SPRING BREAK!!!!

So, as the title indicates, spring break was epic. However, as it takes me five hours to write a post about an afternoon trip, I'm a little frazzled about the prospect of writing about an entire week. But this trip was too amazing not to share it. So here we go.

First Stop: London

The traveling part of my spring break actually started a few days later than most other peoples', but for a very good reason - BRANDON WAS HERE!!! For four glorious, perfect days Brandon Osbourne Phoenix was here, in Dublin, with me. We went to the Guinness Factory,

Brandon's first Guinness in Ireland

The two of us in the extremely crowded and hot gravity bar at the top.

the Book of Kells, Trim Castle (which was closed due to my lack of proper research before embarking on a journey :()

Brandon with his eyes closed in front of Trim Castle

and the farmer's market. We went out to dinner and watched movies and bought the first decoration for the apartment we just found out we got last week.

Mirror handmade of recycled glass by Dublin craftswoman

It was, in a word, bliss. For the second half of his trip, we were also joined by one of my very best friends from home, Camilla, and her friend from college Daisy, and we spent two days hanging out in pairs or all together.

<----Daisy  Camilla----->

On Sunday when Brandon left (sadface) the three of us remaining headed over to London for the first leg of my spring break trip. With relative ease we found our hostel, the Green Man, which was also a bar that sported 1 pound pints from 4-6. I blame them and their sneaky deals for the fact that we began our stay by getting drunk before the sun went down. We were doing ok until a kindly old gentleman (who turned out to be a professor of the mandible and felt the need to talk to us at length about the effect of youth orthodontia on the jaw) came over to the bar declaring "another round for the ladies!" and wouldn't listen to our attempts to dissuade him, meaning that by the end of that pint it was one pint too many. So what do three young ladies such as ourselves do in a situation such as this? Why, we walk around London causing a ruckus of course! Just kidding, the biggest ruckus we caused was my incomprehensible desire to stop and buy food at every Burger King we passed (I have no idea what that was about).

The next day we said farewell to the Green Man and our barman Xeno, and hello to our friend Jess Picone! She is studying at Regent's College in Regent's Park, a very swanky part of town. After catching our breath for a second and coming up with a game plan we immediately went out sightseeing, as I was only going to be there for two days and we had to cram as much into each day as we could. We started off with Big Ben

and Westminster Abbey,

which were two big ones on my list. I geeked out a little at Westminster Abbey, gushing about how Kate and William will be getting married there in a little over a month! So exciting. As we walked along Westminster, the bells began to ring out merrily and we noticed a bit of a crowd forming. We approached a police officer standing stiffly at attention, who told us that the Queen would be arriving soon for a reception and we suddenly decided to stick around Westminster Abbey for a few more minutes.

With cameras in hand, we watched as the Queen's posse arrived led by a few motorcycles and a car or two surrounding Her Majesty's vehicle. In a lovely peach skirt/jacket/hat combo, she stepped gracefully from the car and greeted the three church officials who were waiting to receive her, and then the four of them turned and walked solemnly into the church. Needless to say, I was already in love with London at this point, having seen something that most of the American students studying at Regents hadn't seen in the last two months they were here. From there Jess left us to do work and Camilla, Daisy and I wandered our way to Buckingham Palace by way of Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

(stopping on the way for a photo op with the guards of the Cavalry Museum),

Didn't get too close - the horse almost bit that kid!

and again we happened to be in the right place at the right time and arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard! It was pretty much epic in every way.

The next day we hit the Tower of London and Platform 9 3/4, both of which were dreams come true for me. At the Tower I got to learn about be-headings and torture from the coolest tour guide ever,

Exhibit A.

