Amsterdam!

Hello friends and family,

A few weekends ago I headed off to explore the city of Amsterdam!

My weekend started with me getting up early Saturday morning for a free walking tour, but first on my way to the tours meeting point I stumbled upon the famous bloomenmarkt the market was fun situated right next to a canal and filled with all the flower bulbs one could imagine as well as, of course, fresh flowers, touristy knick-knacks, and tons of dried flowers hanging from the ceilings of these little booths

I then continued on my way to meet up with my walking  tour. The tour was lovely, super informational, and a good way to become oriented to the city. We spent our time on the tour learning about Amsterdam's rich history from the medieval city to the city during ww2 and finally the city today. I enjoyed most learning how the city was built and is maintained with the city's high water levels and we'll lack of true land (most of Amsterdam used to be part of the ocean).

After the walking tour I headed in to the De Pijp District. De Pijp is an up and coming neighborhood that has lovely cafes and the most amazing street market around! I spent my afternoon wandering through this market enjoying the tulips, fresh food, clothes and other wares being sold.

That evening I headed back to the National Monument to take another walking tour around the red light district. I really enjoyed the tour and it was a great way for me to get to see the district without haveing to wander through by myself. Our guide was amazing! She did an amazing job of not just showing us the district but explaining it and the politics that were behind the district. I left the tour with a new take on red light districts and with my eyes opened to how good they can be for a city. For example, the promote sex education (I mean when your kindergarten is right next to the windows) , they also promote consent, the girls are in complete control they say no and your done. Finally red light districts help stop human trafficking and protect prostitutes because everything is in the public eye thousands of people come to Amsterdam and walk through the red light district it's a lot harder to hide criminal activity there. Overall the tour was eye-opening in ways I wasn't expecting.

The next morning I headed off to visit the Van Gough Museum. This year I have come to find a new aprshiation for art museums. I really enjoy getting to learn about the artists life through there work. I'm facenated by the prevalous of mental illness amongst geniouses and most of all I've come to love losing yourself in a painting. I of course found all of this at the Van Gough Museum and spent the entire morning learning about the master.

Sunday afternoon I relished in the beutiful weather and wandered the city getting lost amongst the cannals and little streets I love the Dutch way of life it seems a much better balence of work and life than we have. I ended up finding myself in Vondelpark and enjoyed a stroll looking at the birds and bikers and gourgous houses that line the park.

Soon evening came and I headed back to my hostel to pack up before my early flight back home the next morning.

Cheers!
Meghan

"Dare to live the life you've always wanted"

Italian Extravaganza

Hello friends and family,

Just a quick note to say I'm off on another grand adventure! Easter Break started today and I will be spending this month exploreing Italy! I am starting my trip with a couple days in Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, and ending in Rome! Easter will be spent listening to Pope Francis in the Vatican before heading down to Naples and Pompeii. Then I will be flying to Barcelona for a completely days to visit my friend Natalia before heading back to Italy to meet my family in Scily! Finally my trip ends with a day in Amsterdam and three days exploreing Edinburgh and northern England with my program before heading back to Nottingham to gear up for the end of the year and finals.

Cheers
Meghan!

"Where ever you are be all there"

Budapest!

Hello All!

My last blog from this wonderful trip!  I am on a bus on my way to Nottingham right now and have had quite the day of travel!  I suppose it was to expected that something would go wrong today because of how smooth our trip has been.  I mean every trip has to have some travel horror story right?

Well ours started this morning at about 1am when Kelli and I were awakened by our drunk hostel mates coming home who knows what they were doing but they then decided not to go to bed until around 3 am.  So we had a very restful night of sleep before our crazy day of a plane and three trains plus all the little ways of travel between those three main trips.  However as Kelli and I got through security and were on are way to find some long overdue breakfast we got a text from one of our flatmates with a news article the headline “Huge Fire At Nottingham Station.” Thats right folks our train station has officially burned down… so our crazy day of travel now gets to include a plane, a train, a tube ride, and a bus!  Because for some crazy reason they don’t send trains to stations that currently resemble a burned out bonfire pit.  However todays adventure aside Budapest was amazing! 

