I don't really like blogger so much anymore, so I'm moving to tumblr.
sometimesIgoplaces.tumblr.com
See you there!
sometimesIgoplaces.tumblr.com
See you there!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Czech yourself.
So here I am, more than one month later, FINALLY getting around to blogging about my backpacking trip. Luckily I journaled throughout the trip, so I do have a fairly accurate depiction of my thoughts/feelings as they were.
So the morning on my flight to Prague, it was absurdly hot. I mean, wake up covered in sweat hot. So I thought to myself "Its summer. Its going to be this hot the entire trip. I'm not bringing a single pair of pants along". I took my one pair of jeans out of my bag and smiled at my extra room I now had, knowing that it would be able to hold something I bought along the way. Guido picked me up in his car and drove me to Treviso, singing along to Nicki Minaj and other absurd things (If you've never heard and Italian guy rap Nicki Minaj, it actually gives reason to listen to her). The line at the airport was super long and I cleared through check in with about two minutes to spare, and I raced downstairs and managed to be one of the last people on my flight.
We got to Prague just over an hour later, and of course it was raining and freezing. Immediate regret of not bringing pants. Jake, my friend from elementary school who currently teaches English in Prague, met me at the airport and we headed toward his house. I met Kevin, his friend from college who would be joining us on our epic adventure. We chilled out for about an hour before heading back into town. The first day was pretty relaxed, we saw a bit around the Old Town and Church (called Malostenska) and enjoyed the architecture and met up with one of Jakes friends. He went to look at an apartment and Kevin and I went to a supermarket to buy some dinner. We bought bread, cheese, meat, random spreads, and some dessert and had a little picnic by one of the canals. We went to the train station to get our tickets to Krakow but found out they were way more expensive than we thought they would be (about $50) so decided to look at a different place tomorrow. After dinner we decided to head back to Jakes because we were all pretty tired, so we watched Eurotrip and went to bed
The next day we woke up pretty early and got some traditional Czech pastries for breakfast, which cost around 1 euro (or roughly 25 czech crowns) We headed again toward old town and found an outdoor market where I got some more breakfast because there was a waffle stand and waffles are awesome. We spent pretty much the entire day walking, seeing Old Town Square, the Lennon wall, the locks, and The Charles Bridge. We met up with Jakes other room mate Dan and went to a botanical garden which had a bird Jake fell in love with. We went to this hill that overlooks Prague with more of Jakes friends and smoked and had a really lovely picnic overlooking an awesome sunset. I also played with quite possibly the most adorable dog that has ever lived. We went to a bus station and tickets to Krakow were still really expensive ($35) so we went home to research cheaper ways to get there and found a few good solutions we planned on exploring the next day.
The next day we went to Kutna Hora, a city about an hour outside of Prague. While we were at the station we found a way to get to Wroclaw, Poland for only about $12, so we bought those bus tickets and decided we'd catch a train to Krakow from there. On the way to Kutna Hora, we fucked up our trains like 4 times so it took us a few hours to get there. When we got there, we went and looked at The Bone Church, which is named that because its interior is made entirely of human bones. It was pretty awesome but also really strange to think that I was basically standing in a glorified grave. Upstairs there was a guestbook where someone had signed it "This Place Cray- Kanye and Jay Z" which made me laugh a lot (and still does). We headed back to Prague after a quick stop of ice cream and had dinner with Jakes friend Eloise and watched "Anchorman" because she had never seen it before. We had some vodka and decided to go to some clubs. We started at Cross Club, which was this really strange industrialized hippie/dub step place that was set up like the worlds most absurd maze. I got lost roughly a dozen times. We stayed for a while because we had paid to get in, but it was definitely not my style of a place to be. We moved on to a regular dance club that had way less people so was way more fun. I spent the night laughing at Jake breakdancing and breakdance fighting with strangers, dancing hysterically with Dan, and trying to not bump into the many couples furiously making out on the dance floor. We left when the bar closed which was when the sun was coming up and started making our way home. While we were waiting for our tram, Dan and I kept dancing to songs that he was making up as he went, like "down the rooooooad theres a McDonalds, I wonder if theres anyone at the McDonaldsssss" and I could not stop laughing because this went on for nearly a half an hour. I still think its funny. Then we got back to Jakes, grabbed our shit, said goodbye to Dan and tried to convince him to meet us in Brussels, and hopped on our bus to Wroclaw!
