Paris

I love this picture of the Lourve at night. We were so tired by the time we left the museum.
We took a walk along the river on our way back to Marty's
The city at night
You can see the blue Eiffel Tower in the background

This is Marty, who put up with us for 3 days. Thanks Marty!

Paris - Lourve

Outside the Lourve. I took a bunch of pictures of the artwork inside, but I'm assuming no one really wants to see pictures of paintings, so I'm not posting those.

Paris

Detail of the artwork on the Arc de Triomphe
Detail of the artwork on the Arc de Triomphe

View of the city from the Seine River
Notre Dame Cathedral is on the strip of land that is in the center of the frame

Paris

Distant view of the Palace of Versailles from the Garden

View of the palace (Versailles still) from the Garden

Daytime pic of Jill with the Eiffel Tower
I had to take a picture of this sign (even though it's been beaten up a bit).  Avenue des Champes-Elysees and its surrounding streets house the most expensive stores known to man. I walked past Gucci, Prada, Channel etc and people are walking around with shopping bags from these stores like it's completely ordinary.
Arc de Triomphe...in the center of one of the busiest traffic circles lies at the end of the Champes-Elysees

Paris - Versailles

The gardens continued. For some reason, my pictures are posting in reverse order.  Here you can see one of the fountains, which were unfortunately off the day we visited.  You can also see how far back the grounds span.  A great deal of the area is a maze of shrubbery.  Apparently there are a couple houses tucked away back here that were used for the royal affairs.

Paris - Versailles

The gardens of Versailles

Paris - Versailles

The first two pictures are from the hall of mirrors - the mirrors along the left wall reflect the light from the windows along the right wall. Very. Ornate.

And Jillian and I are just stupid. A few people chuckled when they walked by us as we took those photos.

Paris - Versailles

We took a day trip out to Versailles.  It's absolutely insane to think that people actually lived there at one time. My house is the size of a small city and it's made of gold and silk - no big deal.

Paris

These pictures are all from around the area surrounding Montmarte.  

Okay, again I am missing pictures from things we did. I'm missing all the pictures from the Catacombs - really cool but morbid.  Also, I'm missing pictures from Notre Dame.  To be posted when acquired. 

Paris

We landed an hour outside the city.  The first picture was taken from the bus ride through the country into the city.  The second picture is of the Fountain St. Michel in the Latin Quarter.  This is where we met up with Marty, a friend we stayed with who is on a study abroad.  We got settled in and headed out for something to eat.  Somewhere along the way, Marty took us on a detour and told us to look to our left when we passed the edge of the upcoming building.  Through a clearing of buildings, we had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower.  It was amazing (the picture is, however, horrible...Jill has better pictures that I'll be getting soon).  Never mind dinner, we had to go check out the Eiffel Tower.  Its usually illuminated gold, but in celebration of the E.U., they had blue lights shining on it and the E.U. stars on the front, as you can sort of see.  The view from the top was beautiful - you can see all the lights around you.  The last two pictures are of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Montmarte.  The church sits on the highest land point of Paris.  We trekked uphill and upstairs for what seemed like forever.  The view of the city from there was worth it.  After taking a rest, we walked around a little shopping district and had lunch. Note: our diet in paris was primarily pastries and crepes.

Dublin - Guinness Tour

I tasted guinness in the tasting lab. I also waited in line to learn how to pour guinness the proper way...that's right, I'm now certified in the art of pouring guinness.  At the top of the storehouse is the sky bar, featuring a 360 view of Dublin.  The last picture is of the Lifey at sunset. Notice the bird in flight I managed to capture. 

For lunch, we ate at the oldest pub in Dublin - The Brazen Head - and had stew. 

Okay, now, I don't have any pictures from day 2 in Ireland because they're on Jill's camera. We took a trip to the country and walked around Killkenny. It was cold and rainy (in true Ireland style), but we still sat outside for a snack.  This place was really cute - it had colorful pillows and blankets to keep warm.  We had warm homemade pie with whipped cream. That night, we had Mexican food (lame, I know) and went to the bar with some American girls who were also staying at our hostel.