- What is the cheapest/best way to get from Ireland to England?
- Where are the best places to go in Paris? and...what is the best way to get around Paris?
- What is your experience (if any) staying in a youth hostel in France?
- What are best places to go in Ireland?
This trip may really be possible, I'm just ironing out the details!
1. A ferry is the best cheap way to do it, that's what we did.
ReplyDelete2. Honestly it helps to have someone with you who knows the language, it's much easier to get info out of a local or read a local map/paper.
3. Never been to a hostel, wouldn't know.
4. Honestly when we went for a few days, we just enjoyed being in the country, saw some castles. Take a tour if you can. Just don't kiss the Blarney Stone, you have to hang upside down and it was just recently voted the world's germiest attraction.
I thought there were extremely cheap flights to and from Ireland to England.
ReplyDeleteMust...see...catacombs...
I dunno. Maybe read Bill Bryson's book about touring Europe? That might give some insight.
I'd just tour the countryside. Try to find where the Quiet Man was shot. And then pick a fight with the Danigers, or however you spell it.
Oh, let's get down to brass tacks here. The first three questions I can't really answer as I've never been to the UK nor France. I CAN tell you that I have always wanted to tour the French Countryside rather than the whole Paris thing.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, Ireland is something that I can give a few pointers/idears as you may very well know, I just got back from there. What we did was book a driving tour of Ireland in which you get vouchers for B&B's (which are great as the some of the owners of these places are the craaaaziest, plus they'll give you pointers) and a rental car and simply put you plan the trip yourself. We flew into Dublin and basically did a circle of lower/mid Ireland immediately driving south of Dublin after our plan landed, spent a few days in the following places, should you want to check the map and see: Kilkenny, Cashel, Cahir, Blarney, Cobh, Dingle, up to Galway and finally rounding out in Dublin.
Dublin is cool but it is pretty much like every big city in Europe: busy, crowded, and not as cool as you'd hoped. Should you go to Ireland, you HAVE to go to Galway, it is just a hip port city that has got a great vibe to it. Buskers, pubs, great food, cool folk, everything you would relate to a typical Irish City experience. If you have time for them (which unfortunately we didn't plan for them) the Aran islands are supposedly mad crazy awesome!!
An Dangean (Dingle) was probably one of the more beautiful places I've ever been to. A Peninsula located in the SW corner of Ireland that many people still speak Irish (Gaelic). There's not much in terms of your typical sight seeing (museums) but the coastal views are amazing, not to mention the people and if you're a seafood fan you won't find better in the whole island.
Lets see, kinda ramblin' here. Basically you can't go wrong with any of the places you go in the country. As mentioned the people are great and the place is just so scenic and laid back that it's just perfect for soaking it all in. As Jidai mentioned, hit the country side as you'll run into your castles, abbeys, cool old ass churches, sheep, etc. Look into the Ring of Kerry and County Clare as a whole, awesome, just awesome. I hope some of this makes sense. Buy a travel book and just go through it. For sites, I think we went through discoverireland.com.
In closing, it's almost best to not really have an agenda/itinerary for a place like Ireland. It's so laid back that you don't really need to stress with something like that. Go with a few places in mind and when you get to some of these towns, find a pub, talk to the locals. They are so proud of their country that they'll tell you all the places you need to check out.
Ash, believe me when I say this, and I realize you don't "know me" but go to Ireland. You won't regret that decision in the least.
1. Swim.
ReplyDelete2. McDonald's, and that one cathedral where Quasimodo lived.
3. Autogyro.
4. Don't share a bed with anyone named Lars.
5. The Guinness factory.
Ash, I can't comment on anywhere in Ireland, but I can give you some places in Paris (mostly famous):
ReplyDelete-Opera House
-Notre Dame/ St. Denis
-Sacer Coeur
-Cafe de Flore/ Les Deux Maggots
-Les Deux Moulins
-Champs Elyssees
-Shakespeare and Company
Let me think some more and update later. And you can get around paris really easily on the metro and by foot.
hurray ashley!!
oh and how could i forget the Louvre and VERSAILLES.
ReplyDeleteand arc de triomphe duh. lol
ReplyDeleteI'll answer the Ireland questions:
ReplyDeleteBest way to get to eng-ger-land is to fly, book flights in advance for as much as 20cent or even free sometimes. If you get a hold of a special offer they'll even pay your tax sometimes, of course the airline i am speaking of is RYANAIR, the gods of low budget flying
Best Places to see/go well that depends on who you are and what you like. I have read a fair few of your posts not many just a few through mickeys blog. I think you would really enjoy Donegal, Kerry & Connemara. Dublin is a cool city, not as pretty as other cities but the dubs are friendlier and funnier than most other city folk, too big to be a town to small to be a proper city.
If you want further advice on Ireland send me an email at ewahlrab@gmail.com
accommodation wise, well I always try to promote couchsurfing but it ain't for everyone. Hostels are totally safe though, have a look at hostelworld to see reviews and then contact the hostel directly vis their website to avoid those pesky deposits
hope this has helped
eric