We settled in, I attacked her homestay family's dog with love, and even became friendly with the cats #thatswhenyouknow. We were supposed to meet up with her host mom and brother to go to the Hunger Games at what we thought was 8:00, but was actually 6:00 (18:00 military time), so needless to say after we (aka Anna) cooked a delicious meal for ourselves, we were waiting around for a while quite confused until they finally returned from the movie...whoops #americanproblems.

Being our usual wild selves, we were in bed by 10:30pm the first night and then up and ready to go by 10am the next day. We metro'd into the center of the city and Anna showed me the main shopping street (she knows me too well) where I couldn't resist popping into a few places (but I didn't buy anything!! even I'm impressed). Then we worked our way to Old Town Square, an adorable Disney-like square full of pastel-colored buildings, churches, and statues. We watched the astronomical clock strike 11:00, a somewhat uneventful thing but still cool.

Disney or Prague?

slightly underwhelming

xmas came early

SEGWAYS. EVERYWHERE.

Afterwards, we walked in circles for a while, got kinda lost, and then found ourselves back in the center and worked our way towards one of Anna's favorite places for lunch. Let me tell you, if this girl knows anything it's where to eat. She managed to find every amazing place in a city not known for its food at all. Needless to say lunch was bomb. She brought me to this adorable little café set in a Pottery Barn-like store and I had an amazing omelet and salad for the equivalent of FIVE DOLLARS. It could've been the worst omelet in the world and I still would've loved it just because of the price. That's the other thing about Prague - it's so cheap. Like it's hard to spend money, and trust me I'm really really good at that.

the price made it that much better

The rain wasn't really inspiring us to look around much more, so we returned home for a bit and began to plan our next trip together, to Amsterdam and London(!!), cringing at how we are def not gonna find 5 dollar omelets in London. Luckily, to distract us from our fears of empty bank accounts, some extended family of Anna's host family came over to hang out, including the most adorable little one year old girl (side note: why are European children so much cuter than American ones? I pretty much always hate children, but not here...). We chatted with them while I continued my efforts to find a reasonable accommodation in London, before giving in and upping our budget.

so. good.

Later that night, we met up with some of her friends from school and some of their friends at this crazy underground bar thing that was so smoky I probably inhaled the equivalent of half a pack of cigarettes so that's cool. Then we went to this other bizarre but cool bar where there were rumors of there being a giant Irish Wolfhound. It was so so packed and also underground and we ended up sitting on this weird couch thing overhanging a sitting area, kinda like a bunk bed. Let's just say that wasn't the best idea for a bar and one of us (I won't name names) took quite the spill. But, we did find the Irish Wolfhound, aka horse, and he did not disappoint. Then we made our way to one of their favorite clubs. How to describe it... It was basically a mix of American frat stars abroad (saw a Bucknell kid lol) and creepy 50 year old Czech men all dancing to hits from the 80s and getting way too close to 20 year old girls #NOTHANKYOU. Essentially the weirdest thing I've seen in my time abroad and I did not have enough liquid courage in me to accept the situation so I just kind of looked around like "Where am I....." Anna described that club/night as wild and crazy and although it wasn't much by Bucknell standards (#4 party school, right mom?!) it was definitely wild and crazy in a different sense. We didn't last long there before heading home via a 15 minute but only $4 Uber ride - ugh I love Prague.

the things this poor dog has seen

We started out the next morning (at 12:30) at the area by Anna's school, meeting her friend Kara, who Anna had said I would like a lot because she said we're very similar and let's just say I'm flattered because Kara was actually funny and cool - things I like to pretend I am. We began by grabbing coffee at an adorable coffee and gelato shop (and fulfilling my need to find every cute coffee shop in Europe), hitting up a farmer's market on the water, hiking/wheezing our way up to some old church/the location of their school, taking in the view, and working our way back down and along the water to a salad place equivalent of Sweet Green. OH MY GOD. It was heaven sent. I made my own salad with avocado and chicken and pesto and other amazing things I haven't had in way too long. Like, it's sad how happy that salad made me, but at the same time I have no shame. French people put pasta in their salads (criminal, if you ask me) so like I almost cried of happiness at being able to make my own with all my favorite things. Ugh, it's the little things in life. Definitely not typical Czech food but apparently even Czech people don't like Czech food so I'm gonna say I didn't miss much.

