White Party and THE VIDEO

Initially, my goodbye party was supposed to be on the roof of my house and we were going to keep it low-key and low-budget. Unfortunately, my pinche landlords had a different idea and in spite of the fact that we gave them three weeks notice about the party, they cancelled just five days before.

Luckily our new plan turned out to be even better. A friend of mine suggested that we rent an island in Xochimilico for the night, where we could camp and drink and make as much noise as we liked without the concern of neighbours or trashing someone's house. Image Mexican Venice in the countryside, without the glam and romance, but rather an entirely different kind of beauty.

My friend Geovanni's cousin works on the boats that take you to these islands, which are more like long floating rafts which you row with a big stick, so she took us there at not too much expense. We all dressed in white (embarrassingly inspired by the white party in Gossip Girl) and popped champagne as we went, all looking very classy and sophisticated for at least the first ten minutes. We also managed to get some really beautiful picture before everyone got too messy.

As you can see the most part consisted of alcohol, glitter fights, face paint and kinda looking like we were at a hippy wedding. But it was beautiful and fun, until later when the usual drama started but we'll just forget about that part.

And now the moment you've ALL been waiting for... my highlights video from Mexico and that trip to the States I took almost a year ago. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, let me know, so I can make more of my future trips. (I mean I'm gonna do it anyway, I just won't share them with you...)

First Weeks in Berlin

I have now been in Berlin for just over two weeks for my second study abroad placement. I'm still homeless and living between a friend's couch and a hostel, still can't for the life of me remember how to speak German and am lamenting the fact that as I am no longer able to drink alcohol, I can't taste the beauty that is German beer. Aside from the slight downsides and the fact that an old lady confronted me in the street the other day calling me 'common' because I'm English, I have been able to have at least a little bit of fun, plus I suppose alcohol-free beer isn't allllllll that bad.

On my first night in the city my lovely friend Imogen came to meet me for a pizza and a beer in Friedrichsschain. It was an absolute lifesaver because after a 12 hour flight followed by a quick 24 hour pit stop in London, which was crazy-busy full of catching up with and seeing friends, I was pretty exhausted and disorientated. Not to mention the jet lag which hit me harder than it ever has done before! Even without alcohol, my first German beer was glorious and after almost a year of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, my comfy hostel bed was pretty darn luxurious. I'm staying in a hostel called Plus Hostel Berlin, which I would highly recommend - it's cheap, well located AND it even has a pool!

As I have been to Berlin before (see posts Berlin Meat Sweats and East Side Gallery), I've already done a lot of the main tourist sights. However, when I came last year I fell down some stairs in a club and messed up my ankle (I can thank my old friend Paul for that one), so couldn't walk very far on the last day and missed a couple of key things.

EMILY AND GREG WERE REUNITED (he's doing his study abroad here!) at Checkpoint Charlie, which I'm sorry to say was kind of cool but a little underwhelming... I have, however, heard good things about the museum which I am yet to venture into, so I'll update on that when I finally get around to it.

I finally saw some real life Trabis which were THE car of East Germany before the reunification (I say THE car but in fact it was THE only car you could have... communism and all that) Anyway, I think they're cute but we couldn't go into the museum because Greg is a boring sod and wanted a beer, plus I'm super poor right now, so I probably couldn't have afforded it anyways. Also, I should probably note that they weren't this colour in the DDR...

We also made it to Potsdamer Platz, which is famous for some reason that I can't remember because I am an awful German student, so I have been super kind and linked Wikipedia for you, in case you are interested. The area isn't particularly special; lots of tall office buildings makes it feel a bit like the City of London but I took a photo nonetheless because it makes a good touristy Instagram shot.

I was also lucky enough to receive a visit from my mum and step-dad on my first weekend here (which is another reason why I haven't starved yet. Did I mention how poor I am?) Neither of them have ever visited the city, so we tried to fit in as much sight seeing as we could into two days, wandering from Alexanderplatz, past Humboldt, down Unter den Linden to the Brandenburger Tor, then to the Jewish Memorial and the Reichstag. We also managed to fit in another visit round to Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz, so most of the big sights in one day IS possible, it's just a fair bit of walking.

The Jewish Memorial

One of many beer stops a long the way!

Some Berlin graffiti which I love and is everywhere. Expect more pictures like this in future posts.

