Turned 21!

My twenty first birthday was the longest birthday I’ve ever had. Don’t get me wrong it was very fun, just not the part where we had to get up at 3:00 am to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We were lucky to be able to check into our hostel right when we got there because most of the time we had to wait until the afternoon, but on this travel day we arrived, checked in, and took a 3 hour nap. We really didn’t want to start a 3 ½ week trip tired. After waking up we freshened up and headed to the Van Gogh Museum. The line was rather long so we waited about forty-five minutes just to get in, but it was worth it. My favourite pieces of Van Gogh’s are his sunflowers. The way he makes this vase of dying flowers look beautiful is phenomenal. That night Grace and Liz treated me to a wonderful birthday dinner, but we were exhausted so we went to bed on the early side.

Amsterdam has many beautiful canals. 

The city is also known for its vast number of flower markets.

One tasty food we ate quite a few of, which I hadn’t tried before, was stroop waffles. Stroop means syrup in Dutch. They are made out of syrup sandwiched between these very thin, crunchy wafers, which look like waffles. They made great travel snacks so we bought a bunch and ate them throughout the trip.

We were only in Amsterdam a couple of days before travelling to Brugge. That was an extremely stressful travel day because we found out that the tickets for the overnight train from Paris to Nice were sold out for Eurail Pass holders, that was us. So we scrambled trying to figure out how to make that trip. We already had bought the passes which are not cheap so paying full price for that train ticket was going to be slightly painful. We looked into flights, and even thought about renting a car and driving across France! Those two options seemed more expensive than buying a ticket at regular price, so we ended up taking the night train anyway. But getting to that decision was a bit crazy.

It was rather sunny and quite nice for most of our time in Brugge. The city is pretty small so the time we allotted to explore was a great amount. It had a river running through it like all of these major cities we visited. We mostly just wandered around the city and took in the beautiful architecture.

There was a little cute market we walked through which had lots of jewellery and even a booth with wooden toys which were adorable. I would have taken a picture but people selling things at markets usually don’t allow it.

Being in Belgium we also, of course, had to eat some Belgian chocolate! Every piece I tried was absolutely delicious! I desperately wanted to bring some back as gifts, especially for my grandmum who I’m pretty sure it’s her favourite food, but it would have been too difficult to carry. So I had to eat a piece for everyone instead!

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura 

Our Endless Adventures in London

On Saturday Megan, Liz, and I went to a football match! We even bought Fulham scarves to support the home team. Unfortunately, they did not arrive until after the match, oh well. Fulham was the team expected to win being number 2 in the line up and going up against team number 12. The field was just a tube, bus, and a jump away. We weren’t exactly sure how to get there but there was enough of a crowd headed to the field that we could follow. It was an exciting, high scoring game. But, much to the fans dismay Fulham lost 4 to 2. I personally was not extremely upset, not being all too invested in either team.

We decided to take a couple of day trips before leaving again for the main land. An area of London called Greenwich was our first. On Sundays there is a market featuring handmade goods and amazing food, so we went on Sunday. The other appeal of Greenwich is the Prime Meridian. It is quite the tourist site located at the top of a fairly steep hill with an amazing view of the area. My three closest friends from this semester and I realized that we did not have a good picture of the four of us, so we were a bit hopeful to get a good one of all of us straddling the Prime meridian. But we were in a long queue of people taking quick pictures and we were going to have to ask someone queuing behind us to take the picture so I wasn’t sure how great it would turn out. To my pleasant surprise we got a great picture! We were all happy with it.

On Monday we took a day trip to Brighton, which is located on the southern coast of England. We decided to wait until it got warm and luckily had a beautiful day because the appeal of Brighton is the beach. We laid in the sun on coast made of stones for a couple of hours, and like usual at the beach, I got sun burned. There was a beautiful pier on the beach with some carnival rides at the end of it.

As you can see it wasn't quite warm enough for a beach day but plenty of people were in bathing suits! 

