Don't want to leave

To Do: Lose plane ticket, miss bus to airport, sleep through alarm, lose passport

anything to stay

Paul

Pieces from London

Here is a list of things that I want to remember about my time in London. Some or many of them may not make sense to you, but to me they mean something now and I hope that they can trigger my memory in the future.

Baker Street, Elephant and Castle, Simon's 5 for 5, The Globe, The Metropolitan, Tutor Rose, The Volunteer, Oxford Street, Gordon's Wine Bar, Live band on Thursdays at O'Neil's, Picaddilly Sports Cafe, 2.50 double gin and tonics on Tuesdays, "Exit here for Zed-S-OW London Zoo", "This train terminates at Cockfosters", Covent Garden, Stanmore, Mind the Gap, Londy Pants, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Marlyebone St., N13, 453, N18, Fosters, Stella, Strongbow, Carlsberg ("Probably the best lager in the world"), Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Primrose Hill, 1.19 McFlurries, Way Out, Tube Runners, Oyster Card, saying "Cheers" in replace of "Thanks", Anderson Cooper, Rainy Days, green skinny jeans on St. Patty's Day, Luton Airport, Heathrow Airport, Stansted Airport, Gatwick Airport, early flights to other countries, national express, Easyjet, on average 5 games of euchre a day, BIC, hilarious Euro fashion, The Palace, James the desk attendant, Reid Hall, Regent's College.

Paul

Nice day in London

It was a beautiful day in London today so we walked around Regent's Park where we live. Check these pictures out

Brussels

Our trip to Brussels, Belgium was a John Carroll organized trip with all 30 kids from John Carroll and three professors. On Thursday we woke up at the break of dawn at 6 AM for our 7 AM meeting time. From school, we took the tube to Kings Cross/St. Pancreas train station and took the 2 and a half hour train ride to Brussels, the EU capital. From the train station in Brussels, the group took a bus to our hotel, but we were not able to check in so we just dropped our bags off. A tour guide gave us a very general walking tour of the city where we saw the Grand Place and sort of a town square area. We also got to see what is known as the "Manneken Pis" and as the name implies, it is a statue of a baby peeing into a a pool of water. Still can't decide what was cooler that or the Glockenspiel (a tourist joke) The tour guide also took us to the very first chocolate shop and it had the best chocolate I have ever had. After this we continued to walk around and ended up back at our hotel for check in. I roomed with Steve. The professors organized a trip to the European Parliament and when we got there we had an hour long power point presentation concerning everything about the EU Parliament. Needless to say almost everyone fell asleep during this time (including one professor) We did, however, get to the actual place where parliament takes place. We had to take elevators to get there and the reason that I say this is that a group of about 12 actually got stuck in the elevator which was pretty hilarious. We took a bus back to the hotel where Nick, Torrey, Newk, Steve and I went out for dinner (JCU gave us each 100 Euro for food) After dinner and several games of euchre, Steve and I went to bed at around 9 completely exhausted.

Friday, bright and early 7AM breakfast at the hotel (which was delicious) and another bus ride. This time it was to the NATO headquarters. They took us into a large conference room and failed to realize that at each of the seats there were these microphones that would broadcast over the speakers in the room (presumed for translators) You can see the fun that we had with these (yes, we are college students) We had three different presentations on different aspects of NATO and the U.S. influence on NATO. Interesting stuff. From NATO we took a bus back to the hotel where we were on our own for lunch. A large group of us went to a local Belgian fast food restaurant called Quick Quality Burger Restaurant (equivalent to McDonald's but not nearly as good) Went back to the hotel and took a bus ride to the EU Commission. Another powerpoint presentation about the EU (again) by that time we were all European Unioned out. From there Steve and I sat down at a pub and had a beer before meeting back up with the professors for dinner near the Manneken Pis. Great dinner followed by a search for a Karaoke bar which we could not find. We settled on a place called O' Reily's

Saturday, we were up at 8AM took a bus to the town of Leuven and met and insane tour guide (she got mad if people yawned or talked while she was talking). Took a walking tour of the town which was really beautiful. Leuven is home to the supposed best Catholic university in the world and it is a great college town with a little European flair . To me it was better that Brussels itself. The crazy tour guide lady took us into probably about six churches while walking around the city. Following this we had a group lunch in the town hall area of the city and had about an hour of free time afterwards. We then took a tour of what is known as Beguinage, which was a community of lay, single, women during the midieval period and is now home to apartment housing. After this we went back to te square where they literally had about 50 bars one right after another. The nice part about this is that the weather finally broke and we were able to sit outside until our bus came. Nap. Shower and Dinner and went out that night.

