Prague Day 3: Pedalos and The Bohemia Jazz Festival

Since our two previous nights had been rather heavy we decided that we'd take our last day in Prague a bit easier, so we wandered down to the Danube and hired pedalos. (They're easy enough to find, just look for the island in the middle of the river, the bridge is near to Goethe Institut on the city centre side.)

Walking down the river we saw a girl stand on one foot, put her foot over her head onto her shoulder and the smile through the arch it created to pose for a photo. Since it made such an impressive photo, Aimee and Ben decided that they would also give it a go.

The weather was lovely so after a heading to a cafe for some refreshments, we decided to have a dip in the water. Coming off the end of the island in the middle is a little beachy area, where there were people sunbathing, but no one actually swimming. However as there were no signs to say no swimming, we went in anyway. Little did I know that this would prove to be the end of my supposed 'water-proof' camera. After being in the river for about half a minute, Ben decided it would be a fantastic idea to tackle me into the water and the pressure somehow managed to water log my camera for the second year in a row. Though this time at least I got three days worth of pictures, last year it broke half way through the first day in the Mediterranean Sea.

It just so happens that we managed to be in Prague for the beginnings of the Bohemia Jazz Festival, which tours all around the Czech Republic throughout July-August. After our walking tour on the first day, we had already learned that the term 'Bohemia' had actually originated in Prague and along with a lot of the influences for this style of music. There were acts from all over the world and although we only briefly got to see one of the acts called 'The Baker Suite' (from Australia) it was pretty cool to enjoy the atmosphere that the festival had created.

One of our holiday traditions is that on our last night in each city/country, we go out for a traditional meal and sample some of the local cuisine. Having no idea about anything to do with czech food or where is good to eat, we just picked a place close to our hostel that said 'Traditional Local Food' on the outside and hoped for the best. I tried venison for the first time, which was in a curry type sauce with an assortment of dumplings and it was DELICIOUS. The Czech really do know how to make a hearty meal. However be warned about the sneaky waitresses, who told us that bread and sauces were free but then decided to charge four out of the seven of us for using them! The cheeky so and so.

After dinner we all headed out to the city centre, where the Jazz Festival was coming to a close for the day. Tom bought a CD of The Baker Suite and managed to meet the band in person, getting his CD signed of course. We then headed of to one of Prague's underground jazz bars. I don't think I've ever felt so cool. The band were pretty good and they were clearly having a really great time whilst performing, which for me makes all the difference when watching a live act.

Prague Days 1 and 2: Free Walking Tour, Drunken Monkey Bar Crawl and Prague Castle

Eurotrip 2012 amazing!! For those of you who don't know I, along with 6 friends, have just spent the last 11 days in Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Unfortunately, whilst I was away I couldn't really blog because the silly blogger people have updated the site and now my rubbish phone isn't compatible with it. So I shall update you in the next few days with a post all about our adventures in each place.

We spent the first 4 nights in Prague, which is a breath-takingly beautiful city. I would recommend anyone to visit, even just for the architecture.

On the first day we went on a free walking tour with the company all dressed in yellow (if you're looking for it on the plaza, they stick out a fair bit) which took us all around the big sites of everything on our side of the river (the side without the castle on it) and lasted around 2 and a half hours. Our guide also gave us the history of Prague in 10 minutes and was extremely knowledgeable about the city. It was a great way to start our trip as not only did we get to see a lot of things we otherwise wouldn't have thought to visit, but it also gave us plenty of ideas of how to spend the rest of our time in Prague.

Little did I know that Prague is actually the birth place of my all time favourite german author, Franz Kafka!

As it was a first night in Prague (our flight was delayed the day before so we only arrived at around 1am) we decided to have a big one and did the Drunken Monkey bar crawl, which was just 375CZK (around £12/15€) for 2 and a half hours of open bar and then entry into 4 clubs. So of course we had an epic night! It was also a great way to meet new people, as it was majority tourists. I even met a guy who is on my hispanics course at Kings College in September, small world eh?!

