nearing the end

I don't really have much to share right now. I've been doing a lot of work and studying with class ending this week and finals next week. If it's nice out tomorrow, I plan on heading into town to take some final pictures of the city. Anyway, I've put up a lot of my pictures on a Flickr site. Here, you can browse them without having to read my blabbering.

My flickr Page

If you don't already use flickr to host your photos, I suggest checking it out and signing up. They offer plenty of space for free users and unlimited space and bandwidth to pro users. Look for one last update before I head home on Friday, December 21st.

As for the blog, I'm not sure what will happen to it. I think I'll probably continue updating it but just less often. Keep checking back!

dublin, ireland

Our trip to Dublin was relatively painless (as painless as RyanAir can get). We got to our hostel quickly and dropped of our stuff in our room before heading our. Were we going to have this 10 bed room to ourselves?

Haha, yeah right. After plenty of wandering around and some food at a pub, we got back to a room full of American girls studying abroad. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Two shockingly handsome guys in a room with 8 American girls visiting Ireland. Sounds great!" You haven't stayed in a 12' x 20' room with 8 American college girls. You probably haven't even been in a room with said demographics. Drowning them out with my iPod, I got to sleep without too much trouble. The morning adventure to the shower was, well, interesting. Picture a truck stop restroom, converted to a shower room and painted lime green. I might have thought that they were trying to conserve water by lowering the pressure in the shower. That is, if the fixtures hadn't been duct-taped to the wall. (I'll post a full review of this hostel sometime this weekend)

The next day was spent on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. This got us around the whole city and we felt as if we had seen everything. Among the most popular stops were the Guiness Brewery and the Jameson Distillery. We arrived at the Guiness Brewery at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon. Bad idea. Luckily, I've got a policy. It's pretty simple, really. If the exit isn't guarded, why the heck not? So, we casually strolled past the 200 yard line (no exaggeration) and hopped into the exit while the security guard was busy letting a delivery truck out of the gate. After 3 flights of stairs against a steady flow of angry tourists, we made it. The best part? My in-the-exit policy sometimes requires that you take the tour (or whatever it may be) backwards. Not only did this pop us out after the 200 yard line, but it delivered us to a point immediately after the ticket counter. No line, no admission fee.

The next popular stop was the Jameson Irish Whisky Distillery. This wasn't quite as busy and that meant we needed to pay. Oh well. It was a really nice place with a really nice guided tour. Outside was one of the original distillation 'pots'.

One of our last stops was the famous Temple Bar. This is situated in the center of the Temple Bar Area of Dublin, a very culturally diverse area full of restaurants and arts for everyone.

I'll admit, I'm not usually the first to 'donate' to a street musician; not only could this guy play the accordion, but I had to have a picture of him.

I suppose this last one could be anywhere but I needed to share it. On our last day in Dublin, we spent the day just wandering the streets looking for cool things to take pictures of. We ended up wandering into the 'projects' of Dublin. Anyway, I saw this and before I knew it I had already taken the picture. I wish I hadn't put my camera away so quick, as we spent the following 2 minutes running from the dog and the 5 minutes after that walking nearly as fast to get out of the neighborhood. This 'little guy' meant business and well, teeth are teeth.

We took the last bus to the airport at 11:00pm on Sunday night and caught our flight at 6:05am Monday. I'll save that story for another day.

edinburgh, scotland

We spent three days in Scotland between the 27th and the 30th of November. This hostel was a little bit outside of the city (around 15 minutes by bus). At first we were skeptical of this, but it turned out to be great. Out hostel was built in an old castle-esque building right on the ocean.

The above view was taken from the top of Cramond Island looking back at the shore. Our hostel was situated about 50 yards off of the left side of the photo. The first morning we were there, we checked the tide charts and figured out when we could make it out (and back) to the island. There was about a 3 hour span of time when the tide is low enough that you can make the journey out to the island from shore (just over a mile).

We quickly discovered that this island was covered in WWII ruins. These buildings included gun turrets (to gauge the port), ammunition storage as well as bunkers and housing. We were the only ones on the island and it was a pretty dark and wet day. The atmosphere in these buildings was seriously creepy.

The next day the weather cleared up and we had a chance to see the town, castle and scenery. Edinburgh Castle offered a great view of the entire city and was pretty spectacular itself. Seen below is St. Mary's Cathedral.

We got there at a decent hour in the morning and this late in the season, the sun never makes it to the top of the sky. That meant great light for pictures pretty much all day.

