Monday, May 20, 2013

It's The Final Countdown

I cannot believe how fast the last four months have flown by.  I'm writing today with only 11 more days here in Swansea.  I honestly never thought the time would come where I would have to start packing up to head back to the states!  It seems as though I was just counting down the days until I was able to leave the US for Wales to start this amazing journey!

Here I am, sitting in my room on this rainy afternoon, trying to recall what I've been doing for the past few weeks.  Not much has happened since Easter break ended back in April, but I'll do my best to rehash some of the main events. 

Here in the UK, the universities do things a little differently than they do back at home.  We had three weeks off for Easter, and then only two weeks of class after Easter break.  Those two weeks were followed by a dead week, and now we are in a four week long stretch dedicated solely to exams and testing.  Through my study abroad program, I was only allowed to take two courses worth of credit here, which means I only have two final exams in a four week time frame.  My first was on May 9th, and my second will be on May 29th.  As you can imagine, that leaves us a lot of free time between studying for exams to do whatever we please.  I've finished a whole TV series (Breaking Bad), finished the Hunger Games trilogy for the second time, started a couple new shows, watched many movies, spent plenty of time outside on nice days, and even took a 3 day trip to London.  No wonder my dad keeps asking if this is benefiting my academic goals at all! 

My response to him is always that yes, of course it is, in more ways than one.  The courses that I've taken here in Swansea will count towards my final few general education courses that I need to take.  I have actually learned some interesting information that might come in handy someday if I'm faced with random trivia about ancient Rome.  Apart from the school aspect, the amount of places I've traveled and people I've met have taught me more than I could have ever imagined.  It has been great learning about other cultures, and even learning about my own culture and the good old US of A.

My first exam on May 9th was for my course called Rome and the Mediterranean: 264-146 BC.  It was an essay exam and I'm pretty sure I dominated it.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to find out my results until June 14th when all the marking and scoring is completed.  My next exam is still over a week away, but I'm preparing myself to start preparing already!  That one will also be formatted in the essay style exam, and covers the material from my course called Modern European Film.  Quite an interesting combination of courses, I know.

Last week, my good friend, Hannah, and her mom, Anne, came to the UK on a miniature European adventure.  I was able to meet them in London the day that they arrived and spend some time seeing more sights.  We went to the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum which was absolutely phenomenal!  You would not believe how real those wax people look!  We also rode the London Eye, saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Covent Gardens, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, and a good portion of Hyde Park, St. James's Park, and Green Park.  London at this time of year is much more colorful and beautiful than it was when I was there back in February! 

After a few days in London, Hannah and Anne traveled back to Swansea with me.  We were able to enjoy the nice weather (thankfully it didn't rain on them here!) and travel out to the Gower Peninsula, and more specifically Worm's Head to do some hiking and sight seeing.  I think they really enjoyed the beautiful scenery here in Wales!  Yesterday afternoon, they left me here as they continued their travels in Paris where I know they will have a great time.  Here is another special thanks to Anne and Hannah for coming all they way across the pond to spend some time with me before I get to make the journey home myself!  It was a great time, and it was also great to see some familiar faces! 

That is the majority of what's been going on in Wales lately.  All of our American friends are slowly dwindling down and traveling back to the states.  Two more people are leaving today!  The anticipation and excitement of getting home to see my friends and family is growing, but at the same time I am dreading leaving this wonderful place and the amazing people I have met.  I truly understand the meaning of the word "bittersweet."

From here, the countdown continues from 11 days!  I'll be traveling back to London on the 30th of May to catch my flight early on the morning of the 31st.  I'll see you all real soon!  Ta ta for now!

Hannah and I with the (wax) members of One Direction

Beautiful day at Rhossili and Worm's Head at the Gower Peninsula

Pretty flowers in St. James's Park, London

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Easter Break -- Part 2

Holy smokes... Where to begin!!  I've finally arrived back to Swansea and have been settling back in, enjoying my time to relax before we have to get back into the swing of things. 

The second half of our Easter break was wonderful, just as the first was.  We started the second half with the overnight train ride from Krakow to Vienna, Austria.  From there we traveled by train to Salzburg, Austria, and again traveled by train to Prague, Czech Republic.  From Prague we flew into Paris, and then took trains back through London and finally Swansea.

