Hello! So I know i making this post a year later....but I just want to make sure I don't forget everything.... so here it goes!
Bratislava
So Kayt and I flew from Rome to Bratislava, Slovakia on Holy Friday. The area the airport was in was heavily industrialized and looked a lot like what you would expect a former soviet union country to look like. We took a bus and then tram into the city center. We met a really nice guy, Alex, from NYC who was trying to escape Easter weekend in Rome. We all had a traditional Slovakian dinner together. It started off with a bread bowl of garlic soup and ended with dumblings in Slovak cheese. I was good, but very plain. Afterwards we walked around the Bratislava castle. Perched on a hill, it was opend at night and it was beautiful to see the city during the night. We continued to walk around the streets. The city center was beautiful, with colorful buildings and fountains. Kayt and I then went to bed so we could get up early to head to Budapest!
Budapest
We woke up early and hopped on the train to Budapest (not a lot of people spoke English in Bratislave, so it was a bit difficult buying a ticket). Our hostel was AMAZING. It was a lofted area with a very enthuastic hostel owner. He lectured me and kayt about how 2 days was NOT enough time in Budapest and that we better be coming back. We went to go walk around the palace area (Budapest was the capital of the Austrian-Hungarian empire for a while.) It was a huge property, and everything was very pretty. Afterwards, we met up with Mitch for dinner (I had an AMAZING warm Pina Colada- who knew). In the morning, we toured a turkish bath and then a street market. The street markets in eastern europe are AMAZING. We had donuts and pretzels and watched Hungarian dancers before heading to the train station. We had some time to waste, and a few extra Hungarian dollars, so Kayt and I bought 8 bottles of wine (for a grand total of 10 euro). Yes... they were very heavy to carry but we knew it would be worth it when we met up with everyone in Vienna!!
Vienna
Vienna was my version of a family reunion. Most of my best friends (Kayt, Emma, Luke, Chris, and Evan) were all meeting up in the same place. We even had our own room in the hostel! Let the insanity ensue.
Luke, Evan, Emma, Jez (Emma's friend), Kayt, and I spent the night trying to find a pub. Of course, we ended up at an Aussie bar. We just all caught up and then went to bed. In the morning we got brunch and then caught the tram to meet up with Chris at St. Stephens (the Cathedral there) when Mitch surprised us! It was so exciting to see him in Vienna with us. We sat and watched a choir performance before going back to the Aussie pub (trip #2) to catch up more. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to relax and make a HUGE dinner. We cooked up homemade tomato sauce with pasta, and two bottles of our Hungarian wine. We then tried to go the opera, but the tickets were already sold out. Instead, we went back to the hostel and played drinking games with the rest of the wine. Chris then napped while the rest of us went to the bar for cocktail happy hour. Im sure can only imagine how much fun we had, playing games with the bar tender, etc. We then grabbed Chris to be the leader of our bar crawl. Well the bar crawl just really ended up us wandering around Vienna for about 3 hours trying to find the "Bermuda Triangle" (ironic, right?) and eventually ended at the Aussie bar (Trip #3, go figure). With all this, we still ended up in bed by midnight.
The next day we walked around the Haufborg Place and then the Belevedere. We had a quick dinner before heading off to the opera house. Tonight's performance was a the ballet "A Mid-Summers Night's Dream." We paid 3 euro for standing seats, and it was COMPLETELY worth it. The ballet was beautiful. We spent our last day at the park, which was the best idea ever! It actually was home to....., which was the landmark building I had wanted to see in Vienna but could not seem to find. We walked up the hill, had a photo shoot (actually, Evan had a photo shoot) and then headed to the Children's Park. It was the best 2 euro we spent. We did the labyrinth maze, the reflecting maze, and then the hedge maze. Afterwards, we headed to the park and played on the merry-go-round with the 6-year olds.
Unfortunately, it was time to leave at this point, but not before Kayt and I had our own travel issues. The train we got on said it was going to Innsbruck, but it was the track we were suppose to leave from. Ends up that the train we were on separated at Salzburg, so at the Salzburg stop we had to run up 3 cars so we wouldn't end up in Innsbruck in the morning. We made it though!!
Munich
We got into Munich exhausted and fell asleep right away. We woke up in the morning and took the free walking tour. It was pretty cool to learn so much about Bavaria, especially because thats were my grandmother grew up (She didn't move to the US until she was 19). One different thing about Munich is all the memorials from WWII are discreet, unlike Berlin where memorials take up blocks. This was just the way munich decided to remember the war. After the tour, we climbed to the top of the church tower to get a view of the city before heading the English Beer Gardens. This beautiful park was complete with streams, ponds, a Chinese tower (random, I know). We had glasses of Radler and huge soft pretzels. The desserts were fried dough with applesauce. We then met up with Emily ( a girl who studied in Leeds) for the beer challenge. All in all, it was a great night. We got to sample all different kinds of beers. We started off with a wheat beer, which I LOVED. We went went to a beer museum, followed by the Haufber Haus. Chris actually won the beer challenge, which is probably why I woke up to him trying to snuggle with me in the top bunk of our 8 person hostel room.