After leaving the castle, we walked back into town for some dinner and then headed back to the hostel just before it started raining.

Arriving back at the hostel, the sky had cleared up a bit and the sun was just setting. In search of a nice sunset view, we stumbled through through some brush and over an already-down fence onto a golf course. We spent the evening watching movies and reading. The next morning we traveled to Dublin pretty early.

london, england

On the Nov. 24th, we flew through Dublin into London Gatwick. This was to facilitate the round trip airfare with RyanAir. (more on that later) Arriving in the city around 1:00, we made our way to the hostel. In this case, by hostel, I mean bed in someone's house. Anyway, the weather was overcast but we still left quickly after dropping off our things to meet friends studying in London.

We spent the next day walking around London and using the underground when available. We saw just about everything we could and the weather was great. Stopping at the London Eye, we realized that a weekend afternoon wasn't the best time.

The next morning, we got up early and made the trip down to the Eye. Arriving at 9:30 when tickets went on sale, we were the first up and had our own 'pod'. The view was incredible and the weather was great while we were up there. We spent the rest of the day wandering town and taking pictures. Tower Bridge was a favorite.

We then wandered farther East on the south bank of the River Thames and found the London Design Museum. We gladly paid admission and waded through the hipster art crowd towards the exhibits. One of the themes was 'space'. This included furniture, lighting, and vehicles.

There was also some fashion design exhibit that we wandered through on the way out. The colors were very bright and the pictures showed them well, so I thought I'd share.

At night, we spent our time walking through the theater district with another friend studying in London. The fountains in Trafalgar Square provided a great opportunity for us to just hang around and wander.

There are plenty more pictures of this part of the trip (400 or so), and when I've got time to sift through them more carefully, I'll put up a full gallery. Overall, our time in London was great. Our hostel was just a couple blocks from Victoria Station and that meant it was easy to get anywhere. The only part of the trip that began to wear on us is the exchange rate. Things seemed to be priced the same as they are at home. The only problem with that is, the 2:1 exchange rate. No big deal though! We made due on a few meals out and plenty of food from the grocery store.

An update on our time in Edinburgh, Scotland will come as soon as I've got the time to sort out some photos and write a summary.

edinburgh, scotland

The hostel here has an 'internet cafe' so I've got a couple minutes to catch up on emails and such. We made it to Scotland today after a quick plane and a bus or two. We flew EasyJet this time and I found it to be much nicer than RyanAir. Anyway, the hostel here is really nice (and cheap, under $20 USD a night) and is right on the water. It was a little wet this evening and will probably stay that way for the next few days. Oh well! We'll make the best of it!

Traveling to the UK has been a nice break from the cold weather in Prague. It's much more mild here. It's also nice to see green grass everywhere. Sorry, still no pictures! I've taken over 650 in the last 3 days so you can expect a lot when I get back on the 3rd.

london

Well, I found a computer to use and there's a wireless signal coming from a few doors down here at our hostel in London. We arrived last night just after dark and got settled in before going to dinner in the theater district. I don't have pictures for you because I've got no way to upload them to this computer, but I thought I'd update you on the big trip.

We flew through Dublin into London yesterday using RyanAir. It went smoothly and we found the 'general admission' seating to be funny. On Tuesday we fly easyjet to Edinburgh, Scotland and we'll be able to compare.

Expect more when we get to Scotland!

fifty cent

Tonight was spent enjoying some of the finer things Prague has to offer. These being hordes of young Czech kids in flat brim hats and XXXL hoodies, second hand smoke and American rap. The 50 Cent concert sold out the T-Mobile Arena (10900 capacity plus 2500 on the floor) and provided a great time. The music was great, the atmosphere was hilarious and the things that were lost in translation could not have been more entertaining.

General admission left us in the first row of seats. This meant a great view without elbows in the face.

prague update

Well I thought since I'm spending the majority of my time in Prague, I'd give a little update on Prague. The weather here has gotten much colder, much wetter and much less sunny. The cobblestone sidewalks and streets get dangerously slippery when they're wet. I certainly wouldn't want to drive on them when it's below freezing. With another friend visiting this past weekend (from Belgium), we got to experience the now perfected Matt Beenen walking tour of Prague. The weather outside was nasty so in the spirit of having something to take pictures of, I decided to snap a few inside the St. Vitus Cathedral, seen above.

