Honeymoon 6: Are We Classy Enough For This Place?

When the other people staying at the Bed and Breakfast with us in Galway heard we were traveling to Donegal next, they all had a bunch of suggestions for things we should do there. But we had decided that we were going to use the opportunity to relax and just hang out. Once we got to the castle, we weren't going to leave until it was time to check out. And that's exactly what we did. And it was perfect.

It took a while to drive from Galway to Donegal. At almost three hours, this was definitely the longest stretch of the journey. We passed the time on the lookout for sheep and cows and fiddled with the radio. Irish radio differs from American radio in a key way. While we have different stations broadcasting on, say, 100.1, 100.3, and 100.5, Ireland's stations take up a much broader range of bands. So the same station with be broadcasting all across 100.x. This makes for an interesting experience while flipping through the stations, as you keep catching bits of the same commercial or talk show. But Clear Channel is also over there, so for all that, the content of the broadcasts is basically the same as in America.

We decided to stop in the town of Donegal before heading to the castle. When we came in, it actually reminded me a lot of my hometown, Evergreen. There was a road next to a river with shops and restaurants. But once we got in a bit, it proved to be a lot bigger than Evergreen - Donegal has three roads and a castle (still only one intersection, though). We got lunch and then toured the castle, which I found to be disappointingly small for all that it was a really cool castle. It just didn't feel that much bigger than the house Kevin and I currently live in. But people used to live in much smaller spaces than they do now.

After the castle we wandered through some shops, and we found a book store. It even had a whole section of Irish biographies, which I'd hoping to find. I still needed a biography for the Monopoly genre reading challenge I'm doing this year, and since I'd previously read books that took place in Barcelona and Paris, I also wanted one that was set in Ireland. I found one called Roise Rua to read at the castle. We also found a restaurant that we considered coming back to for dinner, but we ended up just staying at the castle instead.

The castle we stayed in (Solis Lough Eske) was very cool and very private. It was in the center of about 40 acres of land, and not too far from a lake. Since it was our honeymoon and they didn't have many bookings in the middle of the week, they upgraded us to a Castle Suite in what turned out to be a section of the Presidential Suite. They also left chocolates and shortbread out for us to enjoy on arrival. We spent some time wandering the grounds and walked down to see the lake. Then we scheduled massages for the next day and a dinner reservation for the fancy restaurant the next night. We also went to sit in the hot tub for a while, but all we found was a pool. But, since the pool was inside a greenhouse, it was nice and warm, so we spent some time sitting there and reading before dinner.

The next day we just hung out. I read my biography and Kevin made a dent in The Wise Man's Fear. We got massages and actually found the hot tub, which was hidden in a different corner of the greenhouse than the pool. We had a very fancy dinner, which has the distinction of being the only meal I ate in Ireland that did not include potatoes in some form (there were lentils instead). Basically, it was a lazy, perfect day. The castle had all sorts of living rooms scattered through it. So we could read in leather chairs in the library or on comfy couches next to a fire or in a chair way up in the tower. It was fantastic.

By the end of our time in the castle, I was starting to feel ready to come home. But there was still one city left on the itinerary. The next day we drove over to Belfast to wrap up our amazing vacation.

Honeymoon 5: Do You Like Drinking Beer?

We got on the road and out of Dublin around noon, which was a little later than we'd been hoping for. We'd been planning to stop at a distillery, then head down to the Cliffs of Moher before checking in at our B&B in Galway. But it took so long to rent the car that we decided to scrap the Cliffs of Moher. It was about an hour out of our way, which would put us in Galway way too late.

It was nice to finally get on the road and away from the headaches of travel. Now that we finally had the car, we were much more on our own schedule. No more security nightmares or waiting around at a station. At least, no more of that until we headed home in a week. In the meantime driving through the Irish countryside was really nice. The clouds were a lot lower to the ground than I'm used to, something I've only experienced before at 10,000 feet, so it reminded me of home. It was also incredibly green, and there were cows and sheep and stone fences everywhere.

We got a bit lost while looking for the distillery - the road we needed had two exits, and we took the wrong one. But we did get there eventually. It was much lower-key than the Jameson tour. We got a packet of information that guided us through the distillery and provided fun facts. For example: originally, one of the perks of working there was a hot bath in the mash tubs at the end of the day. Also fish tended to be knocked unconscious by the alcohol in the water when they swam past the distillery, but they were always alright once they'd floated downstream to fresh water.

Kilbeggan had both the historic equipment, run by the water wheel, and newer equipment that was being actively used. We got to see a few barrels in various stages of fermentation, which was neat. Then we had lunch in the attached restaurant. I ordered the salmon and mushroom pasta off the healthy menu, which must have been written by someone who doesn't really understand what it means. It was swimming in a heavy cream sauce. Very tasty, though.

Then it was back on the road and looking at the scenery. Seeing all the different road signs was one of my favorite things, especially since so many of them were different. There was one series of signs that I couldn't figure out and finally had to look up when I got home. There were three signs that always had the pattern: \\\, \\, \. Apparently the number of slashes indicates the number of meters to the next exit.

We pulled into Galway around 4 and got a bit lost looking for our B&B. The check-in process there blew my mind in how much it basically did not exist. Kevin gave his name and the man just took us to our room. No IDs, no verification, nothing. When we went into town, they even let us borrow their umbrella in case of rain. I became very protective of it and got worried anytime Kevin started using it as a cane or a sword.