The next day we went to visit Neuschwanstein Castle in the Alps. It was probably one the most unique castles I have ever seen. It is perched on the top of a hill in front of the alps. The backstory of it is crazy. King Ludwig II was a bit crazy, and he decided to build this fairy tale castle (with money he didn't really have). Upon his death, construction halted, so the castle is not as big as it was suppose to be. Also, only a fraction of the rooms within the castle are completed. After the tour of the castle, we went to the lake and Chris went swimming (it was jacket weather.... so everyone was looking at him a bit crazy, but he really wanted to do it!). We had dinner at a local hotel before heading back to Munich. I definitely wish I had been able to spend more time in Munich. Off to Athens!
Quote of the trip: "I am actually from the 1300s" -Chris, regarding his height.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, May 17, 2010
The most AMAZING Spring Break ever... Part 1
Hello Everyone!!! So I know its been almost two months since I have updated... but its been a VERY busy two months
Espana
Barcelona
I flew into Barcelona Friday March 19th to start my month long break! It definelty looks a lot different that I thought it would. Evan, Jenna, Emma, and Josh started our trip out right, with a delicious 3-course meal and 2.5 liters of Sangria at a place called La Fonda. The next day, we did a walking tour of the city, which including seeing many buildings Gaudi designed. Gaudi is a kind of crazy, but brilliant spanish architect who spent way too much money but whose buildings are AMAZINGLY cool. He also designed a cathedral, La Sagrada Familia. It was started 100 years ago and is not set to be completed until 2025. Saturday we also went to the Pargue Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. The park was huge and had the most interesting, sometimes random, architecture. This includes a-gingerbread like house, bridges whose supports look like trees, and a random salamander. That night we went to the Dow Jones bar, where the prices of drinks fluctuate throughout the night, eventually ending in a stock market "crash".
Sunday, we saw more Gaudi designed buildings and had churros and hot chocolate for lunch (Its a spanish thing.) We were able to get in the Picasso museum for free in the evening! We then went to Mexican (AMAZING.... i miss Mexican food) with a couple of girls we met in the hostel and then we were off to Madrid the next day!
Madrid
We didn't get into Madrid till late, but I read about an amazing tapas in my travel book. We had to go to this random apartment complex and buzz up to the roof, were the bar/restraunt was. We were able to sit on the outside terrace, the only problem was that NO ONE spoke english! I was able to pull out by old high school spanish skills and order things I knew. I would say a sentence in Spanish and then our old, adorable waiter would go on for a few minutes in rapid spanish, while i sat, smiled, and laughed. I think he was entertained by our lack of ability to communicate. This meal turned out to probably be the best I had all break! (and probably the cheapest).
The next day we toured the royal palace, and then spent the afternoon lounging in the madrid park and the Prado museum. It was a very relaxing day. At night Jenna and I had a "Good-bye Spain" dinner, and then went to back to our hostel to find 20 Irish people in our room. Needless to say, they convinced us to come out with them. The only unfortunate part was there were no bars open. Regardless, we had a blast walking around with them all night. We got one hour of sleep (it was more of a pack up, lay down for 5 minutes, oh the taxi is here sleep.) then were off to the Madrid airport!!! ( BTW in case anyone was wondering, the Madrid airport is the most amazing airport I have ever been in. Its just soo open and pretty!)
ITALY
Venice
So I hopped on my flight to venice, and then took the ferry down the grand canal, which was sooo amazing, It was just as pretty as I expected it too be. The only problem is that the streets of Venice are very twisted with no order. So it took my an hour to find the hotel ( I was by myself, Josh and Evan came later at night). Our hotel was in a cute open plaza with a church and surrounded by canals (although, to be fair, everything in venice is surrounded by canals.) Our room was AMAZING. It was huge with wood furniture, a huge bath tub with towels!!! After staying in hostels, me and my friends were very impressed. I had the whole afternoon to myself, so I walked around. It was amazing weather, so I pulled out a book and read on San Marcos plaza by the waterfront for a bit. Then the craziness ensued. I ended up standing in line for gelato behind two girls I knew from Leeds! If that is not crazy enough, 5 minutes later I hear someone calling "Anastasia?" It was two more girls from U of I!! It was so crazy but amazing to see everyone! It really is such a small world. I went back to my room and napped until Evan and Josh arrived and then we went to dinner. Pizza in Italy really is amazing, and cheap. We then walked around more and found a free concert in San Marcos square. Perfect way to end the night!
In the morning we headed over to the academia, then took the elevator to the top of the Campiano, and then picked up Kayt from the bus station. It was Kayt's 20th birthday, so we took a gondola ride to celebrate. (one cool fact about Venice: since there are no streets, ambulance are operated on speed boats, which enter the hospital through an underground tunnel.) We then went to dinner and walked around again ( I don't think I could ever get tired of walking around Venice....)
