Nantes (Vacances d'hiver Pt. II)

Ready to face the brutal jet lag that a one-hour time difference will give you, I arrived in Nantes from Dublin on a Wednesday. Getting from the airport to town was much cheaper than in Chambéry as Nantes provides a bus transfer to the tram, all on one ticket. Kathy met me at her stop and I settled in, and we spent our time touring around the city, mostly walking but also via the "Navibus," a small ferry boat that makes several stops along a river. For dinner we had some amazing galettes and crepes in a small restaurant whose entire staff was one old woman. Here are some pictures of the experience:

Nantes's Botanical Gardens in a park that still had lots of growth even in the winter.

A famous café in Nantes where Kathy and I had coffee and hot chocolate.

One of the nice things Nantes has done for itself was convert an expansive old shipping hangar on the river into a series of bars/nightclubs. The space is remote: you need to walk through a riverside park by the Machine Museum to get there, and the above series of neon-lit rings leads the way.

The giant, mobile mechanical elephant at the Machine Museum. I realized how elephants form an overarching arc of my travels: the one in the Zagreb zoo, the many I saw/walked with in South Africa, the fountain here in Chambéry and even those in Jersey City, and now this one. I guess this means I need to go to India? Or should I let the elephants continue to come to me...

The Château in Nantes. It has a moat!

At first Nantes seemed like just any old French city, Paris-lite, but the more I saw of it the more it one me over: it has a lot of nice little quirks and character (It looks like I don't have any pictures of them, but a small island turned into a Japanese garden and the floating crèperies were among the highlights, as were the electric boats on offer for cruising the Loire in the summer). I still prefer my region, though: I think if I had winters in the Savoie and summers on the Côte d'azur I could do far worse.

Ireland (Vacances d'hiver Pt. I)

After a little over a month before my last two-week vacation it was clearly time for another, and France obliged with a Vacances d'hiver that maybe fell a little earlier this year in my académie to accommodate visits to the 2009 world ski championships, at Val d'Isère. The SNCF offered one euro express round trips to the station from which free shuttle services bused spectators to the mountain, but I unfortunately did not have the time to indulge.

Instead, I was headed for the Emerald Isle for the first half of my vacation. I departed from the Chambéry airport, built for the Albertville winter olympics a bit ago but now serving only the UK with the only bus transfers go directly to ski resorts. Beth and I split a cab there (which still cost us each more than transport would to, say, the much farther Geneva airport) as I was flying via Manchester and she was taking the train home from there, so we played cards with her "Sights of Swindon" deck for a while: our flight was the only thing going on for a while that day it seemed, so it took until just before the flight for customs and security to open. In Manchester, already expecting a long stopover, I found my second flight delayed by over 2 hours and it was nearly 2 AM before I finally arrived at the hostel in Dublin. The next morning I took in many of the sights, having my first pint of domestic Guinness after visiting the Jameson distillery (pictures are below all the writing, if you'd like to skip past all my boring words to them feel free).

Shortly thereafter it was time to head to Killarney, which involved taking Bus Eireann (with its seats embroidered with sprinting golden retrievers) on a long journey with a quick transfer in Limerick. I arrived fairly late and decided to just call it a night since I had a full two nights at the hostel there. (What can possibly go wrong when your hostel has a "buy one night get one free" policy?) My initial plan had been to wake up early the next day and round the Ring of Kerry by bike but a rental shop had advised against doing so in a day in the winter so I was resigned to taking a bus tour, only one of which was in operation during the off season. Happily some other Savoie-based assistants couldn't resist the allure of the free bonus night at the hostel, either, so I was able to tag along with AJ, Leslie, Kat, and Gearoid (who was back in his home country) in their rental car for the Ring in exchange for a round of Smithwick's over dinner that night. (I'd known they were going to Ireland at the same time, but we weren't sure our paths would cross so it was a nice surprise to see them at breakfast.)

The Ring was beautiful, running along winding coastal roads amidst bluffs, cliffs, and beaches and twisting inland amongst villages, mountains, and lakes. We stopped as we pleased, taking photos and taking in the scenery, occasionally exploring short paths off the road (and sometimes making our own paths). The ruins of a stone fort, marked with a giant red star on our map, proved an excellent detour, as did our stop for lunch in Sneem, easily the most memorably named town along the Ring. When are drive had finished we explored the Killarney National Park on foot, walking along a stream to a medieval castle on a lake. Later we downed Guinness and cider with G's cousin and a friend of his during a slow Killarney Sunday night. Having an early bus to Galway the next day, I went back to the hostel a bit earlier than the others.

Once again there was a transfer in Limerick, so I opted to take a bit of extra time there to have an extended break from bus-riding and take in the city a bit. I mostly walked along the Shannon River and took pictures...it didn't seem like too exciting a city (though let's face it, the poetry is top-knotch), but it was good to stretch my legs a bit. Then on to Galway, which though small turned out to be my favorite city in Ireland. It was great being on a city along the coast...there are lots of mountain lakes by Chambéry but it's not quite the same and I generally feel a bit landlocked not being able to jet over to LBI in an hour. I took in the scenery and, armed with Sean's list of bar suggestions, went out for some drinks with a French girl from the hostel (it's amazing how much French I spoke in Ireland...Dublin was crawling with Frenchies as well!). As in Killarney, the scene was fairly dead but there was an acoustic guitar duo in one of the bars so it was a nice low-key night, or at least it was before I felt sick later on (not from the drink, as I only had 3 rounds) and realized I wouldn't be up for the Cliffs of Moher the next day. Instead, I slept in, took in some final sea breezes for refreshment, and hopped on the bus back to Dublin, where I had a nice dinner at an ornate but reasonably-priced restaurant by Temple Bar before heading to bed early yet again in the hopes of fully recovering by the time I got to Nantes. Luckily I was fine the next morning and hopped on the hostel-provided free shuttle service to the airport so that my journey could continue.

Pictures, in no particular order:

The snow-capped mountains of the Alps...er, Ireland.

A boat in Galway. One of the first men to attempt a solo sail around the world (as I learned from the book from the Romo household) came from this city, and I like to think Galway retains some of that adventurous sea-faring sprit. Or something.

Along the Shannon River in Limerick

Trinity College, Dublin

My first pint of domestic Guinness, at the Brazen Head, which claims to be the oldest pub in Dublin

On the edge of a cliff along the Ring of Kerry

Also along the Ring.

More Ring of Kerry, this time at sea level. AJ, after testing the water and hearing it was the Atlantic: "I touched America!"

The coast of Galway...see, it evokes a spirit of seafaring adventure! Oh, never mind.

Lots of swans and seagulls in Galway.

A castle in Killarney National Park, at sunset.

Our Ring of Kerry carpool on a giant rock on the edge of the lake.

Staigue Fort was a bit of a detour from our route, but it was noted on the map with a big red star as a "Point of Interest," so naturally we took the trip, and it was worthwhile: the ruins of a medieval fort nestled in a very green valley.

The recent snowfall that delayed my flight also made the water levels quite high. The above is an example from Galway.

A very colorful portion of Dublin Castle.

Still to come from winter break: Nantes, Grenoble, Lyon, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Chambéry, Aix-les-bains, Annecy, and Geneva! Also a couple outdoor treks: to a chapel on top of a mountain, and a bike trip circling the largest natural lake in France. Updates coming soon.