Tuesday, Czesky Krumlov--Day 6

On our last day, we took a tour bus to Czesky Krumlov, a city 3 hours south of Prague to see the second biggest castle in the Czech Republic. Our tour guide was a really nice, albino looking guy, but we also slept through most of the bus ride there. The city was so beautiful, yet quaint--like something straight out of a story book. 

Look at that!!

The castle itself was eh... a lot of it was painted on the outside to make it look more extravagant. 

All those "bricks" are painted! Isn't that weird? 

 We climbed up these rickity stairs of the bell tower to get this view... but oh it was worth it!! 

 I loved the moat around the city. I've never seen a real one!

Then we went to this amazing restaurant... it was like inside a cave with low stone, rounded ceilings, with hard, old wooden tables. There was a fire pit with meat grilling on it and everything. It just felt so... old, medieval European. We had lunch with this couple that we had been seeing through the whole trip because they were going through Gate 1 too. They reminded me of my own parents--a really chatty, petite mom with her quiet-but-makes-great-jokes-when-least-expected husband. 

 We got these great Czech Budweisers (Budweiser was originally a Czech beer! Isn't that cool? Then Americans stole the name... of course). I got a little drunk heh.

 We ordered pork, and it was SO GOOD. Perfectly cooked and seasoned, and with the beer. yum. I felt like a really masculine European man. 

We finally got home later that evening around 8 pm, so we went to Pilsner Urquell, a chain restaurant made by the most famous Czech beer. We ordered half a duck for 8 dollars!! And the beer... perfect! It was my favorite beer of the whole trip. 

It came with these "dumplings," which is really just boiled bread. Weird. But the beer... I think I found my new favorite light beer!

And then it was time for bed because we were leaving the next morning. :( It was such a great trip of adventures, and I wish I had more time to explore! If I were to go again, I wouldn't even try to go to the touristy places and just meander around the cities and stumble upon places because that's how we got to see some of the coolest places. Budapest seems like a really cool hippy city--perfect for me--and Prague seems like an enchanting, romantic-in-a-medieval-way city. 

Where should I go next??

Monday, Prague--Day 5

The next day, we did a lot of sightseeing. We explored Old Town, which is the area where most of the monuments were. But first, we went for  jog (I know, I can't believe it either), and then by the time we were done, we decided it was time for some coffee! And we found another beautiful cafe--Cafe Savoy. Just like Cafe Gerbaud in Budapest, it was beautiful--high ceilings, chandeliers, marble tables... our favorite things!

 Pretty, right?

 This is basically all we did every time we went out to eat ha

My dessert was so so so good... it was a giant creme puff, essentially. It had a sugar coating on top, but I was so full after eating just the filling so I left that. The coffee was eh again, but we felt so rejuvenated. Thank goodness for these coffee breaks or else I would have just been tired and cranky the whole time!!

We stumbled across another Easter Market that I loved. It was the strangest weather--sunny one moment, snowing another--so we got caught in one of these weird indecisive weather moments as we were buying everything from the market. We even stopped by this painting stall 3 times!! Grace and I are definitely big shoppers. 

We meandered around some more and basked in all of Prague's glory. 

 This is one of the major squares where a lot of protests took place. And there was a small Easter Market on it--our favorite!!

We did a lot of street eating this day... this kielbasa was the best I've ever had. SO GOOD

And THIS! Oh this... I don't even know what it's called but it was a treat from heaven. They had this large poles and wrapped it with dough and then cooked it over charcoal. Then they would dip it into sugar, cinnamon, heaven, and take it off the pole so you could have this hollow like elongated donut (but so much better). 

 We went into the smaller Jewish area too. This is such a colorful synagogue! 

A major attraction was the clock in Prague, so we found it and waited for it to go past the hour to watch it in action.

 We were a little bored waiting for the clock. Thanks for letting me borrow your hat Grace!!

The clock!

It was really not very impressive as it went past the hour, but it was really impressive to just see it. Legend says that they blinded the clock maker after he made it so he could never replicate it for anyone else, and the clock maker broke it on purpose so that it couldn't be used for another 2 years until someone fixed it. Crazy people.

Then we headed to my FAVORITE PART OF THE TRIP! We got tickets the night before to the see the Czech Philharmonic perform Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I WAS SO EXCITED!! We stopped for some tea first though. 

Such good tea!! Mint, lemon, and ginger. Yum. 

Then we headed to the concert hall! 

 So pretty!

I felt a little out of place because people were dressed so nicely, and I was in boots and pants, but it was okay! The concert was magnificent though--the singers were in the back and the orchestra was in the front, and I had goosebumps for the entire 2 hours that they played straight through. I wanted to die! I couldn't believe I was watching THE philharmonic in the city where this music was born and revolutionized. BAH!

HAPPY!

Sunday, Prague--Day 4

We woke up at 6 AM to take the bus to Prague, and it was difficult. But it was really nice because we bought this trip from Gate 1, so they arranged the bus to pick all of us up at the hotel, so we didn't have to go anywhere. We had a tour guide who actually told us a lot about Budapest and Prague as we traveled the 7 hours to the other city, but Grace and I were so tired that we slept through 90% of what she said... and were irritated by the other 10% when we were listening because we couldn't sleep haha

When we finally made it to Prague, it was already the late afternoon, so we just explored a little big. Grace was in charge of Prague, so we went to the Prague Castle that evening.

This was just one of the streets in Prague--it was such a beautiful city.

Prague Castle! It was made of a lot of different buildings, so it wasn't just one. 

 St. Vitus Cathedral! 

The view from the top. The castle was on top of a hill, so you got this great view! I love the red roofs. 

On the way home, we got a really nice view of the castle from afar. 

By that point, we were exhausted so we went home to sleep. I feel like this is a common theme ha!

Saturday, Budapest-- Day 3

The next day, I was really excited because we were going caving!! Grace's friend had told her about doing this, so we had bought tickets ahead of time. We went for a jog earlier that morning (crazy, right), and then we got ready to go! We met up with the group, and it was pretty cool because it was a bunch of young people from Germany, America, Ireland, etc. We took two buses to the site, where we got our mining uniforms and headed down. 

Don't we look cool? 

This was such a cool experience though--I'm so glad Grace found out about this! We climbed through tiny holes, lots of crevasses, slid through more holes... I felt like either a mole person or Indiana Jones. By the end, I was so tired and hungry!! Our guide was great--she went through the cave like a little tiger. 

She spent a lot of time talking about the sediments and the rocks, but she had a pretty heavy Hungarian accent so I only understood a quarter of what she was saying. I can barely understand these rock words in English anyway! 

This is an example of the tiny holes we had to go through. I almost got stuck in one and started to panic, but luckily I wiggled through. So scary!!

This is a picture of one of the crevasses that we traveled through, right before I fell and busted my butt haha

The group of kids was really nice too--everyone was really funny and interested. My favorite part was when our guide led us to a big auditorium looking part of the cave, and we sat in complete pitch darkness and silence as she sang us a hauntingly beautiful Hungarian folk song to us to show us the acoustics of the cave. I won't forget that! 

We left around 6 pm, and by that time I was starving and hangry!! Poor Grace. We popped into the mall to eat a little at the food court (sorry!! I just didn't have any patience to look for food), and then after we rested at the hotel, we dragged our butts back up to find a bar. 

We wandered around after taking our favorite metro, and we found this really cool indoor food/drink vendor area. The floor was all white stones, and after you walked through the plastic sheets/doors, you saw two rows of food stands on both sides of you, selling crepes, beers, etc, and in the middle was a line of picnic tables. It was so hippy and cool! I'd go there every night if I lived in Budapest. We got a beer and some cheese dumplings and a crepe and then headed home. I wish I took some pictures! 

