oh, Prague.

this weekend I went to Prague with my friend Gabrielle. we left Swansea on a 3:59 am train to London, and flew out of London Luton, which I had never heard of before I booked the flight. It only took a couple of hours to fly there, and we got in around 3 in the afternoon. we found our way to our hostel, right on the river, and then went to dinner and went to bed early.

Saturday we went to Prague Castle (a lot of which I remembered), and wandered around on the Charles Bridge and then through the Old Town.

that's Prague Castle in the distance

St Vitus's Cathedral

Prague Castle

the Golden Lane

taking pictures in the road-mirror.

Sunday we headed over to Wenceslas Square and then over to Old Town square and then up to the Metronome across the river. it was a hike to get up there but the Metronome was really cool. after that, we wandered around Old Town again, then turned in early, because Monday was a travel day back to Swansea.

Wenceslas Square

spider restaurant and Tyn Church

the Astronomical Clock

the Metronom.

Bridges, and Old Town

Prague Castle.

tomorrow I head to Tenby in Pembrokeshire (west Wales) until Sunday, and next week will be full of reading many many books for my first Genocide paper that's due on December 8th.

the Land of Books and Chocolate

this weekend was really rather fun.
on Wednesday I caught a bus up to Brecon, then over to Hay-On-Wye. it took a couple hours, which isn't bad. I walked over to the B&B, which is about a ten minute walk out of town, over the Welsh border and into England. Hay is on the very edge of Wales, and I had fun sleeping in England and playing in Wales. the B&B was very nice--I had a single room overlooking the garden, the fields, and the sheep. I headed back into town and started looking around all the bookstores.

the view from my window

Thursday I spent wandering around Hay again, looking in all the bookstores. I got to all of the ones in town--there were a couple outside town (about a mile away) that I didn't get to, because they were far away. I did buy a few books--my backpack was about half full when I got to Hay, and it was stuffed to the gills when I left.

the town

Friday I spent the morning in Hay again, then caught a bus to Hereford around 2 and a train to Birmingham, where I spent the night. I was really tired so I didn't do much when I got to Birmingham--I just fell asleep. Saturday I got up early and met the tour group from Arcadia (it was an Arcadia-sponsored tour that I signed up for in September during orientation in London). We toured Birmingham and in the late afternoon headed over to the Cadbury factory to see how the chocolate is made. the air literally smelled like chocolate--it was really fun. I bought lots of chocolate, most to send to friends (unless I eat it first) and around 6:30 I headed back to Swansea. the trip from Birmingham to Swansea took about four hours and we had to take a different route than the one originally planned, because there was a landslide between Gloucester and Newport but it all worked out okay.

apparently I really like tea. and taking pictures of it.

wishing well in Hay

the Cadbury Factory

this week I've been catching up on work (almost unsuccessfully), hanging out in Swansea, and getting ready for Prague this weekend. my friend Gabrielle and I leave tomorrow at 4am to take a train to London and a plane to Prague. I'll come back on Monday afternoon, and then I think for Thanksgiving weekend I'll head to Pembrokeshire to hang out and explore a little.

the merry-go-round at the Swansea Christmas Carnival

I AMsterdam

I haven't done a whole lot since Penzance - read, study, go to class, read, etc., but this past weekend I went to Amsterdam on a trip organized by the University. We left on Thursday night and drove across Britain to Dover, where we took a ferry to Calais and then drove up to Amsterdam and arrived around 9 on Friday morning. it was about six hours from Swansea to Dover, the ferry took about an hour and a half, and from Calais to Amsterdam it was around five hours, so it was a lot of travelling time.

the first day I wandered around with a couple friends. we got tickets for the Canal Bus, which gave us unlimited travel for a day, and took that up to Rembrandt's house and then to the middle of Amsterdam, where we walked around the Red Light District, then we took the Canal Bus back down and went to the Van Gogh museum, which was really interesting. we went to dinner at an Argentinian/Italian place, which was really good, and then I went to bed early because I was super tired.

there are elephant statues all over the city. it's pretty rad.

there are also bikes all over the city, and they will run you over if you're not careful.

the second day (Halloween) we headed up to the Anne Frank house but there was an enormous line so we didn't actually go in. I would have liked to but maybe I'll go back. we also got lost looking for the flower market (which we never found) but it was really fun just to wander around the city and see the sights. we went back to the hostel to hang out for a while, and then a group got together and we all went to dinner at an Italian place. After dinner we wandered over to a coffeeshop and then up to the Red Light District at night. it was interesting, if nothing else. I'm glad I was in a group because I would have been uncomfortable by myself or even in a small group. on the way back we stopped at a souvenir store and I bought a shirt, and then we chilled at the hostel for the rest of the night.

I don't actually know those people, but I thought it was a cool picture.

we left Amsterdam around 10 on Sunday morning, and got into Swansea after midnight. the ferry ride back was pretty rough because it was windy, and by the time we got into town I was pretty happy to be back. today is Guy Fawkes Day and I'm really excited to be in the country that actually celebrates it. I'm going out tonight with my friend Louise, so we'll see how that goes, and then this weekend I have to write a paper and study for a test in my Welsh class. next weekend I'm going to Hay-On-Wye (the town of bookstores) and Birmingham to tour the Cadbury Chocolate factory, and then on the 19th a friend and I are heading to Prague for the weekend. I'm really excited for both of those, and I'll update again when I have some time.