So after returning from my weekend trip to Maastricht, I headed off to London again. This time, I did a sweep of the English countryside, hitting Ascot, Oxford, Bath, the Vale of the White Horse, the Glastonbury Tor and Abbey, and Stonehenge two and a half days. I cheated though – my father was in town and rented a car to drive me around. I highly recommend seeing the sights in Glastonbury – the view from the top of the Tor is incredible. Oxford was super pretty, and close to London. You can also go punting there if you’re into small tipsy boats. The Vale of the White Horse isn’t worth going to if you’re on a budget – it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and the whole white chalk horse is only visible by air. I had fun running around that hilltop, though. It also has a great view. Bath is something of a party town in addition to having some lovely ruins and cathedrals. Stonehenge is, of course, memorable. I’m happy that it is still surrounded by green hills, and the highway that runs near it will be moved underground soon.
After a day’s break in Amsterdam, I went to Prague. I’m a regular jetsetter these days! I wonder if all jetsetters get terrible colds as a result. Prague is hilly too. Not a good place to be if you’re on the verge of dying, but I survived. The lovely exchange rate helped ease my pain. I just bought ice cream at every vendor I saw.
If you go to Prague, beware of the transportation system. No one checks your ticket like they do in Amsterdam and tickets are only available in Metro stations, but being caught without a valid ticket will set you back 400 koruna – about 15 euros. That happened to me and my friends, unfortunately. It was our first day and we got stranded without tickets or a way to purchase them, and my friends weren’t carrying enough cash to pay for the ticket, so the disguised police officers followed us to an ATM. That was odd. We became convinced they weren’t actual officers – their badges were just laminated cards similar to the ISIC card. The moral of the story: Always have extra tickets on you!
We took a day trip to Karlovy Vary, the famous spa town about two hours by bus from Prague. Getting there was easy – there are hourly buses that cost about 90 koruna if you have an ISIC card (the only valid student ID in Prague). The town was beautiful, but we faced some serious student discrimination. We were excited to spend on some self-pampering, but we were rebuffed without explanation by two separate hotels that advertised spa treatments. So beware if you decide to visit. The town also focuses more on medicinal treatments than the usual beauty salon services.
The city was overall a trifle depressing, although that may have been due to my illness. The people were friendly and the service in the restaurants we visited was pretty uniformly good. We did spend literally an hour wandering the streets trying to find a restaurant listed in one of our guide books, only to be informed by a kind Czech native that the restaurant had closed nearly three years ago. Another food story: We went to a Czech restaurant and attempted to find out the contents of the “bohemian dumpling”. Our waiter informed us that there was no meat, no vegetables and no bread involved, so we got pretty confused. It turned out to be the same type of dough used in the bapaos that I adore. Tasty, but not what one immediately associates with the word dumpling.
If you do visit and want a cheap clean place to stay, I recommend the Boathouse Hostel. It’s not on a boat, tragically, but it’s nice and the ladies who run it are super friendly and helpful. It’s a little ways outside the center of the city and about a ten minute walk from the closest tram stop, but the location is pretty (on a river!) and quiet, and the walk home will sober you up.