Europe – One Thousand Golden Highways

7 things you should know when renting a car in Ireland

By Mary Paul | January 29, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Renting a car in Ireland seemed like a great opportunity- so many castles and ruins and abbeys to explore- but also intimidating. What’s it like renting a car abroad? How was I going to drive manual on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD? It seemed like Roadtrip: challenge mode.

Because we rented a car, we were able to duck into tiny villages, take photos of misty graveyards, and explore the ruins of infinite churches. There’s just no substitute for the freedom of a car trip in new countryside.

It was certainly was challenging, but not in the ways I expected. Here are the main things I wish I knew in advance.

Get a Refresher on Manual. If you’re not used to a manual transmission (I know they’re uncommon here in the states) ask around and see if you can bribe a friend into giving you a lesson or refresher on their manual vehicle. Many manual drivers would love to share their niche skillset with you. You definitely don’t want the first time to be trying to get out of the rental car parking lot- that would be embarrassing and potentially a disaster. Although you can get an automatic transmission in Europe, they will be more expensive and harder to find.
Book with a credit card. Many cards will cover insurance themselves so don’t get pressured into unnecessary costs. On the other hand, assume you may get a scratch or two, especially if it’s your first time on that side of the road. Read up on your own policies- you may be pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, a little extra per day for peace of mind is valuable if you can afford it…
Book online. We looked online before we went in person to the rental place. They tried to charge us around 200 euro instead of the advertised 40 euro online. Then they gave us a line about “special online promotions” that “would take a day at least to work”. We walked to the other side of the room, booked on our phone, and the car was ready immediately. Nice try, boys.
Hanging out at Guinness early in our three months of backpacking
Choose a navigator. There’s a lot going on driving in a foreign country so it’s good to give the map-following to a partner. The co-pilot’s job was to give directions and say “LEFT LEFT” at any and all major intersections so the driver could focus. Silly, but it helped a lot.
Beware the hedges. The roads are not really two lanes in many places. When another car appears ahead, you may need to pull onto the side to let them pass. Be very careful pulling off because the hedges and small stone walls are vicious. Watch those mirrors!
Find your Airbnb in daylight. If you’re renting a place, be sure to find it in daylight. The roads are not well-lit and many places don’t have proper street addresses. The address they give may just drop you off in the center of town. If you get lost, ask directions just like the old days. There will always be someone in the local pub!
Go easy on your speed, especially at night. The roads are unlit, there are many switchbacks, hills, valleys, potentially drunken drivers, and livestock that may cross the road. Better to take it a little slower.

Ireland is a great country to drive around, exploring little towns and stopping at anything that looks interesting by the side of the road. Have fun and remember the most nerve-wracking part of your journey will probably be driving out of the rental parking lot: you’ll be nervous and it’s likely to be a busy traffic area. Once you get out of town, the roads are less busy and stressful! Enjoy!

The 10 things I wish I knew before I backpacked Europe

By Mary Paul | October 30, 2017 | Comments 1 comment

To say I was unprepared before I went off to Europe for three months was an understatement. It’s not that I didn’t read up. I knew some things- I knew to pack earplugs for the hostels. I knew to use a credit card that waived international fees and have more than one card on hand in case one was lost or frauded. I knew how to spot a good restaurant. These are very important things! If you don’t know these already or are just starting out, I recommend the book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day.

However, there were some really stupid mistakes I made that I would like to save you from. They were stressful, in some cases, embarrassing.

10. Hostel booking is per person.
Okay, this is the most embarrassing one right at the top. Before Europe, I had never actually stayed in a hostel. Never. Weird, right? But imagine my embarrassment when I had only booked one bed (hey, I’m with my husband, it’s a co-ed room, we only need one right?) and then on arriving in Dublin, found out it was per person. And there were no more beds left. Oh boy, good start, right? What an idiot.

9. Balance flexibility and structure.
When we got to Europe, I was SO excited about the complete freedom we had. We had nothing to come home for in the immediate future. We had no idea where we’d end up. We planned on taking the cheapest flights and buses until we were getting short on cash, knowing we could use the points I had saved up to fly home. This was FREEDOM. I would only book one night at a time at hostels and Airbnb so we could follow WHIM and WHIMSY on our spiritual quest! (and also bail if the room turned out to be a dud.)