Friday, Budapest--Day 2

The goal of the day (since I was spearheading) was to see a LOT of tourist sites, and we were so tired by the end! If I were to do this day again, I'd just wander around to see things, instead of stressing to find specific sites. We did that in Prague, which I loved, but Prague was also set up in tighter areas. Anyway, the first thing we went to see was the Central Market! It is the biggest indoor market in Budapest, and Grace and I spent hours in there getting lost and buying everything. 

 Paprika is really big in Hungary, so there were a lot of these stands for tourists to buy. I bought a toothpaste looking thing that's supposed to have paprika paste inside, but I'm a little hesitant to try it. Paprika toothpaste??

 Inside the market! Everything was so cheap too... we couldn't help but buy things!

And we had langos! It was like pizza but with weird toppings. 

We were tired and heavy with a lot of shopping bags, so we went back to the hotel for a break, and then adventured out again and took the metro south towards the Danube River. That metro was so great!! So fast, clean, and cheap. I love seeing the different metro systems in the different cities. 

We went to Cafe Gerbaud which was recommended on the map we had, and it was SO GREAT. I think Grace and me are really big cafe lovers. 

It was really beautiful with high ceilings, luxurious curtains, marble tables. And we got the BEST ice cream dessert ever. It was caramel with this crispy cookie and this delicious macaroon with the best ice cream... I'm drooling now. The coffee was eh. 

That is true happiness.

After we got rejuvenated, we stumbled across an Easter Market, and it was so cute! There was a really great cover artist singing, and she did a rendition of "La Vie en Rouge," and it felt like I was in a movie with a great soundtrack. There were all these little stands, and we got some great bigos, which is beef stew with potatoes, carrots, and onions. Yum. 

By that time, it was getting pretty late and cold and windy, but we were determined to go see some of the major sites, so we popped by the Chain bridge...

the parliament building...

St. Stephen's Basilica...

and the opera house. 

And then we ran home because it was freezing!! 

I'm baaaack! Thursday, Budapest-- Day 1

Ah! I can't believe this is still here!! I've been home recuperating from a surgery during the last week after being gone for another prior week to Budapest and Prague, and I was wishing that I had made some kind of journal for my trip... and I suddenly remembered I had this!! So cool. Since I have the time, I'm going to try to recount the memories I made during this last trip that gave me the travel bug again. It really doesn't help that I've been cooped up and impatient to get better!! I'm thinking I want to go to Ireland by myself next time... driving through the rolling hills, checking out the castles... Ah!! I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway! My trip. 

I had gone over Grace's house the night before and slept over because we were leaving from JFK, so that morning we got up and had brunch with Stevie and her dad. Her dad was so fun! He seemed to be in such a good mood--I think it's because of their new house they just bought. We went to a little Korean restaurant where everything was out of stock haha but we had great noodle soups. And then off we went to the airport!

The plane ride was uneventful--it was a long 10 hours flight to Istanbul (tiny little airport from what it looked like... but we found out more on the way back), then a 2 hour flight to Budapest. I read a lot ("Switch" by Dan Heath & Chip Heath--great book!!) and slept a lot. By the end of the flight, we were so glad to be in Budapest. 

This was when we first got onto the plane, hence the excited faces that disappeared over the duration of the flight haha

When we got to Budapest, first thing we did was go to our hotel and sleep!! It was 8 AM at that point, so we napped until 1 PM and forced ourselves to get up. Our little hotel was clean but nothing fancy, and was next to Heroes Square, a beautiful monument dedicated to... heroes... of some sort... (Should've found some more information. whoops)

It was beautiful! There was even a little park next to it, so we explored that area first. 

Museum? We were a little jet lagged heh. 

Then we went to the LONG AWAITED and LONG SOUGHT AFTER baths!! Grace and I were so so excited about this. 

Tell me that isn't just BEAUTIFUL!

