Part III: Paris on a Budget

That video was taken at the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. We did go all the way to the top, but it has a kind of fencing that obstructs photos and video, so this is a clearer viewpoint. It is well worth the extra cost and time to get to the top. You can't put it into words, just do it.

I love this photo because it summarizes the Parisian lifestyle:

Luxembourg Gardens

The weather was unusually warm for the end of September, so the entire city was out in the park, laying out on the grass, playing some sort of hot French strip kickball*, shopping, or just wondering around. See, I did it too:

Paris is a challenge on a budget. Our hotel provided breakfast of crusty bread, croissants, fruit, little cakes, coffee and juice. For lunch we grabbed something cheap and quick, like a ham sandwich on the delicious bread I was eating above. Dinner was out "fancy" meal out at a cafe. We brought our translation guides so we could navigate our way through the menu. The wait staff usually spoke some English or understood us pointing at different items. This was dinner one of our first nights: 

Cafe near our hotel



My pasta with asparagus, cheese plate and Jason's roast beef carpaccio



Delicious salad with poached egg, bacon

Jason's beef at same cafe near Canal St. Martin

Salad, Kir (fruit flavored white wine) and pizza at Monmartre Italian cafe

 Now, what about the beer? For being so close to the possibilities of German and Belgian beers, the cafes we went to did not have much of a selection at all. Leffe was everywhere. I assumed it was German, then found out it was an evil InBev product.

Leffe in St. German cafe (paired with an omelette)

Jason drinks fresh Heineken which is slightly less skunky

Pelforth Blonde at Canal St. Martin cafe                
  

All in all, we played it pretty safe with food. I thought the salads were so fantastic I didn't mind making a meal that way, especially with bread. We splurged on one creme brulee for dessert.


Travel Tips: get a Museum Pass and a Visite Pass. Our travel agent recommended these. They saved time, most importantly. Paris wore me out just waiting in lines for everything. The standing still bothered me more than walking. So the more you can save yourself in waiting, the better. We used the museum pass to skip the line in the Louvre and the Centre de Pompideau. It also would have applied to most any museum and the Arc de Triomphe. See what it includes here. Note that many museums are closed on Tuesdays, so that dictated how we divided our time. The Visite Pass is unlimited use on the metro, bus lines, and even the funicular (tram) that takes you up to Sacre Coeur. It is much simpler to buy it by the day instead of figuring out the machines every time you take the metro. Loved the metro, except when it is a heat wave and you are crowded into an older car that is not air conditioned. Enough said.


*Here you go ladies. You're welcome.

Before

And After. Yes, the loser of whatever this was had to strip.

Snapshots of Europe: Galway & the West Coast

Emo: the saddest gas station in the West

Jason gets fresh with the locals

Galway will always be my favorite Irish city, because I spent from January through June there in the year 2000 on an exchange program between National University of Ireland-Galway and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. The city was mostly like I remembered it: alive, vital, artsy, diverse, but now I was much older. Almost too old for the party atmosphere that takes over the city at night. How do the girls teeter on their heels on the cobblestone streets? How do they stay warm in the tight minidresses? Why is it so crowded in this bar? Ugh, I'm old(er).

We stayed at Jury's Inn right the heart of the city.The weekend we arrived from Dublin, there was a Culture Night going on, the Oyster Festival, and a Guinness Live, which was free music in bars around the Latin Quarter area. The Culture Night events were free, and offered art gallery openings, poetry readings and performances.

 Highlights:

• Guiness Live weekend, with free music: included a local band at the King's Head called Riptide Movement. (Jason bought their CD) and trad music at the Tigh Coili pub
• Trip up the coast to the Burren, including a bird sanctuary, Ailwee Cafe, and the Cliffs of Moher

live trad music

Great Pub

Riptide Movement

Best Beer Bar Evah!

  

Food and drink highlights:lunch at the Oslo Bar in Salt Hill, a town on Galway Bay. Jason had a strawberry lime cider there that was outstanding. (Ciders are served poured in a glass over ice there. I had wondered why so many lads in the bars had glasses with ice--surely they weren't drinking mixed drinks!) I had the Belfast Blonde and also their house ale. Next to come was their house stout, but it wasn't ready yet. Crikey! I so wanted to try it. I had enough ales and lagers. They are part of a family of related bars that have locations in Galway and Dublin.

