A LITTLE COTTAGE IN ABERDEENSHIRE

I never meant to be gone for so long but it turns out that writing a90-pagee document takes a lot of time and that is where I have been for the last few months. I am now back in the US on the job hunt and getting resettled. 

PRAGUE, A SOLO TRIP

I just got back from my first solo trip to Prague and it was awesome I cannot wait to go back. I knew when I moved to England I wanted to do at least one solo trip because I am a grown up and shouldn't feel scared to travel alone. After finding a great deal on a flight and doing some research on good places to travel as a solo female traveler I picked Prague and was off. 

I stayed at Sophie's Hostel and had an amazing stay. I have only stayed in 2.5 hostels (you can read about the .5 hostel HERE) and Sophie's was by far the best. The staff was super friendly, and it had a boutique hotel feel to it. Also it was super affordable. I was in a 5 bed Women's only room, which had 5 individual beds, our own full kitchen, and private bathroom. I have stayed in hostels before, where I stayed in a mixed room and they were perfectly fine but because I was traveling alone I felt more comfortable staying in a women's only room. All the girls that I was with were lovely and I even made two friends from Brazil!

I spent my days just walking, I had a general idea of where I wanted to go and I had booked a half day trip to Konopiste Castle for one day. I went to the ballet one evening and drank lots of beer (which is cheaper than a coke) and ate delicious pastries and chocolate. In total I walked about 30 miles during my trip. I would recommend doing any of the free walking tours as they cover a lot of history, I am just someone who likes to wander and window shop so I decided to do my own tour. My suggestions for going to Prague are as follows:

• Commit a full day to Prague Castle and take your time to explore it. Your ticket will actually allow you access for 2 days in a row. 
• Don't feel like you HAVE to pay for the sites at Prague Castle. I got circuit ticket B and after doing the things that were offered I could have done with out it. It is free to enter the area that is "Prague Castle"
• Commit to walking to the top and visit the Strahov Monastery and their Brewery, get a meal at the restaurant there and partake in the best view in the entire city. 
• eat street food it is delicious! 
• Drink the beer because it is cheap and also delicious 
• Take a tram or the metro and see some of the areas outside of Prague. Prague's public transportation is great and very cheap. 
• Go to the theater, there is always something great playing

ALL RHODES LEAD TO GREECE

Well it is officially summer for me, which means nothing because I am in the midst of writing my dissertation but I did get to take a week long vacation last week. Me and two of my friends went to Rhodes, one of the larger Greek Islands. Greece is actually made up of about a thousand islands with about 200 of them being inhabited. We found a good flight and a cheap place to stay and went for it.

INDIA: VLOG EDITION

First and foremost I would like to say that vlogging is hard, these YouTubers make it look so easy with their effortless editing and causal convos with the camera. Also drones, have you seen all the drones used? Too cool. Let me tell you people it is not that easy. My struggles came down to confidence, I did not want people to look at me weird while talking to the camera. Also I tend be someone who gets caught up in the moment and I don't always feel the need for a photo. I usually just count on the people that I am with to snap shots and then I steal them later. So I forgot often that maybe this is something I should film.

I tried my hand at vlogging in India and Paris and it was okay but I think the videos I created with the footage that I had turned out pretty good. Shout out to my friend Janae who recommended Filmora to me, it is what she uses to edit her YouTube videos. It is so easy and convenient to use and gives you a professional look. I am going to take what I learned from these experiences and try them on my trip to Rhodes at the end of the month. I want to incorporate more of my natural "snapchat shooting the shit" aesthetic. ALSO, I am taking my first solo trip to Prague in June and plan on filming then as well. I am going to keep working on my technique and messing around in Filmora to get better, so that I can create quality content for these mean media streets. As always thanks for your support as I wade through this new world of media and digital content.

Check out my India vlog below and the Paris one is coming! I swear.

India Vlog from Charisse Furlongue on Vimeo.

ODE TO LOVE AT THE TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, about a 4 hour drive from Delhi. My friends and I were able to hire a driver to take us there for the weekend for about 12 bucks per person. The drive was pretty easy and before you knew it we were arriving at our Hotel in Agra. We decided to splurge a bit and stay at nice hotel and I am glad we did. The staff at The Gateway Hotel in Agra were so great and the pool there was just what we needed. We had planned on doing sunrise at the Taj because we heard it was amazing and then go to the Agra Fort in the afternoon.

The Taj is everything people say and more, yet in some ways it felt smaller in places than I imagined it to be, however it was spectacular and to think about how and when and why it was built. For those that do not know it is a shrine to the 3rd wife of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, his favorite wife. He then was laid to rest next to her and the two still lie there today. After coming back for a quick bite at the hotel we went back out to visit Agra Fort, which was so spectacular. It felt like it could go on forever. The people there were so friendly, we got stopped a few times to take some pictures. I was rather shocked to be honest, to me my skin isn't that off set from their own but people were respectful about it. I wonder what they do with the pictures they take with strangers?