I also decided that it's time to reveal one of the staple foods for an American student studying in Prague. Bohemia Bagel is just a 5 minute walk after a 15 minute metro ride. Here, you can get sandwiches (hot and cold), soup, coffee, breakfast foods, burgers and of course, bagels. Prices aren't the typical Czech cheap but are still very reasonable (well under $8 for a good meal and bottomless drink). The colder weather is preventing us from making the journey as often as we used to. I'll snap a picture next time I'm there with a camera.

vienna, austria

On Satruday morning at 10:30 our bus left the station from Prague and headed for Vienna, Austria, through Brno. The ride went quick as I managed to bust through 300 pages of Dan Browns "Angels and Demons". When we arrived we went straight to The Wombat, our hostel, and got settled in. We spent the night making a plan for the next day and celebrating Jon's 21st birthday. He took the picture below, of our room at the hostel.

The next day we woke up and glanced out the window of the third floor and saw nothing but snow blowing through the streets. Looking down revealed two inches of fresh snow on the ground. This made the day a little bit more difficult. As things warmed up and it started raining everything got slushy and wet. This meant few pictures and even less time outside. We used the time to see some museums.

We went to the Museum of Arms and Armor, The Museum of Music, The Museum of Ephesus (ancient Turkey) and the Museum of Natural History (one of the oldest museums in the world). These offered warm, dry weather and plenty of entertainment for the afternoon. After many hours of walking through endless halls of dead birds, insects, mammels and ancient artifacts, we decided to head back to the Wombat and rest.

The next day we woke up to bright sun and a cool breeze through the cracked window. The weather was perfect and we left the hostel early to take advantage of it. We spent the morning walking through the city. We visited Belvedere Palace and it's gardens. We then made our way to the north end of the city to see the river. Despite it's unimpressive view where we happened to run into it, we knew that the Danube was the longest river in the European Union and the second longest in Europe. At least we could say we saw it, right?

The afternoon was spent in the city center where we saw St. Stephen's Cathedral. It seemed to be the center of attention with a few impressive streets full of shops and boutiques starting at it. Everywhere we looked there were small cities of sheds in preperation for christmas markets. Holiday decorations were strung between the buildings and it was obvious that people were out in full force, enjoying what could be the last dry, sunny weekend of the year.

With the remaining hours of daylight, we trekked across Vienna to the Southern most outskirts of the city. What would a trip to Vienna be without a visit to the worlds oldest existing zoo, Tiergarten Shönbrunn? With a storm rolling in, we called it a day and headed back to the hostel. The next day, we spent the morning lounging in the Wombat before heading out to the bus for a five and a half hour trip back to Prague.

no hustle, no bustle

After sleeping in this morning and reading for a while (Dan Brown's Angels and Demons) I decided to take some pictures. Jon decided to go find some nature and I was gonna go into town and take pictures, before it got snowy. About 15 minutes later, the sky cleared up and I decided to go find some nature myself. I had read that to the North-West, the city ends abruptly, so I decided to check it out myself.

I ended up at the end of the tram line and found a park. I was stunned at how quickly I felt like I was the only person for miles. I hiked around for around 2 hours until the sun started getting close to setting. I would have liked to stay on the hill, but didn't want to hike back down and then back up to the road in the dark.

Not knowing how late I would be out, or where I would end up, I brought a lunch with me. The rocks in the sun at the top of the hill were a great place to rest and eat. These are some of my favorite pictures from today. Unfotunately, none of them really capture what it was like up there.

To give you an idea, here's the first picture I took, before I headed down to the valley and up the hill. Circled in red is the tree that I'm sitting by in the last picture.

country presentations

So every Wednesday, all of the international students (around 400 of us) congregate to watch the students from three countries present whatever it is they want about their home country. This usually involves movies, pictures, facts, dances and as always, drinking games. Most choose to summarize what one might find if searching wikipedia for the country, show a commercial from their favorite beer back at home and then scroll through pictures of the most famous topless women, born in their native land. After this, they call volunteers up on stage to participate in a drinking game. It's usually the same 10-12 people doing the same thing. Drinking beer as fast as they can.

The whole thing is wildly ammusing and the atmosphere is fun. The common language is English, so it's a nice break from not understanding a single thing that's said around you all day long. The USA presentation is a ways off (a month or so, maybe) so we've still got time to think of something a little bit more original.

The parties are held either in the pub in the basement of our dorm, or at the 'PM Bar' closer to downtown Prague. They start at 9:00 and the presentations usualy wrap up at around 11:30 or so. The dance party goes on until the early hours of the morning. Last night, we opted to leave after the presentations so that we could avoid the nightmare that is getting home after the metro closes.

P.S. We bought tickets to Vienna yesterday ($25, round trip) and are hoping to hop a bus to Budapest Saturday morning for the weekend. Four of us are going to arrive in Vienna on Nov. 10th and return on the following Tuesday evening.

an early morning

We've gotten into the swing of things here and have a pretty regular routine. This is why I haven't been updating too often. We don't have class on Mondays, so in an effort to not feel totally useless, we got up at around 6:00 yesterday and made our way down to the Charles Bridge. Getting pictures of the bridge itself is hard during the day, beacuse it's packed with thousands of people, all day long. At 7:30 in the morning though, only a few people crossing and a few others taking pictures like us. The morning light made for some great pictures.

After that, we went to what has become a staple of our Czech diet, Bohemia Bagel. Here, you can order in english and get what you want. They have bagel sandwhiches, chicken sandwhiches, etc, etc, etc. After that, it was back to the room to sleep for another 3 hours. At 2:25 we went to pick up some friends at the train station and then walked up to castle and then out for dinner.

Last weekend, we had some friends visit from florence. They got the standard walking tour/dinner treatment as well. We found a small traditional Czech restaurant near the castle to eat at and then called it a night early. Here are the girls on the Charles Bridge.

hooligans

Perfect weather this morning meant it was a good day to go take pictures around the old town. When we arrived in the square, we noticed 8 or 9 armored police vehicles and a few police officers here and there. We knew something had to be up but nobody seemed to panic. We hung around and wandered the square for a while before we realized that there was a group of Sparta soccer fans gathering near the statue in the center. Before long, this turned into a large, loud, drunken group of some of Sparta Praha's most devoted fans.

After a few rounds of yelling, singing, chanting (and of course, drinking) they began to move down toward the river. It became immediately apparent that what was a few armored vehicles and police officers turned into hundreds of men in riot gear. Sweet. We followed and as the crowd (ushered on both sides by riot police) marched through the streets it grew bigger and louder. By the time we made it to the stadium (across the river and up a few large sets of stairs through a park) there were dogs, horses and smoke grenades involved.

The crowd slowly made their way into the stadium. Without tickets, or the desire to tread through thousands of hysterical fans, we decided to head back to Dejvika (where we live) and make dinner. I'm just left wondering how much more awesome it would be to see the fans (victorious or defeated) march back into town after the game. We'll get tickets next time.

food

Well, nothing too exciting has happened recently. We've been resting and relaxing this weekend, preparing for classes to start. I thought I'd take this time to mention what we've been doing for food, since it seems to be a popular subject. Going to dinner at some of the finer places near the town square is certainly fun, but can get a little bit expensive. We've learned that things seem to get progressively cheaper as you leave the center of the town. If we're not stopping at a small cafe or bakery for a sandwhich, we'll drop by the supermarket (Billa) and get some sausages or chicken with vegetables. We eat a lot of peppers and onions, cooked in our IKEA Wok (175 crowns = around $9).

Occasionally, we'll go get traditional Czech food. Beef gulash seems to be a staple of the Czech diet. In addition to being on every menu, it's usually a safe bet. You order the gulash and you know you'll get a plate with beef stew and some dumplings. There are, of course, other options, we just haven't tried many of them yet.

skoda, castle and medieval pub

Today was a looooong day. The alarm went off at 7:00 and by 8:00 we were standing in front of the rectorate waiting for the bus. Todays bus was even older and more beat up than yesterdays, but our driver seemed much more aware of what was going on. Our first stop was the Skoda Museum. It was fun to see all of the old cars, and watch a video about how they're made, from start to finish. We were all starving though, so when it was time to move on, we were ready. Oh yeah, it was raining again, all day.

The next stop was another castle. It wasn't the one we had originally intented on going to, because it was raining and the other required a 5k hike over rocks to get there. It was really fun to see all of the leaves turning in the forest surrounding the camera. After a tour inside of the castle, we spent some time wandering around the outside of the castle grounds. I'll try to find the name of the castle sometime later. The last stop was to a medieval pub. If any of you have heard about Medieval Times in the states, it's the european version of that, where anything goes. They had mock witch burnings, fire dancers and eaters, people dancing on the tables and sword fighting. We arrived there at 6:00 and stayed for five hours. Dinner was of course, served without silverware, and chicken bones were to be thrown on the ground. All in all, the whole thing was pretty convincing.