the hills are alive

The ride to Salzburg was a treat in itself. We took the scenic route through the Alps and stopped to take some pictures at a lake nestled in the mountains. Driving on the autobahn was also really cool. Being able to drive nearly 160 mph and still see cars on your right fly by you as if your standing still was a cool experience. We arrived at our hotel and sat down to have some lunch outside and took in the scenery. Salzburg is the location where the majority of the movie “The Sound of Music” was filmed and the reasons are obvious. Packed into a small valley surrounded by mountains, Salzburg is treat to the eyes. We only have a night here so we decided to get right to seeing the city and headed to the old quarter. We hiked up a HUGE hill to a fortress that looks over the entire city, the hike was brutal as it felt like the path was so steep that I was going to fall backwards down the hill. After meandering around and having a few beers we headed out for dinner. We ate a café on the street and then headed to the city center to check out the night life in Salzburg. On our way, we met a random guy from Germany and a couple from Austria that we mingled with and decided to go together to have some drinks. What a night. For those of you who don’t know, Jagermeister is made in Austria and it is served in the bars in mini shot bottles. Apparently the “correct” way to take a shot of Jager is to put the cap of the bottle on your nose, put the bottle in your mouth and then cock your head back and take the shot. Well after about 15 shots of jager and buckets of beer we retreated back to the hotel, which by the way I stole a really cool clay beer stein from, and headed to bed, we are headed to Munich tomorrow…

the city of spies

After going in circles around the city for what seemed like days, we finally arrived at our hotel in Vienna. Our hotel accommodations were incredible. Apparently numerous diplomats, artists, and composers have stayed here. Our hotel room in particular was a reserved room for a famous Austrian composer whos name I cant remember right now, but the room is 2 floors, 2 bathrooms and includes a balcony as well. Not only that but we are right in the heart of the city next to the St. Stephens church with one of the biggest pedestrian roads in the city. We spent the day just walking around the pedestrian side streets and enjoying the city life. That night we ate dinner at a world class oriental restaurant and had some of the best food in my life, the curry I got was so spicey the waitress had to go into the kitchen and get me a glass a milk because I thought I was going to burst in flames. The Austrian wine we had was unique. It was a blend of 3 different types of grapes used to make 3 different types of wines and I had never tasted anything like it before. We got to bed somewhat early which was a nice change of pace considering I had been up till at least 5am 3 nights in a row with very little sleep.

We woke up the next morning finally rested and ready to go. We booked a private tour of the city for 2 hours. The tour was extremely informative and I was engaged the whole time. The city of Vienna itself is very clean, next to Madrid I thought that it was the cleanest city I had traveled to yet. The city itself was beautiful, a majority of the architecture was in the style known as Art Noveu and it stands out. All of the buildings seemed whitewashed with tall pillars towering in every direction; the facades of the buildings are ornately decorated with heads, leaves, and intricate designs. The city design really reminded me of Paris in the style of architecture and colors used throughout the city. One thing that really caught my eye was the public housing project here in Vienna. A famous Austrian artist and architect named Hundertwasser designed these apartment complexes in Vienna and around the world that are just jaw dropping. The architecture is strikingly similar to that of Gaudi but with a twist, all of his architecture incorporates nature. There really is no way to explain it without seeing pictures because it is like nothing ive ever seen before, definitely one of the coolest monuments ive seen in Europe and I highly recommend that you look it up on Google or Wikipedia, the name of the projects is called the Hundertwasserhaus, you wont be disappointed. That evening we went to a restaurant recommended by the reception and it was fabulous, I have yet to be disappointed by a meal thus far with my family, we have gotten very lucky with our choices of restaurants. After enjoying some traditional Austrian sausages and fondue we headed to a bar for a few drinks and then headed to bed. The next morning we packed everything up into our station wagon and hopped on the Autobahn towards Salzburg, once again driving in the city was impossible and the journey took about 2 hours longer than it should of, but once we got out of the city and into the Austrian countryside the ride was awesome. more on that later….

this is family business

So the trip is winding down and Im headed to Prague to meet my family and nanny of years before. I flew into Prague late Friday afternoon and headed to my nanny’s condo to meet her and my family whom I hadn’t seen in nearly 3 months. The homecoming was wonderful as we ate dinner and caught up. Emma my nanny and her husband Kieran wanted to go out that night for drinks so my brother and I decided to join them. To make a long story short we stayed out till nearly 6am going from club to club and slept in until about 2pm and missed an entire city in the city. For the remainder of the day we decided just to meander through the narrow streets of Prague and just shop and sightsee for a bit. That evening we had dinner on the river which ended up being one of the best meals I had in Europe to date, it was some Czech duck I think, its been a while. Once again we decided to go out and it was a late night again, I swear this city never sleeps, as a bunch of the clubs here are open 24 hours a day.

