Meet me in Prague

Thursday I left Sheffield and headed to meet Alex in Prague. I've been to Prague before so the weekend was pretty low-key just walking around the city and spending time together.

On Friday we stumbled on to the Prague Food Festival being held in the Palace Gardens which are beautiful and have amazing views of the city. We tasted so many good foods, beer and wine. Especially remarkable was the Czech aged beef, piglet, New Zealand muscles and the most life changing oysters. These oysters were so delicious, only having a slightly sea-like taste, but very salty and just perfect. We spent most of the afternoon there and then walked around the city for the remainder of the day.

Friday night we ate at a famous beer house called U Fleku, which was right next door to the hotel. They have a continuous flow of beer with waiters constantly walking around and asking you if you would like some more. They only serve one type of beer which is brewed by the restaurant. We snacked on sausage and beercheese, which was also super tasty.

Saturday we walked around Old Town and saw all the 'sights' before heading to the park in Lesser Town. Prague is beautiful, but there is not a whole lot of things to do. All the major spots can really be seen in a day or two. So since the weather was nice we headed up into this large park which was very hilly but gave us some great views of the river and the city below. We snacked on berries we had bought at the farmers market before heading back to the hotel to decide on dinner.

We tried another beer house called U Medividku that was also quite good. We had the brewery's chopping board which featured ham, smoked tongue, brawn and bratwurst. Brawn is like head-cheese a sort of cross between meat and jelly. It was delicious. This brewery also had some great brews on tap at the bar attached so we stayed out for a bit and tried a few of the local brews.

I left early Sunday morning from Prague and arrive back in Sheffield this afternoon. Here is a summation of the travels I just went through:

SHEFFIELD -> Tram->Train->Plane->Taxi-> PRAGUE ->Taxi->Plane->Bus->Train->Tram->Bus ->SHEFFIELD

All worth it to see Alex and visit Prague.

This will be my last entry in this blog. Thanks for keeping up with me. My flight arrives back in the States Tuesday June 1st. It has been a great trip!

Good bye University of Sheffield, hello Prague!

Today is my final day of work at The University of Sheffield. It's a little sad. The people were really nice, but mostly I'm just sad to leave England and to think that my trip is almost over.

We had our final presentations yesterday and everything went very well. All of the interns and people from various offices were present to hear the work that we did. I'm happy it is over though, because that means no more work to do.

Before I call this trip over I am heading to Prague to meet up with Alex. The weather is not supposed to be great, but I'm sure it will be fun either way. After that I head home on Tuesday and Alex and I will be swapping time-zones as he will be in Prague for 2 weeks.

Monday is a bank holiday and I plan on spending it repacking. I'm interested to see how I fit everything back into my bag.

On a side note I'd like to point out that Alex's bag for Prague was 7lbs over the limit and my bag was 12 lbs under. I'm sure I can make some room for my newly acquired items. Might be wearing my Wellies home though....

A Wales of a Time

Sorry for the delay in updating about my trip to Wales. As most of you know I like to consider myself moderately outdoorsy and like to get out and hike, bike and occasionally camp. Even though now I've been there I think that I will be putting North Wales on my 'bucket list.' I would really love to go camp there and hike up to the top of Snowdon Mountain sometime.

Basically Wales is beautiful. The weather we had really helped the cause, it was about 75 and sunny with a cool breeze. Perfect. We stared the day at Conwy Castle, which is a world heritage site, and one of the best examples of medieval castles in the world.

Beyond the walls of the castle are the walls of the city of Conwy also from the middle ages. After taking a tour of the castle we walked along the city walls and had a great view of the mountains and harbour.

Conwy also boasts to its charm Britain's Smallest House. Which is very small, only four people can go in at one time. But it is a fully functional house.

After lunch in Conwy we took the coach to Snowdonia National Park, the first of three National Parks in Wales and the home to the highest peak in the UK excluding the Scottish Highlands, Snowdon Mountain. The scenes were just breathtaking. Snowdonia National Park and Snowdon are a pilgrimage for many serious climbers. Within the park the first British men to reach the summit of Mt. Everest trained and stayed at a hotel at the foot of the mountain which is still a world renowned climbers hangout.

While driving through the park we went through the city Betws-y-Coed which means Bethel in the Woods, which was packed with outdoor outfitters.

We stopped in Llanberis Pass and hiked along Llyn Peris a glacial lake that gave us great views of Snowdon and a chance to explore the lush greenery in the park. It was a low-medium difficulty of a hike and was a great way to spend an afternoon in the amazing weather.

The blue skys and warm temperatures were short lived and its back to being dreary and a bit chilly...hopefully that will change for Prague this weekend!

The best whirlwind ever.

This weekend is only half over and I feel like I have done so much! First of all I left after work and headed south to Oxford to stay with my friend Corey.

Corey is an old friend of mine. We went to school together from sixth to eighth grade before separating for high school due to district lines. We somehow managed to keep up with one another on occasion, and he was nice enough to let me come explore Oxford while he is getting his masters there. Corey has traveled a ton and is studying anthropology and you will probably see him someday winning an award for a documentary. Corey is someone I would define as "my people" the type of person that I can always pick up conversation with and never seem to run out of things to say no matter how much time seems to pass.

Oxford was awesome. It's a really cool town with lots of great buildings, though honestly its awesomeness was probably affected by having someone around from home. The girls I'm on the trip with are really great people, just not "my people" though the trip is still going and those friendships may still be developing.

But really, Oxford is a good town. It's relatively small and you can walk just about everywhere (which we did) and the buildings and lands are just breathtaking. We went to some good pubs and dive bars and just spent the days walking around and seeing the city. It was great to get a prospective of Oxford from an American graduate student because the University is set up very differently than Sheffield. Sheffield is more of an American style University whereas Oxford has a college system which divides its students up much like Harry Potter's sorting hat.