Upon our arrival to Vienna, we found our hostel and dropped off our bags.  Check in time was not for a few hours, so we walked to the main shopping street and explored for a few hours.  When we finally checked in to the hostel, we immediately took naps because the sleep on that train was absolutely terrible!  That night we got ready and found some traditional Austrian food at a little cafe.  Then we figured out the underground system to find our way to a couple different cathedrals!  It was fun to see them at night.  The next day we got up and took a tour of the Schönbrunn Palace.  They offered the head set so you listen along as you walk through and soak in all the history!  It was great!  After that, we toured the grounds of the Belvedere Palace.  It was such a beautiful place.  Our final stop before we left was at the Hundertwasser House.  It is a crazy apartment building, unlike anything I'd ever seen!  The colors and shape of the building was just unbelievable!

Salzburg was another great city.  It was smaller than Vienna, which is kind of nice after dealing with the underground train system. The first full day we were in Salzburg we were able to enjoy a Sound of Music tour!  Many scenes from the film were shot in Salzburg, so we were able to see where the classic Von Trapp family lived.  The tour included Mirabell Gardens, Leopoldskron Castle, Hellbrunn Castle, Nonnberg Abbey, St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang, and Mondsee Cathedral.  We were also encouraged to sing along with the music in the tour bus as we drove along on the journey!  It was really fun to be in the exact places the musical was filmed and hear the songs.  It was such a great time!  After the sound of music tour we explored the rest of the city, including the castle in Salzburg.  By the time we got there, it was dark out, so we kind of felt like we were intruding on some sacred grounds!  It was so fun to explore and just see what was around the next corner!  We obviously couldn't get inside of the castle, but we were allowed to explore and see the views from the top.  It was a great night!

The trip to Prague the next day was also exciting.  We got checked into our hostel and laid low until dinner time.  We had a nice traditional Czech meal at a little restaurant down the road.  The next day we got up early to go on a walking tour.  It was really cold out that day, and after seeing the astronomical clock and a few other things, we decided to sit in the warm bagel shop with a bowl of soup and cup of coffee to thaw out!  We ate at the world famous Bohemia Bagel shop, and really, the bagels were delicious!  After we warmed up we decided to go to the market that was going on in Old Town Square.  It was very similar to the one we experienced in Poland for Easter.  All of the hand crafted items and paintings were so fun to look at!  And of course, we had to try all of the traditional food.  They made these pastry type things with cinnamon and sugar on the outside that were to die for.  I also had a potato pancake for the first time!  The next day we went out to do some sight seeing of our own.  We went to the Prague Castle first thing, and the views from the top were amazing!  There was also a cathedral inside that we got to tour.  After the castle we saw the John Lennon wall and Charles Bridge.  Both were absolutely amazing sights!  It was a great time in Prague!

The next day we flew from Prague to Paris, France!  I'm sure everyone's heard that Paris is a smelly city.... Well it's not a lie!  The underground was the worst.  It literally smelled so bad, and around every corner or in every new train station was a new stench that was terrible, and if not it was probably worse.  We were also impressed with the large number of officers with machine guns in their hands just casually strolling through the streets and the underground.  Thank goodness we bought passes!  The first day in Paris, Natalie and I started at Notre Dame Cathedral.  There was free admission due to the 850th year anniversary in 2013.  After the cathedral, we went to Luxembourg Palace and explored the gardens.  We made final stop at the Pantheon before heading towards the Eiffel Tower.  We bought nutella and banana crepes and found a cozy bench to chit chat and relax next to the lit up tower.  It was phenomenal!  We even got lucky enough to happen to look at the clock at 11:11 and make a wish while the light show was going on!  Doesn't really get much better.  The second day in Paris we went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, but for some reason the entire thing was closed.  That was really disappointing, but I guess it just calls for a trip back some day!  After that we took a boat bridge tour to see all of the famous bridges throughout Paris.  Our final stop was again at the Eiffel Tower, except this time we went up to the top!  It was AMAZING!  I had sooo much fun.  What made it even better was that it was rainy and extremely windy, so there wasn't really a line.  I don't know why I wasn't scared at all, because at the top you could definitely feel the tower swaying just slightly.  Maybe it was my imagination, but I was just on cloud nine that I got to be at the top of the Eiffel Tower.  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm so glad I did it!  Natalie has some pictures of me fighting the wind and rain at the very top.  I'll be sure to share those eventually. 

And finally, we are back to Swansea.  It's been great to relax, but I feel like I should be doing something.  We've been going non stop for the last three weeks and now I can finally catch up on sleep and relax.  I have so many memories, and so many pictures, I couldn't have asked for a better vacation!  I hope the family is ready for some great souvenirs from all over Europe!  With only two weeks left of classes before finals start, I'll be home before we know it!  One last thing!  I cannot wait for Hannah Hurlbert and her mum to visit Emily and I in May!  It will be great to see some familiar faces! 


Ciao for now!

Vienna, Austria

Schönbrunn Palace

Belvedere Palace

Hundertwasser House

The Sound of Music.  This was where the scenes of the back of the Von Trapp home were filmed.

"I am sixteen, going on seventeen"

"I've got confidence"

Astronomical clock, Prague

Market in Prague

Charles Bridge

John Lennon Wall

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The stained glass windows were absolutely beautiful.

Eiffel Tower at night

Eiffel Tower in the light!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Easter Break – Part I

The long and highly anticipated Easter break is well underway! I am currently on an overnight train ride from Krakow, Poland to Vienna, Austria  The European tour has been nothing but amazing thus far!!

Easter break started for my friends Natalie, Emily, Sam and myself last Sunday, the 24th of March.  We flew into Venice, Italy from the UK to start our three week long adventure.  Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel located outside of the city.  We had to pull an all nighter because of a very early flight, so we decided to rest up before dinner.  The restaurant connected to our hotel was really nice, with traditional Italian food!  We all tried interesting kinds of pizza, the names of which I don’t remember (Italian language barrier), and enjoyed every last bite of it!  We had an early night so we could get up and enjoy the next day. 

The next couple of days were filled with the typical tourist activities.  Due to terrible instructions from the front desk of the hotel (or possibly the language barrier again), we spent about an hour too long trying to figure out the bus system to get to the island.  When we finally arrived we set out to explore the city and the shops.  I forgot to mention that it was pouring down rain.  At one point, the sidewalks turned to ice and it was snowing!  It was not the ideal weather for a vacation, but it didn’t matter.  Those of you who have been to Venice know that the streets are lined with shops filled with decorative masks used in the festival in February.  It’s a week long festival there.  Just think, we only missed it by a few weeks!

Aside from looking at all the souvenirs in the shops and spending plenty of Euros, we did the traditional sight seeing.  Anyone who knows me really well could tell you all about my secret love of bridges.  One of my favorite bridges, which happens to be on a poster hanging in my room at school, is the Bridge of Sighs located in Venice, Italy.  Needless to say, I almost started to tear up when we stumbled upon it.  It was an absolutely perfect day!!

On the 27th of March, we took a flight from Venice to Rome, Italy.  Thanks to some of Sam’s friends from school in the states who were studying abroad in Rome, we were able to stay with them in their apartment at no cost!  

The weather in Rome was much warmer than Venice.  We didn’t even need jackets some of the time.  While we were there we toured the Colosseum, the ruins, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish Steps, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and many other things.  On the last day we were there, Easter Sunday, Emily and Sam had early flights to meet up with other friends and family, so Natalie and I decided to go to church.  We went to mass in one of the cathedrals right in the heart of Rome!  We had one final Italian meal and then packed our stuff to head to the airport ourselves. 

Italy was a great experience!!  I can truthfully say I won’t be craving pizza, pasta, or gelato for quite some time!  Next up was Krakow, Poland. 

We left Rome knowing that the weather was about to change drastically.  We went from 50 or 60 degree weather to icy roads and snow falling from the sky in Krakow!  Both Natalie and I were so excited to finally see real snow!  Being in Swansea for the winter is nothing like a winter in Iowa.  We hadn’t seen snow since the first week we arrived in Swansea. 

