Day 1- Oslo

I never really intended to go to Oslo. I had nothing against the idea of it per say, but it never captured my imagination like most of Europe had. Sure, I liked the Norwegian pavilion at Epcot, and the travel shows make Bergen and the fjords look beautiful, but Oslo looked to me like a modern tangle minus the charm of say, New York City or London. But, cheap air fare often dictates travel plans, and round trip air to Europe for 600 meant that it was worth it to go to Oslo for a couple of days.

Its fair to say that Oslo gave me much more than I bargained for. I couldn't have imagined that modern architecture and old harbor could blend so perfectly. I've never seen such expensive food before, or people so tall. (If James were blonde, he'd fit right in.) I've never seen a city spend so much money on itself from the exquisite tulips in a public square to the stunning "iceberg" opera house on the water. James described the Aker Brygge waterfront district as displaying wealth that he'd only previously seen in Doha. (wealthy middle eastern city) Norwegians have an amazing sense of design, though, so this display of wealth is so tasteful, it hardly seems real. Oslo has an unexplainable charm all it's own that is different from any European city I've visited. I can't wait to see more.

Aker Brygge harbor district

Gorgeous flowers in a public square.

Opera House

Public Square

Day 4

For our first full day in Paris, we had a lot planned. First on our list was the Eiffel Tower. Now, remember from yesterday that I had maybe 5 hours of sleep, plus we had the World Cup neighbors keeping us up until after midnight. Bottom line? We slept in until 8:30, and the tower opened at 9. One thing we've learned is that Paris is like Disneyworld. You need to be at the attraction before opening or use extra magic hours (in Paris when the museums stay open late on different nights of the week.) Needless to say, we were not at the Eiffel Tower at opening, and the line was already hours long. Thankfully, we had spent time by it the night before and had excellent pictures. Our great views of Paris would have to come for another source in a couple days.

Trekking on, we saw the Arc de Triomphe, which was more stairs than I was prepared to climb at 284, but I made it like a trooper. We wandered the Tuileries Gardens (and by wandered, I mean laid back in comfy chairs under shade trees, looking at statues) and saw Monet's water lilies and other Impressionist paintings in the Orangerie. Side note: Renoir's paintings are pure confection, and I liked Cezanne more than I expected to. Lunch was a much needed long affair after so much walking which featured creme brûlée, French onion soup, steak au poive, and goat cheese salad. (Not in that order)

As we kept on through Sainte Chappelle, a jewel box chapel of stained glass, and the Conciegerie where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were kept before the guillotine, James developed a heat rash which meant he could barely walk. He suffered through Notre Dame, and I knew we were done for the day, despite "extra magic hours" at the Louvre.

We returned to our apartment with microwaveable meals and chocolate from the grocery store down the road and watched sports documentaries on wifi for the rest of the evening. And it was fine. Sometimes you have to give yourself a break in order to keep going later. Maybe we won't see Mona Lisa on this trip, but I guess it gives me a reason to come back.

Day 3

Apparently, still not over jet lag, I tossed and turned at 11:00 last night, wishing myself back to sleep. We had to catch a flight at 6:15, which meant that we had to be up at 3:45 to catch the airport bus at 4:40. End result? I got maybe 4 hours of sleep. (Maybe, I don't think so though) We had no issues getting our bus, Aircoach in Dublin, or getting on our flight. (Although it does seem like European security lines at the airport are always longer than in America.) Soon, we were in Beauvais and off to Paris.

A side note: Beauvais is an hour from Paris, and the traffic in Paris can take over 30 minutes. This is not a time saving option. I didn't mind flying in, but would never fly out if Beauvais.

After learning that automated teller machines at the Parisian metro don't take credit cards, we were zipping along on the fastest and best subway system I've ever seen. When we came out of the tunnel, our breath was taken by the gorgeous views. Paris is beautiful. Yes, I've heard that before, but photos and videos can't do justice to how grand it is and how beautiful it is everywhere. Most places have pockets of beauty here and there: New Iberia's trees along the Teche, Royal Street and Jackson Square in New Orleans, the arch in St Louis, even the sunflower fields in North Dakota. But I have never been surrounded by such consistent and awe-inspiring beauty as in Paris. Now, I love Florence, and the Duomo is still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and the city will not be surpassed in my mind, due to its easy size, historic architecture and art treasures, but I finally understand the fuss about Paris. For someone like me who tends to appreciate architecture over nature, this city astounds.

Not only that, but there's so much to do! But, it is so far apart. That is the biggest misconception I had when coming to Paris: that I would be able to walk between sites. This place is "east side of New York City" big. (Huge blocks!) We accidentally left our map at the room and walked 30 minutes out of our way circling one block to get to the Rodin museum from Napoleon's tomb. We walked for hours in the evening, only to barely get anywhere on the map. My optimistic touring plans are out the window, and I am thankful we have 4 days here.

Our Airbnb apartment is even better than last time. It is excellently located, and we are so ready to have a place to ourselves. The only drawback? No air conditioner ( which I really thought I had checked off as a requirement.) It is cool enough outside to leave the window open, but we are one the ground floor. Now, our window only opens to a courtyard which is shared by the back door of a hair stylist and small shop that are both closed in the evening and seemingly one other apartment. But the guys in the other apartment are watching the World Cup. Loudly. And there is no screen on our window, so I am somewhat frightened of someone just crawling in our window. There is a motion sensor light outside our door which comes on at the drop of a hat and makes me paranoid. End result? I shut the window. I think we got the temp down to the mid- 60's in here before I did, but still more drama over cool air than I wanted. The French people can definitely withstand more heat than I can (as proven by me sweltering through the army museum today, but that is another story.)

All in all, I am really excited to see more of Paris, but am a little daunted. The view of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night while we sit out on the grass in front of it makes it all worthwhile.

