The Last Weekend

For the last weekend, we needed to do something big. Something awesome. Something 14 hours away by train. Hence, the Czech Republic! Kate and Jon and I enjoyed two sorts of adventures that weekend - the train rides to and from the city and then the city itself. The train was surreal - the three of us in a little compartment for so long. We started going a little stir crazy, but it makes for good memories. Tossing M&Ms into each other's mouths, doing group drawings of creepy people in shorts, seeing who could make the best faces at the passers by to keep them from coming in, and of course who could come up with the most creative sleeping positions. Here are Kate and Jon after about 7 hours on the way there:

The upside was of course the amazing scenery! I'm glad we took the train because of the really unique experience, and because it allowed us to really see the countryside. 

We finally got there, to a really little station that was in the middle of nowhere. However, we figured out how to take the metro into the actual city eventually. Prague is one of the THE most beautiful places I've been in Europe, even if it is a bit touristy. But again - we were there in the off season, so it really wasn't too bad. I just loved the view of the Prague Castle from the Charles bridge, and the architecture of the city, and especially our location. 

Our hostel was right on Karlova street, which is right next to the Charles bridge. The Charles is Prague's major bridge and it goes over to Prague Castle. We walked around the old historic district for a while and then went to the park where there's an amazing view of the city (that's where the picture above was taken). Our one full day in Prague was spent doing absolutely nothing cultural or touristy - instead we just wandered around the city taking it all in. There was some amazing food and some great coffee. It was frigid outside, which made all the walking basically a necessity. There was a giant Christmas fair in the main square, and a whole part of the city that was devoted to restaurants and shops. When it started to get dark we found a place to get dinner before going back to the hostel. We had made friends with the girl that worked there, Dominique, so we had made plans to go to her favorite club with her that night. Turns out the club was out in the middle of the nowhere right next to the train station, and it was AWESOME. There is no way we would have found this place without Dom, and I think we may have been the only Americans there. Perfect! I think we got there around 10pm and then we left at 4:33am to catch the tram. It was a "drum and bass" club so the music was pretty techno-influenced, and everyone was dressed pretty casual cool. The place was called Cross and it had a mechanical theme - machine parts everywhere, and a lot of them still moving and functioning. There were three floors, so you could either be at the cafe up top or on one of the two bar/dance floors. We got drinks, danced, talked to people, talked to Dom, and then danced danced danced. It was a fantastic way to spend the night and we were so exhausted when we got back.

The next morning, Dom reccommended her favorite vegetarian restaurant, which we went to for lunch. Or breakfast. When you wake up at noon it gets hard to classify. Anyway, it was delicious and cheap and it was so refreshing to be able to look at a menu and order anything! After eating, Jon and I went for a walk while Kate napped, and after doing some photography we went out for coffee. 

The rest of the day was spent souvenier shopping and doing more wandering. All of us were dead tired but very happy because of the night before. We bought ourselves the tackiest T-shirts we could find, and then it was time to go and catch the train. We said goodbye to Dom, which was sad - she was mostly the reason we all enjoyed ourselves so much. The train ride home was mostly uneventful, and we stopped off in Amsterdam for a while before going back to the Castle. 

Now we're all packing and it's my last full day here! It's so sad - this has honestly been the best experience of my life. I'm going to miss this place, and these people, and the feeling of being so close to the rest of the world. I'm not sure how much sense that makes - I guess I've just gotten "used" to the concept of being fairly close to the rest of Europe. Once I'm back in America this will all be so far away! Tonight is a farewell dinner, and I have to make a little speech about the literary magazine that I was editor of, so I'm still not sure what I'm going to say for that. Let's hope something logical comes out of my mouth when I get up there. After the banquet there will be some performances by students, which I'm excited to see. After that...who knows? We all want to make the most of our last night, but we also have to get up at 6:30am, so I don't know how late we're going to want to be out.

Anyway, thank you for reading - I hope you enjoyed my writing and photography. This will be the last entry, but don't worry because soon I'll be able to tell a lot of you about this in person! I can't wait to see everyone, and I must admit I can't wait to go riding, eat microwave oatmeal, and relax in front of my fireplace. See you all soon!

Seventy Degree Weather!

