Apr 20-21: Fun Times in London and Preparing for Budapest, Munich, and Prague!

Hello again! This will be my last post for about a week and a half, as I have a 9 day adventure beginning tomorrow: 3 days in Budapest, 3 days in Munich, and 3 days in Prague! I will be sure to take lots of pictures and write a large blog post about my travels when I return!
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Before I get into updating you on my past few days I have this to share:

That's BC after the Marathon Monday bomber was caught. It's really great to see my fellow students celebrating the end of a terrifying week from abroad. I couldn't be prouder of the city of Boston, especially the Boston Police Department, for capturing the bomber alive. I'm glad the worst of this whole tragedy is over and that hopefully some answers lie ahead in the future.

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Anyway, Katie and I took a fun walking day-trip around London yesterday our first day of "summer" (since we are both now officially done with junior year). Here are some pictures and captions to enjoy:

It was a beautiful day outside, easily the best we have had so far here. We headed into the famous London department store, Harrods, for some high-end (mostly window) shopping.

This place is nuts. 5 floors of insane commercial activity. Whatever you can think of buying, you can get the highest quality at Harrods. Of course, it isn't cheap. But it sure is fun to visit! This is the top of the Egyptian Escalator, a main series of escalators to each floor. Really, really cool scenery.

On balconies of the Egyptian Escaltor, sometimes performers come out to sing opera music for the thousands of shoppers moving around this enormous store. This is one of them, and she really had a great voice! Seriously, Harrods is insane! Some highlights for me included: The Food Courts, The Toy Kingdom, the Electronic section, and (easily Katie's favorite) the Pet Kingdom which had a bunch of live (and admittedly, adorable) puppies for sale. If you have a lot of money to spend, Harrods is definitely the place for you!

The ground floor of Harrods is mostly a series of high-quality food shops, groceries, and restaurants. Katie and I ate at the The Rotisserie and had some extremely tasty meat: I had BBQ ribs and she had a spit-roasted chicken. Yum!

After Harrods, Katie and I walked over to Hyde Park and enjoyed the lovely day we were lucky enough to have. This is the Serpentine, a man-made lake that highlights the park and makes for a relaxing and calm view. As you can see, there are many out on paddle-boats enjoying the lake.

There's also ducks and swans that float around scavenging for people ready to feed them bread. The guy next to me was doing that, so I got to see this little guy enjoy some lunch. Hyde Park was actually suprisingly packed on this particular Saturday, which was April 20th, or Four-Twenty, a stoner holiday that Katie and I realized was...well...being widely "celebrated" throughout the park. Don't worry Mom and Dad - we didn't join in on the "festivities". However, it certainly made for a hilarious realization upon walking through crowds of "high"-spirited Londoners.

After exiting multiple scenes from "Dazed and Confused" Hyde Park, we admired Marble Arch, another interesting London monument. We then spent the rest of the day walking down Oxford Street, then Regent Street, through Piccadilly and Leicester Square, finally over to Covent Garden for dinner at an excellent little Italian restaurant called Rossopomodoro. Here is our route for the entire day - quite a bit of walking!

It certainly is nice to be done with all of my schoolwork. Tomorrow, Katie and I will be on a plane to Budapest. Three days later, a train to Munich for Springfest (which we will be enjoying with BC friends and some of my buddies from high school!). Three days after that, we take a bus to Prague. After three days in Prague, we will return here to London on May 1st. I'll have a lot to share for then, so stay tuned!

Til then - Cheers!

April 11-19: What a Week! (Here and at Home)

So it has been about a week since I last blogged and filled everyone in on my trip. I am also fortunate enough to have another one coming up - 3 days each of Budapest, Munich, and Prague - on Monday. I thought since now that I am officially done my junior year of college (frightening to say that) and have happily turned in all 8 of my 3,000 word essays (exciting to say that), I could fill you in on what I've been up to besides writing, writing, and writing. Here's a few brief images and captions from a fun weekend spent with a great group of friends from BC studying abroad here in London and visiting from Paris:

This is my Fall Semester schedule for my senior year at BC. We picked classes the day I got back. I got everything I wanted, so I'm pretty happy. You may also notice that I don't have class on Friday or Wednesday, and not until 2pm on Monday. Completely unintentional, I swear. Anyway, a scheduled 4 day weekend is awesome. (Side note if you're a budding musician: Unintentional 4 Day Weekend would be a good name for an album). Ok, back to cool stuff.

