Prague

Flying from London to Prague was much better than flying on Ryan Air, however, Cait and I arrived around 10:00 pm so we decided to take a taxi to the hostel. When the taxi crossed over the bridge into the city, the view was spectacular. The entire city appeared to be lit up with a golden light. Prague is particularly fond of a sphereically shaped lamp that they use everywhere. These light bulbs shed a yellowish light that matches well with the 'old' feel of the city, as well as the color of the walls - the yellow light gives them a gold hue. The second reason that made the view spectacular was the architecture, statues hanging off the walls and roofs of the buildings, the style of the windows, and the many spires. Prague is perhaps even more fond of these spires than those spherical lamps. The first thing I did the next morning was to explore the city. I saw Charles bridge - up close and far away - tried the local food, and climbed the hill to the cathedral (which provided an amazing view of the city). There were many different kinds of street performers, and we ran into one particularly large group of tap dancers ( I think it was international tap dancing day). Over the next two days we visited all of the places we scouted out on the first day, including that cathedral, the gardens, the square, the toy museum (I have some hilarious photos). We also tried more of the local food and once got a plate of about seven different kinds of cheeses just so we could try them all. The last night I met a writer who was traveling the world. He was very interesting and we talked quite a bit about writing and even more about film.

Dublin

Made it to London safely.

The only disappointing thing about Dublin was the overcast weather and the short amount of time we were forced to limit our stay to. Since we were only there one day we pretty much just walked around and so as much as we could before the day ended. We went to several churches, saw Dublin castle, tried local cuisine, and went on a ghost tour. The ghost tour wasn't free but it was well worth the price. The tour was extremely amusing and conducted as if there really were ghosts (of course), but everyone else seemed to believe in them too. And not just "I believe in the possibility of ghosts, it was more like "I am 'sensitive', and I see a ghost over there", or "I am dizzy and/or my feet hurt, so there must be a ghost nearby". My feet hurt too, but I think it was for other reasons. Nevertheless I found the tour very amusing and it did show us some interesting (and also some extremely shady) places in Dublin. I might get more time in Dublin at the end of my trip to visit the places I missed.

I am thoroughly enjoying the accents.

Day 1

I'm sitting in a hostel located in the heart of Dublin eating toast and drinking orange juice for breakfast as I write this. This is the morning after the first day of my trip. In a few hours I will head to the airport and fly to London. The original plan was to stay in Dublin for a little over two days and London for two more. However, flight delays caused Cait and I to arrive several days late. Strangely enough we weren't delayed by the ash clouds over Europe but "wind-shear" in Houston. The result of the delay is a one day stay in both Dublin and London. Obviously not what we wanted but it will have to do.....

I met my first "character" at the airport in Newark during a four hour layover. She was a 65 to 70 year old woman who shared her table with us so we could sit and eat. She was very interesting because despite being around seventy she was going on a sort of study abroad of her own. She told of stories of the many previous trips she had taken and described herself as a scholar of the "ancients". By this she meant she was a history scholar, particularly that of Roman times and earlier. Needless to say she was very excited for me when I told her about the last two parts of my study abroad: during the second part of my study abroad I will be studying photography and roman and medieval history, and for the third part I will be trekking on foot from one side of Britain to the other along Hadrian's wall, which is an ancient Roman ruin built around 122 AD. I enjoyed talking to her and I hope I meet many other interesting people during my travels.

It's time for me to catch a bus to the airport. I will post about the rest of day one later. It is time for me to catch a bus to the airport.