Sunday we were able to sleep in a little bit. After breakfast, Torrey, Steve and I walked the city until we had to be back at the hotel.

Brussels was a great way to finish my travels with a group of people who I now consider my family. It was also nice to travel with almost everything planned for you including where you are going and how you are getting there. So thanks to JCU and our professors that came with us.

Because we only have about 11 days left here in London, look out for several different blogs to come out this week such as what I'm going to miss most, or what I am looking forward to back home in America

Cheers,

Paul

Paris

Apologies for the delay on the blog. I've been really busy exploring all of the bars...er I mean studying

On Wednesday, April 8 Lauren came in town very late. So on Thursday, we got up early and walked to Oxford Circus (shopping area pretty close that Lauren really liked) Then we took the Tube to the Picadilly Circus/Leicester Square/Covent Garden Area and had lunch. (Covent Garden is one of my favorite areas) Following this, we took the tube back to campus and took a nap because walking around is so tiring. Around 6 Lauren and I went to a pub called the Tudor Rose with Corey, Newk, Newk's Sister, Torey and Steve. We all had a few beers and Lauren really liked a beer called Strongbow which is a cider beer that tastes kind of like apple juice. We walked back to campus and ate at the on campus restaurant with everyone. Later that night the whole group went to my favorite local pub/dance floor called O'Neil's where they have a live band that plays great music. After dancing the night away and taking a bus home, we finally went to sleep.

Friday morning, Steve, Corey, Lauren and I went to see the London eye, Big Ben (aka Big Bend), and Westminster Abbey. After fighting through the rain, Buckingham Palace was the next stop on the tour followed by Churchhill's War Bunker. Churchhill's bunker was really interesting. It is literally where he ran the country during WWII and was relatively unchanged from when it was last used. We took the tube back home and took another nap. Friday night I took Lauren to famous and well blogged about Gordon's wine bar. We decided to stay up all night for our 4 AM bus ride to the Luton Airport for our flight to France.

Saturday we took a 6 AM flight to Paris. Upon our arrival, we found our hostel and immediately took a nap after not sleeping the night before. We stayed about 3 minutes from the Arc de Triomphe which is a war memorial surrounded by a giant round about. So that was pretty cool. We walked around for a while and found the famous Eiffel Tower and luckily it was a beautiful day and we were able to walk outside in just shirts. I'm a big fan of the Eiffel Tower and the park that is below it along with the river. From the Eiffel Tower, we had a late lunch and took another nap at the hostel. Saturday night, we ate dinner and walked back to the Eiffel Tower. Amazing view at night very light up and occasionally sparkling lits go off all over the tower.

Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast. For Easter, we found a Catholic Church and went to a mass all in French. All I could understand was Alleuia and Amen, but it was still worth going. After mass, we walked to the Louvre and walked around that area for a very long time. I had heard that in Paris I needed to get a banana and Nutella crepe and we shared one. It was heaven on Earth. After the crepe-goodness, we went for a late lunch in a tourist area (can't remember exactly the name) After this, we left and checked out of hostel and took a bus to the airport for our flight back to London.

Final thoughts on Paris: From what I had heard, the people and Paris are jerks and are Anti-American etc. It may have been our luck or overall attitude, but we did not feel this way whatsoever. I thought the city was very pleasant and the people did not bother me at all. Paris was a great place to go and we were very lucky that the weather was excellent because it just made a beautiful city all more beautiful.

Continuing on... Sunday night was low key, just stayed in and hung out with my friends here. Monday we got up early and Steve Lauren and I walked along the River Thames to see the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We also had a fish and chips lunch along the river which was cool to do. Monday night, we went back to Gordon's with Steve and had a bottle of wine.

Tuesday we got up at 6:30 and took the tube to Heathrow Airport for Lauren's 10 AM flight home.

We had a great time! I was happy to be able to show off the city that I love!

Cheers, Paul

Pieces from London

Here is a list of things that I want to remember about my time in London. Some or many of them may not make sense to you, but to me they mean something now and I hope that they can trigger my memory in the future.