We spent our final morning in Venice on the island of Murano, famous for its glass blowing. I stocked up on the gifts for the family and then headed back to the main island to see San Marcos basilica. It was a very cold and had little light, but impressive none the less. The rest of the day was spent trying to find card for under 7 euro and playing monopoly. Seems kind of silly to be doing that when your in Venice, but we were tired and had to prepare for an overnight train to Florence. On our way out to the train station (at 11 pm) we walked to San Marcos square, which had flooded during the evening. I guess it happens very frequently, because they have these table-looking boardwalks they put out whenever it floods. It is so sad that this city has so very little time left, because it is definitely amazing and one of the highlights of my trip!!
The train transportation, however, was not as fun. Our train from the mainland left @ 3:15 am, but at this point it was only midnight. So we made our way to the mainland station and that was when the problems began. The station was sooo sketchy. The room where we got our tickets was filled with about 40 homeless people, so we got tickets and headed to the platform- 3 hours early. Then, it got really cold, like 35 degrees cold. I luckily had a sleeping bag with me, but my friends were freezing. Eventually the train came, which we thought would make us happier-> it didn't. It was a Harry Potter style train with vestibules where people sat. Well Trenitalia overbook the train, so we had to sleep in the AISLES outside the vestibules with people stepping on as they walked by. The good news was, though, I woke up to the tuscan landscape!
Florence
It was 6 in the morning, so we (Kayt, Evan, and I) dropped out stuff of at the hostel and headed to the museums to start standing in line. We ended up at the Academia first, which houses Michangelo's David (third in line!). David was HUGE!!! I have never realized how big the statue actually was (15 feet tall). Unfortunately, the rest of the museum was not as interesting so we headed over to the Ufizi gallery, to stand in the never ending line. Fastforward 2 hours and we are in!! It was huge, with lots of corridors filled with sculptures. Afterwards, we were exhausted and grabbed some dinner before passing out at the hostel so we could wake up at 6:30 am to go to Cinque Terre .
EXCEPT..... we forgot it was daylight saving time (i blame the hostel), so we woke up at 7:30, so we had to take the 9:30 train. The train ride was 2 hours and not too bad, until we got off at the wrong stop (There are two La'Epezia stops on the same line, brilliant). Luckily, Evan had his garmin, so we were able to walk to right station. We finally made it, and the view at Roimaggiore was stunning! We were on a rocky cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. We started walking to the next town Manarola, which was a pretty easy walk. The hardest trail was to Corniglia, which was all uphill. We ended in Monterosso where there were beaches and a beautiful boardwalk. Most restaurants were closed (palm sunday), but we found a delicious pizza place with pesto pizza (pesto was created in Cinque Terre!). It was so nice to get away for a day, especially with such good company.
We started our last day in Florence by touring the Duomo. We then walked up the campenerio (414 steps), which had amazing views of the city. Finally, we went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence before Kayt and I got ready to head out to Roma!
Rome
I was lucky enough to be able to stay with Colleen, one of my best friends from school, while in Rome. She came and picked me up from the train station and brought me back to her place where we caught up and then crashed for the night. The next day I was able to fit in the Colosseum (AMAZING and huge), the Roman Forum (interesting collection of buildings including the square where Julius Caeser was stabbed and HUGE storage buildings made with arches), and Palatine Hill. It was really interesting to see in person how basic the roman architecture really is. We got lunch in a candy store and then headed off to the pantheon, which was unfortunately under construction. We were still able to peek inside, though. I then headed back to Colleens to get ready for her 21st birthday party! We got together with everyone on her program who was from UIUC and sampled the wine Colleen had made, "wine not" and then headed to the bars. We had a great evening which include getting driven home by Italian men.
The next day me and Kayt headed off to Pompeii at 6:30 am. After a bus and two train, we were there! Pompeii was as amazing as I expected it to be. It is crazy how you feel like you've gone back in time when you visit. The craziest part is they have only excavated about a third of the city. On the way back to Rome, we stopped at Naples to experience the birthplace of pizza. The pizza was delicious, but the city was very trashy and dirty. When I got back to Colleen's place, there was homemade past cabanara waiting for me and a couple of episodes of arrested development.
Our last day in Rome was dedicated to Vatican City, I got lost (which is unusual for me, but was kinda cool to see more of the city then i expected) and ended up walking there. I did stumble upon Roma Hill, which was a beautiful park with sweeping views of the city. We got to the Vatican hoping to go straight into St. Peters, but Holy Thursday service was going on and the line to enter wrapped around the half the city (Its a small city.... but the line was LOOOONG) so instead we grabbed lunch and headed to the Vatican museum. Usually the line takes 2 hours, but we got in the museum after only 15 minutes of waiting! We walked through most of this extraordinary museum. My favorite objects was a huge bowl and box made of a precious purple marble that does not exists in the earth anymore, and most of existing marble belonged to the vatican. The map room was also amazing. The museum ended in the Sistine Chapel. We then went out a door that said "no exit" and ended up at St. Peter's Basilica. It was MASSIVE. The letters on the veiling were as large as a person.
