This past week was fall break, and I did a lot of great traveling. After midterms the week before, everyone split town and went off to do cool things. A bunch of us ended up in the British Isles because we were missing the English language, I guess, but some others went off to Italy and Germany or stayed in Spain to visit the country.
I went with my friends Andrew, Katie and Alana to three countries in nine days, with three different currencies. We started in Dublin and spent all of Friday wandering the city, which isn't too big. We decided to walk to the Guinness Storehouse museum, and just stop wherever looked interesting. We saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, and somehow wandered a little off track and ended up at St. Patrick's Cathedral (fun fact: St. Patrick is from Wales).
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| Dublin Castle |
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| Christ Church Cathedral |
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| Christ Church with Katie |
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| Tres Muchachos |
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| St. Patrick's |
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| Whaddup |
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| St. Patrick's and actual foliage!!!! |
So we finally made it to the Guinness Storehouse, which was awesome. We got to learn how to "properly" taste Guinness, and there's some pretty cool exhibits on how beer is made, and at the end, on the 7th floor, you get a pint to enjoy in their glass-walled bar in the largest pint-glass-shaped building in the world.
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| There's poetry in a pint of Guinness |
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| View from the top |
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| Some nice Finnish people took this picture for us |
We had lunch at a place called The Brazen Head, which claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland, and we met up with Andrew's sister there who was visiting the city also. Afterward, we walked to Kilmainham Gaol, which was a lot farther away than it looked on the map. But Kilmainham is an old jail where the leaders of the
1916 rebellion were all executed. It's a really interesting place, and the conditions there seemed terrible. I'm glad to have had the chance to learn more about Irish history there.
The walk from this place back to our hostel took a solid hour, so we were pretty tired when we got back, but we decided to go walking around Temple Bar area looking for a place for dinner. We found a burrito bar, and it was glorious. I haven't even seen Mexican food since I've been here, so I was pretty thrilled. Unfortunately, I was still so accustomed to Spanish eating schedules that I ate like 1/5 of that burrito and couldn't stomach the rest because Spain has made me weak. I also can't really handle spice anymore, which is just sad. No worries though, guys, I finished it later at 10pm, at the proper time for a Spanish dinner.
Saturday, Alana, Katie and I went on an excursion through our hostel to the Cliffs of Moher which was fan-fucking-tastic. Gorgeous. I can't even convey it. It was a great trip because we stopped at a bunch of little places along the way so the ride was broken up into shorter bits. We also stopped in this little Irish town called Doolin for lunch at a local pub, and I had some great chowder.
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| Wearing like 8 layers because it was so damn windy |
Ugh, it was just so beautiful and cool and I didn't want to leave, but it was also the windiest place I've ever been. And it had been raining all morning, so the ground was muddy, but we were lucky because the sun came out right when we got to the cliffs. Also, I think I got a cold right around this time because I was coughing and sniffling for like half the trip after this.
Early Sunday, we flew to Prague, which is probably one of the coolest places I've ever seen. Every single thing in this city is beautiful. Every. Freaking. Building. I've never seen that before, but it's so amazing. And it's so cheap! Though converting the Czech Korona to USD was confusing because their currency is a
little inflated (100 Kc is about equal to $5 USD).
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| Holding up like 2500 Kc at dinner, which is only like $125 USD, but I look like a boss so it's cool. |
THE FOOD IS SO GOOD. I've missed my mom's Russian cooking, so it was nice to eat some Eastern European food. Get in ma belly, meat and potatoes and bread. And it's so cheap, too! Also, our hostel in Prague is a UNESCO heritage site and it's a palace, so it was absolutely beautiful (like everything else in Prague), and had the most amazing bathroom I've seen since I've been in Europe.
Anyway, Prague is too cool to explain so here are a lot of pictures.
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| Charles Bridge |
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| Goulash for dinner with dumplings |
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| The oldest still functioning synagogue in Europe |
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| The best pastry ever |
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| Anatomical Clock |
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| Charles Bridge |
Anyway, we had two full days in Prague to explore and it was a lot of fun, and incredibly gorgeous. Wednesday afternoon, we flew out for London, which was cool because they speak English there, too. I've been to London before so it wasn't too hard navigating. Our hostel was in Kensington right by Hyde Park, and it was a really cool old building.
Katie and I saw basically everything you'd want to see in London as a tourist in two days. Our feet hurt so bad we thought they were going to fall off. On Wednesday night we saw China Town with Andrew's sister and her friends. On Thursday, we saw Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, Baker Street, the British Museum, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, and most importantly, Chipotle. I had literally been waiting for that burrito all week, even though it was ridiculously expensive because the pound is so high.
Friday, we started at the Portobello Market which was pretty dang cool, Buckingham Palace, and then we went to Harrods which was crazy and has the best sweets and pastries I've ever seen. We also saw the Tate Modern, the Millenium Bridge, and like a thousand other things before dinner. So all in all, a very productive trip to the UK.
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| I'm still not over my Sherlock Holmes phase |
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| HELLO CHIPOTLE |
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| There is now a blue rooster in Trafalgar Square |
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| I'm going to Hogwarts |
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| HEYYYY Queen of England |
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| Harrods food hall |
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| Harrods food hall |
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| Harrods food hall |
So that's my crazy awesome week! Our flight out of London was delayed and we took one of the last busses in to Segovia out of Madrid, but we made it back and it is so good to be back! I love Segovia, and I missed it a lot while I was gone. My host mom had dinner waiting for me, which was very sweet of her.
HASTA LUEGO AMIGOS
