Extended Irish Holiday Grâce au Volcano!

Clearly, our flight is cancelled

Just after getting dropped off in the middle of nowehere, Ireland

Fastnet Rock, most southern point of Ireland, 8 km off the coast

Maggs and I at the Beacon outlook point

So the original plan was: Dublin for 4 nights, Cork City for 3 nights, Amsterdam for 2 nights, Brugge for 3 nights, Brussels for 1 and then back to Lyon. This clearly was not how it happened.

On our 2nd night in Cork City, we hear that there has been a volcanic eruption in Iceland and that flights are beginning to be cancelled. We shortly find out that our flight is one of them. At first, we didn't realize that it was such a serious problem, and figured that everything would be sorted out and we would be in Amsterdam just a day late. Definitely not.

Panic ensued. What were we going to do if we're stuck here?

Then Maggie, my roommate at the time and travel buddy, decided to look up her distant relatives who were living about a 3 hour bus ride away. Best phone call she made in her life.

Maggie: "Hi, you don't know me, but my name is Margaret and my grandmother was your husband's cousin."

Sweetest Old Irish Lady: "Oh my, you're stuck because of the volcano! Why haven't you called us sooner! Take the 11:05am bus tomorrow morning and I will pick you up!"

Simple as that. And this is how we ended up living on an Irish Cow Farm in Skibbereen for 7 days. (In our own house on the property, might I add).

What was initially a very frustrating experience turned very quickly into the most memorable trip I have had since being in France. We saw so many beautiful things thanks to Pat, Mary and their 2 sons and daughter who drove us all the around the area for a week.

We learned how to Irish folk dance, ran in a field with the cows, drank fresh milk in our tea, took a boat ride to fastnet rock, drank real Guinness and saw so many amazing views that the pictures cannot do them justice.

After 7 days with this wonderful family, we took 3 busses to get across to the east coast of Ireland, then a 19 hour long ferry ride followed by two trains from northwestern France all the way back to Lyon...only 38 hours after leaving Skibbereen.

And I am now writing this while alone in my apartment since Maggie has now moved back to California. I will be here for another 3 weeks and then it's homeward bound for me as well :) Althought I will be sad to leave, I am certainly looking forward to seeing everyone at home.

See you soon!

Barcelona in a weekend....because we can!

Me near the beach

Easter Procession

Sagrada Familia

In front of Park Guell

Outside of our hostel

Just got back from Barcelona...and what an amazing trip. Even though we only stayed 2 nights, Isabelle and I were able to get a real feel for the city. Our hostel was right in the centre of the action, or Place Real for those who know Barcelona. Great place with free breakfast AND dinner, but oh so noisy at night. There's a reason they say "don't come here if you want to sleep" on their website.

On Friday, we arrived at our hostel, dropped off our bags and beelined to the beach. After enjoying some Gelato, we both realized how tired we were and took a cat nap under the sun on the beach.

The next morning, after realizing that they didn't lie on the website about noisyness at night, we set off to see the famous Sagrada Familia. It was absolutely stunning on the outside, which is all we were able to see after deciding to not wait in the line that went all the way around the perimeter. We then trekked over to Parc Guell, a very beautiful park/lookout point in the north part of the city. After relaxing there for a bit, we headed back to the centre to look for a bite to eat. Two burritos, two margaritas and 2 very happy travellers later, we continued our leisurely stroll along the sunfilled streets of Barcelona.

In the evening, we went to an Easter Procession (see pic) which is a huge tradition in Barcelona and it was one of the coolest things we had ever seen.

So overall, the weather was perfect, the food was amazing and the city was filled with things to do and see. If you can make it to Barcelona in your life time, you must. That is an order.

Until next time...

Meg,

Dad comes to visit!

Peacock wandering the park in Toulouse

Dad and I in front of the Church in Lourdes

La Garonne, Toulouse

Dad loves Lyon!