The day was wonderful walking around in the warm sun. Then it ended and we were back to fitting in all of the touristy things we could before heading back to the mainland for a few weeks. We headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral, a site we’d talked about visiting since the first week of being in London. We climbed the 500 some stairs to the top for an amazing view of our city.

Our view from the top of St. Peter's 

That same day Liz and I headed over to the London Tower and took a guided tour. The tour guide was great, complete with costume. We got to see the crowned jewels of England, as well as walk along the walls surrounding the tower.

One of our last hurrahs was to see another musical. We tried to go to The Book of Mormon but the day tickets can only be obtained via a lottery so we entered but did not get the tickets. We were on our way to see Once, a movie turned into a musical, when we saw the theatre sign for Les Miserables. Liz and I had never seen the musical and Grace absolutely loves it so we decided to see it. It was phenomenal. The singing was just amazing and the acting was spot on. The one character we didn’t like so well was the older Cosette. Her facial expressions were a bit off. But Fontine made up for it. She was absolutely amazing.

Friday May 10^th, my birthday, we left for our Eurotrip part 2. We visited 8 cities in 3 ½ weeks. More about that trip to come!

Have a wonderfully, amazing day, cheers! ~Laura 

Finishing up the Term

I didn’t have much time to do anything except write papers the first week we got back. On the bright side after I turned in my last paper on April 24^th I was completely done with the term! School wise anyway, I still had 2 whole months to wait before seeing my family and more than that before going home so it didn’t feel finished. My friends were still doing work so in order to keep the peace I decided I would cook for them. Every couple of days I made something new. The list consisted of stuffed bread, lasagne, pasta, quesadillas, and cookie dough. They were able to take some time off to visit the Globe Theatre. None of us had seen it and it became the time of year when it is warm enough to open so we decided to attend a concert at the Globe to celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday. The ‘concert’ called The Birthday Bash consisted of two musical performances by Johnny Flynn and the Magic Numbers, two magic acts, and a comedian who did a few bits between acts and introduced everyone (she was my favourite part of the show!). Being in the Globe Theatre is a unique experience. The stage protrudes out into a circular open room with coverings over it and the seats. But if it rains during a show, the groundlings, that’s what the people standing in the middle are called, will get wet.

Liz was the next of our friend group to finish her finals and neither of us had been to Edinburgh so we decided to take a trip on a whim. We bought the plane tickets on Sunday for Wednesday and off we went! We had what was a lovely then became strange conversation on the plane with the man sitting next to us. We learned all about his wife and young children. Originally from Africa but moved to Edinburgh with his family. He thought Liz and I had strong resemblance to one another and that we were sisters, but we don’t really look much alike… Then he asked for our emails and that’s when it got a bit weird. We did not give them to him.

I was glad for the nice weather when we got to the city because it took us 2 hours to find the hostel! Liz’s phone didn’t know exactly where it was. We were a bit tired but met up with one of Liz’s friends, Madeline, who was studying abroad there at the time. She showed us some good places to eat and get afternoon tea and gave us some tips about what to do and see while there.

The next morning we got up and found coffee and headed to climb Arthur’s Seat. (It’s just the name of the mountain; there is not actually a seat up there). So we found it and headed up what we thought was Arthur’s Seat. We found out that it was not actually where we wanted to be so we had to go across a ridge to the actual ‘mountain’ and then climb up further to the top. It took us much longer than we bargained for and neither of us was wearing the right shoes for this endeavour, me in converse, and Liz in fashionable boots. But we made it without falling or injuring ourselves. The view from the top was amazing.

What we thought was Arthur's Seat 

Our view from the top!

The climb down was time consuming but not as harrowing. We sure did work up an appetite, though and headed to Madeline’s favourite tea room for afternoon tea. We’d heard it was more like a meal, and it really was! For just £8 we got tea, a scone, a sandwich, and a piece of pie or cake.  It was really a lot of food, and a lot less expensive than London would have been.

