A Month in Prague

So I have officially been lucky enough to call this beautiful city home for a just over month now! 

Happy monthaversary to me.....

The time has flown! I have already visited so many places, and the list of places I'm planning on travelling to just keeps on growing. 

Winter has arrived here. It arrived overnight, literally. Three days ago I was walking in a strappy top and sunnies, and now I'm huddled in woolly clothes, a coat and wishing I can take my blanket with me everywhere,

Autumn is stunning in this city. As there are quite a lot of trees on various islands in the river and parks around, they have been changing everyday. I can highly recommend visiting at this time of year, and I just hope that the rest of the year will be equally as beautiful.

It still feels like I'm not really here. I don't quite know how to word it... I'm living my fairytale. Yet, it doesn't feel real. Although I am living here, and have a bank account here, and have a Czech phone number, and I walk to school everyday, I still feel I'm on this working holiday. I don't know if any other Erasmus students feel the same? 

The way of life over here is much different too. People aren't afraid to go out to a restaurant alone, people take their dogs for a walk at all times of the day or night. This city never sleeps. I have been awake at various hours of the day, and it is never quiet. 

There are days when living alone in a great big scary city where all you can say is "Good day" is very hard, I think in the month I have been here, I have had two of those days. The amazing days completely outnumber and make the crappy days worth it. There is so much to do here, and so much of the city to explore that I never ever have a reason to say that I am bored. 

My friends here are great, and I'm having the best time of my life. I need to pinch myself almost every day to prove that I have done this completely amazing thing, which I will treasure for the rest of my life. A year ago, this was only my dream. 

P.s. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to go back to the UK and pay more than £1 for only a pint of beer, not have Becherovka in every corner shop, and no proper Milka. Seriously, the food/drinks here are amazing!

Travels | A Weekend in Bratislava

So, I had heard so so so many different things about Bratislava.

I had heard it was beautiful. 
I had heard it was soul-less.
I had heard it was cultural.
I had heard it was concrete.

I was supposed to have gone throughout my inter-railing trip with my Cariad, however due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to head to Budapest a day later, and we fell in love with Budapest so much that we decided not to visit Bratislava.

Anyway, seeing as Prague is so close* and its very easy to travel around Europe from here, a friend and I decided (with the additional help of a plentiful amount of beer, of course) to book the bus and go to Bratislava!

*By close I mean, 4 hours on a bus.

Before we knew it, the little trip for the two of us became a trip for six of us. It was super fun travelling with new friends and sharing this experience of heading to a brand new country and city!

So we travelled by coach with a company called Student Agency. I know what you're thinking.... "ew, who wants to travel by coach?!" Well, I'll give you lots of reasons why:

• Free tea, coffee and hot chocolate
• TV screens with films/series in Czech and English
• .....It's super cheap! (And 10% extra off if you have an ISIC card!)

Seriously, I'm definitely going to be taking advantage of this company. They're so great. 

So we arrived. And sure enough, the bus station was basically a concrete block plonked right in the middle of nowhere. As we were walking, it was full of concrete. There were no sign posts anywhere, so we wandered aimlessly, waiting for some sort of sign to show us the way to the centre.

After about 20 minutes, we found the historical centre. It was very very strange as it was as if somone had just placed an old historical Eastern European city centre in the middle of concrete blocks! 

We spent the first day mainly wandering and exploring. We found our way up to the castle, however we didn't go in because not everyone was interested. 

We wandered aimlessly around before stepping through a portal to World War II. Not really. But we did step through an arch to find a show of things from WWII, and people dressed up in costumes marching up and down. Very odd.

We headed out for dinner, and afterwards we decided to hit the pubs and clubs. One small issue, Bratislava isn't the best city for a night out. We had a good night, however it was expensive and there didn't seem to be much choice in where to go. 

The next day, we were all feeling a little worse for wear. We decided on having a relaxing morning looking through the marketplace and visiting the museum. If you find yourself in Bratislava, I can highly recommend going to visit the City Museum in the Old Town hall. I got an insight into the complicated history of the city and country. We climbed to the top of the clock tower and there were some pretty fantastic views up there. 

After a pancake lunch, it was almost time to catch our bus back to our home in Prague. So back we went to the concrete slab of a bus station, and basked in the sun before the 5 hour trip back home.

