Hamburg, Germany.

When I first arrived in Ireland I got a message on facebook from Swanni, an old friend who was a foreign exchange student at our high school. We hadn't spoken in years, but she saw that I was coming to Europe to study abroad and invited me to come visit her in Hamburg! After numerous logistical problems, including volcanic ash, Meagan D. and I were finally able to go see her. We flew to London and had a connecting flight to the Hamburg airport.

The Plane.

For those of you who don't know, this is how we board the RyanAir planes.

There was a particularly scary looking group of young men in front of us when we were in line to board the plane. Meagan and I exchanged a few quiet wisecracks, and then said agreed that there is no way we would be sitting by or near them on the plane.

After avoiding them on the flight we landed safely at the airport, and walked to the bus that would take us to the city center to meet Swanni. I was told the bus ride would be just over an hour. Meagan got on the bus while I loaded my luggage into the storage compartment, then followed her. As we were walking toward the back of the bus I started to get concerned that there were no seats left, when we saw that there were exactly two seats left. They were at the very back of the bus in a row of 4 seats, and were surrounded by the scary gang from the plane. The most charming one, Za, who had a crooked mowhawk and a big cross tattoo centered around a large mole on his head, scooted over to make room for us in between him and his friends. Of course.

We reluctantly took our seats, and learned that despite their scary exteriors, they weren't as bad as we thought they would be. Granted, they drank an entire bottle of vodka during the bus ride, but they courteously offered us some every time the bottle went by. They were three lithuanians and one brit who were on an anti-fascist, anti-racist soccer team. They were competing in a tournament that weekend in Hamburg. As a whole, they were fairly inebriated to begin with, and only became more drunk as the ride went on.

Za was quite talkative and interesting, but by far the scariest looking. Jack was friendly, but became way too friendly by the end of the ride and insisted on hugging us as we exited the bus. Paulo was the friendliest and most composed, but was constantly ridiculed by the others for being British. They all did their impressions of British accents as they explained to us that we were easier to understand. They said in England they sound like they're talking with an "apple in their mouth" or "water in their mouths." Their impressions of this sounded a lot like angry dinosaurs. Paulo had a good sense of humor about all of it though.

The last boy, Reagis, never said a word to us because by the time we got on the bus he had already passed out cold against the window. He had a pony tail of dread locks, (some pink, some his natural dirty blonde color), with a hello kitty barrette tangled into the mix. Za kept saying Reagis was his girlfriend as he would smash his unconscious, ragdoll face into the window. He also frequently belted out the chorus from Guns N' Roses "Paradise City."

By the end of the ride Za asked Meagan and I for our phone numbers. He called both of us Marilyn because I think he was under the impression it was one of our names and if he just said it to both he would get it right eventually. He asked, and I said "Nope." and he said "please?" and I laughed and said "Nope." As he tried to convince us again, Jack piped in telling him that we said no and to stop asking. I appreciated Jack a little more after that. Mostly out of fear, we asked Za for his last name and said we would find them on facebook when we got home. Za gave me his dirty, stained team t-shirt as a parting gift when we left. It was thoughtful, but was a terribly unclean, disgusting looking shirt. They were entertaining for an hour, but we were glad to get off that bus and don't plan on ever contacting any of the boys.

Swanni's street.

After we arrived, Swanni took us to different places with great views of the city.

We also walked under the harbor from one side to the other with this tunnel.

Me in the tunnel.

Me and Meagan.

Here is one of the streets of Hamburg in the evening.

The first night we were in Hamburg there was a huge festival, and Swanni and a group of her girlfriends took us to the lake to watch the fireworks. It was very cool because we were walking through town like a parade with hundreds of people, all going to the same spot at the park. At the end when we were all clapping and cheering together I really felt like a part of the city.

Here is the central train station.

Me and Swanni riding the train together.
The man behind us knew he would be in the picture. haha

The black steeple is a part of the church that we climbed to the very top of to get the best view of the city. We decided it would be faster to take the stairs than to wait for the elevator, and climbed 467 steps to get to the very top. We were quite exhausted when we got there.