and stood at the spot where Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, her lady in waiting, and the Lady Jane Grey were all beheaded for their 'crimes' against King Henry VIII. Queen Anne wished to be executed in the French style, and so a master swordsman was called up from France to do the deed by way of a cross swing with a sword while she knelt, rather than an axe down with her head on a block. When the time came a man tapped her shoulder to distract her, and when she looked to the side the swordsman struck once, and it was over. The way that an execution of the Tower went was generally that the person (who was always royal, noble, or high up in the clergy) would be dragged from the castle up to Tower Hill, where people would be drinking and making merry at the base of a scaffold. When the prisoner arrived, the executioner would kneel before his victim and beg for forgiveness for the deed he was about to perform. After the prisoner had forgiven him, he would often give the executioner a gold coin to ensure a swift execution, as it sometimes took five or more swings of the axe to do the job. Once the coin was paid, the condemned would turn to the crowd, say his last words, kneel to pray, and, when he was ready, put his head down on the block. Afterward, the executioner would present the head to the crowd so they could affirm it was the right person, and he would say "Here is the head of a traitor, and so shall be the fate of all traitors. Long live the King!" to which the crowd would respond "Long live the King!" It is said that with Queen Anne the execution was so swift that when the executioner presented her head to the much smaller crowd (she and the others mentioned were given the honor of a private execution within the Tower) her eyes were still looking around and her mouth was still moving in her final prayer! I learned a bunch more, but do not wish to bore you with the gory details. If anyone is interested in hearing more, please let me know and I would be happy to oblige. :)

For those of you who are not Harry Potter nerds like me, platform 9 3/4 is the platform that Harry and the other witches and wizards use to catch the train to their school, Hogwarts, in the Harry Potter books. Having been a huge fan of the books and movies since I was ten years old, going to see the tribute to this platform at King's Cross station was a fairly significant deal for me, though I felt like a huge nerd the whole time we were there. Daisy, who is a physics major, hates "mythical, magical unicorns" and therefore all things to do with Harry Potter, so I felt a little silly geeking out with her there. However, we had a good time taking pictures and posing and such. :)

Mythical, magical unicorns make Daisy sad :(

Camilla heading to Hogwarts

Slightly excited

We made a brief stop at the British history museum to see the Enlightenment room and a bit about European history

The Enlightenment Room

but we were wiped from the rest we had done that day and soon decided to head back.

We saw a Teletubby and a Native American hanging out on a bench, and were confused.

That night we went out for a last hurrah with Jess's friends and then early the next morning it was time for me to catch a flight to Marseille.

Second Stop: France

Wednesday was pretty much lost to travel, beginning at 7am and continuing until a little after that time in the evening. I was extremely nervous about getting to the airport, flying, and getting a bus into Marseille all by myself, but it all went off relatively without a hitch.

The landing was a little rough and it took me a while to figure out how to get the right bus in Marseille, but it all worked out in the end. Andy was waiting for me at the bus stop with a croissant, a smile, and a hearty "welcome to France!" This statement was immediately followed by "Marseille is a dump, let's get out of here" so without ever leaving the station I hopped on a train and headed with Andy to our next stop, Nice. We arrived in the evening and I was feeling pretty hangry (what Brandon calls it when I get pissed from being too hungry) so we found an English-type restaurant because all the French ones were done serving food. Potato skins, hot chocolate, a bacon cheeseburger, and chocolate cake in the belly was enough to bring me back from the brink, and we explored some of the streets before making our way down to the water. We could see a fancy-looking hotel right on the water, and just for kicks decided to see how much it would cost to stay there. I was willing to splurge a bit because I hadn't had to pay for food or housing while I was in London, and since I left a few days after most people I was spending much less on my trip than most of my fellow students. We ended up being able to haggle the front desk woman down 15 euro for the night, since she knew there was very little chance she would get anyone else to fill the room in the next few hours. So while I used the internet to let my Mom and Brandon know that I had arrived safely, Andy ventured forth and found wine, which it turns out only costs about 3 euro a bottle for decent stuff in France (score!). That night we set a precedent for enjoying some wine and having excellent talks about life that was followed every evening for the rest of our trip. :)

The next day we hiked up some stairs we had noticed the night before at the side of our hotel that led to a labyrinth of walkways with stunning views,

beautiful tile work,

lush greenery, a cemetery, some ruins, and a myriad of other wonders.

We explored these until it was Andy's turn to get a little hangry, at which point we made finding breakfast a priority. When we descended from the walkways we found ourselves in Old Nice, with charming cafes,

winding streets, and wonderful local shops selling olives and candy and dresses that I still wish I had at least tried on.

Sheep's testicles, yum!

Ew, gummy spiders

Breakfast was quiche lorraine for me, a cafe eclair for Andy, and we munched away as we continued to explore the streets in the sunshine. The rest of that day is a blur of walking and sunshine. We spent a good deal of time by the water, eating jambon fromage baguettes (ham and cheese) and watching all the people walking by.

