Eight billion famous paintings later...

After two and a half long months, I finally got to see my family! Mom and Dad came to good old Amsterdam for two days and were able to do pretty much EVERY touristy thing possible. So congrats to them for conquering the city in 48 hours. Among the many things they did, I was able to come to the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmusuem with them, and of course take some pictures with the I Amsterdam sign and wooden clogs. No surprise that about 3 of our meals ended up at Italian restaurants. Oops. Unless you want to eat stroopwafels and French Fries and weed cakes as your main dishes, there aren’t many huge Dutch specialties that are a shame to miss out on.



“You sound like you’re from LONDON!” Only said it out loud to myself a few times… I FINALLY got to see my lovely sister Katherine after 13 months of separation! I actually cried when I saw her. Three tears later we were already arguing about who could have the Jeep in January. Needless to say, it’s still great having a sister a little closer in the world and easier to talk to. No more sailing around… at least for a little while.


Name every possible tourist attraction in London, and we were there. Tower of London, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, etc. In addition to seeing everything in London, we also took a day trip to the ‘country’ to Oxford University, Duke Marlborough’s palace, and the Cotswold Villages. And the greatest surprise was the fact that the dining hall used in the Harry Potter movies is actually in Christ Church at Oxford University. Although special effects make it look bigger and add magic to it, seeing the real thing was just as splendiferous. Our driver for the day, Keith, gave us some interesting facts about London.

Top of St. Pauls!

Harry Potter!

Freak.

1. Why do they drive on the left side of the road? WELL, back in the day, there was a lot of traffic on London Bridge. (Traffic as in people walking and people horseback riding). Some of you may have heard the song ‘London Bridge is falling down, falling dow….’ Well, in order to keep the traffic flow moving they decided to put the pedestrians on the far left of the street so the travelers on horseback could use the whips in their right hands and not have to worry about accidentally whipping an innocent pedestrian. Hence, the flow of traffic is on the left side of the street. The escalators in the metro stations still all say ‘Keep Right’ so I guess people stopped using the whipping excuse at some point. . .
2. A taxi driver is actually a really prestigious job in London. You have to go through 3 – 5 years of training around on a motorbike with this huge map in front of you. If you get into ANY taxi in London, they will 100% know exactly where to take you. They can also probably tell you every left and right turn you have to make and on what streets before you even start driving. Ever heard of GPS??


Some of the artwork I have been able to see over the past week has been absolutely incredible. Besides Van Gogh and Rembrandt, I got to see MORE Van Gogh in London, some Monet, Jackson Pollock, Greco, Diego Valasquez, Renoir, etc. Also had the privilege to see the Rosetta Stone. Yes it’s just a stone, but it has a lot of history and is the roots to written language, plus I wrote a paper on it circa 6th grade so I thought it rocked. Ha ha. Get it.


The fam had an interesting end to our London trip. As we were walking back from the changing of the guards, my mom spotted a small crowd of about 9 teenage girls and 2 paparazzi men outside of a fancy hotel. “Well, there must be SOMEONE here.” Sure enough, Taylor Swift! OHHH EMMM GEEE!!! Sorry to excite you, but sad ending first, we could only wait 45 minutes until we all had to make our way to our separate airports. Unfortunately miss perfectly crimped blonde hair country star must have been composing some songs about warewolves and ex-boyfriends in the shower of her hotel room because she didn’t leave in the span we were there. The poor girls had been waiting out there since 8 am!



I have now parted with the family and actually missing them a bit already. They DIDN’T bring Chloe. Ugh. I got into Madrid last night and partied with Jaclyn and her friends here – lots of fun! We enjoyed our usual Starbucks date in Manhasset all the way in Madrid. Today I did a little solo touring and made my way around the El Museo De Prado which is HUGE. I could have stayed there for another ten hours if I wanted. I don’t know who endlessly studied the painting ‘Las Meninas’ in Elementary School, High School, or College, but it was actually incredible to see it in person. I kind of followed this small American tour around to hear a few things the guide had to say in English.



I continue my Spain adventure tomorrow as I train along to Barcelona only to be reunited with some of my other Manhasset buds! Taylor, Kacie, and the one and only Weenie Marie Samela who is trekking from Florence. I’ll spare the nostalgia, but I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have so many friends literally all over the world right now. Shout out to my girl GAFF all the way in Wes (lyan in CT). I’m going to Barcelona and I know you miss it so much and I’m totally wishing I had all your “so barca” items with me. I guess I’ll never be as Spanish as you.

Hugs and kisses.

Prague, Ch(z)ec(h)k!

Yes, the play on words this past weekend may have been overused but well worth it. We stayed at the ‘Czech Inn’ hostel…needless to say when we were checking in and punning with words, the lady at the reception desk gave use a look as if ‘Yeah.. Like I haven’t heard that one before’. This past weekend 8 girls, including myself, had an amazing adventure in Prague.

Since we arrived at night on Saturday, we hit the city and went to a popular 5-story club that is apparently the “BIGGEST CLUB IN CENTRAL EUROPE.” It was a lot of fun! We spent most of our time on the “Black Music Floor” and danced to some Pussy Cat Dolls and Katy Perry. A little stereotypical I’d say that they called the floor ‘black music’. I was supposed to meet up with KACIE but unfortunately that didn’t end up happening because she was too busy being a good friend to some other people that needed her help. (I’ll see you in Barcelona! Don’t worry..) I took my first shot of absinthe which was quite an experience. I thought my friend Mara was pointing to absinthe on the menu so I ordered three shots (one for me, and one each for Mara and Nicole - the “twin” sisters - because it was there birthday……) So the bar tender lit the absinthe on fire then let the fire go out then you throw back the shot and suck up the rest of the hot air from the glass. Interesting and not very tasty. I usually enjoy cold alcohol rather than alcohol that has just been lit on fire… Anyway.. Best part about the shots was the fact that all three rang up to 400 crown and when I handed the bartender a 500 crown bill, he gave me ‘change’ of 600. Oops! Sir, either you thought I was pretty or you more likely thought I gave you 1,000 instead of 500… well thanks either way!

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day. Prague offers amazing free walking tours through ‘New Prague’ where tour guides take any one who shows up on a three hour walking tour of the city. It was SO informative and an awesome way to see most of the main attractions of the city. Obviously by the end of the tour you are so impressed so 99% of the attendees tip the guide generously. Karel did well so we all tipped him about 100 crown each. (100 crown is equivalent to like 5 euro BTW...I'm still a college student). The whole city is paved with cobblestone streets and we came on such a perfect weekend because all the leaves are changing colors to the most vibrant oranges and yellows. We made more not one, but two stops at the Lennon Wall in hopes to find the lock Nicole was looking for but we couldn’t find it!

Old Town Square


Carly, Nicole, Mara, and Dana

Karel.. the tour guide


Making a wish - it's supposed to come true in one year... I'll let you know


Lennon Wall

Monday started off on a depressing note but ended on a very happy one. We decided to bus about an hour away to Terezin, a propaganda camp and fortress during WWII. Hitler made it seem as if Terezin was going to be a great place for Jews and made a fake video portraying the life in the ghetto. The conditions were the opposite. Walking around the old location of the ghetto was creepy but definitely interesting to read and learn about. We returned back to Prague again on a beautiful afternoon, and by my sister’s suggestion I made everyone climb up to the top of the Petrin Tower! Located on top of Petrin Hill, the tower looks like a mini Eiffel tower and you can get the most AMAZING view of the whole city of Prague. It was worth every cramping step. After all our energy was put into climibing up to the top, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant still overlooking to red roofs of Prague. As my Italian blood encourages me to share my dinner choice, it is my pleasure to share with you all that I ordered the Halibut and it was just delicious. I was in need of some good fish.


Tuesday morning we woke up and went to the Prague Castle. Another beautiful collection of buildings! The architecture around Europe is just amazing and I can’t help but think of my dad when I naturally observe different structures. (SEE YOU TOMORROW DAD!) Yes, he’s an architect and I can’t wait for his big hug and a back cracking tomorrow morning at the airport! Yay!



After an amazing three days in the gorgeous city of Prague I get to see my parents in Amsterdam and then we meet up with my sister in London. I couldn’t be happier! I was informed that my mom has packed along with her some creamy peanut butter, some mallomars, and splenda at my request. If only Chloe could come… woof!

BEER BIKE!

HOORAY!

We finally did the beer bike! My blog pretty much started with the interest in one day during my life in Amsterdam to experience the Beer Bike and I did… and it was great. We had some visitors from Belgium and New Castle and needless to say, they really enjoyed the surprise we gave them. 18 of us fit on the bike but only 10 had to pedal. It was QUITE humorous when some of us would have to get out and push the bike up when we weren’t strong enough to get it up the hill. If you were in Amsterdam during the two hour period of us biking around the city, you probably would have been able to hear us either cheering, screaming ‘CRAIGS FEST’ or singing songs such as ‘Dynamite’ or ‘I Gotta Feeling.’ Ofcourse we also managed to play flip cup at one of our pit stops. Even though we had three stops along the way to give us a chance to use the bathroom, I didn’t take advantage of it and almost peed my pants by the time we got to the end of the tour. The porter potty was just lovely….



Just playing flip cup on the beer bike...