London Calling

This past Thursday morning, I woke up early and headed out to the airport! I was flying into London, Stansted, to visit Heather (my Kappa “big” sister) for the weekend! Heather is currently completing a year-long graduate program at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, England, so once I arrived at Stansted, I boarded a bus headed straight towards the UEA campus! The bus dropped me right into the middle of campus, and then I was finally reunited with Heather! I got to see her town, where she was living, and meet her housemates and her friends. I also discovered they sell Cool Ranch Doritos in England, so all in all, I was a happy camper.

Pretending to be Hermione 

On Friday morning I explored the UEA campus a bit while Heather was in class. While the campus is mostly cement, I managed to find the University of East Anglia Estates which consisted of a pretty pond and a nice walking path. Once Heather was done with class, we headed back to her house, and then went to the Norwich Train Station for our train into London. Our train arrived at the Liverpool station, but the first thing we did was transfer using the Tube and head to Kings Cross Station to visit Platform 9 ¾! They had a professional photographer there, along with the various Harry Potter house scarves you could wear for the perfect photo opportunity. After sadly realizing that we never did get officially accepted into Hogwarts, we headed over to the hostel to check in.

Dad, for your own benefit, please don't check the credit card statement

Later in the afternoon, we went shopping at Harrods! We wandered throughout the entire department store, making sure to stop at every floor. While I did purchase some stereotypical Harrods souvenirs, I also made a real "adult" purchase! I had done some research beforehand, and discovered that Lonchamp Le Pliage bags are cheaper in the UK. I had my eye on a certain bag for awhile, so going to Harrods was the perfect excuse to finally buy my new bag. After shopping at Harrods, we headed over to Covent Garden and ate outside, right next to a street performer! His name was “Dynamike” and he was juggling pirate swords while riding a unicycle. After dinner we walked around the Theatre district and ended up at Trafalgar Square, which was pretty with the fountains lit up at night. As we were walking through the square, all of a sudden I turned my head left and saw Big Ben!

The previous night we had decided on doing a 48-hour hop on/hop off tour, along with tickets for touring the Tower of London. We headed to the main office for the sightseeing tour, collected our tickets, and hopped on the bus. We rode the bus to Buckingham Palace so we could watch the changing of the guard. It is amazing how elaborate the ceremony is! My personal favorite moment of the ceremony was when the Royal band played Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” After the changing of the guard we were planning on getting back onto the bus and continuing on to Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. However, there was strike in downtown London that shut down much of the city for a good portion of the day. We waited a long time for the bus before deciding to just walk along St. James’s Park towards Parliament and Westminster Pier to take advantage of the boat cruise that was included with our bus ticket! The boat cruise up the Thames River was lovely, and dropped us off right at the Tower of London.

Field of Ceramic Poppies

The Tower of London is currently installing a art/memorial exhibit for 100 year anniversary of World War I. The art exhibit is called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, and consists of 888,246 ceramic poppies filling the moat. We did a free Yeomen Warder tour of the Tower, and learned some of its “darker” history. Then we entered the White Tower, which houses some very old and very cool armor and weaponry. We ended our time at the Tower of London by visiting the Crown Jewels. The queue line was informative, and even had a video loop that showed Queen Elizabeth II's inauguration back in 1953. The crown jewels are so extravagant, it is almost hard to believe they are real!

221B Baker Street

After dinner, we had planned to head to the top of The Shard to get a 360-degree view of the city. We got there easily enough, but the tickets were much more expensive than anticipated, so we decided to pass. We ended up walking down towards the river and finding a series of restaurants that had outside seating and an excellent view of Tower Bridge. We sat down and enjoyed dessert before walking along the river for a bit. We got a nice close view of the HMS Belfast and kept walking for a bit before heading across the London Bridge on foot (unfortunately, we did not walk across the Millennium Footbridge at any point during our stay, but we did ride under it during our boat cruise). We ended the night by making a quick pit stop to see 221B Baker Street, and no, Sherlock and Watson weren't home.

We got up early once again, packed our bags, and headed back to the hop on/hop off tour so we could ride it all the way through. We got back on at Trafalgar Square, and enjoyed a two hour tour throughout the City of Westminster and London (they are technically two different places, it's pretty cool; look it up!). We had lunch at a "traditional" English pub and I finally indulged in some classic fish & chips. We ended our afternoon by riding the Tube over to Waterloo and walking around the bank near the London Eye. After that, I went to the Victoria Station and took the Gatwick Express to the airport for my flight back to Prague.

This weekend was the first time I have ever stayed in a hostel. This one was huge and was located in an old court house. We didn't interact too much with the other guests, and didn't even get a chance to meet all our roommates, but overall it was a good first experience (thankfully, because I will be spending many more weekends in hostels). Overall, my favorites were shopping at Harrods, walking along the Thames River at night, and seeing the Crown Jewels. I also discovered that Big Ben is my favorite London landmark, because as I went through all of my pictures, I realized that approximately a fourth were of Big Ben, and yes, they were all exactly the same. We definitely made the most of our weekend in London, but I have already started a to-do list for the next time I visit!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia; photo credit Jen Park

View from apartment

This past weekend I, along with six other friends from my program, went to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We flew out of Prague Friday morning and arrived in Croatia a little after lunchtime (I was very excited that we got our passports stamped). We had a driver pick us up from the airport and take us to the apartment where we were staying for the weekend. The apartment was in a nice complex, was only a ten minute bus ride away from the city center, and was absolutely huge! We had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen/living space, and multiple balconies, one of the which faced a bay! The first thing we did was go for a swim, since we were only two minutes away from the water. The water was refreshing and we were surrounded by mountains as we swam in the small bay. The water near Dubrovnik is crystal clear- you can see all the way to the bottom! Later that night we walked around the area near our apartment which had a definite “resort” vibe. After dinner we decided that the group would split up, with a couple girls staying behind and the rest of us going to explore the Old Town at night. So we bought a bus ticket and headed into the city.

