british accents & big, red buses.

big ben

our last stop on our european adventure..... LONDON.

this was round-two for me in london (two years later) and i loved it just as much this time around. it was fun to be surrounded by english again but in british accents, even better. we stayed with brion & bethany in chigwell who were far too kind to open their living room up to us. as i said it last time, i would love to live in london for some period of time in my life. maybe one day? these pictures about sum up our time in london:

london's soho area

our first morning in london (alicia hadn't arrived yet - long story)

camden town market - so fun!

making a pit stop at hogwarts

yield = give way. love it.

we found the muffin man!

taxi//

hyde park

buckingham palace

the cutest guards around

westminster abbey where prince william & kate were married.
we attended a service here for the church of england and it was really interesting. all about prayers for the royal family.

taking off to neverland

up, up & away

an empty train ride to chigwell

an "underground" sign

the four months away from home was a huge success.

so many wonderful people met.

so much breath-taking scenery.

lots of history learned.

and memories that will never be forgotten.

we were forever changed.

berlin

brandenburg gate

I am finally blogging the last two cities on our european adventure. i can't believe how fast time has flown since i've been home but here it goes; after prague we made our way on a five-hour train to berlin, germany. a lot more english was found the more northern we got in europe and we probably heard it the most in germany (other than london... obviously ;). a nice, german woman helped us find our hostel which was brand new and really nice. it was the first time we stayed in a big dorm room with bunk beds but we were willing to save as much money as possible seeing as we'd been traveling for three weeks by then. but surprisingly the people in the dorm were all really nice and i slept like a baby since we were so exhausted every night.

The first thing that comes to mind about berlin (i'm really recalling everything by memory now since i've waited eight months to blog this) is the weather. it was COLD. we had to layer every warm item of clothing we brought and it was still pretty darn chilly because of the wind. but luckily we survived. berlin has so much history but a lot of it is hard to be seen since most of the city was destroyed in the cold war and has been re-built since then so a lot of the scenery is newer and more modern compared to the other european cities we visited.

I'm so glad we were able to take a walking tour of the city because there is so much about the history we wouldn't have learned without a tour-guide. we made a stop in the middle of a random apartment complex parking lot and found out that under that parking lot was hitler's bunker and that is where he was killed. however, they have obviously made no notice of it so that people don't worship it... or blow it up.

holocaust memorial

Going to the holocaust memorial in berlin was a very humbling experience. it is made up of a bunch of different sized blocks that you can walk in between and sort of get lost in. the ground is uneven through out the memorial. it was designed that way so when you go in it it is very unsettling and unpredictable which is probably how many people felt through out the war.

Then underground is the holocaust museum with many stories of Jews that suffered in concentration camps and lost their lives. there were letters written to families and journal entries that had been found. it was really hard to take it all in. our tour-guide told us that even now there is sort of a certain feeling in berlin of people who have not long ago lost so much and are still getting over it. it was a big eye-opening experience.

Berlin definitely had the best frankfurts (hot dogs) around. and German was still way over my head by the time we left however we did learn "ich liebe dich" which means "i love you".... and i feel that is always a good thing to know in any language.

praha

PRAGUE, czech republic

sleeping in a park

1500 czech koruna ($75 usd)

"world famous astrological clock"

charles bridge

prague was a dreamland.

and i felt like i needed to pinch myself several times just to see if i would wake up.

the first morning in prague will never be forgotten.

we arrived by train at 4am. & we felt like we had stepped into another world.

the language was the most foreign we had heard yet and the money felt like monopoly money.

i took 600 czech korunas out of an atm and was a little freaked out about how much money i had actually taken out... turns out it was only about 24 euros (30 dollars).

but since we had arrived so early we had to find our hostel in the dark & once we arrived they told us we couldn't check in til the afternoon. whaaaat? where were we going to go so early in this strange, new city?

we went back to the subway station and settled in one of the hallways. we felt so dirty in there. and we were exhausted and wanted to sleep but there was no way we could get comfortable.

so then we went outside again & found the nearest park. we settled on the cold grass under a tree.

we layered on our warmest clothes, used our handy airplane blankets (thank you delta) and tried to snuggle up to get warm & hopefully catch a few zzzz's. only alicia actually slept though (that girl can sleep anywhere). savannah & i just laughed at how the people walking past the park on their way to work kept looking at us like the bums we were.

our first experience as hobos? check.

after that our experience of prague got much, much better.

the city was breath-taking. literally every nook & cranny was so pretty.

i wish our pictures actually captured the beauty of it.

we really didn't know much about prague but after having so many people tell us we had to stop there while backpacking europe; we took their word for it and this city stands out in my mind every time i look back on our adventures. i will definitely be going back there someday.