Even though we were staying outside of town in a small suburb, it only took us about 10 minutes to walk to City Center. Galway is really small, barely a city at all. There are several blocks of pedestrian mall between the Spanish Arch and Eyre Square which have pubs, restaurants, and shops all along them. We wandered over to Eyre Square to book a tour to the Aran Islands the following day, but we arrived about 15 minutes after they'd closed. So we headed back to see what else there was to do.

We found a tourist office that seemed to be unaffiliated with anything in particular. They had an Aran Island package, though it was a bit more expensive than Kevin had been anticipating. But we decided it was worth it. We were even able to arrange for pickup at the B&B the next morning, since the 8:30 breakfast meant we'd have trouble getting to Eyre Square for the 9:20 bus departure. The man at the tourist office also gave us suggestions for restaurants and pubs with live music. But when we noted that it was supposed to rain all day Monday and asked him for suggestions, his only response was "Do you like drinking beer?" Galway doesn't have a ton of indoors tourist attractions.

We went to a good seafood restaurant where I got fish and chips for the third night in a row. This place at least served cod, but I finally decided that my palate had just been ruined by the deep-fried, double-battered, American version. Kevin, meanwhile, ate a stingray fin for dinner. Then we picked a pub at random so get some more drinks at and were pleasantly surprised when a band started playing not long after we got there. Their music was more contemporary than traditional, but it was still fun. On the way back to the room we stopped at a supermarket to pick up a bottle of cider and some chips, but we didn't end up drinking much of it.

The next morning we got up bright and early to eat breakfast and head out to the Aran Islands. This involved an hour-long bus ride and a 45 minute ferry ride across really choppy water. Once on the island, we boarded a bus and set out along the narrow roads listening to our awesome tour guide tell us about the island. He pointed out the island's bank, which is the smallest in the country and only opens for 4 hours a week. When you only serve 800 people, there's not much need to be open more than that.

We stopped near the base of a medieval fort called Dun Aonghasa (pronounced Angus) for a couple of hours. That gave us time to walk up and explore the fort, grab some lunch, and peruse the shops. The fort was really cool, and in surprisingly good shape considering it was basically constructed of rocks piled up together. There was some restoration work done a century or so ago, but I was still impressed. The fort was on some cliffs, so we spent some time exploring those before heading back to the cafe, where I discovered that soda bread may not taste very good, but it is excellent for sopping up soup.

A storm had taken out the coastal road on the island in February, so we did a bit of a modified tour that skipped the seals. But we still got to see a bunch of cool things, and learn about the economy of the island. Basically, if you were playing Settlers of Catan there, all you would have was sheep and stone and you'd have to trade for everything else. It's definitely not an easy life.

After seeing a few more sites, we got some time at another set of gift shops and the local pub before it was time to head back to the mainland. The ferry ride was a bit easier this time, whether it's because I was braced for it or because we sat closer to the middle of the boat, I'm not sure, but the sea definitely wasn't any calmer. At least I remembered to wait until we'd reached the relatively calm bay before attempting to use the bathroom on the ride back. It kept me from bouncing all over the room while I was pulling up my pants and washing my hands.

We got back, found a small place for dinner, and decided to check out one of the pubs that was reported to have good music. But the music didn't start until ten and, as previously noted, we are old beyond our years (or I am, at least). Instead we enjoyed our beers for a bit, played more cribbage, and I played fetch with an old dog who was wandering around the bar. Then it was back to the B&B to finish the cider and read.

The next day it was supposed to be really rainy, so we decided to go for a drive to stay out of it. We figured the Cliffs of Moher would be cool, even if the weather was crappy, and headed off in that direction. The drive was most along narrow, windy country roads that inexplicably had speed limits of 100 km/hour. Kevin was only going 80, and I was still fearing for my life. Even after I made him slow down, I felt like we were going to crash into the hedge every time we passed another car. To be fair to Kevin, we only did once, and it was mostly the other car's fault.

We were surprised that the weather remained sunny and perfect for the entire drive and our visit to the cliffs. It was a bit windy, but it could have been way worse. We walked along the cliffs for a while until I lost my nerve and we had to go back. The cliffs were beautiful, but they were also completely terrifying. And Kevin's carefree attitude did nothing to help my own anxiety. We stopped for lunch in a small town on the way back to Galway and toyed with the idea of visiting some caves but ultimately decided not to. Back at the B&B Kevin took a nap, and I finished my book.

A fellow traveler staying at the B&B had mentioned a microbrewery in Galway that sounded cool, so we decided to check it out that afternoon. These same travelers were rather condescending about the fact that we only got two weeks of vacation time a year. But I don't understand how Australia ever produces anything if their employees are allowed to take an eight-month leave of absence to sail halfway around the world.

Anyway, we went to Galway Bay Brewery, and I'm really glad we did. It was one of the highlights of the trip. They had seven beers on tap, and provided flights of 3 1/3 pints for the same price as a pint. We tried everything except the chocolate milk stout, and it was all really good. Their peanut butter porter was definitely different, and their double IPA was the smoothest double IPA I have ever tasted. It was actually less hoppy than their regular IPA, which was also very good.

Since there weren't very many people there (and probably because we stayed and drank for a while and were generally interested in beer) they offered to give us a tour of the brewery. This was really cool, particularly because it was still such a small operation. We got to handle and smell the different flavored malts. And the guys were actively bottling when we went back. I'd never been able to tour a brewery that was actively working before, and it was a really cool experience.

For dinner that night we decided to take a break from the local cuisine and found a cute Italian restaurant. I had a fantastic lamb ravioli, Kevin has a pizza covered in meat, and we even took a break from the beer to have a bottle of wine. Afterwards we went back to the bar where we'd found the live music on the first night, but no one was playing that night. So we eventually decided to head back to the B&B and get some sleep before heading north the next morning.

