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So we are getting down to our last days here in London and it is getting mighty depressing. I’ve been super busy with the end of classes, preparing for finals and the last things I wanted to do before I leave. I absolutely cannot wait to get home and see my family, my best friends, and especially my Kappa Deltas, but at the same time I don’t want to leave here.

My final to-do list for London included some strange things. I needed to go to my favorite markets again. I needed to do some souvenir shopping for my family that I had been putting off all semester, mostly because of lack of space in my dorm room. The Olympic Parks are on the list, even though I can’t actually go in them anymore. There were some different areas of town that I’d been told to visit. I need to go to Abbey Road and take a picture like the Beatles album cover. And lastly, I wanted to see the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens (right by me!), because I saw it in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie. I’m a total ‘90s girl, you don’t have to tell me twice.

With just a few days left in this wonderful city I have hit most of my stops. The Peter Pan statue was great for a picture, and so were the Olympic Parks. We were pretty upset that we couldn’t get very close to the buildings; they have stuff going on each day that you are required to purchase a ticket for so we could only get pictures from far away. On the bright side there was a fantastic mall really close, so we did some last minute shopping. Well, more like my friends did some shopping and I watched. The budget is getting extremely tight!

I finally finished my souvenir shopping on Saturday morning with one final trip to Portobello Market, one of my absolute favorite places. My friends and I are going to Abbey Road early Thursday morning. We didn’t mean to put it off this far, but it had some construction and we wanted to get the picture exactly right going across the “zebra crossing” or the white striped pedestrian walkway.

As an added plus, I got to see Matt Lauer shooting parts of the Today show at Kensington Palace! I was raised watching the Today show every morning and absolutely love Matt! I was so excited I couldn’t stop giggling and looked like a complete dork. I didn’t get a chance to get a real picture of him and me because he was in a hurry to catch a flight, but he did talk to me (specifically!) three times! My mom also caught a glimpse of me in the background of that day’s show. As much as I love the Today show, that was a great thing to experience on one of my last days here!

Matt Lauer!

Tonight I’ve done my laundry to get ready for packing. I pulled the suitcases down for the first time since I stuck them on top of my closet. As we get closer to leaving, I get more upset and more excited. We have all become known to start crying at random times for seemingly no reason. It’s unreal that I wake up every morning knowing exactly how many days until I get home without even having to think about it. It’s going to be different not living in such a busy, beautiful city. I’m definitely going to miss the public transport. It’s so easy and convenient!

But what is going to be harder is leaving all the amazing people I’ve gotten so close to over the past four months. I expected to make friends here, close friends even. I did not expect to become so close to these people that I can’t imagine not knowing the next time I’ll see them. They don’t tell you how hard that will be. So while I am counting down the days to seeing everyone back in good ol’ Kentucky, I am also miserable that I won’t be seeing the people in London anymore.

With all of that said, there are things I can’t wait for! I can’t wait to hold my baby niece, for good cooking, for the dollar instead of the pound, and to drive with the windows down. It’s going to be a hard long day, but Friday morning cannot come fast enough for this girl!

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Barcelona here we come! My friends and I went to Barcelona over Easter weekend. Some of us arrived Thursday afternoon and immediately checked into our hostel. We were pleasantly surprised at how clean it was. We were also met with good and ba d news. The good: teams participating in a local football (soccer) tournament were staying in the same place. The bad: the league was for 12-year-olds. For your information, 12-year-old soccer players have a LOT of energy and are extremely loud. To get away from the noise (and feed our grumbling tummies) we headed to a tapas restaurant right around the corner where we had the best meal of the weekend.  Tapas are delicious little appetizers that I cannot get enough of. When we got back we found out that our hostel offered a deal where they had someone take you out that night, so we thought it would be a great way to see good parts of the city and jumped right on that!

The next day the rest of our friends arrived. There ended up being nine of us total. We headed to the beach to find somewhere different to eat dinner. I wanted to eat paella, which is a rice dish with seafood traditionally served in Spain, so we staked out places with it on the menu (for a decent price) along with a variation of other items. That’s what I wanted so I ordered it even with the scary looking heads of some kind of sea creature on top. It was definitely scary, and I was not a huge fan. We played some volleyball on the beach after dinner and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for salsa dancing!