pintrest-worthy inspiration for when I open my own café

farmer's market

some church #historybuff

frands

so colorful so happy

the best sight in Prague

Afterwards, Kara left us and we continued on across the Charles Bridge, and over to the Lennon Wall, the number one thing I wanted to see in Prague. It was so so cool and there were so many sentiments written about Paris, as well as tons of candles laid out in front the French embassy across the street, which was heartwarming to see. There was also a man singing Beatles' songs, which made the whole experience that much better. We got some pics and then, after asking a nice Asian man to take a picture of us, his friend just jumped in the picture and made us take like a mini photoshoot with him. Not to mention that these pictures were being taken on his phone. So maybe Anna and I are famous now in Asia? I guess our pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes really looked exotic to them, you know, as usual... We laughed it off and continued our hike up to Prague Castle, taking in the sunset at FOUR pm, and looking at the castle a bit before my Paris-induced nerves and Janet's warning to avoid crowded places got the best of me and I made us leave.

bridge views

pre-photoshoot

Prague <3 Paris

can't beat it

like 1/10th of the castle

Afterwards, we worked our way back to Old Town and Anna took me to her favorite coffee shop, whose ginger tea, gluten-free (!!!!!) muffin, and minimalist chic atmosphere did not disappoint. We hung out for a bit, then worked our way through some more stores before heading to dinner at Anna's favorite tiny vegan restaurant where we enjoyed rosé, and three dishes each for about $10 each, if that. So. Good. Then we went back home, fit in a much needed FaceTime with my parents AND SAWYER!! who I can't FaceTime back in France due to bad wifi (#salty), and then went off to bed.

pintrest-worthy inspo round two  bliss

round one

round two

round three

:) :)

true love

The next morning, in a fitting manner, we spent our last time together in Prague eating at yet another amazing restaurant. Anna brought me to an adorable brunch place where I gorged myself on mimosas, gluten-free pancakes, and a latte. The fact that "gluten-free"exists in Prague was enough to make me want to stay forever. We hung out there for a while, then she brought me to the bus stop for the airport where we said our goodbyes, but also "see you soon!" At the airport I managed to walk in circles a few times before finding security but eventually made it onto my flight, then my train, and found myself happily in bed later that night. Can't wait to see you next weekend, Ans, and thanks for showing my perpetually lost self around Prague! (And thanks to your host fam for hosting my broke self!)

I honestly don't think I've ever fit in somewhere better in my life. Tall, blonde, blue eyed people were EVERYWHERE, and as a result I am now convinced that I must be part Danish somehow (dad??). Coming from France, where I get stared at on the reg and stick out an incredible amount among a sea of dark-haired, dark-clothed, average-height people, this was a welcome change for me and for my two fellow blondes who I was traveling with (Katie & Madeline).

Our weekend in Copenhagen was definitely a fast trip and had its ups and downs but we all left Copenhagen unwillingly, wishing we could have spent more time there and trying to figure out when we could come back.

So, where to start? Oh yeah, maybe with that time we all thought we were going to have to spend the night on the street. It was around 8pm and we had just arrived in Cope and were walking from the train station to our hotel when it started to drizzle - expected and not too bad, what's a little rain, we thought? Key word: little. In a matter of legitimately 60 seconds it went from a drizzle to a full-on diagonal sheets-of-hail hurricane. HOW???

Not prepared in the least, we were instantly soaked down to every garment of clothing we had on and looked like rabid raccoons as we - no joke - attempted some sort of hunched-over-crawling, hands clawing through the sheets of rain, faces down to prevent the hail from cutting our corneas open, hands clutching our suitcases, all while laughing so hard we were all basically peeing our pants, fitting considering we looked like newborns learning how to walk. We all seriously considered just laying down on the road and waiting for it to pass, I mean I couldn't have been any more soaked so it wouldn't have made a difference. I'd say it probably took us a solid 10 minutes (felt like an hour) of straight up resistance training against the wind to make it the 100 feet to our hotel. Oh, also we couldn't see anything so we thought we were on the sidewalk but we were actually in the middle of the road #safetyfirst. Nothing like a true Nordic welcome into Cope. We got inside, looked mentally deranged, spent another 5 minutes catching our breath, checked-in/soaked the entire lobby, made our way to our shoebox room and had to peel our clothes off of us and completely change outfits. By the time we resembled normal human beings again it was already 9:30.

Note to future visitors to Copenhagen: eat dinner early. We literally could not find a single place to serve us dinner. Finally, around 10pm we somehow stumbled upon a dim sum place and gratefully devoured plates of mysterious/semi recognizable Asian food.

Content with our food comas, we went back to our hotel, and back to wifi, only to discover the atrocities that were happening in Paris, and many messages sent from concerned friends and family. Thankful that we were in another country, but fearful of returning, we stayed up quite late contacting friends, family, and our professors, trying to get a better sense of the terrible situation. Paris definitely weighed heavy on our minds throughout our trip, and especially on our return home through Paris, but we were thankful of the fact that we were safe and sound and tried to make the best of our time remaining in Copenhagen.

Saturday morning we made sure to be up and going pretty early as that was really our only day to see all that Copenhagen had to offer. First stop? The glass market: two huge glass buildings that house a ton of different food stands, from freshly caught seafood to cute little dessert places, you can find anything and everything. But, we knew we wanted grød, aka porridge/oatmeal. It sounds bad in theory but grød is gooooood. And they had gluten free grød so that was a welcome sight. I had apples, peanut butter (!!!), and cocoa in mine and it was delish minus the fact that cocoa does not taste like chocolate...news to me. We devoured our grød then I dragged us to the Coffee Collective stand, rated one of the best coffee places in the world, and it did not disappoint.

glass market in English, Tllvvkekens or something in Danish

güd

so instagrammable

After we were in yet another food coma, we headed through the Botanical Gardens, stopped at the SMK Museum for a bit (it was free), saw some weird modern art and more typical art from the 1700s-1900s, then headed over to the Design Museum. Luckily for me, they were having a fashion exhibit, which was really cool to look at as it had items from famous houses such as Gucci and YSL, and also items from lesser-known Danish designers. However, the main focus of the museum, weirdly enough, was a chair exhibit. Sounds boring but it was actually super cool. There were chairs made from cardboard and newspaper, super ugly retro chairs, a Dr. Evil chair, etc. etc. Plus, the gift shop was so trendy and cool so we spent a while in there.

art?

hellooooooo

~mirr0r picz~

comfy

After the museum, we went to Nyhavn, the area on the water with the brightly colored houses, strolled around under the Christmas decorations (not sure how I felt about that considering it's over a month away, but not my country,) got some Glogg (mulled wine I think) and sat and enjoyed the scenery, then went to find the famous Copenhagen trampolines where we watched old British men eat it time after time while trying to jump from one trampoline to the other.

touristy but so pretty

gløggin'

soarin' flyin'

By this time our food comas had worn off, so we went in search of more treats, and we ended up stumbling across a Christmas Market, guess these people need something to look forward to considering the sun sets at 4pm there in the winter. It was cute and oh so jolly, but we were getting hangry. We found a pedestrian street and a street vendor selling some of Cope's infamous hot dog/sausage things (with chicken ones for me, the world's pickiest eater). We got our 'dogs, sat down on a bench and basically inhaled them. Then, after wandering around more, I split off to go meet my family friend, Maddy, who lives in Copenhagen with her boyfriend, and her mom and other family friend who were visiting her.

ask me about my weiner

so early but so jolly

I met Maddy and everyone back at the glass market where they were buying food to cook for dinner. Even after not having seen each other for months, it was like no time had passed, and I couldn't believe I was actually in another country just hangin with my family friend who I've known since I was born...it's a long cry from the days when we played Mario Kart in VT and I infamously said that "Peachy needs to go to driving school," when Peach was my character...a genius from a young age, some may say.

didn't move the entire time

katté latté

catpuccino

missing Hannah and Janet :(

After splitting up and going our separate ways, I met back up with my friends, and our friend Courtney, from Bucknell, who is spending the semester in Cope. She brought us to Copenhagen Street Food, basically what food dreams are made of. It was a giant warehouse full of different food trucks, and basically any type of food you could ever want. It was so trendy and so un-French that I was kind of in awe and want to go back asap. To give you an idea of the variety: Madeline got a duck burger, Katie got fish & chips, Courtney got pad thai, and I got tacos. We devoured our food, hung out in the picnic-bench style seating for a while, and waited for Kelsey, another one of our friends from Bucknell to come meet us! Then the five of us stayed and chatted for a while until Katie, Madeline, and I could not longer keep our eyes open (aka at 10pm). Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

AVOOOOOO

reunited <3

The next morning we had to leave pretty early but we managed to fit in a quick breakfast with Kelsey and Avid, another one of our friends from Bucknell who is in Cope for the semester. It was kind of unreal to be in another country with them and not, you know, in the library slaving over MIDE work. I'm so happy I was able to see so many of my friends this past weekend, thanks so much to everyone for showing us around!! I know Katie, Madeline, and I all can't wait to make another trip to Copenhagen and be with our people again...except maybe in the summer when it's not hailing, windy, and dark.

go to Cope just for the food

MIDE reunion on the left

@marisa @alex @katy

Our time in Tenerife was just what I needed, 80 degree days, the most beautiful views, and plenty of time spent relaxing by the pool/ocean. Actually, a little too much time spent by the pool considering I am still peeling from my lovely burn on my chest from one of the many times I thought I was too good for 17 euro sunscreen...lessons learned.

beach below our hotel...yes please

sry Bucknell, this is better

note: don't drink on an empty stomach

But, being the Harrold's we had to fit in some activities as well. Top of my list? The hunt for good guacamole. It took much longer than expected but I got my nachos with guac and it was embarrassingly satisfying (@ France: take lessons). We also embraced the local culture in terms of alcohol and filled ourselves with cava (spanish champagne), pina coladas, local wine, mojitos, and margaritas with sides of amazing seafood  #priorities.

rentals

missing my partner in crime, Kyle

eeeeeats

Occasionally we did real activities, too, shocking I know. We did a boat cruise where we saw some whales (?) dolphins (?), don't really know, but they came so close to the boat, which was cool and I didn't want to vomit like the last time I did a whale watching cruise so that was a plus. Then it took us by Los Gigantes, these huge cliffs, and into a harbor between some of the cliffs to swim for a few minutes. By the time I had convinced myself to go in, they asked everyone to come out so my b on that one. But it was so nice to get back out on the water and see the island from another perspective.

amigos

so close

Los Gigantes

cooler people than me

That whole me not vomiting thing? Didn't last long... Saturday morning we got up early to fit in breakfast and some tanning/burning time before checking out of our hotel and working our way to our next hotel that was closer to the airport. When I woke up I felt a little off and had no appetite, a concerning sign considering I'm always down to eat. I managed some breakfast then baked myself in the sun for a few hours (with sunscreen this time but still not my best idea). When it was time to leave, we walked back into the hotel and in the elevator.

As soon as I got in the elevator I was like well, I'm about to vom. Thank god that was the fastest elevator I've ever been in. Miraculously, I held it down and started my usual sprint-walk back to the room. That is until my vision started going out. Been there toooooo many times before. I looked my parents, blurted out "I'm about to faint" and booked it to our room, probably running in a zig zag because I was basically blind at that point. I get myself on the ground and put my head between my legs, #tbt'ing in my mind to when the same exact thing happened at CVS and I made a total fool of myself in front of my ski team coach...

Then, of course, our room key had already expired, so finally we got the door open with the help of a maid and I laid down, had multiple bottles of water and a granola bar and thought I was good to go. We checked out, I attempted a macaron and immediately regretted it. Then, the best part: We got our rental car and my parents decide we should do a THREE HOUR drive up and down the main volcano on the island aka the tallest volcano in Europe. Lovely. The roads were legitimately the equivalent of Pine Tree Road in Redding (aka tiny, windy, and bumpy) for THREE HOURS and up a mountain at the same time. Oh, and we stopped multiple times to "take in the views" whereas I was literally green in the backseat trying to keep food down and/or not pass out. Also it was legitimately freezing up there, so you could say I was having a great time.