The next day I shopped for a little big before going to the station to catch a train to the airport. Problem was the train went to the other airport, so we ended up catching a cab. Off to Slovakia!
Espana
Barcelona
I flew into Barcelona Friday March 19th to start my month long break! It definelty looks a lot different that I thought it would. Evan, Jenna, Emma, and Josh started our trip out right, with a delicious 3-course meal and 2.5 liters of Sangria at a place called La Fonda. The next day, we did a walking tour of the city, which including seeing many buildings Gaudi designed. Gaudi is a kind of crazy, but brilliant spanish architect who spent way too much money but whose buildings are AMAZINGLY cool. He also designed a cathedral, La Sagrada Familia. It was started 100 years ago and is not set to be completed until 2025. Saturday we also went to the Pargue Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. The park was huge and had the most interesting, sometimes random, architecture. This includes a-gingerbread like house, bridges whose supports look like trees, and a random salamander. That night we went to the Dow Jones bar, where the prices of drinks fluctuate throughout the night, eventually ending in a stock market "crash".
Sunday, we saw more Gaudi designed buildings and had churros and hot chocolate for lunch (Its a spanish thing.) We were able to get in the Picasso museum for free in the evening! We then went to Mexican (AMAZING.... i miss Mexican food) with a couple of girls we met in the hostel and then we were off to Madrid the next day!
Madrid
We didn't get into Madrid till late, but I read about an amazing tapas in my travel book. We had to go to this random apartment complex and buzz up to the roof, were the bar/restraunt was. We were able to sit on the outside terrace, the only problem was that NO ONE spoke english! I was able to pull out by old high school spanish skills and order things I knew. I would say a sentence in Spanish and then our old, adorable waiter would go on for a few minutes in rapid spanish, while i sat, smiled, and laughed. I think he was entertained by our lack of ability to communicate. This meal turned out to probably be the best I had all break! (and probably the cheapest).
The next day we toured the royal palace, and then spent the afternoon lounging in the madrid park and the Prado museum. It was a very relaxing day. At night Jenna and I had a "Good-bye Spain" dinner, and then went to back to our hostel to find 20 Irish people in our room. Needless to say, they convinced us to come out with them. The only unfortunate part was there were no bars open. Regardless, we had a blast walking around with them all night. We got one hour of sleep (it was more of a pack up, lay down for 5 minutes, oh the taxi is here sleep.) then were off to the Madrid airport!!! ( BTW in case anyone was wondering, the Madrid airport is the most amazing airport I have ever been in. Its just soo open and pretty!)
ITALY
Venice
So I hopped on my flight to venice, and then took the ferry down the grand canal, which was sooo amazing, It was just as pretty as I expected it too be. The only problem is that the streets of Venice are very twisted with no order. So it took my an hour to find the hotel ( I was by myself, Josh and Evan came later at night). Our hotel was in a cute open plaza with a church and surrounded by canals (although, to be fair, everything in venice is surrounded by canals.) Our room was AMAZING. It was huge with wood furniture, a huge bath tub with towels!!! After staying in hostels, me and my friends were very impressed. I had the whole afternoon to myself, so I walked around. It was amazing weather, so I pulled out a book and read on San Marcos plaza by the waterfront for a bit. Then the craziness ensued. I ended up standing in line for gelato behind two girls I knew from Leeds! If that is not crazy enough, 5 minutes later I hear someone calling "Anastasia?" It was two more girls from U of I!! It was so crazy but amazing to see everyone! It really is such a small world. I went back to my room and napped until Evan and Josh arrived and then we went to dinner. Pizza in Italy really is amazing, and cheap. We then walked around more and found a free concert in San Marcos square. Perfect way to end the night!
In the morning we headed over to the academia, then took the elevator to the top of the Campiano, and then picked up Kayt from the bus station. It was Kayt's 20th birthday, so we took a gondola ride to celebrate. (one cool fact about Venice: since there are no streets, ambulance are operated on speed boats, which enter the hospital through an underground tunnel.) We then went to dinner and walked around again ( I don't think I could ever get tired of walking around Venice....)
We spent our final morning in Venice on the island of Murano, famous for its glass blowing. I stocked up on the gifts for the family and then headed back to the main island to see San Marcos basilica. It was a very cold and had little light, but impressive none the less. The rest of the day was spent trying to find card for under 7 euro and playing monopoly. Seems kind of silly to be doing that when your in Venice, but we were tired and had to prepare for an overnight train to Florence. On our way out to the train station (at 11 pm) we walked to San Marcos square, which had flooded during the evening. I guess it happens very frequently, because they have these table-looking boardwalks they put out whenever it floods. It is so sad that this city has so very little time left, because it is definitely amazing and one of the highlights of my trip!!
The train transportation, however, was not as fun. Our train from the mainland left @ 3:15 am, but at this point it was only midnight. So we made our way to the mainland station and that was when the problems began. The station was sooo sketchy. The room where we got our tickets was filled with about 40 homeless people, so we got tickets and headed to the platform- 3 hours early. Then, it got really cold, like 35 degrees cold. I luckily had a sleeping bag with me, but my friends were freezing. Eventually the train came, which we thought would make us happier-> it didn't. It was a Harry Potter style train with vestibules where people sat. Well Trenitalia overbook the train, so we had to sleep in the AISLES outside the vestibules with people stepping on as they walked by. The good news was, though, I woke up to the tuscan landscape!