Me in front of our hotel.

Just tryin' on hats, as one does.

Finding out where we are.

One little girl was in love with the sand and kept gathering as much of it into her arms as possible, before eventually flinging herself onto the ground and positively burying herself in it in rapture. We tried not to let her see us laughing.

We were realizing more and more that, while Nice was awesome, we wanted to get somewhere a little more chilled out for a while, and I was realizing that I wanted to spend some serious relaxation time on a beach somewhere. In order to do that we needed to a. figure out a place to go and b. find me at least one book to read on the beach, as I had packed none.

In recent months, it has become clear to me that it would be prudent for me to learn French, due to the amount of time I may or may not be spending in Montreal in the not-so-distant future. I am not a fan of the traditional ways in which a person learns a language - taking classes, memorizing vocabulary, conjugating verbs, etc. I like a more hands-on approach, which is what gave me the idea to do what I did next. I bought a French-to-English dictionary, two Harry Potter books and The Hobbit, all in French.

Harry Potter and the School of Sorcerers

I already know these books really well, so I figured that knowing the story would help with being able to translate and I could just look up words and pronunciations along the way and learn the rules of the language by reading some of my favorite stories. Well, it has been working like a charm so far, and, while the process was painstaking at first, I already need to look up fewer and fewer words, and am getting a better sense of the sentence structure and verb usage. Andy and I have agreed that by page seventy I shouldn't have to look up any words at all. :) So from the bookstore we found the tourism office and got information about places outside of town. For one euro we took the bus to the Port de Saint Jean, saw a hotel sign across the street from the bus stop, went in, figured out how to communicate with the cranky old owner who never even asked our names, and got a room for the next two nights. Exploring was next on the agenda, so we dropped our bags and walked down the main street to see what we could see. What we saw was beauty. There was a harbor full of beautiful boats sitting in the beautiful water surrounded by beautiful mountains.

We walked on a beautiful street with beautiful shops and beautiful people. All of the restaurants were closed, since apparently all French places close at 6pm, so we made our way to Spar (a sort of European Cumberland Farms without the gas station) and got brie, cheddar cheese, apples, wine, salami, and a baguette, and headed back to the hotel to feast. We had had the presence of mind to purchase a deck of cards back in Nice so we ate, talked, and played gin rummy to our heart's content.

The next day was when the real exploration began. Andy was going out to do some reconnaissance while I chilled back at the hotel translating my Harry Potter a L'ecole des Sorciers. He was back within a half hour though, exclaiming, "Hannah, you have to see this place!" so I abandoned my book and headed out into the sunshine. We saw several nice beaches, a beautiful church with what I'm convinced was the largest statue of Mary and Jesus that exists in the world today,

and miles and miles of breathtakingly blue water.

Coexist Fountain

A charming house

I decided that the beach was calling my name, went back to fetch my book, and laid in the sun by the water while Andy explored further. Relaxation was the name of the game in Saint Jean, and I did as much of it as I possibly could. We missed the restaurants again that night (I don't know how that kept happening!) so it was a dinner of chips, bread, wine, and brie again for us.

Third Stop: Monaco

The next morning we packed up our things, tidied the room, and turned in our key to the cranky owner who I was now rather fond of. Perhaps it had something to do with his willingness to open all of our wine bottles for us. Andy wanted to check out Monaco before leaving the area, so we hopped on a bus for two euro and headed on over. To describe my reaction to Monaco in a word: unimpressed. Oh it was flashy - perfectly manicured gardens, Bentleys that cost more than my college education, strip malls containing Prada, Gucci, and Valentino, and yachts bigger than my house. But that's all it was. Flashy. In Saint Jean and even Nice I saw real beauty - mountains, beaches, sunny houses and quiet walkways. Ruins and tiny streets and plants and food and art and a myriad of other things that I would consider beautiful. But Monaco just had money.

We went up a lot of stairs that day, and walked up a lot of hills. A few of the spots we wanted to hit were the Casino de Monte Carlo, the Jardin Exotique (Exotic Garden), and Prince Albert's Palace. We stopped in first at the Casino de Monte Carlo,

but apparently we looked too much like ruffians and were chased away from the stairs by a rude doorman. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we had been wearing the same three sets of clothes all week, and showering rather less often than usual. We continued on down by the harbor,

stopping at a booth to pick up lunch on the way (jambon fromage panini). We walked around the entire harbor, and then found some - guess what? - stairs! up to a castle ruin that then led to the palace. This too was less than impressive, though we walked down a neat street to get to it.

