Packing Up Our Peacock Feathers

While studying abroad offered me the absolutely unique and fantastic opportunity to immerse myself into a new culture as something more than a tourist stopping by to admire the art work, the chance to explore and travel across Europe was one of the biggest reasons I decided of go on this crazy adventure! When I first met with the professor in charge of the study abroad office at home, I had no idea what all I wanted out of studying abroad other than the time of a lifetime in England. However, as soon as she said "You'll have a three-week-long break in the spring. Take advantage of it!" the wheels in my mind began turning.

And now, here I am. Twelve weeks into my grand adventure with a full backpack at my feet and a stomach full of butterflies. In 48 hours I will be spending my first night in Paris!

It's been really difficult to even wrap my mind around the fact that I will be spending my spring break not only in Paris, but back packing from there to Venice, then to Vienna, then to Prague, and then, finally, to Amsterdam! For one, I've been so wrapped up in finishing all of my coursework (one 3,000 word creative piece, one 2,000 aesthetics paper, and two 2,000 papers on feminist and postmodernist art -- whew!) and the ending of the semester to even grasp that it's was only days away! Secondly, since my friend Rebecca and I had a travel agency sorting all of our coaches/trains/hostels out we would simply forget that the adventure would soon be underway.

For the longest time, Paris was the only city that was ever really clear in my mind as a destination to really get excited over. Ever since I was five, I've wanted to make it to the Louvre and explore all of the artwork that I've only seen in history books. As I've grown, my wishlist for Paris only grew: Notre Dame, Shakespere and Co., Eiffel Towel, La Rotonde, Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, and so much more! Paris has always been a wish, a dream, in my mind and I cannot believe that I'm finally, finally, FINALLY going to get there!

Because Paris is such a big thing in both Rebecca and I's minds, we are still unable to believe that we're going to be in so many other cities. It was only two days ago that it finally his Rebeccaa that we're going to be in Vienna and visiting Mozart's house. And I only just began to grasp that I've going to be in the heart of canals and Italian Renaissance architecture in Venice! The rest of the trip, Prague and Amsterdam, are cities that we cannot believe that we're actually seeing and all we can go is crack jokes about them.

So far, Prague is the silliest city in our minds. It is the city of hilarious exceptions. It is the only city where the main language is isn't close to one that Rebecca or I have studied (At least we know how to say hello. "Ahoy!"). It is the only city outside of the Euro zone (Czech money is covered with fabulously bearded people!). It is the only city we are reaching by a day train (all of our other travel is at night). It is the only city where we wen't able to locate our hostel on the map in the guide book

It is literally right on the edge of the map!

Prague is, as we like to call it, one big YOLO. Luckily another group of girls we know from the BCA program is going to Prague as well and, hopefully, if we both have wifi we can get some tips about traveling through Prague.

With all of this thought of travel in the last few days, I accidentally worked myself into a bit of mania and nearly planned and booked a trip to Barcelona for the few days I will be spending in Cheltenham alone after the end of my two week tour while everyone else will be traveling. For a while I've been a bit cranky over the fact that I wouldn't be able to get to Barcelona or Rome since I had no one else who would be free to travel with me and I guess it finally got to me. While I'm not going right after my two week adventure, I'm going to use my time in the five cities to gauge how confident I feel about the idea of traveling to Spain and Italy on my own. If I am feeling up for it, I think that I'm going to take myself to there during the second week of May -- right between my trip to London to see some Shakespeare and a trip with some other BCA girls to Scotland. 

Essentially, I am going to be traveling and exploring from here until I fly back to the states and these next two months are going to be both extremely fantastic and extremely exhausting -- in the best way! I am so glad to finally be only a sleep away from beginning the spring break adventure that I've been looking forward to for yeas. I'm so glad that I'm going to be exploring Europe with a friend who is as excited about culture, good food, and good times as I am. Even though we were unable to track down some peacock feathers,  I'm so excited to begin such an amazing journey as Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. (Yes, we have been making Darjeeling Limited references to each other ever since we began planning this trip!)

     

I highly doubt that I will be able to write another blog post until I get back to England on the 19th, so until then I bid you all adieu and leave you with the song Rebecca and I will be singing nonstop over the next few days.

Love and Rockets,
Emily!