Awesome cider

Blonde with a Blonde

The sister pub in Galway was called the Salt House. And, it was right across the bridge from our hotel! We tried it that night after eating some Thai food. It was crowded, and there was going to be live music. A bluegrass band! We got into a conversation at the bar with one of the bartenders there who was there on his night off. From Mayo. Hates the Guinness. He was only drinking it because it was cheap and went down easy. Yes, there are beer snobs in Ireland, too, folks. He got us to try this and that and had we tried this and look at that. They had 5AM Saint by Brew Dog on tap that I had, plus a special amazing O'Haras Stout he suggested called Leann Follain, Trouble Brewing Stout, and I think Jason had a Belgian or two. They had Brew Dog's Sink the Bismarck in bottles, but it was so expensive. We liked it so much we went back the next night again.

Brew Dog 5AM Saint on tap

• I did end up trying fresh oysters for the first time at a pub called Sonny's. They were served with lemon wedges and tabasco sauce. I actually liked the flavor combo. Jason couldn't hardly look at them.

• fish and chips at McDonnagh's next to our hotel. It's an institution there. You haven't had fish and chips unless they are served takeaway style in a greasy mound that soaks through the paper they serve it in.

Finally, here is a glimpse into Galway's coolest beer bar, the Salt House:

Snapshots of Europe: Dublin

Elwess European Vacation
We left Sept. 19th from St. Louis to Charlotte to Dublin, arriving on the 20th. We stayed at the Academy Plaza (Best Western) off of O'Connell Street. A bit quieter than Temple Bar, but a farther walk across the river, too. We walked so much Jason got blisters from his new Doc Martins and had to get new shoes. He got a cold, too.

Sightseeing highlights:

• "Freshers" week at Trinity College, so the quad was full of a student club fair.
• St. Stephens Green: So beautiful, as I remembered. Swans live in the water, and there was a "swan whisperer" who made a friend with one. Sorta creepy and magical at the same time.
• Literary Pub Crawl: two actors combined performances of Irish plays, poems and stories and added historical and cultural information.  It went around Temple Bar and Trinity College area.
• Not new to me: Trinity College, Book of Kells tour, St. Patrick's Cathedral, National Art Gallery, Dublin Castle, the Changeable Weather
• Sandycove: we took the DART down to the James Joyce Martello Tower Museum that had a 1st edition Ulysses and Joyce's death mask. Not that I needed another Joyce book, but I got Ulysses and Us by Declan Kiberd, an author I was familiar with. I got the official museum stamp in the book (book nerd swoon).

In fact, here is a view from the windy top of the tower:

What was new since I'd been there in 2000: a new bridge over the River Liffey that looked like a harp, gigantic ferris wheel at the O2, an enormous music venue, the fast and efficient tram (Luas) system we had to use to get to the train station for Galway.

Food/beverage highlights:
Porterhouse Brewing: craft brewery with a couple of Dublin locations. We went to the main one in Temple Bar, where i got a coddle with the Wrassler's XXXX Stout and Jason had Geuze Boon and a sampler with their stout, red and a strong ale.
Bull and Castle: a gastropub specializing in local Irish breweries. I had Curim Celtic Wheat with a fisherman's pie and Jason had a sampler with Galway Hooker, O'Hara's Red and a lager.

O'Neill's on the Pub Crawl in Temple Bar

Bull and Castle Gastropub

Kehoe's Pub: First Guinness

On the pub crawl, Duke's Pub I had Kilkenny Irish Red, Trouble Brewing Ale at O'Neill's, Smithwicks at Old Stand and finally Guinness at Davy Byrne's.

Northern Ireland: we took an all day rail/bus tour by Rail Tours Ireland. Dublin to Belfast Train, bus around the northern causeway and back, train back to Dublin that night. It happened to be Arthur Guinness day, where we were supposed to toast a Guinness at 5:50 and we were on an older train with no bar.
Highlights were of course  Giant's Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede Bridge (my 2nd time both places)

Taste of Giant's Causeway:

Didn't remember: how long the damn walk was down to both places. Causeway had a shuttle but  the bridge didn't, and it was uphill, up stairs and then walking. So worth it, though. They are building a huge visitor's center at the causeway set to open in a year or two.

Me on the Carrick-a-Rede bridge

Food highlights: Guinness stew at the Giant's Causeway hotel, Irish Coffee at Bushmill's Distillery

Real Irish Coffee