So yet another visitor to France....my one and only Dad! He spent his entire March Break with me and we had an amazing time!

For the first few days, Dad stayed in Lyon while I worked and did some touring on his own. Then on Wednesday, we set off to Toulouse! Although we soon discovered that our apartment was very close to what seemed to be the Red Light District, the Cafe up the street with the amazing coffee made up for it.

From Toulouse, we went on a day trip to Lourdes, a place that my father has been wanting to go for a long time....and I was really glad I got to share that with him. Despite the tacky religious objects that you can buy on the main street, Lourdes was very beautiful and especially peaceful.

So at the end of a busy but quite relaxing week with Dad, he headed back to Paris to catch his flight while I made my way back to my home away from home.

Toulouse and Lourdes were beautiful, but it made me realize how much I really love Lyon. Nothing compares.

Third Two Week Vacation in 5 Months...I LOVE France

Bridge in Lyon at Night

Lyon by day

Parc de la Tete d'Or - Lyon

Chris & Lac Annecy

Me in the Parc

River in Annecy

Old Annecy

:)

Lac Annecy

My Favourite Pic of the day

Hey Everyone...

Yes, I know it's been quite some time since I've blogged. I think part of the reason is that I'm really starting to feel like this is my home and not just a crazy travel adventure.

I am just at the very end of my 3rd 2 week vacation in 5 months.Let me say it again, I love France.

For the first week of the vacation, my boyfriend Chris came to visit. We mostly just walked around Lyon, saw all of the big sights and the small ones too...and I even discovered things I had never seen before! One of the days he was here, we did a day trip to Annecy. For those of you who have never heard of Annecy, it's said to be the "Venise of France" since it is known for it's rivers. However, the most beautiful thing about Annecy in my opinion is that it is right beside the alps. There is a huge lake, Lake Annecy, and right behind it are the mountains (see pic).

So out week was very relaxing, we ate some great food, enjoyed the nice weather and my favourite part was that Chris got to really see my home away from home.

The second week of vacation was pretty low key as well since my roommate was still travelling all around Spain and Morocco. So I had the place to myself, which was interesting. Did a lot of sleeping and watching Dexter. But now she is back and has just finished telling me allll about her wonderful adventures!!

So now I am sitting here in my living room, wondering why I didn't do any preparation for work before...comme toujours!

Only 7 weeks till the next vacation and only 2 weeks until dad comes to visit!

A Christmas Vacation for the Story Books

The Bridge at Night

L'Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Catacombs

Fountain from The Sound of Music

Enjoying the View in Salzburg

Amazing Meal in Prague

World Clock in Prague

End of Pont Charles

In front of the Berlin Wall

Brandenburger Tor

The day after New Years

Woohoooo! So it's been a little while since I wrote my last blog...but I guess I didn't need to tell you that.

I have only now really recovered from my extremely busy Christmas holidays. You really don't realize how tired you are until you stop moving.

For the beginning of my holidays, I spent 5 days in Paris with 3 friends from home - Erin, Tiff and Josiah. Although it was my second time in Paris, I had forgotten about so many wonderful things in that beautiful city and was very happy to be back. I think over the course of those 5 days I must have eaten at least 5 Nutella and Coco Crêpes...mmmmmm sooo goood.

The morning of Christmas Eve, the 4 of us ventured out into the cold to an outdoor market to buy our Christmas dinner food. Since we did not have an oven in our vacation apartment, we had to opt for stove top chicken breasts...but they were just as good! We also tried Foie Gras, or Duck Liver in english, a french delicacy at Christmas...and it's GOOD.

Our Christmas dinner was a huge success, and although I could not spend Christmas with family I was very glad to spend it with friends from home.

On boxing day, we headed out to catch our train to Munich. But, as sometimes life gives you lemons, we missed it. Not only did we miss it, but we watched it pull away....along with our 78 euros.

After researching other options for several hours, we eventually found a flight to Munich for 145 euros for those 26 years old and under...regular price: 800 euros. Although it was money we had not expected to pay, it was our best option.