Saturday we went to Las Ramblas which is a huge street leading down to the beach lined with open air markets, stalls filled with all kinds of goodies, and restaurants. Everything was absolutely gorgeous! We also joined a free walking tour of the gothic quarter of the city It was really cool to be right in the heart of so many cool pieces of history–we sat on the steps where Christopher Columbus informed the King and Queen of Spain that he had found the new world! For dinner we went back to the same tapas place we went the first night. Every one of us let our eyes get way bigger than our stomachs; some of my friends ordered four tapas plates to themselves!

On Easter Sunday we went to mass right down the street. It was a Catalonian mass, but most of my friends and I are Catholic so we could still tell what was going on for the most part. That language barrier was something we struggled with the entire trip. We all thought that by going to Spain our high school Spanish would help us get around. Unfortunately the people in Barcelona speak Catalan, not Spanish. Talk about a culture shock. But with it being Easter and most places being closed we spent the day on the beach and walking around checking out the scenery. Definitely not a typical Easter, but one I’ll remember forever.

Easter on the Beach

Monday morning most of my friends went home to London, but four of us stayed another day. We looked at a lot of Gaudi architecture, including La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. Let me tell you, if you’ve never heard of Gaudi you should look up his buildings right now because they are so unique you will never want to take your eyes off of them. I can’t believe how long they have been building La Sagrada Familia and it isn’t even finished yet! The detail is absolutely incredible! I’ve loved his architecture since I first heard about it in high school, and am so glad I got to spend an entire day just marveling at how amazing his work is. That night we went saw some awesome views of the city and then called it a night pretty early.

Sagrada Familia

My last day in Barcelona I spent on the beach. It was kind of cold there, so it wasn’t the summer beach weather I was expecting but it was perfect to just be there reading in the sun. I loved Barcelona, but getting so close to the end of the semester I was definitely ready to get back to London and spend as much time seeing as much more of the city as possible!

Next time … last post from London!

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After that, I went back to Salzburg. Two girls I was traveling with went to Venice, but I had already been, and I wanted to relax. So I traveled all alone back to Salzburg and on the train ride from Florence to Venice, I met this nice guy from Venice and these two Russian girls. Oddly enough, they had blonde hair and blue eyes and were named Natasha and Olga. Way to be stereotypical, ladies.

From Venice, I had to take an intercity bus to Villach, and then a train to Salzburg. That’s a lot of traveling. I left Florence at around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Salzburg at around a quarter to six. But I’d still rather be on a train than an airplane.

Prague

This last weekend (April 20) I was in Prague. Prague is a wonderful place, and honestly, I don’t really remember much of it. But I think that was because I’d been traveling SO MUCH! On Sunday, I went to Cesky Krumlov, which is the film site for movies such as Hostel and Hostel 2. It was also extremely beautiful.

The Lennon Wall in Prague

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

I’m taking a break on the weekend traveling for a while. The last weekend we have here is a four day one, so I’m going to Berlin with my roommate. I’m kind of super excited! (Can you tell?)

Now I should really get back to my papers. I’ve got a 6,000-7,000 word paper due on Mozart for my Music in the Age of Mozart class, a five-page paper due on Oedipus Rex and a 700-word review on a movie set during WWII (I think I’m going to do Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I feel like quite a few people will pick Sound of Music.) (Another side note: I’m so sick of the Sound of Music. If I hear I Have Confidence one more time, someone may get a spork in their arm.)

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Spring Break, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. Okay, so it was more of a love/hate relationship. It started out spectacularly and then ended on a rather sour note.

We left on March 30 for Budapest, Hungary. It was beautiful there!! BEAUTIFUL, I tell you. The history was all rather fascinating. The group I travelled with went to the Terror Museum. Don’t get any ideas, friends. I’m still terrified of scary movies; this museum was about the reign of terror in post-WWII Hungary. Needless to say, most Hungarians probably hate Russia. (Well, most of Eastern Europe probably hates Russia.)

Budapest

After Budapest, we flew to Brussels, and immediately went to Paris. Probably the first and last time I will be on a first class car on a train. It was wonderful: free WiFi, free food and super comfy seats. In Paris, I’m pretty positive that I hyperextended my right arm. (In fact, today is April 26 and my arms are still kind of numb. That can’t be good, can it?)

And I pretty much dislike Paris. I’m not big into French (finally figured out it is because their language doesn’t sound angry. I like my angry sounding languages: German, Russian, etc.) and I also wasn’t completely stunned by things like the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty, and it was tall. I was more fascinated with Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of me with a cancan dancer, because Moulin Rouge tickets were like €100, so that was super out of my budget. I did enjoy quite a few crepes, but I didn’t try any escargot.

