I went into this trip with no expectations. I was mainly going because half the dorm and all my friends were going so I figured why not? I've only heard good things about Prague so I'll go.
That is until half my friends backed out. I get it. A 12 hour bus ride to Prague and back isn't on the top of everyones list. So our party of 6 went down to 3.
This trip was planned by the international student network (ISN) so I didn't have to do any planning or booking for once. That was an upside to the trip; the itinerary was already made. Booyah.
The night before we left my friend Ashley and I attended a Brantley Gilbert concert. Fun fact, last time I saw Brantley was in July. He opened for Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney at the Rose Bowl. I was surrounded by 100,000 other fans and too far away from the stage to even see his face. OHHHHH but not this time. For only 20 Euro I was front row. And Oh Em Gee he even touched my hand. Twice! I guess thats what happens when you see a country artist outside of the United States. It was awesome. Wish I had brought my cowboy boots to Europe but oh well. Next time.
Incase you can't tell, we aren't the same height
HIIII!!!
Country must be country wide... more like internationally wide
Andddd we are seeing Kacy Musgraves on Sunday. YASSS
The next night, we left Amsterdam at 10pm and prepared ourselves for a 12 hour vertical sleep. Shout out to Roy for being my bus buddy. I'm lucky that I have such short legs - I could just curl up into a ball. Can't say the same for Roy...
After arriving in Prague, Kayte (my roomie), April, and the rest of Fraijlemaborg took off to explore! The next few days consisted of exploring, a walking tour, pub crawl and on the last night, clubbing in a 5 story club. Each floor was a different music genre. Thank god I didn't have to dance to stupid EDM music and I could just switch floors. Quite nice.
I didn't take many pictures this trip. I was so cold my hands were in my pockets most of the days, so again, this is a mix of my photos and Roy's. I would have taken more but in the words of Kayte, "I just couldn't be bothered."
The gals. Do we look cold?
Charles Bridge. Constructed in 1300's
Vltava River
I think right after we took this picture, our entire group got separated for an hour and then we all randomly found each other again. Quite an adventure.
The streets were beautiful
There was a different era of architecture everywhere you looked
An Architecture's dream
Or a designer's dream
Just look at that door. That's a nice door.
The backside of the Schwarzenberg Palace
Now this is completely Renaissance
And then down the street... Art Nouveauarchitecture
And then BOOM. A gothic cathedral.
The front
Interior vaulting
How cute is my roomie?
If your favorite architecture term isn't flying buttresses then we can't be friends
April, me and Kayte. The British Babes and a Redhead.
The most uneventful clock tower ever. Isn't worth the hype. But how it actually works is pretty cool.
Clock tower
Supposedly, we were standing in the largest castle in the world but I highly disagree. It doesn't stand up to my definition of a castle. It was more of an area.
The view!
Want cheap beer in Europe? I recommend Prague. Also, Caro's face... lol.
I also recommend TGI Fridays after a bar crawl
Party Time
Side note: the hip hop and R&B floor wasn't as hoodrat as I would have liked
FRAIJLEMABORGGGGGGG!!!!
Even though the weekend didn't top Iceland, it was still fun to hang out with everyone from the dorm. I hadn't traveled with many of them before, including my roommate. So it was fun to hang out with people outside of our dorm.
As many of you already know, I was in Prague when I found out the one of my friends, Nohemi, was killed in the terrorist attacks in Paris. I'm still in shock and trying to process everything. It's been hard being away from my family, friends and the entire CSULB Design department. I've been flooded with emails and messages for events for Nohemi that I cannot attend because I am in Amsterdam. I wish I could be in the Design building sharing memories, talking and hugging everyone, but I can't. So instead I decided to write about her beautiful soul and to share some of my memories here in my blog. If I hadn’t been studying abroad, I wouldn’t have gotten to see her and hug her a month ago.