Honeymoon 4: It's Like Willy Wonka's Candy Factory for Adults

While we were waiting for our bags in the Dublin airport, we spent some time trying to figure out how to get to the hotel. Kevin connected his phone to the airport wifi, and a map let us know that we definitely would not be walking to the hotel. The buses and trains seemed overly complicated, like they would require several transfers. We decided that it would be easier to just take a cab, even though it would cost more. Then, as we were heading to the taxi stand with our bags, I saw a map for the Airlift's bus route which went from the airport to a point about a block away from the hotel we were staying at. Score one for me.

Our hotel was the last stop on the bus, which gave us a chance to see some of Dublin as we came in and wound around the city. I was impressed with how modern it is near the docks. There were a lot of new buildings and construction all over the place. Apparently joining the EU has been a real boon to Dublin's economy. Farther inland, the buildings are a lot older, though certainly not rundown. For the most part.

Our hotel was in a perfect location. We were at the end of downtown, on the river right next to the train station and park and across from the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse. The view out of our window was a field full of kegs, which was definitely unique. And our travel agent had arranged for us to have breakfast at all of the hotels in Ireland, which gave us one less thing to worry about every morning.

After stowing our stuff in the room we went out to The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub. It was founded in 1198, making it over three times as old as The USA. That's a long time. Then we went across the street for dinner at a place called O'Shea's. After that the plan was to hit every pub between there and our hotel, but we only came across one that was open. So we stopped in for beers and talked to some locals for a bit. Then we stationed ourselves at the hotel bar for a while to read and play cribbage.

The next morning we got up ready to explore Dublin. We had a huge breakfast at the hotel buffet (this became a theme, breakfast seems to be a big meal in Ireland), then set off to get tickets for the tram and head downtown.

The first stop was Trinity College, where the library had the Book of Kells on display. The Book of Kells is this fantastic, intricately decorated manuscript of the New Testament. There was an exhibit on the coming of Catholicism and, more importantly, written language to Ireland and the development of these books. The best part of the display was the timeline of the church was originally held, which was leveled, burned, pillaged, and destroyed so many times that it eventually stopped listing individual instances. On the second floor of the library there was a temporary exhibit about Brian Boru, who styled himself the Emperor of Ireland back in ~1040.

After that we went to check out the Dublin Castle, walking through the rain and down wrong streets to find it. We ducked into a market for a bit to avoid the worst of the rain, and eventually we came across the back gate of the castle. We walked around it, but we decided that it probably wasn't worth the money to go inside. Kevin remembered being underwhelmed by it the last time he was in Ireland, and I didn't care that much. So we got lunch instead. Then it was off to the City Cathedral and St Patrick's Cathedral, neither of which was allowing visitors inside. We must have arrived during Mass.

Unable to see the churches, we opted for beer instead and went to tour the Guinness Storehouse. They've set up a really cool museum that takes you through the process of making beer, the history of Arthur Guinness and his family and legacy (he had 21 children, which meant that his wife spent 16 years of her life pregnant, as one exhibit pointed out). There was information about the building of oak casks, the transportation of Guinness around the world, and the history of their advertising campaign. There was a lot of cool information here, like the fact that Guinness was the first company to institute paid vacations and that they buy 2/3 of the barley grown in Ireland each year. We also got to learn how to taste Guinness in a rather silly exhibit that had us walk down a dark hallway into a white room to awaken our senses. Then it was time to redeem our tickets for a couple of pints in the circular bar at the top of the storehouse. It was really crowded, but the views were pretty incredible.

Since we had day passes for the tram, we decided to ride it out to the end of the line and see some of the suburbs surrounding Dublin. It gave us a better sense of the size of the city and was the first time I got to see the gas prices over there. Gas cost about 1.55 Euro/liter, which works out to over $8/gallon, which really puts things in perspective for America.

That night we decided to get dinner in the Temple Bar part of Dublin and find some live, traditional music. The place we went to for dinner had live music, but it was all classic rock. The guy was playing songs like The Boxer, All ALong the Watchtower, and Brown-Eyed Girl, and I was the only one in the place who knew the sha-la-la's for Brown-Eyed Girl. We both got fish and chips for dinner, which I was a little underwhelmed by. It's mostly that I'm used to cod instead of haddock, but it just didn't taste the way I was expecting. Also it was served with a green sauce that was so bland I couldn't tell if it was trying to be avocado or wasabi.

The place we stopped for dinner advertised a free comedy show that night, which we decided to stick around for. This was a colossal mistake. Not only did the show start a full half hour after advertised, the comedy was horrible and offensive. We ended up leaving halfway through, but it left a sour taste in my mouth for the rest of the evening. We wandered down the street until we found a pub where we could get seats and caught the tail end of a set of music. The next band wasn't starting until 10:30 and, deciding we couldn't stay up that late, we opted to just go back to the hotel. Where I promptly fell asleep, thus beginning my trend of sleeping about 10 hours a night for the rest of our vacation.

The next day Kevin wanted to go for a bike ride, so I made plans to entertain myself until he got back around 2. I was going to spend some time exploring and reading the park next to our hotel, then check out the museum on the other side of our hotel, and finish with a late lunch somewhere. Unfortunately, the wind and rain drove me out of the park pretty quickly, and the museum proved to be centered on military history which bores me to tears. So I decided to not worry so much about doing something and just relax. I figured out how to hook my table up to the hotel's wi-fi and wiled away the morning browsing the internet, reading in the bath, and enjoying a leisurely lunch. It ended up working out perfectly.

