Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog and the reasons I started it. The blog is over 2 years old which is crazy in so many ways; 2 years ago I was a junior in college taking over for a year abroad and now I’ve graduated and have a full time job. 

In so many ways, I wish I was more of the person I was when I was abroad. I was constantly exploring, constantly moving, constantly doing something. I don’t do that anymore; it’s harder now that I have real responsibilities but I don’t want to become complacent and staid. 

So in the vein of reclaiming a sense of exploration or adventure, I’m working on a 101 in 1001 list. A 1001 is 2.75 years so in theory I should be able to accomplish everything on my list. I’m going to start the first of the year and will post my list here. In the meantime, I’m going to try and breathe some life back into the blog. 

I can’t promise frequent posts or even terribly exciting content. It’ll likely be a lot of pictures, things I’ve seen around town, books I’m reading or want to, outfits I particularly like, new projects for my Etsy store etc. we’ll see. 

I know it’s not what I started this blog as but times change and so shall this blog. 

Hope everyone in the NE has unburied themselves from Jonas or is at least inside with a cup of tea. Having recently unburied myself, I can personally recommend the staying inside with tea. I realized that this post got lost in the space between spaces somewhere on computer so having 4 days stuck inside my apartment I managed to finally track it down. 

After wrapping up holiday celebrations with my family I hopped a plane to Dublin. Or well I tried to but was derailed a day because of forced cancellations (O’Hare and I rekindled our love- hate relationship) finally making it a day late and vastly sleep deprived, touching down at the tail end of some of the worst storms Ireland had seen in awhile, you can’t win them all. 

Liz, being the saint she is, met me at the airport which turned out to be amazing not only because hello travel buddy but I also would probably not have found the bus we were taking alone. Liz’s grandmother very graciously hosted us for a couple of days, so instead of my usual (as in study abroad usual) trek into the city we hopped a bus through the countryside bound for Liz’s grandma’s. 

We fully intended upon doing stuff but promptly fell asleep instead, and upon waking up ventured into town with more grand plans of catching a movie before skipping that in favor of Netflix. 

The next morning dawned gray but it was New Years Eve! Liz and I caught a train into Dublin, where we decided to stay the night. After dropping our bag off at the hotel we took off towards Trinity to see some sights (me) and old haunts (Liz). No stop to Dublin would be complete without a Beanhive Coffee so that was our first stop before walking around and exploring some sights. 

We met up with a good friend of Liz’s for most of the afternoon before doing some more walking around then retreating back to the hotel. Needless to say we spent most of the night out, though at the same bar, before dragging ourselves back to the hotel and firmly into bed.

The next day after a nice lie in we arranged to met some of Liz’s aunts at the Shelbourne Hotel for some coffee and lunch before getting a lift back to Liz’s grandma’s. The Shelbourne is a beautiful hotel in Dublin directly across from St. Stephen’s Green and where the Constitution of Ireland was signed. You can even see the room where it happened if it’s not already engaged. Also they had this amazing gingerbread village on display! 

After a delightful lunch we zoomed back to Liz’s grandma’s where she cooked a lovely New Year’s Day dinner. 

Always one for a quick turnaround, we jumped back on a train but to Galway this time. I’d never been to Galway on any of my trips to Ireland so it was a new experience for me and rather old hat for Liz who’d been there before. We toured around for most of the day seeing some of the sights and familiarizing ourselves with the surroundings.  

The next morning we set out early for a bus tour I’d booked us on that went up to the Cliffs of Moher and then back to Galway. The tour was absolutely fantastic. From Galway we went onto the village of Kinvara to see Dunguaire Castle before continuing into the Burren. 

While in the Burren we stopped at the Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb before continuing on to Kilfenora to see the Celtic Crosses. The countryside was beautiful, and we lucked out to have an almost completely sunny day which is a luxury in Ireland. Our tour driver, Aemon, was amazing he knew so much about the countryside and anecdotes about the different places we visited. 

The Kilfenora crosses were pretty amazing they’ve been standing since I believe the 12th century which is when the church dates from. 

From Kilfenora we went on to Doolin which was our last stop before hitting the Cliffs. We stopped in Doolin for some food then finally made it on to the Cliffs.