The palace of Versailles, near Paris.

After Paris, we went to Brussels, and stayed for two days. SO MANY FRIES AND WAFFLES!! (Side note: French fries are not, in fact, French, but Belgian.) It was nice, but by this time, I wasn’t happy with the people I travelled with and was ready to apparate to America (or even back to Salzburg).

Amsterdam. I want to go back to Amsterdam. We only spent a day there, and it was a cold and gross day, so for a city that the author John Green seems to adore, I either can’t see it, or wasn’t there long enough to absorb the awesome that resides there. I tried to go to the Anne Frank house, but the line literally wrapped around the building … way too much of a wait. Plus, as I mentioned, I was freezing.

On Easter Sunday, we flew from Amsterdam to Rome, where the city proceeded to mess with us for the entire trip. We were tired and exhausted of traveling, plus it got down into the high 30s, low 40s, and we were staying in camping villa. That’s right, friends, I went camping. Sort of.

I still saw all the classic sights: Roman Forum, the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, etc. I was super excited to see the Vestal Virgins (which, if you’ve read Maureen Johnson’s 13 Little Blue Envelopes, you’d understand). AND THERE WAS SO MUCH GELATO!!

The Coliseum

The last day of Rome, we were going to take a train to Florence. I have been in love with Tuscany ever since watching Under the Tuscan Sun when I was like…12. Unfortunately, Rome just did not want me to fully enjoy Tuscany. We missed the first train we could take to Florence; the second train was missed because a Gypsy stole the phone of the one of the girls I was traveling with, and finally, we got to go to Florence. We enjoyed maybe three or four hours of sunlight, but never fear, it was GORGEOUS! I really want to go back!

New friends!

Next time … back to Salzburg, plus Prague!

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When we got back to London I was happy to be playing tour guide again. On Thursday I took the girls to many of the tourist sites they had not seen yet, such as the Tower of London where you can see the crown jewels! We spent that evening in Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown, which both become completely different places at night.

Friday I took them to see a different side of London. Everyone knows about the open air markets in the city but most tourists don’t get out to see them. I think this is so unfortunate, as I would spend every second of my time at these places if I could (and if I had the money!). We started the day off at Portobello Market in Notting Hill. The amount of interesting things sold at the stalls in this area are insane! Once we had our fill of looking through tables of antiques, jewelry, clothes and accessories, we headed to Borough Market near London Bridge for lunch. This market is full of food, some ready to eat and some for taking home to the pantry. I think (and hope!) the girls loved these places as much as I do.

That evening we went to a local pub for fish and chips after doing some last minute gift shopping. We were pretty exhausted and the next morning the girls were coming back to the states so after that we quickly packed and went to bed.

I was very sad to see them go but I couldn’t dwell on it for long as classes were starting back up and I had plenty of homework still to be done. I jumped right back into the swing of things, although it was a little bit easier knowing my Mom was coming to visit pretty soon after! Her trip included mostly the same things, but we did make it out to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath on Saturday. This was one of my favorite days of the semester.

Windsor Castle is incredibly cool, and what made it even better was that the Queen was in the building while we were there! Windsor is her favorite royal residence and she spends her weekends there. I wish we had some more time in the town; you could easily spend the entire day there but we were only given two hours before it was back on the bus.

Next we visited Bath, which is also pretty neat. The only downside to that stop was that the museum was really more than I needed to see and took much longer than I would have liked it to. Our final stop of the day was Stonehenge. Stonehenge was breathtaking, but it was freezing out! It was quite cold that day so we didn’t stay long outside. I would’ve liked to see it on a sunny day but I feel pretty blessed to have seen it at all!

These last few weeks have been so hectic that it is time for a much needed break! This weekend ten of my friends and I are headed to Barcelona to spend Easter weekend in the sun. We booked this trip at the beginning of the semester and cannot believe it is already here. When I get back I’ll have plenty of fun stories to tell I’m sure, and I know I’ll have some fantastic pictures!

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Things have been really hectic around here lately, starting right before Spring Break. I had many assignments due that I wanted to finish before my sister and cousin came to visit me. I couldn’t have been more excited to see them! But it meant logging a LOT of hours in the library for the week and a half leading up to when they got here. Most of my friends left for different places around Europe on Friday and Saturday, but my sister and cousin weren’t arriving until Sunday morning so I had plenty of free time to finish up last minute things.

