London - Like returning to a place you've never been before

My overwhelming impression of London was that familiarity. I was surprised at how familiar you can find a city you've never set foot in. I think it has to do with the American upbringing. I was brought up on British culture like Mary Poppins, Fawlty Towers, Paddington Bear and the Spice Girls. (Only half joking about that last one.) So walking in Hyde Park towards Buckingham Palace I thought, "Reading took me to all these places." (Oh my gosh: Reading rainbow moment!)

But here are some of the places I actually went to:

Burrough St. Market - the British version of a farmers market...but soo soo good.

Big Ben - where Peter pan flew by with Wendy & the Kids.
Westminster Abbey - just a quick walk by

Hyde Park - where I imagine that scene in Mary Poppins to have taken place

Buckingham Palace - Changing of the Guard: It was so crowded I climbed up on a lamp post to watch most of it!

Harrod's - I loved it, but they're so snooty. They don't let you wear backpacks. You have to carry your backpack like a handbag. HELLO~ it's freakin heavy!


Covent Garden - cute place to be/shop around.

Oxford Circus - Soho - Picadilly Circus: funky cool places to hang around a shop! I definitely could have spent more time here.


I did a lot of walking along this walkway. It takes you along the Thames River to a bunch of the following sights.

Tower of London - Tower Bridge

CityHall - they have outdoor plays in the evening.

St. Paul's Cathedral - Sunday mass is pretty neat to sit in on.


I continued my walk crossing the Millennium Bridge to the Tate.

Tate Modern (Art Museum) - This came highly recommended to me. I liked it because it had better background information of the artworks than SF's MoMa or DeYoung. So you're not as lost staring at the blob of blue on canvas. ^^

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - it's an awesome experience to actually see Shakespeare the way it was meant to be enjoyed ... performed! I watched an early comedy called "Love's Labours Lost" and actually understood the humor. For better or for worse, I was cheap and got standing tickets in the yard. You're up close to the action, but your legs kill you at the end of 3 hours. How do we stay on our feet in the hospitals??

Being there for only 2 days meant that I rushed through a good many things. All in all I am happy I went though. In addition, I can finally say that I had the hostel experience: while it was humble accommodation...the people were all friendly. And when you're on your own, you can't ask for more than friendliness.

Use your imagination

The internet has become intolerably uncooperative at my dormitory. My computer has spent the last hour trying to upload two pictures to Picasa. So it is with my apologies that this will be yet another photo-less entry. I promise to post when I get the chance to. I don't have a ton of pictures, but I liked the ones I have.

I just returned from a true vacation. Relaxing and rejuvenating in (almost) every way. Destination? Barcelona. Cynthia and Kareem were both doing summers there, and it was awesome to go visit and see how they spend their time there. Kareem is already finished with his language program, so he gets to go to Paris and then home. *Irene is very jealous* Cynthia is also wrapping things up, so she can go tour Italy!

Anyway...my impression of Spain was ultimate relaxation. No one seems to take things too seriously. Shops open at 10am....or later if they feel like. With a gorgeous beach just a morning's jog away, Cynthia and I would get our exercise in the mornings before the heat really set in. Fruit abounded and so did shopping! Cynthia is a shopping machine...she walks into a store and walks out with at least 3 absolute steals. I've never seen anyone so efficient at buying so much stuff in my life. Eating was yummy and so wallet-friendly too. I never had a better glass of Sangria either. Since dinner time over there is close to 10pm, all the restaurants are open late. I like it when a city is alive at late hours...it's comforting.

In terms of tourism, we all ventured out of town to see Salvador Dali's self-made museum in Figueres, Costa Brava. Surreal art is definitely more interesting with friends. I saw a lot of fantasy-like architecture done by Gaudi in Barcelona. My absolute favorite was the Park Guell. (I promise pictures of this!) On an interesting medical note, Gaudi was commissioned to design the Hospital Saint Paul in Barcelona. His project was to design a hospital that didn't feel like a hospital for the patients...it is amazing! It's sort of church/castle like. It's beautiful and it's a functioning hospital! You see people in white coats walking out to get their lunches and stuff. I think I even saw a medical school building and I flipped to think people could get their schooling done in a place like this.