On the last night they took me out for a traditional German meal of dumplings and sauerkraut and goulash (I know goulash is Hungarian but it was in a traditional German restaurant so it's nearly legit)

Unfortunately because of my pobreza and the fact that I'm not very well at the moment, I haven't been able to go out at all yet. Mostly I've just been going to University, which so far I have thoroughly enjoyed, and have been meeting up with old King's friends. Seeing my pals has probably been the highlight of the move so far; the stories of the past year's adventures in various parts of the world and the old 'in' jokes have made me feel a lot more at ease in a strange and new place.

So here's to another week of 'can you repeat that please?' and insults from random strangers on my lack of class. I move back to the hostel tomorrow for eleven days, before a weekend at home for my beautiful sister Siobhan's hen do (SO EXCITED!!), and fingers crossed I will return to my own place.

Return to Deutschland #11

Guess what guys?!? I'm back in Germany for the 11th time!! Hamburg to be exact.

It's day two of the German Soc trip and I'm lying in bed being serenaded by a mixture of my friend Greg's snoring and various groans as people press the snooze button on their alarms. We set off incredibly early yesterday morning (4.50am meet up at the station) and somehow all 13 of us, slightly dishevelled and exhausted, managed to arrive in Hamburg by mid morning.

After checking in and chilling for a bit, we split up (to search for clues!) and began exploring. Our first stop was the St. Marien Cathedral, on a happy coincidence as it turns out we can't read maps. It was, in all honesty, was a little bit bizzare. I don't think I've ever seen an entire cathedral built out of red brick with such a modern interior of white washed walls. Aside from the orate altar it just seemed a bit underwhelming to me.

However, at the same time as being a bit weird, it was quite interesting to see a modern take on such a grand building. It definitely wasn't what we expected. Oh, and the crypt was beautiful, a sentence which I never thought I'd write! It's worth a visit just for that.

'Rejoice, that your names are forgiven in Heaven'

We eventually found our feet and headed towards the Rathaus (town hall). Let's just say, it's pretty impressive. 

Whilst we were touristing it up, a photographer approached Stefan and asked him if he could take a few shots for his fashion blog because he loved his style. Pretty cool eh? So of course, I had to get one of the whole team posing to even it out a bit...

I actually think it turned out pretty well!

Then came more wandering across the bridge to some kind of lake (I think), but it had started to get a little chilly so we made it out new mission to find a Bierkeller. Unfortunately it seems Hamburg city centre has a severe shortage of pub-like-establishments.

Eventually, just as we were about to give up, we stumbled across a place to thaw out and piled inside for our first beer of the trip.

Once back at the hostel and reunited with the other girls, we decided to have a chill one with some food and the Arsenal vs Bayern Münich game, seeing as we were all pretty beat.

Exhibit A:

I'm now sat in my semi-lifeless hostel room trying to come up with the most creative way to get these lazy arses out of bed...

Last days in Zagreb

I feel bad about giving little prior warning for this but I actually flew home today! Currently sitting in Leeds train station waiting for a lift from my big sister. There's a few reasons for leaving early, mainly money and feeling bad about letting my flatmate sort out all the boring new house stuff by himself. But never fear, I shall keep blogging and I'm off again to the Canary Islands in August :)

I spent my last three days in Zagreb, which were mostly treated as recovery days from Hideout. I was pleasantly surprised by the city considering all the negativity I'd been fed about it from fellow travellers. It's true that it's not exactly the most beautiful of cities - but by no means was it the ugliest either! And despite reports of it being boring I actually found there was a lot to do it the way of site seeing and museums.

(Instagram @gracelund1)

Beautiful mosaic church roof, it must have taken bloody ages to put together.

(Instagram @ljcowgill)

One of my highlights was the Museum of Broken Relationships, which caught my attention mainly due to it's rather odd concept. It's a museum of items donated by people to help them let go of a past relationship. Each memento is accompanied by a story or anecdote written by its original owner either about the relationship or why they chose this particular keepsake, which ranged from wedding dresses to teddy bears to an axe (a particularly amusing story about a girl who destroyed her exes furniture when she left her for another woman) I found it to be a really moving place; I both laughed and was moved to tears and even left my own message behind in their anonymous 'confessions' book.  

My hostel 'Mali Mrak' was great. About 15 minutes out of town and extremely reasonable for Croatia (just 90 Kuna or £8.50 per night). I had to stay in a different hostel to the others because they'd booked way in advance but it worked out pretty well - I met some really cool/strange/interesting people - one guy who was literally my male double, crazy times! - and the staff were the absolute best.

