Eurotrip 2017: Playtime in Praha

Ya'll. I could live in Prague. This city is spectacular. But yes, let's back up to the beginning before we get to my obsession with this city.

After the first 10 hours on the bus, I had a two hour layover in Berlin. This really isn't overly significant other than the fact that they played this song: https://youtu.be/cHcunREYzNY when they dropped us off and I almost cried. I have MISSED Germany you guys. I didn't even get to go out and play around in Berlin, but hearing Deutschland spoken and then that song UGH. My heart. Thank God I go to Vienna next!

Oh and the drive was pretty.

Okay, moving forward. Five hours later, I had made it to Prague. At this point in my head we had some priorities:

1. Get to the hostel

2. EAT.

3. Wander

4. Shower off the past 16 hours of travel

5. SLEEP.

The metro here was right next to the bus station, so I was pumped that I'd be getting to check off number one pretty quickly. Unfortunately I was in SUCH a rush, that even though I got my ticket I forgot to get it validated. When I arrived at my final stop, a woman stopped me and I was fined 30EURO. Just to put this in perspective...I am tired, I am hungry, and I just got fined more then 2/3 of what it cost me for my ticket to Prague from Amsterdam (47 Euro). UGHHHH. Seriously so frustrating. After trying to weasel my way out of it with "'Oh my gosh I'm SOOO sorry" and "So sorry!! I didn't see anything, I didn't know" etc. I gave up given that the woman I was dealing with unfortunately wasn't going to give me any leeway. Also she barely spoke English. Damn. So off I went, pissed as hell to find my hostel. Bad news: it took 30 minutes longer than it should have. Good news: I saw a fair bit of places I wouldn't have otherwise.

Also, after I finally threw my stuff down and was able to rush out the door to find food, I started looking around. Prague is...stunning. Perhaps, I thought, it was because it was night, and the glow of the lights. Or, maybe I just like castles. Whatever the case, it was exactly what I needed. Thank you God for beautiful cities that make you feel like you're in a fairytale, if just for a brief moment. 

The tower before the Charles Bridge

Looking back--a view from the Charles Bridge. That's Prague castle in the distance on the right.

All along Charles Bridge there are 30 beautiful statues that were created (although many have been replaced) between 1706 and 1714. They tell various stories from the life of Christ, of various saints, and Knights. There are even a few that are supposed to bring luck!

And across the bridge, an equally magical entrance to what I will fondly refer to as "touristville"

A statue of Charles IV

I mean guys, it's so beautiful.

After a bite to eat and a fair bit more wandering back to the hostel, I was DONE for the night.

Day 2:

Time to be a tourist! I started off my day with a tour of Old Town Prague and the Jewish Quarter. Let it be noted that when traveling I pretty much never take public transport unless absolutely necessary. Not because I'm worried about it, or money (though sometimes money), but because I think people miss SO much by taking cars or trams when they could be walking. So apologies for the extra photos that HAD to happen because I chose to walk everywhere and everything's pretty.

On my way to the tour I saw: 

A small side section off the Bridge

The daytime view of my side of the bridge. (Still magical)

 

A delicious bakery

The municipal building (they're not afraid of being showy)

Once I found my way to Old Town I tried to stop taking so many pictures..I was going to be doing that soon anyways, right? Our tour guide was this lovely Czech guy named Vaclav, and he led our little group of 2 Americans, a Dutch couple, a Ukrainian couple and 2 Aussies (who I made friends with immediately, obviously). 

Our first stop was Powder Tower, so named for the gunpowder it used to store. Not much to say here. It's super super old---11th century, and it separates the old town from the new town (aka where normal people live).

That's Powder Tower on the left. It's still connected to what at one point was a temporary home for the  royal family. When someone was coronated after 1836--they would pass through this gate.

This is an etching on the outside of the St. James Basilica--inside were MUCH more interesting things.

Like this 400 year old mummified forearm--that supposedly belonged to a thief who tried to steal from the high Altar. Unfortunately for him, the Virgin Mary does not like to be stolen from, so she grabbed his arm and wouldn't let go. Eventually some monks had to cut it off and decided to hang it as a reminder to everyone else. (sorry for the super fuzzy pic--it was high up)

After taking all that in, we wandered over to Old Town square. This was basically the center of this portion of the city since forever. With building from every possible era--

Gothic Church of our Lady before Tyn behind a gothic, renaissance and a bit of a rococo building to the left. Fun fact: Einstein resided in Old Town Square when he lived in Prague!

The famous medieval (1410) Astronomical clock of Prague. It's BEAUTIFUL. It's the 3rd oldest in the world, and the oldest still operating. And every tourist in the city is sure to be there at the top of the hour to watch the twelve apostles go around in a circle at the top. But my favorite are the 4 figurines beside the top part of the clock. 3 of them give warning against lust, vanity and greed by shaking their heads side to side when the clock strikes, while the 3rd figure, a skeleton symbolizing  death nods his head an rings a bell as if to say "every moment you are nearer to me." Ahh to be alive in the Middle Ages when everything was so cheery.

The Old-New Synagogue is Europe's oldest active synagogue having been built in 1270.

I won't go into immense detail, but Prague does not have an awesome history with its Jewish population. Bearing this in mind, I wandered through the largest Jewish Cemetery in Europe where Jews of the city were buried for over 300 years, until 1786.

Because Jewish custom does not allow people to abolish old graves, and they were very seldom given more space to dig, the people found other ways around this by piling dirt over old graves high enough to bury a new person.

Because of this, gravestones are EVERYWHERE. They're falling on top of one another and there's barely enough space for them to fit.

