The Last of my Travel Adventures: Prague

Onto Part 2 of my mini vacation!

On Monday, December 3, I left Dublin to head to Prague to visit my friend Carolyn. And Monday was her 21^st birthday! So it all worked out really well. I was so happy to be able to visit her and celebrate such a big birthday with her.

I arrived around 4 PM and we spent about an hour walking around the main area of Prague. Honestly, it is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. It’s strong mix between Bruges and Paris; it’s very medieval looking like Bruges, but it’s still a beautiful and modern city like Paris. It’s also not too much and not too small – although we walked most of the city in about 1 ½ days, we always had options of things to do or places to walk to. After we walked around, we went to dinner for Carolyn’s birthday, and afterwards, went to a hotel rooftop bar to celebrate her being legal! The view was beautiful and was off to the side of Old Town Square, one of the main parts of Prague.

 View of the Castle at night from the Charles Bridge at night

Tuesday we walked all around the city and our first stop was the Lennon Wall. Because the Czech Republic was communist until fairly recently, the only freedom of speech they had was on this wall. Well, at least until the government painted over it. Once communism ended, the wall was never painted over. It was a really cool sight to see. Next, we headed to the Prague Castle. It sits on a huge hill and is absolutely beautiful, especially from the Charles Bridge, the most well known bridge in Prague. Although it took us a little while to find the entrance to the castle and the weather wasn’t perfect, the view from the top was worth it. We went into a church, an older part of the royal palace, and the Golden Lane, which is this tiny road of miniature houses. It’s so precious! It looks like tiny people should live there, like the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz. After that it was time to get warm and get some soup… Goulash soup to be exact! Goulash is a traditional Czech dish, and the soup was SO good. I loved it! Afterwards, we continued to walk around, hang out at her apartment, and got some yummy sushi.

 Carolyn and I at the Lennon Wall

 View of Prague from the Castle grounds

 The Golden Lane. Mini buildings!

 The most wonderful Goulash soup!

On Wednesday, we decided to go up to the Clock Tower in Old Town Square. At every hour on the hour, a loud bell rings and a man plays a trumpet at the top of the tower. It’s really exciting, but it gets ridiculously crowded, especially at noon (which was when we were there). Then we decided to head up to the top of the Clock Tower to see the view. It was so, so pretty! You could see everything from up there, and it was just awesome. After our quick trip up to the top, we walked to Letna Park. Although it was kind of dead there, it was really pretty to walk around and be in a different, not-city atmosphere. The park also has this bizarrely large metronome, which is kind of funny. We also found a really pretty view of the entire city up on another hill that overlooks the entire city. We just found all the great sightseeing spots all over the city! Lucky us! After that, we headed to the Prague Beer Museum, which is actually a pub, and we tried different beers. We tried a honey beer, a “Christmas” beer, a blueberry beer and a chocolate beer. Chocolate was obviously my favorite, but Christmas wasn’t too bad either. They literally had hundreds of beers to try from, and we were so overwhelmed! After that, we went to get one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten – turtlenecks. It’s pretty much baked dough with sugar and nutella. And it was obviously AMAZING. I could have eaten 10 more after that. After developing a drink and food coma, decided to relax, eat, and at night we went to this bar called U Sudu that was downstairs and was pretty much like a cave. It was so cool, but we left smelling like cigarettes since everyone was smoking inside. Oh well.

At the top of the Clock Tower. Sorry I look tired.

View of Prague from Letna Park

Old Town Square! Sorry, should have probably put this picture earlier up in the blog…

Thursday, my last day, was more of a stroll around and do nothing kind of a day. First we walked around and came across the Sex Machines Museum. And yes, we did go inside. It was probably the most interesting but weird museum I’ve EVER been inside. I won’t get descriptive, but some things were just not fun to look at. Since the day started with such nice weather, we decided to walk along the river after that, but then it got a little cloudy, which was fine. It was still a beautiful walk. It was getting really cold, so we grabbed a hot chocolate, and while we were inside, it started snowing! The first snow I’ve seen of Winter! So exciting!! But yeah, after that we decided to hang out before I had to leave. So sad!

Prague is probably one of my newfound favorite cities. It was so beautiful and I hope to go back very very soon! Maybe even with my parents, who are dying to go there. It’s such a bummer that all my abroad travels are over, but I’m really excited to spend my last week in London seeing all of the sites I still need to see, finishing my work for finals, and getting home in 8 days! It feels like just yesterday that I started my blog and major countdown to leave for London, and now I have just over a week before I go home. SO WEIRD!!

Hope everyone is staying warm now that it’s December! Enjoy the weekend.

A Week of “Last”s

As the days are winding down until I leave London, there are lots of things coming to an end. This week was my last week interning with ZoneOneRadio, and tomorrow, I’m leaving for my last “Eurotrip.”

