Blogs from Europe - page 12025

Geo: 51.2687, 4.46397Another bad sleep - it's too hot here! Also, the shower sucks in the hostel - the angle of the shower head doesn't allow water to shoot out very far. So you need to snug up against the wall but even that's difficult because the big hot/cold knob assembly prevents you from getting close enough. I had only one bunkmate last night - some guy from Denmark that is in Amsterdam for an interview. He's really excited about it because he'd love to live here (who could blame him?). It's some job involving traveling 2-3 weeks at a time and then returning to Amsterdam for a week. I briefly considered killing him and taking his place - it sounds ideal! I forgot to ask him what company and type of job it was - ... read more

We have finally booked our tickets for our trip and we leave on August 28th 2007, We will be away for 5 months and have planned our route with mainly new places for Mhairi and seeing new friends I have made around the globe. Our plan is as follows: UK-NY-Oahu-Fiji-New Zealand-Melbourne-Asia. This will take in most of the places I visited last time but Melbourne will be new for me and also some of Asia I did not get to visit previously. I am looking forward to returning to NZ to see the South Island as that was one area I did not get to see but wanted too. So all those that I have crossed paths with in Asia or Hawaii I look forward to catching up with you all and introducing Mhairi to ... read more

I know learning- bleck! But wait, this is interesting learning. This week for my Reading Prague class (a class where we read about Prague, specific places in time and what not, then go visit them) we went to the Czech suburbs. Now, I know what you American Foreigners are thinking, suburbs, wow that sounds like outlet malls, cul de sacs and perfectly congruent houses lined up for days near large forst perserves, however; in Europe suburbs have a slightly different feel. In the states we tend to think of the inner city as the "rough" part of town and the suburbs as a safe haven, but its completely opposite in most European cities. Take the riots in Paris last year- all the hard working folk and immigrants in the suburbs were rioting cause they didn't ... read more

So this week I had: -A History presentation -An Econ presentation -A Totalitarianism presentation -A 10 page History paper -A Czech project -A Czech presentation OK THAT'S GREAT! Everything is done now except the Czech stuff. Then next week I have a paper summary for Totalitarianism due and another 10 page paper (this time for Politics), are they trying to kill me my last few weeks here? I am really upset because there's less than 3 weeks left and only two weekends. This weekend I am going to Berlin, which I'm really excited about, but sad because that means I only have one weekend left in Prague. I am almost sure about my post-trip plans. Mom just needs to find out if my flight can get switched to a later date. If it can, I am ... read more

25 April 2007. Arrived in Vilnius almost 24 hours on the dot from getting up to leave from Seattle, mostly on account of a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt and delay on our flight due to “a suspicious liquid in the cargo hold left over from the previous flight, which arrived from Lisbon, that the fire brigade had to inspect wearing HazMat suits, which turned out to be antifreeze.” That account thanks to the LH captain; surabundance of information…. It begs the question though: who needs antifreeze in Lisbon or when its 80˚F+ in FRA? We’re staying at a 3rd floor apartment in the center of Vilnius Old town on Traku Street. Headed out at 1500 for a walking tour of the city in fantastic weather; warm and sunny sky with plenty of contrasts. Walked ... read more