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.

Cornwall Land and Stonehenge

Here is my report of this past week/end:

I left Swansea around 7am and after a couple changes, arrived in Penzance around 1:30. It still seems strange to me that in six hours I got from Swansea to Penzance--from Wales to the very south-westerly point of England. I checked into my hostel, Penzance Backpackers, dropped my backpack off, and hopped on a bus to St Ives. I wandered around there for a couple hours, and then came back to Penzance and wandered around there, and then went back to the hostel and did a little reading for my classes. I shared the room with a woman from New Zealand who was really nice. there is a very distinct feel to Cornwall (which is basically the southwestern peninsula of England, starting around Bristol and extending to the very end, and which I call Cornwall Land). the Cornish flag is flown a lot more often than the British flag, and there are many, many references to "real Cornish" pasties, foods, souvenirs, and things like that.

St Ives

on Thursday I took a bus in the morning to Lands End and wandered around there for a while. Lands End is the closest I'll be to home in Britain until July. it was very pretty, too, but a little stormy. after Lands End I took a bus over to Marazion and took a few pictures of St Michael's Mount, which has a couple giant legends to go along with it. by that time most of the stores and such were closed, so I headed back over to Penzance and had dinner, then spent the night in the hostel by myself.

the First and Last Refreshment House in Britain, and the Longships Lighthouse

the Armed Knight

the infamous sign

British flag, Cornish flag.

St Michael's Mount

Friday morning I left Penzance at 8:45 and headed over to Salisbury to meet Gabrielle, a friend I made here. while we were checking into the Salisbury hostel, a guy was asking about how to get to Stonhenge early because he had signed up for a "circle access tour" which let him walk around inside Stonehenge from 8-9 in the morning, before it opened to the public. intrigued, Gabrielle and I called Stonehenge and signed up for the access tour, and decided that we could all carpool (or cab-pool) in the morning. for the rest of the day we wandered around Salisbury, over to the Cathedral and down to the Mill and across some very nice meadows. everything here is so green and countryside-esque. I love it.

Sunrise over Penzance

Salisbury Cathedral

early Saturday morning we all got up and took a cab out to Stonehenge to walk around up close and personal. it was amazing. there were several rules: don't touch the stones, don't sit on the stones, basically don't do anything that may cause harm to come to the stones. There was actually a rather large group of us--twenty or so, and we got to wander around for the whole hour before they kicked us out. we waited around for Stonehenge to officially open, then grabbed some audio tours and walked around the outside and took even more pictures. since we had come in a taxi, there wasn't really a way for us to get back to Salisbury--the tour buses are expensive, and so was calling a taxi back out for us. instead we decided to walk the couple miles to Amesbury and catch a bus from there to Salisbury. the walk was a little more difficult than we expected. it was right on the highway (motorway) so we walked through some fields, and then got partially trapped in some trees. but we finally made it to Amesbury and got back to Salisbury okay. We had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant, and then hopped on the train back to Swansea, because I had a concert to go to that night--the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra played a Saint-Saens cello concerto and a Tchaikovsky symphony in Brangwyn Hall.









Yesterday was full of catching up on sleep and work, and so was today. I think this weekend I have a paper to start working on but I may take a day trip somewhere, and next weekend I'm heading off to Amsterdam. I suppose that will be my next report.


a final note: today is my grandmother Ruth's birthday, even though she's not here anymore.
Happy Birthday, Ruth. I miss you.

one fine day

I haven't updated in a while, so I suppose I should.
My classes have changed--I dropped Anarchy and Order, and I'm taking beginning Welsh now! I also only have classes on Monday afternoon and Tuesday, so I have a lot of long weekends (to travel!). Welsh is really hard, but I like it. I can't say a whole lot of interesting things yet, because we've been learning basics like "where do you live?" and "what is your/his/her name?" and things like that. today we learned how to say what we like, so it's getting more interesting. Genocide class is really interesting, but also really hard, because it's a tough subject.

I haven't done a whole lot of traveling (or much of anything) lately--I've mostly been settling in, and this weekend I got sick so I just stayed in and slept. I've got plans for a few weekends though in the future, and I did go to Cardiff again, for a day.

circle of rocks. NOT Stonehenge, obviously.

Cardiff Castle!

For the Mariners who died at sea in times of peace and war.

and tomorrow I'm leaving for Penzance until Friday, when I'm heading up to Salisbury to meet a friend and go to Avebury and Stonehenge. We'll get back to Swansea on Saturday evening, and then on Saturday night I'm going to see the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra play some Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens. I'm pretty excited. The rest of tonight will be full of packing and sleeping.
I'll update on Penzance and such when I get back.

the world spins madly on

This weekend I moved into my permanent housing and went to Ireland.

Trinity College


Dublin.


They just set up this new super-cool bike-renting stuff all over the city.


Guiness Factory.


Nighttime Dublin


Design outside the Holyhead rail/ferry station

Ireland was really fun. I got a really cheap flight from Bristol to Dublin, and then I took a Ferry to Holyhead in north Wales and caught a train down to Swansea. Coming back took all day--three hours for the ferry and six hours for the train/bus. I got to see my friend from Seattle who is spending a semester in Galway. We met in Dublin, stayed in a really nice hostel, and wandered around the city for a couple days. I'm definitely planning on going back, and maybe going all the way around the island. I have a three-week (or so) break in the spring, so perhaps I'll go back then.
Classes officially start on the 28th, which is also when the paper for my pre-session class is due. I've signed up for: The Picaresque Novel, Anarchy & Order: Issues in World Politics, and Genocide. I think it'll be an interesting semester. This week is called freshers week, and there's a bunch of stuff going on on campus--fairs (fayres) and such. The house I'm living in is nice--I'm on the second floor, and there are (as far as I can tell) three other girls and four boys. A lot of the people I had the pre-session with are living really close by, so that's nice too.
This upcoming weekend I'll be writing a paper--nowhere interesting for me.

Croeso i Abertawe

I'm not sure I'll be very good at writing about what I'm doing here in a blog-y fashion and to everyone's content, so I think I'll be mostly putting up photos.

first: New York City.
Coney Island



second: London.
CCTV!


Phone Boxes! Red ones!


and now: Wales.
Rhossili


Sheep


St Fagan's


Millennium Centre

as for classes...right now I'm in a pre-session about British culture and politics with about 30 other people from the US. it's really fast-paced but interesting, but I'm definitely ready for real classes to start, which doesn't happen for a couple weeks actually. This upcoming week is the last week of pre-session, and then comes freshers week, and THEN classes start. I don't actually register (enroll, they call it) until freshers week, so at this point I have no idea what I'll be taking.