When Kevin got back from his bike ride, we went over to tour the Jameson Distillery. But the first open tour wasn't for two hours, so after buying our tickets we found a bar where we could drink cider and play cribbage. You've probably noticed at this point that we spent a significant part of the honeymoon playing cribbage. We probably played 5 or 6 games a day. It's a pretty excellent way to kill time in a bar.

The Jameson tour was a lot of fun. It started off with a really silly video - a historical reenactment of a NYC journalist interviewing Mr. Jameson about his business. Then we went through the process of making whiskey. The original site of the distillery is just a museum at this point, so everything was a recreation of the original method. It was pretty cool to see, though. Especially when it came to maturing and blending the whiskey. They use three different types of barrels to mature the whiskey, barrels that have previously held bourbon, sherry, or port. Each gives the whiskey its own flavor and they're all blended together at the end. Also, a truly absurd amount of whiskey evaporates in the maturation process. Historically this is referred to as the "angel's share", but functionally it means that the barrels that have been maturing for 18 years are only 2/3 full.

We decided to give the Temple Bar another try for dinner and music, but once again we just didn't have the energy to wait for music to start. Instead we ended up at a pub by our hotel, drinking cider and whiskey and watching trivia game shows with the locals.

On Saturday morning, with the honeymoon approaching the halfway point, it was time to head back to the airport to pick up our rental car and head out to explore the rest of Ireland. Picking up the car was a long and tedious process, but we eventually got it and got on the road to Galway.

Honeymoon 3: I'm Inclined to Like Anyone Who Gets Me Free Champagne

Our train arrived in Paris a little before 11 in the morning. We spent some time trying to figure out whether we could actually get reimbursed for the train ticket we had to exchange (fingers crossed it all works out), then got a taxi to the hotel. The taxi ride was a little terrifying. I'm not convinced Parisian motorists respect lanes. Our cabbie was weaving in and out of traffic and even went up on the curb a few times. But we made it to the hotel in one piece and got settled there.

We'd known this would be a cheapish hotel, since we'd splurged a bit in Barcelona and would mostly be staying in nice places in Ireland. But it was practically a hostel. We weren't allowed to have food in our room. We're still not sure the door to our room even locked, though thankfully nothing was stolen. The elevator wasn't big enough for both of us plus our suitcases. And the staircases were uneven and each contained a different number of stairs (ranging from 17 to 22) But it did have a bed and a shower, and that's ultimately all we needed. At least the toilet wasn't down the hall.

Once we'd deposited our bags and cleaned away the grime of travel, we headed out to enjoy Paris. Our hotel was near the Gare du Nord train station, pretty far north of the interesting stuff in the city, and definitely not the station we'd arrived at earlier that day. But walking is good for you and way simpler than trying to figure out a subway system in a foreign language. Of course, after walking about 10 miles a day every day in Barcelona in flip flops, my back was beginning to complain mightily about all this walking. But more about that later.

We stopped in a little cafe for lunch where I got the best pasta carbonara I've ever had in my life and Kevin got a rather mediocre chicken fried steak. Then we continued walking down to the river, stopping to take a picture of the Opera House and check out a couple of shops. We wandered down the Champs-Elysees and found a bench to sit on. There was an adorable dog who was so small his belly grazed the top of the grass. He was playing fetch and every time he took off running after the ball, it looked like he was just skimming along on top of the grass. Then we headed back to take a look at the river and walk up to the Lourve.

Guys, the Lourve is massive. It's roughly the size of the National Mall in DC. This place just keeps going and going and however close you think you're getting to it you still have so much farther to go. Along the way we saw a trampoline park, a statue of a tree that looked exactly like a tree that had just fallen over, a couple of goats, and a strangely disproportional statue of a woman. We stopped next to the last one to play cards for a bit and were accosted by a couple of ducks. They walked up to us, one on each side and stood begging for food. They had that same look in their eyes Kina gets, except a bit more insistent. And they refused to go away. It was honestly a little scary.

When my back was feeling better we continued on our trek to the Lourve. We finally made it to the plaza where everyone is selling cheap Eiffel Tower keychains. We kept walking until we finally came to the glass pyramid and I sat in awe at the massiveness of this building. Neither words nor pictures can really capture how truly huge it is - you'll just have to go there for yourself.

After we had properly admired the Lourve (without going inside because we didn't want to spend the time or money) we found a little cafe for Kevin to get a fruit tart. Then we found a different cafe where we split half a liter of wine and played more cribbage while we waited for the rain to stop. Then it was time to head over to Notre Dame, another hugely impressive building. Between the height and the stained glass, it's no wonder people used to fear God as much as they did. Also, does anyone know the interior ceiling height of Notre Dame? We were guessing maybe 100 or 150 feet, but had no way of checking this. The internet mostly concerns itself with the height of the building and it's spires.

We had a couple of hours to kill before our dinner reservation at this point, but that wasn't enough time to find another monument or anything. So instead we found a bench to sit on, and I read while Kevin napped. While we were sitting there I saw two couples in wedding dress arrive to take pictures outside Notre Dame. I guess it's a pretty popular spot for wedding pictures, even on a Tuesday afternoon.

Kevin woke up and we decided to wander a bit more. I'm really glad we did, because right by Notre Dame we came across a memorial that I had no idea was there. The Deportation Memorial is at the tip of the island that Notre Dame is on. You go down a narrow staircase to a white courtyard. Then when you turn around there's this dark crypt that has hundreds of lights representing the Jews who were sent to concentration camps under Nazi rule. It was incredibly powerful.