As I explained in the past, part of our class requirements for my abroad program is to work at an internship four days a week for seven weeks. We also have to attend 3 tutorials for our internships based on our major, and we have to write papers about our internships that are due each class. It’s really awesome that having real world experience is part of our class requirement, and it definitely doesn’t hurt to put that work experience on resumes! I’m definitely going to miss the office and it’ll be weird adjusting to another schedule that isn’t the usual 10:30 AM – 6 PM work schedule. However, I’m really excited to start my next internship back in the states, which is at Fox News Channel, working for the collegiate affiliate/intern program Fox News Channel University as a Campus Intern. I’ll be producing written news stories and video news packages from my campus back in Boston, which will be put on the FNCU website (www.foxnews.com/fncu) and I’ll also be promoting Fox News Channel & the internship program, which I was part of last summer.

One of the really cool things I got to do while working at ZoneOneRadio was go to the Barbican Collection’s “Rain Room” Exhibit. It’s a dark room where rain falls from the ceiling and you walk through, but don’t get wet. People wait 2-3 hours for the 10 minute experience. It was really cool, but definitely not worth the wait (but we got in without waiting… yay press passes!)

Probably my favorite memory of ZoneOneRadio AND in London was seeing Prince Phillip leave the Westminster Abbey Field of Remembrance Service on November 8. I presented and produced an episode all about Remembrance Day, and we covered this service. Little did I know that Prince Phillip would be there, and that I would be able to catch a glimpse of the royal!

Tomorrow I leave for my last trip while being abroad. First, I’m going to Dublin to visit my roommate from school who’s studying abroad there. Then on Monday I’m going to Prague to visit my friend from home, and it’s her 21^st birthday is on Monday too! And I’ll be back in London on Thursday night. You’re probably wondering how I have all this time off so close to finals… well the Tuesday-Thursday that I’m away are considered “study days,” but since I don’t really have a test to study for, I’m going to be traveling! And our internships are over, so pretty much people who have class on Friday like me have no class between December 1-December 6. I also have the next weekend to do the work that’s due on the last week, so I’ll definitely get everything done. Luckily, I only have one 5 page paper, a 10 minute presentation, and a super easy paper about my internship due in the next 16 days. Yay!

Saturday will be the two-week mark until I leave London and start winter break. I really cannot believe how fast this semester has gone by. Every weekend, workweek and trip has flown by, and it’s really weird to think that in a couple weeks I’ll be packing up for good and heading home. Time really does fly when you’re having fun, or in my case, the time of your life.

Enjoy the weekend!

Also… in case you’re wondering how I feel about going home in 16 days:

http://thattimeistudiedinlondon.tumblr.com/post/34611066266/when-i-realize-that-i-have-to-go-back-to-america-soon

Catching Up on London Life

It’s been a crazy, busy week and weekend. It all went by so fast – and it’s already Sunday night, almost time for a new week!

This whole week was full of working again. I did more social media and editing work this week, which is all a great learning experience. It’s weird to think that I’m only interning for a total of seven weeks, and after this week I’ll only have 4 more weeks to go. Not really digging how fast this time is going by… Only 3 more weekends in London. Scary!

Speaking of only having a few weekends left in London… I’ve finished booking all of my trips! That’s why I only have so few weekends to spend here. The weekend of November 9th, I’m going to Paris! I’ve literally been dreaming of going to Paris since I was probably 7. I love everything French – the language, food, clothes, scenery, everything. I’m hoping to go to Paris again in the future for more than two days, but I really couldn’t be more excited. I may not sleep the 2 days I’m there just to make sure that I don’t miss anything major. And I can’t wait to start using my French (which I haven’t used much of since senior year of high school)! The weekend after, I’m heading over to Amsterdam & Bruges! These are two places that my parents love, so I’m very excited to visit. The canals in Amsterdam and the quaint buildings in Bruges make both places beautiful from what I’ve seen an heard. After that, I’ll be here in Londontown since two of my friends are visiting, but the weekend after I’m going to Dublin to actually see the two friends who are coming the weekend before! And since the week after is a study period and I only have class on Fridays and the internship is over, I have off that Monday-Thursday. So during that time I’m going to Prague to visit my friend, and I’ll be there to celebrate her 21st birthday! So much traveling, so little time. But I really couldn’t be more excited!

Anyway, to continue on what I’ve been up to lately: this weekend was a lot of running around and being busy. I did get to go back to Borough Market though! I have made the decision that it is my absolute favorite place on earth. The food is literally to die for. I even bought fruit and cheese to take home because I couldn’t leave without any food from the market.

This past weekend and this upcoming week is Halloween (also known as Halloweekend/Halloweek). Halloween is pretty much the same here as it is at home. Actually, I’m not 100% sure if the kids go trick-or-treating here, but I’m assuming they do. I guess I’ll find out Wednesday. But one difference I did see in costumes is that almost all British people dress up in costumes but make it zombie-style by slathering on white face paint and adding some red paint to their costumes and faces. It’s kind of easy to see who’s British and who’s not.

Last update: in my Modern British Drama class, we get to see 6 shows during the remainder of the semester. Tuesday is the first show day! We’re seeing a preview to the show “Khadija is 18.” The preview is just a pre-showing pretty much and it’s the same as the regular show. It should be pretty cool! I’ve always loved theatre, so I’m very very excited!

Hope everyone is partaking in a lazy Sunday and had a great weekend! And Happy Halloweek!