1st Day in Ireland!!!

Ireland was amazing! Unfortunately, our first night was a little rough because our plane was delayed 2 hours, so we were all stuck in the airport for a long time. We didn't even make it into the city until about 2am Dublin time. We checked into our hostel and then all pretty much went to sleep.

The next day we were all up bright and early ready to see the sights! We found out about this great bus tour called the "Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour" that takes you all around the town and allows you to get off at certain spots. It's also only about a ten min wait in between buses so it was very easy to get off and see as much as we wanted! The first day we took the bus basically the whole way around just to get a large tour of the city. It was really neat to see how everything is in Dublin.

I think I'll just try to write individual blogs about the places we went so its easier to get a feel for everything...but this was our main schedule

Thurs: arrive at 2am and SLEEP!!

Fri: Take the Bus tour around the city. We saw Grafton (where we ate lunch), Trinity College, Christ Church, The Viking Museum, the Guinness Storehouse, and Temple Bar

Sat: Alex & I were kind of on our own but we saw Dublin Castle and then just kind of walked around town to see the city, then at 8 we met up with everyone to see a live River dance at the Gaiety Theatre!

Sun: Alex Stephanie and I had a day trip to Wicklow Glendalough with the "Over the Top Day Tours". It was amazing! That lasted all day so afterwards we went back to the hostel for a little while until our Ghostbus Tour at 9:30 (very creepy, so worth it too).

Mon: nothing except get in a cab and head to the airport to go back to Caen :( I miss Ireland already......my homeland!!! haha :)

Picture 1: Avalon House...the Hostel we stayed at

Picture 2: Chris Alex and I roaming the streets of Dublin

Picture 3: The Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour we used

Picture 4: Streets of Dublin

Picture 5: Opening of Grafton St.

Picture 6: At the Gravity Bar on the top floor of the Guinness Storehouse (Michal-Ann, Allison, Me, Chris & Alex)

Picture 7: Walking to Temple Bar Friday night

Picture 8: Me on the Wicklow Tour

Picture 9: Stephanie & Alex being funny on the Ghostbus Tour

Picture 10: Ghostbus Tour bus

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

Sorry about the delay...

The last place we went was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial right off of Omaha Beach, "Bloody Omaha." This Cemetery and Memorial honors the men apart of the massive allied assault on the Normandy coastline on June 6, 1944 aimed to liberate France and drive into Nazi Germany. The cemetery was breathtaking, there were 9,387 soldiers buried with headstones, as well as 1,557 men on the wall for soldiers missing in action. When you looked out at all the graves you just could do nothing but go silent. There were so many it seemed like the rows of soldiers would never end. Walking through the cemetery made me speechless. There was nothing to say, and nothing to do but to walk up and down and honor the men that gave their lives for freedom. We also were each given a rose to place on the headstone of our choosing, I put my rose on a man buried next to his brother, who both were from Texas (our tour guide gave us a list of men from texas buried in the cemetery). I know I thought that the Canadian Cemetery was amazing, but this cemetery almost made me forget about everything else we had visited that day. It was incredible.

Picture 1: The front view of the start of the Cemetery

Picture 2: The opposite view of Picture 1. The statue is supposed to symbolize Youth

Picture 3: The Wall honoring those missing in action

Picture 4: A view of the headstones

Picture 5: Troy R. Dooley's headstone (where I placed my rose)

Omaha Beach!

Today we started our day on the sands of Omaha Beach. We followed the beach down a ways and then found the path that lead to the top of the cliffs. It was really interesting seeing how long and far the beach stretched, and how steep the cliffs were. We followed Prof. Watson up the trail until we finally reached the top. From the top the view was beautiful! The hike was definitely worth the view! After the hike we went to the ceremony for the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

Sorry I didn't write much....I felt the pictures really show off the beach more than I could explain it.

Picture 1: Omaha Beach

Picture 2: Omaha Beach

Picture 3: Omaha Beach

Picture 4: Walking on Omaha Beach (John, Rex, Kyle & Micheal-Ann)

Picture 5: View up from Omaha Beach

Picture 6: Walking the trail off the beach

Picture 7: Still walking the trail

Picture 8: Me, Stephanie, Alex & Tori

Picture 9: Walking the path towards the top

Picture 10: Alex, Me, Tori & Michael-Ann

Picture 11: Alex & Me

Picture 12: The Girls at the top (Kristinia, Allison, Me, Michael-Ann, Kaitlyn, Alex, Stephanie & Tori)

Picture 13: The Boys at the top (Michael, Cam, Alan, Kyle, Daniel, Eric, Chris, Rex, Ryan, Adam, Jason & John)

Arromanches & 360 Screen

Our second to last stop was in Arromanches where we watched the film "The Price of Freedom" on the 360 screen ("presented on 9 screens in a circular theater and projected by an exclusive process, mixes unreleased footage from archives of war correspondents with present day pictures shot on location in now peaceful settings").

