New Castle Video

I'm almost done surviving midterms... One more tomorrow and then I'll be done. I just wanted to post really quickly about the new video that came out about Kasteel Well. When I was first looking at Emerson, they showed us a really outdated movie made in the 80s or something that wasn't very good. It looks like there's a new one now, and I'm glad! It's actually very well done, but I would hope so from a school with film as a major. Anyway, take a look! 

New Kasteel Well Video on YouTube

The Weekend of Everywhere

In an effort to save money, I decided to spend last weekend doing smaller trips instead of a big one like normal. My new friend Claire and I decided to borrow some bikes to go to a town about an hour away called Arcen. We got great weather - kind of chilly and overcast, which meant that pictures came out well and we didn't get too hot biking everywhere. We spent a wonderful day walking around the town, we ate in a cafe where I had the best crepe/pancake thing ever and some amazing coffee, and then we took a trip to the Thermalbadden (Thermal Baths). I don't have pictures from that because obviously I wasn't about to take my camera into some giant steaming pools of water. But it was a lot of fun, aside from the fact that we may have been the youngest ones there? Also we were in for a bit of a surprise when we discovered that to go in the sauna section you have to remove your bathing suit. No thanks. Anyway, it was definitely a pleasant, cheap, and tiring day. In other words, a success! Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Some scenery from the trip there

We may or may not have stolen some corn to decorate our rooms with?

Exotic local fauna - this one's for mom!

The town of Arcen

My "hazelnut heaven" coffee...

...and my GIGANTIC crepe!

Another view of the town

Our trusty bicycles along the path outside of town.

I couldn't resist! They are so beautiful! Poor Claire...I made her stop every time we saw horses. You'd think after being around them for 13 years I'd be able to pass them by on the road, but sadly this is not true.

On Saturday and Sunday Kate and Andrew and I took a short trip to Bruges. I can safely say it's the best place I've been so far - an absolutely beautiful city with a really unique atmosphere. It reminds me of Boston, actually, in that it's quite a large city but it feels very intimate and very comfortable. Plus it was nice to have a small group where none of us had any real goals or touristy stuff to do. Instead we just really enjoyed ourselves - good food (OH MY GOD THE WAFFLES), good drink, plenty of walking around, lots of talking, and lots of relaxing. Plus, due to some strategic train-jumping, we were able to make it all the way there for only five Euro each. So overall, it was really a perfect experience. I learned a lot too, about the difference that people make in your experience, and the right kind of mindset to bring to a place like this. I'm glad there wasn't much to do - that ended up being the best part!

Unfortunately, next weekend is mid-terms, so I don't have anything planned. I have so much studying to do, but the castle is absolutely gorgeous in the fall so perhaps I will do a quick autumn-themed update. That is, if I survive the preparation I'm going to need for my tests. I guess we'll see! 

Minding the Gap in London

This post is a little late since this week I've had actual schoolwork to do! I was just as shocked as everyone else when I found myself staying up late not to hang out around the bar or go for walks through town, but to create powerpoints and write papers. By far the lowest point of the semester so far. Anyway, last weekend Lexi and Pat and Sarah and Colleen and I went to Londontown! 

The plane ride was ridiculous - literally 25 minutes long. We arrived at night at Stansted, which, due to our need for budget air travel, is a tiny airport an hour outside the heart of the city. However, London is so big that we were techincally there when we landed, but it took a long bus ride to get us anywhere good. We met up with a friend of Pat's who goes to Oxford, and she whisked him away for a night with her. The rest of us went on to our first hostel, Palmer's Boutiqe Backpacker's Hotel. And for once, the place lived up to its name - it was wonderful! Very cute, super friendly staff, nice roommates, and some welcome touches like curtains on the bed, lockers, and reading lights. This is the inside foyer thing:

We didn't really do anything that night because we were all really tired. The next day, though, we had big plans! In order to execute these plans we had to attack the London Underground. It went surprisingly well, minus the part where we all had to stand around the metro map for a few thousand hours.

First we collected Pat and then we all went shopping at this phenomenon of a store called Primark. It's only in London, and it's like a dream made of stylish clothes. Each of us bought something, so I hope that the store doesn't come to the US or else my cardigan and sweater won't be as special. After shopping we ate and then went to walk around the Tower of London. We didn't go in because it was pretty expensive and we kind of wanted to see what else the city had to offer, history-wise, before we started paying huge entrance fees. We also went to Abbey road, which...wasn't that exciting. 

But we made the best of it! After that stuff, we went and took a fantastic boat ride down the Thames. It was raining pretty hard by that point though, so most of the people stayed inside the boat. This ended up being better actually, 'cause then it was just me and Lexi and Pat out on the roof, so we go to take a ton of pictures:

And even though it was raining and starting to get dark, we decided we wanted to go on the London Eye anyway. Before you go on it though, they give you these crazy glasses and take you through a "4-D" show:

We never really understood the point of it but it was cool anyway! The actual Eye was a lot of fun - the city is so beautiful and SO big!!

After that we walked around some more and took everything in before heading back to the hostel. We stayed at The Steam Engine, which was a great little place that's a pub below and a hostel on top. Since we were in a 12-bed mixed dorm, we even got the opportunity to meet some awesome new people! So with our new friends we were in the bar until really late, playing pool and talking about whatever. It was really fun and definitely one of the reasons I wanted to come on this trip. 

The next day was packed full of stuff! In the morning we went to the changing of the guard, which I loved because there were so many horses everywhere! And the music was cool too, I guess. 