• A couple of things to note, most places in India have a women's line and a men's line when going through security. At the airports I found this to be frustrating because the women's line requires you to go into a small pop up room type thing to be scanned with a female officer. Meanwhile your belongs are chilling on the conveyor belt for anyone to swipe. Also the ladies' line is always longer then the gents and yet they only have one for us ladies, which means it takes forever to get through. The Taj was no different, our friend Darren was waiting for me, Celete, and Paulina for quite some time for us to get through.

• It was a good idea to go super early, and I would recommend it as we got there before the big crowds so touring it was easy. Also the street sellers are not so overwhelming that early, you have a few people trying to sell you their service as a "guide" which we FIRMLY said no to, but that is all. However on our exit of the Taj it was crazy, getting into the car we were bombarded with people trying to sell us things and banging on the windows. I had this moment of like "this must be how Beyonce feels" it was crazy and a bit scary too. You will say NO a lot and when you think you have said it enough, say it again, people do not relent

Agra left me with so many thoughts, this location that houses one of the world's most opulent pieces of architecture is also a location of some supreme poverty. We had people trying to get us to buy things for just 100 rupees. I can't make assumptions about what their lives are like, I can only go by the things I saw and I found myself wondering if the people of Agra harbor any resentment to The Taj. Check out some pictures below and stay tuned for my next stop Jodhpur, the blue city!

WELCOME TO INDIA

A month ago today I was leaving for India! I can't believe how fast time flies. It seemed like I was there and back in a blink of an eye. I wanted to spend some time thinking and reflecting on my trip before I wrote this post, and get through some other trips too (read about Paris HERE). I decided to break this trip up into a few posts so that I could speak about my trip more thoroughly. Just so you have an idea I went from Delhi to Agra to Delhi to Jodhpur to Bangalore and home again. All together I spent 12 days there.

MERCI, PARIS

Bonjour!
Easter break is almost over and I have so much to update you all on. I just got back from Paris where I met my friend and former City Year coworker for a few days. Paris is everything that people write about and more, I was worried that the people would not be friendly because I have heard a few stories but I found the people to be very pleasant and willing to help. I learned  few small phrases and usually that was enough for them to realize I didn't know French and they would speak to me in English, but I tried.

LONDON CALLING

My friend Adam and his wife moved to London last January for work and I have been meaning to get down to London to visit, since I got to England. Virgin had a flash sale and I was able to get a round trip ticket to London for 20 quid, so now seemed like the perfect time do so. It was about a 3 hour train ride from Newcastle to King's Cross station (yes, that King's Cross Harry Potter fans).It was the day that Alan Rickman passed away and so Celete and I decided to be tourist and take a picture at platform 9 3/4 , while waiting a journalist came up to us to ask me my thoughts on his death. I forgot the name of the paper but it was a cool way to enter London.

BELFAST AND BEYOND

After 3 days in Dublin we were on to Belfast, we got on the train and took the 2 hour train ride north to Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Belfast isn't as shiny as Dublin but it has its own charm that is palpable. 

THREE DAYS IN DUBLIN

One of the best things about going to school in England is its proximity to so many other countries. Several are very inexpensive to get to. My friend Celete and I flew to Dublin for £10 quid. I can't even get a bus ticket to New York for that. We spent three days in Dublin before taking the train to Belfast (post to come). 

CHRISTMAS MARKET SEASON

The Brits really love their Christmas Markets. They are full of yummy decadent foods, great hand made items perfect for gifting, and basically Charlie and the Chocolate Factory worth of candy shops. Newcastle has one and it is cute but on Saturday I went on a school sponsored trip to Leeds for their Christmas Market, which was AWESOME.

We had all day to kill so we flittered in and out of shops and just explored the city a bit. It was COLD, like tights under my leggings cold but nothing a few mugs of mulled wine could not handle. The sun was out and shining and hey there was no rain this time! I ate a lot of wonderful things on sticks, ate too many sweets and let me kid flag fly and rode the most beautiful carousel. It was a pretty solid day, exploring another part of England!

A CITY OF LIGHTS

I know when people think of the city of lights they think of Paris, well for a week in November there's another city that gets a magical touch of glittering lights.  Last weekend some friends and I headed out to Durham for the day. The city has this event every year called Lumiere , basically the entire city is filled in lights and installations for a week.  We he had missed the trip with Newcastle University because the tickets quickly sold out so we decided to just hop on a train to Durham for the day and go explore on our own. 

UNICORN TEARS & TWO 50 POUND SUITCASES

Before I started packing for this trip I researched Pinterest , blogs and reached out to friends who had studied abroad before to get insight on what/how to pack.

WHAT'S IN MY CARRY ON(s)

This day came way faster than expected. I am now sitting here at Dulles International waiting for my plane to board in about 30 minutes. I decided to get this quick post out before hand. I knew pretty early on that I wanted to take 2 bags on board in case my luggage was to get lost I wanted to have enough things to sustain me for a few days if need be. I had one Vera Bradley Small weekender and One Coach carry all bag. I once again used packing cubes to get everything in a nice neat place. Those things are a god send! Here is what I was able to fit in both.