Swanni said she sometimes comes to this beautiful church for the Christmas services.

The organ.

View of Hamburg.

Second view of Hamburg.

Me at the very top. It was a little windy, as you can see.

Swanni had to feed the pet bunnies at her neighbors apartment while they were on holidays, so Meagan and I went with her. They were very shy bunnies though. Here they are hiding under my chair next to my shoe:

The little white one was less skittish.

More of the city.

Swanni and I walking.

The city hall.

Another view of city hall.

For bachelor parties in Europe the groom-to-be is basically dressed up like a fool and forced to embarrass himself in public. This poor jail-bird with the microphone was about to serenade everyone in the plaza in front of the city hall.

The 'beer bicycle' seen above is a bar where every stool had pedals. We saw it a few times while we were walking around in the afternoon, but usually we could hear it coming before we saw it.

We spent our last afternoon in the city at Swanni's parents house and had lunch with her family. The lunch her mother and older sister made for us was wonderful, and they all spoke English quite well so the conversations were great as well.

Here is their house:

Me and Swanni at a pub.

I really liked the wall at the pub.

At the tiny airport before our flight we had a few hours to kill, and Meagan and I quickly discovered the children's play area. We kept ourselves pretty entertained:

Me in a rocket.

It was a tight squeeze.

Meagan's helicopter.

It was great to see Swanni again after all of these years! She gave us the best time in Hamburg! She might be coming to the states in September for a wedding, so hopefully it won't be too long before we see each other again.

Vive la France.

Ben invited Me and Meagan D. to come to France with him for a few days and stay with his family. He lives in the town of St. Martin de Boscherville, which is right next to Rouen. We were supposed to go at the end of April for about 5 days. He had a wedding to go to, and we were going to spend the day in Paris, where Brendan was flying to meet us, while he was at the ceremony and reception. We got up at the crack of dawn, went through security at 5 in the morning, and walked across the entire airport to our terminal. 20 minutes later our flight was listed as "cancelled" due to "adverse weather conditions." Rain? No. Snow? No. It looked fine outside, and Ben found out that the weather in France was also fine. I suggested that maybe it was a tornado, and we all laughed at what a ridiculous suggestion that was. Then we heard words like "volcano" and "Scandinavia" being thrown around. Apparently a volcano erupted in Iceland and the ash cloud was so enormous that it was covering Iceland, most of Scandinavia, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. And all flights out of the Dublin airport were cancelled. We thought it was some kind of a joke at first, but then about an hour into the 5 hour wait line to talk to a representative from RyanAir to change our flight,
reality sunk in.

We spent most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon waiting to switch our flight for a few days later, which was then also cancelled the day before it should have set out. Ben missed the wedding, which I know made him sad, and we missed meeting all his friends and most of his extended family. It was incredibly disappointing. However, not many people can say they were directly affected by the ash cloud like we were. We were among the few hundreds of people who had their flight literally cancelled at the airport in the beginning of the disaster, which is kind of cool in a glass-half-full kind of way.

We had a lot of trouble re-booking any flights to France, which was driving Ben crazy, so I just tried to be as nice to him as possible while he yelled at his computer in French. Eventually we got through and Ben, Meagan, Brendan and I booked our flight to France, and hoped that it would go through. According to the weather predictions there was a better chance we would be unable to fly back from France to Ireland, rather than flying to France in the first place.

Finally we got to France and, after a short drive, made it to his house at around noon. His mother made us lunch, and we relaxed for a few hours.

Before picking up his youngest sister Lucie from school, we played around on his trampoline for a little while.

Meagan.

Me.

Brendan doing a jump.

This is the back of Ben's house. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of his adorably French country house. I'll be there once more before I come home, though, and I'll take a few house shots while I'm there.

Brendan became very close with Ben's cat while we were there.

Ben and his other sister Caroline took us to the firehouse where they both work and showed us their uniforms, vehicles, and all the different tools they use. Then they helped us all try on their uniforms.

This is Ben's locker.

Getting suited up!

Me in the full French fireman uniform.

France, I salute you.