By the time we made it to the cliffs, the sun had been eclipsed by clouds and some rain. But the cliffs were amazing. It was absolutely frigid by the sides so we walked around some made it up to O’Brien’s Tower before it starting to torrential downpour. We made a run for cover and explored the visitor’s center until the rain let up. 

After the cliffs it was back to Galway where Liz and I gabbed some fish n’chips before promptly falling asleep. 

It was back to Dublin bright and early the next morning. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city (grabbing coffee at Beanhive).Deciding to be cultural we went to see a Bernard Shaw play, “You Can Never Tell” at the Abbey Theatre. The play was quite good and pretty funny. 

The next day was much the same we visited a museum, and Beanhive before doing a lot of window shopping around the city. Popping in places that looked fun and then heading on to the next one. We ducked into see a movie (Joy) after it began to rain especially hard.  We had mixed feelings on the movie so took ourselves to Foley’s (a favourite of Liz’s & a new one of mine) to discuss it over some delicious wings and multiple pints. 

Beanhive in honor of our visit drew our faces in our coffees a super special treat!

The school year is in full swing which means I have practically no free time, which is awful. I have managed to squeeze in some fun stuff though.

Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market

My Sunday morning haunt, I go every basically every Sunday and luckily have found a market buddy in my friend Kaitlyn. The market always lends itself to some pretty great photos. 

Can everyone tell I’m really excited for fall?

Art all Night

A couple weekends ago DC had Art all Night (not typically my scene but it was pretty cool) so my roommates and I walked around Dupont to see what was open. There were a far amount of galleries open so we wandered in and out of them until we decided to head home. 

Tea on the Tiber

One of my lovely friends headed out to Oxford a couple weeks ago to start a masters program so the only true way to send her off was with a typical English tea. 

And then the minor highlight of my life I saw Madeleine Albright and the President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga speak at Georgetown last month. #AMAZING

I took a very impromptu trip to the City a week or so ago, my sister had been invited to speak at an event with the Governor of New York so I hastily bought a ticket Sunday night for far too early Tuesday morning. The event went well even though my sister was bumped from her speaking role and we spent the rest of the day and I spent Wednesday exploring the city some. 

The fam with the Governor & Leader Pelosi 

Far from being the lazy, hazy summer I expected, I’ve already made 3 maybe 4ish trips since being back to the States. Crazyness, I tell you crazyness. 

I was in Miami briefly to spend some quality time with the cousin who I don’t get to see nearly enough. Despite the excessive heat, Miami is still absolutely gorgeous.  

On the theme of sunniness and beaches 2 weekends ago I headed to The Shore to spend the weekend with some friends (whom of course didn’t actually end up in any of these photos)

It’s been basically forever since I posted, I’m blaming finals and packing for that one. So we’ve arrived at the end here. I’m on a plane back to the US as I write this and I have to say I’m pretty excited about it.

I’ve spent the past academic year abroad; 4 months in Brussels and 5 months in Glasgow. It’s been insane and wonderful and tiring and eye opening. I’ve met people who I hope I’ll be friends with for a long time, and I’ve spent time with old friends in new places. I decided that instead of writing about my last trip to Paris, though Monica and I had a blast, I’d do a recap of where I’ve been. I hope you don’t mind. 

This whole experience started in Brussels, where an exhausted and fairly nervous me landed the last weekend in August. I went from Brussels to Bruges to Antwerp to Ghent to Leuven within 10 days of landing. Belgium is beautiful, and basically drenched in history and I loved it. 

Brussels City Hall, Grand Place

Grand Place, Brussels 

Brugge!

Leuven

Ghent

My first weekend trip was Milan, which if you read my post on you’ll realize I didn’t particularly enjoy. Milan and I just did not jive but as I’ve learned sometimes that happens but at least I’ve been there and done it.

View from the top of the Milan Cathedral

Paris was my first solo trip and it was an interesting experience. I loved that I could do whatever I wanted and not worry if it was boring for someone else. But I also learned that sometimes you don’t want to eat dinner alone and having a travel buddy makes a difference.