In between my aforementioned trips to Germany, everyone at the Castle had their equivalent of Thanksgiving Break - five free days after Berlin! Kate and Jenna and I had been planning our extended travel break since the summer, and we chose Barcelona as our destination. I guess we could have tried to go a bunch of different places, but we really wanted the chance to settle in and get to know a city. All the traveling that we do every weekend is certainly nice, but it means we usually only get three days per city. The three of us had our hearts set on Barcelona, so we felt no need to try to cram a bunch of other stuff in. Instead of getting a hostel, we decided to rent an apartment so that we could have our own place and not have to deal with other people or terrible beds or dirty showers. The apartment we ended up getting was very nice and very clean and a lot more modern than we expected. The location was great - right near MACBA (the museum of contemporary art) and a few minutes' walk from La Rambla.We loved it because it wasn't in a tourist area - instead it was a mix between residential and small-time commercial. For a glorious five days, Paloma Street was our home! Here is the view from our balcony:

Since we were all so exhausted from Berlin, the first thing we did was nap. Majorly. Like, for a few hours. Then we dragged ourselves out of bed to get food before going and sleeping some more. So the second day we woke up finally rested and ready to do things! Mostly we explored the city, checked out La Rambla, and went to La Bocaria for food. The Bocaria was the most intense food-shopping experience I have ever had! It's a giant market that's known for its variety of food, plus it's cheap. We spent a good two hours there wandering around buying anything that looked good. I'm so glad the apartment had a kitchen - I had missed making food for myself. 

The next place we wanted to make sure we saw was Gaudi's Park Guell. It was incredible - one of the wackiest places I've ever been, for sure. But it was also very beautiful, and had a great view of the city. Of course that meant the walk up was a bit of an effort, but it was worth it. It was very crowded though, even in the off season, so I can hardly imagine what it must be like in the summer. 

Unfortunately, La Sagrada Familia is still under construction, and will be for the next 20 years or so I think? But we at least saw it. 

On another day, we spent a while walking around the city, and we were in the gothic quarter for a while. It wasn't too far from where we were staying, but since it was on the other side of La Rambla it seemed like a whole new place. Whereas our neighborhood was very residential, "real" Barcelona, the gothic quarter is the old, beautiful, more grand part. 

At night, we would often go to our favorite pizza place down the street, Pizza Original. The food was PERFECT - so simple and delicious and cheap. I still remember how the cheese and white corn empinadas taste, and it is a goal of my life to learn to how make them one day. Obviously the pizza was great too. And the guys who work there also happen to be some of the most beautiful men I have ever seen? But that was totally not why we went there almost every night!

We also checked out the famous absinthe bar, Marsella, where Picasso and his buddies would hang out. It was so crowded and so hot but it was fun. We met some really interesting people, and obviously tried absinthe for the first time. Tastes like licorice, just like everyone says. There was a coffee place down the street from the apartment that we got to know pretty well too - we deemed it "the revolutionary coffee place" beacuse it was filled with the type of people who sit around, drink their coffee, and talk about music, art, politics and love. I have now officially been a participant in the Bohemian revolution!

On our last day, we went over to Parc du Monjuic, which was actually a backup plan that ended up being one of the most amazing things I've done. Originally we wanted to take a day trip out of the city, but we realized that it would have been so expensive and that there were still parts of the city we hadn't seen. The train person suggested that we just take the tram to the Parc, and then the funicular takes you up the side, and you get out at the top and there it is - the entirety of Barcelona stretched out under you. The Pyranese are straight ahead, and you can see all the way to the ocean. Incredible. 

One side of the mountain had been turned into a terraced garden, which was right near the Barcelona Castle. While we were walking down the hillside through the garden, we had a perfect view of the castle, and it was amazing. The sun was going down and the sky turned some colors that I never would have imagined. The three of us sat in that garden for a long, long time just watching all the plants around us, the sky, and the silhouette of the castle. The weather was perfect - just the kind of warm night you'd expect in Spain. 

Leaving was terrible - we had come to feel so at home in our little place on Paloma. I know that there's a lot of Barcelona I didn't see, so I'm excited for the day when I can go back and finish exploring. I'll end with some of my favorite snapshots from around the city:

Right now I'm in the midst of studying for finals, so I can't promise the next post will be up before the end of the weekend. But I do have my last trip, Prague, to tell you about, and I promise it is a story for the ages. We leave THIS WEDNESDAY, which is unthinkable. Everyone is so sad, but at the same time I think most of us are ready to go home. I'm torn - I love it here, but I also miss a lot of things (food, horses, friends, cat, etc.) from home. I'll try my hardest to post before I leave though!