Check in to our hostel went very smoothly.  After we settled in we decided to go to an old Jewish square to find some dinner.  As it was Easter Sunday, nothing was really open.  We found an American/Mexican food restaurant around one corner and decided that was our only option.  If you put that together, our Easter in Europe was filled with spaghetti and burritos!  Not ideal, but you gotta do what you gotta do!!

The next day we took a tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.  They are only about one hours drive from Krakow, and for a good price we were allotted a guided tour of both places lasting approximately four hours.  We were given headphones, and our tour guide had a microphone.  When the two were programed to the same channel we could hear her voice through our headset.   She was a native Polish woman and she gave an excellent tour!  As you can probably imagine, the experience was incredible.  There aren’t really words to describe what it was like.  It was so surreal; I had goose bumps every step of the way.  The history, the stories, the photos, the barracks, the fences, the watchtowers, the wall of death… I couldn’t believe I was seeing it with my own eyes.  It was a great learning experience in many aspects.

After the tours, we arrived back in Krakow at around dinnertime.  I don’t know how Natalie and I were so lucky, but with Easter being the day before, there was a cute little market with traditional Polish food, Polish jewelry, and other little trinkets right in the main city square.  We of course wanted to try everything!  We tried potato and cheese dumplings, strawberry dumplings, and sweet cheese dumplings.  I tried some fried cheese with cranberry sauce while Natalie had some Polish sausage.  I even had some chocolate covered kiwi!  I highly recommend this snack.  Some might even go as far as saying it’s a healthy snack!  Later that night we situated ourselves in a place called Harris Jazz Piano Bar to enjoy some live jazz music.  It was another perfect day!

Today we started by touring Wawel Castle and cathedral.  It was kind of a hodge podge day, as we didn’t have any booked tours.  We went to the university near old town and got into the library and museum.  We also just wandered the streets taking in the sights of Krakow.  Both of us absolutely loved the short amount of time we had in Poland and can’t wait to go back some day. The people were great, the city was great, the food was great, and it all came at a nice price! 

As I mentioned earlier, Natalie and I are on the way to Vienna, Austria!  We are meeting back up with Sam to tour Austria and the Czech Republic.  Austria and the Czech are other countries that none of us have been too and we are very excited!  We will see how it compares to Poland!  I’m looking forward to updating all of you again after we arrive back to Swansea in less than two weeks!  Happy Easter!! 
The four of us on a gondola boat ride.  From R to L: Me, Sam Gosper, Emily Freund, Natalie Northup

The Bridge of Sighs <3
The Colosseum
Trevi Fountain
Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland
Market in Krakow
Famous entry to Birkenau Concentration Camp
Wooden Barracks

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Where've I been?!

It's been a while since I've last updated my blog.  I hope no one has worried about me!! I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks traveling and actually doing school work.  I had a big project due in my Rome and the Mediterranean course last Friday.  It covered the Roman involvement in Spain from 264 BC to 146 BC.  Interesting stuff, huh?  I had to turn it in early due to prior travel arrangements to Dublin, so that was a stressful week!  And this week I have been working out travel plans for the next three weeks.  Easter break officially begins after class tomorrow, as does my journey through eastern Europe!

Two weekends ago, my friends Natale and Emily and I traveling to Liverpool, England.  In case you are unaware, this city is home to The Beatles.  We went to Albert Dock where the Beatles Experience is.  This is a big museum that basically tells the entire story of the band, all of the members, and their life stories.  I honestly didn't know much about them before I went, but I definitely learned a ton!  We also took a tour called the "magical mystery tour."  This tour took us to the homes of some of the band members, Penny Lane, the strawberry field, and many other significant places!  Between all of the Beatles attractions was a proper football match between Liverpool and Tottenham, in Liverpool.  Of course the tickets were outrageously priced, and we couldn't afford going, we watched the match in a pub with some of the locals.  It was so fun to see them scream and shout for a football game just like we do with American football.  After Liverpool won, everyone in the pub started singing the Liverpool Football Club song.  It was great!  It was a fun weekend trip with the girls.  Natalie fell in love with the city.  She plans on moving there some day!

