Finally back from my holiday! And boy do I still wish I was where it was cooler...I'm melting here in the flat. I think I'm drinking water as fast as I'm sweating it out.
So my brother came two weeks ago to visit me in Barcelona. For 2 days, we swept through Barcelona, seeing as much of the city(that would interest him) as we could. It was pretty exhausting, but we made it through the sticky Spanish heat.
We then jetted off to Vienna, Austria. Where we stuffed ourselves silly with pastries, and I enjoyed the music scene. We went to the Haus der Musik, the Naschtmarket(my brother loved this), and the graves of many famous Austrian composers including Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert. We also went to the Astronomical Clock(or their version of it) to watch a parade of famous people. Things were a bit expensive, but not terrible compared to Barcelona. While I liked the city, it seemed stuck in the 1700's, probably because of the huge influence that Mozart had over the city. There wasn't a whole lot of night life. Unless you count the strip clubs that we had no interest in.
After a relatively short(5 hours) bus trip to Prague, Czech Republic we got in in the evening and hit the ground running. We got a great free tour from the hostel and walked around the city, and also went on another free ghost and legends tour. Prague was a great city, cheap(not on the Euro system), friendly people and absolutely beautiful. We were able to do so much because it was so affordable and we even could afford to do a Pub Crawl with a company. Our hostel could not have been friendlier or more helpful. It was our favorite city by far.
Then came the huge bus trip. A 15 hour bus ride to Amsterdam. Which, was really quite nice. The bus company that we used was really good, it was comfortable, there was entertainment and complimentary drinks. As my brother put it: "It was an airplane that didn't fly". Amsterdam itself was a bit of a letdown. The food was bad and expensive. The museums had no student discount for my brother and were horribly expensive. The Rijksmuseum was mostly closed for renovation, and only select works were on display. We did enjoy the Anne Frank house a lot though. But we quickly ran out of things to do. All the things we had planned to do took only half of the full day we had. There wasn't any nightlife either. Other than the red light district, which I had no interest in going to with my baby brother, and my baby brother had no interest in going to period.
Overall, the trip with my brother was great! And he then took a plane home and I went on the Ediburgh, Schotland.
And oh how I loved it! The Fringe, the biggest comedy festival in the world, was going on. So I went to a number of shows including Anthony Rapp's Without You. Oh and I met him! Pretty embarrassing experience, but now I know how I am when I see a celebrity...I did go to the Castle and managed to cram in seeing other sites. I met some pretty awesome people too, including an Olympic participant from France.
From there, I took the train back to London, England. Here, I met more awesome people, met back with the people I had met in Edinburgh and went to shows and the London Eye. I saw Rock of Ages(my first time) and Les Miserables(second time). Les Miserables had Sierra Boggess, who I had seen before in The Little Mermaid. She was amazing!
I'm now home and exhausted. Tonight A and the girls will come home and we will go to the FCB v. RM game tonight at Camp Nou.
So my brother came two weeks ago to visit me in Barcelona. For 2 days, we swept through Barcelona, seeing as much of the city(that would interest him) as we could. It was pretty exhausting, but we made it through the sticky Spanish heat.
We then jetted off to Vienna, Austria. Where we stuffed ourselves silly with pastries, and I enjoyed the music scene. We went to the Haus der Musik, the Naschtmarket(my brother loved this), and the graves of many famous Austrian composers including Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert. We also went to the Astronomical Clock(or their version of it) to watch a parade of famous people. Things were a bit expensive, but not terrible compared to Barcelona. While I liked the city, it seemed stuck in the 1700's, probably because of the huge influence that Mozart had over the city. There wasn't a whole lot of night life. Unless you count the strip clubs that we had no interest in.
After a relatively short(5 hours) bus trip to Prague, Czech Republic we got in in the evening and hit the ground running. We got a great free tour from the hostel and walked around the city, and also went on another free ghost and legends tour. Prague was a great city, cheap(not on the Euro system), friendly people and absolutely beautiful. We were able to do so much because it was so affordable and we even could afford to do a Pub Crawl with a company. Our hostel could not have been friendlier or more helpful. It was our favorite city by far.
Then came the huge bus trip. A 15 hour bus ride to Amsterdam. Which, was really quite nice. The bus company that we used was really good, it was comfortable, there was entertainment and complimentary drinks. As my brother put it: "It was an airplane that didn't fly". Amsterdam itself was a bit of a letdown. The food was bad and expensive. The museums had no student discount for my brother and were horribly expensive. The Rijksmuseum was mostly closed for renovation, and only select works were on display. We did enjoy the Anne Frank house a lot though. But we quickly ran out of things to do. All the things we had planned to do took only half of the full day we had. There wasn't any nightlife either. Other than the red light district, which I had no interest in going to with my baby brother, and my baby brother had no interest in going to period.
Overall, the trip with my brother was great! And he then took a plane home and I went on the Ediburgh, Schotland.
And oh how I loved it! The Fringe, the biggest comedy festival in the world, was going on. So I went to a number of shows including Anthony Rapp's Without You. Oh and I met him! Pretty embarrassing experience, but now I know how I am when I see a celebrity...I did go to the Castle and managed to cram in seeing other sites. I met some pretty awesome people too, including an Olympic participant from France.
From there, I took the train back to London, England. Here, I met more awesome people, met back with the people I had met in Edinburgh and went to shows and the London Eye. I saw Rock of Ages(my first time) and Les Miserables(second time). Les Miserables had Sierra Boggess, who I had seen before in The Little Mermaid. She was amazing!
I'm now home and exhausted. Tonight A and the girls will come home and we will go to the FCB v. RM game tonight at Camp Nou.
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