Nothing worth anything ever goes down easy

Life never really makes sense.

Hearing the news that I heard that Wednesday morning is never going to be easy for anyone.  Losing someone who was such a major part of my life is something I hadn’t experienced before, and something I hoped I wouldn’t have to go through for a very long time.

But we have no control over that.

One of my professors told me last week that studying abroad is rewarding enough, but going through something as difficult as this so far away from home can sometimes make even more of an impact on your life than the classes.  I couldn’t agree more.

Rest In Peace, Dave.  Our lives won’t be the same without you.

Some catching up to do: Prague

I am back in London after a week-long adventure to Ireland with Haley.  But before I even upload my photos to my computer, I am forcing myself to write this blog post about Prague.  So, while I sit on my bed with Galway Girl on repeat, thinking about how London is nowhere near as beautiful (or as friendly) as any spot in the whole country of Ireland, here goes Prague.

Prague was an adventure simply for the fact that all 7 of us set off together Thursday night.  While I was a little weary of W!ZZ Air, it turned out to be just fine, and our travels from London to the Czech Republic were pretty flawless.  I’d also like to take note of the awesome hologram people who tell you how to go through airport security at Luton Airport. mind blowing.

We landed in Prague late enough for the whole airport to basically be shut down, and getting enough change in Czech Kourna to buy bus tickets from a temperamental machine outside in the cold was extremely difficult and frustrating.  It took some time to figure it all out, but we met a few other kids also just as confused, and formed a somewhat-too-large-to-be-acceptable group traveling by bus and public tram to the city centre.  I absolutely loved our hostel, Art Hole Hostel.  It was so small, we were all in one room together with only one other person, it was in a great location, nice people, and free breakfast.  It inspired me to add another life goal to my list: open and run a hostel.

We got some sleep and woke up ready to explore Prague.  We walked up many, many stairs to the Prague Castle area up on a hill overlooking the whole city.  It was a clear day, so the views were great, and the castle was perfectly picturesque too.  Just like the other castles/courts/places of royalty I’ve been to, there were extensive gardens and grounds up on the hill with at least three churches and plenty of other buildings to walk around.

We walked back down to the main part of the city and ate lunch at a little place offering three course deals.  It was delicious and the only thing that could have made it better was if the owner wasn’t so obviously rude to Americans.  It’s interesting to notice the differing attitudes toward us when we travel to different countries.  I guess Prague would be a step below France on that meter.

Then we found the John Lennon Wall and took some time to add our own creation to it.  Considering we didn’t have sharpies or spraypaint, we had to carve our names into a door at the end of the wall, but I think it still counts.

We checked out the Charles Bridge, a famous pedestrian bridge with many sculptures along it.  We got a great view of the river and there were craft stands and other things set up along the walk.  There was also this guy, who still amazes me.

 

 

 

 

Prague is sometimes called “the city of spires,” and there are definitely plenty of those, but there are so many little shops along the streets.  I liked Prague because there were a lot of different things that I’ve never really come across before: too many marionette shops for the city’s own good, absinth shops, Smurf-flavored gelato, pretty low quality white rappers at a Nike street concert, Cats the musical preformed in a black light theatre, the list goes on.

We also stumbled upon the same exact Chocolate Museum as the one we went to in Belgium.  Not only is this really confusing to me, but it makes me quite angry that here we were, thinking we went to the one and only chocolate museum in the country of chocolate, Belgium, and we walk right into one in…Prague?  It had the same decorations on the inside! Not cool, Choco-Story, not cool.

Prague is also beautiful at night, as evidenced here:

Some of us went out to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (yeah, how adventurous of us) that night.  My friends treated me to dinner and a drink for my birthday, even though it technically wasn’t my birthday yet.

 

It was an exhausting day of sightseeing, so we returned to our hostel and went to bed.  We got up early the next morning to head to the Prague Zoo, considered one of the best zoos in Europe.  At about $5 to get in, it was definitely worth it.  I saw many animals I had never seen before, and the variety of things at this zoo was much greater than I think you would ever find at a zoo in the US.  My favorite creature, which doesn’t even look real to me, was the Shoebill.  I guess I can’t leave out the display we unfortunately witnessed, and I fortunately captured while innocently taking a picture of two cute dogs, along one of the zoo paths.  I’ll let it speak for itself.

