Tomorrow is a long day of travel from Geneva to Milan, Italy and then right onto Rome from Milan.

June 1st: Our time in Paris has been exhausting but rewarding none the less. Our first night in Paris, Friday the 30th, we went straight to the Eiffel Tower. We took lots of pictures in the park leading up to the "Tour Eiffel" and climbed the 700 stairs to the second level which is as high as you can go without taking the elevator. The view of Paris was spectacular from every angle.

That evening we took an evening river cruise down the Seine River through the city to see the major sights. It was dusk so we saw the sun set on the river and stayed out a bit longer to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. We even made a short ride over to see the Moulin Rouge all lit up!

Saturday we made our way through the city seeing the Arc de Triumphe and took a stroll down Champs-Elysees, the ritzy shopping avenue leading to the Egyptian Obelisk and the Louvre from the Arc de Triumphe.

Next it was the Latin Quarter, full of its little cafes and book and music stores. The last stop of the day was to Montmartre, the area surrounding the Sacre-Coeur Bascilica full of souvenir shops and creperies.

Today was the first Sunday of the month, and lucky for us, the one day of the month the Louvre offers free admission. This was a great deal for us, but we knew we had to get there early to ensure not waiting in a huge line once the museum opened at 9 am. Arriving a little after 8 am still had its line, but not nearly as long as it was right before opening; the line swung around the pool and pyramid by the time they opened the door.

Once we had seen all the major sights of the Louvre - Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, just to name a few - we strolled through the gardens which had come alive since we had been inside.

May 30th: Yesterday we took it easy around Angers. After Abby showed us her university, we ate lunch at her favorite Lebanese place. We had some amazing wraps with chicken, lettuce, and french fries inside them. After an amazing dinner made by her host mom, we packed up our stuff as the next day would be an early morning.

We have now arrived in Paris, France. We said good bye to Abby at the train station before she had to leave for class then hopped on our train from Angers to Paris. Right away we had to use the metro in order to get to our hostel. After quite a walk, we found it. It is in Paris Clichy, an area a little off from the center of the city. This hostel is much different from Marlborough in Dublin especially because it is larger (more like a dorm than a big house) and more people therefore.

May 29th: Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Angers, France. Right away we realized that it is going to be more difficult from here on out since we don't speak French, Italian, German, etc. [Even the letters on the keyboards are in different places making this rather difficult to type!] Even so, we managed to get on the right bus and then on the right train to meet Abby Larkin, a friend from UNI who has been studying in Angers the past year.

After dropping our packs and cleaning up a bit, we had dinner at a quaint little crèpe place. Then we began exploring Angers and watched the sunset over The Chateau and the Maine River. We had coffee and hot chocolate at another cafe right next to The Chateau. We didn't stay there long because there were a bunch of rowdy French men there as well.

It had been a long day for us by that point so we headed back to the apartment and went to sleep.

This morning we caught the bus into Angers and met Abby after her class. She is going to give us a tour of her campus, where we are right now using the computers. Plans for the rest of the day include visiting the Saint Maurice Cathedral, exploring more of the streets of Angers, and having dinner with Abby's host mother this evening.

Our train to Paris tomorrow leaves at 9:30am.

p.s. We figured out how to change the language on the computer to English [rather than French] which changed the keyboard as well! Of course, we didn't figure this out until we were done typing this! duh.

May 28th: We are up bright and early this morning...although I am not so sure how bright it is here. It is fairly chilly this morning, so we will be bundled up headed to the airport. Our flight leaves this morning at 11:15 am from the Dublin airport. The flight is an hour and a half long since we change time zones once we land in France. This means we will now be seven hours ahead of central time in the States.

May 27th: Today is our last full day in Dublin and we were able to fit in the sights we wanted to see; however, the rain put a damper on our day. To finish off our city tour pass, we stopped by the Dublin Castle, the Christ Church Cathedral, and St. Patrick's Cathedral before heading back to the hostel to warm up. We had our picnic lunch in the dining room of the hostel rather than the grassy knoll near St. Patrick's Cathedral like we had planned. After a short rest, we ventured out to see Molly Malone (a statue), the last sight we really wanted to see. We did a little souvenir shopping and then finished up our leftover burritos from last night. Plans for tonight include repacking our packs and heading to bed early for a day of traveling tomorrow.

May 26th: We'll start from where we ended from Sunday's post.