P.s. Sorry about the quality of some of the photos. Ironically, the ones with good quality were taken on my phone. I'm still figuring out how to use my FancyPants Camera. 

Travels | 24 Hours at Oktoberfest

About a month ago, the Erasmus Events people here in Prague organised a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. It cost us 1200Kc, which is the equivalent to around £35 - BARGAIN.

However, there was a catch. We left Prague at 6 am, and left Munich at 3am. It would be 24 hours or drinking beer, partying and making new friends.

When we arrived in Munich, Oktoberfest was pretty hard to miss. You could see the streams of people dressed in traditional Bavarian costume and leiderhosen walking towards the park. The Oktoberfest area itself was massive. Probably around the same size as the centre of the city.

There were thousands and thousands of people. And they were all dressed up. We were the minority - as we were dressed in "normal" clothes. I'd never felt like that before.

You'd walk down the centre of the of the area and there'd be a massive beer tent (I say tent, I mean giant wooden building) every other door - ON BOTH SIDES! I can't put into words how many there were!!

We eventually picked one, We tried to find one without a massive queue (IMPOSSIBLE), We also somehow managed to get a a bench. It was amazing. Inside I'd never seen anything like it. There were so many people, and there was what I can only describe as an Oom-Pah band in the centre. (As a musician, I feel slightly disappointed for not having a proper word...!!) 

The beer was gorgeous. It just slipped right down. Very expensive, mind you. After getting used to the 30Kc (£1ish) for half a litre in Prague, spending €10 for a litre stein was painful. Worth it though. There's no point complaining about the price of beer when you're at the world's biggest beer festival. Am I right?

We each had 2 of these, joined in with the drinking Oom-Pah songs and made some new German friends.

"Would you like some beer with that foam?"

We left, and after spending AN HOUR queuing for the toilet, we headed out of the park to explore the city and find some food. I'm going to be completely honest with you now, after drinking 2 litres if beer, your head begins to get a little fuzzy.

We had some food, and then found a cool looking bar. I even met a chap who was on holiday from Pembrokeshire and we chatted in Welsh for a bit. See, us Welshies can always find each other!

The Erasmus organisers had also managed to book a club for us to party the night away, which we happily did. Although compared to Prague, and the UK, the drinks were so expensive. €6.40 for a rum and coke!! Absolute joke.

Anyway, we danced the night away and we had a great time. We left Munich at around 3am, and I arrived back in Prague at 9:30am on Sunday. It was a brilliant and well spend 24 hours!

World Mental Health Awareness Day

Hello chaps.

I'm going to be speaking to you about something quite serious and quite close to my heart. Mental health.

The term "mental illness" has a lot of negative connotations with it, and it is an umbrella term for disorders such as anxiety, depression, stress, eating disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and PTSD.

So many people get affected by this every year, at any age.

I've suffered from my dose of mental illness, and looking back I've suffered more than once. The first few times I didn't know what was happening to me. The last time (which if you've been reading this blog for a while) will know that my most recent "attack" was just over a year ago.

As a result, my grades were affected in college, I lost my relationship and I lost some of my best friends. I believe that if those who turned from me in my time of need had understood what was happening to me and why I wasn't "the girl they met in freshers" (as someone delightfully put it), I would have had the strength to get better sooner. However, this was not the case, and I spent my entire second year in college rebuilding my life.

Just as a disclaimer, I'm not saying that I was completely faultless in this example. I was a monster.

Out of my 6 closest friends, 4 of them have suffered from various mental health issues. I have tried to be there as best as I could for them, but there have been times where I didn't understand what was going on. This also shows that there are lots and lots of people out there who are suffering right now and they may not have anyone to turn to.

Mental illness isn't always a long term thing, just like a common cold isn't permanent. However, if you don't treat your cold pretty quickly it can get much worse and you get very ill. It's the same for mental illnesses. except the symptoms are different for everyone, and are quite often much more severe.

I thought I was going crazy, My friends were saying that I was going crazy. I thought it was my fault. I didn't know who to talk to because I didn't want to seem like a burden.

This is pretty common for people who suffer from mental illness, and I urge everyone out there to get as much information about different disorders and how to cope if you begin feeling these symptoms or start to notice your friends showing signs of illness.