So the morning on my flight to Prague, it was absurdly hot. I mean, wake up covered in sweat hot. So I thought to myself "Its summer. Its going to be this hot the entire trip. I'm not bringing a single pair of pants along". I took my one pair of jeans out of my bag and smiled at my extra room I now had, knowing that it would be able to hold something I bought along the way. Guido picked me up in his car and drove me to Treviso, singing along to Nicki Minaj and other absurd things (If you've never heard and Italian guy rap Nicki Minaj, it actually gives reason to listen to her). The line at the airport was super long and I cleared through check in with about two minutes to spare, and I raced downstairs and managed to be one of the last people on my flight.
We got to Prague just over an hour later, and of course it was raining and freezing. Immediate regret of not bringing pants. Jake, my friend from elementary school who currently teaches English in Prague, met me at the airport and we headed toward his house. I met Kevin, his friend from college who would be joining us on our epic adventure. We chilled out for about an hour before heading back into town. The first day was pretty relaxed, we saw a bit around the Old Town and Church (called Malostenska) and enjoyed the architecture and met up with one of Jakes friends. He went to look at an apartment and Kevin and I went to a supermarket to buy some dinner. We bought bread, cheese, meat, random spreads, and some dessert and had a little picnic by one of the canals. We went to the train station to get our tickets to Krakow but found out they were way more expensive than we thought they would be (about $50) so decided to look at a different place tomorrow. After dinner we decided to head back to Jakes because we were all pretty tired, so we watched Eurotrip and went to bed
The next day we woke up pretty early and got some traditional Czech pastries for breakfast, which cost around 1 euro (or roughly 25 czech crowns) We headed again toward old town and found an outdoor market where I got some more breakfast because there was a waffle stand and waffles are awesome. We spent pretty much the entire day walking, seeing Old Town Square, the Lennon wall, the locks, and The Charles Bridge. We met up with Jakes other room mate Dan and went to a botanical garden which had a bird Jake fell in love with. We went to this hill that overlooks Prague with more of Jakes friends and smoked and had a really lovely picnic overlooking an awesome sunset. I also played with quite possibly the most adorable dog that has ever lived. We went to a bus station and tickets to Krakow were still really expensive ($35) so we went home to research cheaper ways to get there and found a few good solutions we planned on exploring the next day.
The next day we went to Kutna Hora, a city about an hour outside of Prague. While we were at the station we found a way to get to Wroclaw, Poland for only about $12, so we bought those bus tickets and decided we'd catch a train to Krakow from there. On the way to Kutna Hora, we fucked up our trains like 4 times so it took us a few hours to get there. When we got there, we went and looked at The Bone Church, which is named that because its interior is made entirely of human bones. It was pretty awesome but also really strange to think that I was basically standing in a glorified grave. Upstairs there was a guestbook where someone had signed it "This Place Cray- Kanye and Jay Z" which made me laugh a lot (and still does). We headed back to Prague after a quick stop of ice cream and had dinner with Jakes friend Eloise and watched "Anchorman" because she had never seen it before. We had some vodka and decided to go to some clubs. We started at Cross Club, which was this really strange industrialized hippie/dub step place that was set up like the worlds most absurd maze. I got lost roughly a dozen times. We stayed for a while because we had paid to get in, but it was definitely not my style of a place to be. We moved on to a regular dance club that had way less people so was way more fun. I spent the night laughing at Jake breakdancing and breakdance fighting with strangers, dancing hysterically with Dan, and trying to not bump into the many couples furiously making out on the dance floor. We left when the bar closed which was when the sun was coming up and started making our way home. While we were waiting for our tram, Dan and I kept dancing to songs that he was making up as he went, like "down the rooooooad theres a McDonalds, I wonder if theres anyone at the McDonaldsssss" and I could not stop laughing because this went on for nearly a half an hour. I still think its funny. Then we got back to Jakes, grabbed our shit, said goodbye to Dan and tried to convince him to meet us in Brussels, and hopped on our bus to Wroclaw!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Win a cruise on the MV Explorer!
