London

By the time we arrived in London I was sort of tired of traveling, but nonetheless managed to do at least the minimum required of a tourist in London:

Saw a show

Took a red double decker bus tour

Rode the London Eye

Saw Buckingham Palace

Drank lots of tea

We also spent time in the suburbs of Chiswick and Hampstead, which was a lot more relaxing than fighting crowds in London. 

Kew Gardens was beautiful

Hampstead Heath was a good place to frolic around and pretend you are Elizabeth Bennett. 

St. Andrews, Scotland

I met my mom & friends in Edinburgh last Saturday but pretty much was only there 12 hours and had to sleep before getting back on the train to go up to St. Andrews. 

St. Andrews is a cute little town famous for a few things- the first ever golf course (hole 18 above), the filming of Chariots of Fire, but perhaps most importantly it is where Prince William went to college. ;) 

The highlight of our time was hiking along the Fife Coastal Path. It was so gorgeous!

We also checked out the ruins of the castle and cathedral which were destroyed by the protestants back in the day (1500s?). Those pesky protestants. There is a lot of ugly history on both sides. 

The view of the cathedral, cemetery & town from the cathedral tower. 

My mom crawling through the mine tunnels underneath the castle!!

Lennon Wall

Of course we had to go hippie it up at the Lennon Wall, a little bit of more recent Prague history that my roommate Christine directed us to. Its really close to the Charles Bridge but otherwise off the beaten path. 

The graffiti started in the 80's by kids who were"alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism" according to the government (according to Wikipedia). In other words, against communism. 

"Today, the wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace" Aww, those darn youth are so idealistic. 

Terezin

The last piece of World War II history we visited was the town of Terezin. The town is a fortress that was built long long ago by Maria Tereza to protect the royal family in the event that Prussia invaded the Czech lands. After that never happened, it just became a normal town until the Nazi's took it over, since it was an ideal location for a concentration camp. 

"work makes you free"

This was one of the first concentration camps put into use, and was in use even before Auschwitz was built. It's purpose was to literally concentrate the Jews until they figured out what to do with them next. It was not a death camp like Auschwitz (meaning they did not have facilities for or clear intent for killing) but still many died because of the living conditions. 

Terezin was the model camp that the Nazis showed to the Red Cross upon their inquires into the living conditions of the camps. They cleaned up parts of it and made it look like a fun little Jewish town, and apparently their trick worked.

The place had an interesting feel to it. Since it used to be a fortress, it was fun to explore. Even had secret underground tunnels we got to do in. 

But I guess after Auschwitz it seemed not too bad, even though awful things happened there too.  I guess we're a little numb. 

Terezin Memorial garden

last day in prg!

I am a little behind and still have a couple more Prague postings to make, but for the sake of historical accuracy, today is my last day in Prague! 

Overall, I am ready to leave. Six weeks is a funny amount of time to be somewhere. It is long enough to make it feel like home for a bit, but it is too short to get everything done (when you have lots of reading and schoolwork to do as well). After the first couple weeks, which were packed with tours and such, it was nice just to get into a routine and have down time. But then, all of a sudden, it's time to go and I realize there were things I didn't get to do yet! We packed most of it in this week. For the rest, maybe I'll return someday. But for now I'm ready for the next adventure.

Tomorrow I am meeting my lovely mother in Scotland (she has been traveling there with some C'ville friends) and will proceed to crash their UK vacation. More pictures and posts to follow!

Everyday Prague

Just around the corner from our apartment is the Old Town Square. So here's a bit of my everyday sights. 

This is the church of St. Nicholas. I think the statues around the top look like lurking demons, especially at night.  

The guy on the left is Jan Hus who criticized the Catholic church saying that it should be giving money to the poor instead of building huge churches and being all extravagant and corrupt with the tithes. He started his own church, was then excommunicated, and later burnt at the stake. 

Old Town Hall Tower & Astronomical Clock

This clock tells the time, the date, and the astronomical sign. Also tells whether it is light or dark out. ;) And, on the hour, the two windows on the top open and you can see the 12 apostles file past inside. But in order to get a picture of that you have to get a good place in the big crowd that gathers at a quarter till the hour. 

Pretty buildings that look like a Disney World set...but they are real I promise. 

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. If I am lost in the neighborhood I can usually see the towers and find my way back. It's easy to get lost because the streets are very winding. There's no grid system or conveniently numbered streets like back home. The stage and screen in front are for the on-going Eurofest Futbol parties that happen every night. 

Around the corner in the same building as our apartment is what appears to be a medieval weapons shop. ???

the crib

This is where I live! On the left is the bakery with the best chocolate croissants. On the right a store that I haven't been to. The black door is ours and makes a very old squeaky noise. The open windows on the top right is our apartment.

Our room, taken by my roommate Kelly. It looks so clean because we had yet to set our stuff down. 

Our IKEA'd out kitchen. Super cute! Bathroom on the left, but who really needs to see that. It's cute too though and each week we have a new color of TP.