I am writing this nearly a month after having come home so things are a bit hazey, but I promised everyone (mom) that I would finish it so im gunna finish it. Prague turned out to be one of my favorite cities in Europe. The beauty of untouched architecture, the vibe of the city, the shopping, the food, and the beer are all unparalleled. Prague is one of the few historic cities in Europe that weren’t bombed out during any of the world wars and it shows, everything here is beyond old. In addition to all this, it is also one of the cheaper cities. Granted I was with my parents, the exchange rate and general prices of things here in Prague are way cheaper than a vast majority of the other cities I have visited in western Europe. Just being on the streets of Prague was an experience in itself, you cant help but to gaze over the river at buildings and monuments that are thousands of years old and just be awestruck. Being in the Czech Republic has jumpstarted my interest in eastern Europe, and I hope that I have the opportunity in the future to make a trip to the hidden gems scattered throughout eastern Europe; Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Lithuania etc etc. Monday morning my dad I got a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car. Oh my god what an experience that was driving back into Prague. To begin with, the Czech language is extremely confusing, they use a different character set than us and all of their words seem like they are 20 letters long with all consonants. It took about double the time to get back including going the wrong way on some one way streets, and this seemed to be the common theme for the rest of our journeys via car. Oh well, we hopped in our station wagon and headed into Austria to the capitol city of Vienna, the city of spies.

p.s. some things i forgot....we went to a bar named The Beer Factory that had a very unique idea. All of the tables have beer taps at the table with a computer, and posted all over the bar are big tvs displaying the scoreboard of the tables. It keeps track of the beer your drank and then puts you up on the scoreboard with the rest of the bar, a very fun concept. We also took a tour of prague on a speedboat through the river which was a blast ripping down the river going 40mph and taking in the sights.

odds and ends

ok ok ok SO IM DOING IT IM REALLY FINISHING THIS BLOG....after Switzerland i arrived back in london for my last week of classes. The last week was pretty uneventful except for one thing, the Great Britain Beer Festival. My buddy james and I headed to this monster of an event and it turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences London. there was literally thousands upon thousands of beers from not only all over the UK but all over the world. It cost 10 pounds to get in and you paid 3 pounds for your pint glass. from there you were free to go to any of the various brewers and get either a 1/4 pint, a 1/2 pint or a full pint of beer. the beers were incredible. not only that but they had other various stands that appealed to drunk patrons as well. there was about 5 or 6 hat stands, solely for the purpose of selling "funny hats" for people to wear. i myself picked up a giant balloon hat that was about 4 feet tall. They had henna tattoo stations, pub gear stations, and t shirt stations. they also had pub games and pub food, i was in heaven. we stayed for like 4 hours and hopped on the tube back to kings cross to go out for the evening, i decided to bring my balloon hat along which got mixed responses, some loved it, others thought it was obnoxious. by the way sorry this is written so shitty, i am trying to get this portion done with so i can get to the other cities that i want to write about. My overall experience with London was mixed. I enjoyed being in a big city but at the same time felt very overwhelmed by the sheer size of London. With the exchange rate being what it is this place is just so expensive that it is depressing, the cheapest beer you'll find in town is a 3 pound pint which still is the equivalent to a 6 dollar beer in the states. I dont think i'll be returned to London but it was a great experience none the less. ok ok ok....onward and upward, im going to meet my family in prague and i am elated as i have not seen any of them in nearly 3 months...

swiss cheeze

So I flew into Zurich real early, because I wanted as many days as possible to do activities. From Zurich I hopped on a train to Bern and switched there to grab the train the Interlaken. All in all the journey took just under 2 hours. So arrived around 11am in Interlaken and the train ride was simply awesome. You thread through the mountains and end up encircling one of the lakes which has the most amazing hue of blue due to the glacier runoffs that fill it. After hopping off the train I set off to find my hostel, which is listed as one of “Europe’s most famous hostels”. I got a little side tracked on the way there and ended up signing up to do some bungee jumping later in the day, my weekend had begun. I had a little time to explore the hostel before my excursion and I was completely blown away. This hostel is the oldest hostel in Switzerland, over 60 years old, and is built like a traditional swiss chalet. It had a full general store in it, a grocery store, a couple tv movie rooms, a beer garden and restaurant, along with a full nightclub underneath in the basement. By and far this place was the best hostel ive had the pleasure of staying it yet in Europe, its called Balmers Herberge by the way. So after eating some swiss sausages, the van for the bungee jump came and picked me up. On the way there I found out that there was two options, both the same price. You could either do the canyon swing or the bungee jump. Both involved free falling for 270 feet but the canyon swing swung you through the canyon going something like 40mph. I asked the driver what he thought the better activity was and he told me that in all honesty, the kids that had done both had all told him that they liked the canyon swing better, so I heeded his advice. Upon arriving I was greeted with some gorgeous scenery. We were high up in the swiss alps, surrounded by snow capped peaks and rolling green meadows with littered with houses that looked like something out of a fairy tale. The jump was hands down without a doubt, probably one of the most memorable experiences ill ever have in my life. Nothing could ever explain how I felt when I jumped off that platform and fell straight down 270 feet, the only thing I cold compare it to would be when you have a nightmare and you feel like your falling off a building. I swung through the canyon going what felt like 100mph with my feet only about 30 feet above the water. Upon finally reaching solid ground, I once again took in the raw scenery that is the swiss alps and remised on how i wanted to kick it up a notch and go skydiving, unfortunately that would have to wait as it cost nearly $400 to go skydiving in the alps, I’d rather pay 150 in the states and get the same experience minus the mountain scenery. After heading back to the hostel I showered up and headed out to the beer garden to meet some people as I was all by my lonesome. After mingling a bit in the beer garden I headed down below into the night club. The hostel really had a great set up with a nightclub like that, full dj set up deep underground so it could stay open later than most bars in the area, after drinking what seemed like a swimming pools worth of beer, I retired to bed.