This details for this AMAZING giveaway can be found here, and it looks really amazing, and I hope I win :).
In other news, I'll start updating about the big euro trip tomorrow, I've been getting life back in order here in Italy, but tomorrow should be ok to do some writing!
In other news, I'll start updating about the big euro trip tomorrow, I've been getting life back in order here in Italy, but tomorrow should be ok to do some writing!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Playing catch up
Just got back from a month long adventure in a few different countries. I've got to sort out how I plan on writing about them and what to say. Or if I even want to do it because I'm fairly certain no one reads this.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Disney is way cooler when you're 21.
So I know I've been to Disney before, but I'm pretty sure the last time I was there I hadn't quite hit puberty yet. I don't remember especially liking it, it was a family trip to Orlando, and I was way more jazzed about going to Islands of Adventure and going on the roller coasters. In fact, when I hear about people my age going out of their way to go to Disney, I kind of judge them a little bit. My friend Loraine, however, had two free tickets to go to Disney Paris, and invited me along. Considering I rarely say no to free things, we made plans to go together on Sunday!
We got to the park and it took me all of 30 seconds to ditch my "big girl" attitude and get really, embarrassingly excited. We got in around 12:30 and made a game plan for the day: First go to Disney Studios park, then over to Disneyland park (I could very easily have the names totally and completely wrong here) Loraine is a bit of a Disney expert, having grown up right near the park in LA, so we checked out the wait times for the rides, got a "fast pass" for the one with the longest wait (Aerosmiths Rock n roller coaster), then jumped in line for Tower of Terror.
I won't give a minute-by-minute breakdown of the day, but we got really lucky the whole time. We somehow managed to wait a maximum of about 40 minutes for a ride, and during that wait we talked to this adorable German girl who was celebrating her 9th birthday (oh and she spoke three languages... way to make us feel inadequate) Also there was the Stunt Show, for which they asked us to make some noise, and the loudest person/people were going to get to come down and drive a stunt car. Big surprise when the two loudest people in a crowd of EASILY 1,000 people was the two American girls, right? So we went down and they tricked me into thinking I was driving a car with a remote control (they had another driver hiding on the side of the car)
As the night got late and the final firework show was about to being, we rushed toward the front of the castle and waited only a few minutes in the rain. The show lasted about half an hour and was (and I hate to be this cliche) magical. It was such an amazing display that brought back a lot of fond memories of my childhood, as well as a lot of critical thinking from my adult life about Disney as a corporation. It was a weird feeling I had throughout the day of the juxtaposition of the way Disney played such a vital role in my childhood, and it has such fairy-tale qualities behind it... and knowing that the people who work for Disney as princes or princesses are expendable humans who are under some of the most strenuous contracts in the world.
All in all, it was a really awesome day with easily my favorite person I've met thus far in Paris.
We got to the park and it took me all of 30 seconds to ditch my "big girl" attitude and get really, embarrassingly excited. We got in around 12:30 and made a game plan for the day: First go to Disney Studios park, then over to Disneyland park (I could very easily have the names totally and completely wrong here) Loraine is a bit of a Disney expert, having grown up right near the park in LA, so we checked out the wait times for the rides, got a "fast pass" for the one with the longest wait (Aerosmiths Rock n roller coaster), then jumped in line for Tower of Terror.