Overall, it was a perfect day and I’m proud to say I spent my 21st birthday at the zoo.  At night we went to The Pub, where we sat at a table with a tap in the middle and we poured our own pints.  The table has a screen in the middle which calculates what you have poured by volume according to person, and a projection screen in the middle ranks each table in the pub according to how much has been poured.  Maybe not the healthiest idea for an establishment, but it was a lot of fun and we enjoyed ourselves.  You could request songs from the screen at your table and even order food from it.  We were table number 8 and this is probably the highest ranked we were the whole time.

We left Art Hole sometime around 3 AM to make our way back to the airport and onto our flight back to London.  A little earlier than I would have liked, but we survived.  Prague is definitely a place I’d like to go back to sometime.  There was more that we just didn’t have time to see, and everything was so inexpensive there, it’s worth it just for that.  I’m not sure what the rest of the Czech Republic has to offer, but maybe another trip to Prague will have to take place in the future.

A Lesson in The Unknown: Belgium

 

I wouldn’t have known two months ago that Belgium currently has no government.  The extreme ease with which we freely hopped on public transportation with no ticket to show proved this quite well, I think.  Or maybe it was the fact that sidewalks seemed kind of non-existent.  Or maybe it was the Chi Chi’s in the center of Brussels….one of the few remaining in the world.  Whatever it was, it was cool, and hardly as unnerving as it may seem, to explore a country you know basically nothing about…especially one with no government.

Why we chose Belgium…I’m still not quite sure, but my thirst to see as much as possible in this world leads me to crave any form of travel, touristy or otherwise.  To be completely honest, I enjoy wandering places that are seemingly mundane, because I think there are always beautiful things to find hidden within them.  Belgium is my example.

Kath, Ali and I took the Eurostar train from St. Pancras (186 miles per hour AND through an underwater tunnel), arriving in Brussels just a couple hours later.  The ride may have been more pleasant, though not at all as entertaining, if it hadn’t been for a rowdy group of middle-aged men in the car behind ours, celebrating somebody’s birthday with bottles of champagne, and by singing Happy Birthday in French every time someone passed from another car into theirs (more times than I thought were funny by the end of the ride).  The train spit us out in a cold, dirty, dark land of different languages (mainly French and Dutch), and we managed to take the overground tram to our hostel, called 2GO4. I’m still not positive why it’s called that.  I had been assured by the hostel manager that we would be able to check in and retrieve our room keys from a machine outside the hostel, even though reception was closed when we got there after 11 PM.  As is predictable with my poor luck, no matter what I tried I could not get the lock box to open so we could get the keys out.  We were almost ready to search out a cheap hotel, which I really, REALLY didn’t want to have the experience of doing, when the reception guy opened the door for us and explained he hadn’t gotten a chance to put the keys outside yet.  Thank. God.  One awkward tour of the hostel later, and we were left on our own in a very dark 14 bed dorm room with numerous people asleep in the bunk beds.

We figured it out pretty quickly, fumbling around trying to put the sheets on our beds, and pull out enough stuff so we could get to sleep.  The hostel was nice and clean, quiet despite the number of people in the room with us, and the beds were comfy.  I should say, there was one person who snored like I have never heard before, and that is saying a lot considering my father.  I actually lay awake in my bed scared for my life.  Maybe that’s what it’s like to be woken up from an earthquake.

In the morning, we organized our stuff and got ready for the day.  We had little direction or ideas of what to do, so we just set out to see what we could find.  The city is really nothing special, but it has it’s redeeming points: the buildings in the Grand Place, and many other smaller squares, were so ornately decorated; the storefronts had many interesting names, most notably “Drug Opera,” which we figured was probably anything other than what it turned out to be: a restaurant we ate lunch in.  The place-mats looked something like the picture to the left.  I made sure to take one, and it’s now sitting elegantly on our bedroom mantel.  Probably most importantly, Belgium is known for a couple staples of my diet: chocolate, french fries, and waffles.  I was not disappointed in any department.