Absinthe shots on tap? YES please.

On the second day we wandered up to the castle where we enjoyed some lovely panoramic views of Prague. The castle itself was rather lovely, as were (what we assumed to be) the parliament buildings that we passed a long the way.

As you may or may not know, I am a very clumsy person and that evening when we headed back to the hostel I managed to add to my list of stupid things I have done. This time I managed to collapse the underside of a top bunk bed on top of myself by kicking it (because I'm an idiot) and it hit my head rather hard and I got a lovely big lump right in the middle of my forehead. This also caused me to go quite drowsy and tired so I didn't manage to make it out with the others to 'The Biggest Club in Central Europe'. At first I was a bit gutted to be missing out, as I hate to miss out on anything and this was completely my own doing, however I was informed in the morning that a more fitting name for it would be 'The Shittest Club in Central Europe' and therefore was not to bothered. Plus I felt a lot fresher than everyone else the next morning.

So that's a very brief outline of our first two days. I've decided to give each place more than just one post, as I'll just end up missing out too much, so keep an eye out over the next few days for more info on Prague :)

22 down, 174 to go!

There are 196 countries in the world (unless you're a US citizen, then apparently you're not allowed to count Taiwan.)

I have already visited:

1. England (obv.)
2. Scotland
3. Wales
4. Germany
5. France
6. Belgium
7. Austria
8. Denmark
9. Italy
10. Switzerland
11. Spain
12. Greece
13. Portugal
14. USA
15. Canada
16. Columbia
17. Peru
18. Bolivia
19. Chile
20. Haiti
21. The Bahamas
22. Puerto Rico


Next week I'm setting off to the Czech Republic (Prague), Austria (Vienna) and Hungary (Budapest), with six other friends, so that adds two more to the list :) This is our second Eurotrip after we visited Nice, Milan, Zurich, Frankfurt and Hamburg last year. It was such a brilliant trip so we're all rather excited for this one to get underway. Only 8 days to go!!

So after this summer I'll have been to a grand total of 24 countries, which I don't think is a bad start considering I'm only 19. I've already starting planning next years grand adventure too, though we're still debating between South Africa and Australia :) I've totally caught the travelling bug now.

(N.B. I had to edit this post. You know when you know you've forgotten something and can't figure out what it is? Well this time it turns out I'd forgotten that I'd been to Haiti, Puerto Rico and The Bahamas... Silly em...)

Bucket List

I'm back for the next 3 weeks or so before heading on my next (slightly less extravagant but no less exciting) adventure to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Although I have been slacking quite considerably on the blogging front for the past few weeks (sorry!), I have really enjoyed keeping one and intend to do so every time I decide to go gallivanting around the world. Therefore I have decided that the blog itself needs a new make-over and purpose, considering that I won't ALWAYS be off exploring/my gap yah is very nearly over.

I mentioned briefly in a post a few months ago that at the age of 14 I wrote a bucket list outlining all the exciting things I want to do before the age of 30. I haven't really got started on this list yet even though I keep adding to it, though in fairness to myself I have probably been too young to do so until now as the majority of the list is full of things to do whilst travelling. I decided to create a challenge to combine as many things on this list as possible.

So here it is:
Visit every country in the world before I die.

Before each trip I'll also post the various challenges from my bucket list that I have to do during the trip as well as asking for more suggestions.

Now I realise the logistics of this aren't exactly straight forward. For example I'm not actually allowed into North Korea or Somalia (to name but a few) for various different reasons, but I figure I'll work around that when I get to it.

I'll also blog every so often between trips about places I go in the UK, travel advice, language learning and anything else travel related I can get my hands on that's worth sharing!

Adios Peru

So this is it... we leave Perah TODAY. It's not really sinking in to be honest, I've somehow settled into the mind frame that this how I am going to live from now on, coming back to reality is going to be SO weird.

We spent our last night in Lima avec Samwise and we gorged ourselves on McDonalds as our last hearty meal in Peru, deciding that we've earned it as technically we've been here for so long now we are no longer gringos but Inca Warlords (Sam's logic really, I just went with it because I wanted chicken wings. You know they do those in McDonalds here?? It's awesome.)

I am so glad we decided to just do the one night in Lima, it's such a hole compared to any other place we've stayed in South America, with the only exception perhaps being Puno, but it's a blooming close call. For example our hostel has a roof terrace which anywhere else, would be lovely. Like in Cusco at night the sky is clear, starry and just beautiful. Where as in Lima, it looks white, thick with smog from the pollution. Lovely.

I woke up this morning feeling like I used to at Christmas as a child. My stomach is churning with excitement. Well that or it's something to do with the three chicken sandwiches I ate from a street vender lady yesterday. I really am in two minds, on the one hand I canNOT wait to come home and see everyone, have clean clothes, nice food, warm showers, a hair cut, comfy bed etc etc. But on the other hand I have had the time of my life and met so many awesome people! I know this isn't the last time I do a trip like this.

Our flight isn't for another 11 hours or so, so we have a day of packing and desperately trying to waste time ahead of us. Woooooooooo. We're also going to compile a few more posts with tips for future travellers, highlights and recommendations etc so watch this space, I'm not finished just yet :)

Huacaflippinchina BABY

The last 5 days or so were spent in Huacachina, a little oasis town with the population of around 115 people about 4 hours away from Lima (unless you travel with Flores, then it's more like 6 and a half. Lying so and sos.) It was AMAZING, such a good way to spend the end of our trip. Not that we did much like :P

We spent 23 hours (mas o menos) on a bus to get there when it was supposed to be 16. I am NOT going to miss peruvian buses even a little bit. To be honest its quite comforting to know that my journey back to Preston won't even take that long. It was pretty horrendous but arriving in Huacachina was so awesome, its such a beautiful place!

Most of the time was just spent chilling out and eating (I know this is quite the running theme for this trip!) The hostel we stayed at does the most amazing BBQ Chicken Wings, so if you're heading to Huacachina stay at Desert Nights Hostel and try them out. Also its only 15/s a night and if your a HI member its even cheaper, but to be honest the chicken wings should be enough of a pull.

Of course we had to test out the night life once or twice and it was EPIC. In fact we decided it was best to leave a day early before we all got stuck in the paradise of Huacachina in a permantantly hungover state achieving very little and never seeing the day light.. Ok so that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea!

Goodbye Cusco :(

SO before and after the Inca Jungle Trek we spent a fair amount of time in Cusco. I think it's safe to say that Cusco has been my favourite place we've visited in South America :)

On the 31st it was EVIE'S 19TH BIRTHDAY so of course we went out to celebrate. I got her a little prezzie and a card signed by lots of different people that we've met throughout the duration of our travels. She was SO surprised so of course I was well happy that all my sneakiness had paid off. Also Matt got her some mustard...



In the evening we went out with the gang to Norton's, Indigo and the Wild Rover which was lots of fun, even if we did get kicked out at like 2.30am. I thought the Wild Rover was supposed to be like party central?? Honestly.







Another aspect of Cusco that cannot go without a mention is Jack's Cafe which is without a doubt the best place for food in South America (well, that I've been to so far!) A little pricey for Peru it has to be said but 100% worth every penny. I don't really think the pics do it justice but I'm going to share them anyways...





We also caught Corpus Christi by accident which was quite nice. Peruvians really do know how to do a religious festival! It was almost impossible to move around Plaza de Amas and they had all these massive elaborately decorated statue things that they were carrying through the streets. Plus music and dancing and food EVERYWHERE. It was great!!



I was rather sad to say goodbye to Cusco, but I reckon it wont be my last visit. I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone :)