The Final Countdown

The title of this post pretty much explains everything.

Exactly two months from today I will be back in the USA!

I can't believe my year is almost over. Crazy. I'll make sure to compile a "farewell post" soon. Not soon enough. BUT until September 3, I've still got a LOT to do here in Newcastle/elsewhere.

First off, Carly and I are taking another trip to Europe. We're going to Amsterdam and Brussels!! The cool part about this trip is that we're not taking any flights the entire trip. We'll be getting on a overnight ferry cruise to Amsterdam, taking a bus to Brussels and then taking a train from Brussels to Newcastle (with a connection in London).  That'll be our last trip until we each come home.  We're going to have a blast and I already can't wait to post about it :)

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The Great Big European Adventure Part 3

Congratulations everyone! You've made it to Part 3! In the final chapter in this story, I'll show you all the things we did in Prague and Berlin.


To read other parts:
Part 1 - click here
Part 2 - click here

Prague - April 7 - April 10

The next morning we boarded a bus to Prague. It was another fancy coach bus so we didn't mind it much.  Half way to Prague, our driver pulled over into a rest stop. I thought to myself "This is either a passport check or a very bad situation". Turns out it was a passport check.

*Quick backstory: Since the development of the Eurozone, the borders between countries aren't as restrictive as they had once been. The only time I had my passport stamped the entire trip was when I landed in Rome.  Travelling by bus or train, most countries usually won't bother checking/stamping passports.  Back to the main story.

The Prague police officers came up to Carly and I to check our passports. The check involved flipping through each page to see where we had been. Since I got my new passport (I lost it in Madrid in December) I ordered a 52 page book, since it was free so why not. And that police officer flipped through each and every page. I really didn't mind though because that is his job.  He then proceeded to ask me where I had been in Europe. I told him Italy, Austria and Germany. He asked why I didn't have any stamps. I was like:

Are you serious?

Obviously I didn't really say that out loud because I didn't want to be arrested. I told the officer that I didn't have any stamps because no one checked my passport as we traveled because we went by train.  He seemed confused that I wouldn't have gone through any kind of customs.  I immediately started showing him each of our train tickets and hostel receipts to show him where we had been. The guy was so overwhelmed and probably annoyed that he said it was okay and then left me alone to go to the next passenger.  Victory for me! I thought about it a bit longer and realized it was stupid for the police officers to check for stamps when they aren't given on every mode of international transport in the first place.

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The Great Big European Adventure Part 2

Welcome to Part 2, survivors!

This post will be all about Vienna and Munich!

To read other parts:
Part 1 - click here
Part 3 - click here

Continuing from where I left off, we woke up the next morning and were off for Vienna! Our final 45 minute water bus ride and we were at Santa Lucia train station.  Since we had purchased train tickets from our travel agent and these tickets said "train Santa Lucia" on them. We figured we were in the right place.

We made it to the station with 20 minutes to spare.  Our train wasn't listed on the departure board so we asked the travel desk where our train would depart.  To our profound surprise, the travel desk assistant pointed to a little section on our ticket that said 'bus'. We weren't taking a train, we were supposed to be on a bus.  A 4 hour bus ride to our train (a real train) connection in Villach, Austria. Fan-freaking-tastic. Naturally, we asked where the buses were parked.


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The Great Big European Adventure Part 1

Alrighty then.

Better late than never to post about my massive vacation I guess.

If you follow my blog/know me/stalk me you're already aware that I recently came back from a 17-day long trip across Europe with my friend Carly. I've been keeping notes the whole time and I'm going to try and tell you all the fun/strange/interesting things we experienced in a concise and entertaining matter.
These posts are going to work the same as the last trip I posted about. I'm going to blog about 2 cities per post for a total of 3 posts. I'm going to put fewer pictures since there are so many posts BUT I will provide links to my Photobucket account where you can see every single one of my almost 900 pictures :). Let's begin!

Click Read More to start

Sorry to Keep You Waiting

Hi everyone!

I apologize 1,000 times over for not posting in a month!! Ever since I got back from our Big Trip I have been working overtime to rewrite my dissertation proposal and complete two 4,000 word essays by the 18th.

which feels a lot like this

BUT I've been slowly working on my blog posts and I should have them up in 2 weeks or so. Yay!

In other news which will be expanded upon later:

• The sun is out all the time in Newcastle so its no longer unbearable here
• Yesterday I booked my flight home :) I'll be back in NJ on September 3
• I'm applying for a job and may have another one in the works so I can update you on that soon
• I'm doing some volunteering coming up as well so once that gets finalized I can let you know about that
• Carly and I are going to London next week and we'll hopefully meet up with some awesome La Salle friends

and possibly the coolest news of them all...

• WE ARE GOING TO THE OLYMPICS! Carly and I bought tickets for 3 soccer games that play in Newcastle! We're seeing Brazil v. New Zealand, Japan v. Morocco and Spain v. Honduras

That's all I have right now but I'll try to get the Big Trip posts out as soon as possible

xoxo Becstar

We're Back :)

This post is being typed from the comfort of my family room in Cranford, NJ!

Yes that is correct ladies and gentlemen, I AM HOME! Carly and I arrived in the USA on Tuesday in order to surprise our friends and family! I had an awesome surprise for my Cranford friends and then I met up with Carly at La Salle on St. Patrick's Day for another wonderful surprise and THEN I surprised my grandparents at their 50th wedding anniversary on Sunday.