There are hundreds of chocolate shops along the streets, some chains, like the famous Leonidas, some local shops.  I made a point to walk in almost every one, just for the sake of doing so.  The waffles we got from Belgaufra, a little chain stand on the street, were so sweet I think I would have burst having eaten any more than the one waffle I managed to put away.  There are actual sugar crystals within the (only partially cooked) batter, and I had them put hot fudge on mine as well.  Obviously these aren’t the AUTHENTIC Belgian waffles, but I prefer the more exciting, you-might-die-this-is-so-sweet kind.

We walked around for a few hours and eventually made our way back to the train station to hop on a one hour local train to Bruges.  As soon as we stepped outside, I could tell there was a big difference in this city from the last.  At least when we got there it was still somewhat light out this time, and we were able to check in to Snuffel Hostel and unpack with no issues.  For some reason, this hostel just made me feel like I was at summer camp.  Aside from a pretty obnoxious group of kids who thought it was okay to turn the lights on in our room when others were sleeping, Snuffel treated us well.  There was even a bar in the lounge area where we watched a concert the last night.

Bruges is beautiful.  Most of the streets are cobblestone, little waterways flow through the city, and there are hundreds of small shops lining the streets.  Horse drawn carriages go by every couple of minutes and the sound of them adds to the busy atmosphere.  Even though it was dark, cold and rainy, it kind of seemed to suit the area well, like it doesn’t care the weather sucks.  Thanks to a wonderful map given to us at the hostel, we had much more direction than in Brussels.  Direction: Chocolate Museum, Friet Museum.

We had seen a brochure for the Chocolate Museum in which they boasted a “chocolate Obama.”  Naturally, this was enough for me to hear to buy the ticket and begin our tour.  The museum was full of tourists, Lego dioramas, and informative panels with typos.  But hey, I got to witness the afformentioned Choc-o-Bama and even got a free chocolate sample at the end.

Obviously we had to also experience the Friet (French Fry) Museum a short walk down the road, just as informative but missing the Lego dioramas.  The tour ends in a fry shop where you can purchase an overwhelmingly large cone of french fries, but be warned you have to pay extra for ketchup or any other toppings you may want.

We spent the rest of the day exploring, I had some of the best chocolate gelato of my life in Da Vinci Gelateria, and we got to see Michaelango’s Madonna and Child.  We searched for a place for dinner in the rain, finally landing on some little place called Humpty Dumpty which had a large Betty Boop statue on the counter.  I ordered a ham sandwich because they were out of turkey and was then told they were out of baguettes, but settled for plain bread.  My ham sandwich (or sandwiches because there were two on the plate) were literally ham on bread, nothing else.  Nevertheless, they were the most delicious pieces of bread with ham between them I’ve ever had.

We then went back to the hostel to get a good night sleep and woke up way too early to walk all the way to the train station when it was still dark out.  Maybe not the safest idea, but our trusty little map got us there pretty easily.  From there, we took a train to Brussels and then got on our Eurostar train back to London.  Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got home.

It’s taken me two weeks to find the time to upload all the photos and think about what I wanted to write about that trip.  I can’t wait to see more of the world and explore as much as I can.  I wish I had all the time in the world to travel, but I’ll make the most of this time I have.  Tonight, we leave for Prague, all 7 of us.  I’m predicting this trip will be a little more stressful, but I’m going to try and not let it get to me, since it’s my birthday.  Time is moving way too fast.  It’s so sad to think that we’re just about halfway through the semester

…so no more thinking of that.

Fuck

painful.

heartbreaking.

worst of all.

I am dying to see this:

If there was some magical way I could get a ticket to the Royal Ballet’s opening of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, my life would be complete.  I’m sure it will be as beautiful and twisted as I imagine it to be.  If only I had 750 pounds to spare…

This is My Life

Everything is comfortable.

I’m no longer really surprised when I open the door to our living room in the morning and see someone asleep on one (or both) couches.  The thought that I’ve probably been in at least 15 tourists’ photos while riding the escalator in the tube station now just makes me laugh.  I own a real Tesco card, know where the cheapest places to buy lunch meat, bread, milk, and ice cream are (and no, they’re not all the same store), and have almost perfected the perfect High Juice to water ratio.  I’m trying to add more pleases and thank yous into normal conversation, trying not to look at anyone else sitting around me in the Tube in the morning, and trying to eat more veggies and lament less over the microwave popcorn missing from my life.  I look forward to nightly episodes of The Chase, The Joy of Teen Sex, and Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents. Life is just life, and it’s gotten to that point way faster than it did in Syracuse.

