Merci, Au Revoir

I honestly never thought I would see this day come, but now that it is here, I can't believe how quickly it came. This past week has been full of emotions and goodbyes, feelings of which I cannot even begin to put into words. I have built a life here, so much to the point where my life in California seems like a distant memory, almost a dream. I am in a state of disbelief that I am actually returning to the fabled "United States" in a matter of hours.

This experience has left me forever changed, it is something that I will always carry with me. I have gained a confidence that I have never possessed in my life. Everyone told me that this would happen, but I have this overwhelming feeling that no one will ever truly understand how much of an impact this has had on who I am (aside from those who have experienced it with me). In the beginning, I hated Paris and wanted nothing more than to go home. In fact, on more than one occasion, I was seriously considering withdrawal. However, that would have been my biggest regret ever. Had I withdrawn, I would have felt defeated by Paris and would forever feel bitter towards it. It seemed to be a constant challenge, but now that I have conquered it, I can leave on good terms with this city. Something that I am so grateful for.

On the subject of being grateful, one of the main things that I am incredibly grateful for, are the people that I have met throughout this past year. They have helped shape who I am and I feel that they all deserve recognition for being so amazing. I would love to go into depth about why every single person is amazing, but that would make this blog about 700 pages; therefore, I am going to talk about the family that has defined a major part of my experience in Paris.

The Collet Family: This is the family that I have worked for over the past 10 months. Even though I was frustrated by them at times, I truly love all of them. I will always remember when I was pickpocketed and going through other rough moments in December, Beatrice (the mother) gave me a big kiss on the head and said "Don't worry, you are not alone. You are a part of this family and we are here for you no matter what." She gave me all the money I needed until I recuperated what I had lost and talked to me for hours about defining moments in her life and how to get through my rough patch. In that moment she was not just my boss, she became a type of temporary mother-figure. I just said my goodbyes to them and it was harder than I could have ever imagined. The children (mostly little Solène) got really emotional (as did I). On leaving, Beatrice walked me to the door, and through teary eyes, thanked me for everything I had done. I remained composed until Beatrice said: "I don't think it's any secret that you and Solène formed a special bond. I could see it very clearly. Thank you." All I could say was thank you in return. I feel so amazingly grateful to have been given this opportunity and never in a million years thought that a little 9-year-old French girl could have such an impact on my life.

I wish I had more time to write more about everyone, perhaps once I'm back in California I will write more about them, but for now I just want to give them all just a little recognition: Danielle, Jared, Kirstie, Amanda, Mikayla, Hannah, Kimberley, Bre, Tom, Benjamin, Christian, Betsy, Talia, Emilie. You have all impacted my life in one way or another. Thank you.

The journey back home

The next morning I had to wake up and start packing up all my stuff because I had to check out of the hostel at 10am. Luckily, the hostel let me hang out in the common areas for a bit longer after I told them that my flight didn't leave till 7:30pm. So I chilled in the common room and talked with John for quite awhile. Around 12:30, I realized that I was incredibly hungry, so I bid farewell to John and ventured out with my backpack in tow. I plopped down at the nearby Starbucks and proceeded to eat my panini, drink my chai, write in my journal and facebook my father. I am very skilled at staying at Starbucks for extended periods of time, so I stayed there and reflected on my trip for over 2 hours. However, the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds, so I couldn't stay inside any longer.

I took a walk through the lovely park known as Saint Stephen's Green. I was sad that I hadn't discovered it before, it was quite beautiful. I sat on a bench, closed my eyes, leaned my head back, and soaked in the sun for a bit. Unfortunately, my camera died before I could capture the sunshine, but the park was beautiful in the cloudiness as well.

After meditating in the park, I made my way back to the centre of town in order to catch the bus back to the airport. I was able to muster up a little more battery power out of my camera to capture one last farewell picture of my beloved, purple hostel.

I got to the airport, boarded the plane and had a flawless voyage....until I got back to France (typical). I arrived to the airport at around 10pm. Since it takes about an hour by bus to get back to the centre of Paris, I figured I would be back into the city around 11 and would be able to catch a metro home. WRONG. Since it had snowed, all of the French people naturally freaked out because they are a bunch of pansies. Therefore, I had to wait outside in the snow at the airport for 2 hours (with about a million other people) for a bus to come. We didn't get back to Paris until after 1am, so I had missed the last metro home. My phone was dead, I had no cash, and I was in a part of Paris that I was NOT familiar with. I kept stopping cabs and asking if they took debit cards, to which they all responded NO. Luckily, I found a night bus that took me to Chatelet, where I could get a connecting night bus to my neighborhood. However, once I finally got to Chatelet, it was a 25 minute wait for my bus. So I was waiting at the sketchy bus stop with a bunch of drunken men and homeless people....with a dead phone. So I spent the next 25 minutes thinking of the various ways that the situation could go wrong. Thank goodness, none of the scenarios that I came up with happened, and I boarded the bus. However, the bus didn't go directly to my neighborhood, but at least it dropped me off in the 7th arrondissement, so I had to walk quite a ways to my house. At last, around 3am, I made it back to my safe little nest, crawled into bed and thanked god that I made it home safely (after 5 hours of being in France, RIDICULOUS).