Old Town at night; photo credit Tina Cho

When we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with kiosks and tables advertising different activities and excursions to take part in while in Dubrovnik. We ended up talking to one saleswoman, Nikoleta, about the possibility of doing a kayak tour around the bay and Lokrum Island, and decided that it was something we wanted to do the following day. After taking down all of Nikoleta’s information, we headed into the historic Old Town. The Old Town portion of Dubrovnik is the part of the city within a fort. At night, the fort walls and the streets inside are spectacularly lit up. We wandered around inside the fort for quite awhile, just exploring the winding streets, and of course, eating gelato.

The layout and feel of Old Town definitely reminded me of Venice.

Kayaking in the Adriatic Sea;
photo credit Jen Park

Saturday morning we woke up early to get ready for the day ahead of us. We packed our bags, put on our swimsuits, and headed out the door. We went back to kayak kiosk and found Nikoleta, who lead us to landing where we would start our kayak tour. We ended up having a private tour, with all seven of us and only one other person, along with our tour guide. After leaving the start point, we headed out around the city walls and towards Lokrum Island. We kayaked all around Lokrum Island, stopping every 15 minutes while our tour guide explained some history of Dubrovnik. The popular HBO show Game of Thrones typically films some scenes in Dubrovnik, and they were actually filming while we were on our kayak tour! We were told to stay out of the shot, but later as we were kayaking back to Dubrovnik, we could see where they were filming. About halfway through our kayak tour we stopped at a small beach and were able to go swimming and snorkeling for 45 minutes, before getting back in our kayaks and finishing up the tour.

Aerial view of Dubrovnik and Lokrum Island

After the tour we walked around inside the Old Town for awhile. We stopped for lunch a seafood place that had been recommended to us, and I had clams for the very first time! There were many little art and souvenir stands, so we did some shopping before heading to walk along the top of the city walls. The entire length of the walls is two kilometers, so we were walking along the top for over an hour! The views of the rooftops and the Adriatic Sea were gorgeous! The sun was starting to set towards the end of our walk, and the lighting of the Old Town was so picturesque; almost like a fairytale.

After walking the walls, we took a cablecar to the top the mountain so we could see the city from above. Again, our timing was perfect! We could see Old Town and Lokrum Island at dusk. Since this particular portion of Croatia is very narrow, we were able to see the mountain ranges of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were located on the other side of the valley from where we were located.

Looking over to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The next morning, we woke up early so we could ride the ferry over to Lokrum Island. We wanted to explore the island, since the previous day we had only kayaked around it. We made the first ferry over at 9:00am, so we were some of the only people on the island. We walked around the botanical garden, which had some ginormous plant species! Then we wandered through the old monastery (where they have filmed a few Game of Thrones scenes). We made our way over to see the Dead Sea cove, and climbed over the huge outcropping of rocks facing out to wide open sea. I could have easily spent a day on Lokrum Island, but since we had a plane to catch, we were sadly only there for an hour and a half.

Rock formations on Lokrum Island; photo credit Tina Cho

Dubrovnik is one of the prettiest places I have ever visited, and I had a fantastic time. I hope that one day I will be able to go back and have more than 48 hours to explore the city and surrounding islands. It is a weird feeling to leave a place and wonder when, if ever, you will be back. I was sad to leave, but I guess it means that I had a great time!

Walking the city walls of Dubrovnik!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighorhood

View from Petřín Observation Tower

Námestí Jirího z Podebrad

I live in the Vinohrady neighborhood of Prague. The neighborhood is home to a lot of expatriates, and is considered very trendy (almost like the Brooklyn of Prague). The square nearest to my house, Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad, has a farmer’s market every Wednesday-Saturday and a church. I have also been trying some coffee places around my neighborhood. To order something “with milk” you would say “kavu s mlekem”. In theory you would think they would add at most a few tablespoons of milk or cream to your coffee. WRONG. Every time I have ordered anything with milk, it turns out to be a cup of warm/steamed milk with a faint hint of coffee, or as I like to call it, coffee flavored milk. Clearly, I will have to start foregoing any amount of milk whenever I order coffee.

Žižkov Television Tower

The Prague landmark the Žižkov Television Tower is also relatively close to my apartment. The tower is from the communist era, and yes, those are sculptures of giant babies crawling up and down the tower. Some Czechs are fans of the tower and others think that it ruins the Prague skyline; I, personally, do not care for the TV tower and think it makes for a jarring comparison between the old and the modern. I admit that in a way, it does make you appreciate the beauty of the colorful, historical buildings of Prague when compared with the space age TV Tower.

Petrín Oberservation Tower

I see London, I see France… just kidding! This past weekend I went to visit Petřín Hill, which houses Prague’s miniature version of the Eiffel Tower. Even though the Petřín Lookout Tower is smaller than the actual Eiffel Tower, since it sits atop a hill, it technically rises taller than the Eiffel Tower! The observation deck from the top of the tower gives a fantastic, 360 degree panorama of the city of Prague. Admittedly, after making our way up the hill, we couldn't stomach the idea of climbing the stairs all the way up the tower, so we paid a little extra to ride the elevator up. I also went to an exhibit that portrayed works of Alfons Mucha and Salvador Dalí. Mucha especially is a big deal here because he was born in the Czech Republic. There are many galleries and museums in Prague that showcase more of his works, including the massive Slav Epic pieces, that I have not seen, but am saving for a rainy day.