Florence
It was 6 in the morning, so we (Kayt, Evan, and I) dropped out stuff of at the hostel and headed to the museums to start standing in line. We ended up at the Academia first, which houses Michangelo's David (third in line!). David was HUGE!!! I have never realized how big the statue actually was (15 feet tall). Unfortunately, the rest of the museum was not as interesting so we headed over to the Ufizi gallery, to stand in the never ending line. Fastforward 2 hours and we are in!! It was huge, with lots of corridors filled with sculptures. Afterwards, we were exhausted and grabbed some dinner before passing out at the hostel so we could wake up at 6:30 am to go to Cinque Terre .
EXCEPT..... we forgot it was daylight saving time (i blame the hostel), so we woke up at 7:30, so we had to take the 9:30 train. The train ride was 2 hours and not too bad, until we got off at the wrong stop (There are two La'Epezia stops on the same line, brilliant). Luckily, Evan had his garmin, so we were able to walk to right station. We finally made it, and the view at Roimaggiore was stunning! We were on a rocky cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. We started walking to the next town Manarola, which was a pretty easy walk. The hardest trail was to Corniglia, which was all uphill. We ended in Monterosso where there were beaches and a beautiful boardwalk. Most restaurants were closed (palm sunday), but we found a delicious pizza place with pesto pizza (pesto was created in Cinque Terre!). It was so nice to get away for a day, especially with such good company.
We started our last day in Florence by touring the Duomo. We then walked up the campenerio (414 steps), which had amazing views of the city. Finally, we went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence before Kayt and I got ready to head out to Roma!
Rome
I was lucky enough to be able to stay with Colleen, one of my best friends from school, while in Rome. She came and picked me up from the train station and brought me back to her place where we caught up and then crashed for the night. The next day I was able to fit in the Colosseum (AMAZING and huge), the Roman Forum (interesting collection of buildings including the square where Julius Caeser was stabbed and HUGE storage buildings made with arches), and Palatine Hill. It was really interesting to see in person how basic the roman architecture really is. We got lunch in a candy store and then headed off to the pantheon, which was unfortunately under construction. We were still able to peek inside, though. I then headed back to Colleens to get ready for her 21st birthday party! We got together with everyone on her program who was from UIUC and sampled the wine Colleen had made, "wine not" and then headed to the bars. We had a great evening which include getting driven home by Italian men.
The next day me and Kayt headed off to Pompeii at 6:30 am. After a bus and two train, we were there! Pompeii was as amazing as I expected it to be. It is crazy how you feel like you've gone back in time when you visit. The craziest part is they have only excavated about a third of the city. On the way back to Rome, we stopped at Naples to experience the birthplace of pizza. The pizza was delicious, but the city was very trashy and dirty. When I got back to Colleen's place, there was homemade past cabanara waiting for me and a couple of episodes of arrested development.
Our last day in Rome was dedicated to Vatican City, I got lost (which is unusual for me, but was kinda cool to see more of the city then i expected) and ended up walking there. I did stumble upon Roma Hill, which was a beautiful park with sweeping views of the city. We got to the Vatican hoping to go straight into St. Peters, but Holy Thursday service was going on and the line to enter wrapped around the half the city (Its a small city.... but the line was LOOOONG) so instead we grabbed lunch and headed to the Vatican museum. Usually the line takes 2 hours, but we got in the museum after only 15 minutes of waiting! We walked through most of this extraordinary museum. My favorite objects was a huge bowl and box made of a precious purple marble that does not exists in the earth anymore, and most of existing marble belonged to the vatican. The map room was also amazing. The museum ended in the Sistine Chapel. We then went out a door that said "no exit" and ended up at St. Peter's Basilica. It was MASSIVE. The letters on the veiling were as large as a person.
The next day I shopped for a little big before going to the station to catch a train to the airport. Problem was the train went to the other airport, so we ended up catching a cab. Off to Slovakia!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Picture Update!
View of Prague from Prague Castle.
Amber and I in front of the Astronomical clock. Not only does it tell time, but it also shows the position of the moon and the sun, show the times of sunrise and sunset, and have funny figures that dance around on the hour.
View of the church in the main square from the streets! Way cool!
The ruins of Bolton Abbey. The part on the very left is an actual functioning church still!
View from the summit
3 weeks all rolled into one
Ah! I am so behind on things!
So after Prague I only had 3 days in Leeds before heading to London! Which was not enough time, but I managed. UIUC hosted an all-expenses paid weekend for all students studying in Great Britain.