We still had an hour and half until our dinner reservation at this point, but we figured that it would behoove us to at least figure out where the restaurant was, and maybe get some drinks in the meantime. We found the restaurant, which didn't look open, and retraced our steps to get some wine in a cafe at the end of the street while we waited.

Dinner itself was pretty amazing. Kevin got escargot, which he'd been hoping to find since we got to France. I had this weird avocado thing that contained the same ingredients as guacamole but tasted absolutely nothing like it. Then we had lamb and duck while talking to a woman who was sitting by herself at the table next to ours. She was spending a month in Paris to celebrate her 75th birthday. When we told her we were celebrating our honeymoon, she got the wait staff to bring us complimentary champagne with our desserts. She was a pretty excellent lady, and I'm glad we were able to talk to her a bit.

After dinner my back was still killing me. The chair was wedged against the wall in a way that required me to sit crookedly which did not help things. We briefly tried to figure out the subway system, but I decided that I could power through and walk back to the hotel. We only had to stop once for me to rest while we drank beers in a bar district we stumbled across.

The next morning the plan was to get up, get breakfast and head to the airport. Our flight to Dublin wasn't until 1, but we figured that we might as well sit and read at the airport as anywhere else. So after finding some crepes, we headed out to the Charles de Gaulle airport, which is officially my least favorite airport in the world.

Getting to the airport proved pretty easy. The subway ran from the train station right by our hotel all the way out, and we managed to get on an express line that didn't stop anywhere else. I was surprised that not only does Paris allow food on their subway, they actually sell it there. It made me miss DC's relatively clean metro.

We were at the airport by 11, at which point we entered hell. We were flying on Aer Lingus, which only had one flight out of the airport that day, so there was only one person manning the check-in desk. A second person came at one point, but only stayed for half an hour. We stood in that line for over an hour. When we finally got to the front, we discovered that we had to go somewhere else to pay for our checked bags. There, we discovered that the weight limit was lower than we'd expected - 20 kg as opposed to 23 kg (50 lbs). We ended up paying 80 Euro to check our bags, which we hadn't been expecting. And they didn't even give us a chance to repack things into our carry-ons and get the weight down or anything.

With tickets in hand, we wandered through the massive airport, found the right security line, stood in that for another eternity, and finally made it to our gates minutes before the plane started boarding. It's a good thing we got there as early as we did. While we sat at the gate (Kevin was engrossed by Kvothe earning his talent pipes), a little old lady who reminded me immensely of my grandmother struck up a conversation with me and we spent some time complaining about the airport and the French in general. It was nice to gripe a bit after the ridiculous ordeal. Then it was finally time to get on the plane and head to Ireland.

Honestly, the food in Paris was excellent, and it was fun to see the sights. But given the stress of the train and the airport, and my general impression of the city (dirty, smelly, crowded, not unlike NYC except no one spoke English), I think we would have been better served to spend an extra day or two exploring Barcelona and cut France out of the trip altogether. Oh well, next time we'll know not to try and cram an entire city into  single day.

Honeymoon 2: It'll Be an Adventure!

I was really excited to take the train from Barcelona to Paris. I have excellent memories of taking an overnight train from Paris to Rome when I was younger, and I was hoping to replicate the experience. I was looking forward to a fun adventure, one that might not be reproducible with the advent of high speed trains. What I forgot is that adventures tend to be a lot less fun when you're actually living them. They make for good stories after the fact, though.

We got to the train station at around 4:00 for our 6:30 train. The first train took us to Perpignan, about an hour and a half away. The second, overnight train left from Perpignan at about 9:40 and would get us to Paris at 7:30 the next morning. We'd bought a bottle of wine for the journey and getting to the train station so early gave us time to get the lay of the land and find sandwiches for dinner. It also gave us a ton of time to sit and read, which we did until the train started boarding.

At abut 6:10, when the line had died down a bit, we went up to the counter to present our tickets and board the train. We were not allowed to board the train. Our tickets were for the following day.

I'm fairly certain that at this point my heart stopped beating as it plunged into my stomach. I couldn't believe I'd made such a stupid mistake when booking the tickets.

I proceeded to panic, barely holding it together enough to follow Kevin around as we tried to first exchange our tickets, then scrap them and buy new ones. I'm not lying when I say that I was barely holding it together. I was beginning to hyperventilate, and was having trouble thinking clearly enough to figure out a next step. But Kevin is completely cool under stress and was able to follow everyone's directions and get us into the correct line.

I should also mention that it's a damn good thing he trained me like a dog. Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with us will have noticed that Kevin has a specific, two-toned whistle that I respond to almost subconsciously. (He trained me to do this without my knowledge.) Like a dog, I can even hear it when almost no one else can, because I'm so attuned to it. But it's especially useful when, for example, we get separated in a crowded French train station. I can always find him almost instantly and with very little conscious thought. Handy when I'm panicking.

We made it to the counter with about seven minutes to spare. The man helping us was old and cranky and didn't speak a word of English. He got really mad at us for not understanding the credit card machine when it came time to pay. But we got the tickets, ran back through security and up to the counter. The man who'd rejected us before recognized us, waved us forward, and called down to ask them to hold the train for another minute. We made it on right in the nick of time.

At this point I began to calm down, but we still needed to figure out the second leg of the journey. Luckily we'd have about an hour and a half at the next train station. We figured that would give us plenty of time to work everything out.