Yeah, here’s the thing- if you wake up at 9 and need to be checked out of your hostel by 10 and you have a 30lb backpack and no idea where you’re headed next, it’s a bummer. And a little scary. What if there is no place available? What if it’s hella expensive? Even if you’re keeping yourself free, make sure you’re booked around busy times like festivals, holidays, and weekends so you don’t get stuck. It’s totally ok, especially if you decide you like a certain hostel or Airbnb, to just book the next few days in advance. You’re going to have plenty of adventure in your life already, right? It’s okay to add structure in there.

8. Be realistic about how far you can walk, especially if you are unclear about how wide-spread public transport is.
Okay, so this one time we found a great place to stay in Galway (again, still in Ireland, can you tell it’s where we went first? Get all those mistakes out early!) It seemed a little far out of the way, but foreign countries are not always super google accurate. Ireland, for example, is not really into street numbers. After we had walked for several hours exploring the town, we set off to our Airbnb… only to discover it was eight miles away. About five in (as it was getting dark) we had to call our hosts and beg casually for a pick-up. Embarrassing. And although the walk back to town the next day was beautiful and full of thatched-roof cottages, it was also hard on our newbie backpacker backs.

7. You do not need to bring that extra pair of shoes. You do not. Do. Not!
Yeah, but I can just ship anything I don’t need back to myself right? That’s what I thought until I sent my first package back in Spain and found it cost $70! Ah! Do you know how many pintxos I could have eaten for that kind of money?? 70! 70 delicious pintxos!

The truth is, you can buy almost anything on the road you’re really in dire need of. Backpacking long periods is also money-saving in that it discourages you from buying needless souvenirs. If the question is “do I like that thing enough to carry it on my back for the next ten weeks?” the answer is usually no. Cha-ching, cha-ching! More money for pintxos!

6. Know your data options.
Do you have a cheap international data plan available with your carrier?Is your phone jailbroken so you can use foreign sim cards when traveling? My husband’s phone was paid off so he got a local sim card. Mine still had a little money owed so it was useless unless I wanted to pay $30 for every 500mB (which goes very quickly, let me tell you.) This meant half the battery life when we were out. Speaking of power, always carry a few charging bricks with you so you don’t get stuck in a strange place without a phone. While we’re talking about your digital life abroad, have you thought about how you’re going to back up photographs and information while you’re on the road? It doesn’t matter what your plan is as long as you have one. You’ll be really sad if you lose all those beautiful snapshots of how much fun you’re having because something happens to your phone and nothing was backed up.

5. Read the fine print with budget airlines.
Caveat Emptor- Buyer beware! There are lots of amazing deals out there. In Europe, it’s possible to grab a plane from Copenhagen to London for $14 and then London to Ibiza for $30. Fantastic! But if you’re not careful, you’ll lose your savings and more through not reading requirements on budget airlines.

Learn which airlines are more associated with “budget” fares- these are ones to be extra wary of. Ryanair and Spirit, for example, are notorious for surprise charges. Their carry-on required sizes are extra small, for example, and you may have to rely on the kindness or negligence of your particular stewards to let you slip through without extra fee. Their online check-in times close super early. They charge extra if you don’t pre-print your boarding pass before arrival.

We scored a $30 flight from Dublin to London, but with all the mistakes my husband and I made not reading the fine print in advance, we realized on arrival to the airport we might be charged a full $300 in fees! Yikes! We decided last minute to let our flight go without us and buy new $60 tickets to Liverpool instead. All the scheduling chaos could have been avoided if we had been more mindful of the rules when we booked our original tickets.

4. Take extra care of traffic. Even a cyclist can DESTROY you.
Nice is a busy pedestrian city. There are scooters, cycles, cars, trucks, and buses all over the place and the margins between street and sidewalk are not as clear as, say, New York. Plus, as you explore a new place it’s easy to get distracted by all the exciting things around you. In my case, I walked too closely in front of a stopped bus (the light was red) and was totally owned by a cyclist who had not begun to slow down. He went flying, I went flying, and I literally couldn’t tell you how I ended up with so much road rash because I don’t remember anything between Brian screaming and me looking down after getting up and actually seeing how much damage I took. Wow, those stress hormones, huh? I didn’t feel a thing. Hadn’t even realized that I was covered in blood when I said how okay I was. I was very lucky it was just a cyclist. Don’t make that dangerous mistake- stay very aware of your surroundings, especially in busy areas.

