Hamsterdam

     My trip to Hamsterdam started out quite dismally, with a 14 hour bus/ferry ride over night. This wouldn't have been so terrible if it weren't for the fact that I had the worst seat on the bus which led to zero sleep. Buuuuuut it was all worth it because Amsterdam was awesome. The first thing you're confronted with as you drive into Amsterdam is the incredible architecture. Nearly every office building and shopping center is a postmodern masterpiece.

Bike parking deck by train station.

     Hopping off the bus we were confronted right away with what has to be the #1 killer of tourist in Amsterdam, BIKES. And no that is not some new slang for some sort of drug, I mean actual bikes. They were everywhere. A bike lane ran in between the bus and the sidewalk so if you managed to make it off the bus unscathed you still had to manage to get your bag from under the bus. After our trip coordinator wandered around a bit we found our hostel. It was already 10:00 am so we all tossed our stuff into the luggage room and headed out. 

     Of course the first place nearly everyone wanted to go was a coffee shop. The group I was with headed to one right away. I did not partake in any of their products and actually managed to stay away from the smoke. I walked around outside some while I was waiting and found some really cool graffiti. After this we inevitably stopped for food. At this point the guys and girls split. We were going on a bike tour while the girls were going shopping at the markets or whatever other girly things they could think of. When we got to the bike shop we were informed that since it was the off season the tours only ran on the weekend. So instead we decided to just go ahead and rent the bikes for 24hrs and then do the tour right before we returned them (which got us a discount on the tour price). I have to say this was an excellent idea. It wasn't terribly expensive and getting to experience the hectic bike lanes of Amsterdam first hand was totally worth it. We road our bikes around the harbor some and then headed for the Heineken Factory.

     The Heineken Experience was a bit pricey but was fun. It was interesting learning the details of what went into brewing and how the company was founded. The tour was interactive and at one point gave you a half pint and taught you how to properly drink it in order to get the full taste. At the end of the tour you could trade in your two tokens for two beers or trade both of them in for one that you got to draft yourself. I chose the latter and didn't do toooo terribly. The tour ended with an epic Foosball match between Conner and myself in which I thoroughly destroyed him.
     We then rode our bikes back to the hostel and actually checked into our rooms. After getting settled in we headed out for dinner. We actually ended up eating at the HardRock which seems like it would be a lame thing to do when in a foreign country but I had somehow never been to one so I didn't mind. After dinner some people headed out and I went back to the hostel. I went back because I had a Skype date with Cara since it was our 4 year anniversary. It's okay don't be afraid to applaud. It's pretty impressive, I know. Around 11:30 I finally rolled into bed for the first solid sleep in way too long.
     The next day we got up and went to the Anne Frank House. I hadn't been nearly as excited about this before as some of the other people but it was really cool getting to see the house I had read about back in Middle School. Next up was the Van Gogh Museum. I'm usually not a huge art fan but I did enjoy walking through and reading the stories behind some of the art. But by the 3rd floor I was pretty much over it as was everyone else.
     Our group split after this with Kyle, Conner, and myself going on the bike tour while the rest hit up another coffee shop. Our tour group was huge (20 people) which in Amsterdam is not a good thing at all. The tour guide was fun though and I got to see a side of town I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. After the tour we returned our bikes and grabbed a couple souvenirs. On the way back we walked past the Occupy Amsterdam camp. This was kinda weird because all I could think was "You have nationalized healthcare and weed is legal, what are you protesting?".  But they did have a pretty funny banner that said, "Brought to you by:" and then had all the major banks logo's.
     For dinner that night we went to a small Italian place in a sort of restaurant district. The group I was with decided to go check out some bars in the red light district so I went off in search of postcards. After grabbing some and a  delicious KitKat McFlurry I ran into some other people from my group and walked back to the hostel with them.
     The bus ride home was much better since it was during the day and I had a much better seat. Along the way we stopped in Belgium  at a small chocolate factory/shop which was completely random. This was cool accept at the time I could have gone for an actual lunch rather than candy and chips. The rest up the trip went well except for us leaving two people behind. Yes, we left two girls at the border in France because they had not brought their passports/other appropriate documents. No worries though, they ended up making it back a couple days (and a bit of money) later. On our way into the docs at Dover we got a pretty good view of the cliffs before taking the last bus journey back to Swansea.
     