But the train station in Perpignan was closed. There was a lady at information, but she couldn't really help us. Not for lack of trying, I should note; she just didn't have the power to exchange our tickets. We figured out the electronic ticket counter after several tries, but it claimed that the train for that night was fully booked. The lady at information said that it was worth waiting for the train to arrive and talking to the conductor. Sometimes there were cancellations or no shows that meant we still had a chance of getting on the train.

So we waited.

Finally the train pulled up and we found someone official looking. He seemed optimistic about our situation and directed us to the front of the train. The man there also seemed optimistic and sent us back along the train a bit. We talked to a couple of more people before we finally found the correct person in charge. He immediately shut down our request. We didn't have the right tickets, nothing he could do. The train left without us.

On the bright side, Europe is introducing high speed trains all around the continent. There was one leaving at 5:30 the next morning that we could get on and that would put us in Paris around 10:30, just a few hours later than we'd planned. We exchanged our tickets and even got vouchers for the price difference. We're hoping we filled out all the paperwork correctly to actually get that money back, it will help offset the cost of extra tickets we had to buy.

With the tickets exchanged we went in search of a place to spend the night. There was a hotel right across the street from the station - it was literally closer to the train tracks than the bathroom. They had rooms for 50 Euro so we booked one. Actually, they had rooms for 40 Euro, but that extra 10 Euro got you a shower. The toilet was still down the hall, though.

The room was tiny, the shower was absurd, and Kevin saw a bug early on that made us super paranoid about bed bugs. But we had a bottle of wine, so it wasn't a total loss. We drank it, went to bed, and got up at 5 the next morning to make it on the train.

Thankfully there was food for sale on that train, so I didn't have to go without breakfast which would not have been pretty. I went to buy a pain au chocolat, but ended up with a hot chocolate instead. Then I got made fun of for not knowing French, but the man did, thankfully, give me my chocolate croissant. Back in my seat I read some and slept some and watched the countryside go by while the train slowly filled up. Everything worked out in the end, but I'm still mad at myself for messing up the train tickets. At least we got that adventure I'd been hoping for. Sort of.

Honeymoon 1: I Thought You Didn't Like Sangria

Our honeymoon got off to a great start when I managed to tear my toenail off while carrying my bag from the house to the car. I picked the bag up while I was twisted out of the door and hit my foot at exactly the wrong angle. This in no way set the tone for the rest of the trip, but it did mean I had to wear a bandage for a few days and be extra careful while walking around.

The honeymoon really started when we got on the red eye plane that was taking us to Europe. I hadn't traveled across the Atlantic Ocean for six years, so getting free food on the plane - both dinner and breakfast - was a nice surprise. It was less nice, and really should have been a sign of things to come, when they weighed our carry on luggage in addition to our checked luggage. Thankfully everything was under the weight limit and there were no problems getting on the plane. We didn't even have to go through customs, which was surprising. We'd even allowed for extra time for that, which meant we ended up with a bunch of time to kill in the airport.

After a seven hour flight, during which I watched The Book Thief and largely failed to get any sleep, we landed in Brussels, where we got our passports stamped and awaited the second leg of our journey to Barcelona. The Brussels airport was under construction, which meant that we had to take a surprisingly long bus ride from our gate to the plane, which we hadn't expected. But that was made up for by the fact that we somehow got bumped into Economy Plus on the second flight. Not only did we get extra legroom, we got free hot pockets and free soft drinks on the second flight. (nothing is free on planes in Europe, including water. This became a theme.)

We finally landed in Barcelona around 3 in the afternoon, got some currency (pro-tip - try not to do this at airports) and took a taxi to the hotel. The hotel room had a number of surprises that we didn't expect. A room key was required to turn on the lights in the room, which appears to be part of a Green initiative in the EU. It took us a while to figure out why the lights weren't turning on. We were also surprised by the lack of shower curtain (how do Europeans manage to not get water ALL OVER the bathroom?) and Kevin was endlessly confused by the bidet.

Once we'd settled into the hotel, there was plenty of daylight left, so we went out to explore the city. Our hotel was just north of downtown, which made it really easy to walk everywhere we wanted to go. We headed over to the Plaza Catalunya and wandered down La Rambla towards the ocean.

We'd been really excited about La Rambla, hearing that it was one of the must-sees in Barcelona with lots of shops. And while we'd been expecting local artisan crafts, something like a street fair, what we got was stores like H&M and Gucci. On top of that, the street was as crowded as Times Square, so the entire thing was a bit of a let down. Luckily, Kevin had remembered that there was a local meat market near La Rambla and we managed to spot it. Wandering through that was a lot of fun, especially seeing all the pig and goat legs and whole rabbits and fish. It would be nice if there was such an extensive meat market closer to home, and it was a shame that we couldn't buy anything there, not having any way to cook it.

Eventually we reached the ocean, which we sat by and admired for a while. Then we decided to head back to the hotel through the winding alleys of the Gothic Quarter. I could spend forever in the Gothic Quarter. The buildings are all stone and incredibly old. The streets are largely too narrow for cars. And there are random cafes and shops everywhere you turn. We eventually picked a restaurant that was nothing more than a few tables (well, barrels with stools) in an alley and got some tapas and half a liter of wine. Then we wandered back to the hotel, stopping for some sangria on the way, and finally made it up to the rooftop, pool side bar of the hotel, where the cheapest thing on the menu was a bottle of champagne. We drank it and played cribbage, trying to stay awake as long as possible.

Unfortunately, we still woke up around 6 the next morning, which was rough, since nothing even opened, let alone served breakfast, until 8. It didn't help that it was Sunday.