Hostel rules, the last four are my favourite.

On my final night in the city before heading to catch my flight home from Dubrovnik, we decided to head out to see what Zagreb offered in terms of nightlife. Staying out til 4am in a club with the absolute worst DJ ever, drinking Long Island Iced Tea  and dancing like a loon seemed like a good idea at the time, but 11 hour bus journeys are NEVER fun, especially on a hangover. And missing your first bus because you had to ask your taxi driver to pull over so you could throw up in a busy street isn't much of a party either. I'm such a classy bird. However, it wasn't a bad night all in all!

Ste and Lauren soaking up traditional Croatian culture en route home.

All together, my trip was pretty incredible! Not only did I get to see some of the most beautiful and moving sites in Europe I also met some really amazing people, who I hope to see again in the future! Because for me, it really is the people you meet that make a trip. Thank goodness for Facebook eh?!

Hi, Hallo, Hej, Hola, Bonjour...

First of all, I'm not going to apologise for my mini hiatus, I've just been crazy busy and a little unwell recently. Which also meant I couldn't go to Madrid/Salamanca, my first trip abroad of the year. BOOOOOO :( I may have to cancel my trip to Dublin in a couple of weeks too, which would really suck, but if I don't I'll be sure to keep you all updated, don't you worry!

This week I fancy talking about language. I don't know if I've made obsession with language clear on here yet, so I think it's about time I shared. Something that I am accumulating a large collection of is phrase books. I buy one everywhere I go and then try out at least a few basic phrases with the locals. I think it's something I've picked up from my parents, as when we were younger they'd always try and learn a bit of the destination language before we'd head off abroad. I recommend Lonely Planet ones, they always have dead helpful 'how to pronounce things' bits and have all the silly chat up lines in too, for bants with your friends ;)

Click here for some killer foreign pick up lines.

I suppose I do this for two main reasons; politeness and curiosity. Maybe politeness isn't quite the right word but you get the general idea. Basically, I think that if you are visiting/working in/moving to another country you should at least give the local language a go. I understand that some people just aren't language learners and can't make it stick, but it's not difficult to stumble through a few basics - the worst they will do is laugh at you and reply in English or help you through as best they can (this happens to me a lot). I mean, in the UK, we're just so LAZY when it comes to foreign languages. That age old excuse 'It's fine, everyone speaks English' is becoming rather tiresome. Especially because, well, it's not true. Around 1 billion people speak English, which yes is a lot, however that leaves 6 BILLION who don't, who you can never talk to if you don't make the effort. Now that's a fair number. Plus you'd be surprised at how flattered/surprised/grateful people can be if you give their language a go, especially if it's not a particularly well known one.

Curiosity probably doesn't apply to everyone, but to a language geek like myself travel provides a massive opportunity for me to explore other languages and types of languages and generally just geek-out. I've learned way more about other languages from travelling and meeting native speakers than I ever have in a classroom. It just seems a golden opportunity to ask questions and learn from an expert source, who in turn probably wants to learn from you too. It's not only a source of simple conversation, but something that everyone can connect with. From travelling I've gained a fascination for Scandinavian and Slavic languages, especially Danish (honestly, I just think it's beautiful) after spending a fair amount of time walking through the Peruvian Jungle trying to master the soft 'd' sound and repeating 'skide, skede, skøde' over and over again - I won't translate it on here as it's a little rude, but feel free to do so yourself and know it sounds hilarious to a Dane. These are languages I'd never even have considered interesting had I not given them a try. It was also nice to be able to make a Danish lady, who came into the shop I work in a few weeks ago, leave with a smile on here face, as I had taken the time to learn 'Hi, my name is Emily, how are you?' in her language. It's the kind of compliment we Brits will never understand as we're so used to hearing foreigners speak English.



Learning Danish walking to Machu Picchu (day 3). Just look at how much fun we're having.

I guess my point is that whilst adventuring around the world and discovering new and exciting cultures, the opportunity to explore language shouldn't be wasted. After all, it is one of the most important parts of culture. There are many cultural differences in language itself, from humour to ways of relating to one another, which are evident even from British to American to Australian English. It's an easy way to spark a conversation and make someone laugh, especially if you're rubbish. So no excuses. Give it a go. I dare you ;)