We didn't see Bruce Springsteen at all, after a little time spent waiting on the street along with lots of others. We were quite a walk from our hostel and hungry, so we headed out to see Merrion Square's famous colored doors. The doors surrounded the park and a concert was going on when we passed by. We made it close to O'Connell Street, a main hub through the city, and decided to ask a local for a recommendation on dinner for the night. There were these enclosed carts driven by bicycles throughout the city and a few of them were parked on the sidewalk. We figured they go all over, so they should know a good place.

O'Neills was an Irish place indeed. Big place with a bar and a carvery, which meant we stood in line for our meal instead of sitting and being waited on. We shared two traditional Irish dishes: Irish Stew and Fish & Chips.

Yesterday, Monday was a full day of sightseeing. At the tourism center, which is a converted church full of information and a gift shop, we purchased tickets for a city tour. A 24 hour pass would allow us to ride a "Hop On - Hop Off" bus through the city with commentary about the places we passed. We "hopped" on at St. Stephen's Green then hopped off at the Guiness Storehouse first then after that Kilmainham Gaol, a jail full of history of Ireland.

That evening we walked around the city experiencing it all lit up at night. We wandered into the Temple Bar area and found an international call place, so we each made a call home. We also found out a little more information as to why it is called Temple Bar. A bar is a walk way near a river, and the Temple family used it frequently so it was named after them, thus Temple Bar.

May 25th: So an update on the rest of Saturday: We left the visitors center and walked to Trafalgar Square to meet Chih-Chin in front of Nelson's column. We thought at first it would be an easy place to locate her, but there were hundreds of people around! Trafalgar Square was large place with Nelson's column at the front end and fountains at the sides as well as steps leading up to a government building. Through the sea of people we found each other! We walked to Leister Square to eat outside at a cafe and talked. She was able to help us with some questions we had about London- especially how to reach Gatwick airport from the center of the city.

We arrived at Gatwick Airport at 6 pm for our flight which was supposed to leave at 8:45 pm. Once we had gone through security, we took a seat in order to rest from the long day we had had traveling as well as carrying our packs on our backs all day long. Close to an hour before our plane was supposed to leave, it was delayed. We would not leave London until 10:40 pm. That meant two more hours in the airport.

We got to Dublin airport around midnight then had to wait in a huge line for a taxi to our hotel since buses were not running due to the late hour. And at first our cab driver had no idea where our hotel was! Apparently it was an existing hotel that he knew, but it had new management so the name was changed. We were excited to get to our room because we were exhausted!

We are now in Dublin and was able to have a good night's sleep in our hotel room because check out was not until noon. We repacked our packs and had some tea while we figured out what we wanted to do today. We caught a bus to city center and it did not take long to find our hostel. The maps we had purchased in advance have been a huge blessing on our trip so far.

We were able to check into the hostel before exploring Dublin which meant we could lock up our packs and not walk all day with them on our backs. The hostel we are in is called Marlborough Hostel and is very nice. There are nice facilites including free internet and a common room. Security is also very good as you cannot get into the hostel without the card given to you at check in. There are lockers under the beds to lock up belongings. Our room is a four bed one with a sink and table. A bunk bed will be our bed for the next three nights.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the wonderful city of Dublin. We are a short walk from O'Connell Street which is a main one leading to many of the areas we will be seeing. Right away, we walked to Ha'penny Bridge to cross the Liffey River into Temple bar area which is a busy pedestrian area with shops and restuarants. We knew we wanted to see Trinity College today, so we made our way out of Temple Bar and into the grounds of this historic university. Once stopping to eat a snack on the steps of one of the buildings, we took a guided tour of the grounds then saw the Book of Kells and the Long Room in the Old Library. The tour was given by a student of the college and he had some colorful comments to add to the factual info about the buildings.

Once finishing up seeing all we wanted at Trinity College we walked to the area of the National Museum and the National Library. The library was closed as it was a Sunday so we plan on seeing that tomorrow but the museum would be open for another hour so we walked around that and explored the history of Ireland.

Next stop was St. Stephen's Green. This was a very nice park and there was some water as well as lots of flowers. We sat for a short time to figure out our game plan for the rest of our time in Dublin. We walked towards Merrion Square to see colorful front doors but before we reached that destination, we saw a huge crowd gathering outside a hotel and asked what was going on. Two women informed us that apparently Bruce Springsteen was staying at that hotel and performing tonight