The next day we walked the Royal Mile, which we actually did every day because our hostel was right on it. But this time we hopped in and out of shops looking for gifts. We meandered to the end of the street where the Edinburgh Castle is located. It was a bit expensive, as there are no student discounts, but we hadn’t done any other touristy things so we decided to go for it. The castle was beautiful and there was a lot more to it than we realized. We got to see the crowned jewels of Scotland!

The Royal Mile 

The Edinburgh Castle 

We were not in Edinburgh very long because we had to get back for a football match. To my American readers that means soccer game. It was on Saturday so Friday evening we boarded another plane and got back in London to go see it.

Have a wonderfully marvellous day, cheers! ~Laura  

Beautiful, but Expensive, Luzern

Luzern was one of the most beautiful, most expensive cities we visited. The most expensive actually, even more so than Stockholm! We were relieved to find out that we could check into our hotel room upon arrival instead of waiting until the afternoon because we were feeling a bit like the weary traveller type. Getting to Luzern included my first overnight train, which of course meant not a whole lot of sleeping occurred.  After getting settled in our room a greatly needed quest for coffee ensued. Not quite sure what we would find, rounding a bend and seeing Starbucks emerge from the woodwork was a pleasant surprise. What wasn’t so pleasant but came as a huge surprise was the 10 swiss franks (which are about equal to a dollar) we each ended up paying for the venti frappuccinos with an extra shot of espresso. Oh the amount we will pay for coffee.

Luzern is a small gorgeous city, which does not have all that much to do, tourist wise. So the first day we meandered through the Old Town and saw the major sites. Luzern has a famous bridge, Chapel Bridge, and attached to it is a famous hexagonal shaped building.

In front of the Lion of Luzern is the location where Liz and Grace took public naps each laying on one of my legs. The poor things were still so exhausted from the night train and it was so warm that they couldn’t help but lay down and fall asleep. It was fascinating to watch the hordes of tourists coming and going to take pictures of the famous war memorial.

Switzerland is known for a few things, one of which being fondue! So of course we had to find fondue for dinner because that was our only night in the city. Needless to say it was extremely expensive and we ended up paying close to (don’t freak out, dad) 40 franks each for cheese and chocolate fondue. The cheese was amazing. The chocolate, however, was not so great. We all agreed we could have done without.

The next day we did some shopping for souvenirs. I now have a real Swiss Army knife from Switzerland! Liz and I both got one and I must remember to put that in my checked luggage… We also rented a paddleboat and set out into the lake. The weather was beautiful and warm and the view of the Alps was absolutely marvellous. The swans in the lake were extremely aggressive. They would swim very close to our boat and as we were paddling in to the dock one got really close to me and another hissed at Grace! I never knew they could hiss. Good things swans don’t have teeth because just a stretch of the neck and they could have bit us. It was a bit scary.

Liz and Grace in our boat 

View of the buildings from our boat 

That evening we had a flight back to London. It was great to get back even though we had a lot of finals work ahead of us to finish up the term. 

Have a wonderfully marvelous evening, cheers! ~Laura 

Do We Fight for the Right to a Night at the Opera, Now?

Did you know that the entire city of Vienna is closed on Sundays? We didn’t either. Our plan to find opera dresses was foiled by supposed 'family time'. Even the mall of all places was not open. So we were forced to dig through the minimal amount of clothing we could fit in our rucksacks to find something opera appropriate. Needless to say, I ended up wearing jeans; Jeans having a very dark wash, but jeans. Oh, and I had to borrow a black shirt from Grace because I didn’t have anything better to wear with my jeans to the opera. Luckily we fit right in with most of the people who also opted for the cheap standing room tickets. We read up on our opera etiquette before heading over to the opera house and learned that it is customary for people in the standing room to bring scarves in order to save their place at the bar to lean on. Unfortunately, when we arrived most people were already standing at the bar and we had to stand in the stairway. It was rather crowded and must have been a fire hazard.