To some, this is just cool graffiti. To others, it's virtual nostalgia. As you can imagine, I was pretty thrilled this place actually existed.

I went on a Harry Potter binge about 6 weeks ago. It was quelled and then immediately reignited upon my entrance to the magical world. Sorry, they don't allow muggle cameras past this point.

Portobello Road, which was a fun outdoor marketplace in west London, had some cool and colorful houses. Reminded me of my trip to Burano in February.

Katie and I (and all of our friends too!) enjoying afternoon tea. Really a fun time!

All of my awesome BC friends! From left to right: Me, Dave, Sarah, Kara, Mike, Sarah, Amanda, and Danielle (Katie is taking the picture). We hang out a lot at school, so it was really quite awesome to be hanging out in London!

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This week has also been quite difficult, as friends back in Boston know. The Marathon Monday bombings certainly affected me, Katie, and other BC students studying abroad. For people who aren't familiar with the Marathon and Patriots day (like me, 3 years ago), its probably the most "Boston" day of the year. It's an odd sort of holiday that people spend watching the race and cheer the runners with family and friends. The whole city gets into it - it's pretty incredible. Boston College is a particularly exciting location to be, as at Mile 21 and the end of Heartbreak Hill, the runners are welcomed by a ton of wild students cheering them on, handing out water, and supporting them through the last five miles of the race. Like most BC students and people from the Boston area, a lot of people I know were running in the race at the time of the bombings. Everyone is OK and accounted for now, but at the time, it was tough not knowing what was going to happen next. Even worse was feeling like I couldn't do anything about what happened here from across the Atlantic. I realize that myself, Katie and other BC Study Abroad students are lucky to not be home in terms of "being safe", but I think I speak for all of us when I say that we wished we could be there to help our BC and Boston community deal with this tough time, especially now that everyone we go to school with is on a city-wide lockdown. I'm proud of my fellow students and the city of Boston for how they are responding to this tragedy - currently as I write this, the hunt for the bomber continues - and I know that they will be able to get through this as a stronger community than ever. One final note: Before this tragedy occurred, I was thinking about training for the marathon for my final year as a student. It was something I saw as a great way to stay in shape and cap off my time at BC with an awesome accomplishment. But after seeing the bravery of the first responders and realizing what running in this race now means - not letting the act of a terrorist change how you live your life - I am more determined than ever to do it. And I know I'll have the whole city of Boston and BC Community behind me. To everyone in the city of Boston - you are in my thoughts and prayers, and I couldn't be prouder to go to school in your city. Stay strong!
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Other than the tragic events of Monday, the rest of my week was pretty good. I finished my papers, handed them in, began preparing for my trip a little bit and today played an awesome game of basketball with some local Londoners. Multiple throwback NBA jerseys were present and high-quality 80s-90s-00s rap was blaring the entire time out of boombox. It was a great break from following the events at home, believe me. The rest of the weekend will be dedicated towards preparing for my upcoming trip to Budapest, Munich, and Prague, as well as some well-deserved fun around London. Stay tuned for another post before I depart!

Til then - Cheers!

Spring Break Blog-a-Palooza, Parts 4 and 5: Awesome Amsterdam and Brewin' Brussels

It's been a while. 20 days (March 22-April 10) and 5 cities (London, Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Brussels). We have a lot to cover.

I will be splitting my coverage of my spring break travels into a couple of sections. This fourth part covers Amsterdam, April 5-8, during which Katie and I hung out with our friend David Farley and coincidentally met up with one of my oldest and best friends, Tyler Laubach. The fifth and final part covers Brussels, April 8-10, where Katie and I enjoyed chocolate, waffles, and an incredible selection of beer.

April 5-8: Awesome Amsterdam

This was our hostel, the Rembrandt Square Hotel. It was right above a club, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Hey, at least we got a good price.

