Czech Republic, Germany, and Switzerland

Hey everyone!

I figured I wouldn't bore you with all the details of every minute of my travels so I decided to combine a few countries into one post.  This may still be a little long but it will prevent me from becoming long winded and from uploading every single picture! I spent two days in each country, just to give you a sort of timeline for my travels!

May I start with saying that I am so lucky that I speak English! The rest of the world has such a high number of English speakers and even with that, we had trouble sometimes with language barriers.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to travel to all these places and have nobody speak English.

So, we start with Prague.  I flew to Prague from England with my roommate, Megan and we met up with our friend, Cameron who has family friends in Prague and invited us to stay with them.  These people were so kind! We were treated like royalty here.  They drove us around, cooked for us, told us all about Czech history, washed our clothes and even gave us parting gifts when we left.  We were complete strangers to them and they treated us like family.  I will never forget Jana, Petr and Martin!

Prague was such a nice city.  There was a good mix of things to see and we pretty much saw it all! We saw the Prague Castle, Charles bridge, John Lennon wall, the Astronomical clock and the main square, the Jewish Quarter, the Petrin Tower and many others.  I will name a few of my favorite parts of Prague:

Easter markets were being set up in preparation for Easter.  These were food stands serving traditional Czech foods and sweets and fried foods and more! They were set up in the main square near the astronomical clock so it was a fun place to hang out.  We took advantage of these food stands a few times and got the Czech trdlo.  Not sure how to pronounce it but it was a doughy circular shaped goodie that was crispy on the outside and covered in sugar.  SO GOOD.

Exploring the area called Kampa, which was a park like area that went along the river.  The John Lennon wall was over there as well as many placed to sit and watch the swans or just people watch.  It was a nice place to relax.

St. Charles bridge at night was also a highlight for me.  We had only seen the city during the day so we waited around for it to get dark so we could see the bridge and the castle lit up for the night.  It was nice to just kinda sit and wait for the sun to go down and watch all the colors that changed as it got darker.

Trdlo.  SO GOOD.

View of the city

John Lennon wall

Astronomical clock

River view from Charles bridge

Charles Bridge at night

Megan, Cameron and I took a night bus to Munich to save money and time on travel.  It was a good idea in theory but it meant no sleep before another day of sightseeing! We were zombies when we got to Munich.  We met up with our friends Tierney, Bridget and Bridgets boyfriend in Munich at our hostel to make ourselves look like humans before starting the day.  There are a few main things that I will remember about Munich:

Visiting Dachau concentration camp.  I wouldn't say that this was fun, but I'm sure glad we did it.  Walking onto the grounds was very moving and imagining the horror of what went on there brought tears to my eyes.  It is so sad how dark humans can be.  We spent a good amount of time there walking the grounds and going through the museum.  I learned a lot more about concentration camps and world war II in a short few hours.

Eating at the Hofbrahous.  This is a famous brewery in Munich and we treated ourselves to their famous brew and some traditional German food.  Giant pretzels, pork, sauerkraut and beer. Yum.

Exploring the area around the Glockenspiel and spending time in the famous English Garden.  We climbed up a tower across from the Glockenspiel which was cool because we could see the whole square and take really nice pictures of the Glockenspiel.  Eventually we wandered through another market for lunch and over to the English Garden.  It was nice to have some time to relax in the grass outside of the city and play with the daisies and dandelions :)

Me at the Hofbrahaus

Me, Tierney, and Megan in front of the Glockenspiel

Streets of Munich

Glockenspiel from the tower

Chilling in the English Garden

After two days in Munich, we packed up the car and began the drive to Switzerland.  Bridgets boyfriend was kind enough to rent a car and cart us girls for a few hundred miles through Europe.  Once we began to see the alps on our drive it hit me that I was actually going to be in Switzerland.  Its been a place I had always wanted to visit after hearing my older sisters rant about how amazing it is.  And they were right!