For our only full day in Barcelona, the plan was to wander around the Cituadella Park, get some lunch, hang out at the beach in the afternoon, and finish with a seafood dinner at the park. But we greatly overestimated how long all of this would take. After finding breakfast, we wandered through the park, got lost on a random, smelly street next to the train tracks, and still made it to the beach by 9:30. Once there we spread out a towel and Kevin read while I took a nap - I still hadn't had any caffeine by this point. 

When I woke up we wandered over to the pier to get pizza, then Kevin rented a bike for a few hours and I found a cafe to sit in with my book and a pot of tea. After that we got a liter of sangria, which is practically cheaper than water in Barcelona, and by the way I hated having to pay for water everywhere we went. It's interesting the things you take for granted, like freely available drinking water everywhere. Also I'm used to sangria being super sweet in the states, so I tend not to like it. But in Barcelona it had a sharpness that made it much more palatable. Then we decided to go to the zoo, couldn't find it, and ended up finding a patch of grass to play cribbage and nap in until dinner.

Dinner was mostly fantastic. We got a bunch of seafood appetizers: mussels, prawns, salmon, and calamari. Kevin ordered a fantastic lobster dish, which made up for my less-than-stellar tuna. It was probably fine, but I usually eat my tuna rare, if not barely seared, and this steak came out well done. On the way home we stopped for cheap mojitos, then we stopped for cheaper mojitos, and finally got back to our hotel room.

On Monday we packed up and stored our suitcases at the front desk. Breakfast was a lot easier to find that morning - I had a ham sandwich. Ham sandwiches are infinitely more delicious in Spain than they are in America. Both the bread and the pigs are superior. Then we headed north to check out the fancy shopping district and La Sagrada Familia. Sadly the line to get into La Sagrada Familia wrapped around the block. We should have been expecting that, but we didn't, and we decided that we didn't want to stand in it. It was still cool to see the cathedral from the outside, though.

We decided to get paella for lunch, because I was convinced Kevin would love it (he did), but it was weirdly hard to find. All morning long there was a paella shop on every street corner, but as soon as we decided to get some all we could find were sandwich shops. I guess we were walking in the wrong direction. We did eventually find a place with paella and sangria, and it was all delicious.

We'd scheduled massages at a spa around the corner from our hotel for the early afternoon, but when we arrived it became apparent that the place was not what we'd had in mind. There was a bit of a communication barrier, but after the words "erotic" and "happy ending" we pretty much hightailed it out of there. Instead we went back to the Gothic Quarter to wander a bit. This time I was more properly dressed (a dress instead of shorts) and they let me into the cathedral. After that it was time to say good bye to Barcelona and head to the train station.

All in all Barcelona was a wonderful city. I fell in love with it a little bit. It was nice to be so close to both the ocean and the mountains. It was an incredibly clean city, the way DC is clean, with people out sweeping and picking up litter all over the place. There were also these grand avenues every few blocks that intersected at these great plazas. Each avenue had three lanes of traffic surrounded by walking and biking paths, with bus and taxi lanes outside those and then the sidewalks. Once you'd figured those out, getting around the city was a breeze. I wish we'd had more time in Barcelona, and we'll definitely have to go back some day. We didn't come close to seeing everything I wanted to see.

Wedding Weekend

*All pictures were stolen off Facebook. Also, this got rather long.

The wedding weekend was a ton of fun. But no one told me how utterly exhausted I would be by the end of it. They told me that my face would hurt from smiling too much, that I needed to focus on eating enough and not drinking too much, that the entire thing would be over before I knew it. But no one told me that I would basically collapse as soon as it was all over. At least it gave Kevin and me a chance to catch up on all (and I do mean all) of the television we missed last week.

We're so glad that so many people were able to come spend the day with us and celebrate our marriage. It's especially impressive because 80% of the guests were from out of town. Since so many people were traveling so far, we tried to plan some extra events to give us more time with everyone. We invited our extended families to the rehearsal dinner, organized after parties for both Friday and Saturday nights, and arranged for breakfast to stay open an extra hour on Sunday so we could see everyone one last time. It worked out really well, and I'm glad we got to spend some time with our family and friends outside the incredibly hectic formal events.

My mom and I arrived at the venue just before noon on Friday and quickly discovered that it was far bigger than either of us has realized when we toured it a year ago. We almost got lost on the way to my room, and we definitely got lost when we went in search of the dining hall to meet my dad and some friends for lunch. But by the time I finished unloading the car, I'd more or less figured out the layout of the place.

I'd planned to plant myself in the lobby to greet people as they arrived, but I found myself too busy to really hang out there. By the time I was finished running around it was just about time for the rehearsal, which actually got rained out. We were able to figure out the processional order and go over the ceremony with our officiant, Alex, though.

Then it was time to head out to the rehearsal dinner, where the bar service was a little slow at first, but the food was delicious. And thus began the process of flitting from group to group, making sure that I got to say hi to everyone. This was sort of a theme of the weekend. There are so many people there to see you that it's hard to make enough time for them all. You have to settle for some time with everyone instead. At least we stuck to a fairly small guest list.

Enjoying the Rehearsal Dinner

Nearly everyone else that we invited made it to the after party, which meant a lot more running from group to group to say hi as people arrived. There were also a few too many shots that evening. And while I was sure I made it to bed by midnight, my Fitbit informs me that I was out past 1 AM.

On Saturday morning I woke up with a hangover, unable to go back to sleep because of the too bright sun and the million things I needed to do. Kevin and I were at breakfast almost as soon as it opened. Then we went back to the room where I showered and did my hair while Kevin napped.

