Kraków

Tuesday night I left for my last trip of the semester, I went to Kraków Poland. This is definitely an underrated city. I have never heard much about it, but while being there I loved it, it was one of my favourite trips. We arrived Tuesday night to our hostel, which was in a pretty great location. That night me and Rachel just hung out and went to bed because we knew the next two days would be exhausting. Wednesday we got up and explored a bit of the city, but stayed close to the hostel because we were going on an Auschwitz tour later that day. We found the cloth hall while exploring, which came to be one of our favourite places. It was hall filled with booths where people sold handmade goods and it was all pretty cheap when converted to US dollars.

The main square of Kraków

Inside the Cloth Hall

After this we went back to the hostel to be picked up for our Auschwitz tour. We drove an hour and a half before arriving. We arrived and first had a guided tour of Auschwitz 1. We went into multiple buildings to see the living conditions, starvation chambers, cases full of belongings taken from the victims, and various other things. At the end of the tour of Auschwitz 1 we walked through a gas chamber. After this part of the tour we went to Auschwitz 2 Birkenau. I never realized how big this part of the camp was. While here we saw the living conditions, a wash room, the ruins of the biggest gas chamber, and the platform where the victims got off the train and were told where to go. The tour was very interesting, I learned a lot of things about the concentration camps. It was definitely an eye opening tour and really put the horror of this event into perspective.

Entrance into Auschwitz 1

Ruins of the largest gas chamber

After the tour we went back to the hostel ate dinner and then went out to get dessert. The next day we decided to do a walking tour of the city which was a great idea until it started raining and getting cold. We wanted to do another tour after this one but it was still raining so we did a golf cart tour which was just as good except you couldn't get as good of pictures because there was a covering over the cart to keep the rain out. After the tour we walked around a bit more and then headed back to the hostel to get our things before heading to the airport. The flight was great but once we landed I had the worse experience of my life getting back to school, but I finally made it. 

Part of the city wall in Kraków

Head statue

View of Kraków

The nastiest water I have ever drank

Part of the Ghetto wall

So beautiful after the rain

The best Pierogi place

Tea & Bikes

Can't believe I only have three weeks left, my time here is going so quickly. This week I just did some things around London. Tuesday I went to Sarah's for the night and then came back to school on Wednesday. I had my last hand in for history on Wednesday, so now I just have one essay to turn in on May 13, only three days before Brooke comes!!! I also found out that mom is coming on the 19th and we are on the same flight to Florida on the 24th!!!! I have also booked quite a few things these last few days. I am going to tea and Wicked on Monday with Rachel, and then on Wednesday I am doing a Warner Brothers tour of Harry Potter. Then next week I am going to Poland for three days.
So one night after dinner we decided to go get ice cream and hang out at the park for a while.

Caitlynn, Sam, Me, Haley, and Emily

Me, Emily, and Cait decided to go into central and rent bikes to bike around hyde park. We biked for quite a while and by the end decided that we were all out of shape. It was also annoying to bike because there are only certain paths that bikes are allowed on. But I got some great pics using the selfie stick!!

Just our favourite hand signs

Taking a dive into the flower

Bikers Club

Loving London

So we could never actually get a picture where we were all looking

Until Cait was in the front

Waiting for the royal princess to be born

We also booked afternoon tea for Saturday. So Me, Cait, Emily, Deanna, Laura, and one of Laura's friends went into the city for afternoon tea. We had chocolate martinis, sandwiches, tea, scones, and a variety of other treats.

Me & Cait

This week I am going to Wicked, Harry Potter studios, and have an essay to write so it will be quite busy. Only 13 more days until Brooke is here and 16 until mom. I can't wait for them to both get here to show them everything!!!

Berlin

This last week was very eventful. Dad was in Berlin for work and I decided it would be a good idea to buy a last minute ticket to see him. So Saturday night I bought a flight to see him from Sunday until Tuesday. I left early Sunday morning and arrived around noon in Berlin. I was going to get a taxi to the hotel we were staying at, but he surprised me and picked me up. It was so great to see him again! We went to the hotel checked in and then I had to finish up an essay that was due Tuesday morning and email it to a friend to print off for me and hand in. Once that was done we walked around the city, ate a late lunch and then explored some more. We did a lot of walking that night and then headed back to the hotel. We were trying to decide what kind of tour to do to be able to see some of the city. I had found a bus tour and a segway tour, we went with the segway tour.

Here are some pictures from the first night of exploring.

There were a lot of boats on the river

The TV Tower

We woke up early the next morning had breakfast at the hotel and then headed for our segway tour. We had a three hour guided tour of the city. When we got there we had a mini class on how to ride the segways. At first it was a hard to figure out, but once I got the hang of it, it was a blast. During the tour we got to see parts of the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitlers Bunker, the last of Hitlers watchtowers, a Holocaust Memorial, and many other things. There is so much history in Berlin, I learned quite a few things from the tour. By the end of the tour no one wanted to get off the segways, we were having too much fun! After giving them back we went for lunch and then did a bit more walking around the city. We bought a few things and then sat by the river for a bit before heading back to the hotel. We hung out at the hotel for a bit and then went for dinner and walked around for a while because the next morning we were already leaving. 

 Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to all the burned books

 Me & Dad on the Segways

There are many building in Berlin that are built around parts of the wall that still stand. 

Hitlers last watchtower

The hotel that Michael Jackson held his son out the balcony

Me & Dad in front of the Brandenburg gate

Look for us in Mall Cops 3

Throughout the city where the wall used to stand, there are memorial plaques like this one

Memorial to the murdered Jews of the Holocaust.

Berlin Wall

Checkpoint Charlie

Part of the wall

More of the wall

On the outside of many of the buildings you can see bullet holes from the war

We had to get up really early the next morning because we both had early flights. It was so nice to see my dad again! I can't wait to see him in May when I go home! Once I got back to school I had to make sure my paper got turned in and then I had to continue with more work. This is my last week of work here and I am planning a trip to Poland in mid-May right before Brooke comes!!

Budapest

I have had this last week off from classes and don’t have to start again until the 13^th. Last weekend I stayed at school and hung out with some of the other Americans, Saturday night we went to a food festival. It was pretty cool and had a wide variety of food to try.

 Monday afternoon I left for Sarah’s and on Tuesday morning we flew to Budapest. I was in Budapest from Tuesday until Saturday night. Tuesday when we arrived, we got a shuttle to our hostel unpacked some stuff, and just did a little wandering around until eating dinner. Wednesday was our first full day in the city. We had a list of things we wanted to see while there and luckily got to see everything. First we headed to St. Stephens Basilica. Just like any other church, the interior design was amazing. There is just so much detail put into the work. After that we headed to Chain Bridge, which was the first bridge ever built connecting the Buda side and Pest side. We then walked down to the parliament buildings and took a look at them. After this we were hungry for some lunch so we got a baguette and some meat and cheese and made sandwiches. Then we headed back towards the hostel.

First view of Budapest

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St. Stephens Basilica 

Inside St. Stephens

Inside St. Stephens

 

Me & St. Stephens

Shoes Holocaust memorial on the river

Chain Bridge

Parliament Building

Thursday was full of relaxing. We headed for Széchenyi Bath, which is one of the more known ones in Budapest. We paid an entry fee for access to multiple pools, a relaxation room, saunas, and a 30 minute massage. We first sat in the outside pools for a bit, it was nice except when you got out because the wind was pretty cold. We sat in some inside pools for a little while until heading for our massages. The only thing wrong with these pools was that it smelled so bad. The massages were good as well. After that we sat in the saunas for a bit, washed off, changed, and headed back to the hostel.

The Bath

The Bath

 Friday we walked the most out of the whole trip. My fit bit recorded about 14 miles. We started by hiking up Gellért Hill. The view we saw from the top was amazing; you could see everything, we could see all the way across the city to where the bath was the previous day. We explored a bit around the top of the hill and then started the hike down. Once we got down we headed towards Central Market. After walking around the market we made a sandwich on a bench again and then walked down Vaci St. This street is one of the main touristy streets in the city. We found a small festival with a lot of street food and some live music and hung out here for a bit. After we walked back down towards parliament, just trying to waste time because I wanted to see everything lit up at night. As we got to parliament the flag was being lowered so we got to watch that happen which was pretty cool, and then we just sort of wandered until it was darker and chain bridge was lit up. It was pretty cool seeing everything at night. Then we decided it would be cool to see Vaci St at night so we went back and walked around again. After that we headed back to the hostel and packed our things to leave the next day.

Gellért Hill

Starting the clmb

Finally to the top

The view was amazing

Yolo. Swag.

Vaci St.

Princess statue and royal palace at night

Chain Bridge at night

Saturday was the last day in Budapest. We first went to House of Terror, which is a museum about World War 2, but it wasn’t that great. After spending a few hours here we headed back to the park the bath was in. We sat by a pond for a while and then wandered around this festival that was going on. It was just like the one from the night before, but way bigger. We wandered around a bit and then walked around the park a while before returning back to the festival to eat. We ate and watched people that were dancing and singing. We then headed back to the hostel to get our bags before the shuttle came back to pick us up to take us back to the airport. We arrived at the airport way to early and then our flight was delayed. Once we finally got back to London, I had to wait two hours to get through customs, but we finally got back to Sarah’s around 3 in the morning.

House of Terror

Street Food

More street food

See you later Budapest.

            In all Budapest was amazing, it was a pretty cool city with quite a lot to see. The only thing that was difficult was the currency and language barrier, but I would definitely recommend visiting here. Since getting back I have just been at Sarah’s and we leave tomorrow night for Dublin to visit Annie!

Some street art we found