Amsterdam is such a beautiful city. Its sort of a cross between New York (in terms of small building architecture, obviously not skyscrapers) and Venice (in terms of canals being everywhere). People LOVE bikes there too. It's kind of insane.

I thought this was a cool picture more for the sky than the church. This is one of the oldest churches in Amsterdam and its ironically located in the red-light district.

The famous "I am-sterdam" sign. People love climbing on this thing!

This was one of the best "museum" experiences I have done so far. The House of Bols was basically a self guided tour of Bols flavored gin distillery. It was a very reasonable 14 Euros, which included a sample drink and 2 sample shots (Don't worry Mom and Dad, the alcohol content was mega-low because of all the flavoring). All in all, a very awesome time.

There's an insane amount of flavors to choose from, as you can see.

Katie, Dave, and I each picked 2 shots: From right to left the flavors are Elderflower, Yogurt, Watermelon, Green Banana (my favorite), Vanilla, and Pomegranate. Good times!

House boats are big in Amsterdam as well. I'm not sure if it would be fun to live on something like that all the time, but it they do seem pretty cozy.

We visited the Anne Frank House as well, which was quite a moving experience. At the end, there was an interesting interactive poll you could take regarding legal and social discrimination today.

The door to the Anne Frank House. (No pictures inside)

My friend Tyler saw on Facebook that I was in Amsterdam, as he was too traveling with friends from his NYU study abroad program in Prague, so we luckily were able to meet up. I will be seeing him again in a few weeks when I'm in Prague. It was awesome seeing him and being in another city around the world with such a good friend that I grew up with.

Another day, Dave, Katie, and I took a canal cruise tour, which was about an hour to see Amsterdam by water. It's not quite a Venetian gondola, but you do end up with some pretty awesome views of the city!

More canal cruising.

Ok, so this was actually a store, but you could walk around and get as many free samples of cheese as you wanted. We spent a lot of time here before feeling like jerks. I wanted to buy some cheese, but was unsure if it would keep. Plus, I knew if I did, I would probably end up eating a whole wheel of cheese.

Solid blond beer from the Netherlands and Belgium really highlighted my time there. Katie actually liked this brand so much, she ended up buying the same glass pictured here. I've been collecting many interesting glasses in my travels. Hopefully I can get them all back home safely!

The canals and bridges are really great, aren't they?

 

Katie, Dave, and I decided to rent bikes for a few hours and ride around the city. This at times was more stressful than fun (I think Katie may need some traffic lessons), but we did manage to have a few laughs.

This is Rembrandt Square, where our hostel was located. It was a great area to hang out and walk from.

This is in Leidseplien, a nice square in Amsterdam. Lots of shops and dining options.

 

Amsterdam was an awesome place to visit. It was even more special because I got to share it with Katie, our friend Dave, and one of my best friends from home, Tyler. It would definitely be fun to go back one day.

Next stop: Brussels!

April 8-10: Brewin' Brussels

This is the "Grand Place", which I guess means "Big Square with cool buildings and shops". Works for me. I'm just here for the beer, waffles, and chocolate.

Belgian beer is really, really good. Also, they use beer to cook with a lot of different types of foods. Who knew mussels in beer sauce could taste so good? Anyway, the mugs sold me too. Trip advisor queen, Katie, found this awesome restaurant 'T Kelderke, which was one of the best meals I've had in my travels. We got the mussels and, of course, some high quality beer and...you guessed it! A certified Belgian waffle (as they call it, "Brussels" waffle) for dessert. It's even better than it sounds.

The Grand Place looks pretty cool at night. The gothic architecture reminded me a lot Boston College. I miss being there, but these trips are too good to pass up!

Unfortunately, the next day was pretty rainy, so our bus tour was limited by a covered roof. This was the best picture I could get of the Atomium, one of the strangest buildings I have ever seen. Quite interesting though.

This is where the European Union meets. The EU presence causes Brussels to feel more "European" than Belgian. Even Belgium itself has 3 national languages: Dutch, French, and English. I will say that hearing and being able to fully use English in Amsterdam and Brussels after 4 nights in Istanbul was definitely refreshing.