On Sunday, I got up bright and early at 6 a.m. and headed to the Tube to make the one-hour ride to Heathrow Airport. I was so anxious the entire ride, wishing it would go by faster. It took the girls a long time to get their bags and get through customs. Their plane landed at 7:40 and I arrived at 8:30, but they didn’t actually come out of the arrivals gate until 9:30.

They were pretty jetlagged but serious about not wanting to go to sleep so I became tour guide Chelsea and walked them all over the city. We walked around my school here, through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, down past Green Park, to Piccadilly Square, Leicester Square, Chinatown and finishing up in Trafalgar Square. Don’t worry, everything is much closer than it sounds like, but they still swear I was trying to kill them!

High tea at Harrod's.

That day we also went to Afternoon Tea at Harrods. Harrods is such a fabulous place; I’m not sure how many times I’ve been and I know I still haven’t seen everything! After tea we headed back to my teeny tiny dorm to pack for Dublin the next day and print our boarding passes before dinner. We went to have great British roast and play pub quiz for dinner, and I think the girls loved it!

When we got back we finished packing and went straight to bed seeing as we had to get up at 4 a.m. to head to Dublin! The trip there was very long. We had to take an hour bus ride to the airport where we spent some time trying to find our check-in desk. Ryan Air is definitely not the most convenient airline, but then again they do not claim to be. We got to our hostel in Dublin about 1:30 p.m. Fortunately, we had a private room and were able to check in, where we found that we also had our own bathroom – a huge plus! The hostel was a huge bargain with everything we had included and all the help they gave us getting around the city.

While we were there we visited the Dublin castle, the Guinness Storehouse, did a walking tour of the city, where we saw huge sites such as Trinity College, and we saw some great areas of town with the best shops. It was a short trip but we definitely had a fantastic time!

In the gravity lounge at the Guiness storehouse.

Next time … Mom comes to visit!

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We got up early the next day and ventured out on the public transport to see the Van Gogh museum. The museum was incredible, but it did make me realize how much I appreciated his style of painting – the truth is not much. The paintings kind of started to give me a headache. Once we left there we did some more walking around. I feel like the majority of our trip was walking around looking at the architecture.  We went into some of the tourist shops, looking for typical souvenirs. That night we went on a cruise of the canals where we got to see some sights we hadn’t seen yet and hear the history behind them. The canals of Amsterdam are truly a wonder within themselves, especially at night when all of the bridges are lit  up underneath.

The next day was our final day in the city, so we got up early and were second in line at the Anne Frank House. It was amazing how they brought Anne Frank’s diary to life. Since I read the diary when I was younger I was impressed and moved with how real things seemed for an unfurnished apartment. The museum was not meant to be furnished, but they had models showing how the apartment would have been decorated. Simply being there combined with the museum itself was so moving and I recommend it to anyone traveling into the city.

Our train ride back to London was good until we stopped in Brussels, where we grabbed some dinner between trains. When we headed back to the gate, we saw that we were going to have to go through customs and security before boarding the train. We hadn’t had to do that for a train yet, so we didn’t exactly give ourselves enough time. Sprinting through the train station we ran out onto the platform to see our train hadn’t left yet, and we jumped onto the first car we saw.

Saying prayers of thanks for making the train as it began to move just a minute later, we noticed that we were in car 11 with all of our luggage, but our tickets were for car 2. At this point we didn’t care anymore and left our things on a luggage rack in that car and started the ten-minute trek down the train to our seats.

Once we arrived back in London I was so relieved. I had started to become homesick for London on the trip. My friends had warned me about this from when they had gone on trips, but this was my first one so I hadn’t experienced it yet. I think this was when I realized how much I really love this city!

Next time … family visits!

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The "I amsterdam" sign.

Hello Amsterdam! When my friends and I arrived in this beautiful city we were overwhelmed by the beauty of every single building. I am slowly learning that every city has a completely different feel and appearance, specific to itself.

We took a EuroStar train from London to Amsterdam, with just a short stop in Brussels to change trains. The EuroStar really is a fantastic way to travel, and the train station is directly in the center of Amsterdam, which was a huge plus. We simply had to walk around a huge square to get to our hotel.

When we came out of the station we knew Amsterdam was unlike any city we had ever been to. The first noticeable thing was the beauty of every single building. Each building in that square looks as if it was created as a work of art, with ornate designs along the top and domed roofs. Then the buildings on each street look as if they came off of a Hollywood set. For one, they are all built to slant forward (which we later found out is on purpose). The second thing we noticed was all of the bikes! Bikes are the first form of transportation for most of the people in Amsterdam and let me tell you, those bikes were everywhere! I had never seen so many bicycles in my entire life.