On our tour in Prague our guide warned us that Austrians could be rather rude. We found this to be true at the opera, Rigoletto. Someone stupidly took a picture using flash and a synchronised gasp flooded the auditorium. A man behind us started clapping a bit too soon and he got quite the death glare from a man standing in front of us. And to top it all off we got a very disapproving look and some undistinguishable but angry words from an old woman who thought we were trying to take someone’s place at the bar when really we just wanted something to lean on temporarily between acts. Finally people left before the last act and we were able to stand at the bar and read an English translation of the Latin. Despite the intense people surrounding us, the show was phenomenal. We could not believe the lungs of the lead woman, Rigoletto’s daughter. She had a phenomenal voice and none of the actors were miked. In the final scene Rigoletto is cradling his daughter who is quite curled up lying on the stage, and she kept singing in this position! We were amazed. That was my first ever experience at the opera.

One thing that is open on Sundays is the Schönbrunn Palace. We got to see around 50 rooms of it! They were beautifully decorated, like the rooms of a palace should be. And admission came with an audio guide, which filled us in on the history of the family for whom the palace was built. It was a bit confusing because the guide did not go completely in order but skipped around the timeline a bit. We could have paid a bit extra to see the gardens behind the palace, but decided we did not have the attention span for that.

Just a section of the outside of the Palace 

Liz and me on the steps

There were just palaces a plenty to visit! On Monday we made our way to the Belvedere Palace, which is home to brilliant works of art. Our pull to visit was the Gustav Klimt collection, more specifically The Kiss. This painting of Klimt’s was stunning in person. What the viewer misses when looking at pictures of this painting is that the gold paint in the background actually glitters. This and many other pieces we saw by Klimt were simply stunning. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but here's one of the grounds.

We of course had to try Austrian coffee while we were visiting and it tasted amazing! We also rode the Ferris wheel, one of Vienna’s most famous landmarks (don’t worry I didn’t know about it either). The London Eye was modeled after the one in Vienna. The sun was just sinking below the mountains as we got to the top and it painted the clouds a beautiful gold. It was a marvellous end to our last night in Vienna. Next we fled to the Alps! 

Have a wonderfully marvellous evening, cheers! ~Laura

Real Life Disney

Before coming abroad this semester, I struggled reading a map. I struggled with most navigation even fairly close to home on streets that should have been familiar to me. On my seventeenth birthday I had had my licence for about eight months and my parents gave me a GPS, which I named Ramona, because they thought I needed it in order to get most anywhere. They were correct; Ramona has been a lifesaver. Thus, I was extremely proud of myself when I made it to the apartment where we were staying in Prague. Not having an iphone, I did it the old fashioned way using a map. To get from the airport to the city I had to take a bus and then the metro to the centre, which is difficult when you don’t speak the language. I then got all my stuff and myself off the metro and found the apartment! I couldn’t believe how smoothly it went. My friends didn’t arrive until hours later so I hung out and was able to get internet so I could warn them about the lack of signage to let people know it was the right place.

That night we found a restaurant to eat dinner, pleasantly surprised by much lower prices than we have been used to. The Czech Republic uses Czech crowns as their currency, so we had to get used to yet another currency. We’d heard that Prague is like real life Disney. The architecture that surrounded us and Prague Castle nestled at the top of a nearby mountain proved this to be true. We would randomly look at one another and in a sing-songy way say “Real life Disney!”.

Knowing little about Prague we decided to take a 3 hour walking tour on our first day to learn a bit more about the city. We were taken to a few of the most famous parts of the city. One being the Astronomical Clock, which tells the date as well as the 24 hour time and the time of sunrise, sunset, and includes a clock which tells the Ancient Czech time. I don’t remember how to read it at all, there were simply too many things going on to keep it all straight; Although, it is gorgeous so people were flocked around it taking pictures. 