Meagan in her uniform.

The three of us, (Me, Meagan, Brendan).

Outside the station.

Looking mighty official, I'd say.

We also drove down this little country road to go see Ben's stepfather's horse (cheval, en francais).

I don't know how to spell his name, but it was pronounced "pink-way."

I was standing in front of the horse petting his nose, and he looked happy at the time, when suddenly he sneezed all over my sweater. Meagan got a picture right after the incident, and as you can see Brendan found it pretty amusing:

If you walked up to the fence the cows would all stare at you, as you can see with Ben above. Meagan and Brendan soon discovered that they would also follow if you walked along the fence line! My guess is it was close to feeding time. Or they were just curious cows. (vache)

Ben's town is the perfect little quaint French town. Everything was cute, the people all knew each other, and we loved seeing where he grew up. Meagan took this picture on the way to the church in St. Martin de Boscherville.

Here's the church:

The inside was enormous and stunning.

We spent one of our afternoons exploring Rouen, which is where Ben went to school.

Rouen street shot.

On the lower left hand corner of this building you can see that there are some large holes that were left from WWII.

Underneath the clock above were the sculptures that you can see below:

I was particularly excited to get to see Rouen Cathedral. After studying about the architecture and the series of Rouen Cathedral paintings by Monet in my art history classes, it was incredible to see it all in person:

There was an exhibit in the church while we were there. It was a series of enormous, animated, colorful paintings done by a priest who was inspired by Monet. This is one of the two colorful canvases. The third was a similar style, but all in black, whites, and gray tones.

We saw many outdoor cafe areas like the one above, and settled in one that was popular for young people, according to Ben. We got comfortable and enjoyed our French treats:

It was a soft bread filled with chocolate. Delicious.

Another Rouen street.

For one of our evenings we went to Maxime's house. I met Maxime the first night I met Ben because he was visiting Ireland. They grew up next door neighbors and have been best friends all of their lives. Here is Maxime's house:

This is a barn by Maxime's.

A garage behind his house.

In the beginning of the evening we played outside:

I found a swing to entertain myself while Meagan took photographs. Brendan and Maxime played ping-pong:

And as the night grew later we went inside and goofed around for the rest of the night.

Ben and Brendan.

Brendan was convinced he could leg-lift 400 pounds, or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention until he tried to lift Meagan. He succeeded, but she is absolutely not 400 pounds so I still have my doubts about his claim...

Ben and I after a long night of fun. haha

Brendan took the train to Paris a day earlier than we did, and Ben, Meagan and I spent the day with his family. They took us to Le Havre to have lunch with his mother's parents at a nice restaurant, and we came back and played Rummy together. Even though none of his family speaks any English except for Ben, it was easier to interact than we had expected.

Me, Ben's stepfather, and Meagan at his grandparent's house.

After lunch we walked to the beach to a festival. There was some kind of skateboarding, rollerblading competition going on.

And then we walked down to the beach:

On our last full day in France Ben drove us into Paris to meet Brendan and explore the city.
At lunch Brendan and I made a scavenger hunt contest for our day in France where we had to find things like 'a person in a beret' and 'foreign couple arguing' and 'poodle.' I won by three points. :)

These balconies were on almost every building.

Here I am shortly after I learned that the Musee D'Orsay is closed on Mondays...what the heck. But I'll be back with Kelsey, and Meagan would be back with her mother, so it wasn't as awful as it could have been. We will have another chance. Thank goodness, because this was the one place I really wanted to see again. It is full of impressionist work from some of my favorite painters, and I would be broken-hearted if I got that close to them and could never see them.

Here is Meagan D. and I in front of one of the animal statues outside the museum.

We went to the Eiffel Tower, naturally.

And stopped at the Notre Dame Cathedral as well.

I think this picture Meagan took is the best way to end this entry. At one of the parks we stopped at there were these three old men on the bench talking to each other, and Meagan and I just loved them!

France was an incredible adventure, and it was very nice of Ben to invite us to his home. His family was patient and accommodating, and I know I can speak for all three of us in saying it was a trip we will never forget.