The only thing was that the flight was for the next morning, and we no longer had a place to stay in Paris. Solution? Sleeping at the airport. Or "sleeping" at the airport. And after one looooong night of homeless people trying to eat our Pain au Chocolat and McDonalds for a midnight snack, we finally boarded the 1.5 hour plane ride to Munich.

Of course, we missed our night in Munich and so by the time we got there, we only really had 5 hours to see the city. Tired, smelly and especially hungry...we bee-lined it to the "Hofbrauhaus", a famous Beer Garden in Munich. It was there that we enjoyed, after a VERY long night, our first traditional German meal. Bratwurst, homemade potato salad, potato dumplings and of course, beer. Well deserved.

After our mini-tour of Munich, we set out for Salzburg in the early evening. The next daym despite the bitter cold, we set out to discover what Salzburg had to offer. And boy did it offer a lot. We saw several sites from the Sound of Music movie, including the fountain in Mirabell Gardens, the Nonnberg Nunnery and the front of the Von Trapp house. The views from the top of the hill were absolutely amazing...you will have to look at the photos to see. But even the photos do not do justice.

After a long day outside, we ate dinner at a small Italian-Austrian restaurant and then headed back to the hostel to get some sleep for our very early train to Prague the next morning...which we were NOT going to miss.

Once in Prague, we very quickly realized that not knowing the language was going to pose a few problems. In Paris, I could communicate in French...in Munich and Salzburg, Josiah could communicate in German. Any takers for Czech? It's too bad I dropped Czech 1A03 in first year....

So once we finally made it to the "Czech Inn", our absolutely beautiful hostel, we were exhausted. We asked George at the front desk where he suggested to eat, and his response will forever be an integral part of the trip. We made our way over to the restaurant, only a 5 min walk from the hostel...and proceeded to enjoy a HUGE meal which tasted amazing, 2 pints of Czech beer, or Pilsner Urquell, all for around 10 euros. Needless to say that it was a no brainer we would be eating there every night we were in Prague.

The next day, we went on a walking tour of Prague. It was the only walking tour we did the whole trip, but it was really nice to hear about the history of the buildings and the events that occurred in the places we were walking. Our tour guide was an American who came to Prague 5 years ago and never left. He taught himself Czech...we were impressed to say the least.

After a very cold walk across the famous Pont Charles and up the hill to see the Palace, we finally returned and thawed at our new favourite restaurant in the world. We would soon go back to the hostel with full stomachs, and get some sleep for our travels the next morning to Berlin.

When we arrived in Berlin, in the early evening of New Year's Eve, we met up with Erin's friend from Germany, Evelyne. We then, after a bit of difficulty, found the man who owned the vacation rental we would be staying at.

When we finally got to the apartment, we were blown away. This place had 2 huge bedrooms, a full equipped kitchen and 2 bathrooms, all for 15 euros a night each.

Now for a brief description of our New Years. We first went to the house where my friend Josiah had lived for the previous 5 weeks while taking a German intensive course. There, we met several of her friends, and they were all really cool people.

At around 11pm, we all went out to the streets near the river and this is where the craziness ensued...

Apparently it is legal for all civilians in Berlin to light fireworks anywhere. So for about 2-3 hours, we all stayed on the streets with fireworks going off all around us. I can't even describe what it was like...I will have to wait for Erin to post any of the 7 videos she took and then I can share them with you! It was a great New Year's.

On New Year's Day, we went to see the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburger Tor. We also saw the post-New Year's state of the city...firecracker deposits EVERYWHERE. Craziness, I tell ya.

The next day, Tiff and I had to leave Erin, and Josiah to catch our overnight bus back to Paris. Little did we know that we would be on that bus for 17 hours. It 's a good thing I learned somewhere along the trip how to sleep on moving vehicles.

