London!!!

click for London pictures

London was awesome! It is now tie with Boston for my favorite city. I don't know what it was about it, maybe the combination of old and new, or the friendliness, or the fact that they speak English (very nice after being in a Dutch speaking country for a month), or the fact that I'm in love with big Ben. Either way, I loved it.

Our traveling experiences however, were not so great. Casey and I arrived in London at about 11pm Friday night (there was a huge difference in price if we were to travel at convenient, normal times; 30 euro vs. 250 euro approx.) Since we flew into Stansted Airport (apparently a smaller, crappier airport than the others) it took us awhile (and cost about $40 roundtrip on the train) to get into the city. By the time that we got into London the tube (subway) stopped running. Since our hostel was way out in Hendon (central London is in zone 1, hendon was in zone 4, just to give an idea), the cab ride to our hostel was going to be very expensive (about $60). So Casey and I decided to try and take a night bus as close to our hostel as we could (of course no night bus came even close to it). Even after doing that the cab was still about $40. When we finally got to our hostel it was pretty nasty. There were no locks on the doors or lockers. I kept my purse on my bed at night and my money and passport in my money belt.

the next morning Casey and I set out on an ultimate sight- seeing mission. We started off at London bridge, which wasn't what I pictured as "London bridge" but you could see what I pictured from it. What I thought was London bridge is actually called the tower bridge. From there we decided to walk around a little bit. We walked by the Monument. Which is this large monument in the middle of the city. Then we continued walking and came to the tower of London. As far as we could tell, there wasn't a tower at all, but a castle. Castles are cool though, I live in one afterall. haha. From there we saw the tower bridge (getting its name from the tower of London which it is next to, I assume)

after that we hopped on the tube to met up with my roommate Melinda (who also came to London, but by train) near Westminster abbey. We took a little detour on the way though, to see HUNGERFORD bridge!! I didn't think it was actually in London, so I was quite excited. For those that don't know me that well, my last name is hungerford. Apparently hungerford bridge is a train bridge, so I couldn't actually walk on it, but I did walk on the foot bridges next to it, which were also cool.

on our way to Westminster, I had the pleasure of seeing big Ben and the houses of parliament for the first time. I don't know what it is about that big clock, but I love it. Right next to the houses of parliament is Westminster abbey, which is also gorgeous. One thing that I definitely appreciate about Europe is that it has beautiful, beautiful cathedrals. They just aren't the same in the states. We didn't actually go into Westminster because when we were there they were having evening song, and you would have to stay for the whole thing and you couldn't walk around. So we decided to go to buckingham palace instead. buckingham palace was very nice. There are a lot of nice statues and flowers around it. After that we headed to the national gallery to meet melinda's cousin. Casey and I ended up doing a little souvenir shopping and then meeting up with lyndsay (who is studying abroad in London this semester). We went out to dinner at a reasonably priced pizza restaurant. Reasonably priced for London, but since the pound is worth double the dollar, nothing was really reasonably priced for us. After that we went to a bar and had beer out of pints.

the next day Casey and I were pretty tired but we kept on going. We got up early to see the changing of the guards at buckingham palace. We met up with lyndsay again and watched the cool guards in red with big black hats.

after that we wandered down to the national gallery (which was free!) and got to see lots of famous pieces of artwork. It was very cool. After that we went to St. Paul's cathedral. It was actually kind of disappointing because half of it was under construction. I imagine it will be much nicer when it's complete. We were pretty hungry after walking around all day so we decided to go to notting hill and try to find a place to eat. We ended up finding this really cheap (dinner for 3-6 pounds), really good Thai restaurant. Cheap and good is always a good combination.

after dinner Casey and I decided that it was time to head over to the airport, but not before saying good bye to big Ben first. When we came back inside from admiring the Clock, an announcement was made that we had to leave because of an emergency. So Casey and I had to walk to next station. It was a nice walk though. Finally we arrived at the airport, which we had to sleep in because the tube didn't run early enough for us to catch our flight at 6:50 am. Yeah, poor planning on our part, but like I said, the difference in price was why we had such bad flight times. We got to the airport around 12:30am and already it was full of people sleeping. There weren't even any seats for us to sit in, never mind sprawl out on. So, we had to sleep on the cold floors. It's alright though, it built character, I suppose. At about 4 am we started to get in line for our tickets and such. We got back to the castle at about 10 am. Giving us a few hours to sleep and shower before our class at 2:30. Needless to say, class was not very fun on Monday.

this weekend is my required trip to Paris! And next week is one of my extended travel breaks. So I start off in Paris, leave Monday night, then head to Barcelona, then Madrid, and then finally zaragoza. I am so excited!

Also, I forgot my camera this weekend, because I am a moron. So all of my pictures are from Casey's camera.

my hostel (northern European backpackers) rating: D-, it was dirty, there were no locks or lockers, the showers were nasty, but it was cheap, and you definitely get what you pay for

London rating: A+ ::sigh::

Amsterdam pictures

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Amsterdam

Sorry, I'm falling a little behind with posting. Amsterdam was pretty cool. We arrived on Friday (two Fridays ago) went on a little city tour (through the red light district, and all around), and later went to the Van Gogh museum. Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists so I was excited to get to see so many of his paintings. Plus my favorite artist, Hiroshige, had a few prints on display, which made me even more excited. After that we went to a really good (best food I've had since I've been in Holland) Indonesian restaurant. Then we were free for the night (Amsterdam is a required trip so I was traveling with the whole castle group- 80 kids). We went to a bar and a coffeeshop (no I didn't smoke) and walked around a bit. The hostel we were staying in was really nice (since the school booked it). The next day we went to the Anne Frank house. It was amazing. We got to walk through her room and see the pictures that she had hanging up in her room. It was actually kind of eerie though. The only thing was that it was really crowded so we were kind of pushed through it. We had originally planned on staying another night in a Christian hostel in the red light district (lol) but Casey and I decided to go home early and save some money and energy. It was probably for the best.

Stay Ok hostel rating: A, it was clean, it had a bathroom in the room, and the location was good

Amsterdam rating: B-, I think this is influenced by the fact that I hate traveling with a large group. And when I wasn't traveling with a group I was carrying my heavy backpack all around the city.

soon I'll post some pictures and tell about my trip to London last weekend!!

The Dutch and the Brits don't like the French or the German.

I am officially going to London sept. 24-27th !!! I am so excited. London is very high on my places to visit in Europe list. I am worried about it though, because it seems very expensive. For the hostel, plane, train, and taxi, it's already up to $150 ish. Which seems cheap by American standards, but I found a flight from Germany to London for 1 euro (plus tax which is about 35 euro, ridiculous hu). And hostels are usually under 20 euro a night. Plus the dollar is only worth half of the pound!

Last night I sat in a bar and talked to an older British man and a Dutch woman about why they didn't like the French or German. It was classic.

Places I really want to go to in Europe:
London
Ireland
Scotland
Switzerland
Germany (to see Ludwig's castles!)
Spain
Italy (it's a required trip)
Paris (it's a required trip)

Belgium

click to look at photo album


Bruges was awesome! Definitely the most beautiful city that i've been to so far. I think it was the perfect place to start off the semester.

The first day we left Well at 6:50 am. After navigating ourselves on and off four trains and getting the european train system down, we arrived in bruges at about 12 pm. It was a sight to behold. European cities are definitely much different than american cities, it seems. There weren't any sky scrapers or many modern looking buildings. Instead there were a lot of orange topped cute buildings with a few cathedrals mixed in.

At first we didn't have a map to navigate ourselves, so we sort of just wandered around. We dropped off our stuff at our first hostel. it was very futuristic looking. it was fairly clean but i felt like i was in a woman's shelter or an orphange or something. we spent most of the day shopping (they had an H&M which made my day). we had some belgium chocolate -- which were very oddly shaped. we had some belgium beer (pretty tasty, except for hoegarden, which was very sour and gross, in my opinion). on our way home we discovered that a bar was right across the street from our hostel, so we figured we'd check it out. it ended up being pretty embarrassing. first of all, it had rained when we went to change our clothes, so when we went to the bar the seats were all wet. we spent a lot of time drying off our seats, but we ended up with wet butts anyways. wherever we went people seemed to know that we were americans (even though we were pretty quiet and minded our own business) and would talk about us. we couldn't tell what they were saying but they would look over at us, then chuckle, and then say something to their friends. i look forward to when we go to spain and france because we will have an idea what they will be saying, ha ha! then casey ended up hating her beer, so she dumped it on the wet sidewalk. the french man siting near us was very sad, shook his head, and said "what a shame."

