So many beautiful shades of red hair!

Today we explored the entirety of Dublin. In the words of everyone we met it is “teeny tinny” and we had fun going from shop to shop and seeing cafe after cafe. The emphasis of this English speaking crowd seems to be consumption, so shops were piled upon cafes stacked atop pubs. James was smitten with his purchase of a book on hieroglyphics and we found a great fair trade Oxfam shop to get gifts for his family and a belated b-day gift for Alyson (sorry, it’s soo late!).

We saw the free modern art gallery of Trinity College but balked at the expensive price of The Book of Kells exhibit. We then made our way to The National Library of Ireland’s on “Strangers to Citizens” about immigration and Ireland’s population.

We never really made it to the Castle or the other free museums, instead we walked in the Temple Bar area and heard the lovely accent and upbeat music.

However, we ate voraciously at a very good Indian place called Taste of India though we contemplated going to The Farm, a more expensive but interesting option for locally grown food. Maybe we will check it out later, but of course, we have to fulfill the national quota of beer and pub food first!

On a whim, we checked the box office for theater tickets, and luckily there were seats available for Riverdance tonight for only 10 euros per person. We can expect a ‘restricted view’ but the show is about the music anyways.

I wish we had time to visit the rolling hills of James’ ancient ballads and ditties. We hardly have a chance to mail a postcard to the US before it is time to go back and hang up our now well-worn backpacks. This only means, for me, more adventures to come;Onto the middle east and Africa next (umm, after a stint in the US saving up first)!

Who ever heard of a 40 euro per person fee for printing your boarding pass? Ryanair finds ways to keep rates low by inflicting steep penalties on passengers not used to the system.

We arrived at the airport about an hour away from Paris and found out that though we had checked in on line earlier that day, our reservation had not been processed fully, and to board the flight, we needed the boarding pass in hand. Since we did not have printer at the time (remember we did all of this from cafes that don’t have printers) we assumed that an electric reservation would suffice. However, unlike any other airline I’ve ever flown, we had to pay at the gate a massive fee of 80 euros for the two of us for boarding passes, costing as much as the tickets themselves.

The airport was no more than a shed in the middle of the field and terrible disorganized and overflowing with Ryanair customers annoyed by plane delays and subjected to additional hidden fees. After standing in two hours of unruly lines, we waited on the floor of the airport for about an hour and then made a mad dash (literally running!) to the plane to claim a seat on the over booked flight. It was the most disorderly system I’ve seen outside of India.

We finally boarded a crowded plane and got to Dublin where the majority of public transportation had ended for the night. We took a coach (which was actually really nice) and then got off to find City Hostel but the numbering system of the street ranged non sequentially from 2 to 32 to 57 never including 6 (the hostel’s address). James found an apartment building with a door numbered 6 and wanted to knock. Convinced that it was a private residence, I suggested that we keep going and eventually, we found the hostel at the end of the block.

It is an ok place (there are over 85 people staying here) but the water in the showers is the push button sort that only turns on for about 30 seconds. I realize that is a conservation effort, but it is really difficult to wash your hair or even give the water a chance to warm up when you are pressing the button so often. The breakfast is less than aqueduct (bread, tea, milk some corn flakes) but at least they have reliable wireless in the lobby.

I hope to put these challenging instances of travel behind me and enjoy the day in Dublin!

Even more impressive than the Louvre in my eyes, was the modern art collection of Centre Pompidou. The inside-out building housed contemporary art from the 1900s to the present with a spectacular floor dedicated to female artists from the 20th century. We walked from gallery to gallery impressed by the selection of works and meaningful placement. I was really struck by the exhibit’s emphasis on the position of the female body in ‘public’ of the modern space. One room was framed with the following Virginia Woolf quote that stood out to me:

“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.” - Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

After about two hours of meaningful exploration (in the permanent collection I got to see one of my favorite Chagall’s and a great range of early Matisse) we had lunch in a square near by with a fountain teeming with modern art sculptures. Tasty buckwheat crepes and salad and then set off to the Catacombs.

We realized that they are closed on Monday at luckily, only the second of the four planned metro connections and changed our route to follow the 90 min walking tour of Monmarte in our guidebook. At our youthful rate, we completed the tour in about one hour and made a detour to the Sacred Heart church, a magnificent structure up on the hill of Montmarte. Walking by the studios of Serrat, Van Gogh and other greats we took in the scene (only slightly obstructed by tourists) and found a nice boulangrie and picked up one pastry for then and the other for later (the waiting is hard on James, I know!). Another very fun day, and we return to he cafe across the street to check email and have our Being and Time meeting. I am hardly worn out at all, I can put my energy into making dinner again this evening yumm, pasta, wine bread and cheese for a fraction of the price of eating out.

