My Pay-By-The-Hour Boyfriend's Visit!

Christmas came early for me…

WHYYY do you ask?

Well, last Thursday night, my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend hopped on a plane and traveled the grueling, Ambien-filled 6 hours to Dublin, Ireland where he awaited the arrival of my lady-crew and myself. Dublin, Ireland…. the holy grail for Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day celebrations was the location of this past weekend’s travels. Let’s start from the beginning…

Early Friday morning, the ladies and myself hurled ourselves across Franceland to BVA Airport and boarded a Ryanair (ironic much?) flight to Dublin. Trying to keep as calm as possible, we landed and began to walk through the terminal until we met up with the boy waiting for me. With clammy hands stuffed in my pockets, we walked through the baggage claim with everybody filled with excitement and myself walking through the terminal trying to not piss myself. Walking through the door, my eyes darted from left to right until a familiar, yet skinnier, figure caught my eye. Shoving through the hundreds and hundreds of people in the room (joke), I finally made my way to my pay-by-the-hour boyfriend.

This is where all you readers say “Aww”

However, don’t let this romantic moment make you think my eyes weren’t on the prize. It was unofficial, and it was officially time to party. We hopped on a shuttle and made our way to Barnacle’s Temple Bar Hostel conveniently located in the heart of Temple Bar, the awesome, party/touristy area of Dublin. Wasting no time, we found Cori and the rest of her friends and began to drink with our Carlsberg beer we bought upon our departure from the shuttle. The rest of the day was filled with party, party, and more party.

Dublin Day 2 began super early as we headed to the pick up point where our Cliffs of Moher tour was to begin. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the tour office, Ryguy’s jetlag got the best of him and we needed to return to the hostel for the rest of the day so he could sleep it off. But that didn’t stop us from rocking Dublin! Walking around and taking in the lively environment was a fantastic continuation of our Unofficial celebration the day before.

 We walked around the Cathedral district and the Museum district, and ended up in the Viking district. By far my favorite visit was St. Patrick’s Cathedral and I could tell Ryan’s Irish blood was pulsing double time upon seeing it. 

It was absolutely beautiful. The day soon turned into night and it was time for eating and even more drinking.

Dublin Day 3 was our last day in Dublin but was still filled with excitement. Jimbo, Monster, Ryguy and I went on a walking tour, which ended in one of the most beautiful parks EVER!

 After a lovely Kodak moment, we left the walking tour and headed to a pub with our tour guide and indulged in some local Irish food. Soon enough, however, it was going to be time to head to the airport for our flight back to Paris. After one last stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral so Monster and Jimbo could see it too, we hopped on the shuttle to the airport and boarded our Ryanair (so ironic) flight back to Paris.

It was a long and tiring travel from the plane ride to the shuttle back from BVA, but eventually we arrived back in my apartment. And as I suspected, it was a very tight squeeze for Ryan in my tiny bed, to say the least. However, that did not deter us!

Our 4 days in Paris were comprised of a whole bunch of EVERYTHING! To spare the long and boring details, I will provide the best highlights of it all:

One of our first stops was the Louvre.

 Seeing the vast decorations of the outside and then the beautiful artwork inside, we got the perfect impression of one of the most famous sights in all of Europe. We met up with Ryan’s cousin, Matthew (one of my favs in all of Franceland), in Le Marais and ate some falafel before heading down the Seine over to Notre Dame. Since it was such a beautiful day in Paris, with not a single cloud in the sky, the stained glass within the Notre Dame was especially beautiful!

For the next 3 nights, Ryan and I stayed in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower. Our first night in the hotel was the perfect time to show Ryan the Eiffel Tower at night and the sparkle that happens the first 10 minutes of ever hour at night. It was perfect, to say the least.

A one-of-a-kind experience Ryan and I had was a gourmet, 5-course French meal. Each course started off with a glass of wine and the food was paired with the wine (not the wine with the food!). Although I cannot describe what food I was ingesting, it truly was quite an experience that I will never forget

The day after our 5-course meal was filled with more walking around and sight seeing, however our experience at night was what made this day especially remarkable. Two words are all that I need to describe it: Moulin Rouge. The show was AMAZING, the costumes were unbelievable, and the dancers (and lots of boobies) were extremely entertaining. It was something I will go to my grave telling everybody, “I WENT TO MOULIN ROUGE IN PARIS!!!”

After our exhausting days of sight seeing in Paris, it came the time for us to head to our third city: Amsterdam. Friday morning, we embarked on a super early train headed North to the wonderful Dutch city I had already fallen in love with. After a difficult cab situation (the guy took us to a completely WRONG hotel), we arrived at the CitizenM Hotel ready for a nap. I’ll make this sweet and short: I could write an entire blog post about how awesome this hotel was. It was beautiful, modern, and all around perfect. My only complaint was that the toilet paper was a little rough. The room was controlled with a touch screen remote, where we could control the lights, blinds, temperature, tv (and free on demand movies!), and the color of the lights. It was SO cool, I can’t even describe.

Our trip to Amsterdam consisted of a lot of shopping, walking around, eating chocolate covered waffles (YES!), Mannekin Pis fries (YES!), and a walking tour. The walking tour gave us a whole new perspective of Amsterdam that the average person does not usually receive. 

For example, it was in Amsterdam that the first “stocks” and “shares” were sold, through the Dutch-East Indie Company. Basically, it was in Amsterdam where “business” was invented. We also learned that Amsterdam was the only place where people actually protested the Nazi’s during the Second World War. The Dutch protested to their best efforts, but were forced to stop after only 2 days due to the Nazi’s whipping out their machine guns and such. But all in all, I give props to the Dutch for being the one group of Europeans that not only acknowledged, but also made an effort to stop the wrong the Nazi’s were doing. Thanks Dutch!

Our time in Amsterdam ended with a stop at the I Am Amsterdam sign where we took the typical touristy pictures that I will cherish forever. 

Our train ride back was filled with the beautiful French countryside and a screaming baby next to us. Paradise.

Arriving back in Paris early Sunday morning, I had one wish: to go to the Pont de Artes and put a love padlock on the bridge. Hunting for a padlock and a marker, we finally put a lock on the bridge and threw 2 of the 3 keys in the Seine. I kept the key we used to open the lock to take back home with me.

Our 10 days together was filled with the perfect combination of Europe: the partying in Dublin, the high class in Paris, and the relaxing in Amsterdam. It couldn’t have gone any better!!!