This is a Hemgie's burger from Hemgies. Really, really great. Of course, comes with "chips" and delicious beer. I love food, by the way, it might be my favorite part of traveling.

This is Mannekin Pis, which is, well, a little kid peeing. If you needed evidence that people from the Low Countries are strange, here it is. This statue is a big, big deal there.

Of course, it does provided a lot of comedic fodder too.

Probably my favorite stop in Brussels, Delerium. It is constantly in the Guinness Book of World Records for beer variety (over 2,000). The fun thing to do there is to get little sample glasses and just try anything that looks like it might be good or has a cool name. Cherry Beer is phenomenal. Katie and I really enjoyed this place.

Delerium is also open all day, so instead of waiting around at the train station back to London, we got a pint and played cards. Delerium is the best.

There are 3 levels all with different types of beer.

Brussels was pretty great. Definitely a nice 2 day stop before heading back to London. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but again, what isn't to love about beer, chocolate, and waffles?

So there you have it: 20 days (March 22-April 10) and 5 cities (London, Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Brussels). Unfortunately for me its back to the grind as I have to write and hand in 4 essays by next Friday (Apr 19). I guess you do have to study sometimes while being abroad, right?

Thanks for reading my blog. I will be sure to keep you posted, especially when I head to Budapest-Munich-Prague in a few weeks and then Marrakech-Barcelona a little after that.

Til then - Cheers!

Spring Break Blog-a-Palooza, Part 3: Incredible Istanbul

It's been a while. 20 days (March 22-April 10) and 5 cities (London, Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Brussels). We have a lot to cover.

I will be splitting my coverage of my spring break travels into a couple of sections. *If you missed Part 1 or 2, use the navigation bar on the side of my blog to find it!* This third part covers Istanbul, April 1-5, during which Katie and I explored both the Asian and European sides of the city.
Here it is in pictures and captions. Enjoy!

April 1-5: Incredible Istanbul

Kobe flies Turkish Air with Lionel Messi, huh? I want to know what Kobe goes to Turkey for. These commercials remind of the long gone days when Kobe was the go-to marketing guy.

This was the first meal I had in Istanbul. I knew I was going to have a good time, because it was incredible. It's called "iskender" and is basically an awesome lamb kebab. I ate this a lot because it's delicious.

At the Grand Bazaar, I was able to haggle down a price for a nice Turkish tea glass and plate. You really just have to play hardball with these guys, who are always looking to offer unsuspecting tourists a "special price". Some advice: If it's a "special price", act interested enough to get them to harass you, but start walking away until they ask you to name your price. Go about 25% lower than you want to pay and they will meet you around what you want. Katie is an absolute pro at this. It's hilarious to watch!

Istanbul University. Believe it or not, Istanbul while in "the Middle East" is quite secular and progressive. As Katie described it to me (she is quite a budding expert on the region), Turkey views itself  "as a shining example of democracy in the Middle East". Needless to say, this is a big reason why tourism from the West is increasing rapidly there.

The Suleymaniye Mosque, the largest Mosque in Istanbul. Mostly, while traveling around Europe, you see a lot of Cathedrals. I've never been inside of a Mosque before. This was my first one and what a great place to start. It was quite beautiful on the inside.

You must take off your shoes before entering a mosque and women must have their heads covered. I kind of like the taking off of shoes idea. Not only is it a nice way to show reverence to a higher being, but the decorative Turkish rugs and carpets lining the mosques we visited make for a really comfortable visit.

Inside the Suleymaniye Mosque. Each of the red spaces on the carpet behind me is a spot for one person to pray, facing southeast towards Mecca. Also, the Imam (who is like a priest) stands in the front and gives a sermon on Fridays. One unique thing about Turkey, well exemplified by Mosques to come in this blog entry, is that they have domes. I think it's an awesome architectural representation of the European influence on the city. As I learned more and more during my time in Istanbul, it is a historically, culturally, and architecturally fascinating city.