Last Thursday night, I traveled with other students from Swansea University to Dublin, Ireland for a nice long weekend over St. Patrick's day.  We were there from Friday until Monday and again had a great time.  I took a day tour with a group of girls to some landmarks around Dublin.  We went to a place called Glendalough where Braveheart and PS I Love You were filmed.  We also went to a town called Kilkenny which had a large amount of medieval sights.  There were a few other stops along the way, and the local tour guide was great!  The Irish jokes are hilarious.  I couldn't count the number of times we broke out in gut wrenching laughter!  The hostel we stayed at also offered a free walking tour, so of course we took advantage of that.  On the walking tour we saw sights through the city of Dublin such as Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Dublin Castle, and a really pretty park.  This tour guide was also great at what he did.  The tour was fabulous.  It must just be the Irish!

On St. Patrick's day, we obviously geared up in green and headed to the St. Paddy's day parade!  The amount of people (mostly tourists, I presume) was ridiculous!  The streets were filled with people in green, all trying to watch this parade. I couldn't see very well because I'm not the tallest person, but I have a few good pictures from the parade. We all had a great time in Dublin, that is for sure.    I didn't get a chance to see the Cliffs of Moher, which is a must do.  Ireland is a place that I definitely plan on going back to!

That is basically what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks.  I have been working on a couple of scholarship applications for next year as well.  I also had an interview (over skype) with two faculty members in the College of Education at the University of Iowa and am pleased to announce that I have been admitted into the College of Education, majoring in secondary science education.  Thank you to my parents for helping me get various applications sent in on time while I'm abroad, to Amanda Brezina and Coach Boehmer for your help with scholarships, and Brady Kurtz for letting me sit in on some chemistry and physics classes last year to gain some shadow experience! 

The planning has been shifted entirely to the three week long Easter break coming right up.  The official travel plans include stops in the following cities and countries:  Venice and Rome in Italy, Krakow in Poland, Vienna and Salzburg in Austria, Prague in the Czech Republic, Paris in France, and finally a stop in London.  Don't ask me how this is even possible.  Thank goodness for hostels at very inexpensive prices!  It is going to be a trip of a lifetime! 

Here are some pictures of my trip to Liverpool and Dublin!  For all of the Graphic readers, you can find pictures of all of my traveling through my blog online.

halesinwales.blogspot.com

The Beatles stage in the restored Cavern Club.


This seems pretty self explanatory!
Strawberry Fields

Beautiful pier head in Liverpool


Glendalough

Glendalough

Cathedral in Kilkenny

Castle in Kilkenny

These people are brilliant and lucky.  Watching the St. Paddy's Day parade from the balcony!


St. Patrick's Day Parade

Part of the Dublin Castle

Park in Dublin

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Amsterdam Again

As you may remember, I made a second trip to Amsterdam last week!  Tuesday was Emily's birthday, as well as an amazing Lumineers concert!  It was an amazing trip, once again.

At the concert, Emily, Natalie and I were some of the first people in line.  Once inside the Paradiso, we decided to get front row seats in the balcony to see the performance.  Little did we know, the band members of the Lumineers were going to come up to the balcony, approximately 10 feet from where we were sitting, and perform "Ho Hey" with the help of the crowd.  It was spectacular.  It is definitely a memory to last a lifetime!

Emily, Natalie, and Sam wanted to see some of the historic sites of Amsterdam such as the Anne Frank house and do the Heineken experience.  Since I had already seen those things, I decided to save money and let them go alone.  We did, however, see the second Van Gogh museum that had many of his original paintings in it.  Again, it was amazing.

We arrived back to Swansea on Thursday night.  Friday was spent going to class and catching up on school work!  Yesterday, Natalie and I went on a school trip to Big Pit coal mine and St. Fagans, both in Wales.  At the coal mine, we got to wear hard hats and lights on are helmets to take a tour of the coal mine.  They said it was some 300 feet underground.  This was the first coal mine I had ever been to!  Our tour guide did a great job as well.  He told great stories about the mine and cracked plenty of jokes to keep us entertained. At one point, he had all of us turn off our lights to stand in complete darkness just to get a feel for the atmosphere down there if the candles would have blown out back in the day. 