It's been quite a whirlwind week!

Click "Read More" to see...more.

Soon to be Leaving Newcastle!

It's that time of the semester again!

Ladies and gentlemen this is our final full week in Newcastle for an entire month!!

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler doing interpretive dance of our excitement.

We are sooo excited because we are 1 week and 4 days away from our big continental Europe trip! Here's the map again for your reference:

Click "Read More" to see the map!

Weekend in London

Hi everyone!

So last weekend Carly and I took our first trip to London!  It was a 3 hour train ride and then a quick tube trip over to our hotel.  On the tube, Carly and I bought Oyster Cards. They're basically debit cards for the tube and they offer discounted rates.  All you do is put money on it as you need it and you can travel the tube! We saved ours for our next London trip. On to our hotel!

We stayed at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel

This is our room. Two queen beds. Clearly too fancy for the likes of Carly and I. 

Quite possibly the best rain shower ever 

 The fancy chicken burger from room service.

Our hotel was in a prime location.  It was close to a tube station and we could see some famous monuments right out our window!

 I forget what this building is called but it's a famous London building I swear.

 Chew Street?

 Tower Bridge and the Tower of London on the other side of our window.

Click below to read more!

The St. Mary's Singer, Travelling and a New Flatmate

(*Please note: This post was written 2 days ago and I didn't get around to posting it today so that's why the tenses of my sentences may be different)

Hi everyone

I'd like to introduce you all to a new character in the St. Mary's Family, The St. Mary's Singer (or SMS as she will be referred to hence forth).

Ever since I moved into my flat, every once in a while, I'd hear someone singing in the flat next to me.  It was always pretty muffled and I couldn't tell if it was a person singing or loud music playing. My room is at the end of the hallway and beyond my room's wall is a room in the next flat.  Normally it's pretty infrequent and only during the day. But lately it's gotten much worse.

Click 'Read More' to see the rest!

Scotland, twice, and Strange Visitors

Hi again!

Carly and I have been enjoying our extra 3 week vacation after we came home from Barcelona with some visitors!

My mom and brothers came for the New Year holiday and I was so happy to see them!  I went straight from the airport to their hotel since we had both arrived on the same day.  I had to take 2 buses and cross a highway to get there.  My suitcase almost got taken away by the wind because there was some storm raging across Newcastle that day but I managed to make it alive and with my suitcase intact

After touring Newcastle for the first day and a half, we spent a day in Edinburgh taking in the sights.  First we Edinburgh Dungeon.  It's not an actual dungeon but rather a walk-through tour of the various dark, evil and deadly happenings in Edinburgh's past.  It's a chain actually and I had been to the one in London and I thought it wasn't that scary at all so I decided to give this one a go with my family.

*Edinburgh travellers be warned: The Edinburgh Dungeon isn't some tourist-trap fake scary tour thing. It was legitimately terrifying.  It was dark, loud and just all around skin-crawling.  A family of 5 was on our trip and all the children were screaming to leave the entire time (the parents didn't want to leave so they stayed during the whole thing but that's a conversation for another day).

Click Read More to see the rest!

Home Invasion

While trying to think of something to post about this week, a genius idea came to mind.  I'm going to do something a bit different in this post.  I'm going to tell a story.

Before I begin I need to make clear that what you are about to read is 100% true.  It really happened to me and I did not make this up.  Although I wish I had because it was honestly the most terrifying moment in my life thus far.  So let's begin the tale...

Click Read More to Begin!

Barcelona

Welcome back readers! On to Part 3!

For other posts:

Click here to read about Paris (Part 1 of our vacation)

Click here to read about Madrid (Part 2 of our vacation)

December 24
Barcelona!

We hurried from the airport to our meeting point at the Hard Rock Cafe so we could check in for the hostel. It was an apartment style hostel so there was no check-in area in the building.  Carly and I were blown away by how nice and clean our Barcelona hostel was!

Click Read More to continue!

Madrid! Part 2 of Vacation

On to Part 2 of vacation!

If you need to read different posts:

Click here to read about Paris (Part 1 of our vacation)

Click here to read about Barcelona (Part 3 of our vacation)

December 20
Our first day in Madrid!

We left the terrible overnight train and made our way through the metro system to our hotel. Carly and I decided to buy a 10 trip metro pass to make our travels a little easier. We were impressed with our own cleverness.

Click Read More to continue!

Christmas Vacation! Paris, Madrid and Barcelona

Hey readers hey!

FINALLY I got a chance to post about my Christmas Vacation! I'm going to split it up into 3 separate posts but I'll include links to each post so you can read all 3 with ease.  Each post will be broken down by date to make things easier to read. (PS I did take all the pictures...except the maps obviously :) )

If you've already read my posts:

Click here to read about Madrid (Part 2 of our vacation)

Click here to read about Barcelona (Part 3 of our vacation)

We began our trip in Paris.

 December 17

Carly and I had to wake up at 5:45 am to make it to our 9am flight on time.  For the first time in my life, I flew on a budget airline and I have to say I was very impressed. It wasn't nearly as sketchy as it may sound.  Budget airlines are more widely available in Europe than the US.  And considering the US budget airline, Spirit, scares the crap out of me, this was a big step.

Click Read More to see what's next!