the next day we dedicated to sight seeing. we went to our lady cathedral (notre dame), a chocolate museum, and a brewery. our lady cathedral was gorgeous. i have been to the cathedral in nyc and one in montreal, but they don't even compare. it's crazy to see what effect architecture can have over you. just walking into the building made me want to cry. the music playing, the huge ceilings, the light coming in through the windows, the artwork everywhere. it was completely overwhelming. it was probably my favorite place that we went to. the chocolate museum was interesting, and now i feel like an expert on how to make chocolate. the brewey was also cool, but as soon as we got on the roof of the building, my attention was deferred to the great view.

after walking around all day we were pretty tired and didn't feel up for really going out. so we decided to go to a movie. out of the 3 or 4 movies that we could have seen, we probably picked the worst one. first of all, the others were in english. the movie we saw (it was called 5x2) was in french with dutch subtitles. we thought it would be ok to see a movie in french, especially since casey could speak some french, but we were wrong. it really sucks to see a movie that you don't understand. also the movie itself was disturbing. it's the kind of movie that makes you give up faith on love.

our second hostel was cool. the walls were all brightly painted and the atmosphere was very college - like. it seemed that a lot of people staying there were american too, which was a relief, because i'm sick (already i know) of getting crap for being american (twice this weekend), but i was homesick too.

on sunday we took a guided boat tour along the canals. it was the perfect ending to our weekend, and only 5 euros :).

hostel 1 (europa)- i rate it a B - it was clean but had a weird vibe
hostel 2 (snuffel sleep in) - i rate it a B+ - it wasn't very clean, and there weren't locks on the door, but they had big lockers, and the atmosphere was very cool
Bruges: i rate it an A. it was an awesome city, the buildings were beautiful, there was plenty to do, the food was good, the people were nice.

Pictures!

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

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Originally uploaded by preecoford.

this is all that i am going to post now, i need to catch up on my sleep and pack for belgium tomorrow. but you can look at more pictures by clicking on any of the pictures and then clicking on "preecoford's photostream" from there.

Introduction

First I'd just like to say why I'm here. I'm studying abroad for a semester in the Netherlands. My school owns a 17th c. castle here and each semester about 80 kids come over and study with the intentions of traveling around Europe every weekend (or until they run out of money) and on two week long travel breaks (one to Paris one to Florence). The castle operates similarly to the Boston campus, in that classes are similar (obviously there are less of them and they tend to be more European focused), there are dorms, and a dining hall. Basically it's a small European version of Emerson, but with a pub in the dorm (lol), and the dorm is much much cooler.

The castle is located in a small village called Well. It is very quaint and cute. I have never been to a place like it. Everyone seems very happy and friendly. People are constantly out riding their bikes and people say "hi" to you everywhere you go (being a New England native, this is quite a change). It is against the law here not to recycle. Everywhere you go they are environmentally- conscious and very resourceful. A few things that I need to get used to are the fact that they eat chocolate sprinkles on sliced bread (yuck) and they food is pretty different from the food in America. Since I am a picky eater this is going to be difficult. I think it will all work out for the best though.

I'll have more pictures hopefully up soon. I'm going to Belgium (Brauges, it's about 3 hours from here) this weekend. I'm really excited to travel. The weekend after that I'm going on a required trip to Amsterdam (no, I'm not going to smoke, sorry), and the weekend after that I'm planning on going to London. I'm really really excited about flying to London. And the crazy thing is how cheap it is. The actual flight is 1.50 euro, which is about $1.65 (or something like that) in America. It really blows my mind. With tax, however, is going to make it end up being about 40 euro. Still, ridiculously cheap.

I rented a bike for the semester. It has a bell and a headlight. I haven't taken it out yet, but I'm pretty excited about it.

I think this is it for now.

Kasteel Well, The Netherlands

Kasteel Well, The Netherlands

This is my new home for the next 3 1/2 months! I love living in a castle in the Netherlands!