I woke up at around 11am, and was surrounded by people in red and white clothes. It was swiss day, Switzerland’s independence day. Because it was swiss day I decided not to do any major activities as I did not want to miss the days festivities. I decided to go for a hike and got some information from the hostel on some good trails to hike. The weather was great and my goal was to get lost in the woods, and I succeeded. After hiking for a few hours I stumbled upon a high ropes park. I haven’t done one of these things since about 5^th grade in summer camp, and this place had five different courses. I came into this thing deathly afraid of heights, and left with a whole new level of confidence. I did all five courses and even the beginner one was pretty challenging. The most advanced courses took a high level of strength and coordination and after about 3 hours of being 70 feet up in the air I was ready to head back. When I arrived back there was pandemonium. It was about 4:30 and people were everywhere drinking beer. They had a GIANT pan set up making traditional swiss rosti (hashbrowns), sausages, and ribs. I went up and changed and came back down and met a group of about 15 kids from the University of Florida, and we organized a giant game of flip cup. This was probably one of the largest games of flip cup I had ever played with nearly 40 people competing. After playing for what seemed to be an eternity, everyone ran down the road about 400 yards to the site where they launched the fireworks, and what a show it was. the swiss really know how to do a proper fireworks show. They lasted for about 45 minutes and then the after party had begun back at the hostel. The scene was crazy in the club and I ended up staying out till about 3am.

That next morning I had to wake up bright and early to go canyoning. Now I had never even heard of canyoning before I went to Interlaken and once I saw what it was I had to do it. You start out by rappelling down a 200 foot wall into this canyon wearing full wetsuits, helmets, and protective life vests. Upon entering the canyon you are met with a fast flowing river with multiple obstacles. The first course of action was about a 15 foot jump into a shallow pool below and you had to be very accurate otherwise you’d either hit the side of the rocks or hit the bottom. The water was FREEZING as it was glacier runoff but the wetsuits did an amazing job of keeping us warm. The canyon presents various elements including a 30 foot jump, FAST naturally formed water slides from the smooth rock, zip lining, and climbing. Once again the scenery of the Jungfrau region was breathtaking, and it was an experience in itself just being there. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures because there was no way to bring my camera into the canyon. After the hour long trek back through the switchback mountain passes I was exhausted and took a little nap before doing the usual routine of the beer garden then metro bar. I had planned on going to bed early but that plan changed quickly when I met a kid from Ireland who ended up buying me beers for the rest of the night.

My last and final day in Switzerland. I had booked a tour to go ice climbing on the nearby Stein glacier and had to wake up at around 7:30am. The weather was looking to be gorgeous as I marched towards the climbing shop to get fitted with my ice axes, crampons, and some warm gear. The drive was just over an hour and like all drives in switerzland, the journey was a treat in itself. When we reached the base of the mountain we then headed on a 30 minute hike to the glacier base where we proceeded to put on our spiked crampons and rope up to each other in the even that one of us fell into a crevasse hopefully the other 4 wouldn’t fall in as well. The heat was intense but the higher up we got the better the cold air felt. This was the first activity that I honestly felt like I could die or be seriously injured. There were some points where we were walking on ice that was no wider than my feet with 150 foot crevasses on either side of me, and the only thing that was keeping me from falling in was 4 other people who probably would have fallen in with me had I taken a plunge. We reached the climb point and set up shop and ate a light lunch. The ice climbing was a surreal experience. You drop down into these 100 foot crevasses and are surrounded by nothing but sheer blue ice. The mountain guide we were with set up 5 or 6 routes for us to do and the harder ones were HARD. Some of them included overhangs that you were literally almost upside down while you were climbing up. After about 4 hours of climbing we made the dangerous trek back to the mountain base and headed for home. I was wiped out and ready to go to bed and it was only 6:00. I decided to read for a little bit and ended up getting to bed early as I had to wake up at the crack of down to catch a train back to Zurich for my flight.

Switzerland as a whole ended up being one of my favorite places in Europe. If I had to live anywhere in the united states it would be Colorado, and the picturesque backdrops provided by the swiss alps really reminded me of the rockies. Interlaken would without a doubt be my favorite place in Europe but there is a bit of a bias, the amount of money I spent on activities was astonishing and I feel that had I not of done these activities, Interlaken would have not nearly be as much fun. Switzerland is definitely a place that I will be returning to as I fell in love with the alps. Ok now im in my last week in London, so a few tidbits then off to meet the fam in Prague…..

ze motherland

so im back, last time i was in northern ireland and this time im doin the republic. I arrived in dublin early saturday morning and headed to my hostel. the hostel was right in central dublin, a block off of o'connel street which is the main strip of downtown dublin. after dropping off my luggage i ventured out to try and find a pub to grab some food and a guinness. now keep in mind when i tell you this that it is about 9:45 morning, i step inside a pub and it is PACKED with drunk people. this is unbeleivable, its not even 10am yet and the pubs are packed. i had my first guinness and it literally tasted like gold. since going to dublin, guinness has been my drink of choice everywhere else afterwards. after eating i set out to explore the town as usual. the shopping here is awesome. stores everywhere lined with irish trinkets, i literally wanted to purchase the whole store. not only that but the clothes shopping was fantastic as well, i did a lot of damage to my wallet in dublin lets just say that. after shopping for a good 4 hours i went back to the hostel to check in. on the wall there was an advertisement for a backpackers pubcrawl and i decided it would be fun to try. the meeting point was on the steps of historical trinity college which is a really cool area and i was greeted by about 50 people in the street drinking. Now i started to introduce myself to some people and more than one person was form michigan. not only that but they were from michigan state. so i started to delve deeper and to my surprise there was at least 30 kids there from michigan state from various parts of europe, all randomly came to the same pub crawl. There were kids from Brussels, Oxford, Cambridge, Trinty, and even some kids that lived in the same dorm as me in London. the barcrawl was a blast, we went to bars around the temple bar district and ended up at a nightclub.