Praha

     I traveled to Prague in a much smaller group than Berlin. It was just Alex and I at first and then Zach and Molly joined us a day later. The trip was also different in that I found myself taking far less pictures. I'm not totally sure if it was the city or the mood I was in.
     Our trip started with an afternoon train to London Gatwick on Wednesday. Our flight was fairly late and with the time difference we landed right around midnight local time. This meant that only the night bus/tram was running and the metro had stopped for the night. We took the night bus for about 45 minutes until we were thoroughly lost and hopped off at a random stop. We asked two different friendly hotel receptionist for directions but neither one panned out. We ended up just getting a taxi to the metro station a little ways down from our hostel. I had printed off a map of the area but in the dark/rain and without a compass it took us a good 45 minutes to find it. By this time it was almost 2:00 am and we both just crashed.
     The 10:00 tour came a little too early for us the next day so we walked around a bit after we got up and then took the 1:00 tour. At one point during our wandering we went through a small entrance behind a metro station looking for bathrooms and found ourselves suddenly in the courtyard of the Czech Senate. The courtyard had statues of men wrestling with various creatures and a drip stone wall with hidden faces and animals in it. It was really cool to just stumble upon something like it. The tour covered ton's of history but not many monuments and sites. I kinda of got the feeling that this was just the way Prague was, having lots of pretty architecture on random buildings but not too many monuments. The tour was getting really drawn out towards the end so we ditched and walked across the rivers to see the Lennon Wall before we headed home. It was kind of random but still pretty cool.
     After eating at the hostel we went out to try and get our bearings at night. We got off the tram one stop early on accident and ended up finding a really sweet overlook that we would have never found otherwise. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me at the time so I wasn't able to capture the view. From there we walked around the Old Town for a while and then headed back in to try and catch up on some sleep.
     The next morning we went with Zach and Molly to meet her two friends at Bohemian Bagel, the oldest bagel franchise in Prague. For the rest of the morning we pretty much showed them all the places we had already seen. Later on we went up to the castle which was absolutely massive yet looks nothing like a castle. The long building there is actually the wall which continues all the way down to the stone tower and up past the cathedral. We went into the cathedral inside the walls for awhile but other than that we just walked down to the other end of the castle.
     We showed the rest of the group some more stuff we had already seen and then went and got some food. The girls went to some pastry shop and us manly men ended up in a Western themed steak house. I have to say that the burger I ordered might have been the best one I've ever eaten. After lunch we took a walk around the Jewish Quarter and then split up and went to our respective hostels. We met back up for dinner at what ended up being a complete tourist trap that tried to overcharge us every chance they got. This is something that definitely seemed pretty common in Prague.
     That night we decided to checkout the 5 story club right on the river that we had been told about. They played a different style of music on each floor and we ended up spending most of our time on the Disco level. It was pretty sweet except, like everywhere else in Prague, you were allowed to smoke. I don't just mean in certain areas either. Half the people on the dance floor were smoking while they danced.
      Feeling like we had seen enough of Prague, on the last day Alex and I went to Kutna Hora. It's mining exploits I had led to a massive cathedral being built there. Since then the town (small city) seems to have become a bit more run down yet there were definitely still pretty parts. Getting there took about an hour via train to the east of Prague.

     The main reason we wanted to come to was the Bone Ossuary. The Sedlec Cemetery was a desirable burial place and due to the Black Death and the Hussite Wars it became overcrowded. When a church was built in the center of the cemetery something had to be done with the graves under it and they decided to construct an ossuary. Legend says that this task was given over to a partially blind monk who incorporated an estimated 40,000-70,000 corpses. The outcome was kind of macabre but really cool.
     The walk from the Ossuary to the cathedral is when we realized how run down the place had come. It was pretty much nothing but low income housing until we got to the area right by St. Barbara's. This area was nice and had much more of a historic feel. The cathedral, set on a hill top, dominates the skyline as you approach it and gives views of the whole city from its courtyard.