This film was amazing! The screen wrapped entirely around you while you stood at the center. The film was so incredible with how they showed footage from the past and then brought the same area and terrain into the future to show what the men had been fighting for. The movie was heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. This probably was the one movie I've ever been in where you don't hear any other noise (not even a crunch from someone eating) but the sound coming from the scene in front of you. Everyone was just entranced by the screens. It literally takes your breath away seeing all the men marching, fighting, and injured. You just can't imagine what they had to go through. There is no other word for this film other than incredible.

After the film, we went down to the town area where we had lunch around all the nearby shops and then went into the Musee Du Debarquement (D-Day Museum). This museum had a lot of models and artifacts to look at. We had a guide explaining the artificial port assembled in Arromanches as well as many models to look at. I did enjoy the museum, however it did not come anywhere close to the Memorial Museum we had already seen, or the Arromanches 360 theatre film!!!

Picture 1: View from 360 Theatre to town

Picture 2: Alex in front of the view

Picture 3: Arromanches town where we ate lunch

Picture 4: Alex & I inside the D-Day Museum

Picture 5: The artificial port in the distance in the water

Canadian Cemetery

Our next stop was at the Canadian Cemetery. Now this place was truly incredible. When you first walk through you just notice how much care and respect is put in to make it as beautiful as it is. Once you get to the graves you see hundreds of them spread out everywhere, with flowers all in front. The one thing I really liked about this cemetery was the individuality they gave each grave. Yes, from a distance they seem grouped together, but while you're there you find yourself walking down row by row paying your respects to the men individually. Each grave has it's owner's name, rank, age, position, religious symbol and Canadian crest. What is even more personal is that each stone also has a poem at the bottom, chosen by either a family member or close friend. This place was so peaceful and beautiful. I wish I had more to write, but to be honest the entire time there I spent walking down each isle. Feeling extremely thankful to the men that laid below me. This is by far a site that should be at the top of every traveler's list to come and see.

Picture 1: The opening to the area that held the graves "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE"

Picture 2: Just one section of graves

Picture 3: A single grave

Picture 4: I put this up so you could see a quote "HE LOVED HONOUR MORE THAN HE FEARED DEATH. SLEEP ON. DEAR BUDDY. IN PEACE."

Picture 5: The center of where all the graves are

La Batterie De Merville

Monday cont....

After the Pegasus Memorial we headed to The Merville Battery. Background:

"The Merville Battery, a German Army strong point in the Atlantic Wall, was situated on the Eastern flank of the Allied invasion of 6th June 1944. Bombed ineffectively many times it was neutralised by the British 9th Parachute Battalion after an incredible attack."

This place was set up really cool. You were able to see the distance between each bunker, and understand what it would have been like to be stationed there. Our tour guide took us to several spots around the area and explained the history behind it all. It was very interesting. After our guide talked, we went into one of the bunkers where they had a sound and light show so people could see what it was like being in one of the bunkers while it was attacked. It was so dark you could barely see anything, the only light you got came sporadically from the bombs being dropped near the bunker. It's amazing how these men were able to move around in almost pitch darkness and take commands in orders and follow through with them. You also could barely hear anything because everything outside was extremely loud as well as everything inside. It really was interesting seeing what it was like to be stuck in one of those.

We also got to go inside the plane they also had on site. I can't imagine sitting in that thing and being without water or air. The entire plane was made of metal and you could just feel the heat as you walked inside. All in all it was a very interesting spot to visit and I'm glad we got to see it!

Picture 1: Me by the front entry way sign

Picture 2: One of the bunkers

Picture 3: The light & sound show (that's why its foggy)

Picture 4: Douglas C-47 plane

Picture 5: Inside the plane

Sunday Beach Day!

I almost left out our free day on Sunday! Well Sunday a group of us decided to go to the coast near where we live. It was just a bus trip away so we figured it all out and went. It wasn't the prettiest beach I've ever seen, but it was definitely a lot of fun with everyone! There was a small town for the beach where they had a market going on and a lot of little food cafe places to eat at. We had lunch there and some gelato! Most of the time we were just laying around on the beach. The boys bought a frisbee and a soccer ball so they decided to do that for a little while. I on the other hand am a person not very fond of frisbee and who also happens to hate soccer haha. So you can imagine my excitement when I noticed some sand volleyball courts set up not too far from where we were! I asked if anyone wanted to go, but unfortunately no one likes volleyball quite as much as I do. So i got some courage and went over to meet some new people. NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH. It was a little difficult at first but I got enough out for them to understand that I was asking to play. I introduced myself to them in French and explained where I was from. They did the same and then we started playing. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that there were gigantic rocks hidden everywhere you stepped....but the people were all really nice! After about 30-40 mins I headed back to my group so they would know I hadn't been taken haha. We missed our first bus back so we had to wait over an hour for the next one...there we had long discussions about the TV shows and movies we liked, followed of course by never ending quotations haha. We finally made it back a little after 7:30pm. It was a great day for the sun!

Picture 1: Beach

Picture 2: John, Kyle, Me & Alex

Picture 3: Alan & Daniel

Picture 4: Kyle

Picture 5: Alex, John & Me