Home Safe!

I arrived home Friday morning from Prague and am working on getting caught up on my blog entries from traveling and adding my pictures! Everything from before I left is up to date, but my travels are not quite so well done yet! Check back later this week for further updates; I hope to have everything finished before I leave for Dartmouth Saturday morning!!!

Prague

Prague is definitely one of the coolest cities I have ever visited! I arrived in Prague at 10 pm on September 6th and headed straight to bed, exhausted from travels, but got up first thing in the morning for a walking tour of the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. The tour started in the Old Town Square and covered many of the major sights, including the Astronomical Clock, St Nicolas' Chruch, The Church of Our Lady before Tyn, Wenceslas Square, The Estates Theatre and ended along the river with a beautiful view of Karlov Most (The Charles Bridge), Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.

After the walking tour I headed across the bridge to explore the Castle & Lesser Quarter.

Prague definitely had the best pub crawl of any city that I visited! The crawl began in a renovated church that has been turned into a huge club, stain glass windows and all.

I signed up to sky dive on my last day in Europe, but sadly my attempt failed because the weather was too bad. Instead, I headed to The Jewish Museum (a collection of Synagogues and the Old Jewish Cementary in the Jewish Quarter) which was incredibly interesting!

Prague was amazing, but by the end, I was ready to head back to the US of A!

Prague Castle

Me from Prague Castle

Prague streets were so pretty

Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square

Red Head Day

On Sunday the 5th, 5000 red heads gathered in Breda from more than 50 countries in the world. Awesomely enough, I was one of them! The fest was located just a 90 minute train outside of Amsterdam, so I couldn't resist heading south to check it out. There wasn't really anything at all to do here except for take a giant picture, but I feel like it was worth going because it was so crazy.

Cycling Holland and Marken Island

Everyone in Holland rides bikes (apparently 10,000 wind up in the canals each year!) so I decided to go native and rented yellow bike. I had the entire day to kill so I hopped on the ferry and just kept going.

I wound up on this 7 km bike path that went across a lake. It was the coolest out path I have ever ridden on. The day was absolutely beautiful and I passed lots of cute little towns on my way and had a super relaxing time.

My ride ended at Marken Island, a really tiny island that was pretty tourist but also had some cool shops and was quite pretty. It was a fun, yet exhausting, trek.

On my way back, I ran across these boaters who were stuck under a bridge. They couldn't speak English but it was evident that they needed help. They're boat couldn't fit under the bridge and the two of them couldn't lift it up on their own, so I tried to help. My weight wasn't enough, but luckily two more people were just a few minutes behind me. All together the five of us were able to pull up the bridge. It was a cool experience!

I also saw lots of windmillss.

Amsterdam

Sana and I landed in Amsterdam at 2 this afternoon and were joined by four of his friends at the airport who were visiting for the weekend. Our first day we explored Amsterdam by visiting local coffee shops and the red light district - very classy.

Our hostel, the Flying Pig, is definitely the party hostel. I made some friends there and went to the Heineken factory and out for sangria. The whole city is easily walkable and a lot of fun to explore. I did a walking tour of the city to see more of the sites. Amsterdam is beautiful and so much fun!

Dublin

After two awesome nights in Galway, I headed to Dublin on a 3 hour coach to meet my friend Bryan Moriarty, who graciously offered to host Sana and I for our three day stay. Bryan is a junior at Trinity and was great to stay with because he knew all the cool places to go.

On our first evening, we went to visit Dun Laoighaire Pier, which is south of the city of Dublin and not too far from Bryan's house. The pier was really pretty, and right next to the Forty Foot, a freezing cold "bath" or outdoor pool. Bryan told us that its tradition to jump in the Forty Foot on Christmas morning and raise money for charity. Both he and his brother did it Christmas morning during their senior years of high school.

Tuesday morning we went on a walking tour of the city sponsored by Sandemans New Europe, a company that runs walking tours and pub crawls all over Europe. Our tour guides name was Niall and brought us to the 800 year old Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Library, Jonathan Swift's birthplace, Christ Church Cathedral (which houses a mummified cat and mouse in the basement), Temple Bar and Trinity College.

Trinity College was really interesting to hear about. Apparently the school has college laws, one of which allows teachers to shoot a cross bow at any student who tries to climb the bell tower. The college also has scholarship tests every year. Any Trinity student can take them, and if you pass you are given free room and board for the rest of your time at Trinity as well as many other weird things under tradition. For example, if you're a scholar, you can call stop your exams during the middle of them and call for a full roast meal!

We went back to Trinity again on Wednesday morning with Bryan to see the Book of Kells, a famous attraction that I had never heard of before our tour. The Book of Kells normally costs £9 to see, but Trinity students can bring in guests for free so our visit was free. I wasn't that interested in the exhibit, but the book is very popular because it dates back to the 6th century and uses ingredients in its colors from all over the world (think weird Asian beetles).

I visited the Guinness Storehouse Wednesday afternoon and learned all about house to brew the perfect pint. An interesting fact: Mesopotamians first discovered beer and are also thought to be the first human civilization. As long as man has existed in society, so has alcohol! I brewed my own pint of Guinness and got a certificate, but as pathetic as I am, I couldn't finish the pint! I guess Guinness is not my drink...

The nightlife in Dublin is definitely worth commenting on! Tuesday evening Sana and I went on a Pub Crawl sponsored by the same people who run the walking tours and had an awesome time. All the pubs had something different to offer which made the pub crawl really fun. We started at The Purty Kitchen and were joined their by Bryan. This stop had free Coors Light. I found it funny that we came to Europe to have free American beer. Our next stop was The Porterhouse, which had great live music. The next pub, Peader Kearneys, sold pitchers and had beer pong on one of its levels. The last pub we visited was O'Neills, which also had great live music. The crawl then dropped us at a club very similar to one I'd visit in London. I'd definitely recommend going on a pub crawl in Dublin! On our last evening we went to a local Trinity Bar, Doyles, where I drank MGD because I couldn't stomach Guinness then checked our bars on Grafton Street. No matter what sort of evening you're looking for, Dublin has everything you need for a fun night out!

We left Bryan's this morning for city #3: AMSTERDAM!

With my friends Sana, Bryan and his friend

Pouring my own Guinness at the Guinness factory

Galway

Located on the West Coast of Ireland, Galway is an amazing city, though it is really more of large village than a city. Though I only had two days in Galway, I feel like I got to see a lot of it! Here's a bit about some of the major sights Sana and I visited.

Quay Street and Shop Street, major tourists blocks with lots of shops, bars and restaurants, are definitely worth walking up and down. I picked up an Irish wool sweater and shipped it home (update September 18th: it still smells like sheep).

I visited Galway Cathedral, though only from the outside because it was Sunday and I didn't want to disrupt mass. Unlike most of the churches I've visited in Europe, this one is fairly modern and only dates back to the 1950s. It was quite impressive nonetheless.

In the center of Galway is Eyre Square, a large park with lots of attractions along the side. Also interesting to see: inside the park is a statue of JFK.

The Spanish Arch is located along the River Corrib and dates back to the 16th century. It was originally built as a part of the city wall, but now doesn't really serve any purpose. Still cool to see!

Galway also had a lot of awesome pubs with live Irish music. We visited The Crane, a pub that my friend who went to university in Galway recommended. The pub had great music! About 10 men played at the pub throughout the evening and all were volunteers playing for fun. Periodically, random men would shhh everyone in the bar and sing songs unaccompanied and all the people in the bar would join in during the chorus. One of the cute musicians bought me a drink...

Galway was a great place to spend my first two evenings!!!

Sana & I on shop street

Enjoying live pub music