This picture is all across my news feed. I love that this is the picture everyone is sharing of her. This picture was
taken in Amsterdam when she and the rest of my design friends visited
Amsterdam. We had planned on meeting and going on a walking tour around the
city but thought nahhhhh and I met them at a coffee shop instead. And there we decided that I'd be your own personal tour guide around the city.
I have so many memories of Nohemi from Design. We spend the
first 2 years in a lot of the same design classes. I was always envious of her skills.
I hated hanging up my work next to hers because she was so talented. I remember
when she was working on her toy for 254 she told me she was doing a steampunk
turtle and my reaction was how the F did you think of that?? But that was
Nohemi, always thinking outside of the box and super creative. Her steampunk turtle inspired my fancy dancing monkey the following year. I liked how she took an animal and gave it a
theme, so that was the inspiration behind my toy. Not only did I have classes
with Nohemi but I also saw her around the design department at least once a
day. I'm pretty positive she lived there. Need something from the shop? Find
Nohemi. Need someone to open the print lab? Find Nohemi. Need something from
the check out room? Find Nohemi. She would help me all the time and I just want
to say thank you, Nohemi. You also had projects and deadlines just like
everyone else but you would always stop what you were doing to help me not only me, but everyone else. Although most of my interactions and memories are from the
design building, my favorites are from Amsterdam.
My tour around the city of Amsterdam, wasn’t much of a tour at all.
We walked to Waterlooplein to go to the open air market only to discover it
wasn’t open that day. Instead we laid down at the dock along the canal and started
to chat. We stayed there for about an hour, talking about
design and comparing our studying abroad lives. I hadn’t had classes with her and
the other CSULB designers for a few years but it didn’t matter, we still had
plenty to talk about. We were a design family. It didn’t matter that I had
switched to BA. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t studying design over here. I
always felt judged by other ID designers and like a failure for switching from Industrial Design to
Design but you told me “hey, design is design. You are still doing what you
love.” Which was true. I told them if I got a job working for the design
department at Disneyland I would definitely sign them in for free.
I left around dinnertime to go finish my homework and you
guys had a few more hours until your bus. We gave our hugs, said our good lucks
and ended with see you soon in Paris!
Now the reason I love this picture so
much is because there was a supermoon that night and you guys were
lucky enough to view it and take awesome pictures with Niran’s camera. I
remember leaning out the window of my dorm looking at the moon and thinking to
myself, man I bet they will have a remarkable view of the moon the entire drive
back to Paris.
And that is why I love that that is the picture of you. It makes
me heartbroken because that was the last time I saw you, but I am grateful that I had
the chance to see you one last time.
I want to go home and be with the entire design department but I
can’t. I want to be at your vigil but I can’t. So I’ll light my own candle here
in Amsterdam for you. In the city where I got you addicted to stroopwafels.
I've attached the link to her Memorial Fund: http://www.donationto.com/The-Nohemi-Gonzalez-Memorial-Fund
I’ll never forget our cool Pocahontas tattoo, your fun hair styles and mostly your bubbly, kind, beautiful soul. May you rest in peace Nohemi.
I think I laughed for a solid ten minutes when he said that. However, I do agree.
And you are probably wondering which place would be a wonderful place to be a sheep???
ICELAND!
Out of all my trips I've planned, this was the one I was most excited for. Ever since I saw all the landscape pictures on Pinterest, it went right onto my bucket list. Iceland is expensive to fly to and we got lucky by finding a Groupon and saving on the flight. I highly suggest adding it to your bucket list.
This was my favorite trip ever.
I know I say that after just about every blog post BUT THIS TIME I'M SERIOUS.
Not only was it such an amazingly beautiful country, but I was lucky to experience it with such a great group of people. My travel companions consisted of Roy from Spain, Vee from Australia, Joanie from Canada and Becky from California. Becky goes to Cal State Long Beach with me. WOO go beach!
