5 December 2015

CZ: Na univerzitu do Anglie




Článek na přání. Po studiu bakaláře jsem věděla, že buď budu ve studiu pokračovat v zahraničí nebo pokračovat nebudu. Nechápejte to špatně, "Masárnu" (Masarykova univerzita v Brně) mám moc ráda a ty tři roky tam stály za to, jak po studijní stránce, tak po stránce studentského života. Ale vždy mě to táhlo za hranice. Během ročního working holiday na Novém Zélandu, tedy běhém svého gap yearu, jsem si pro případ dalšího studia, které prostě bude v zahraničí!, udělaja mezinárodní jazykový test a že se zkusím na pár univeryit přihlásit. Měla jsem štěstí. A to velké - dostala jsem se na svou univerzitu snů a nemohu si ji vynachválit. Jak tedy ten proces přihlášky na britské univerzity vypadá?

10 September 2015

CZ: Můj rok na univerzitě v Tchaj-peji


Neměla jsem v plánu o ročním studiu na Taiwanu psát. Byl to ten nejúžasnější rok mého života, nebo jeden z těch nejúžasnějších, o tom žádná. Ale samotné stipendium a celý roční pobyt mi připadají jako zcela běžná věc. No, ukázalo se, že to, jak jsem se ke stipendiu dostala, jak jsem se dostala k samotnému studiu čínštiny a jak celá ta cesta a asijský život vypadají, zajímá lidi asi nejvíc. Takže tady to je, hezky celé od začátku. 

28 July 2015

Indonesia: Pet Market in Yogyakarta, Java


Yogya is simply amazing. Incomparable with Jakarta. Not that I don't like it, we hade a great time in Jakarta. But Yogya is way more magical. Our amazing couchsurfing host Danang helped us rent a scooter and took us to so many places. One of them was this pet market.

24 July 2015

New Zealand: Helpx experience


Working holiday in New Zealand means picking jobs or volunteering, for most of travelers. We were not really lucky with picking jobs, we planned to do kiwi picking during last weeks of our stay but the weather was against us and we spent almost three weeks in our car. At the beginning of our New Zealand adventure, however, we did volunteering.
If you haven't heard of HELP X you better check their website, it is simply amazing. It is a very good database of people around the globe offering accommodation for few hours of work. You simply choose the region, country, see the offers and find what suits you the best. A farm, an organic farm, a host or a school, home stay or another project. You can find some really special offers, for example mushroom farm in Taiwan,  windmill construction or kangaroo farm. You can easily see what is the job, how many people they are looking for, if male or female, how is gonna be you accommodation, how many hours per day you need to work and you can also read the reviews from previous helpers.
As we were at the beginning of looking for job process this was our chance. First family we found lived few minutes ride north from Auckland, on a farm. Bronwyn and her British husband Tim and their two daughters were the sweetest people. It was not rally hard working we had to do but it was life on a sheep farm. See the full sheep experience HERE. 

Cambridge

22 July 2015

Berlin: Ai Weiwei


Yes, i do like Ai Weiwei. You can tell whatever you want, he maybe famous only because of the political affairs around his name and he may not be as popular in China as he is out of it. But come on. Some of his woks really make a point. Simple they may be but that is the beauty, isn't it? So when there was an exhibition in Berlin and I was just few miles away, who would resist? 

Cambodia: Sihanoukville


My friend went Cambodia few years ago and I just loved her pictures of this cute little beach houses in south Cambodia. So it was immediately on our gap year list. After all the traveling around hot Asia this was a place where to relax and enjoy the sea. And we planed it very well, it was not the high season, we were almost alone there and the prices of the accommodation were really low. And in the end I was really happy we decided to go to Cambodia and not to south Thailand. It still a paradise but without the touristic madness.

21 July 2015

Coffee talk: YABOO cafe, Taipei, Taiwan

Baileys milk tea and ice tea

Shida (National Taiwan Normal university) area is famous for cute little cafes where students spend hours and hours - doing their homework, of course. It really has this nice Taiwan atmosphere, you wonder in the small streets and on every corner you find a small cafe or a bakery or simply place where to buy a little snack. Shida night market may be getting smaller and it is not as good as it used to be around 2010/2011, but these nice cafes around survive. You may be a coffee geek as we are but it wont stop you from going to these cafes even it they are not the third wave coffee shops. Because Taiwanese tea is also a delicious thing... 

20 July 2015

London: Sir John Soane´s Museum





Dovoluji si tvrdit, že jsem objevila to nejlepší muzeum v Londýně. A co je na tom nejlepší? Je zdarma a není to číslo jedna v turistických příručkách, takže nění naravé k prasknutí. Sir John Soane Museum jednoznačně doporučuji.


14 July 2015

Taiwan: Wulai 烏來


Na Tchaj-wanu (abych se držela klasického českého přepisu) máte park téměř na každém rohu, ať je Tchaj-pej jakkoliv betonová, o přírodu tu rozdhoně nění nouze. Jedna z věcí, které na té zemi miluju. Přesto to občas chce velkoměsto opustit a vyrazit na venkov.
Wulai je jasná volba. Z jihu Tchaj-peje se tam jede ani ne hodinku a i ta jízda samotná je pastva pro oko. Do údolí vede cesta podél řeky, dosela slušné serpentýny s výhlídkami na nekonečnou zeleň.

13 July 2015

English countryside


As much as we love London, sometimes it is simply too much and you feel like escape for a while. So we did. As usual, we went to visit Alex, down south, in Brighton. And because we have been to Brighton many times and we did not want to spend weekend in the town, we simply relaxes at Alex' s place, with his new puppy, watched some funny YouTube videos and a crazy Irish movie, had the best chocolate Guinness cake and some amazing slow cooked pork made by Alex's dad and went for walks. 
It was exactly what we needed after a busy working week in London. Just going out without planing where, sit in grass and relax, talk about the meaning of life (no, just kidding, we talked about the possibility of surviving a base jump - wait a minute! That is talking life, or not?), enjoying the beautiful scenery of English countryside. Moments like this really makes me feel happy, it really shows me how much i love this country and how lucky we are to live here. 
Later we stooped for a cup of filter at Taylor St Barista - well, we simply have to as M works for their London shops.  And they had some delicious Barn that day! 
More weekends like this one please...


7 July 2015

Bali 2014


Many say Bali is too touristic in these days. Yes, true. But still, I love it more than any other place. Beautiful nature, beaches, mountains. Beautiful architecture, basically every house looks like a temple. Delicious food. But most importantly, friendly people. They never stop smiling. And believe me that simply will make you smile back.

13 May 2015

Gap Year

Ok, our gap year is over, we are sitting at place for too long now (even if the place is London). But it has been just few days since I was able to get all our videos from our travels as my external hard drive, the only place where I store it all, was broken. We are just so happy to have almost all of the pictures back and mainly all the videos. Now it's the time to learn how to edit them properly. Here is a little recap of our travels and one video: 

17 April 2015

London Walks: Walthamstow Marshes



First things first, I am really sorry for the quality of the pictures, I have no idea why we did not take our camera with us. Anyway, the spring arrived to London, the real spring. It means that the dirty and depressive Walthamstow (where we live) actually looks good now. A big plus of it, next to the convenient connection to the city centre, is the high number of parks and nature in general. I am not afraid to say London is a green city, parks are everywhere, even if just small ones. However, Walthamstow has this big Marshes, the Lea river and many reservoirs. It is right next to Hackney Marsh and from there it is very close to the Victoria park so it can be a nice walk to the hipster Shoreditch. 
I made M to walk to the Lee Valley riding centre. I needed to visit those horses I see from train every morning. Finally! And it was really nice, not too many people around, only few cyclists and walkers with dogs. Ok, next time we will also brings some snack for the horses. 
After the time spent with horses we made it to the Lee river, and we actually, by an accident, met our colleague barista Nell who lives on a houseboat. She offered tea and we had a nice afternoon by her houseboat, along with her cute cat. My new dream is to live on a houseboat!
On a nice sunny spring afternoon like this you not only forget all the stress from school and work but you also forget that you are actually in middle of a huge city...


21 March 2015

Holi festival at SOAS



Indian Holi festival. Wohooo. I couldn't wait. I always wanted to attend one of the colour runs held all over the world but I never had the chance. Finally, at SOAS we had this end-of-term Holi festival. Small one, yes, but it was fun anyway. We were super lucky with the weather so we actually didn't mind the water guns! 
Take a look at the video:

15 March 2015

Cambodia: Khmer Cooking Class


We love food more than anything. Simply for us life is about food and therefore there is no traveling without a lot of food. it is nice to learn some local recipes from locals but why not to try a cooking class? When in Siem Reap we decided to try Tigre de Papier. Itis right on Pub Street and for a decent price you get to try preparing three courses you choose from the menu and of course, you eat them at the end. To be hones I wouldn't go to a cooking class where i cannot eat what I've cooked, haha. 