The Motherland

I apologize, but things are about to get very out of whack here on the good ol' blog. Since Paris, I've gone to Berlin, Barcelona and Munich, all in the space of about three weeks. As you can tell, there is a lot to catch up on! In order to make it a little easier, and to balance it out because I spent much longer in Barcelona than I have anywhere else, I am going to group Germany together and write about Barcelona next time. First up is Berlin, which is where our entire group went for our second official excursion.

It's really a very beautiful city, but what struck me most was the contrast in the architecture between old and new. There were of course a lot of buildings that are very old, but then right next to them would be some sort of new marvel of modern design. Case in point - next to the Brandenberg gate is one of the most abstract-looking buildings I have ever seen -the school of modern art. The Wall obviously had a huge impact on which architecture could be found where. One of my favorite buildings was the Berliner Dom, which is a giant church with (of course) a huge dome on top. We climbed all the way up there! 

To be honest, I have hardly any pictures from our three days in Berlin. Mostly this is due to being SO BUSY. Our teachers had us doing tours and museums basically all day every day. I just got tired of lugging my rather large camera around everywhere. By the end of the trip, my feet were busted and all I wanted to do was sleep forever. Which I did, in sunny Barcelona. But that's for the next post! 

We also got to go to the Reichstag, which has an amazing design and interior; all very modern and very beautiful. Another place that stood out for me was the Gefangnisgalerie, which is one of the cleanest, most neatly presented museums I have ever been to. There was some incredible art there, including my favorite Caravaggio. 

Of course the Brandenburg gate was lovely. However, they were doing construction for the Mauerfall Celebration later that night, so it was hard to get pictures that didn't involved scaffolding. 

I don't like to post pictures on here that I didn't take myself, so instead I will recommend that you all Google the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. It's an absolutely beautiful building that's fairly new, and I was lucky enough to go see a performance there of the Berliner Philharmonik. Simon Rattle is a hilarious and fantastic conductor, and the program was based around Schoenberg, whose music was perfectly suited to Rattle's mad-scientist type of thing. 

The Mauerfall Celebration (Wall Fall Celebration) was AWEOSME. So many people everywhere! A few of my friends and I got coffee and then camped out near the start of one section of dominoes. To celebrate the fall, Berlin created a bunch of big white "dominoes" that they sent all over the world to be painted by tons of people. Then they all came back and were put in a huge line where the Wall used to be, and then that night they were knocked down section by section. Really a perfect way to commemorate it, I think. There were concerts and speeches and all sorts of stuff. We stayed out forever just walking around the city enjoying the festivities. 

Two weeks later I was back in Germany, but not in Berlin. This time it was Munich, and this time Mom was with me! (The MOTHERland, get it??) We had a great little hotel in the city and spent the first day walking around Marienplatz and looking at all the stores and buildings and stuff. This city was much different - very old, very historic, very...wintry. I can hardly imagine summer in Munich. Especially since they were setting up for the Christmas market, and then we got to watch the famous Glockenspiel on Town Hall. 

Later in the day, we caught the bus over to Nymphenburg, one of the palaces of the electors of Bavaria. It was a huge, imposing place, but very beautiful. Also, there were swans everywhere!

The next day we ventured into the Bavarian Alps to go and see the famous Castle Neuschwanstein. The train ride there was absolutely stunning - it was literally like the train rounded the corner and there were the Alps! It's a bit tough to take good photographs out the window of a moving train, but I tried:

Eventually we arrived at Fussen, an adorable little town perfectly framed by the mountains.

From there we got a taxi up to the Castle. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. Just like a fairy tale, which is why Disney apparently based their Disneyland castle off of this one? Here are some various views of it and from inside:

We even got to take a horse-drawn cart up and down the mountain! Obviously I was thrilled with that.

After taking a tour of the castle, we went back down into Fussen to shop. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized that everything closes really early in this part of the country! Even though it was only 4, we couldn't find anywhere to shop, and just ended up walking around and having coffee. Not bad though, since the town was very pleasant. 

The train ride home was...not as good as the one there. It was crowded, dark outside, and we were tired. We were definitely thankful to get back into the city for a big dinner and then sleeeeeep. 

I'm really glad I got to go to such a beautiful part of Europe with Mom - we both had a lot of fun. Plus it meant I got to stay somewhere with a shower that worked! I'll end with my favorite picture of the two of us in front of Neuschwanstein:

Next time: my extended travel break in Barcelona!