Day 1:
We flew out of Amsterdam and landed in Iceland in the early afternoon. After renting a car (shout out to Vee for being 25 and getting the car cheaper and not killing us by driving on the wrong (Australian) side of the road) we headed to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa rich in silica and sulfur minerals. The water is about 99-102 degrees. Actually, before we made it to the blue lagoon, we stopped for ice-cream. Ice cream in Iceland. LOL
And then we walked around the surrounding area...
Hardened lava flow
Cave!
Then we got into our bathing suits and stepped out into the freezing air before stepping into the frickin hot pool. My body was confused.
It was weird bringing a bathing suit to iceland...
Natural silica masks
This photo makes me laugh. Clearly none of us were ready for the picture
After the Blue Lagoon, we checked into the Airbnb and went straight to bed because the next day was going to be long!
Day 2:
We would have woken up at the crack of dawn, but the sun doesn't rise until about 9:30am. So, we were up and on the road before the sun.
We took a mini road trip along the southern side of the island.
This was our route
Thank the lord we rented a car. I personally believe the car ride made the trip 1000x more fun. We spent the whole time eating snacks, singing and playing car games.
Actually this car was a manual and we switched it for an automatic. But you get the point.
This video might be my favorite video of all time. Sorry Roy... this may have been my idea... Next time don't fall asleep on our road trip.
hahahahahahahha. I just watched it like 10 more times.
We made about seven stops throughout the day. I can't pronounce or spell any of the places so I will just call them stop 1, stop 2, etc...
Also, most of these pictures were taken on Roy's nice, professional camera and not my iPhone. So I'll give him credit for almost every single picture on this blog.
STOP 1:
A waterfall you can walk behind!
Awww look I'm all dry here
The crew
Fun fact... when the wind blows really hard and you are standing next to a waterfall, you get really wet.
PC: me!!! I took this great photo
Want to see this picture again? You can! On my insta: @marissaneitzel #likes4likes . Or nah.
STOP 2:
Another waterfall! (PC: Roy)
Surprisingly we saw about 100 more waterfalls on our drive
We spent about 5 minutes here because we were still wet and cold
STOP 3
Crashed plane. Everyone survived FYI
In 1973, the US Air Force had to crash land a plane on the beach in Iceland after running out of gas. #whoops
10 points for Gryffindor if you can find Becky
Inside the plane
It was pretty sick to walk around and inside the plane.
STOP 4:
This was more of a drive by... the car stopped... but we didn't get out. But I'm still counting it as a stop
Fields of moss
It stretched on forever
STOP 5:
"This would be a wonderful place to be a sheep." (PC and quote: Roy)
Becky navigated this road like a BO$$
This was my favorite stop
Just look at it!!
Part of the water was so blue
This was already my favorite stop, and we still hadn't hiked up the hills yet
The view
Come on Iceland. So gorg.
Trying not to die
HELLLOOOOOOO
Operation: Don't slip and die
I JUST CAN'T EVEN.
STOP 6:
I don't have any pictures, but we tried to go touch a glacier. But it was already dark (the sun sets at about 4:30pm). But, we saw it from afar so I guess that counts.
STOP 7:
The last stop was in Vik on the way back. We had dinner in the small town before heading back into Reykjavik. We were starving and exhausted.
DAY TWOOOOOO
The next day we did the golden circle. It was a way shorter trip then the day before. The stops were much closer together.
STOP 1:
A horse ranch
We pretended we were interested in the horseback riding tour but we just wanted to pet the horses
OOOOOODIODIODIOOO. We shared the same hair color
STOP 2:
I'd like to pretend that this was some sort of natural Icelandic crystals
But people just threw coins in the water...
But it still looked amazing
On point
Favs
The sunrise
New Whip
This area is where two tectonic plates meet: the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate
The Mid Atlantic ridge was right under us
Haaaaayyyy
My Dad would love all these rock formations. I was low key geeking out
STOP 3
The geyser
Please see video below
Mind blowing how crazy the Earth can be sometimes
All these natural wonders
Warning: Do not touch. HOT!