We stopped in Zurich for a few hours to explore the city and take some pictures.  (All of which disappeared along with my phone in Rome. More about that in the next post).  It was a beautiful city but we were ready to get to the mountains and settle into our chalet!  It was about an hour and a half to our chalet in Grindewald which is about 15 ish minutes past Interlaken. The chalet was beautiful.  It was nestled right in the middle of the mountains and had a kitchen, beautiful bathrooms and bedrooms and a place to have campfires.  We loved it.

Interlaken had some really amazing things to offer us.  Again I will highlight some of the favorite things in the very short two and a half days we had there:

Hiking up Harder Kulm.  It is named HARDER for a reason.  I think we took the difficult path up.  Once we got over our tired legs and reached the top I forgot about how much my legs hurt a minute ago and took in the incredible beauty that was surrounding me.  It was so exhilarating to finally reach the top after all that hard work and then just know that its ok because I was looking at the most beautiful view of my whole life.  Definitely a highlight of my whole month of travel.  Or actually more like a highlight of my whole life!

Exploring Interlaken and finding the beautiful lakes full of bright blue aqua ish water.  The water though, it was so blue.  And the sunshine! Ahhh take me back.  I could have spent weeks looking at that water and the mountains surrounding the town were just amazing.  I really can't even describe how beautiful it all was!

The last but definitely not least highlight was going to a chocolate show.  We all know Switzerland is famous for chocolate and there is a good reason why people.  It was fun to watch the chocolatier make little chocolates out of molds and then we got to eat them right there. We got so many free samples.. Maybe thats why I like it because he literally said you can have as many as you want. WHAT.  It was sooooo good.  Seriously, thinking about the chocolates with homemade caramel in the middle is making my mouth water.  I may have had a few of those…

Our beautiful chalet

View from the top of Harder Kulm

On top of the world yo

Picturesque Switz (Photo by Tierney Chlan)

Chocolate show (Photo by Tierney Chlan)

Sadly we had to leave Switzerland.  The land of blue water, mountains and chocolate.  Or in other words: Heaven on earth.  I hope to go back there someday and spend more than two days because that was not even close to enough time! And to take my own pictures and actually have them when I return from my trip...

Next country: Italy!  The best of the best and the worst of the worst.  Stay tuned..

England: Cotswolds and London

I have finally returned from my six country travel month around Europe and I am sitting on my bed in my apartment in Cork.

So many memories and adventures to tell about and remember.  The best of the best and the worst of the worst! Traveling is no picnic in the park, I'll tell you that.  I learned a lot about the world and myself in the past few weeks and I am very excited to share all of my stories with you all!

I still cannot believe I saw and did all of the things I did.  I am beyond blessed to have been able to see so much of the world! Its hard to really grasp everything that I've been able to do.

Anyways, I will start with my mom and I's trip to England! First of all, mom, thank you so much for this trip.  I will always have such great memories of England from driving through the English countryside to having high tea with you, the list goes on! I had so much fun and I would not have wanted to share it with anyone else :)

So.  My mom and I flew out of Cork into Birmingham which is northwest of London by a few hours.   We wanted to spend a few days in the countryside before heading to the city. The Cotswolds is an area of villages and towns that make up part of the west of England.  Stratford upon avon is the most well known part of the Cotswalds, just to give a reference. We stayed in a town called Chipping Campden and it was the cutest little town.  All of the buildings in the Cotswolds look like they could be on a movie set.  They are just so old and have a lot of character with the tan color and the really pretty trim and flowers all around.  Its hard to describe!

We really enjoyed exploring Chipping Campden and having our first English tea.  On our only full day there we toured some of the other villages around the area.  It was fun to drive through and see these tiny villages that have maybe some houses and one pub and thats it.  So secluded but very peaceful and not to mention beautiful!  The man giving us the tour was a sheep farmer in Chipping Campden so it was really fun to hear about the Cotswolds from a local who had lived there his whole life.  We thoroughly enjoyed our bed and breakfast that we stayed at as well.  The host was again, so kind and we had delicious breakfasts!