Next up was Westminster Abbey, a place I have always wanted to go. It is an absolutely gorgeous cathedral, but you can't take pictures inside so all I have is a ton of shots of the outside. Thankfully, we got amazing weather on our second day, so the pictures came out well!

Oh, and there's also this, which I'm very proud to have seen:

So after we had said our hellos to Queens Elizabeth, Mary and Mary of Scots, we left and headed out to lunch. After lunch was the Churchill Museum and War Rooms, which I don't have pictures of for some reason. It was such a nice day that after the museum we took a walk in St. James park, which is very picturesque and had some great views:

Very close to the park was Trafalgar Square, where the National Gallery is. It was a great museum - really well laid-out and with a ton of great things to see. Unfortunately we were only there for like an hour 'cause they close at 5. But it was worth it, and Lexi and Sarah and I had a great time zooming around from one favorite to another. By the time we were done we got to go on a nice walk around the city before we had to meet up with everyone else. Here's my favorite picture of Trafalgar Square, taken from the steps of the National Gallery, and then some random pictures from all around the city:

That night we went and saw Sister Act: The Musical at the Palladium. It was alright! The acting was only ok, but then the sets were AMAZING. But it was entertaining and funny, and that's what mattered. After that we strolled around the Oxford Circus area and peered in all the windows and watched the kids go clubbing. We were so jealous! They had the best clothes, and all of us were severely underdressed. Instead we went and bought chocolate and wine and went back to the hostel to hang out with our new friends. 

Unfortunately, our flight was at 7:15am, which meant getting a cab from the hostel at 3:30am. Needless to say, it was a long night. 

Although I wish I had had April and Spade as my guides to the city, and to the English countryside in general, I had a great time. I feel like there's a lot of stuff I didn't get to see or do, so hopefully someday I can go back and really get to know the city. 

This weekend....Bruges? Arcen? Who knows???

Stockholm - 90% Fun!

First off, I have to say - this trip was a definite learning experience. We had our issues but we solved them like real live adults! I would sum up Stockholm like this: forget about the first day, focus on the last two. Here's why:

We arrived in the city at night, and so started walking down a main street with just an address in our hands and absolutely no Swedish between us. We asked a couple of people how to get to our hostel, the Wasa Park Hotel, and ended up having to take the metro. (We found out later that this was unecessary, and thus began the "Swedish people lie to us" theme that pervaded the weekend). I personally have a great fear of metros and their ability to swallow you alive and spit you out on the wrong side of the city. However, the Swedish metro proved very easy to use, and turned out to actually be a huge help throughout our visit. So we took the metro, came up on another street and asked some more people, and then finally wandered into the hostel very cold and tired but glad to be there. It is here that I have to admit something that will make my parents cringe - my friends and I committed a cardinal sin of travel and didn't call ahead of time to confirm the reservations we had made online. We showed up at the hostel only to find that there was no record of us at all. Anywhere. When we explained that we had booked online, the woman told us that the one guy who could use the computer for bookings had been in a car crash, and so our information was never retrieved. The best she could do was call a cab for us and send us to a sister hotel, the Haga Kristineberg. 

...Looks nice, right? Except that it's waaaaaaay outside the city next to a bunch of corporate centers. This is our wonderful view of Stockholm's E40 highway!

Needless to say, our first night in Stockholm was basically shot because it would have cost a lot of money to get back into the city. The four of us ate cookies for dinner and watched Swedish MTV until we fell asleep. 

But don't worry! From here on out it gets better. The next morning, the woman at the hotel told us that we could go back to Wasa Park Hotel because we got a room there after all. The only bad part is that we still had to pay for the rooms at both places, so we weren't in the best mood overall. But then the Wasa Park was amazing!

Our room was tiny; it was a double room with two beds and two cots in it. We preferred to call it "cozy" though, so the above picture is of my girls demonstrating the marshmallow-like quality of our beds. After being settled in in the morning, we were a lot more excited for the day - Wasa Park is in the middle of the city, and we had made ourselves a plan of what to do, and everything was finally starting to get better. 

We headed to the Gamla Stan, which is the island-like thing in the center of the city where the Royal Palace and all the old streets and squares are. It was absolutely beautiful there! Here are some shots of the Royal Palace and the square and side streets of the Gamla Stan:

After our tour of the Royal Palace (which was AMAZING) we ate lunch at the kind of cafe that everyone comes to Europe to eat lunch in:

That night we went to the Absolut Ice Bar, which was pretty intense and awesome and COLD! But the drinks were good and it was really crazy-looking and we were all so stylish in our special capes!

Our next stop was the Irish pub! Yes, yes, I know...Americans in an Irish pub in Sweden. Perhaps this makes me a true international traveler? We got a delicious dinner and some great drinks, and then we danced the night away!

On our last day in the morning, we walked around the Soldermalm, which is on a hill next to the water:

When we got back to the castle and had a pizza party in our room so that we could hear about everybody else's weekends. I love hearing about where my friends went, but the only problem is that then I want to go there too! I'm sure I can make it to Switzerland, Brussles, Copenhagen, Alghiero, and Budapest before the end of the semester, right??

Next week: hanging out in London with the queen. I'm practicing my scone-eating and tea-drinking as we speak. 

Also, you can now comment on posts even if you don't have a Blogger account, so feel free. All you have to do is write what you want to write in the comment box, select "Name/URL" from the dropdown menu, fill out your name, leave the URL space blank, and then fill in the word thing security test. And there you go!

PS - This is for my darling Margaret: