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01-27-15 - 01-30-15 Wales We headed out for Cardiff, the capital of Wales, the night after mom arrived and spent 3 lovely nights at the Royal Hotel. We spent most of our days walking around Cardiff. One day we took the water bus to Cardiff bay, which was like an upscale beach town. On Thursday we went to the Plaza Hotel for a spa day, because the weather wasn't great...and well we deserved it. That night we went to a small concert at a local cafe. It was a nice way to start off our travels together, because it was a much smaller town then London. Friday morning we headed back to London.

01-26-15 She has arrived! Let the adventures begin.

01-17-15 Happy birthday GRANDMA!! You taught me how to knit, enjoy the outdoors, and my love for the color purple. I hope you are having a wonderful birthday week with my parents. I’m so jealous of all the great things you guys are doing. I miss you so very much and can’t wait to see you soon. Enjoy your day. Love you!

Back in London Town. I can’t believe that my month of traveling has come to an end. It feels like yesterday that I was skyping with my mom on a regular basis to try and get everything planned. Frustrations arose and my Eurail failed to make it easy, but we did it and now it is over. Wow. I have grown in the last month more then I have in a while and in a way I’m not sure I ever have before. Mostly I think I have grown inside myself. It took a lot of inner strength, but I wouldn’t change anything about it. I had days where I broke down and didn’t think I could do it anymore and I just wanted a plane ticket home, but I forced myself to push through. Whenever I felt down I had to tell myself that this is a once in a life time chance that not everyone gets and I need to make it worth it. That brings me to thanks. I want to thank everyone that helped me do this. From your love, donations, thoughts and prayers. It might sound cheesy, but it’s true. Without you guys I wouldn’t have been able to do this and without you guys constantly on my mind there is no way I would have made it through. Now the packing and organization begins. This is just going to be 10 slow days that I so need. I will be going to my school one day to volunteer with organizing the library and getting it ready for the next group of kids. I will also be going see one of my favorite bands, alt-j, thanks to my Mom. Then before I know it my Mama will be crossing the pond to come play with me in Wales and London. I’m so excited to end my trip with my número uno.

Eiffel Tower at 10:00pm last night

01-07-15 - 01-13-15

France (Lyon & Paris)

My first stop in France was Lyon. I decided not to have a blog post just for Lyon because honestly I didn’t do much sightseeing there. I was there for 2 full days and I spent most of them just wandering around downtown and near my hotel. The one thing that was so weird is in a lot of places you have to take underground tunnels to get to the other side of the street. Especially from where my hotel was located because there was a major highway right outside. My hotel was right next to the famous Brasserie George. One night I went there for dinner and enjoyed a glass of wine, salad and French onion soup…well they just call it onion soup. It was all delicious, but the soup was a little too winey tasting for me. I like French onion salty vs sweet. That’s why I make mine with beer instead of wine :-). I was fine not doing any major things in Lyon because it allowed me to have the energy for Paris…which I needed. I arrived in Paris mid afternoon on the 10th and really never stopped moving. I decided to stay in an airbnb here. If you aren’t familiar it is a company that allows people to rent their whole homes, private rooms, or living spaces to people. I rented a private room from an older couple. They were both so sweet and very willing to help even though their English was minimal. I was asked a few times to speak slower so she could try to understand the words better. Oops. Their flat was in the best location and frankly a steal for being a 5 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower. I spent all of my days walking to everything I wanted to see. It was a great way for me to really get to know the city and be able to figure out where everything was. That’s the thing with the underground or metro system though it’s great it really doesn’t allow me to understand where I am. When I walk I can picture it all on a map. I would guess that basically everything was within a 3-4 mile radius so it worked great, but my legs were tired at the end of everyday. I decided not to go to any museums, but I of course saw the Louvre from the outside. It was such a historic time to be in Paris. There were guards and police everywhere and I really did, even with the recent events, feel safe. The last night I booked a night bus tour, which was a great way to safely get around to see the city of lights. It was all so beautiful and I didn’t realize that for the first 5 minute of every hour the Eiffel Tower twinkles! I can’t believe I am heading back to London already. I will post a “reflection blog” once I am back to London and settled back in.

01-11-15 Happy Birthday Stevie! Hope you have a wonderful day and may the Beavs pull out a miracle. Ps I heard through the grapevine that Nickelback is bringing a jug of Carlo Rossi with your name on it :-)

01-02-15 - 01-07-15 Switzerland What a wonderful way to start off the new year in such a b e a u ti ful place. I loved being able to see where my Frey ancestors come from and I understand why they lived here! To get to Switzerland from Prague was not the easiest of tasks. It was either make 4-6 connections (that weren’t all in the same stations or weren’t even all trains. Some were buses) or pay extra and take a night train to Zurich and catch a train to Lucerne. I decided on the night train, which was definitely the better decision, though it had its own bumps. They advertise it as “wake up feeling refreshed” and “don’t waste a day traveling, take a night train” Yeah…no. You wake up feeling like I need the nearest bed and I need it now. I don’t think it helped that on the train I was hit with a hard cold. So when I finally arrived to my hotel after 16+ hours of traveling I just wanted to sleep. Nonetheless it worked out and I would do it the same way again. The next two days I spent exploring the town of Lucerne. It’s full of little shops, restaurants, and wonderful views. I was warned before going to Switzerland that it is expensive, but I did not expect that! A “cheaper” restaurants was about 20 franks, which is pretty much equivalent to a U.S. dollar, for one small dish. So being me I found a cheap take away place and a grocery store to get all my meals from. I was also provided breakfast every morning at my hotel. On my third day I decided to do the trip to the top of Mount Rigi. This starts by taking a boat from Lucerne to Vitznau, just over an hour, you then catch a tram to the top, about 30 minutes. The views an unexplainable. They were so breath taking and it just looked like the mountains went on forever. I decided to go a different way down so I took the tram about a third of the way down and then caught the cable car to Weggis. I sat at a cafe on the water and waited for about an hour or so to catch my boat back to Lucerne. The next day I took a scenic train ride from Lucerne to Montreux. I caught it at 1 so toward the end of my 5 hour journey I got to watch the sunset behind the mountains. I wish I had a photo for you guys, but the reflection on the glass made it difficult. On my last scenic train, because it’s a three train route, I got to ride in first class and it was an old train so it was gorgeous on the inside (it’s the last photo). Switzerland treated me well. The weather was impeccable and so were the views. Now I’m off to Lyon and Paris! Can’t believe I only have 2 more stops.

01-01-15 The fireworks from shooter island. It was such a cool experience. Fireworks are just constantly going off everywhere in the city. At midnight the whole sky is covered in them. I hear that tonight is the same thing...though I won't be here to experience it again.

12-23-14 - 01-01-15

Prague

My stay in Prague has been long, but so eventful. I stayed in a hostel the whole time so it was a great way to meet people. The hostel was very nice and clean, which made staying in one for so long easy. Since I got here right before Christmas everything was pretty and ready for the holiday season. In Czech they celebrate Christmas on our Christmas Eve so on that night I had a traditional Czech Christmas dinner at the hostel and then went out with a large group to a couple underground pubs. It was very fun to check them out, but a huge bummer is that people can smoke inside here so I came home smelling disgusting and having to air all my clothes out. The next few days was filled with sight seeing including the Prague Castle, some cathedrals, and hiking a large hill to over look all of Prague. The hostel was very good about hosting events every night so one night a girl in my room and I went to a Czech beer tasting and got to try 10 Czech beers and they were all delicious. I took a day trip with a couple girls in my room to Kutna Hora. There they have a chapel that is decorated in human bones. They don’t have an exact number, but they assume it is anywhere from 40,000-60,000 people’s remains. On the tour we met a brother and sister traveling together from Australia. The last picture is of them and two girls from my room on a pub crawl. For my last night, New Year’s Eve, the hostel hosted a dinner and drinks and then guided us to shooter island to watch the fireworks. Off to my night train to Switzerland.

12-25-14 Though I wasn't with my family yesterday technology allowed me to feel like I was there for a few of the presents. :-)

12-25-14 MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR I want to wish everyone a loving and safe holiday season. There is nothing I want more than to be spending these days with my family and friends, but if I can make it through the holiday season on my own I’m pretty sure I can do anything. Missing you all a little more today. Hugs and kisses from Prague.