3. Protect your gear!
When the lens fell out of my UV filter and shattered on the pavement as I was swapping filters, I debated replacing it. Imported items were extra expensive in otherwise-cheap Spain. Why bother replacing a filter that doesn’t really do anything anyway? Because this $30 filter protects my $100 lens when the lens cap is off. I replaced it. That meant that when I tripped spectacularly in Carcassonne while taking a picture and landed camera-first on the pavement, it was only my filter that was bent and scratched not my lens. I was able to remove it temporarily and keep taking pictures another day. The beautiful featured photo on this post? It would never have been taken if I hadn’t bought that UV cover. Good job, past me.

2. It’s totally okay to have rest days.
If you had told me that while I was in the South of France, I was going to spend a whole day sitting on the couch watching Netflix, I would have been super mad at myself. What a waste! How could I not be out exploring the amazing place I was in?

If you’re a go-go-goer like I am (I’m really not the all-inclusive resort kind of girl,) taking a full rest day on a trip sounds crazy. But as your trips get longer, they become 100% necessary. I was tired. I had been hit by a bike. I could barely walk and my knees were all shades of purple and red and green. For the first time in my life, I found myself in a beautiful place wishing I were back home. Taking a day doing a home activity sated that urge and gave me the strength and mental energy to explore again.

And the number 1 thing I wish I knew before I left?

1. There may come a time that you want to go home. And that’s okay too.
I thought that once I was on the road, I might end up on it forever. I met many cool people who did that- people who started traveling and five, ten years later were still out there, having amazing adventures. Whatever your timeline is, there may come a point where you’re tired and road weary and need a break. That doesn’t mean you can’t go back or that there won’t be a next time. Italy, Fiji, Angkor Wat will still be waiting for you. There will still be Chinese kids to teach English and waves to surf in Costa Rica. But be real with yourself- being real about your needs and desires is what got you on the road to begin with and you need to keep listening to that while you’re out there. Coming home at any point is not a sign of failure.

Remember, the hardest step is that one out your front door. Once you’ve done that, the rest is easy.

Have you gone for a long-term trip yet? Are you dreaming of it? Comment where you’d like to go or have been below!

The Best Place in Paris isn't what you think it is

Why “Shakespeare and Company” is the most important place in all Paris:

By Mary Paul | December 17, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

“They say that when good Americans die they go to Paris,” chuckled Sir Thomas…

“Really! And where do bad Americans go to when they die?” inquired the Duchess.
“They go to America,” murmured Lord Henry.

-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

I missed “Shakespeare and Company” the first time I went to Paris.

I thought I had been fairly thorough: I visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, and Sacre Coeur. I gawked at the bells of Notre Dame, the windows in Saint Chapelle, and basked in the neon glow of the Moulin Rouge. The ten days of my visit, I feasted on endless pain aux raisin with cafe crème in streetside cafes, flailing hopelessly in french, enchanted with endless boulangeries, fromageries, and hordes of chinese tourists. I even got out of town for a day to see Versailles and Marie Antoinette’s “Petit Trianon”.

When I returned home, I recovered from my postpartum blues with a Lost Generation binge of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. I had been convinced I hated Hemingway’s icy prose and flimsy heroines until he exposed his soft underbelly in “A Moveable Feast”. That was when I first heard of Shakespeare and Co. and marked it down for a future visit.

“Shakespeare and Company” was a bookstore created by American Sylvia Beach on the Left Bank in 1919. Besides selling English language books, Sylvia loaned books to promising young authors. The store quickly became a central point for ex-pat writers like Ezra Pound, Hemingway, James Joyce, and Fitzgerald. When the war came, the shop closed in 1941. Despite Hemingway “personally liberating” the place after the war, it never reopened. In 1951, a friend of Sylvia’s, George Whitman opened his own bookshop called “Le Mistral” modeled after Shakespeare and Co, fulfilling the legacy of the bohemian cultural center. in 1958, Sylvia gave George usage of the name of her beloved shop, which is Shakespeare and Co today.

