home to several unearthed Roman Ampitheatres, and an amazing view from our hostel), and Paris (come on, it’s Paris). Highlights of Paris include the Paris Opera House, the Catacombs, our most successful theatre experience yet (two of Moliére’s comedies being performed in the same theatre in which they have been performed for hundreds of years), and Paris itself, particularly at night, when the weather was at its most temperate, and the lights of the buildings rendered everything dazzling.
After Paris, we trained to Tours, where we spent a month last summer in French studies. Being back was a bizarre, but truly great experience. We had dinner with Bonnie’s host-mother from the summer, who also offered us a place to stay for the night.
We didn’t stay overnight in the airport before returning to Dublin, which was for the best considering the Beauvais “Airport” consisted largely of an oversized rental tent (if your daughter’s Bat-Mitzvah was supposed to be outside, and it rains, you order this kind of tent). We were happy to have traveled, but we’re happy to now have a day or so to be home, off our feet and figuring out the logistics for the summer and fall. Tomorrow, we meet up with Stephie, and head south in a rented car. Left side of the road, left side of the road…
3 replies on “Amsterdam, Doolin, Inisheer, Marseille, Avignon, Lyon, Paris, Tours”
I totally stayed up all night on a park bench in a church courtyard in Doncaster, in the English midlands, on the start of my Scotland trip. It was exhausting but an awesome experience in itself! (probably somewhat different from your experince)
Wow, I’m really glad you came acsors my site so I could find yours! This is all very inspiring stuff, and you’ve got me thinking about trying to build my own 6 17 pinhole camera. Keep up all that you do ~
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