Please, for goodness sake, don't tell them that they're going crazy. Let them know in your own little way that you're there for them. If that is climbing into bed with them at 2pm because they haven't got the strength to get up, or buying them their favourite chocolate, holding their hand while they're panicking, or even giving them the chance to get away for a few days. They will appreciate it, and it will allow them to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope this has opened your mind to the severity, the commonness and the importance of understanding mental illnesses. If this post influences one person to help another, I couldn't even explain how happy that would make me.

Also, if you feel like you are becoming overwhelmed with scary feelings, and you feel trapped, then please please speak to someone you can trust. A friend, a teacher, a parent, a sibling, a doctor, anyone, and soon, mental illness will be treated with the seriousness it deserves.

Love you all,
Harri xxx

Travels | Home - Stonehenge - Bonn - Leipzig - Prague

We had a mental 4 days of travelling to Prague. It was somehow decided that we would have a family roadtrip. After days and weeks of planning, a route was formed.

However, it had been discovered during a family conversation around the dinner table that I had never been to Stonehenge. My parents were shocked that I'd never been and were surprised that I hadn't had a school trip there or anything. So it was decided that we'd stop there on the way.

I'm not going to lie, the place seems like a massive tourist trap. I mean, I am fascinated with how they got there and why were they built, but so many people seemed to go just to say that they had been, get me? I think it would be a really magical place if there weren't coaches and coaches of tourists. There was a really big visitors centre there, it looked like it had been built there fairly recently. I couldn't help but to wonder, if they hadn't made a big hoo-ha out of the place by building this fancy visitors centre, then would there be a big hoo-ha about the stones?

My parents said that when they went (about 20 years ago, mind) there was only a little shack there and it was free to go in and you could just happily wander around the stones and then return to the car that you parked in a field.

obviously I had to have my own tourist photo though.

Next stop was Bonn, Germany. We stayed over in Gatwick before having an early morning chunnel train to Calais. This was the day that we drove in 5 countries in one day. It was a spectacular performance. UK, France (for half an hour), Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. It took about 5 hours, I believe.

We stayed in a little hotel between Cologne and Bonn, so we umm-ed and aah-ed for a while about where to go have a meal, and we decided Bonn, as that was the birthplace of one of my favourite ever composers (excellent grammar there, truly great) Beethoven. The museum had closed by the time we arrived, which was disappointing but ah well, I have stood outside the great composer's first home!

Another tourist photo: Beethoven's birthplace!!

Our third and final stop before arriving in Prague was Leipzig. Yes there is another musical connection here too (can you spot a theme yet??) Bach's grave. We drove through Germany for another 5 hours and we arrived at our hotel which was so lovely! We headed into the centre in the hope that we would be able to see the grave, but as it is in St Thomas Church right in the centre of the city, and we arrived in the evening....it was closed. Which was a shame, but I am hoping to head back to Leipzig for a weekend, maybe, and try to see it. I've visited this city twice now and not seen the grave so hopefully, third time lucky?

Luckily there's a massive statue outside the church for my tourist photo!! Ha

The next day we arrived in Prague and moved into the flat. I live on the third floor, and there's no lift, so I felt that I had done probably about a weeks worth of exercise just moving into the flat!!

Leave in the comments if you've been to any of these places and what you thought :)

xxx

Remember Me? I live in Prague now.

Yes, Hello. You guys remember me? Some people have still been reading some pages...so hello to you!

#dailycommute

I haven't posted in over two weeks *SHOCK HORROR* but in all fairness, I have been trying to get my brand new shiny life working over here in a strange new city and country.

I live in Prague now, and every morning I wake up and can't quite believe that I live here. I have the most beautiful view ever on my daily commute to university and I am so very lucky.

I have my own little flat. There have been Ikea trips and almost daily trips to the homewares department in my local Tesco. (YES WE HAVE TESCO AND I AM SO EXCITED.)

I have picked up my ISIC card, so I am officially an international student. It's crazy to think that this is going to be my home for a whole year!

I am planning on doing so much travelling, but I'm still figuring out the logistics of it all..!

Ok so this was a brief catch-up, I promise there'll be more blogs!!

Write in the comments if you've been here or if you have anywhere travel-wise that you recommend :)