It’s crazy that time is flying by.  I walk down the road sometimes and think to myself, I could live here for the rest of my life.  I’ve survived this far, why not for longer?  And hey, the Tube somehow seems much easier than the T.  Maybe someday.

In one week and two days I will turn 21.  I’ll be in Prague, in the company of my 6 flat-mates.  I still haven’t really grasped the concept, except to realize that my 21st birthday will not be the same here as it would be in the states.  And honestly, I’m perfectly fine with that.  On that note, my new jam: cherry beer.  I think I died and went to heaven when I took a sip of this last night.  Watch out, Bud Light Lime.

Seeing as I haven’t updated in quite a few days, I will recap the highlights.  I’m lucky my classes take so many field trips.  Some days I just feel like I’m living…not going to school, and that’s the way I like it.

My Food and Culture class went on a tour of Fuller’s Brewery.  Needless to say, I was a little nervous to re-experience the potent brew smell of the Magic Hat Brewery tour I went on before I left elementary school, or the days when dad would set up the various contraptions to make beer in the old house.  I guess I’ve moved past that because the smell wasn’t nearly as awful as I expected it to be.  And at the end of the tour we got to taste whatever we wanted…baller!

Our museum class visited Tate Britain last week.  Definitely not my favorite of all the museums I’ve visited so far, but worthy of mention.  I was both surprised and disgusted to stumble upon a few Damien Hirst pieces there, including Away from the Flock, which I couldn’t leave behind without taking a picture of.  One of my favorite things about museum visits is all the kids there on school field trips.  It’s amazing to me that they can grow up with so much culture right in front of them.  From what I’ve seen, it makes a difference.  If I could raise a little English child, I would in a heartbeat.  They are the epitome of precious.

I also had the opportunity to venture outside of my little bubble and into Zone 4, or 6 or whatever it was, to Southall.  We went to the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, which is one of the largest outside of India, and modeled off of the Golden Temple, the most important Sikh temple in India.  We were showed around the temple, allowed to enter the main place of worship and take it all in.  It was an incredible experience, and a great opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone.

There have been many more adventures, including our weekend excursion to Belgium, but those will have to come later.  Slowly but surely this weekend, I hope I can catch up on my posts.

Decorative Art Overload (and a maze)

This week, I had my fill of armchairs, sculptures, fountains and place settings.

The main entrance of the V&A

Thursday, I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest museum of art and design.  It’s pretty impressive to walk into a museum where instead of small paintings lining the wall, or a couple rooms of marble busts, there are giant open spaces with many huge pieces.  It’s a massive museum, with something like over six miles of galleries in all.  I really liked the cast courts, where there were many huge cast reproductions of different pieces.  In the center is Trajan’s Column, which is so huge it had to be split in two to fit in the area.  The Jewelry Gallery was also really cool.  I thought the space they designed to house different jewelry pieces was the best part of the gallery.  You weren’t supposed to take pictures in there, but luckily Google came through.  I think the room was even more impressive in person, though.  We also were able to see one of Princess Diana’s stunning dresses, which she called her “Elvis Dress.”  It has hundreds of pearls covering the gown and I was surprised at how thin and narrow the dress was in person.  It must’ve been hard to move in!

Yesterday, we took a trip to Hampton Court Palace, once home of King Henry VIII as well as William III.

It was very similar to Versailles (it was actually modeled off of it), but I still think Versailles has no competition.  We were able to walk around the extremely well-preserved building, but my favorite part was the beautiful gardens surrounding. The grounds were pretty much a maze to begin with, but a little maze, with a half-mile of paths, was planted in the 1690′s on the edge of the property.

Lost in the maze

 

 

Of course, today, you have to pay 2 pounds 50 (at a special student/child/family rate) in order to try it out, but who could turn that down?  Not us, of course.  Now that I think about it we should have timed how long it took us to find our way to the center of the maze, but it really didn’t take that long.  The sun was non-existent until our last 10 minutes wandering around outside, but on a nice warm day, I could spend hours exploring there.  And just to show that I did go inside the palace, I leave you with a photo of the King’s receiving room (where he would greet visitors).