the next day i set out to go see the guinness storehouse factory to go on the brewery tour. this place was really well thought out. 6 floors, all surrounding a glass atrium that forms the worlds largest guinness glass. guinness put a lot of effort into this thing and it feels more like a museum than anything. everything is very engaging and the exhibits were fantastic. and at the end of it i got to learn how to pull my own pint of guinness from the tap. they had a gravity bar as well which was one the 6th floor completely enclosed in glass with panoramic views of the city. i got back to the hostel and met some kids that were actually from michigan state and were staying at my hostel. i went out with them and we went out to see some traditional irish dancing at a pub not too far from the hostel. the dancing was actually a lot cooler than i thought it'd be they more their feet soooooooo fast. oh yea and i forgot. earlier that day i was walking around the trinity college area, and what did i stumble upon but a pub called DOYLES!!! the had my family crest on a flag waving high above the pub and inside there was tons of doyle memorbelia, jerseys, pictures, and coats of arms.

so i woke up early on monday and headed to the train station to catch a ride to the west coast in a little medievil city known as galway. little did i know that i was going during the world famous galway races, which happens to be one of the biggest horse races in europe. this small town of 80,000 has an influx of 60,000 people due to the races. because of this the city was madness. due to a city ordinance, during the week of the races the pubs that normally are required to close at midnight, are allowed to stay open till 2am. i went on a pub crawl with my hostel, and we went form bar to bar around the city and then ended with a few night clubs. it is incredible how many bars and nightclubs here are in this little city. the main eire square is just a circle of ridiculous night clubs and posh bars. i met a lot of people from a lot of different places and ended up stumbling home at around 3:30.

i had planned to do a tour of the cliffs of moher that morning but the tour went till around 6pm and i needed o get to the airport and the bus schedules just didint work out. i was pretty bummed out but i decided that i was going to get at least a little sight seeing under my belt and i decided to do a walking tour. the group was small just me and two other girls but the guy knew his history and i really enjoyed listening to him and learning about the city, as it has a ton of history being on the strategic irish west coast. i spent the rest of the day just meandering around the little shops and watching some street preformers. i hitched a ride to the airport and headed back to london.

i had a BLAST in ireland. the people were awesome, i cant tell you how many people embraced me just for my family name. the food was good, just like englands, and the shopping was great as well. before going to ireland i despised the taste ot guinness, but now i reckon its my favorite beer ive had yet so far and it continues to be my staple at pubs in london. i really dont know how i am going to go back to the states and drink american beer, even the imports taste like shit. i really want to come back to ireland. i would love to go to some of the smaller villages and do some more exploring on the west coast, connemara in particular. When i get home i will be 6 weeks away from obtaining my irish citizenship so i can then apply for my EU passport. it will be a wonderful feeling to be a dual citizen and have the ability to live and work anywhere in the EU, which i have decided is my plan of action after school is over. if any of you out there have grandparents born in ireland and would like some more information on obtaining your irish citizenship, fire me an e-mail, ireland has really lax immigration laws and its a great way to get your EU passport and avoid the hassle of trying to get work visas if you want to live and work abroad.

long time no post

wow sorry its taken so long guys, ive been doing a lot of traveling and am lazy as well. its been a while since i was in scotland but i will do my very best to give you an accurate depiction of my 4 days there.

we arrived via train on tuesday afternoon which by the way had WIFI ON THE TRAIN! that was my first experience with having wifi on a moving object so it was wonderful, its a shame the rail system in america sucks so bad, not only that but its almost looked at as a second class form of transport. we headed into town and onto the campus of the university. our accommodations were wonderful as usually, everything was brand new, we had our own own rooms including a sink in them as well. we headd back into town to peep the scene and grab a bite to eat. we came to this place in the center of town called "the tron" which would turn out to be our hangout spot for the rest of the trip. after getting a few pints and a burger we decided that tonight we would climb "arthurs seat" which is the highest point in edinburgh and it a huge hill/mountain that overlooks the entire city including stunning views of the sea as well. the actual hike took about 30-45 minutes and the views were awesome. we stayed up to watch the sunset and took in the scenery of the gorgeous scottish highlands. we then proceeded back down the giant mound and into town back to the tron to grab some drinks. the tron was huge, it has an upstairs area on the main level of the street, then downstairs has another HUGE bar area, and then goes downstairs again one more level where it has yet another bar and a dance floor.

the next day we went on a bus tour of edinburgh which sucked because the lady doing the commentary was 300 years old and would not shut up. she even liked to point out the location of the post office and various mcdonalds in edinburgh. so after listening to the old lady blabber for about an hour we hopped off the bus and headed into town. the town is gorgeous and the entire city itself is a UNSECO Heritage point. the streets are filled with touristy gift shops selling everything from kilts to scottish whiskey. we spent most of the day just wandering around the city and getting a feel for it. later that night we went back to the tron as it was the definite hotspot of the city. we stayed there till it closed at about 2 then headed to a rock club a few blocks away. for as old as this city is, the nightlife is awesome, lots of students and young people to meet here.

the next day we headed to loch ness. god damn this place is huge. i really only pictured loch ness as a small little inland lake but i was very very wrong. this loch is massive, nearly 25 miles long with its widest point nearly a mile wide. the scottish highlands are a treat for the eye. our final destination was Urquhart castle which is a castle built around the 6th century right on a point overlooking a big chunk of loch ness. the ruins were pretty cool but the scenery was even better. after exploring the ruins for a bit a group of us decided to jump into the loch ness. this may sound rather uneventful but let me tellyou, this water is about 48 degrees even in the summer and it was FUCKING FREEZING. after swimming around for a bit and trying to find nessie we hopped on a boat and took a cruise back through the loch to head home back to edinburgh. and once again later that night we went to the tron, but this time afterwards we went to a techno dance club which was wonderful as i was craving some house music.

the next day we had some classes and our only item on the itinerary was the royal museum of scotland. the museum was pretty cool, but after being here for nearly 3 monthes museums are starting to get a little old. theres only so many 800 yearold pieces of metal and stone that you can look at before you go crazy. and once again that night, we went to the tron go figure, but i cant complain as the tron is great with 3 levels cheap drinks and the entire bar is filled with students.

all in all i REALLY like edinburgh, its a shame i didnt get to stay for the 4 days of the weekend and next week but i had already planned mt trip to ireland and to me ireland was important because well, come on its the motherland baby. oh and hagis, which is oatmeal cooked in a sheeps stomach is disgusting. probably the first food of a culture that i really disliked, it was nothing special and tasted like dirt. ok off to dublin now....... CHEERS!

blonde hair and blue eyes

So I arrived in Stockholm early afternoon at around 2, and I am already in awe. I had no idea how much waterfront Stockholm had. Stockholm itself is actually a collection of islands and you can’t go 50 feet without seeing the coast. Even though Sweden is in the EU they don’t use the euro, they use the Kroner which is a task in its self. This city is VERY expensive, even moreso than London. An average meal will cost about 100-120 Kroners which Is about 10 euro to 12 euro. This has got to be the first country that has fit my stereotypes. You know everyone always says oh everyone has blonde hair and blue eyes, but for real they do. You can’t help but gawk at the people who are just pure as hell. Even the men, you get caught looking at them and are like, what the hell do they feed their kids. Not to mention that everyone dresses extremely trendy. And by that I don’t mean your typical euro trends which by American standards are laughable, they dress well. Friday when I arrived I spent most of the day getting my berrings and actually getting some rest, as I was exhausted. The hostel was gorgeous, everything was ikea ironicly and the staff was awesome. One thing that really throws you off is the English speaking skills of the general population. They just did a survey in the past 2 years which came to the conclusion that 89% of the population speaks English, with that last 11 percent being people born before WW2. With that being said, EVERYTHING is still written in Swedish which is really intimidating because it looks NOTHING like English. That night I met a kid from Jakarta Indonesia and we shared a common interest of Nike shoes so we had a long chat and went out for the night wandering around and exploring the town. When I got back I met a kid from Iowa State who was traveling alone as well and we decided we would wake up the next morning early to take a boat cruise, which by the way Sweden is home of the largest archipelago in the world boasting nearly 20,000 islands.

I woke up Saturday morning EARLY, about 7:30 and my friend and I hopped on the subway to the marina to grab a ship to the islands. We checked the itineraries and decided on taking a cruise to one of the larger islands known as Voxholm. The cruise was about an hour and the sceneray was beautiful. It actually really reminded me of northern Michigan. While on the boat I met a lady from Grand Rapids who was in her 40’s and had been traveling by herself for about 2 and a half monthes and we exchanged stories and both agreed how creepily similar Sweden’s landscapes were to northern Michigan. Upon arriving my buddy and I headed to a café that was on an isolated point to grab a coffee and a light snack. The weather was gorgeous and we got lucky because according to the weather forecasts, it was supposed to rain all weekend. We just walked around the island for a couple of hours and explored the landscapes. This would be the absolute perfect place to go camping and if I return to Sweden that is exactly what I will be doing. After hopping back on the hour long cruise through the Swedish archipelago we decided to cruise through Gamla Stan, which in Swedish means “old town”. The old quarter is small yet beautiful. It really reminded me of the streets of Pamplona with its shades of yellow, orange, and red filling the small nooks and narrow streets. After a very long day of walking we headed back to the hostel to rest up. I had planned on going out that night but I met a bunch of girls from germany and decided to just grab some beers from the store and kick it at the hostel, WHICH REMINDS ME BY STORE I MEAN 7-11 WHICH WAS THE FIRST 7-11 IVE BEEN TO IN EUROPE!!!!!! But don’t get too excited, it was shwags, no slurpees and they don’t even stay open 24 hours, so what the fuck? But none the less it was good to be in a 7-11 again which is basically my headquarters back in east lansing.