I headed down to London a day early to meet up with my cousin Nate. I was able to go to one of his gigs, (which was amazing! It been a while since I have been anywhere with live music) and then crash for the night. The next morning I met up with all the U of I people at a hotel in London( I use the word hotel loosely... we had single beds, but it was only two to a room... so a bit better than a hostel). We went to a Mediterranean tapas restruant and then off to a latin dance show. It was defiantly not something I would go to if I was by myself... and probably would have been more interesting if I wasn't so tired! I may or may not have dozed off for part of one act... We spent the rest of evening celebrating Unofficial in true U of I fashion.
Saturday we had a coach tour of london (Thank god... because we were all exhausted and im pretty sure no one would have lasted on a walking tour.) I then went shopping with three other girls. We walked around Harrods, which was even more amazing then I remember. At one point we were on the escalator and I heard opera music. Next thing I know we go past a women standing on a balcony... who is actually singing live! It was incredible. We then went to dinner at a local pub and chated in the hotel lobby till around 2.
Sunday we went to the Tower of London(my second time there) and walked around the British Museum before I headed back to my cousins to spend the night. I went to another one of his gigs that night, which was even better than the first. It was held in this tiny blue bar with a great atmosphere which encouraged dance and such. I had a blast!
Fast-forward through the week... which I spent lying in bed recovering from traveling too many weekends in a row... and we get to Sunday ( 4 days ago) which I spent hiking through the Yorkshire Dales!! It was INCREDIBLE! We did about a seven mile hike which went through 4 crazy different environments. We started off the hike next to the ruins of Bolton Abbey (which we later found out is not all ruins.... the other side of the church is still closed and functioning! sort of cool.) We then hiked through the sheep pastures (past an amazing waterfall) into a dense forest, only to come out into the "Valley of Desolation." Now there is a reason they named it that... there is nothing there but a hill with rocks and brown vegetation. We reached the summit (@ which point we may or may not have opened a bottle of champagne and drank it out of our water bottles) and walked back through woods and sheep and along a river. I cannot wait to go on more hikes around the UK.
This week has been... very stressful. I have a paper due tomorrow ( 6 pages... I only have one more paragraph to write so im in good shape there), I have had to pack for a MONTH of traveling (which sounded awesome when I was planning it.... but it not that awesome when u realize you will only have access to the things in one small suitcase and one carry-on) and then there was my camera. As I had mention previously, my camera broke one the first weeks I was in England. My dad bought me a new one and shipped it here (they are LOADS cheaper in the states) well that was 6 weeks ago and we had not heard anything about it. SO Wednesday I spent an hour on the phone with royal mail and finally found it was being held by customs in Leeds(I don't know how I would have found out where it was if I hadn't called!) I decide it was close enough to walk to... well after walking for 2 hours and basically crying to a receptionist at another mail-place I regretted this decision. Luckily I eventually made (before sun-down... I was in the creepy part of leeds) and took a taxi home!
Well I better get back to writing my essay and packing!! Hopefully I will be able to update a little when i'm traveling! Here is my schedule for those interested:
19-22 Barcelona
22-23 Madrid
24-26 Venice
27-29 Florence
30-1 Rome
2 Bratislava
3-4 Budapest
5-7 Vienna
7-9 Munich
10-16th Cruise of the Greek Islands
So after Prague I only had 3 days in Leeds before heading to London! Which was not enough time, but I managed. UIUC hosted an all-expenses paid weekend for all students studying in Great Britain.
I headed down to London a day early to meet up with my cousin Nate. I was able to go to one of his gigs, (which was amazing! It been a while since I have been anywhere with live music) and then crash for the night. The next morning I met up with all the U of I people at a hotel in London( I use the word hotel loosely... we had single beds, but it was only two to a room... so a bit better than a hostel). We went to a Mediterranean tapas restruant and then off to a latin dance show. It was defiantly not something I would go to if I was by myself... and probably would have been more interesting if I wasn't so tired! I may or may not have dozed off for part of one act... We spent the rest of evening celebrating Unofficial in true U of I fashion.
Saturday we had a coach tour of london (Thank god... because we were all exhausted and im pretty sure no one would have lasted on a walking tour.) I then went shopping with three other girls. We walked around Harrods, which was even more amazing then I remember. At one point we were on the escalator and I heard opera music. Next thing I know we go past a women standing on a balcony... who is actually singing live! It was incredible. We then went to dinner at a local pub and chated in the hotel lobby till around 2.
Sunday we went to the Tower of London(my second time there) and walked around the British Museum before I headed back to my cousins to spend the night. I went to another one of his gigs that night, which was even better than the first. It was held in this tiny blue bar with a great atmosphere which encouraged dance and such. I had a blast!
Fast-forward through the week... which I spent lying in bed recovering from traveling too many weekends in a row... and we get to Sunday ( 4 days ago) which I spent hiking through the Yorkshire Dales!! It was INCREDIBLE! We did about a seven mile hike which went through 4 crazy different environments. We started off the hike next to the ruins of Bolton Abbey (which we later found out is not all ruins.... the other side of the church is still closed and functioning! sort of cool.) We then hiked through the sheep pastures (past an amazing waterfall) into a dense forest, only to come out into the "Valley of Desolation." Now there is a reason they named it that... there is nothing there but a hill with rocks and brown vegetation. We reached the summit (@ which point we may or may not have opened a bottle of champagne and drank it out of our water bottles) and walked back through woods and sheep and along a river. I cannot wait to go on more hikes around the UK.