Notre Dame behind the trees

The Netherlands came next. As a class we went to The Hague to visit the different international organizations there then the majority of us spent the weekend in Amsterdam. I absolutely adore the Netherlands and I was lucky enough to have visited both The Hague and Amsterdam 3 years before. My love for both places has not abated a bit and I hope it never does.

The Hague

Amsterdam

Our first big program trip was next. We did Bastogne in Belgium drove to Trier in Germany then to Strasbourg in France to St. Avold and the Lorraine American Cemetery and finally to Luxembourg before heading back to Brussels. The trip was amazing, the country of southern Belgium and the Alsace is breath taking but it was also sad. We toured World War II battlefields and cemeteries on both sides and heard too many stories of lives cut short too soon.

Battle of the Bulge site; Allied side

Small town in the Alsace, it was very much like Beauty and the Beast

View from the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg in the Alsace

The Lorraine American Cemetery 

My grandparents came for a portion of my fall break and we toured Brussels and some of Belgium (I would like to personally thank out tour guide Diane for introducing me to the BEST café in Brussels- Peck 47, I was and am obsessed).

View from the Flanders Field Museum

Then it was time for my adventure in Dublin with the lovely Liz. I saw the Long Room and the Book of Kells, drank my weight in chai lattes and most importantly celebrate Liz’s 21st!

The Long Room and Berkeley Library 

Vienna came next, though we missed the Christmas markets by a week. I discovered a love for Klimt and an appreciation for classism of Vienna.

Gardens of the Belvedere Palace from the Upper Belvedere looking down towards the Lower Belvedere and Winter Palace

Judith I by Klimt

This is where it gets interesting. We started our final program trip in Belgrade where we spent maybe 2 days before driving to Srebrenica then onto Sarajevo. After sometime in Sarajevo it was onto Podgorica in Montenegro and finally Tirana in Albania. This trip was amazing and hugely eye opening. The destruction of war still exists, literally and just in the psyche of the people.

The former Defense Ministry in Belgrade, targeted by NATO bombs during the war

Belgrade at sunset

Srebrenica genocide memorial cemetery

Old town Sarajevo

Downtown Sarajevo, a combination of NATO bombs, street fighting and looting from during the war

Podgorica 

Tirana

That pretty much wraps up the semester in Belgium. Amazing, eye opening and an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Glasgow was so completely different from everything I experienced in Belgium. The pace was slower, the classes less strenuous and traveling outside the country more difficult.

Avenue G where I basically lived, their coffee was amazing 

Also my last week in Glasgow I ran into Sam Heughan who plays Jaime in Outlander #win

My first trip was Edinburgh, only an hour by train from Glasgow. Edinburgh was and is beautiful and so historic. I loved it at first sight.

I took my first trip into the Highlands to Oban and the Isle of Seil. It poured almost the entire day and I fell down part of the mountain but it was still wonderful, if not a little wet.

Oban

Isle of Seil

London is probably one of my favorite places in Europe. I’m not entirely sure why, it probably stems from the inordinate about of reading I’ve done on English history (not even ashamed to admit that). It also helped that I spent this trip with Liz and her mom so there was no way it wasn’t going to be a good time.

Portobello Road

It was back to the Highlands to visit Glencoe (yay for James Bond), Inveraray and the Glenfinnan Viaduct (yay for Harry Potter). The Highlands are pretty beautiful no matter which way you look at them, so the trip was a definite win.

Glencoe

Glenfinnan Viaduct

I went back to Ireland for the most important event of 2015, the Hudson Taylor concert. It was beyond amazing. From Dublin, Liz and I spent the weekend in Paris where we met up with Monica, the definition of perfection.

The band at the Olympia in Dublin

View of Paris from Sacre Coeur

Carlisle and the Lake District was somewhat underwhelming but still something I’m glad I visited.

View from the outlook

The Isle of Skye was the big trip of the semester. If only for the fact that EVERYONE raved about it. We had absolutely wretched weather, but it was still pretty incredible.

Eileen Donan Castle

Portree

My last trip within the UK was Alnwick Castle (three cheers for Harry Potter and Downton Abbey) and Bamburgh Castle. Alnwick was stunning and I am immensely jealous of the Dukes and Duchesses of Northumberland for getting to live there.