We left Bordeaux and found our way to the labyrinthine Paris metro station where we had to go up and then down and then left and then down and then up two flights and that was only to catch the first of 3 trains. For each transfer, we had to lug the bags up flights of stairs and around corners and thousands of turns smelling like urine. But, we are in Paris, city of beauty and romance, right? In good spirits, we spent our first night we walking through much of the city stating from our modern apartment in the 11th to the Bastille, stopping at a very nice bookshop and then, once were were oriented with the city (Thank you “I Witness Paris” guide) we made our way to the Notre Dame, and then to the Eiffel Tower exactly as they lit it up at 10:15pm. After about 5 hours of waling non-stop we were hungry and ready to sit down, but it took us about an hour to find a place that was still serving food. Finally we found tasty salads and then walked home. A very full first day!

This morning we awoke with the intention to going to the Louvre and then the Rodin museum that would not be open on Monday. Note to travlers: it is a marathon, pace yourself and break often. We got to the Louvre around 12:30 and stayed until after 3:30. There are so many other inspiring sections of the Louvre, not to mention the intricate details and austere interior of the building itself. More on my impressions and favorite works soon. When we realized that we needed to rush to the Rodin san lunch, it was already nearing 4. I was museumed-out at that point, but hey, we are only here for 3 days, and there is so much to see! For James, seeing The Thinker was marvelous and I agree quite a powerful work. Again with tired feet, we make our way home and unfortunately, our internet is still not working. We are across the street at a cafe/sports bar? with wireless and plan to make ourselves dinner soon with the provisions we could find at the only market open on Sunday. It reminds me of the restaurant owners in Bordeaux, who, when at midnight we walked in hungry for food replayed “this is France, what do you expect.”

We began our day with delicious chocolate pastries and tea at Couleurs Sucrees. This tiny shop is located at 12 Rue du Parlement Saint-Pierre and serves delicate treats. We found it while in search of City Cafe a location plotted on the gay map, but alas, they were still closed. Next, we set off to the contemporary art museum that we agreed was better in form than contents. Housed in a beautiful castle-like building, the contents were not awe inspired nor did they fill the generous space. However, we found our way to a lovely top floor library where we read old exhibition guides. I was drawn to Nan Goldin’s photos and James read something that had scientific drawings. We hung out there and then strolled by the tourist center where we learned there was an arts festival upon us. However, the events were dispersed enough that we needed a car to attend, so we abandon that plan and instead went looking for vegetarian food. In our pursuit, we came upon the Grand Clock Tower and impressed but famished continued on. We broke down and bought a pastry around 2pm and only moments later came to a very nice square with delicious smelling wood-oven pizzas where we promptly sat down to enjoy two glasses of wine (one dray and the other sweet and sparkling) and an enormous goat cheese salad as well as a flavorful vegi pizza.

The restaurant is called Simone Dell Arte 10 place Camille Jullian 3300 Bordeaux tel: 05 56 52 65 32 and they are open form 11am to 1am and (thoguht we were unaware at the time) have free wifi.

Extremely full, we wondered back to our hotel and on the way thought we could find the antique book market that James remembered from years ago. We switched to a smaller room for tonight. We will do some work and then maybe go to a book store and find a light supper and inevitably see anther church facade. Maybe I can find the movie theater that my friend Kimberly mentioned is in a cave for some evening entertainment. Tomorrow, we are off to Paris!

Though we had intended to go to Nimes, we are now in Bordeaux. Apparently one of the two train stations, and of course, not the one we went to had the international trains to France. Already running late, we missed the connections and could not get to Nimes tonight. In the time we had to wait in the station between connections, not sure if we were in Spin or France, we read about this simple but sweet two star hotel very close to the main area. While waiting our passports were checked no fewer than 4 times. We got in around 6pm this evening as the shops were closing and we made note of the many chocolaterias near by. We saw 2 of the 3 noteworthy cathedrals and after some searching found a pretty good albeit in a touristy area Indian(isch) restaurant. There is a nice breeze from the water and the commercial streets of the old town are fun to traverse. I think this will be an lovely day or so in Bordeaux.

We boarded the train in Madrid and arrived to the cool sea breezes of San Sebastain around 10pm. Realizing that the tourist info would be closed, we made our way without a map to Ss Surf-camp hostel. It is located here:

Paseo Colon 17 San Sebastian

And we found a nice room for two. It lacks windows, but other than that, is in a great location. A bit hungry for the rumored tapas, we walked down the main streets where we were surprised to find most things closed.Sure it was a Tuesday night, but come on..a beach town, closed? We settled on a place that still about 10 plates called Rojo & Negro and enjoyed a few before heading back and catching up on sleep.