   
          When we got back to Prague we met up with Zach and the girls to walk around New Town. On the way I attempted to get a couple night pictures, but with the fog and lack of a tripod they didn't come out so hot. We walked around for a little while and stopped by McDonald's for a Twix mcflurry (amazingly delicious). After this Alex and I decided to head in because of how early our flight time the next day was.
     We got up at 3:30 am to take a taxi to the airport which we ended up sharing with three other American study abroad students from Oxford. The flight and trains home were pretty much snooze fests and we made it back without a hitch. Overall Prague wasn't one of my favorite destinations but is definitely something worth seeing.

More to Come

     Dear family and friends, I offer apologies of the utmost sincerity for my sever negligence in regards to this blog. You will now, as my apology, be flooded with posts from my various travels. Or at least that's the plan. Here is a video of me eating a massive burger. It has nothing to do with my travels or this post but I do find it somewhat entertaining and thought I would share. There is audio, it just takes a few seconds to start. Enjoy. 

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

     My trip to Berlin was amazing and one benefit to me just now writing this is realizing that it was the best trip I've been on. The trip started out with an early morning (6:00am) train to the birth place of the beetles, Liverpool. This is not so subtly reflected in the name of the airport. It was my first time flying with a discount airline but there were no problems with our carry on's and the leg room actually wasn't that bad either.
   
     Once we landed we went to the tourist center to pick up a map and the MyWelcomeCard that I had pre-ordered (It is a transportation card that ended up not being worth it at all). We hopped on the S-bahn and got to see the sun set over the out skirts of Berlin. A short walk in the dark brought us to our hostel. We dropped our stuff off and headed out to eat at a beer garden. You would think a beer garden would have an amazing selection of German beers but in only had one (which I opted out of). It was really just more of a semi-fancy restaurant. Here we got our first taste of the European Tourist Tradition of not offering tap water.
     Next we began our trek through the dark, unfamiliar streets of Berlin in search of the "Festival Center". I put this in quotations because Potsdamer Platz was not really much of a festival center. It had a couple of cool exhibitions but all of the major ones (as we found out the next day) were over in Alexander Platz. This being said, one of the displays I liked the most was there in Postdamer (shown right).
   







     The next morning we grabbed some breakfast from the market just down from the hostel and started making our way towards the city center. We took a nice walk down the Spree on our way to the S-bahn which would take us into the heart of the city, Alexander Platz. This is where our bike tour began. The tour, run by Fat Tire, ended up being the best part of my trip to Berlin. The guide was fun and gave us a lot of historical information while also showing us plenty of sights. The guide was also good about stopping in the areas that allowed for the best pictures of the monuments and sights (unlike some of the guides I've had since).

      At the end of our bike tour we headed back to the hostel to have a quick meal and get ready to go see the lights. We went and saw all the major monuments and I got a chance to set up my tripod and really get my photography geek on. We walked around for quite a while and saw just about all the Festival of Lights had to offer. To be honest the light festival wasn't absolutely spectacular but it did give us something to do at night. Me and four other people weren't terribly tired yet so we went down to the other side of Berlin to check out what was once the heart of West Berlin. After everyone else had headed back me and Caleb took a detour and spent almost an hour taking picture of one monument (which I referred to as "angel on a stick" for lack of a more informed title). It was really late and pretty cold but I got one of my better pictures out of it.
     In the morning Kyle and I went  up to the top of the TV tour to get the birds eye view of the city. We then met up with a couple more people to visit Museum Island. The museums were pretty good and had a lot of beautiful sculptures. By far the coolest place we went was the Pergamon Museum. In this museum they had packed up and moved entire monuments such as the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate, and the Processional Way of Babylon. Now perhaps like you I didn't really know the historical relevance of these things either, but they looked pretty sweet reconstructed inside this museum. To me it did seem kind of messed up that they would take these monuments from where they once stood, but at the same time I do realize that the monuments would be much more protected there in Berlin.














     While we were walking back to meet up with the rest of our group we ran into an Occupy Berlin march. They had taken over the entire road and stopped traffic but in a completely peaceful way. It was so weird seeing first hand an extension of protest that started in America. Once we had met up with the entire group we got on a train to Potsdam.