Since George’s death in 2011, Shakespeare and Company has been run by his daughter, Sylvia Whitman (named after Beach). Upstairs hides several small cots and beds, which are part of the shop’s informal “residency” program. Young artists and writers, “Tumbleweeds”, as they are called, are invited to stay in the shop for free, in return for helping out. An estimated 30,000 aspiring artists have stayed here since 1951

Why Shakespare and Co is the most important place in Paris — Legendary English-language bookshop “Shakespeare and Company” is a haven for aspiring writers

As a lover of books, I am also in love with bookstores, especially the used variety, with crammed-full dusty shelves, or the thoughtful type, full of esoteric titles hand-picked by artsy college students. This was more the latter than the former.

On entry, I was underwhelmed. This place had plenty of books, of course, and a little cafe next door. The downstairs was a madhouse of noisy tourists, wafting in and out, munching vegan coffee cake.

Upstairs it is quieter. Only perhaps 40% of nosy visitors wind their way up the narrow steps. There, one finds a spinnet and scraps of sheet music (always exciting to musicians like me.) There are several pillowed benches which double as cots and a few nooks with typewriters including one surrounded by post-it notes of poetry, pinned to the wall. My husband left me a note there himself and won’t tell me what it says “until next time”.

One typewriter sits alone by a small window, facing Notre Dame in all her glory.

Ignoring my usual haste to hurry in and out, I took a seat, moleskin notebook in hand, sketching the typewriter and jotting down a few lines.

I am an impatient traveler, always racing to explore the next corner, filling my days as if they are numbered, which of course, they are. But a day raced through goes no slower and the number of places visited does not increase their worth. This trip, I had disciplined myself with daily journaling to better remember each day, an attempt to hold more of the sand sifting between my fingers.

And as I sat, the magic began to happen. Like a butterfly, magic will not approach so readily if you are in a rush. But if you sit very still and pay close attention, you may get a glimpse out of the corner of your eye. You see, my husband was with me too, and he took a seat with a likely old tome to peruse as I journaled. And a homeless drunk came upstairs.

This disheveled creature had been wandering for some time, muttering to herself, bumping into selfie shooting tourists (“No pictures, please”), careening through the shelves on a mysterious errand of her own.

When this ivrogne sat next to Brian, muttering half to him, half to herself, I immediately put myself on guard. His french isn’t very good, you see, and I’m always on the alert to remove us from a bad situation. But when he gestured helplessly at her french, she switched to English, and they began a kind of dreamy conversation.

I couldn’t catch all of it, neither, I think, could Brian, as she kept lapsing in and out of her native language, but she spoke of loneliness and he listened, patiently. She asked him his favorite book. Then she spoke of how a novel can capture a place eternally, whether or not it ever really existed at all, and the comfort a book can bring in taking you along with it on a journey to somewhere safe, somewhere far and always comfortable. She spoke of her family, about regret, and alcoholism. With no perceptible change in emotion, she explained how drink will kill you. As she sat on the bench, the bottle in her shopping bag shattered with a melancholy tinkle. She didn’t notice.

As I sat there, I realized what the shop really meant, what it really stood for. Shakespeare and Co. is more than just another English bookstore, a tiny Anglo island in the Parisian sea. It’s more than another historical haunt of famous writers with a tiny placard on the wall, “Hemingway sat here”.

Shakespeare and Company represents the Foreigner’s dream of Paris. Like New York, the Big Apple, the Land of Golden Opportunity to immigrants, Paris has long been the promised land for artists, musicians, and writers, for the melancholy and the mad, the sparkling and the tarnished alike. New York is many things to many people, a gritty, filthy city of chaos and culture, but through the dream of the immigrant we glimpse what New York could be, what New York represents. In Shakespeare and Co., we see Paris as the dream of the foreigner, as it was a haven for the Lost.

Seated at the dusty typewriter, looking out that tiny window over Notre Dame, we too can see the most magical view of Paris: that of the heart.

For more information on “Shakespeare and Company”, their events, and inquiries on their residency programs, visit their website.

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