The next day I got to sleep in and decided to do some exploring on my own. I intended to head to the famous Vasa museum. The Vasa museum is an exhibition on a Swedish warship from the late 17^th century which is completely and perfectly preserved from sinking 30 minutes into its maiden voyage. The exhibition was spectacular, definitely the coolest museum ive ever been to besides the guggenhiem in Bilbao. The ship is MASSIVE, a few hundred feet long, ive never seen anything like it in my life. I took a guided tour which was very informative and spent about an hour after that just reading the different exhibitions around the 5 floors of the museum. The weather was still gorgeous so after that I headed to the open air museum known as Skansen. This place was huge, filled with gardens everywhere and was high up on a hill with awesome vistas of the city skyline. It also included a zoo with scandnavian animals including lynx, wolf, moose, wolverines, and walruses?? It was really cool to see a wolverine outside of Ann Arbor as I have never seen a true wolverine in person. After all was said and done I headed back to the hostel to hang out until my flight later that night. Tomorrow we are headed to Edinburgh Scotland which I have heard nothing but great things about. Cheers!

New York City!! errrr Old York

ok ok ok so im sorryfor the delay, ive just been doing a lot of traveling and havent really had a lot of time to sit down and write this stuff but here goes nothin.....

So this aint New York, its Old York, and I love this city. We arrived after a four hour or so bus ride into the English countryside. The city is a lot bigger than I imagined, and is still surrounded by the roman walls, yes the roman walls its that old. York used to be the site of a major roman military installation and the evidence of this is abundant everywhere. The first night that we got there we spent at a local brewery pub that would turn out to basically be our hangout for the rest of the visit. They had about four brews brewed locally and york and they were all amazing. In particular, was a dark creamy beer called Centurion’s Ghost that I doubt I will ever be able to find in the states but who knows, its won a lot of awards so maybe I can find it at some import specialty store. After an early night we headed back to campus, which is beautiful. The whole campus is surrounding a big lake and a majority of the buildings are on water front. It was like going to school on a nature reserve. The next day we had a walking tour of the city. I really enjoyed it was the town was rich in history and the guy knew is stuff. We got to walk along the city walls and then headed into York Minster. The York Minster was HUGE and it too had a ton of history behind it and I really enjoyed the tour. That day we also went to a WW2 museum, which was inside of a former German POW camp from WW2. the museum was huge and I absolutely loved it,. Before then I had never been into a entire museum of just ww2 exhibitions and I was completely engrossed by every single room. That night was a night to remember. We headed back to the same pub as the night before, only this time our professors Jim and Chris were with us. Our professor Chris proceeded to get super wasted and was the drunkest person in England that night. Screaming at the band up front, dancing around the pub, and generally just being hilarious. After that we got some kebabs at our new favorite eating vender, Amigos. Let me tell you how hot this chili sauce was, I was crawling on the ground through the streets of York begging for milk to calm my mouth down, it was hands down the hottest food I had ever eaten in my life.

That next morning we headed to fountains abbey which was a lot cooler than I expected. It was this giant gardens with an enormous ruined abbey in it. The gardens were beautiful and we spent the next 4 hours exploring underground tunnels, climbing rocks, and wandering through the lush green gardens. The weather was great so we were lucky to go to the abbey that day. After that we hopped in the bus for the 4 hour ride home. All in all I loved york, as you know I like London, but I don’t love it. Its too modern and overwhelming but york, very relaxing and I loved the small town feeling. This weekend I am headed to Stockholm Sweden and am super excited. I am going to find out for myself if all the beautiful people really live up to the hype.

tour de belgium

Where do I start about this wonderful country. I arrived in Brussels early on Friday morning but I was unable to check in till about 4pm that day. So I dropped my backpack off at my hostel and hit the ground running. I first headed to the nearest waffle stand to see what these Belgian waffles were all about. Yes they are amazing. Which reminds me that the national sport of Belgium is eating, you heard me right, eating, but I will get into that in a little bit (sorry that’s a lot of commas in one sentence). After my delicious waffle I headed over to the Atomium which is this GIANT replica of a model of an atom. You can go to the top and get a birds eye view of the city which was pretty cool. After that I headed to one of the most famous cafes in Brussels, Mort Subite. They brew a beer there called Mort Subite which translated means sudden death and is only brewed for that single cafe. The beer was incredible, the Belgians really know their shit. Belgium produces the most kinds of beer in the world, something like 700 beers and the possibilities are endless. Belgium is particularly known for its Trappist beers which are brewed by secluded Trappist monks to fund their monasteries and no one is allowed inside. These beers pack a punch, 9.5% alcohol, a far cry from the watered down bullshit 3.5% we have back at home. The architecture in Belgium is amazing and is known as Art Noveu. I believe that it is unique to Belgium and you cant help but gawk at the endless spires and gothic looking towers that fill the city. I headed to the main Grokt Square where there happened to be a concert going on which was fun, I went into all the various chocolate shops and sampled oodles of chocolates from the undisputed chocolate champions of the world. I spent the rest of the day sampling the various foods, actually just waffles and French fries. Which is another thing Belgium prides itself is its French fries. Belgium must be the about the 4^th country that claims to have the best fries or claims to have created them but let me tell you this, the Belgians win. Its not even a contest, the fries are far superior and you can get like 30 sauces at the fry stands. Brussels most famous monument is pretty ridiculous. Its called Mannekin Pis and it is a small statue fountain of a little boy pissing into a basin. There were all these people there taking pictures of it and I was so confused as how this statue could be the pride of Brussels. I guess it shows the spirit and free spirit of the city. For dinner I had some mussels which were fantastic and I met some Australians at my hostel and we went out for the evening which was a good time because I love meeting random people and getting their travel stories and sharing mine.

