"Cead Mile Failte"

Bunratty Castle, Bunratty, Ireland

We made it!

I successfully landed in Shannon, Ireland this afternoon at aroud 2:00pm and made it to Spiddal just a few hours after that. The last few days have been quite the whirlwind, as I'm sure some of you have found out. This entry is going to be a long one. Feel free to breeze through it; I would if I were you. If you have a few minutes, though, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy what is really an unbelievable story.

Last Wednesday, my mom and dad drove me to the Minneapolis airport and I boarded a Northwest fight to Boston. The flight was great, really smooth sailing, no problems. We (the "we" being Lindsay - my traveling buddy and fellow Marshallite and Bennie - and myself) were given some incorrect information by a Northwest employee in Minneapolis regarding where to get our boarding passes, and, being the unseasoned travelers that we are, took her advice to heart. We ended up at the gate about an hour early, ready to get our passes (this is where the NW girl told us to go), but no one was there. We had to switch to Aer Lingus at this point, and the Aer Lingus people were running all kinds of behind. We finally got to talk to them about 20 minutes before the flight left as they were beginning boarding. They told us the flight was closed and we would not be able to get on. We tried to explain the situation and tell them we were given incorrect information, but it was no use. After a quick phone call home to tell our parents we were not on our way to Shannon, we talked to the Northwest people in the Boston airport and they got us on a flight from Boston to Amsterdam to Dublin to Shannon. It was leaving in literally 10 minutes, so we ran down the hallway and got into our seats just as they were ready to leave to the runway. It was a restless flight as I racked my brain and tried to think how we would get this all figured out.

We made it through Amsterdam to Dublin with no problems. Once we got to Dublin, though, we got held up in a ridiculously long immigration line. We ended up missing our connecting flight to Shannon. The Aer Lingus people were so gracious, though - they ended up getting us a taxi to Shannon! So, we got to drive across Ireland in a taxi with this great Irish taxi driver named Terrence. He was hilarious, and it was especially nice of them to give us a private ride. Once we got to Shannon, we tried to figure out what we were going to do because we missed our RyanAir flight to Paris that was supposed to be at 11:30 that morning (this is Thursday now). We had to pay to change it to the next one, which definitely sucked, but it was the first expense of our crazy mishaps that actually came out of our pockets, so it wasn't terrible. There is only one flight to Paris each day, though, so we talked to an accomodations lady in the Shannon airport and she set us up with this wonderful little B&B just a few miles down the road in Bunratty. As it turns out, a couple of Murrays have already graced Bunratty - pretty cool, huh Aunt Sheila? We had a great dinner at the Creamery, enjoyed our first Irish pints of Guiness, and slept so well for the first time in about 36 hours. The breakfast the next morning was great, we walked around an Irish castle, and then headed for Paris.

We flew into Beauvais airport that day, which is about 40 miles north of Paris, so we had to take a bus in. Naturally, as soon as we got there, the bus "conductor" (I love how the Irish speak!) had to take an hour and a half dinner break. So, by the time we got to Paris and figured out the Metro line to our hostel (good thing I have navigated the "L" in Chicago - thanks, Alyssa!), it was 9:00 at night (this is Friday now). Well, since we were supposed to be in Paris on Thursday and we didn't show up (and couldn't get a hold of the hostel), they gave away our room, so here we were at 9:30 at night with no place to stay in the middle of Paris. (This is the part our parents don't know yet...oops!) We walked a couple of blocks and found another hostel - this guy spoke English and had one room left - thank you, Lord! (And all of you who were praying for us!). So, we rested there for the night and made plans to tacke Paris.

The next day we had to meet up with our friend, Ron de Haan, from the Netherlands. We were supposed to meet him at the hostel, but since we weren't staying there, we decided to meet him at the train station instead. The train station was nuts! It was way more difficult to figure out than we thought. We found him, though, and then found an Internet cafe were we could try and find a hostel. We just printed off a list of a bunch of hostels in one area and headed that direction since we couldn't make same-day reservations online. We ended up in the Montmarte area, which turned out to be my favorite part of Paris. It is, however, a little sketchy at night. We knocked on one hostel door and were turned away, but were greeted with open arms at "L'hotel Angleterre" - "English Hotel." Alleluia! After that, our Paris adventures began.

We saw Notre Dame, ate crepes and croissants and drank limonade, saw L'Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Champs-Elyssees, bought from vendors on the Left Bank (several times), ate (and drank - wine) in the Latin Quarter, rested in parks, took nighttime walks along the Seine, rode down the river in a boat, toured Sacre-Coeur, bought art at Montmarte, saw the Moulin Rouge, laughed in Le Centre de Georges Pompidou, gazed reverently at the graves of several famous French writers and poets, were overwhelmed by the Louvre, amazed by Musee d'Orsay, and astounded by the Eiffel Tower. It was a busy and wonderful adventure. I would love to go back someday, but this trip was definitely satisfying for now.

Luggage: missing for 7 days, magically turned up in Spiddal when we arrived today. What? I am convinced it is those Irish relatives looking down on me. Thanks, Delores and John P. Now that I have put on clean clothes for the first time in weeks, I am unpacked and settling into my cottage in Spiddal. It was cold and rainy today, but it was exactly what I was hoping for.

I will post more pictures later. Good work to all of you who made it through this entry! For the rest of you, I hope you did something equally enjoyable.

Take care, all! I just love hearing from you!