This week has been... very stressful. I have a paper due tomorrow ( 6 pages... I only have one more paragraph to write so im in good shape there), I have had to pack for a MONTH of traveling (which sounded awesome when I was planning it.... but it not that awesome when u realize you will only have access to the things in one small suitcase and one carry-on) and then there was my camera. As I had mention previously, my camera broke one the first weeks I was in England. My dad bought me a new one and shipped it here (they are LOADS cheaper in the states) well that was 6 weeks ago and we had not heard anything about it. SO Wednesday I spent an hour on the phone with royal mail and finally found it was being held by customs in Leeds(I don't know how I would have found out where it was if I hadn't called!) I decide it was close enough to walk to... well after walking for 2 hours and basically crying to a receptionist at another mail-place I regretted this decision. Luckily I eventually made (before sun-down... I was in the creepy part of leeds) and took a taxi home!
Well I better get back to writing my essay and packing!! Hopefully I will be able to update a little when i'm traveling! Here is my schedule for those interested:
19-22 Barcelona
22-23 Madrid
24-26 Venice
27-29 Florence
30-1 Rome
2 Bratislava
3-4 Budapest
5-7 Vienna
7-9 Munich
10-16th Cruise of the Greek Islands
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Praha
Hello! So its been a bit crazy and I have been horrible at updating my blog! But lets jumps back two weekends to my weekend in Prague!
Our trip got off to a great (and funny) start when Chris got pulled over by security at the airport. After searching him, they found two cans of beer at the bottom of his bag. He claims he had forgot they were there, but I secretly believe he was just trying to avoid the outrageous fees airlines charge for alcohol. We flew Jet2, a discount airline (aka flying death traps), direct from Leeds to Prague. The only bad part of the flight was a bunch of guys were standing in the aisles drinking and yelling the entire flight... which would probably be grounds for arrest in the US.
After a bit of a detour in downtown Prague, we eventually found our hostel, which was 2to3 miles outside the city center in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. The hostel was great, we (Jenna, Chris, Amber, Luke, Evan, Chris' friend Richard from Germany, and I) had an 8 person room to ourselves! It was like having a sleepover. The area was not really as nice, it was clearly still recovering from the communism days. It was pretty late at this point, so we hopped on the metro to the city. We ended up at a bar for a bit then walked around the city.
The next morning we headed back into town for the free tour. It started out in the market square, where there were various booths set up where they made fresh food. I tried the sugar-roasted nuts (delicious), a donut-like bread roll covered in sugar (evan more delicious) and thin waffles with fresh caramel in the middle (the most delicious). The free tour was great, especially for someone who knew NOTHING about Prague before going there. The cool thing about the city is it sustained very little bombing during WWII, so most the really old buildings and landmarks have remained intact. After the free tour, we went straight into a tour of the Prague Castle. It was a very interesting tour, but after 6 hours of listening to tour guides it was a bit hard to focus. We all headed back to the hostel to clean up and sleep.
Sunday I finally got in contact with a good friend from the US who was also in Prague, Colleen (Aka future roomie :-) ). We met up at the Jewish museum, which held drawings from Jewish children who were in concentration camps during WWII. Afterward, we walked to the John lennon wall, ate at Bohemian bagel (the best sandwich/bagel place ever!!), took a nap, and then headed out to a delicious Czech meal (our first of the trip). We spent the rest of the night watching the USA vs. Canada hockey in an Australian pub. We ended up staying after close talking with the owner of the bar. It was the perfect way to end the trip!!
Monday we spent a very LONG 13 hours traveling home... but we made it in one piece!
I will try to catch up on my posts soon! I spent last weekend in London and today hiking in the Yorkshire Dales!!
Our trip got off to a great (and funny) start when Chris got pulled over by security at the airport. After searching him, they found two cans of beer at the bottom of his bag. He claims he had forgot they were there, but I secretly believe he was just trying to avoid the outrageous fees airlines charge for alcohol. We flew Jet2, a discount airline (aka flying death traps), direct from Leeds to Prague. The only bad part of the flight was a bunch of guys were standing in the aisles drinking and yelling the entire flight... which would probably be grounds for arrest in the US.
After a bit of a detour in downtown Prague, we eventually found our hostel, which was 2to3 miles outside the city center in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. The hostel was great, we (Jenna, Chris, Amber, Luke, Evan, Chris' friend Richard from Germany, and I) had an 8 person room to ourselves! It was like having a sleepover. The area was not really as nice, it was clearly still recovering from the communism days. It was pretty late at this point, so we hopped on the metro to the city. We ended up at a bar for a bit then walked around the city.
