Can't get enough of Europe

I haven't blogged anything for a while (mostly because I keep forgetting I have a blog) but I figure this is a good time as any to revisit! I've been in Europe for about two weeks now. I came to present at a conference (Thermodynamics 2015) in Copenhagen, Denmark and then decided to do some exploring after because why not? So here's what's been up!

I arrived in Copenhagen on September 13th and instantly realized I had packed very poorly. It was super windy and cold and all I had packed were tank tops, shorts and two light jackets/cardigans. It's not that I hadn't checked the weather. It's that in the warmth of North Carolina's sunny days, 65 degrees just hadn't seemed that cold. Anyway, jet lagged and all (I had flown from California), it took a few days to get my sleeping schedule in order. My friends, Mariah and Laura, were also presenting at the same conference so we spent the first few days mostly just attending conference events and having occasional opportunities to see the city. On our last day, we finally had the chance to explore the whole city so we rented some bikes and saw pretty much everything there was to see in Copenhagen. It's a small city and very walkable/bikeable which worked out well for us with our limited time.

Mariah and I at Tivoli (the second oldest amusement park in the world)

The famous Little Mermaid statue

Checking out the sweet climbing gym in Copenhagen with Mariah (apparently the largest climbing gym in Scandinavia)

Biking around Copenhagen

I wish I had taken a  picture of our hostel room because it was basically a small prison cell. Easily the tiniest room I've ever stayed in. 

Mariah and I also had the burning desire to take a quick dip into the cold COLD North Sea. Mostly because it was there and we could. I love that Mariah's inner childish desires matched mine because as torturous as this experience was, I would 100% do it again because it was such a crazy, freeing experience.

The next morning, we took the train to Stockholm where we met up with Jenny! We only had a couple of days in Stockholm but I'd say we covered pretty much everything from the Vasa museum (which houses an old warship that sank 300 years ago but was still able to be restored), a tour that involved a bus turning into a boat, and dinner with my advisor Erik and his friend. Scandinavia wasn't the easiest place to be a vegetarian but I got lucky because when a restaurant didn't have any pre-set meals for me, the chef would just come up with a special vegetarian meal. I can't really complain too much because that meal usually ended up being terribly delicious. Between being sick in Denmark and skipping most lunch meals though, I'm pretty sure I've lost some weight.

 I've realized my love for pretty much all cities by a river

Jenny being a classy American at City Hall!

 Got a gorgeous, sunny day which we took full advantage of

Our bus that turned into a boat. Fun fact: It was made in South Carolina.

Stockholm at dusk

One of my several "special" meals

After 3 days in Stockholm, we parted ways. Mariah, Laura and Jenny made their way to Amsterdam and I came to Prague. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. I'm not really sure why because I've traveled enough on my own (and I usually love it) but I found myself feeling homesick and definitely very disoriented when I landed in Prague. I had a pretty terrible first day. With my giant backpack stuffed with useless tanktops and shorts, I made my way to my hostel which ended up being in kind of a weird part of town. I had booked a "party hostel", naively and stupidly thinking that pretty much meant it would be a social hostel where I'd be able to meet a bunch of people. 

Pro tip: that's not what a party hostel is.

I won't go into the details but after being woken up at 3 am by screaming, drunk people, I realized that maybe this wasn't quite the right place for me. The next morning, I quickly found another hostel and made my way to the other side of town. And boy, was that the best decision I ever made! 

I ended up right in the middle of all the action. This new hostel was absolutely beautiful (it was basically a hotel) and was just a few minutes from Old Town Square and the Royal Castle. I spent the day exploring the Royal Castle, eating street food, and soaking in the gorgeous views. I finally began to understand why everyone made such a big deal about Prague. Honestly, it didn't even feel like I was in the same city as the night before! After I got back to the hostel, I met my roommate Vanessa, a dental hygienist from Canada. We hit it off right away and ended up spending the evening together on a ghost tour, getting fish pedicures and exploring Old Town Square. And this is pretty much all it took for me to fall in love with Prague!

The new and improved hostel 2.0

View from the Royal Palace

 View of Prague from Charles Bridge at sunset

The underground ghost tour

Old Town Square by night. It was hard to take a picture that captured how beautiful this sight truly was. There were musicians playing the piano and singing songs such as "Can you feel the love tonight" and "I'm yours" and we just sat down in the middle of the square to soak it all in.

Fish pedicures! Weirdest feeling in the world to be nibbled on by tiny fish but at least I have soft feet now.

When we got back to the hostel, we met our other roommate, Hiro, who was a really, really sweet guy from Japan. The next day, Vanessa and I made our way to the Lennon Wall, which might actually be my favorite place in Prague. It's a beautiful wall of graffiti covered in pictures of John Lennon, his quotes, symbols of peace, and messages of love from people around the world. The wall is constantly changing, and in fact when we were there, there was an artist adding more art to the wall. There were musicians playing and singing songs by the Beatles (my personal favorite, Let it be) and I felt such warmth and joy being in that zone.

 "Love People. Love people boldly. Love people well"

I'm telling you, I couldn't get enough of it

Vanessa and me on Charles' Bridge

Vanessa and I then walked around a little more and split up a little later in the afternoon. I ended up running into Hiro and his friend, Rina, and we had some Pilsner and got to know each other a little more. It was really great to hear of everyone's traveling adventures because everyone had a different story. Rina was coming from Paris while Hiro still had pretty much no idea where he was going. He later decided to go to Budapest on Vanessa's recommendation. I love that pretty much every sentence of his started with "maybe" because he was just so open to any and every opportunity. Also because he literally always had a smile on his face.

Hiro :)

Pilsner beers at Old Town Square

The room ended up filling up that night with 3 guys from Germany, 2 guys from Sweden, and another guy from Korea. Almost everyone was on some kind of Eurotrip and it was pretty neat to hear about everyone's unique traveling adventures. The guys from Germany were just doing Prague as a weekend trip while the Swedish guys were also doing a Eurotrip for about 3 weeks. We talked about a wide range of topics, the most animated conversation being about how hilarious the rest of the world thinks it is that Donald Trump is actually leading the polls. 

The next day, I got to hang out with some really good friends from UT! It was SUCH a bizarre and amazing coincidence that we happened to be in Prague at the EXACT same time but it was totally the highlight of my trip to be able to spend a day with Simrat and Priyanka and their friends. I'd seen Simrat maybe twice in the past few years and I hadn't seen Priyanka in at least 4 years so we had a lot of catching up to do. It felt just like old times as we walked across the city, ate lots of potatoes and bread, drank Pilsners and reminisced about the good ole UT days. Lots of laughter was heard by the people of Prague and I honestly could not have asked for a better last day.

So much sugar was had

Sunset at the Charles Bridge with Simrat and Priyanka

 One of my favorite pictures from the bridge :)

The garlic bread in Prague requires you to put your own garlic and cheese on it

And that's pretty much it! I'm torn between not wanting to leave Prague but also being extremely excited for my next stop: Istanbul! Until next time :)