My Summer Travels: Prague, Czech Republic

Hola lovelies!

Our cool musically themed room!

So after we left Vienna we were very excited to be going to Prague. After 5 hours on a train entertaining ourselves (cue games of poker with sunglasses on and beers on the table...)!

We finally arrived in Prague and found our way to our top floor apartment just outside of the centre of Prague, it was pretty cool with different themed rooms!

After visiting some museums (like the beer museum which was fun to visit) we decided to visit a popular tourist destination.. Charles Bridge. The day was fairly warm and the sun was out for most of the day. Charles Bridge was really nice, full of stalls of arty things and buskers which made the atmosphere on the bridge that little bit more exciting. 

Charles Bridge from afar

We also managed to visit that day the John Lennon wall which was a very surreal place, there was Beatles music being played as we got there. The wall was in a very unsuspecting place, nothing was around and it wasn't that busy. I felt like it was a little unknown gem of Prague. 

On the way there too we saw a little bridge that was full of love locks, similar to the one in Paris but REALLY small in comparison. I loved this little quarter of Prague, it felt like it was the tourists way of saying how much they loved Prague.

Love Locks and John Lennon wall

We also managed to go to Old Town Square where we saw the astronomical clock. Whilst here we were also bombarded with people on segways! All of them trying to offer us deals to go on a segway for a day.. really expensive though!

In the evenings Prague had a nightclub that was meant to be the largest in central Europe, it had 5 floors and an ice bar haha! But also very cheap beer, so that obviously pleased all of us. It was a lot of fun and we spent most of our time in the 'oldies' room - who doesn't enjoy all the old classics?!

Dan and I in the club!

So, as this was the last place on our trip we had one last meal in a very cute café (feeling slightly hungover) and got a plane back to London. 

The trip was some of the most fun I've had, I loved travelling around and I definitely will do more in the future, without a doubt!

This is also the last post in this series! I hope you've enjoyed it.. let me know in the comments if you have!

I have some plans for future posts so watch this space :-)

Which country is your favourite? Have you ever been to Prague?

Bethany x

My Summer Travels: Vienna, Austria

Hola lovelies!

The view from Schönbrunn Palace looking over the gardens

After 4 nights in Budapest, it was time to move on to a different country. We caught a train at 6am to Vienna, Austria! I had heard how beautiful this city was so I was excited to see it in the flesh. I was not disappointed! 

We were only there for 2 days and 1 night so we tried to cram in as much as possible whilst we were there. We stayed near the Schönbrunn Palace, about a 10 minute walk away, which was perfect. Not only was the palace an amazing sight, the gardens surrounding the palace were absolutely stunning. I couldn't help but take about 10,000 pictures of everything. The gardens were so peaceful and were unlike anything I'd seen in any other European countries.
Dan and I spent a long time here, just taking the sights in and trying to get over the amazing views. The others we were travelling with were arriving later in the day as we got different trains to Vienna. 

Schönbrunn Palace

View looking over the gardens, Palace and the city

Vienna also had a very famous cathedral - St Stephen's Cathedral - which was so beautiful. We visited the inside and could have walked up the 400 steps to the top.. however we had very aching feet from all the walking and decided not to (we already had really good pictures of the view of Vienna from the palace!). 

St Stephen's Cathedral

Dan and I also visited the Rathaus (Townhall) whilst the others visited the palace we had seen the day before. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision as we ran off the metro stop, but turned out to be a nice one. The townhall wasn't spectacular but there was a lovely park next to it, and we saw a part of a carnival.. not sure what it was celebrating but it was a colourful parade and very cool!

Rathaus building

The cute park next to the Rathaus

On our only evening of Vienna, we went for drinks in a very classy place (after having lost each other and thinking we were at the same metro station for around 40 minutes..! haha). It was actually in a square surrounded by museums - in Museumquartier. The drinks were ridiculously expensive but I stretched to 5 euros for a small beer and admired my surroundings. As everyone was a bit tired, we decided to save going out until we got to Prague, so got some 1 euro pizza (delicious and the loveliest man served us!) and currywurst and went back for the night. 

River Danube at sunset 

I would love to revisit Vienna again for a longer period of time as I think we weren't able to delve deep enough into the city in two days! 

Have you ever visited Vienna? What did you do whilst you were there?

Follow me for updates on when I post my next post on Prague in this travel series!

Bethany x

My Summer Travels: Budapest, Hungary

Hola lovelies!

 
After I came back from Montpellier, it wasn't long until I was back on a plane travelling again. This time it really was a holiday.. no school involved (yay!). Early September some friends, my boyfriend and I embarked upon a little European tour, where we visited Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Today's post looks at Budapest. It was a city that I can definitely see myself living in when I'm older, or at least revisiting!

Some elephants in Budapest Zoo

Not only was the nightlife very busy - we went to some crazy bars and pubs - but the history and architecture was beautiful. Personally, I'm not normally one for commenting on art but even I could appreciate it.

Heroes Square

There was one monument that really caught my eye, it was the Statue of Liberty which was situated on the top of a massive hill. The statue was a woman holding a feather above her head, and it represented Hungary being free from Nazi power. I really loved it as it reminded me of what this city had seen not that long ago. Also the views from the top were amazinnng! 

Statue of Liberty

The view from the top - looking over the River Danube

We were only there for 4 nights and 3 days so had to fit in a lot in a very small space of time, but I think we managed pretty well! 

Follow me for updates on when I post my next one in this series! 
Hope you enjoyed :-)

Bethany x

My Summer Travels: Montpellier, France

Hola lovelies!

So I have had probably the best summer EVER! 

My summer started in June and I will return to university pretty soon, in about a week.. sad but also exciting! However, I have managed to pack in so many things! I am planning to do a series on the different places I have visited, with some pictures of sights I saw and people I shared my experiences with. 

The first instalment in this series is Montpellier, in the South of France. I spent three weeks here at a summer school as part of my university course, as I study French and Spanish. These three weeks were absolutely amazing and jam packed full of learning and cultural discoveries. The weather was perfection, however I did find the heat difficult when in 4 hour lessons during the day! I love the look of Mediterranean cities, the colours are predominantly light and the buildings are painted unusual colours - a nice change from the British greys. 

We visited so many places, too many to put a photo of everything on this post. Being so close to the coast though allowed for the breathtaking coastal views nearly every place we visited. I ate at so many little French cafés and probably ate my body weight in gelato, which in my book only tells me that I enjoyed myself to the fullest. Every Friday in La place de la Comédie in the centre of Montpellier, there was 'Les Estivales' where little craft and food stores lined the square and live music was playing in each corner. It seemed like everyone came here each Friday and we weren't even deterred by the hour long thunderstorm that we experienced the first Friday. It was a lovely atmosphere as everyone scoured the stalls by night, listening to music, eating good food and drinking good (but inexpensive) wine! 3 glasses for 5 euros definitely caught our eye! 

Although I learnt a lot of French, and essentially spent three weeks soaking up the French culture and trying to pretend to be Française, it wouldn't have been the same without the 20 something other students who were also on the trip. 

 I can't wait to revisit Montpellier, and other southern cities of France, and eat more chocolate brioche everyday for 50p (and learn and use French... of course hehe).

Have you ever visited Montpellier or the South of France? 

Bethany x