Chipping Campden

Stratford upon Avon

Enjoying the villages :)

We made our way to London on the train and started the adventures right away.  We dropped our bags off at the hotel and began to get ready for our evening.  We headed over to Parliament square which has a lot of the main sights, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye not too far away.  My phrase of the whole trip is that "Its not real".  Seeing all of these major attractions just didn't feel real.  And this feeling continued throughout the whole month! Anyways, we took some pictures then headed over to where our show was going to be.  We are some really good Thai food and then went to the live performance of Les Mis.  Oh my.  These people are probably the most talented that I will ever hear in my life! They do not get the recognition that they deserve thats for sure.  My mom and I both loved it.  I think that performing music in the past helped both of us appreciate how difficult it is to sing and act at the same time.  Les Mis was definitely one of the highlights of London for me.

The next day we had a city tour of London. Our guide was great and it was good to have someone to tell us a but more history and tell us what we were looking at some of the time.  He brought us all over to the Globe theater, Tower bridge, Buckingham Palace, the church where Princess Diana was married to Prince Charles, and the Australian Embassy where the doors on the entrance were used in the Harry potter films for the goblin bank, Gringotts.  After the tour, we had high tea which was another highlight.  We got english tea with finger sandwiches, scones, and a lot of cute little cakes.  Such good food! It was so fancy too, I felt a bit out of place but its fun to pretend that we were fancy!

After our stomachs could not hold anything more, we went and did some shopping at Harrods and then wandered through Hyde Park a bit to get to our hotel which was near the Marble Arch tube stop (for those of you familiar with London).  That evening we wanted to see some of the attractions at night so we went over to Parliament square again to see Big Ben and the London Eye all lit up.  We ended up going on the London Eye and I think it was another highlight for me. Too many highlights! I am glad we went at night because seeing the city all lit up was really fun.

The next morning we headed off to a tour of the Warner bros studio for the Harry Potter films.  I'll have to say, thanks to my mom for bearing with my Harry Potter nerd status because I know this was more something I wanted to do.  Anyways, again in typical Mork style we got lost trying to find the place where we needed to catch our bus to the tour.  In the rain.. We ran for a little bit around the city like beheaded chickens not having a clue where we were going but eventually caught a cab to get us to the tour on time.  Anyways, the tour was really cool.  We got to go inside the great hall (for those of you who know Harry potter, everyone else just bear with me), and we saw a lot of the other sets like the Gryffindor Common room, the potions classroom, Dumbledores office, the Weasleys kitchen, and parts of the ministry of magic.  We also saw a ton of the props and learned about some of the animations that took place and the artists that were involved with designing buildings or magical creatures.  We also saw the knight bus, Privet drive, and the bridge that crosses over the river.  I think those last three were my favorites.  I of course got a cup of butter beer while exploring some of the sets.  Its tastes a lot like cream soda!  I also had a lot of fun nerding out in the giftshop and finding a few things to remember my day with Harry!

After the tour we were able to pack in a few more things before it got dark.  We went into the National gallery in Trafalgar Square and perused some of the famous artists paintings.  I wish I knew more about art so I knew what I was looking at but I enjoyed it anyways.  Then we rushed off to catch an organ concert in Westminster Abbey.  We got there just in time and oh my goodness! It was incredible.  Hard to believe that we were sitting in Westminster Abbey listening to an extremely talented organist.  We thought of my grandma Mork the whole time, you would have loved it Grandma! It was also fun to be in there because that is where William and Kate were married!

We ended the evening with a walk over to the river to have one last look at the London Eye and Big Ben.  Our last meal was fish and chips, which was fitting and reeeaalllly good :)

My mom left the next morning and I left a few hours later to begin the rest of my travels around Europe.

Big Ben

Les Mis!

High tea :)

Butterbeer and two of the sets from Harry Potter

One of my favorite pictures of my trip, if I do say so myself :)

Mom, thank you for this trip! I had so much fun and I hope you did too.  Even after seeing everything else, London may still be one of my favorites!

Next post will be about Prague, Germany and Switzerland.  Can't even believe that I've been to those places..