Warning: Water is 212 degrees!
Warning: Closest hospital is 62km away!
I wanted to touch the water soooo bad
But Jo almost touched the water. She wasn't exactly sure what a geyser was. But she soon figured it out. Ohhh those French Canadians.
Hahahahahahhahahahahaha
#Swag.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick" or two sticks.
STOP 4
Double waterfall
Don't go chasing waterfalls...
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
Well we tried...
STOP 5:
Crater created by a collapsed mini volcano
Wish I could show my Ex Geology lab teacher all these pictures haha.
<3
CUTE JO. CUTE.
After the golden circle we headed back to Reykjavik to walk around town, eat dinner, and try to do a Northern Lights tour.
I stole these pics from Roy
Even though I never saw this, it looks pretty sweet.
The Harpa
Great design
After we went to the Harpa, we stopped by the Northern Lights tour office. The Lady at the office told us that because of too much cloud coverage near Reykjavik, the 50 euro tour was canceled but the 8 hour long, 90 Euro tour, was still available. She couldn't guarantee what time the tour would get back and we had to be to the airport at 4am. After a long, sad discussion, we realized that we couldn't do the tour and chance missing our flight. Plus the tour was expensive and you weren't guaranteed to see the lights.
We came to terms with the fact that we wouldn't see the Northern Lights and went and had a nice Icelandic meal.
Now, I'm not about to say the food in Iceland was fantastic. I think the word I would use is interesting. I am all about trying new foods. I think it's one of the best ways to really dive deep into a culture. My sister makes me watch Bizarre Foods all the time, so I figured while I was here I would try some bizarre foods.
1st dish: Whale, bacon wrapped artichoke and hollandaise sause
I don't recommend really. Hahaha. I couldn't get over the fact that it was whale.
Dish 2: Salmon. We thought it was smoked salmon but it didn't taste like it
Dish 3: Chocolate cake with blood oranges. Recommend!
Dish 4: Cheesecake with pomegranates and salted caramel. Fact: I can't resist pomegranates
As we left dinner, we decided to just go back to the Airbnb and chill out for a bit and maybe go back into town later for a beer. As we walked to the car, a nice man tells us that the Northern Lights are out and you can see them.
WHAT?
No really... WHAT!?!?!?!?!
So we run through the town with our eyes to the sky, trying to find a dark spot in the city. We run up a random hill and right before our eyes... the Northern Lights.
I couldn't believe our luck. I had already come to terms with the fact that I would see them on another trip later in life. I even told everyone we could take a cruise to Alaska to see them in the near future. But, no need to. Check. Another item off my bucket list: seeing the Northern Lights.
As you can see from the photos, they were kinda hard to see with the city lights. So, we decided since they were still out and about and dancing in the sky, we should try and find a dark spot to see them clearer.
And I think we found the best spot.
That shapeless figure is me FYI
After a couple hours we started to get hungry again. Becky and I, being from California, spotted a Taco Bell a few days ago. So, naturally we had been craving it the whole trip.
We said our goodbyes to the lights and took off on our next adventure: Taco bell Crunch Wrap Supreme.
With fire sauce.
But it was closed. WHY GOD WHY.
But, luckily for us, in the Taco Bell parking lot, the Northern Lights were so bright and colorful. Even more vivid than when were in complete darkness. It was so amazing. So thank you Taco Bell. I didn't get and tacos but I was still happy.
I couldn't have asked for a better ending to an already amazing trip.
This was one of the best weekends of my life. I forgot about the stresses of school. I forgot about graduating. I forgot about coming back to CA and needing to find a job and apartment. It felt like I wasn't just on another trip, it felt like I was on an epic adventure with some amazing people.
So, I want to end this post by encouraging everyone to go to Iceland! If you need someone to go with I am SOOOO down!
I hella want to go back
Hella, Iceland. Hella cool.
Up next: I am going to a Brantley Gilbert concert tomorrow and visiting Prague this weekend!