Today we awoke and went in search of vegetarian food and to take in the sights by the light of day. After much searching, we found out from a woman working a natural food store in the centro comercial that we were not far from a place with vegi choices called Tendone. She had forgotten the name and exact location, so again we were at the mercy of our map and inquires in worse-than-I-remembered-Spanish, We luckily found it around 3pm and ate a sumptuous feasts for 15 euros each including soup, salad, bread, two entrees, wine and dessert. The have a traditional menu written in the language unique to this Basque area.To make it easier for you:

Tendone Jatetxea begetarianoa eta tradizional Corta 10 20001 donostai tel: 943 273 561

We then found our way to the beach (what else in a beach town?) and enjoyed the great waves famous for surfing. It was surprisingly less crowded than in Italy, and we stayed until the tide came in a chased us away. Later we plan to do some tapas—Txiquiteo (chih-kee-TAY-oh)is the word for hopping from bar to bar, enjoying small sandwiches and tiny snacks and glasses of wine and take in some more of the old city.

Madrid

We had a few hours in Madrid before our train to San Sebastian and I thought, did a great job seeing the city. We debated the symbol of the bear which I maintained had a meaning, and James thought, to be an example to Hideiggerian ‘idle talk’.’ To set the record straight, see the explanations of origin of the symbol below:

Following a dispute in the 13th century over hunting rights on church owned land, an agreement was reached that the church owned the soil, but Madrilenos owned everything above the ground – namely game. Hence the symbol of Madrid was born – a Bear (the church’s emblem) sniffing a tree. This bear can be seen across the city today on everything belonging to “the city”.

Another claim is that the original name of the city was “Ursa” (“bear” in Latin), due to the high number of bears found in the adjacent forests, and together with the Madrone tree (“madroño” in Spanish), the name Madrid was created and the symbol born.

We walked around hoping for lunch and found a lovely vegetarian buffet and organic market called ‘Viva la Vida.” We took our fantastic food to the entrance of the botanical garden (near by) and upon learning that we had to pay to enter, we instead enjoyed our lunch on a bench outside entrance.

Viva la Vida Huertas 57 913697254 Costanilla San Andres 16 (Plz. de la Paja) 913663349 www.vivalavida.org Then have two locations, one a larger sit down restaurant open for 3 years now.

We continued to walk around impressed by the artistic shops and struck by the elaborate tiled street signs each bearing an image of the city’s original street function.

Avoiding touristy areas was our intention, but we were drawn to the historic Plaza Mayor and saw the incredible frescos. After, we went to the Cathedral de Nitra Sra de la Almudna at which point the sun seemed to bear down on us. Conscientious of the time, we wanted a quick snack before our train ride (that I originally thought to be 2 hours but was really 6, actually feeling like 2 since the train was silently moving at over 100-mph!) I recalled, only vaguely, a place known for its churros and we happened upon it after passing other less desirable options by. It is called Chocolateria San Gines established in 1894! and down a small cobble stone street. There is a book seller at the corner that might catch you eye, otherwise, I am sure people like Rick Steves sings its praise often enough that you would find it in a guide book. If not, I will share the secret with you here:

Chocolateria San Gines Pasadizo de San Gines No 5 Tel: 91-365-65-46 2801 Madrid and it is open ‘toda la noche’

Last night we had a 6 course dinner that left me too stuffed to type. The restaurants typical of this area have a set dinner where you don’t know the number of courses ahead of you or the food to expect. I suppose they do this because if you know how much you were supposed to consume, you would run the other way. We ate form 8pm-10:30, our plates heaped with specialties of the house. It was marvelous.

It is called Trattoria dell’Amicizia and serves “Cucina tipica Langarola” their telephone number is +39 0173 79131 and they are located in Roddino. Go hungry!

This morning we awoke, still full, but enjoyed the breakfast of our agrotourismo with homemade grape jam and hazelnuts. Shortly there after, we toured the production facilities and learned all about the wines from the Rivetto Family.

A short summery follows:

Since 1902 the Rivetto family has been growing grapes and producing Barbera, Barbaresco and Barolo wines. They recently began to do a white wine called Rivetto Languhe Bianco and like all of the wines here,each harvest is named affectionately for a family member.

All of their grapes are picked by hand and the only pesticide used is copper, sprayed on and gives the posts a blue hue. The wine is aged in cork, no sugar is added and the bottles are corked with natural cork form Spain or Portugal.

If you come across this make of wine, the best years to try are 1996-7, 2003 and 2007-8. Avoid 2002, apparently it was bust. We had a tasting and were very impressed! The owner, papa, gave me a tomato from his garden and wished me ‘salute’ or health.

Later, we also explored some hikes that went from town to town through vineyards. The trails are not marked too clearly (look for parallel red and white lines) but the views are worth it. We ate lunch (after walking one hour up hill, and then retracing our steps) at a nice place one of the very few still open at 4pm called Locanda della Posta di Baraolo e Enoteca in Camere—Cuena and they had delicious cantaloupe and tasty pasta.

James is coming tonight and we will sleep on cots outside, I am excited!