I left Oxford this morning (though I seriously contemplated hanging out for another day) and came into Sheffield via Birmingham (Berm-ing-um) my trains were all on time and much much better than my journey there in which the air conditioning did not work for the first half of the journey. I was reminded of my previous train experiences in the former eastern block, but at least in those one could open a window. After arriving back in Sheffield I hopped on a bus to get to Chatsworth House.

Chatsworth House is beautiful, the home and especially the gardens that surround it. Words cannot describe really, please check out my photos. The house has been a part of the movie Pride and Prejudice (Mr. Darcy's House) and is the real life setting for the story of the Dutchess of Devonshire which inspired the movie 'Dutchess' with Keira Knightley. The grounds are expansive and the flowers are gorgeous. We had a picnic lunch on the grounds and took in the great weather, I even got a tan walking around Oxford, it's a miracle!

Tomorrow we are heading to North Wales to Snowdonia. It's another long day with an early start, but it should be worth it!

North Wales

Tomorrow I'm heading to Oxford to see an old friend and spend a few days. On Sunday I'm going with a school trip to North Wales. This is where Snowdonia National Park is located. It was the first of three national parks in Wales (Bethany and Ryan should be so proud!)

Please check out this link to a parody of Alicia Keys 'Empire State of Mind' all about North Wales, they even mention Conwy a city I will be stopping into! It's being played everyday this week on BBC1 Radio station, which I listen to at work.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8689212.stm

Spring is here?

About a week ago you can read my post about how chilly it has been here. Well, since I've bought Wellies and an extra scarf the weather seems to have changed for the better (Murphy's law clearly working here...)

But really, the weather has been much nicer and in the mid to low 60's either partly or mostly cloudy. Yesterday I tackled the mean hills of Sheffield on a run. They say that Sheffield was built on seven hills, if I have not previously mentioned that fact. So it is really really hilly and steep. But I ventured out for a run yesterday as my body seemed deprived of me pushing it to exhaustion. (For those curious the iron supplements seem to be helping)

The weather was warm, but overcast and I ran downhill to one of the local parks. The park was great, a nice dirt path through the woods following along side a creek. The path was still a bit hillier than I am used to, but the shade was nice and I stayed pretty cool. But I could tell the second round of spring must be setting in because I must have swallowed like TEN BUGS!

These bugs are tiny green gnat-like buggies that were swarming all over the place. Ten bugs is sort of an exaggeration because I don't think I actually swallowed any. I did however have to stop twice to get the ones that flew right into my eye! Yuck. Now, I'm not a squeamish person, so they don't really bother me, except when I'm literally pulling a dead bug out of my eye. At the end of my run I had to brush off my running jersey to get off any of the straggling bugs left.

So, hopefully all those bugs mean that another frost is out of the picture and that the warmer weather is here to stay. I certainly hope so!

"There are two rules to drinking whisky. First never take whisky without water, and second never take water without whisky" Chic Murray, 1977

The title of this post came from a quote at the Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh. It was an experience to say the least. Imagine the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland but instead of going through a house you go through the process of making whiskey. At the end they explain the different regions of Scotland and how the taste of whiskey varies between them all. I learned a great deal about how to tell how good a whiskey is, but mostly I learned that I need a mixer with my whiskey and cannot drink it neat.

In life, everyone needs to visit Edinburgh, or just Scotland in general. First of all, it is amazingly beautiful. The Scots are super friendly and they know how to have a good time. Even the native food is delicious, never let anyone tell you haggis is gross. They are wrong. Haggis is so tasty. They serve it with 'neeps' and 'tatties' which are mashed turnips and potatoes. It is all served with a white sauce that must be mostly butter and cream because it is so delish.

While in Edinburgh we stayed with my friend Sarah from GT that I studied abroad with as an undergrad. She has lived in Edinburgh for two years and just married Rory MacDonald a native Scott. They have a lovely flat by Ocean Terminal in the neighborhood of Leith. Ocean Terminal is basically the port of Edinburgh. She had great views of the water and the crags on either side.

Sabina and I arrived Saturday afternoon and after dropping our bags with Sarah we headed out to explore the town. In case you were expecting a souvenir (family, this is you.) it was bought in Edinburgh. The shops were just full of amazingly hilarious Scottish knick knacks, basically everything you could ever want you could find in some tartan plaid print. I bought myself the CUTEST pair of wellies from a store named Ness. They are green and have wool plaid on the

calves.

We went to the Palace of Holyrood, which has been the home of Scotland's royals for hundreds of years. Mary Queen of Scotts spent her days here and you can still see her bed chambers. It is a working palace and closed the day after we took a tour because Prince Charles was coming to stay. The current royals stay on the third floor of the palace and the tour is open on the first and second floors.

Saturday morning Sabrina and I got up and hiked Arthur's Seat:

Which gave us amazing views of the city:

It was a really steep climb, but totally worth it. Following the climb we were near the Parliament so we went in to visit. Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 so the building is very modern, very much in juxtaposition of the Holyrood House which is just across the street.

Later in the day Melissa and Natalie joined us, and they ventured off to shop while Sabrina and I went on a mission to find authentic Scottish wool for my mom. After a small goose-chase we found it and got some good stuff (though pretty expensive.) After that we tried to find the museum of musical instruments at the University of Edinburgh, but it was closed when we arrived :(

Our final day the other girls wanted to sleep in, and we ended up just shopping at Ocean Terminal, which is where I got my new wellies (the stores from city center had called ahead to put them on hold.)

All in all Scotland = amazing. I'm so happy I had the chance to go and spend a long weekend there. Check out all the photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/111959594841121334369/Edinburgh#