Alnwick Castle

Bamburgh Castle

It was back to Ireland before we headed for Barcelona. Barcelona and I definitely jived, I would go back in a heartbeat.

Barcelona Cathedral

My parents came for a week, yay! We did some touring of Scotland which they both seemed to enjoy and I just liked that I got to spend time with them (eating something other than pasta was pretty great too though).

My adorable parents soaking up the (rare!) Scottish sun 

Budapest was next and I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it was the time, maybe it was me I don’t know but I didn’t love it like I thought I would.

View from Buda Castle

Prague however was incredible. I fell only a little in love with it. It was so beautiful and the history is fascinating.

Charles Bridge

As my last European adventure I went to Paris, which seemed the perfect choice. Monica and I celebrated her birthday with too many desserts and so much walking. It was the perfect end to the semester.

Notre Dame

So that’s a wrap, I guess. I hope everyone enjoyed the ride, I know it did! I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate your reading and following along!

All the best,

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a good weekend. So as the title suggests I visited Prague with my dear friend Monica. We were in the same program last semester so between program trips and other miscellaneous traveling we have covered a good amount of Europe together. Anyways I've wanted to visit Prague for a long time, like a long time, it was on this random travel list I wrote when I was 12 after too many trips to the library. I was skeptical however after not fully enjoying Budapest but people I talked to raved about it. I have to say it didn't disappoint. I flew out early Wednesday morning and got into the city early afternoon, where I met Monica at our Airbnb. Side note: I hadn't seen Monica since my trip to Paris in February and after seeing her almost everyday last semester, I was seriously excited to see her. Our bnb was in an AMAZING location, maybe a 5 minute walk from the Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge. Since we were so close we decided to explore the square and grab some food. There are food stalls on one end of the Old Town Square, so we picked up some traditional Czech food; cooked sausage and potatoes cooked with bacon and cabbage (very interesting). We then finished the meal off with trdelnik which was super similar to the kürtőskalács I had in Budapest. We wandered around, saw the Astrological Clock, and then got a little lost. We found our way back eventually (I swear the streets are like mazes in Old Town). We needed to let the other 2 people staying at the Airbnb in so we headed back to wait for them. Almost 2 hours later then expected they showed up and Monica and I headed back out. We ended up grabbing coffees at the nearby Chococafe where we easily spent an hour or two just chatting. After the reviving coffee we wandered back to the Old Town Square which was all lit up. The Astrological Clock especially and the Madonna and Child affixed to top of one of the many churches lining the square. A quick dinner later and we were ready to turn in, especially since we'd had 5 am and 6am wake up calls respectively. Thursday morning we were out the door by 9:30. After a stop to grab a pastry and coffee (the owner was the nicest ever and made sure our pastries were grabbed straight out of the oven, before telling us she hoped we had the best possible day). The Charles Bridge was only a 5 minute walk from the bnb so it was our first stop of the day. Since it was still early (not even 10) the bridge was practically abandoned which was so nice! We got some amazing pictures without having to fight through hordes of people. Our first stop of the day was Prague Castle (a must on both Monica and my lists). The climb up to the castle was a bit steep but the view made it worth it. Prague Castle is not solely a castle it includes St.Vitus Cathedral, St. George's Basilica, the Old Royal Palace, the Story of Prague Castle, the Golden Street and Rosenberg Palace. Luckily you can buy circuit tickets, we went with circuit A which covered 7 of the 10 attractions, and it was 175 Czech crowns (the student price) which is around €6.5-7 which compared to a single museum ticket in Paris or London or Rome etc was an absolute steal. Prague Castle did not disappoint. We started out in St. Vitus Cathedral (side note between last semesters trips, miscellaneous trips with parents, Monica's semester in France and mine in the UK we have seen an extraordinary amount of churches, I think we estimated at least 1 per city if not 2). That being said we were still impressed, the church was started in 1344 and construction ended in 1929, which is crazy. Since it was finished at the beginning of the 20th century there are some modern touches that most of the churches (or all) didn't have, like panels of Art Deco stained glass. The stained glass is the highlight of the cathedral, there are easily 10-20 panels that must be at least 20 feet high and a large rose window. The Art Deco panels were especially impressive and easily were my favorite part of the cathedral. After the cathedral we visited the Old Royal Palace which was interesting but not necessarily stunning to look at. The Old Royal Palace is next to the history of Prague Castle exhibit so we moved on to that. The exhibit didn't really hold our attention for long. It was a fairly comprehensive history of the castle starting from around the 300's ranging through the medieval and Renaissance periods but we found ourselves slightly underwhelmed. After the the exhibit we moved onto St.Georges Basilica. St. Georges was not as impressive as St.Vitus not even by half but it was impressive in its own right. The basilica is much older, around 920, and is the oldest church in the Prague Castle complex. There was some detailed plastering on the ceiling, however only partially left. 