We were also taken to Charles Bridge. The bridge is a pedestrian bridge and is lined with statues and during the day people hoping to sell their wares. Being a popular tourist attraction, it draws local artists to set up stands and sell their homemade items or portraits.

The tour also took us to the Old Town, Jewish Quarter and many other areas. We really covered a lot of ground during that 3 hours. One other bit of information we learned is that Czechs drink more alcohol than any people of any other country in the world. They drink approximately 156 pints of beer per capita annually.

We had heard only good things about the Prague castle, so we decided visiting was a must. We didn’t realize quite how long it would take and what was involved but luckily we set aside an entire day. We got an amazing view from the mountain that the castle was on and went into surrounding buildings that were part of the experience.

The festival hall. I love the ornate ceilings in buildings like this!

That night we were walking back from dinner and the Charles Bridge was all lit up in the dark and it made for a beautiful picture. 

Charles Bridge

The next day we left by train for Vienna. We were sad to leave real life Disney, and would advise people to spend more than three days there.

Have a wonderfully marvellous evening, cheers! ~Laura

London with Liz

It was great to have a few days to show Liz around London! We got back pretty late on Saturday night and had to blow up the air mattress I had gotten for Liz to use. We struggled a bit with that (and when I say we I mean she did, I was skyping for a bit with my parents during that). We finally got it blown up and went to bed so we could explore Hyde Park the next morning. Liz loves birds and we needed a chill day after running around the mainland for so long. She was pretty geeked by all the species that reside in the park, pointing and naming them as they swam by. The weather could have been warmer but was beautiful for a stroll in the park.

Hyde Park

My cousin, Elysa, was visiting London with a friend and I got to meet up with her for afternoon tea at Harrods! The tea was lovely; everyone approved of the clotted cream with scones, of course, and enjoyed their tea selections. It was great to see some family and catch up with Elysa, even if just for a few hours.

After tea we went to the London Dungeon. Eighteen actors walk you through what is supposed to be old age London or sometimes the sewer. Yuck! They impersonated the grimy or criminal figures as they walked us through 1,000 years of London history. It was interesting to learn about the people and it was done in an awesome extremely up close and personal way.

The next day we let ourselves sleep in a bit again before heading out to see the London must see sights. We made our way to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and even found the Twinings store which I hadn’t been to yet but wanted to go. Basically the typical London sites. We even walked down Portobello road, although it was rather empty being late afternoon on a week day. 

Found the Twinings store!

Liz at Trufulgar Square

That night we made our way back to the Big Ben area to ride the London Eye! An activity I hadn’t done yet. We timed it well so we ended up seeing some of the sunset on our way up and lit up buildings started to sparkle throughout the city as we made our way down. We got a great view from the top, although I would also recommend getting a view of the city including the London Eye (which you can’t do if you’re riding it…)

Big Ben and Parliament

On Liz’s last day in London she went out by herself to visit the Natural History Museum. I decided I would skip it because I needed more sleep to get ready for another week of travel and Liz felt comfortable finding her way on her own so that’s what we did. She loved the museum and said it was probably good I didn’t go because she ended up getting in on a tour, which took longer than expected but she was very excited to have the experience.

Our last hurrah was going to see The Lion King. The theatre was huge, the sets were amazing, and the costumes were some of the most intricate I’ve ever seen. From the face paint to the clothing, to the structures built to represent bigger animals, I couldn’t believe how the actors manipulated their bodies and costumes to embody the animals. The stage effects were pretty amazing as well. A couple parts stick out in my mind, one being the scene with the stampede. The way it looked like the heard was running towards the audience was pretty cool. The second part was the song He Lives in You. Rafiki really stole the show for me and that song in particular was rather moving. There were some awesome light effects used during it.

The next morning Liz left for the states and I left for Prague. I know I’ve been behind on the blog but I finally have some down time so I will be able to catch up.

Have a wonderfully marvellous evening, cheers! ~Laura