I have exactly three more weeks left in Europe. I can't waiiiiiiiiiiit to go home. I haven't really explored the rest of Switzerland, so I need to do that. AirFrance had reasonable tickets to London, so that's also on my itinerary. I think the English will be music to my ears~

Czeching out Prague

zee babushka dolls are so cute, no?
In Prague you have gorgeous buildings in all styles. From gothic and renaissance to rococco and art nouveau. But my favorite is this lovely little building called "the dancing house." Doesn't it just make you want to move?





















Prague...also called Praha. It's an interesting mix of beautiful buildings, incredible history, music and bold development since the fall of communism.

So on Friday, Alvin, Ehrine and I arrive from Geneva. It's been a long and rainy week at work, so we are stoked to be on vacay. Too bad our first experience is mostly our most monstrous. Ehrine and I booked a hostel the night before to be good little students and save some money. It had good reviews on hostelworld and even was mentioned in Rick Steve's Europe book. I don't know why. I got there and the "receptionist" (I will name him bouncer because he looked and acted like a czech thug) was all MEAN. It took 45 minutes to get our room ready when he said 20, and then he demanded I pay in cash. We all go and withdraw money and then find a room without the private bathroom that we had expected. I go back the the bouncer and try to explain, in my most diplomatic tone possible, that there must have been some mistake. Here's where he throws the smack down and tells me "there's nothing to understand" and basically tells me to get out of his face. Makes me cry and go back to my room with my tail between my legs as we settle in to the fact that the hostel is full of young-looking boys who seem to be here to smoke and get drunk in the lounge outside. Yikes. I'm still not beaten badly enough to go demand a cancellation on my Sunday night stay. Bouncer once again gets that "i want to pummel you" look on his face and verbally abuses me, but eventually decides I'm not worth the annoyance and gives me a night's refund. Woo hoo! And I take my money and go to a hotel with a sweet old lady at the reception desk. (That's an important life lesson learned.)

But that's where the horror ends. Seeing prague is pretty neat. We do a lot of the city sights on Friday and Saturday. We're in luck because we happen to choose the weekend of the 650'th anniversary of the Charles Bridge. There are some celebrations that we get to see...including a live "joust" (people hacking away at each other a la Brave Heart). I'm struck by how every where you go, there are tickets being sold for classical music concerts. Musicians also give us a taste by playing a big in public to perhaps promote their concerts later on. I'm enchanted by the idea of music floating through the streets as you walk by.

Surprisingly...there are tons of Korean tourists in Prague. My theory is that it's all because this popular Korean drama loosely translated as, "It happened in Prague." Prague also seems to be a top destination for UK boy parties.

Two more things: language and food. It's crazy that more people speak English in Prague than in France and Switzerland. I guess it's because they have to in order to be international. Definitely made it easy for me to get around! Secondly, food. My best guess is the Czech Republic culture is pretty similar to Russia's. The traditional food tends towards meat, something called goulash and potatoes. But why oh why does it have to be so salty????? I ordered a plate of steamed veggies and I pretty much choked on them because of the salt. It made me so sad to think of the heaps and heaps of sodium someone had ruined those veggies with. I tried not to think of my kidneys as I actually choked down most of them. (probably not a good idea.) Anyway...I did get to enjoy something more universal: ice cream! I had at least one per day. My favorite was this strawberry banana soft-serve sorbet served in a waffle cone cup with raspberries!

Oh one more thing: fashion. Alvin and I both agreed that the fashion in the czechy republicky needs to do some catching up. I can only describe it as girls digging around in wet seal clothes from the 90's. We also saw Malibu Barbie walk by in human form. I still managed to find a MANGO and Zara there although they were mixed in with some questionable stores. I wonder where the locals are shopping.