Rosenberg Palace was next. It was definitely a hit. The Palace was originally a royal residence till around the 1750′s when it was converted to a Residence for Noblewomen. The Palace has been restored within the last 10 years and some of the rooms have been staged. It was pretty amazing, the ceiling in one of the restored rooms was beyond amazing.    After the palace we ventured to the Golden Lane which is full of little shops. We popped into to some but didn't find much. However the view at the end of the Golem Lane is very much worth it. Since Prague Castle is up on a hill, it commands sweeping views of the city. It was beautiful. The golden lane is the end of the Prague Castle circuit so we headed out or rather back down. On the way we stopped to grab a snack, a skewered potato that had been cooked over a fire, before crossing back over into the Old Town. A brief stop at the apartment later we were on the hunt for lunch. We ended up in the Old Town Square which was massively crowded. Post lunch we headed into New Town to see the Powder Gate and the National Theatre. The Powder Gate wasn't terribly thrilling. We were excited to see the theatre but they don’t let you in unless there’s a show on so that was a bust. 

We ended up wandering around some before heading back to the bnb to take a break. We later decided to head back out for dinner, where we had traditional Czech, goulash (but not soup) with bread and bacon dumplings. It was actually really good! Afterwards we headed over to Bar Hemingway (where Hemingway did a lot of his writing). The bar is absolutely fabulous, it’s not a typical bar there are a collection of specific rules that it is expected you follow. It was much more of a gathering to chat bar that a typical rowdy one. 

The drinks were also pretty amazing, there was a good list of them and the bartenders are super nice and would make almost anything for you. 

Friday we started a little later since we had covered so much ground the day before. We headed out towards the Opera and the National Museum which took us through the popular Wenceslas Square. The Opera was also closed, open only for performances. The museum was under renovation and the one exhibit they has open did not appeal to Monica or I. The morning turned out to be a bit of a bust. 

However we did make it to the Mucha Museum (good but not worth it unless you are a big fan). The museum entrance fee was pretty high even with the student discount, the museum was also much smaller than expected. However the exhibit was pretty good. There is a large collection of his work on many different mediums as well as photos documenting his life and some personal effects. 

After the museum we headed back to the Charles Bridge to cross to the other side. There are some amazing gardens up near the castle. We took the funicular up to the top (the best option, really) where we got some amazing views of the cities. Unfortunately we got stuck at the top in a rainstorm but we made up for it by getting large coffees once we got to the bottom. 

Friday we did a repeat of Thursday, we had dinner at the same place (it was just as amazing) then headed for Hemingway’s. We got a good portion of the night there before heading home. 

Saturday morning, Monica had to leave early so I was on my own. I did some wandering had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe before doing some walking. I stumbled onto an old monastery garden that had been turned into an urban green space where I ended up reading a good portion of my book.  I grabbed lunch at the Chococafe before heading to the airport. 

Overall I had a great time! Prague was beautiful! 

Next up is Paris which I got back from Wednesday, as you can tell I’m a bit behind. I have 2 finals within the next 10 days, one of my summer courses starts on Monday (before both finals I might add) and I have to pack all my stuff up. So fingers crossed Paris will be up next week.

Wish my luck and lots of flat whites!

Emma

Astrological Clock

Old Town Square

Obsessed 

The Charles Bridge

Selfie on the Charles!

St. Vitus Cathedral 

One of the Art Deco windows 

View from the Old Royal Palace

Ceiling of St. George’s Basilica

Ceiling in Rosenberg Palace 

Golden Lane

Another view from the castle

Powder Gate

Opera