I won't give a minute-by-minute breakdown of the day, but we got really lucky the whole time. We somehow managed to wait a maximum of about 40 minutes for a ride, and during that wait we talked to this adorable German girl who was celebrating her 9th birthday (oh and she spoke three languages... way to make us feel inadequate) Also there was the Stunt Show, for which they asked us to make some noise, and the loudest person/people were going to get to come down and drive a stunt car. Big surprise when the two loudest people in a crowd of EASILY 1,000 people was the two American girls, right? So we went down and they tricked me into thinking I was driving a car with a remote control (they had another driver hiding on the side of the car)
As the night got late and the final firework show was about to being, we rushed toward the front of the castle and waited only a few minutes in the rain. The show lasted about half an hour and was (and I hate to be this cliche) magical. It was such an amazing display that brought back a lot of fond memories of my childhood, as well as a lot of critical thinking from my adult life about Disney as a corporation. It was a weird feeling I had throughout the day of the juxtaposition of the way Disney played such a vital role in my childhood, and it has such fairy-tale qualities behind it... and knowing that the people who work for Disney as princes or princesses are expendable humans who are under some of the most strenuous contracts in the world.
All in all, it was a really awesome day with easily my favorite person I've met thus far in Paris.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
half and half
As of today, I've been in Paris just over one month, and I've got just under one month left. I'm planning the next few trips I've got lined up, although I'm doing them in a rather silly order. I've got all of my focus and attention going toward my January 2013 flight to Australia, and I haven't really booked anything for my eastern-European adventure I'm doing one month from now. I guess logic isn't really one of those things I like to use when I travel. Some things are very go-with-the-flow.
One such adventure happened after I met Loraine, a Los Angeles native who is here studying at the American School in Paris. We met while we were sitting next to each other at the play "How to Be Parisian in one hour" and we hung out the next day. She invited me to this club called "Mix", where foreigners enter free before midnight. So we went, threw on American flag stickers, and danced. We also met three Canadian gentlemen and talked to them a bit at the start of the night, then found our way back to them at the end of the night. For me the best part was convincing the DJ to play Bohemian Rhapsody and sharing an epic moment with dozens of strangers singing the power ballad. Around 4 AM, we decided we wanted to leave, so we headed to Loraines apartment with the Canadians. We spent the remainder of the night singing showtunes and talking about clouds. We then walked to the eiffel tower to watch the sunrise, and said our goodbyes around 7:30 AM.
Another go-with-the-flow thing about Paris is the goddamn weather. It's currently 1 PM, and since waking up around 11 this morning, it was sunny, cloudy, a bit rainy, sunny, torrential sideway downpour, cloudy, and it's now sunny again. Getting dressed for a day out is one of the most frustrating things to do, because the weather is almost never the same for more than 30 minutes or so.
I'm going to take a nap now because I've got the flu and my head feels like a balloon.
One such adventure happened after I met Loraine, a Los Angeles native who is here studying at the American School in Paris. We met while we were sitting next to each other at the play "How to Be Parisian in one hour" and we hung out the next day. She invited me to this club called "Mix", where foreigners enter free before midnight. So we went, threw on American flag stickers, and danced. We also met three Canadian gentlemen and talked to them a bit at the start of the night, then found our way back to them at the end of the night. For me the best part was convincing the DJ to play Bohemian Rhapsody and sharing an epic moment with dozens of strangers singing the power ballad. Around 4 AM, we decided we wanted to leave, so we headed to Loraines apartment with the Canadians. We spent the remainder of the night singing showtunes and talking about clouds. We then walked to the eiffel tower to watch the sunrise, and said our goodbyes around 7:30 AM.
Another go-with-the-flow thing about Paris is the goddamn weather. It's currently 1 PM, and since waking up around 11 this morning, it was sunny, cloudy, a bit rainy, sunny, torrential sideway downpour, cloudy, and it's now sunny again. Getting dressed for a day out is one of the most frustrating things to do, because the weather is almost never the same for more than 30 minutes or so.
I'm going to take a nap now because I've got the flu and my head feels like a balloon.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The first Nikki in Paris
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