Grace and I hadn't planned a lot of this trip, but we knew one thing was for sure--we needed to go to the baths in Budapest, and it was so great. It took us a little while to figure out the lockers (with these fancy watches they gave us to lock them up), but once we were in the water, it was great. Budapest is called the "City of Baths" because there are a lot of thermal springs under the city, so this giant outdoor pool was heated naturally. It was a little chilly outside, but it was perfect under the water. Inside the building were even more pools and saunas too! It made me think of my beloved King Spa that I love going to in Jersey, but this one had a lot more history behind it. We didn't want to leave, but we were getting hungry, so we left around 6 PM. 

We ended up wandering into another castle, and it was really beautiful. I just wish I knew more about what I was seeing! 

Then we went to the local supermarket to buy some bread, cheese, cold cuts, chips, and apples for dinner--and it came out to 6 AMERICAN DOLLARS! For both of us!! We began to love Budapest because of how cheap everything was. 

We needed a late night adventure to the mall because we didn't have an outlet converter, so we walked to the West End Mall. The streets were pretty quiet (around 9 PM), but I felt really safe the whole time. Grace was a little nervous at first, but then she began to feel the same way. On the way, we saw this beautiful train station (actually, we got lost but I didn't want to admit it ha but worth it!!).

We successfully found our outlet changer (yay!!) and began our friendship with the mall that we got to know pretty well over the next few days ha (you can take the girl our of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl). And then off to bed we went! 

Ciao ciao, Je t'aime Europa!

So now I'm home, and how weird it is! It's lovely though seeing my friends and family--I love being able to see people in real life. But I'm getting used to these long distance relationships anyway since most of my good friends don't go to Rutgers with me, so it was like an additional bonus that I'm not quite used to.
But America sure is weird!
Everything is so BIG here--the houses, the streets, the cars. And technology is crazy--my sister was telling me about all these latest innovations (seriously? Internet on your TV? And seriously? A remote to your car to warm it up as you're still shopping in the mall so that it'll be already toasty when you get there? IS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?), and it was mindboggling. And people are so addicted to their phones! It was strange getting phone calls and texts again, but constantly being glued to your phone so you can update your current locations to the interweb world? Kind of crazy... And they're (we're?) such consumers! The mall is still open until 6 pm on Christmas Eve?! And then waking up at 8 am after Christmas Day to buy MORE things on sale?! People are crazy. And who got the crazy idea that fake nails look good?!
What a strange society.
I'm definitely going to start missing Europe soon. I'm going to miss the pace of that life a lot, I think. It's slower and more relaxed, but not in a lazy way--they just take the time to breathe and look around them. Restaurants will definitely drive me crazy when the servers start bugging me to eat quickly and leave. I loved that in Europe you could sit at a restaurant for hours, chatting with a friend, and the servers wouldn't bother you for a second. And I'm going to miss the metro so much; I hate that I can't get anywhere in Jersey without a car (especially since driving is not my favorite past time). And everyone speaks English! It's a little disconcerting. I miss French and Dutch already. Sinasappelsaap, anyone?
Belgium was such a nice vacation from life, but it was definitely an amazing learning experience. I remember hearing people say that they've changed as a person after going through a study abroad program, and I was pretty skeptical. But it's true! I've changed, and for the better in my opinion. I've talked about this with all my fellow study abroad companions, and we've all changed. Studying abroad makes you a more confident person, a more individualized person who knows that no matter where he or she ends up, everything will be okay. You'll make friends, you'll find a job, you'll succeed--anywhere! I personally know that I can be an adult now (unfortunate, but necessary), and I think I'm a happier person. It might be because of the yoga, or it might be because I've finally settled into who I am. I'm not that naive, hyper-enthusiastic high school girl, nor am I that jaded, bitter nostalgic college student. I'm an in-between now--still happy and passionate and accepting that my wonderful childhood has gone but also knowing that great things are yet to come.
I'm me!
But this is not me saying goodbye to Europe because I will be back! Graduate school in Amsterdam, anyone? :)