The next morning we headed back into town for the free tour. It started out in the market square, where there were various booths set up where they made fresh food. I tried the sugar-roasted nuts (delicious), a donut-like bread roll covered in sugar (evan more delicious) and thin waffles with fresh caramel in the middle (the most delicious). The free tour was great, especially for someone who knew NOTHING about Prague before going there. The cool thing about the city is it sustained very little bombing during WWII, so most the really old buildings and landmarks have remained intact. After the free tour, we went straight into a tour of the Prague Castle. It was a very interesting tour, but after 6 hours of listening to tour guides it was a bit hard to focus. We all headed back to the hostel to clean up and sleep.
Sunday I finally got in contact with a good friend from the US who was also in Prague, Colleen (Aka future roomie :-) ). We met up at the Jewish museum, which held drawings from Jewish children who were in concentration camps during WWII. Afterward, we walked to the John lennon wall, ate at Bohemian bagel (the best sandwich/bagel place ever!!), took a nap, and then headed out to a delicious Czech meal (our first of the trip). We spent the rest of the night watching the USA vs. Canada hockey in an Australian pub. We ended up staying after close talking with the owner of the bar. It was the perfect way to end the trip!!
Monday we spent a very LONG 13 hours traveling home... but we made it in one piece!
I will try to catch up on my posts soon! I spent last weekend in London and today hiking in the Yorkshire Dales!!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Uggs are NOT climbing shoes
So the weekend started out well with an otley run. Otley road is a major road in Leeds with a lot of pubs on it. The goal is spend a half an hour and have a drink in each. The otley run I went on was Canadian themed and it was a ton of fun!
Friday night I left for Edinburgh. We arrived at our hostel to find we were directly beneath castle rock!! ( The view from the doorstep of the hostel can be seen above). The castle was so beautiful inside. Some of th
e buildings date back to the 12th century. After a whiskey tasting (which was so good i actually bought some... I am willing to give it to the highest bidder back home) we headed down to the elephant cafe for lunch. For those of you who are not Harry Potter Fans, the Elephant cafe is where J.K.Rowling penned the first harry potter novel on a napkin. From the cafe you can see Castle Rock, a cemetary(with the graves of Tim McGongall and Tom Riddle) and a castle-like orphanage, which the locals say is the "real hogwarts".After lunch, we headed down to the local starbucks for our free tour. We spent 3 hours walking around learning about Edinburgh history. Highlights included a heart in the middle of the street which people constantly spit on (in tradition with olden times when people spit on it because that was where they collected taxes) Greyfriars bobby ( a dog who sat by his masters grave for 10 years after he died), and trying the local cuisine of deep-fried mars bars(sound disgusting -tastes delicious) and Irn-Bru(a Scottish soda). It was such a cheap and great way to see the city. That night, we went on the pub-crawl with the same tour group and had a ton of fun.
Sunday we decided to hike Arthur seat(the peak to the left in the pic), a large hill with a 360 view of Edinburgh. Since this was a weekend trip, i only brought two pairs of shoes: Uggs and flats. Uggs were perfectly adequate to hike the hill. It was a bit steep at parts but nothing
horrible. We were lucky to have a clear day, because we could see for miles from the top. We sat and ate our lunch and heading back down the hill, and this is when our problems began. 6 of us had climbed Arthur's seat, 4 guys and 2 girls. The guys choose the path down, and what do you know, they decided we were going to climb down the cliff face. If Emma and I had been wearing tennis shoes, it would have been fine... but climbing down a pretty vertical cliff with ugg boots and a longchamp purse is not really the way to do it. Nevertheless we made it down... and it was totally worth it.I spent the few hours we had left at the Edinburgh museum, seeing Dolly the Sheep (stuffed and creepy looking) and various ancient Scottish artifacts. Then we hopped on the train and headed home!!
In other news... I passed my first test!! yay!! Its refreshing to know I can still pass this semester even though I am gone every weekend/ cannot will myself to do much schoolwork. I also got a lovely care package from my parents containing lots of goldfish, chex mix, girlscout cookies, and easymac so I am not longer suffering from American food withdrawl. I am heading to Prague tomorrow (AH!!) which will be the first European country, besides England, I have EVER been too!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tipsy Tuesdays?
Tuesday nights have been the best nights I have had in Leeds so far. Tuesday night is "international night" at a local pub and they have become an event of sorts among my friends. Last week, we went to the Eldon pub early and watched the Leeds soccer game, this week we had a potluck dinner, and next week we are holding a beerpong tournament complete with pizza and curly fries. We were talking about a possible "drink potluck" the week after....
Also... through wikipedia... I have found out some pretty cool facts about places I have been. For Example:
The Harry Potter movies use the Durham Catherdral (which I went to last weekend) as the sets for classrooms and corridors! I didn't take a picture of the walkways... but I am pretty sure the scenes where filmed in the corridors all around this courtyard!
Also... through wikipedia... I have found out some pretty cool facts about places I have been. For Example:The Harry Potter movies use the Durham Catherdral (which I went to last weekend) as the sets for classrooms and corridors! I didn't take a picture of the walkways... but I am pretty sure the scenes where filmed in the corridors all around this courtyard!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