Budapest was our last city and Kelli and I had an amazing time.  We got to Budapest just before two in the afternoon and got all checked in to our hostel.  We decided to go out and explore a bit after of course we got food! our hostel was on the square of St. Stephen's Basilica one of the tallest buildings in the city so we decided to start there.  The Basilica was beautiful like most churches in Europe and it was cool to see a building that held so much significance for the city.

After St. Stephens we wandered down to the river and across the famous Chain Bridge.  We enjoyed the river and the many sites around it.  On our way home for the evening we stopped by the Gelato shop right next to our hostel picked two delicious flavors and were handed a rose! A perfect end to our first day in Budapest. 

Our next day in the city was extremely busy! We started with a walking tour that took us from the Pest side across the river to the Buda side.  It was well done and a good introduction to the city.  Kelli and I then decided to wander further down the Buda side of the Danube to the next bridge and to walk back up the Pest side.  This gave us a great view of the Parliament building and we got to see the Shoes on the Danube memorial.  However it was a lot of walking and when we finally made it back to our hostel we decided to rest for a bit before finding some dinner.

This is Technically Buda Castle and at one point there was an actual Castle that stood here however it was destroyed and this place was built where it once stood

Looking from the Buda side to the Pest side

The Buda Side has beautiful rolling hills

St. Mattus Church

Fisherman's Bastion 

The Hungarian Parliament Building

The Shoes On the Danube Memorial for the Hungarian Jews that were shot in to the river.

The Next day was my Birthday! So Kelli and I decided to treat ourselves and visit one of the Famous Budapest Thermal Baths.  Kelli and I spent the day at Szechenyi Thermal spa and had a lovely day soaking away our many aches and pains in the healing water. The palace of Szechenyi Bath was built between 1909 and 1913 in Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles by Gyozo Czigler. However, the history of the baths goes beyond 100 years, back to the 1870s and 1880s, when the deep hot spring wells were drilled under the Heroes’ Square near the City Park in Budapest. 

That night we decided, since I was turning 21, to visit one of the famous Ruin Bars.  These bars are built in Budapest’s old Jewish quarter in the ruins of abandoned buildings, stores, or lots. This neighborhood was left to decay after World War II, so it was a perfect place to develop an underground bar scene. From outside, these bars look like normal homes and unless you know the specific name or someone has told you how to get their they can be hard to find. Each of these ruin bars has its own personality, but they all follow a few basic principles: find an old abandoned place, rent it out (maybe?), set up a bar, fill it with flea market furniture, have a few artists come in to leave their mark on the walls and ceiling, add in some weird antiques, serve alcohol, and watch people flock in.Our guide the day before had recommended a bar called Szimpla, the original ruin bar, and it did not disappoint! 

By this point in our time in Budapest both Kelli and I were starting to feel the effects of traveling for 27 days and we decided to take the next two days easy.  So on Wednesday we headed out to see the main shopping streets of Budapest and the Central Market Hall.  The Hall has two levels the main level was filled with stalls selling fruits and vegetables, eats and cheese, and many other delicious things.  Kelli and I enjoyed wandering around and watching the natives barter and shop.  After a while we headed upstairs to the second level.  This level was filled with stalls for tourists they sold many had made Souvenirs as well as the factory made ones.  We wandered this floor for a while looking at the all the goods and buying a couple as well before we headed off to find some lunch from the vendors on the other side of the hall.  Kelli and I both had traditional Hungarian Goulash in a bread bowl which was delicious and also very filling.  

Our Final day in Budapest we spent wandering the Historic Jewish Quarter.  Kelli and I found a do it yourself walking tour that lead us around to the different synagogues and historic spots in the quarter giving insightful descriptions along the way.  The Quarter while filled with history is also now very much an up and coming area filled with incredible and unique restaurants, quaint cafes, and fun boutique stores.

We finished our stay with a ride on the Budapest eye and a night of packing or stuffing to be honest.  

Im very melancholy about our trip being done.  I am so excited to sleep in my own bed with a roommate who wont’t wake me up 20 million times in the night but also when I think back to all of Kelli and My adventures Im not ready to go back to the same old same old of Nottingham.  However I do have another month of traveling to start planing and a trip to Ireland! 

Cheers!

Meghan!

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” 

― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon