Nick's Rotary Year: Dublin and Paris

Hello Again,

I apologize for the length between the last entry and this one. It has been a month and a half and there is much to tell so I'll split a couple of them up over the next week. The first topic to address is our (Rommates: Tucker, Adam and I) trip to Europe over our semester break. We spent two weeks mooching off of friends and sleeping on floors in order to enjoy the best that Europe has to offer.

The first stop was Paris, where we spent 4 days staying at a friend's parents' house in the suburbs. The Ganem-Rosens, a family with Jewish/American/Tunisian background lives in a very quaint little suburb only a 20 minute train ride from the center of the city. Their lovely daughter, Miriam, is a great friend of ours who attended Haifa University with us last semester. The Ganem-Rosens were more than hospitable, providing beds (a luxury when traveling like we were), hot meals, hotter showers and lovely evening conversation around the dinner table. Shira, the mother, even provided us with a ride, after an interesting battery-jump episode, to Versailles during the obligatory transportation worker strike. If you visit France and avoid all such socialist-inspired strikes, consider yourself lucky. Adam and Tucker had never done much or any sightseeing in Paris so we hit up all the biggies: Eiffel Tower, Sacre de Couer, Arc du Triomphe, Notre Dame, Versailles, Musee D'Orsay, the Latin Quarter, and miles upon miles of lovely wintry streets in the center and suburbs of Paris. I had seen all of these things before but I adored them just as much as the first time. I truly believe that Paris is the best city for a tourist in the world. My only wish would have been to spend more time finding all the nooks and crannies of the idiosyncratic neighborhoods and areas of this city. Alas, it'll have to for next time.

We arrived in Dublin on a traditional rainy day and proceeded onto the University College Dublin sports center for me to reunite with my old squash team for the biggest tournament of the year. My legs and lungs were a bit rusty but I am happy to report that the UCD "A" team captured the Intervarsities for the second straight year after losing it for the 10 previous to crosstown rival Trinity. The weather proceeded to turn rather nasty and it began to snow and accumulate on the ground for the first time in 10 years. Global warming, what a crock? Just kidding, Dad. I am so happy we got to experience this rarity yet it made the trip a bit more difficult as we were snowed in on our flight back to France and were forced to spend an extra 5 days in Dublin. I know, woe is me. We got the opportunity to watch Ireland beat France in rugby in the Six Nations tournament at a loud and drunken Irish pub. An amazing experience for anyone. Go Irish! The rest of our trip consisted of seeing many of the tourist attractions Dublin and surrounds have to offer including the Guinness factory, the Jameson Distillery, Kilmainham Jail (wonderful!), Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, the the Wicklow Mountains. As you will see in the pictures, I ain't lyin' about the snow. The rest of the time, I was able to show Adam and Tucker much of the Dublin (places and people) I came to know and love last year.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip which also included: watching Adam get into a snowball fight with three 10 year-old girls (it's still up in the air who won), Tucker wearing a blanket as a dress to stay warm in the mornings, three strapping, cocky Americans trying to push a car up a driveway in paris and failing miserably, many arguments over directions and politics, and maybe a pint or two.

Peace,
Nick