Spontaneous Trip to London!

Hi there!

For the second half of spring break, my friends and I spontaneously booked a trip to London! The minute we got to our AirBnb in Paris we sat down and booked everything. I am so happy we did; I have wanted to visit London for so long (probably due to my obsession with British Youtubers) and it completely lived up to my expectations.

Our first day there we really wanted to relax, so we spent the day shopping around Oxford Street and Covent Garden. We went to a lot of the typical British stores: Primark, Boots, Lush, etc. We walked all through Soho, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square. The weather was super nice compared to Paris and we had a really chill day. 

The second day we did literally all the touristy stuff. Our hostel was in a pretty good location (right near Kings Cross Station) so we walked mostly everywhere, and this day was completely exhausting. We started by walking to the Tower Bridge, then along the water, which has a beautiful path leading past loads of tourist attractions. We wandered around the Globe Theater for a bit, and passed Millennium Bridge and the London Eye, before heading back over the river to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham palace. We sat in the park next to the palace for a few hours to recharge, and then went back to the Covent Garden area to see a West End show! We saw The Woman in Black, mostly because it was the cheapest, but it was actually pretty good. I hate scary things so I was terrified, but objectively speaking the show was pretty great. 

We spent the majority of the third day wandering around Portabello Market in Notting Hill. This market had been particularly high on my list of things to see ever since my boyfriend sent me a picture of vintage cameras for sale there when he visited a year ago. And the market didn't disappoint; there were tons of vintage things, food, jewelry, and other random knick-knacks, and the neighborhood was beautiful. I ended up buying two vintage cameras and I love them so much.

The hostel we stayed at was in an amazing location and was very cheap, but it was a very odd experience. It was in a converted court house, so they had actual prison cells to sleep in. It was also a bit of a party hostel, so it was incredibly loud and filled with people at all times. But breakfast was free and overall it wasn't the worst hostel experience ever!  

London was one of my favorite cities I have visited so far and I cannot wait to go back!

xo, Sophie

Liberec, Czech Republic + Dresden, Germany

 

 

Hi there!

A few weeks ago I went on my NYU-sponsored trip to Liberec, Czech Republic and Dresden, Germany. Here's what I got up to:

Since this trip was organized by NYU, everything was planned and paid for beforehand, which was a really nice break compared to the hectic-ness of my other trips.  We started by taking a bus to a glass blowing factory near Liberec, where we got to see how the process works. From there, we went to a super random mountain and went bobsledding, which was initially terrifying and then super fun. It was a lot cheaper than the RA's who were with us thought it would be, so we all ended up going about 4 times! After bobsledding, we went to a mountain where the Liberec TV tower is, and we rode the cable car to the top. The views were absolutely incredible. We could see the entire city as well as the snowy countryside. We got a tour of the TV tower, which weirdly doubles as a hotel, and then took the bus back to our hotel in the city. 

Our hotel was right next to Town Hall, which is absolutely incredible looking. We went to dinner with all of the students and RA's, and NYU gave us around $16 to spend, which in Liberec is a TON of money for food! The restaurant was actually really good (I wish I could remember the name) and after that some of the students went out, but Avi and I were so exhausted that we crashed back at the hotel. It was so nice staying in an actual hotel, rather than a hostel! 

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before getting on the bus and heading to Dresden. I wasn't expecting to love Dresden as much as I did. We started by getting a tour of all of the main attractions in the Old Town, which includes the Zwinger museum, the Opera house, the Procession of Princes, churches, etc. After the tour, we were given a couple of hours to explore on our own. Avi and I crossed the bridge into the newer area of the city, and walked around a beautiful shopping area filled with flowers. We ended up at a small pub place in a hostel for lunch, which was surprisingly amazing! We went from there to a passageway called Kunthsofpassage, which is filled with multi-colored buildings with artwork. It has this famous building that is bright blue and plays music when it rains. The surrounding area had really cool graffiti and buildings. The RA's had given us tickets to Zwinger, so we went back to where we started and walked around the porcelain collection for a bit. Around 6pm, we got back on the bus to head back to Prague. It was only a two hour bus ride; I was shocked we got home so quickly! This was definitely one of my favorite trips so far. 

xo, Sophie