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

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!!