Bruges, where do I start? What a beautiful city. I cant put enough words on this page to explain how much I loved this city because part of my love was just being there in the city. Bruges is a small medieval city with canals running through it and is known as “The Venice of the North. Of course I started the day with more waffles and fries and was just in awe of the beauty of the city, pictures cant even capture the romantic cobblestone streets and towering cathedrals that fill this city, I was in love. I headed to the belfry in the city which had to have been something like 800 stairs, more than the St Pauls cathedral in London, once again the view was breathtaking. Later that day I took a brewery tour which was one of the highlights of my trip in Europe as whole. I learned so much, not even just about the process of brewing beer, but the actual history of Europe and how closely tied it is with beer. The beer itself, Bruge Zot, has been my favorite beer ive tried yet in Europe and is the best beer ive ever had in all the world, I really hope I can find a small shop back in the states that carries it because it is incredible. I really don’t have a lot more to say about Bruges which is weird because I loved it so much, but you have to understand that it was all about being there, there is nothing I can write on this page that can explain to you how I felt when I was in that city.

After all was said and done I hopped on a train to Ghent to see what that was all about. Another awesome city. This too was a canal city just not as romantic as Bruges but still very cool none the less. There were 2 or 3 castles inside the city and it was littered with Art Noveu clock towers and cathedral belfries everywhere. There was this stag party there and as I was walking by this guy was so drunk he fell in the canal off of a boat. He was swimming around trying to grab this inflatable raft and let me tell you, a canal anywhere is the last place you want to be swimming in, they are so dirty, but it was funny nonetheless. That night I had a steak dinner, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was the first actual steak that ive had since coming to Europe. When I get home I am going to go on a steak binge and see how many filet mignons I can eat in a week. I got back late on Saturday with the intention of just going straight to bed but as always my plans changed on the fly. I met this couple from Arizona State University who were going out to this café called Delirium which holds the Guinness book of world records record for most beers served in an establishment, something like 2025 beers. We had a lot of fun and got back at around 2am and I headed to bed.

That next morning I decided to go to Antwerp. So I hopped on the train and 45 minutes later I was there in the so called “city of diamonds”. As soon as I hopped off the train I decided it would be fun to rent a bike so I did just that and there I was 20 minutes later with a bike. I cruised the city a bit and had a blast, I definitely plan on renting a bike again in the other cities I go to, I would really like to rent a bike and ride into the Irish country side and visit some small villages and such, see if I can find some Doyle’s creeping around J. Once again Antwerp was filled with Art Noveu architecture everywhere, including a small castle right on the river. I took my bike and rode deep into the country, probably about 3 or 4 miles into the fields. I was all by myself and it was such a liberating feeling to know that I was lost in the forest of some random country in northern Europe and I could do whatever I wanted. I took some time just to stop and sit down on the shore of the river and just admire the city skyline, it was such a cool experience. After about 4 or 5 hours of riding my bike I headed back to the train station and hopped back on the train to Brussels, as I had a Eurostar to catch that night back to London. I ran into a little obstacle, as I fell asleep on the train and missed my stop by 4 stops and ended up over an hour outside of Brussels. This scared the shit out of me considering if I missed my train I would not only be out 100 USD for my ticket, but I had a bus to catch early that next morning to York. I ended up making my train by nearly 15 minutes and that was with me sprinting through the city and zooming in a taxi instead of taking the tram. So everything ended up ok.

All in all I had an incredible trip. Ive never felt the way I felt when I stepped off that train into Brussels. I thought to myself, holy shit your in a foreign country, they don’t speak English here, and you don’t know anyone. It was a very scary feeling, but a good scary, it made me feel alive. I was absolutely elated to be able to wander around Belgium with not a care in the world and do whatever I wanted to do, and I did just that. The only thing that sucked about being alone was eating dinner by myself, because come on who wants to do that. But other than that, I had no problem meeting people and I really learned a lot about myself this weekend. I cant tell you how much more confident I am in myself after doing what I did. Next weekend I am headed to Stockholm and I am super excited to see the country that people say has the most beautiful people in the world. I am once again excited to be on my own and do my own thing, and I am definitely going to rent a bike and try and ride around the city and hopefully the surrounding areas as well. We are headed to York right now for 3 days which is a medieval city in the north of England and im actually very excited for it. Any chance to get out of London is good for me because I like the feeling of being back in time in some ancient city. I am not sure if ill have internet but hopfully the university of york will have some sort of place where I can get internet access, if not that then at a coffee shop somewhere in town. Cheers mates!