So after those 17 hours, Tiff and I stored our luggage at the train station and bee-lined to the Nutella Coco Crêpes.

And eventually it was my time to come back to Lyon....and Tiff's time to go back to the CDG and stay overnight with the homeless people and the McDonalds...again.

In conclusion, I must say that it was an amazing trip spent in wonderful places with both old and new friends.

Welcome Foreigners!

"Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous êtes Mlle Clark?", said a voice from behind me as I was walking up the stairs to our apartment. I obviously answered "Oui" to this sweet little older woman who was standing at the bottom of the stairs.

The woman then began to tell me that apparently someone in the building has been removing our names (Maggie's and mine) from our mailbox (we had taped a piece of paper with our names on it underneath the owner's name so that we could receive mail). I was shocked, but this woman (Mme. Gergot) was OUTRAGED that someone would do that to us. She continued to tell me that she had noticed yesterday that our names were no longer there, so she put them back up along with a small sign saying "Please do not remove", in French...both of which had been removed as well.

Apparently, when she was younger, Mme. Gergot spent a lot of time in other countries such as Germany, Japan and England. She told me how she knows what it feels like to be a foreigner, and that it's hard enough to live in another country without people being so rude. Her experiences abroad, however, were much more severe than the removal of her name from her mailbox. In Germany, she had her tires slashed on several occasions by some lunatic who didn't think she deserved to be in the country. When she studied in Japan, her landlord kept all of her mail for six months because he "didn't want to interrupt her studies". In Japan as well, when she tried to give blood, they told her that they didn't want the "dirty blood of a white person".

Clearly, our situation is not that bad.

But for her, she could not even begin to believe that in her own country, and in this day and age, someone would be so intolerant and impolite to us.

Conveniently, there happens to be a shop across the road from our building where they make signs and stickers. She decided that she was going to take me there immediately so that we could get something made that would not be easily removed. At the shop, she explained the situation to the man who worked there and how absolutely disgusted she was with the situation. He immediately started to make us our sticker. Mme. Gergot also put in a special request for a STRONG adhesive.

Ten minutes later, while I was still in shock from Mme. Gergot's kindness, we walked back to the apartment with the man from the store who was carrying the sign and the strong adhesive. He then personally put the sticker on our mailbox (see picture), and I must mention, at NO charge. And that thing is not coming off easily, that's for sure.

Afterwards, M. Gergot was so worried that we may have missed our mail between last nignt and today that she personally called the post office to check. She then called our apartment by the intercom (meaning she would have had to go all the way downstairs and outside to call us) to say that the post office will check and resend any mail our way.

So all in all, today I met that nicest french woman and the nicest sticker man on the planet.

2 Thanksgivings and a Wine-tasting tour!

Stylish French Man

Ferris Wheel in Lyon

Me near the vineyards

View of the vineyards

So Thursday was American Thanksgiving...and since most of the other assistants are American, I celebrated with them! On Thursday night, Maggie and I went to another assistant's house and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving meal amoung friends.

Then on Friday, Maggie, Isabelle and I walked around Lyon and saw the HUGE Ferris Wheel in Place Bellecour that they set up for Chistmas. We then made our way to another Thanksgiving meal, which was slightly more frenchified...but equally as tasty! So although I didn't celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, I celebrated American Thanksgiving twice :)

So after 2 evenings in a row of wonderful food and wine, Maggie, myself and Adan went on a day tour of the Burgundy and Beaujolais wine regions. One of the teachers that Adan works with had offered to drive us around the region and do some wine-tasting.

In total, we tried 10 different wines at 4 different wineries while touring the beautiful countryside and historical small french villages in between. It was definitely something that we would have only been able to see by car, so we were very appreciative that someone had offered to take us! This teacher also knew the region VERY well, and so it was pretty much a guided tour with all of the historical facts included!

We are now very tired from our adventures, but it was certainly worth it. You can't live in France without going on a wine-tasting tour! J'adore ma vie en France.

Megan