We took off around the edges of the square (a canal makes up the middle of it) and quickly learned the hard way that the trams in Amsterdam are the equivalent to public transportation busses, and they drive right down the middle of the street, or the sidewalk as was the case. Good thing they have horns on them, or my friends and I would be pancakes. When we finally made our way to our hotel we were pretty exhausted, so we settled our stuff in and found a burger restaurant that we had heard phenomenal reviews from, and ate some dinner.

We got a good night’s sleep and woke up early the next morning to do a free walking tour, which was a great way to see parts of the city and hear history that we never would have known. It’s amazing how tolerant Amsterdam is of every kind of person and for how long they have been this way. The locals joke that they are not sure if they are tolerant or if they are good businessmen who don’t want to turn away customers. Either way, Amsterdam today is home to all different types of people and they make up a culture that is incredibly unique.

That night one of my friends and I took a tour of the Red Light District. We figured you had to if you were in Amsterdam! I’m definitely glad we took the tour, as it was eye opening and we learned a lot about the economy and government in the city over time. We also learned that since the city has legalized certain practices, the rates for crime related to those practices has dropped significantly. Amsterdam is actually considered one of the safest cities in Europe.

Next time … more of Amsterdam. And we almost miss our train home.

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Well, I’m officially 21, but before you freak out, People At School, I had a test at 8:30 the morning after my birthday, so not a lot actually happened. I finally figured out what I’m doing for Spring Break, so be prepared for some EPIC pictures!

Now, as of my last blog post, I said I was going to discuss my travel plans, but I don’t want you all getting too jealous, okay? (This means you, Joey.)

First off, we have a two-week Spring Break (or Easter Break as it’s called here) and it officially starts on April 2, but a lot of us are actually leaving on March 30, when four friends and I will travel to Budapest, Hungary. From there, we have a flight to Brussels (Belgium), and we’ll take a train from there to Paris. PARIS!! I’m so excited about going to the Moulin Rouge!!

On April 3, we’ll go back to Brussels to hang there for a day or so until we head by train to Amsterdam, where we’ll wait until our flight to Rome on April 8. As of right now, details are still iffy, but we’re kind of crazy for flying into Rome on Easter Sunday. Okay, I believe crazy may be an understatement.

We’ll  be in Rome for a few days, then go to Florence before we finishing our week in Italy in Verona, on our way back to Salzburg. (Just FYI, I’m planning on going to Venice this weekend – March 24.)

I’m starting to really miss home, but I’m also becoming more comfortable using the train system. This happens when you have to travel to Munich by yourself. (But really, it’s no big deal. Two hours on a train is do-able). My birthday was really hard because I got a package from my mom that included a card that sang “In My Daughter’s Eyes” by Martina McBride, and I won’t lie when I say that I started crying hardcore. At least I was in my room, right?

But regardless, I’m SUPER excited about my break, and I can’t wait to have gelato in Italy!! (Really, I mean, YoLo, you’re good and everything, but you aren’t Italy.)

If I’ve managed to walk off quite a few pounds, I feel like I’ll put them all back on in Italy.

Here are a couple photos from recent adventures:

Krystina and friends at the opera in Vienna.

Krystina in front of the Schoenbrunn Palace.

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Students Jonathan Bell and Dustin Staves kept a journal of their activities while in Cuba. If you missed the first few posts, you can read their account from the beginning. You can also see a full photo gallery of the trip on KWC’s Flickr account.

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Day 9
Today was mostly travel to Pinar del Rio, a beautiful mountainous place. It is here you will find Cuba’s “Mt. Rushmore” – a large mural painted on the side of a mountain. The scenery was breathtaking and the water refreshing. We visited an old coffee plantation and an environmental park to replenish the natural trees and plants of Cuba.

Day 10
We returned to Havana and back to the Hotel Presidente’. Our last night in Cuba – tomorrow we leave. All evening the song by Ronnie Milsap, Lost in the Fifties Tonight, played over and over in my head. For 11 days we traveled back in time to 1958, to a country where time has appeared to stop.

Our last night, we gathered at the pool and discussed the wonders of Cuba. Our adventure was coming to a close. The night settled in and the evening passed – soon we would be back in the USA. The good old USA, where we would leave the 50’s in the past, turn on our cell phones, boot the computer and get “connected.” I wondered if that is actually a good thing.

Next time: Coming home and more photos …

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