Mom and Dad come to Ireland!

Well, here I am writing from the middle of Switzerland!  Its been awhile since I have written, I have been real busy being a crazy world traveler!

So. Mom and dad came to Ireland at the end of March.  It was such a whirlwind of fun and adventures with them, I don't even know where to start!  I met them in Dublin the day they flew in and we started our adventures right away.  We walked around Dublin for a bit and I let my parents marvel at the very old buildings all over Dublin while I led them around for the evening.  We found a really nice pub in the heart of town for dinner with live Irish music.  It was the perfect introduction to Ireland for my parents!

The next day we headed out into the misty rain for a walking tour of Dublin.  It was very interesting to learn a bit more history of Dublin from a real Dubliner.  My dad loved it as he is a real history buff! We were ready for some lunch afterwards to warm up with some homemade soup and brown bread.  My dad fell in love with brown bread and Im pretty sure he had it at almost every meal.  Wish I could bring some home for you dad!

After that we went to go pack up and head to our train that would take us to Cork.  In typical Mork style, we ended up running for a few minutes to make the train just in the nick of time.  LOL.  It was grand.  We were so excited to find our seats and see that our names were next to them because my dad had booked the tickets ahead of time.  We got to Cork around dinner time and of course it was raining pretty steadily.  Welcome to Cork, mom and dad! Ha... We headed out into the rain to find a place for dinner and ended up at a place that serves really good crepes.

Our b&b was the best! Our hosts, Olive and Kieran were so kind and helpful giving suggestions and just having great conversation together.  We always had great breakfasts and they were so welcoming. Olive even let me borrow a suitcase for my travels! Such kindness...

Anyways, the first day in Cork we headed to the airport to pick up the rental car and we were ready for adventure! My dad was great with driving on the wrong side of the road and I think he maybe kinda liked it? We began the trek to the Cliffs of Moher and it ended up being such a perfect day.  I like to think my parents fell in love with Ireland just as much as I have in that one day :) We did some cliff walking and taking pictures and just admiring the beauty of the cliffs, ocean and sunshine.  We did some exploring around the area and ate at a pub in a small Irish town called Doolin.  Once again the brown bread emerged and seafood chowder also became a favorite for both my mom and dad.

The next day we decided to tour the Beara Peninsula and part of the Ring of Kerry.  It was a lot of driving for my dad but he was a trooper! I loved it because it was a new part of Ireland for me and the scenery was of course beautiful.  We drove up and down and through the mountains and saw so many sheep! My mom and I had a good time capturing funny pictures of all of the sheep.  We stopped at Ladies view on the Ring of Kerry to take a few pictures as well.  That night we ate at a nicer restaurant in Cork and I loved having them both in my city and being able to have good conversations with them.  We ended the night at a favorite pub of mine listening to live music from local musicians.

On my dad's last day, I gave them a tour of Cork! We started at my school, UCC, which I hope was fun for them to see where I had been spending some time this semester.  I brought them to the English Market, O'Connails hot chocolate, Carrolls, and a few other shops and bookstores.  And showed them some of my favorite places in Cork.  We ended that evening with dinner at another favorite pub with really good pizza and a soccer game on TV.

I absolutely loved showing them around my adopted country and city. I can only hope that they can see why I have fallen in love with Ireland in their snapshot view of the Green Isle!

Walking in Dublin!

Trinity College Library

Cliffs of Moher!

Cliffs of Moher

North Face Ad?

Dad, loving his fish and chips

Road tripping on a beautiful day

Mol's Gap on the Beara Peninsula! They got to experience some real Ireland wind.

One of the many sheep :)

My parents loving their homemade hot chocolate!

After my dad left, my mom and I headed to England! A different post to follow for that trip :)
I am loving Europe and all of the unique differences each country has to offer.  I cannot believe I have been blessed with this opportunity and it is all just going so fast! Before I know it i'll be back in Ireland and then back in the states.

I had such a grand time mom and dad, thanks a million for making the trip over to see me and have some adventures in Ireland!

Sending my love to family and friends back home!