St. Fagans castle is the city of Cardiff which is the capital of Wales.  We were told we were going to St. Fagans, but neither Natalie or I had a clue what it was when we arrived.  Be purchased a map of the grounds and finally realized it was a castle! What a great surprise!  It was absolutely beautiful!  Built in 1580, the castle still displays some of the original furnishings.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside St. Fagans castle, as well as in the coal mine.  The day was altogether amazing, and we were extremely happy we chose to go on the school trip.

The week ahead will finally bring some excitement in class, as I have my first paper due for my Modern European Film module, and my first seminar in my Rome and the Mediterranean module.  The school system here is a lot different than it is at the University of Iowa.  I only have one big project for each of my courses (one being this first paper), and then a final exam of two essay questions for each of my modules.  There are no midterm exams.  It seems funny after talking to friends back home about all of the exams they have been studying for and already taken!  Getting into the swing of things back home will definitely be a challenge!

Next weekend I will be going to Liverpool, England with Emily and Natalie to do some more sight seeing and exploring.  We are very excited for the award-winning Beatles Story! 

The Lumineers performing "Ho Hey" in the balcony.

The four of us in Vondelpark, Amsterdam.  From L to R: Sam, me, Natalie, Emily
Natalie and I at the coal mine.

Castle at St. Fagans

St. Fagans

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Amsterdam, Netherlands

After another exciting week of classes at Swansea, it was departure time for the student trip to Amsterdam in the Netherlands! 

The trip started on Thursday evening with a bus ride from Swansea lasting approximately five hours.  That was followed by a ferry ride of an hour and a half to France, followed by another five hour bus ride up to Amsterdam.  Needless to say, it was quite a lot of sitting.  I went on the trip with another student from the University of Iowa, Jess, so we were able to make the trip a bit more enjoyable!

We arrived on Friday morning and the two of us decided to just walk around and check things out.  While wondering, we found a shop to buy tickets for various things at discounted prices (of course all college students love this) so we purchased our tickets to a Van Gogh museum, the Heineken Experience, and a canal tour.  That afternoon we walked over to the Heineken Brewery and they showed us the entire brewing process for the beer.  It was a very neat experience!

Jess and I decided it would be best to have an early night so we could get up early and beat the crowd to the Anne Frank House.  We ended up getting there about an hour after it opened and there was no line.  It worked out perfectly!  When we were finished, the line was extremely long.  The Anne Frank House was really interesting and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.  There is a story to every room and the way the exhibit is laid out really makes it flow.  They take you through the entire house and the entire area where the family hid during WWII.  The original diary of Anne Frank is inside along with videos and pictures from the time and events.  I'm so glad I went.  It was a great learning experience and something I will never forget.

After the Anne Frank House, Jess and I headed towards our canal tour!  It was very fun to see the city of Amsterdam from its waterways and there were plenty of opportunities for great photos!  One thing I would have changed about the canal tour would be to do it in the evening when the city was lit up with lights.  The next time I am there (next week) I plan on making that change!  The Van Gogh museum followed the canal tour.  We had the choice between seeing the museum with all of his original paintings or seeing the museum with new versions of his paintings with more vibrant colors, a lot more paintings, and multiple 3D animated paintings.  Of course we chose the museum with vibrant colors and paintings in 3D.  It was very cool!  I have to admit that my experience in art museums is very minimal, but I'm happy to add this one to the list!  There was also a story of Van Gogh's life on the walls and it was related to all of his paintings and the themes you could find within the art at certain times of his life.  Very neat!

On Saturday night, we met up with one of Jess's friends from the University of Iowa who is studying in Spain.  She just happened to be in Amsterdam the same weekend we were!  We followed them to the red light district to experience the atmosphere.  I'd have to say that it was an eye opening experience, and definitely not what I was expecting. 

On Sunday, we made the same long journey back to Swansea.  I have to admit that I'm very excited to be flying next time, rather than taking a bus and ferry all the way there.  The next trip will be Amsterdam for the Lumineers concert and Emily's birthday!  Plans for Easter break are still in the making as well, but we have a better idea of the places we will be going.  The tentative plans include parts of northern Wales, Venice, Rome, Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the city of Prague in the Czech Republic, the city of Vienna in Austria, Paris, and end in London.  More information will be coming soon!