Photo courtesy of my mama.

12-20-14 - 12-23-14 Berlin Wow. That’s all I can say. I have to be honest…going into Berlin I wasn’t that excited. I’m not exactly sure why…maybe because I’m not a huge history person, but I can leave saying that I’m so happy I went. I got in around 5:30 pm on Saturday so my only goal for that day was to get to the hostel and find my bed after a 6.5 hour train ride. On Sunday I, by the help of my mom, signed up for a FREE walking tour. Yes you read that right free. It was wonderful. The tour was just under 4 hours with a 30 minute break so it was my main activity of the day. We hit everything I wanted to see and more. The tour guide was great, because he wasn’t just talking at you and throwing dates out there that you weren’t going to remember. The main things we saw were parts of the Berlin Wall and the Holocaust Memorial. Fun fact the last photo of the hotel is the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his baby over the balcony. The photo of my feet is me having one foot on the east and one on the west of Berlin! The food is the wonderful spread my hostel had out every morning that was included in my stay. It’s so nice to have a place to stay that provides breakfast. Makes my mornings go so much smoother. Now off to Prague.

12-14-14 - 12-20-14 Amsterdam! My first stop is coming to a close and I'm getting ready to head to Berlin. I took the ferry from London on the 13th over to Holland where I caught a train to Amsterdam. I did this with Leigh, who is the blond in one of the photos. We traveled together for 2 days and then she was off on her own travels and heading home to San Diego on Christmas Eve. It was nice to experience the first city with someone, even if it was just for two days, because it helped with the nervousness and allowed me to be more relaxed about the whole thing. Once she left I had sometime to reflect on it all and get excited for my travels. Amsterdam is a beautiful place and the weather really did work with me. For the most part it didn't rain and I was able to stay dry, which is amazing for this time of the year. I stayed in two different places. The first place was a hostel in the city. It was fun to experience the city, but it is definitely a party city (everyday of the week), which I'm not interested in while traveling by myself. The last 4 nights I stayed in a hotel just a 10 minute tram ride out of the city. It was nice to get my own room for a bit and to be able to relax at night. The one thing I didn't think about until I started traveling is that once it's dark I like to generally be near my hotel. So my days have started early and ended early. For the most part I just walked around here. I did go to the Foam museum which is a photography museum. I decided not to go to Van Gogh or Rijksmuseum, because I went to so many museums like this during art class these semester. Location one down six more to go.

12-12-14 Yesterday was a tea day! We enjoyed an afternoon of tea and gossip at bake-a-boo in West Hampstead. It was the best way to end the semester and to say goodbye to 5 of these 6 ladies. Leigh, in the very far back, will be traveling on the ferry to Amsterdam with me and we will travel in Amsterdam together for 2 days.

12-08-14 Last night a group of us went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. It’s a giant Christmas market and fair. It had lots of mulled wine, food carts, Christmas shopping, and rides. We just walked around, got dinner (saucy chips I got chili cheese) and took it all in. There was also a ice skating rink, but you had to book ahead and it was very small with lots of people so we just watched instead. It got me excited for the Christmas season!!

12-07-14 3 month check in. So crazy I have been here this long!! The craziest thing is that on Thursday I will officially be done with my undergrad and the best way to celebrate that is to immediately start traveling Europe. I thought I would put my schedule on here so if I don’t have Internet and can’t check in all the time you can still track where I am! For the most part I have Internet at the places I’m staying, but you just never know how well it will work and all that stuff.

Dec 13th - Dec 20th … Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dec 20th - Dec 23rd … Berlin, Germany

Dec 23rd - Jan 2nd … Prague, Czech Republic

Jan 2nd - Jan 7th … Lucerne to Geneva, Switzerland via the Golden Pass Scenic Train

Jan 7th - Jan 10th … Lyon, France

Jan 10th - Jan 13th … Paris, France

After this traveling I will come back to London on January 13 - January 26 and my host mom is so gracious and is letting me stay with her again. I’m hoping to take a couple day and/or overnight trips. One that I really want to try and make happen is Brighton. My momma is coming on January 26 - February 7 and we will fly home together. We are going to stay in an apartment in the city and I’m counting down the days until she gets here!!

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