The "call to prayer" takes place 5 times a day, spaced out at different times based on when the sun rises and sets. It lasts for a few minutes, here is short clip, and is signal for Muslims to pray, either in a Mosque or somewhere quiet. At first it was pretty jarring to hear a loud chanting cry out of nowhere 5 times a day, but after a few days I got used to it and really found it interesting. Coincidentally, it's a really useful way to keep time with regards to the daylight. The picture above is tower from which the call takes place using just voices and amplification.

The Spice Bazaar was also really fun - especially if you like spices and Turkish delight!

Look at all of that Turkish Delight. Still makes me think of this though.

We stayed in Kadakoy, which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. Here is the sunset, looking at the Blue Mosque (on the European side) from the Asian side.

Seagulls chased the ferry boats we took over every day. It provided for some entertainment and good pictures.

Topkapi Palace was interesting, but not really well run as a tourist spot. If you ever go to Istanbul, pass on this spot.

Pretty cool to explore, but not much information and tons of kids on a field trip. Still a beatiful place though. But, like I said before, there are better things to enjoy in Istanbul.

I thought the flowers of Topkapi Palace were the best part.

Very colorful!

No wonder the Ottoman Empire eventually fell...people sat around with their feet up all day! (Thanks, I'll be here all week)

Seriously, these flowers are awesome and I don't even like flowers.

After Topkapi Palace, we went to Hagia Sophia, first stopping in the mausoleums of Sultans from long ago.

Not a bad way to be buried, right? Your entire family is there in a nice eembroidered comfy home. I thought this was pretty cool.

This is the Hagia Sophia, which is maybe the most interesting building I've ever visited. It used to be church when Istanbul was Constantinople, then became a Mosque when the Ottoman Empire took over and is now a museum. I believe that this building is responsible for all of the domed Mosques in Turkey, since the Ottomans must have liked the design enough to keep a church structurally intact.

I'm pretty sure that's a picture of Jesus between two huge symbols praising Allah in Arabic script. You won't see this anywhere else in the world, I'm pretty sure.

The Hagia Sophia is also massive on the inside and just beautiful.

However, the Blue Mosque might be the most stunning piece of architecture in Istanbul. Located directly across from the Hagia Sophia, it is absolutely incredible...even if does make me think of Mos Eisley.

It was weird that there were so many tourist vistors filing in and out, taking pictures and observing Muslims meet together in prayer and fellowship at the Blue Mosque. Children running around, adults greeting and praying - quite a familiar scene for anyone who has attended church before, no?

One of the coolest things Katie and I did was enter the Basilica Cistern, which is a Byzantine water filtration system. Check out the fish swimming around in it!

Tough to get a good picture in here, but we managed!

Cool, huh?

I mentioned before that I loved iskender. This is supposedly the best in Istanbul and it may have been my favorite meal of the trip. Seriously, I will have to keep my eye out for more kebab places back home.

Turkish Tea is delicious.

Hagia Sophia in the daylight. Remember what it looks like.

Blue Mosque in the daylight. Remember what it looks like.

This is the ferry we took each day from Kadakoy (Asian side) to Eminonu (European side). It was a mere $1.50 USD. 1 Turkish Lira is only about $0.50 USD, so I really enjoyed getting great prices on anything that wasn't an American brand. (see: food)

This is the Bosphorus, which we traversed every day. It's really quite beautiful. Also, it made me think of this music constantly.

Katie and I walked all the way up to Taksim Square, which is where a lot of political protests go on. Luckily it wasn't too crazy the day we visited. And great weather too!

We returned to the Hagia Sophia around sunset. Compare it to the picture before.

Check out the Blue Mosque as well.

Nothing beat the Hagia Sophia at first nightfall though. This might be the best picture I've taken in my travels thus far.

The Blue Mosque looks pretty great too!

Katie and I had an incredible time in Istanbul. When all my travels are over, it may very well be the most memorable city I visited. It certainly helped being with an Istanbul academic expert, so I wanted to say thanks to Katie for being such an awesome travel buddy and helping make a new part of the world come alive for both of us. Thanks babe, I love you!

Next stop: Amsterdam! Stay tuned!