Baker Street, Elephant and Castle, Simon's 5 for 5, The Globe, The Metropolitan, Tutor Rose, The Volunteer, Oxford Street, Gordon's Wine Bar, Live band on Thursdays at O'Neil's, Picaddilly Sports Cafe, 2.50 double gin and tonics on Tuesdays, "Exit here for Zed-S-OW London Zoo", "This train terminates at Cockfosters", Covent Garden, Stanmore, Mind the Gap, Londy Pants, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Marlyebone St., N13, 453, N18, Fosters, Stella, Strongbow, Carlsberg ("Probably the best lager in the world"), Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Primrose Hill, 1.19 McFlurries, Way Out, Tube Runners, Oyster Card, saying "Cheers" in replace of "Thanks", Anderson Cooper, Rainy Days, green skinny jeans on St. Patty's Day, Luton Airport, Heathrow Airport, Stansted Airport, Gatwick Airport, early flights to other countries, national express, Easyjet, on average 5 games of euchre a day, BIC, hilarious Euro fashion, The Palace, James the desk attendant, Reid Hall, Regent's College.

Paul

Prague

Did not get any sleep Thursday night due to the fact that we had to get up at 3:30 and take a bus to Stansted airport. for a 7 AM flight. The flight to Prague was about two hours and we pretty much slept the entire time. To give you an idea of how we got from the airport to Newk's friend's apartment (where we were staying) Here are the directions that he gave us because he had been their for a day already:

"gotta buy a train/bus ticket at the airport, buy the 26 crown tickets not the all-day pass. Get on the number 119 bus and take it to the end. Then follow the general flow of traffic to the metro station, ur guys bus tickets are good for that too. Hop on the train that goes to Mustek stop. This is where it gets real tricky and I was lost doing this part for awhile. There are three or four exits to the street at this stop so pick one and either find Valclavske or Ne Mastek or ask somebody. Both those streets will turn into Melantrichova street. Take that, then a left on Vejvodova. This is the hardest part and I kinda wandered after taking the left until I randomly stumbled upon their street: Michalska. Their flat is number 13 on the left, the numbers are kind of out of order, not to add insult to injury. You are going to be have to let up so buzz the number c.7 doorbell. Let me know when u get this and also let me know what time your flight is scheduled to land tomorrow. Meryl's cell number is +420 7316 72 999 if you have any problems. I lost my cell phone today so don't bother trying that. Good luck i tried making the directions as painless as possible even though thats a tough task. Peace"

Riiiiight Newk. Favorite part of these directions: "There are three or four exits to the street at this stop so pick one" The hilarious part about this is that we did find the apartement that we were staying at very easily.

When we got there, we decided to walk around for a while and Meryle (Newk's friend) gave us a walking tour of the city She took us to Old Square which is a touristy area where there is a famous clock which is a big attraction. She walked us over the Charles Bridge and took us to what is known as the Lennon Wall that is a large grafitti mural. From there she took us to the Prague castle at the top of a large hill that overlooked the city. Barack Obama actually gave a speech there on Sunday, and though we were not able to go to it, we were able to see people setting up for it which was cool.

Being dead tired from not sleeping the night before, all of us took a nap in the late afternoon. After waking us groggy, we went to dinner and then back to Meryle's apartment. She then took us to a very cool wine bar (almost like our favorite one here in London) where we drank cheap wine and met a lot of people from all over. Newk claims to have swayed the opinions of some Czech people from that of them hating Americans to them liking Americans (but Newk likes to make things up). From there, we went to another kind of local spot where we stayed out entirly too late.

Saturday, we did more of the same because Meryle had one of her friend's come in town. Saturday night we went to a 5 story Euro club that played different music on every floor. Pretty cool.

Final thoughts on Prague: It was one of my favorite cities that I have been too. I have heard it is very cold though, luckily it was about 75 degrees and sunny while we were there which definately made it better. In my opinion, Prague was a combination of a lot of cities that I have been to: it had a flair of Madrid, a little bit of Venice, Munich, and London. One of the major difficulties that we had there was the language barrier. Who speaks Czech? It seems impossible to learn as well. Overall it was a great weekend!

Cheers,

Paul

p.s. my friends were on CNN: http://ht.cdn.turner.com/cnn/big/podcasts/ac360/video/2009/04/03/cooper.podcast.new.thursday.cnn.m4v

they are about a quarter of the way through. Pretty cool