The Sleep Of Our Lives... And Rouen

We spent May 22 and 23 traveling. We left the hotel in Galway (May 22) at 5pm and went for a 6km hike carrying all our gear... to Galway city center for our last pint at An Pucan. We left Galway at 10pm for the Shannon airport and slept at the airport (not very well, I might add). We woke up nice and early (4am) to make sure we wouldn't miss our flight to Beauvais, France (departed at 6:40). Once we landed in France we had to figure out a way to Rouen. We hopped on a bus, then a train, then walked through Paris for 3km carrying all our gear... to another train station and then FINALLY to Rouen (we arrived at 4 pm), where we hiked for another few km carrying all our gear...

It was really hot in France, so we were disgusting from our trek with our packs and when we checked into our hotel we had a shower and then left to go and see the city.

Here is a really old cathedral and according to Andrew "you could probably fit the church we saw in Galway inside of it".

Some half-timber buildings, which Rouen is known for... according to Andrew.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to plan our route to Vimy Ridge and then we discovered that it was going to be extremely challenging to get there because yet again it is another bank holiday (these Europeans always seem to be on vacation!). So we decided to leave that for another day.

We went to bed last night at 9:30pm and woke up at 12pm. We couldn't believe how late it was... I guess we were just making up for lost sleep the night before.

Once we actually got up, we went on the hunt for a grocery store ("un supermarche") and went to look at some of the sites the city had to offer. Me on "La Seine", which runs through Rouen.

We went to "Jardin du plantes", a park. It was so hot out (ok it was only 25... but compared to Ireland it was extremely hot) I was considering going into the kiddie pool.

We finally found a grocery store (the very last one on our list of 5) and so we got supper and went to the area where Joan of Arc was burned to eat supper. Once we got there we found another supermarche so after supper we went and got a bottle of wine for 1 euro and 50 cents.

Here is Andrew drinking some wine in our hotel room (we would have been drinking it out of glasses, but both of our plastic cups in the hotel are broken).

It is weird to have everyone around us speaking in French and I am now responsible for talking to everyone. I am now Andrew's translator... we will see how successful this will be. If Andrew is not nice to me he will be cut off and have to suffer the consequences... me refusing to ask people questions he has!

We are (ok Andrew isn't) a little home sick for Ireland and Guinness, and our drinking buddy Jack (mom only drank wine) and for the B Team's company but we are already enjoying the French wine. 

Catch Up In Galway

Well we finally arrived in Galway (on May 13) and during our first walk (on May 14) we noticed the lack of dog poop. Then we noticed this sign. The sign seems to be working... or there are no dogs in Galway because this is the cleanest city we have been in so far.

Andrew and I went for a walk along the bay. It is a beautiful city.

On May 15, the B Team met us in Galway. After we met them at the airport, we got groceries and went to check out the place we rented. Mom and Jack had a quick nap and then we went out to our new favourite pub in Galway (An Pucan) for some drinks and to listen to live Irish music.

We didn't give the B Team any time to rest. May 16, Andrew and I planned to take them to the Connemara National Park. We didn't really plan on it, but we ended up hiking up a mountain (for us Albertans, it was more like a very large and steep hill) which took most of the day.

Even though they must have been really tired from the flight the previous day, the B Team made it up the mountain too.

Since we were all tired from the hike the day before, May 17 turned out to be a relaxing day. We spent the day walking around Galway and showing Mom and Jack the sights around the town. We went for drinks at Kennedy's Pub (where President Kennedy went when he visited Galway in 1963), then we went to Robin Hood at the Omniplex in Galway. Afterwards we went back to An Pucan for supper and to listen to some more live music.

Then yesterday we took another road trip, this time to 'The Burren' and 'The Cliffs of Moher'. The Burren was really neat to see up close and walk across.

The Cliffs of Moher were totally beautiful... even in pouring rain. These cliffs are 8 km long and 210 meters high and definitely something we had never seen before. It was actually really nice that it was pouring because it seemed that most people opted to stay inside the visitor centre instead of going out to the cliffs for the view.

I'm sure the cliffs would have been great to see when it wasn't grey out... but it seems fitting that it was raining, it being Ireland and all.

And tomorrow we will be getting married... I almost feel grown up.