These past few weeks have been quite busy, yet pale in comparison to what is ahead.
I had a great surprise last Wednesday when my friend from high school, Jessie, called to say that she was about to take an overnight train from Poland and would be in Prague the following morning. It was so so fun to see her, show her around town and hear about all of her crazy travel stories.
My own travels began last Friday as our program took a trip to a small town called Litomericie. The town is about an hour outside of Prague and very beautiful and non-touristy, almost like something you would see in a storybook. It was an early bus ride to get there for our tour, and it didn’t help much that we stayed out late the night before. After our tour of the town we went to visit a palace in the countryside, and then moved onto an old vineyard where we had a wine tasting. This was above and beyond my favorite part of the trip and it was really cool to travel underground to see the huge barrels of wine and listen to the history of the grapes. In our tasting we tasted 6 different wines, my favorite was the 2nd red wine, I don’t remember the name, but I was able to buy a bottle that I will bring home with me.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am to take the 8 hour bus ride to Budapest. This wasn’t actually as bad as it sounds, and we stopped in Brno (the 2nd largest city in the Czech republic) and Bratislava. After arriving in Budapest we navigated our way to the hostel- 11th hour hostel and cinema (weird name I realize) but it ended up being a vey nice place and had a great location. Brianna and I were in super tourist mode when we woke up Sunday morning and we walked over to the castle district to explore and visit some museums. It was such a nice day, definitely the nicest we have had in Europe so far, and so we just wandered around for a while to explore the city.
After lunch we thought we should go a visit the baths, because we had read that that was one of the sights Budapest was famous for. This was an experience I am glad that I will only do once- it was basically a large hollowed out church with beautiful stained glass windows and then instead of aisles and pews there was just a big hot tub with many many many nude overweight Hungarian women. I will spare the gross details but I was glad to shower after the bath.
That night we went out to a cool restaurant for dinner, Goa, and then headed back early because most of the streets seemed to be dead. Actually, that was a weird quirk about Budapest, everything was closed on Sunday. I am truly not exaggerating, absolutely every store was closed- it was very weird and Brianna and I still could not figure out the logic behind this. All in all, Budapest was a very very cool city and shared many similarities with Prague but also differed in some dramatic ways.
So now I am back in Prague and have only one more day of class before I head off to Madrid to visit Mary for the weekend. The next weekend I am going to Florence, and then off to Berlin with the program for the weekend and then I am home the last weekend in March- when Charlie is coming to visit!
Na Shledanou!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Ahoy!
I love Praha!
So I have been here just about two weeks now and have moved into an apartment. These past two weeks have really been a blur, and I feel like I have been in this city forever already. I am living in Vinohrady, which is just up the street from Wenceslas Square, and am sharing an apartment with 4 other girls. Our apartment is about a 10-15 minute walk from school but there is no metro or tram, which I don’t mind yet because I am still in awe with this city- and have loved walking around.
Last week we had intensive Czech classes every morning from 9-12--- which was really rough. This language has way too many consonants. We also had some orientation lectures about how to best acclimatize to this city and adjust to life in Central Europe- there were some funny anecdotes from these. Including that Czech’s are offended when beer is not ordered in a restaurant, and also laugh at Americans because they always move furniture in restaurants. I had never noticed this before, but as soon as she said it I realized that every meal we went to we would move the furniture.
Outside of class we have been going to some really great restaurants and bars and wandering around the city. It is definitely the most confusing city I have ever been in- by far- we have gotten lost every time we try to go anywhere, but I don’t really mind besides for the cold. I have been struggling with the menu- the first night we were here Brianna and I accidentally ordered pork shoulder and cow tongue- yuck.
This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with Brianna, Lizzie and Rob and it was ridiculous. We stayed in the red light district in this tiny apartment that over looked the local scenery. It was my first time there, and it the weirdest and most contradictory city I have ever been, but very beautiful. I liked all the canals and it was a great city to visit- one night we went to an Irish Karokee bar and the next night we ended up at this pool hall with live music and some different bands playing. It was great.
We have been planning a bunch of trips and talking to people about the best places to travel- I’m really excited to see Eastern Europe and want to go to more of the random places like Croatia and Sarajevo. Well I gotta run, I have my first Czech class tomorrow at 8, but I will try to update more now that we have internet- Na Shledanou!
So I have been here just about two weeks now and have moved into an apartment. These past two weeks have really been a blur, and I feel like I have been in this city forever already. I am living in Vinohrady, which is just up the street from Wenceslas Square, and am sharing an apartment with 4 other girls. Our apartment is about a 10-15 minute walk from school but there is no metro or tram, which I don’t mind yet because I am still in awe with this city- and have loved walking around.
Last week we had intensive Czech classes every morning from 9-12--- which was really rough. This language has way too many consonants. We also had some orientation lectures about how to best acclimatize to this city and adjust to life in Central Europe- there were some funny anecdotes from these. Including that Czech’s are offended when beer is not ordered in a restaurant, and also laugh at Americans because they always move furniture in restaurants. I had never noticed this before, but as soon as she said it I realized that every meal we went to we would move the furniture.
Outside of class we have been going to some really great restaurants and bars and wandering around the city. It is definitely the most confusing city I have ever been in- by far- we have gotten lost every time we try to go anywhere, but I don’t really mind besides for the cold. I have been struggling with the menu- the first night we were here Brianna and I accidentally ordered pork shoulder and cow tongue- yuck.
This past weekend I went to Amsterdam with Brianna, Lizzie and Rob and it was ridiculous. We stayed in the red light district in this tiny apartment that over looked the local scenery. It was my first time there, and it the weirdest and most contradictory city I have ever been, but very beautiful. I liked all the canals and it was a great city to visit- one night we went to an Irish Karokee bar and the next night we ended up at this pool hall with live music and some different bands playing. It was great.
We have been planning a bunch of trips and talking to people about the best places to travel- I’m really excited to see Eastern Europe and want to go to more of the random places like Croatia and Sarajevo. Well I gotta run, I have my first Czech class tomorrow at 8, but I will try to update more now that we have internet- Na Shledanou!
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