Despite all of this turmoil, I have absolutely no regrets from going to Ireland. It was a journey that I really needed to take by myself and I came back feeling even more confident and sure of myself. At this point I feel like I can handle anything and have no trouble taking care of myself.

Day 4: Dublin Castle & The Guinness Storehouse

My day started out pretty mellow. I woke up late and I took a leisurely walk around Dublin and shopped a bit for souvenirs for my family. Then I realized that I was really hungry, so I returned to the hostel to pester John (my hostel buddy) into getting lunch with me. While walking to the fish & chips place, he showed me where the Dublin Castle was. I had seriously been searching for it since day 1 and could NOT find it! Turns out, it was quite tucked away, which explains my difficulty. We explored the castle a bit and then headed to lunch.

 

We grabbed lunch at a place called Leo Burdock's, which is apparently the oldest chipper in Dublin. The portions were enormous and it was quite delicious. We took our food and ate in front of Christ Church.



 

Then, it was time to go the the Guinness Storehouse.

It was quite a walk across town, but I eventually got there.

 

Along the way, I even passed Arthur Guinness' old house.



I then wound my way through the backstreets to the Storehouse.

It was a really cool tour which was all self-guided in a surprisingly modern building. It started with all of the ingredients that are needed to make Guinness, then moved on to the process, then the history of the Guinness family, and finally the various ways that Guinness has been advertised.


The original contract the Arthur Guinness
signed for 9,000 years of business

At the end of the tour we all got to enjoy a complementary pint of Guinness, which we enjoyed in the Gravity Bar. It was a great bar at the very top of the Storehouse with a 360 degree view of Dublin.

 

After the tour and the drink, I headed back to the hostel to take a nap because beer always makes me incredibly sleepy. That night, I went out with my favorite Dutch guys to celebrate my last night in Dublin. We went to a bar in Temple Bar called "The Auld Dubliner" where we listened to some good music and talked about when they were going to come visit me in Paris and when I was going to go visit them in Holland. It was a great way to spend my last night in Dublin.

The last two blurry photos that I could get of them!



Day 3: Limerick, Cliffs of Moher, Corcomroe Abbey, Kinvara

That night, when I got back to the hostel from the bar, I saw a pamphlet on the front desk that was advertising a day tour to the Cliffs of Moher. So I asked the receptionist to sign me up for the very next day.

That morning, I woke up at 5am in order to meet at the tourist center at 6:30. The tour group boarded a huge bus with our lovely tour guide, Conrad, and we were off! I quickly made friends with a lady by the name of Joanne who was sitting next to me and her two friends who were sitting behind us.

Our first stop was the cute little town of Limerick, where the story of Angela's Ashes took place. Super cool! We stopped beside the mighty river Shannon and took a look at the Treaty Stone that the English signed in 1691 and later betrayed. They kept the Treaty Stone in order to always remember the betrayal of the English.


King John's Castle

The River Shannon

The Treaty Stone

 We continued to drive with only a few pit stops for snack and restroom breaks, and before we knew it, we were on the opposite coast of Ireland at the Cliffs of Moher! This was one of the most breathtaking experiences I've ever had. I am still convinced that nothing beats the beauty of nature. I mean, Paris is beautiful...but there is something really special about true, organic beauty. There were paths all along the coastline, so we got to walk on the cliffs. I let the big group get ahead of me and had some alone time. It was really peaceful. The only downside was that it was extremely windy, to the point where it almost knocked me off my feet on multiple occasions. In addition, the wind was absolutely freezing. However, the weather added to the majestic feeling at the cliffs, it was sunny and beautiful, yet it was snowing. Quite unusual. It made for some really unique, gorgeous lighting against the cliffs.

First sight of the cliffs

Hobbit hole tourist shop

Snow and Sun

The closest I've been to home in almost 7 months



The path along the cliffs

 

 

 

We stayed at the cliffs for about 1.5-2 hours and then we continued our tour. Our next stop was through the Burren National Park. It is 1500 hectares (whatever that means [I have yet to figure out the various ways of measurement]) in size and the terrain is almost completely made out of Limestone. It was a very odd place, I felt like we were on another planet.

 

By this time, we started to make our way back to Dublin, but we made a few more pitstops on the way.

We stopped in a little town (whose name I cannot remember) for lunch. I had lunch with my four lovely bus buddies. We all enjoyed some delicious seafood chowder and had some great conversation. After lunch, we continued up the coast and stopped by Corcomroe Abbey, which was founded in the 12th century, but has since been abandoned. Interestingly enough, people are still be buried there today. It was a beautiful little abbey in the middle of vast green fields.

 From there, we continued on the road back to Dublin, but made one more stop in the quaint harbor town of Kinvara. We didn't do much in this town, because there wasn't much to do, but it was nice to explore nonetheless.

 

 

Finally, we were on our way back to Dublin without anymore stopping, so I was free to completely pass out on the bus. We got back to the city at around 7:30 in the evening. I took a lovely warm shower when I got back to the hostel, put some clean clothes on, and had a tranquil evening in the common room with my fellow hostel buddies. My roadtrip across Ireland was definitely one for the record books, it was one of the best days I've ever had. Ireland is a beautiful place that will always hold a special place in my heart.

Stayed tuned for tomorrow's blog which talks about my tour of the Guinness Storehouse :)