london london london

Ahhhh London London London, how I love you so much and hate you so much. Times are tough living in the most expensive city in the world. Its starting to get me depressed but I am holding strong. I have started to accept the fact that no you will not find a meal for under 18 USD and no you will not find a beer for under 5 USD. Now im kinda writing this a week late so the chronology of this isn’t going to be exact but don’t worry ill get to everything. We took a cruise down the Thames river to the city of Greenwich, which is not pronounced like sandwich but without the W. We headed to Greenwich to see the national maritime museum and to see the royal observatory and prime meridian. For all you highschool drop outs out there the prime meridian is the imaginary line that splits the eastern and western hemisphere and is the basis for all time keeping and navigating in the world. The prime meridian was, well, lets just say it was the prime meridian and nothing more. But it was very cool to say I straddled the globe J. The national maritime museum was actually very interesting. Papa if your reading this, and I hope you are, it was actually very informative. They had an entire exhibit on the Battle of Trafalgar with some absolutely incredible displays of personal items of Admiral Nelson. They even had the actual clothes Admiral Nelson wore when he was shot and killed in the historic battle. They also had a great collection of scale models from ships dating centuries back to modern cruise ships, including a 1 billion dollar project that is set to create the worlds largest cruise ship. I also had a chance to operate a state of the art shipping simulator where I proceeded to crash my frigate into the coast of Australia. We stopped in a few pubs that were wonderful as always.

That week we also went to our fist night club which I wish we could do more because I love the night clubs here, people are there to dance and have fun, not creep on girls and get blacked out and puke everywhere. We went to England’s number one club known as fabric. This thing was so far underground it wasn’t even funny. Every time I came out of the bathroom I was in a different room, the music was earthshaking and the club held something like 2500 people. It was an awesome time we ended up staying out till around 4am. Oh yea we went to the National British Museum of history as well which was pretty sweet. As ive said before, I cant stand classical art so it was such a nice change of pace to visit a history museum instead of an art gallery. One of the museum’s claims to fame is that they have the Rosetta stone, yes THE Rosetta stone. Which isn’t as cool as it sounds, as its exactly what it sounds like, a big stone. What really interested me was the great exhibitions on Viking artifacts found as well as about 4 or 5 mummies on display which was sooooo cool. And to top it off was the Parthenon exhibit which is a giant room of marble that is al from the Parthenon, the Greek government is actually in the process of trying to retrieve these pieces as they are a SIGNIFICANT part of the Parthenon. And we saw another play, this time a musical. Im sure you’ve all heard of it, Les Miserables. Let me tell you that I was pretty fuckin Le Miserable. I thought they actually spoke a little bit in musicals, but not in this one, they sang the whole time, I thought my brain was going to explode. But the one thing I have to give them credit for was the production and singing. The production was incredible, I have to give mad props to the behind the scenes crew. The actors were also very good as well, all of their singing voices were superb. But like I said before, they sang the whole time and I thought I was going insane.

We had a overnight trip to Bath as well, including Stonehenge as well. Funny story, apparently I had already been to Stonehenge in 7^th grade but somehow I don’t even remember it one bit?? My mom said I was jetlagged but still, that is a pretty big item not to remember in the least bit. Now I had been to bath before as well but I didn’t realize we stayed there for 3 days in an apartment, I thought we just came for the baths as that was all that I remembered. According to the BBC that day we went to Stonehenge and bath was one of the rainiest days in England’s history, yay for us. We hit up the roman baths which was also really cool even for a second time. It is absolutely mind blowing what the romans did in such of a primitive time. Bath was actually a really cool city, its too bad it was raining all day because everything is done up in roman style architecture and for the first time in England it felt like I was in Europe again. A funny side story, we were at the oldest pub in the town and it was actually very nice, good menu, families eating all around us. I proceeded to enter the bathroom and on the wall I saw a vending machine. Now I figured oh it must be your typical bathroom vending machine, condoms and whatever. No, not this one. This vending machine had: A dildo, an inflatable sheep (use your imagination), and Viagra. Now this seemed very out of place for me in such a small conservative town especially in a pub like this so I had to snap some pics. I came out and told my friends and they both ran in there to see it as well. We decided at that very moment that we had to have a sheep, so we each pooled together 2 pounds for the grand total of 6 pounds and marched into the bathroom for our new toy. Now get your heads out of the gutter, we only wanted this for photo purposes and joking around, the prank ideas were endless. We marched into the mens room and put our money in but to our dismay the machine ate our money. This was not acceptable, so I went to the bar and explained to the bartender that I had put my money in the machine for an inflatable sheep and that it had ate my money. The dude was really creeped out and explained that he is not in control of the machine that the company runs it, teary eyed I retreated back to my table. Later that night we actually came back to the same pub for dinner and the bartender from early was our waiter. When he brought our food out I asked him in a very serious tone, if he had happened to fix the sheep machine. He got really awkward and hastily gave us our food and our waiter switched for the remainder of the night, he was genuinely creeped out that we were trying to have sex with an inflatable animal. After that we had a guys night out with just the boys and it was a good time. We posted up at a pub below a hostel and I met this magician street performer from Texas. This guy blew my mind with tricks. And no it wasn’t because I was drinking, as I met him before I even started. Not only was this guy an incredible magician but he was also extremely educated as well. He could chat about a wide variety of subjects, from quantum physics to early 15^th century Victorian history. We woke up early that next morning to go to a fashion/costume museum in bath which was a huge waste of time as we stayed overnight in Bath for a 25 minute walkthrough of a bunch of clothes, I did get to try on a corset though.

That is all I can think of for now, but this weekend I am doing my first solo trip of the summer, I am going to be touring Belgium. The plan is Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp. I am very anxious to be doing this traveling by myself because it really shows what you are made of when you get dropped into a foreign country all on your lonesome. Lets hope I don’t die or anything nasty like that.