The first day of this trip was one of the most stressful travel days I've ever endured. Why, you ask? I have no clue. There was no big storm, no hurricane, just a random flight delay into Chicago that caused all the stress. Apparently, Chicago, or maybe United, overbooks their flights and/or runway space because a 10 minute delay on our end for a safety check incurred an hour delay into Chicago. Which was the exact amount of time we had between that flight and the one into Newark. When we landed, we had 16 minutes to book it to our gate, across the entire Chicago airport from F to C (the very last gate in C) and we made it in time. Well, James made it 2 minutes early. I made it on the dot, but they had already closed the door and changed our flight til the next day. Meaning we would lose an entire day in Dublin. I cried, panicked, and stood in line at customer service while I sent James to the gate of another flight to Newark that was supposed to leave in 30 minutes. Miracle of miracles, we got on the waiting list, and then the flight. But guess what?! Yep, it was delayed. It reached Newark at the exact moment our Dublin flight was to close. As we raced off the plane, I accosted the first person I saw in uniform and asked him to call and hold our flight. To my surprise, he did, and a airport golf cart whizzed James and I there in time to take off. I still can't believe we made that flight and got here in time.

Our first view of Ireland was very green, as expected. While here these few days, I've learned why it is so green. It rains constantly. Well, constantly may not be fair, but there is always the possibility of rain looming. Our first experience with AirBnb went well as we checked into our room that we were renting from a great guy who happens to work for the Spanish tourism office in Dublin. It was clean, well-located and exactly as advertised. I'll admit, it was a little weird staying in someone's house, but it was much cheaper than hotels in Dublin. Another plus? The WiFi worked great. ;)

My first impressions of Dublin are that it is a very easy city to be in. It is probably the most American of any European city we've visited. Water is free, people speak English, toilets are what you'd expect. (Aka, they have seats, toilet paper, and don't charge you) And the people are so gracious. Seriously, I've never seen people who were so kind to tourists, who seemed to genuinely pleased to have you there. And you gotta love the accents. Downsides? Well, Dublin itself doesn't have the most historic sites in Ireland. It's best church pales in comparison to most churches in Europe, and most of the city is relatively new. Think Boston with no skyscrapers and more Irish pubs. (If that was possible.) Although it rained on us off and on all day, I still thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the city, seeing Christschurch, which looks an awful lot like Hogwarts, and having my first meal in an Irish pub (not counting Raglan Road at Disney World). Stay tuned for much more tomorrow!

Day 2

The second day began early as we both awoke at 3:00 am from jetlag. I was happy to have at least slept 7 hours since we had gone to bed the previous night at 8:00, but was wishing I could get a little more sleep. Well, I got my wish. About an hour later, I conked out and slept like the dead until 10:00 am. Unfortunately, this will probably hurt my chances of getting over jetlag since that second round of sleep was when I would have normally been sleeping at home.

Today was museum day, and we were both feeling the pain of hard walking and running yesterday combined with jetlag and cobblestone streets beneath our feet. Museums may not seem like hard work, but you do a lot of walking and standing. But, after an early lunch of Burger King (we had to), we were ready to hit up Dublin's museums. Let's hit the highlights!

1. A 5000 year old boat carved out of a log that is still in remarkably good shape at the National Museum of Archaeology and History. It was crazy to think that someone was using that boat before Abraham.

2. The oldest page of a Bible anywhere. It is from Numbers and is written on papyrus. There were also the oldest copies of the letters from Paul which were written in the second century. This guy Chester Beatty had probably the best private collection of rare and old books in the world. He had upwards of 20 incunables (books from before the printing press) which I know from Pawn Stars are worth like $10,000 on the low end. He donated the collection to be opened as a free museum, which is now one of the best sites in Dublin. (Actually saw this yesterday, but my foggy mind prevented me from writing about it then)

3. An excellent Caravaggio painting. If you've read my past travel blogs, you know that Caravaggio was my first experience with European art, and he is still my favorite artist. Each time we come back to Europe, I search out his paintings, so I was excited to visit the National Gallery in Dublin, which I knew had his "Betrayal of Christ in the Garden". It was everything I love about Caravaggio: his use of light, action and movement, detailed faces with emotion. (Google it now, but I probably got the title wrong)There was also a Picasso in the museum, and I must say that I didn't get it. I tried hard. Really I did, but it was a still life of a ukulele, a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine, and I could only make out the ukulele. I promise to try Picasso again in Paris, but for now, I am not a fan.

4. The excellent tour guide at Dublin Castle, Siobhan. Even though most of what is still standing at Dublin Castle is from Georgian times, she brought all of Dublin history to life. We went down below the castle to the old city walls, and I learned what they mean by the Irish "gift of gab". We were hanging on her every word. She made a mediocre site really great and worth it!

5. One more thing from yesterday: costumes from The Tudors in the crypt of Christchurch! I really love historical drama, and the show, The Tudors, is one of my faves in this genre. Apparently since many of the actors are Irish and they filmed often in Dublin, they gave some costumes to the church. Not historic at all, and a little silly, but I loved it. The detail on the fabric was amazing, and I felt like a total fan girl.

After the museums, we strolled the Temple Bar area which is like a really super nice, clean, Bourbon Street. There were street musicians and music pouring out of the bars. Picturesque facades line the street with brightly colored pubs, and beautiful dark wood bars inside. Unfortunately, the pints and food were too rich for our blood, so we retired back to our neighborhood pub for bangers and mash and steak and Guinness pie. (Very Irish, I know.) it was a perfect end to a perfect day in Ireland. I am glad we will be back in a few weeks.

Stay tuned for our first day in Paris tomorrow!

1. We paid off our Debt

2. We MadE the Decision to Travel

3. We never take "the trip of a lifetime"