The bridesmaids, the best man, and I had a 10:00 appointment to get our nails done. It was a lot of fun to hang out, although the process of getting fake tips is way more involved than I remember it being. Of course, it's also been over a decade since I got fake nails, so perhaps my memory is faulty. The spa was on the small side, which meant that our appointments were staggered and it took a little longer than I'd expected. But we made it back to the venue for lunch. Then we had just enough time to drink a couple of mimosas and get pretty for pictures at 2:30.

I'm really glad we decided to take all of the family pictures before the wedding, and they all showed up early to see the first official look of the dress (and the tux, honestly). Our photographer had staged a nice entrance that we messed up when Kevin turned around too early and I tripped on the stairs. Oh well. It will make for more spontaneous photos, which are always more fun.

Kevin and (some of) his guys

After the first look we cycled through pictures with parents, siblings, extended families, and finally the bridal party. We finished up right around 4:00, and went to hide while the rest of the guests arrived and sat down. By that point my feet were killing me, so I welcomed the opportunity to sit down for a bit. If I had to get married again, I probably wouldn't try to wear new shoes for the wedding. I really wish I'd had time to break mine in some more so I could have worn them for longer.

The wedding party

The ceremony was short and sweet and lovely. I believe our sense of humor came through, with the Calvin and Hobbes and Isaac Asimov readings we picked. And I may have slightly improvised my vows, but it all worked out. I'd figured out most of them before hand, but then I wanted to add a couple of things when I heard Kevin's and ended up flubbing a bit. The good news is that no one heard them anyway, thanks to the wind that decided to gust right during our ceremony. And I must say that although I've walked down the aisle as a bridesmaid three times, walking down it as a bride is an entirely different experience.

Resting our feet

After the ceremony we signed the paperwork, took a few pictures with just the two of us, and it was time to party. The most stressful and overwhelming part of the entire day was arriving at the cocktail hour. There were suddenly a million things to do, and everyone wanted to congratulate me and say hi right away. But I ignored everyone and ran to the bar to get a bottle of water and handed my shoes and flowers off to our wonderful coordinator. Then Sarah and I disappeared to tie up my bustle, and I was finally able to go say hi to the guests. We also got some fun pictures with the Mudders next to a North sign that I'm really excited to see.

Signing the license

Dinner was delicious, and I'm glad Kevin and I decided to sit apart from all of our guests at a sweetheart table. It gave us a few precious minutes to eat and be together and decompress slightly from the crowd. It also made us feel like a king and queen ruling over our court. I'm also glad we had a coordinator to handle all of the details on the day of. We didn't need to worry about herding people or finding the cake or favors or anything at all except enjoying ourselves. I highly recommend hiring someone to deal with all those details. I can't even imagine how stressed I would have been if I'd had to juggle all of that on top of everything else.

We were seriously far away from the rest of the tables

Zach and Sarah's combined Best Man/Doctor of Honor toast was absolutely perfect. They compiled a top ten list of the reasons "we are gathered here today", which was a lovely callback to a college tradition. Then we started dancing and running around to visit with as many people as we could. For all that I was worried about getting too drunk, I found myself with barely enough time to drink. Then again, I wasn't carrying around a bottle of champagne, like Kevin.

Champagne

We skipped the bouquet toss, and I handed the flowers off to my cousin instead, when she asked for them. We also, by happy accident, included a song on our playlist that my cousins had choreographed a dance to. So they taught that to Chev and me and we had fun dancing together when Pharrell's Happy came on towards the end of the night.

She carried the flowers around forever

Designing the playlist ourselves ended up working out really well. People seemed to enjoy the music. And although I'd been worried that we wouldn't have enough music, we ended up having to cut some songs out. I'd forgotten to allot time for toasts and cake cutting. The only thing I might change is to go back and include Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places. I'd toyed with adding it, and ultimately decided that not enough people would appreciate it. Then my aunt remarked on its absence, because it had been such a hit at my cousin's wedding a couple of years ago. Oh well.

Happy!

The best picture of the night

The evening was capped off by a game a Dr. Killebrew, organized quite effectively by the Doctor of Honor, Sarah. Then Alex and Chev performed a rap for us at the after party, after which Kevin and I escaped back to our room.

On Sunday morning I slept in longer than I have in weeks (7:00 AM, woo!). Kevin and I were the first ones at breakfast, and it was a while before people really started arriving. It was really nice to see everyone one last time before the weekend ended, and we found ourselves making plans to see most of our college friends again soon. We're going to have a very busy June.

After breakfast I took off for home to walk the dog and feed the cat while Kevin dealt with all the details at the venue. Our parents came over for a bit while we opened the presents that people brought to the wedding, then they slowly trickled out. I attempted to go out and run some errands, but soon realized that I was way too tired.

Seriously, I did not expect to be as exhausted as I was. But I guess I'd been running on adrenaline and caffeine for longer than I realized. Kevin's mom mentioned that the same thing happened to her, and they ended up pushing their honeymoon back a day because of it (it helped that her husband piloted his own plane, so their plans were fairly flexible). I'm really glad that we decided to wait before taking off on our honeymoon, otherwise I may have slept straight through Barcelona. This way I'll have rebalanced somewhat and be able to actually enjoy our trip when we leave at the end of the week.

It was completely fantastic to see everyone who was able to come to the wedding. I wish we lived closer to a lot of people, especially family. But with my brother moving here in a few months and my cousin headed to Boston, that may start to change slightly. In the meantime we'll have to find more time to visit Colorado. And more ways to convince people to move to the East Coast. Especially writers and people who own their own businesses and can technically work from anywhere.