     Potsdam is the home of Sanssouci which some just call Potsdam Palace. It was the summer palace for Frederick the Great who was the king of Prussia. When we first arrived to the estate we were amazed at the beauty of the palace. It was seated right next to the equally beautiful University of Potsdam. Then we were informed that this magnificent structure was the New Palace, which functioned as the guest home. Yes, this entire palace was nothing but a guest home. Along with this information we found out that for one night a year Sanssouci was lit up, and that one night was tonight. After finding this out we walked down from the "guest house" to see the lights. On the way we past yet another building, Orangery Palace, which was held a great hall and was the guest estate intended for Tsar Nicholas I.

     The primary residence was not not an imposing building but the garden in front of it was impressive. We came up on it right when the sun was setting which painted the sky and the palace in beautiful colors. I snacked on a pretzel while we waited for the rest of our group to walk around and see everything. we snapped a couple more pictures once it was completely dark and the took a bus back to the train station.

      For the last morning in Berlin we went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is an extremely direct title, but that is what the builders wanted. The memorial was really moving and something that I think every visitor to Berlin should see. It was an experience that made us all think. One quote posted on the wall right as we entered really hit me. It read, "... It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say". This made me think of all the other genocides that have happened and are happening in various parts of Africa and the Middle East that don't get nearly as much recognition.

     After a mellow walk back to Alexander Platz we went to an October Fest tent set up in a market to lighten the mood. I just had to drink a German Beer out of a beer stein. I got a wheat beer and it was actually quite good, except for the bottom bit (this coming from someone who isn't a huge beer fan) . The train and flight back to Liverpool went really smoothly. Our train home also went exactly as planned, being that the plan involved a less than comfortable accommodation for the night.

     We had about 3 hours to spend in Liverpool before our train was schedule to depart. This is when we found out that Liverpool is one awesome city. We ate dinner at Pizza Express (which was delicious) and then took a walk around the city. It's definitely a place I want to go back to and spend more time in. I would especially like to see the Beatles Museum and Liverpool seems to have an awesome night life.

     After this we took a fairly short train to Crewe which arrived around 12:30am. Problem was our next train didn't leave until past 4:00, so this meant a night in the station. It actually went pretty well although I didn't get much sleep. It only got really cold once but we fixed this by hanging out in the elevator. I was able to get a little sleep on the train home and got back just in time to grab my books and head to class.   

Shall the Vlogosity Continue?

Please do ignore all the "uh" "so" and "um"s. Perhaps I'll get a bit better with time.
I added a couple more random pictures at the bottom from my hike. The weather prevented me from taking many more.

Everyday I'm Vlogin It

Splish Splash I'm walkin' round Bath

      Hello, hello I'm sure you have just been unable to function for all of the whole two days since I last posted. Yesterday we went to Bath for our last field trip of the pre-sessional class. Bath is named after the ancient (as in 43 flippin AD) Roman baths that were built on top of the hot springs. I figured this time I would just put up a lot of pictures with captions explaining everywhere I went. There are a lot more pictures than the ones shown here on my flickr.

First up was of course the Roman Baths themselves. The Baths were pretty cool and the idea of how old they were was intriguing, but the self guided tour itself was kinda lame. Might have just been because of how bad I had to pee

      Next up was the main cathedral which was right beside the baths. The architecture was amazing and the idea that something of this scale could be built with the technology available at the time was incredible.

      We spent the majority of the rest of our time in bath wondering around the streets. Georgian architecture and local stone dominated every building. Shopping districts and expensive apartments intertwined to make for a really well balanced, and interesting city.











      The cathedral that we toured first, Bath Abbey, was beautiful but it was not nearly the only one. The town was spotted with countless other churches, small and large.





      This little park was really cool, situated between the canal, a cathedral, and the bustling city center. I probably could have laid around in that park all day. I say could have on the account you had to pay a pound or two to get in. Which of course I didn't do. This is similar to nearly every spot and museum here which all have admission fees due to the high amount of tourism

      The last place I visited was the Royal Crescent. This was a massive building with a huge lawn in front and number of small parks and gardens in the area. The group I was with nearly missed it all together but I am certainly glad we didn't. It would pretty much be the most epic place to play Ultimate Frisbee.