9 March 2015

Coffee tour de Manchester



Our coffee list was way longer but we did want to spend the whole weekend in cafes as there is a lot to see in the lovely city of Manchester. Here is the list of the top 3 cafes to try when in Manchester:

Náš seznam kaváren v Manchesteru byl o něco delší, ale nehodlali jsme celý víkend prosedět v kavárnách, v Manchesteru je toho dost k vidění. Tak tedy stručně, zde jsou ty tři nejlepší kavárny: 

Manchester



Our first time in Manchester! Our first plan was to see the Black Keys gig. Another first time for us and I couldn't wait to see them live. But it seems it is not my destiny to see them as they cancelled the whole month in Europe, due to an injury. Never mind, we already had the tickets to Manchester so we went anyway. 
To my surprise, the city centre is very small. But full of lovely little streets and beautiful houses. The architecture is really something. I really took picture of every second house. Important thing? I really loved this place, such an atmosphere with the northern kinda accent, but one or two days to is enough to see all important sightseeing points, see some of the museums and cafes.

28 January 2015

Video: New Zealand Adventures


New Zealand is where we started our gap year. And thanks to couch surfing we found some amazing friends. It wasn't our first time couch surfing. But it was a very interesting this time. We came to Auckland after little stop in Taiwan, ready to start new short life here. To find a job, to find a lovely place to live, meet new people etc. We came to Auckland little unprepared, I must say. We didn't book any accommodation and realized that all the hostels are fully booked. We tried to find a host on CS before, but nobody wanted us. Well, little desperate, we tried CS again. This time we didn't send individual messages. We simply wrote to Auckland wall, asking if somebody knows about a low cost hotel and if it is safe to sleep in a park. In few minutes, we had around ten messages and at least five calls from people willing to host us. And that is how we met Rory and Riley, two of the best Kiwis we've ever met. We ended up living with them for more than two weeks. 
In January 2014 we went to a little trip organized by Rory and his brothers, out of the city, to the north of North Island. People usually prefer the South island, yes, but look, there are some really cool places up north, too! Rory took us to a beautiful quiet beach, we camped between the sand dunes, did some mussels picking and mussels bbq, had fun in the sea, watched wild dolphins, played ninja game, we were driving on the sand and visited some really scary caves. To go for a trip with a Kiwi is completely different from using a guide or Google. You will never find this cool places and adventures without a local. 
Watching this now, in cold England, I wish that gap year lasted forever. And also we made a promise we will go back to New Zealand one day! 
Here is a video from the trip and some pictures. 

London walks: Richmond Park



Richmond park was on my list for a long time but I don't know why I have never found the time to go. Until last week. We were super lucky with the weather. January in London is not really nice. No snow (and I really miss that!) but it can still be really cold, it is sunny but really windy and it rains occasionally. But last Saturday was really beautiful. Still bit cold, but sunny all day. I didn't feel like waking up, I must admit, but thanks God M. made me get of the bed and we decided to go to Richmond. For the first time of my life. 
It took us one hour to get there from north London, maybe more as we had to walk from the tube station, but it was a nice walk. I felt like we are out of London. And I feel like I want to live in Richmond one day. The park itself is just huge, we spent there around four hours, walking, enjoying a day out of the chaotic city centre. As the weather was nice we could see the city, actually. The best thing about Richmond? The deers! There are about 300 of them living in the park and you don't really need to keep looking for them, you will just meet them. We spent several minutes standing by and watching them. That really made my day. As well as the cute little parrots flying around. 
So, if you are looking for a piece of nature in London, Richmond is the place. Don't forget to bring some bread for the ducks and swans...

11 January 2015

London Weekends: Angel + Soho (The Breakfast Club + TAP Coffee)


During the weekends we get to know the non-turistic London. M. doesn't work during weekends and I try to remain away from the school library. We have a long list of places to visit, the hidden London I've never visited before as a tourist (and I have been to London hundred times). We also have a long list of cafes, vintage shops, markets, exhibitions and concerts we want to visit.
This Saturday we choose the famous Breakfast Club from our "food porn" list. I don't really know why but from all their restaurants we choose the one at Angel. Good choice. Angel is just amazing area. This is the first time I went to there and I am in love! I don't really know why I've never been here before, it is so close to my uni. All the cute vintage shops, cafes, restaurants, art shops. Beautiful. Well, M. got bit bored after few minutes wondering around all of the antique shops.
On Sunday, we went to the British Museum, the last day of two great exhibitions - the Buddhism in Burma and witches and wicked bodies paintings. And of course, we have to spend some time in the Japan and China sections.
I had 3 professional baristas with me so we simply had to end up in a cafe. Kit took us to TAP Coffee, close to Oxford Street. Simply brilliant!

9 January 2015

Hong Kong 2014


Do Hong Kongu jsem poprvé zamířila jako průvodce. A popravdě, neměla jsem to město ráda. Velkoměsto, ale pořád namačkané na pár ostrůvcích, takže všude plno lidi a dost těsno. Oproti Číně je to dost zápaďácké místo, ale Asii v sobě nezapře. Jako průvodce jsem tady musel vodit velké skupiny turitsů tím chaosem a to vše hromadnou dopravou a v tom neúnosném vedru. Na posledním zájezdu jsem v HK zůstala déle, klienti odletěli domů a já měla dva dny sama pro sebe. Ty dva dny, jak se ukázalo, byly málo a já se do HK zamilovala.

Back to Brighton


Brighton milujeme. Alex, kterého jsme poprvé potkali loňské léto, když nás v Brightonu ubytovával (jeden z těch couchsurfingových hostitelů, kteří se stali našimi opravdovými kamarády), byl na svátky doma z Readingu a pozval nás na víkendový dýchánek. Byli jsme rádi, že se na chvíli dostaneme z přelidněného Londýna. Ač je Londýn mé město číslo jedna, občas si člověk musí odpočinout od velkoměsta.

London: Yoshitomo Nara Exhibition


Zaprvé, vůbec jsem netušila, že mám hned za rohem od školy tak parádní galerii. Dairy je předně úžasná industriální budova, skvělé prostory. Je to malá galerie a většina výstav je tu zdarma, ale to je obecně dost londýnská věc. 
Zadruhé, Yoshitomo Nara! Byla to asi ta nejroztomilejší výstava, na které jsem kdy byla. Rozpouštěla jsem se nad všemi těmi okatými postavičkami a holčičkami. Nebyly to ale jen malby, byly zde i celkem velké sochy všech možných druhů. A ta nejroztomilejší fontána, viz. první foto, plakajících postaviček. Tu bych brala domů hned. Absolutně nejlepší byla ale místnost, která mapovala autorovu tvorbu za posledních třicet let. Jednoduché, roztomilé, vtipné, originální. Yoshitoma jsem si dokonce na nějakou dobu dala na pozadí počítače. 

Tea Time in Lindfield - The Toll House



Alex nás vzal do Liendfieldu, jedné malé vesničky kousek od Brightonu. Nic lepšího jsme si ani nemohli přát. Unikli jsme z rušného Londýna do té pravé anglické idilky. Městečku dominovala High Street, kde byl jeden dům starší než druhý. Toll House byl z roku 1630. Ani nevím, jestli jsem někdy byla v nějakém tak sterém domě. 
V přízemí mají malý krámek se serepetičkami a za ním rozkošnou čajovnu. Krom toho, ceny rozhodně nejsou londýnské, velké plus. Udělala jsem z toho posezení ve velice britském stylu - čaj s mlékem (dokonce to bylo okolo páté odpolední!) a scony s marmeládou a smetanou. Celonárodní spor mezi Brity je právě o sconech, přesněji o postupu konzumace. Jedna strana zastává postup marmeláda a potom smetana. Proti nim jsou zastánci obráceného postupu, tedy smetana a na ní marmeláda. Alex jasně tvrdil, že marmeláda musí být první. Netrvalo asi pět vteřin a od druhého stolu se ozvala paní, že je to tedy přesně naopak. To prý dá rozum, že smetana musí být první. V rámci uklidnění situace jsem si dala půlku sconu tak a druhou tak.

7 January 2015

Coffee Talk: Coffee@33, Brighton


Our first stop on our "speciality coffee" mission in Brighton. Well, Mr Wolfe was for some reason closed that day, so we went to a lovely little cafe close to the train station - Coffee@33. Good choice, I must say. Friendly place with an amazing design and really nice atmosphere. Cafe as I like it - not a long menu, just few traditional drinks, some snacks and sandwiches and 3 different filters. M. tried the Rwanda one and it was just perfect, bit stronger, but really goooooood. (I am sorry, I forgot the exact name already).
There were not many seats, but it looked like people stopped here more for a take away coffee and a friendly chat. Anyway, we found a seat and I, personally, can imagine spending here hours and hours with a book. 

Coffe Talk: MARWOOD cafe, Brighton




Our first trip of 2015! Our beloved Brighton was amazing as usual. M. is a barista now, a professional. We were never so much into coffee as now. So, a must do in Brighton for us was to visit some speciality cafes there. A there are many in Brighton. We had recommendations for Mr Wolfe, Coffee @33, Small Batch, Ground, Marwood and of course Taylor Street Barista, Michael's cafe. And many others, check the list here