The palace itself was not much to look at - in fact, I didn't realize we had reached it when we did.

The front was under construction, and had it not been for the guards I would not have recognized it for what it was. Once again we had a run-in with the powers that be, getting reprimanded by a guard when we accidentally came too close to the palace. Feeling as though this entire place did not approve of us, we left the palace, and decided that our feet and spirits could only make it as far as the train station and not as far as the Exotic Gardens. We took a 2 euro train back to Nice with differing opinions about our experience. Andy rather liked the place, and while it wasn't what he expected, he is glad we went. I, on the other hand, felt uncomfortable and out of place the whole time we were there, did not think it was nearly as beautiful as the other places we had seen, and honestly could have taken it or left it. However, from the responses I've gotten from other people about my pictures, their personal experiences there, or their desire to go there, I seem to be the only person on the planet who feels this way, so please keep that in mind when you read my account.

Final Stop: Nice Again

The end of our trip was bittersweet. I was a bit tired of walking around and got a little frustrated at Andy's need to find the perfect takeaway pastry shop that did not seem to exist even though we continued to walk up and down the same street looking for it (sorry Andy). We saw a dog in a pet store window that was so cute I had to stop myself from trying to buy it right then and there, and we looked at the prices for renting apartments on the water for a week, just in case we need that information in the future. Surprisingly, the prices weren't *that* expensive, considering, and we discussed getting some friends together and going back some day in the future. :)

Eventually, we made an executive decision and stopped at a cafe with outdoor seating right near the water, as it looked like it might rain and the place had a canopy. I then ordered what turned out to be the best meal I ate the whole time I was there, which is saying something. Croque Monsieur.

Liz and I are going to try to make it some time, because it was so simple and yet so delectable. If I had known about it at the beginning of the trip I would have ordered it every day, and if we had had more time at the end of the trip I would have ordered it two or three times in that one sitting at the cafe. But alas, as soon as the last crumb was scooped off our plates, it was time to catch our bus to the (ginormous) airport. I was ready to head back by the end of the trip, but I felt refreshed, renewed, ready to take on the second, and more rigorous part of the semester.

                                                              ***********

Seeing Brandon was an immeasurable gift, and knowing that I will be seeing him again in just five weeks - as long as he hasn't gotten and left for an internship by the time I get home -  is doing wonders for my already optimistic life outlook. London with Camilla, Daisy and Jess was a blast, and seeing the Queen was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Nice, Saint Jean, and Monaco were magical, warm, sunny, unbelievable experiences that I will never forget. The whole week felt like time out of time, and it was one of those rare occasions where amazing experiences seemed to last for weeks rather than just days. To cap off all the fun, on our flight home the pilot came on to announce that it was almost full time for the huge Ireland-England rugby match that we were all missing during our flight, and that the score was Ireland:23, England: 7. There arose a huge roar of approval from everyone on the plane, and it was one of those rare flight moments where you feel as though all the people sitting in this small enclosed space who have not been communicating with each other in any way are all of a sudden united behind one common feeling. We cheered along with everyone else, and landed twenty minutes later without a hitch, safely back in Dublin.

Epilogue

Reconnecting with everyone and swapping our spring break stories was great, though getting back into the swing of classes this last week was a little tough. One of the best parts about this week was getting to sew on my patches. Anyone who has traveled with me in the last three years knows my very distinctive bag. For my nineteenth birthday, my wonderful mother gave me an army bag with patches sewn on that she has been collecting my whole life of the places I have gone. It is a bag with memories of all of the family vacations and various trips I have experienced that I can carry with me wherever I go - a precious gift.

And now that I am here and traveling, I am buying a new patch to sew on from each new place I visit.

So far I only have Monaco and Nice, as I forgot my London one with Jess and haven't coordinated getting it back yet, and I have not purchased any Ireland ones yet. But when I return home in 5 weeks I will have tokens from every place I have traveled that I can carry forward with me on all of my life's journeys. :)