In this relatively small space (for 300 years worth of graves) over 100,000 people have been buried.

 After taking all that in, I wandered home:

Saw the John Lennon Wall:

Grabbed a delicious lunch:

Then finally had some downtime at Chococafe: a paradise for chocolate lover's everywhere:

OH! And then I wandered around the castle at night because...why not?

Day 3:

I properly explored Prague castle--unfortunately most of the pics are on my PROPER camera, so I'll do a post-trip post of the best ones.

The golden road, where people used to live and have shops in the castle---SUPER small doors. #classic

Woah. It actually looked like a bird.

St. Vitus Cathedral

The stained glass was unreal.

Then I got some classic Czech lunch by eating a few open faced sandwiches:

Then I tried some gingerbread--it tastes NOTHING like American gingerbread. Way way better.

Finally, today I spent pretty much chillin in coffee shops, eating good food, spending some time with God and seeing some random last minute sights.

One of the top reasons I could live in Prague:

The most delicious and cheap dessert/snack that's ever existed: Trdelnik. 

Here's a few shops where it's made:

The Hanging man:

Sculpture of Sigmund Freud hanging from a pole trying to decide whether or not to let go. Freud really struggled with a fear of death.

Brunch(ish) food at Cafe Savoy:

The dancing building--they're supposed to look like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire--do you see it?

And finally, Praha at sunset. With a view of old town and Prague castle in the very back right.

Prague castle and Charles Bridge at night.

There are a few stories I haven't thrown in, but I'm tired and let's be honest, pics are more fun anyways. So goodnight to you all! I'm off to sleep...Vienna in the morning!

Eurotrip 2017: Adventures in Amsterdam

Hello again, friends! Since I've got a few hours to kill on my bus to Prague (whattup 16-hour journeys!), it's probably time for an update. So here's a quick look at the northern Venice--Amsterdam.

Day 1: 

Perhaps my favorite part of my time in Amsterdam was the very beginning. I pulled into the train station around 9:15 and made my way via tram (and the help of a lovely Dutch girl) to meet my friend Anne. Anne and I had spent the last few hours trying to sort out whether it would be best for me to meet her at work or home. And fortunately (for me) she couldn't escape work early enough and asked that I meet her there. FUN FACT: Anne manages a brewery/bar called Troost. So my immediate introduction to Amsterdam was walking into a bar, receiving a giant hug from a friend I hadn't seen in 2 years and then being offered 2 free locally brewed beers. BOOM. I see you Amsterdam. I see you.

After a couple drinks, we headed back to her place and almost immediately crashed. She'd been working most of the day and I'd been traveling--so hooray sleep! The next morning we got up and had a quick breakfast together (boiled eggs on buttered toast with a bit of ketchup--pretty great idea actually). And she gave me a quick lay of the land before I headed off to adventure the city! Apologies in advance for the large amount of canal photos--I've decided it's imperative that I live near water at some point in my life.

(Not a canal--but I loved that this woman turned around at EXACTLY the right moment.) What a perfect  view of the quaint and crazy life that is Amsterdam.

My first ACTUAL stop of the day was...yup, you guessed it: The Tulip museum. Hello FLOWERS! Since obviously it's not actually Tulip season in Holland, I had to do the second best thing. So I spent an hour in a museum learning about how Holland came to be the number one exporter, where they came from, and how they're cultivated and distributed at the end of the season. 

I won't bore you with all the details (unless you really want to know because it was actually super fascinating) BUT here are some general takeaways:

1. Tulips actually originated further East in the region of what is now Turkey. 

2. Because of this a Turkish emperor took a great interest in their beauty, and began to breed them at his palace in what is present-day Istanbul. You may have seen the pictures of it on a previous blog--Topkapi Palace (check out the Istanbul trip obvs)

3. The tulip was considered to be such a beautiful flower, that the name tulip is actually derived from the Anglicized version of an Arabic word that is extremely similar to the spelling of Allah--Lalah.

4. Once the Dutch people discovered them, the various Tulip cultivars became extremely prized, leading to what came to be called Tulip Mania. At the height of the mania, highly coveted varieties of Tulip could go for over 10x the ANNUAL wage of a skilled worker. AKA these people were paying more for tulips than houses. It was nuts.

5. When the tulip exchange collapsed, Dutch started exporting them to other countries (who were eager to see the flower that caused an economic disaster) and that led them to be the world's leading exporter of Tulips--continuing to this day.

Okay, my bad. I got excited and told you a lot more than intended. But that's CRAZY, right?! Anyways, after that excitement I wandered over to the Dam, the town square of Amsterdam. It is home to the Royal Palace, the national monument and you know, like Madame Tussaud's. 

After exploring a bit, I wandered around and happened to find myself by Rembrandt's house. Hurrah!

 (Really going for the Dutch coloring here)

Finally I hit the flower market (which at the present time is a bulb market because cold weather and whatnot.

Ended my day by walking over to the Museumsplein and checking out the famous I Amsterdam sign, which happens to be right by a skating rink, and one of the most beautiful museum building I've ever seen, the Reijksmuseum!

Finally, I made the long walk home through Vondelpark, one of the biggest parks in Amsterdam. It was stunning. And while the pictures themselves don't do it justice, walking through Vondelpark was one of those lovely moments in life when you feel like you're just watching life happen. It was probably 25* out, and people of all ages were biking, running, walking their dogs and just going about life. So lovely.

Day 2:

This was official museum day for me. Amsterdam has a TON of wonderful museums, so picking out just two was rather difficult. Budgeting, people, budgeting. I ended up deciding to do the Rijksmuseum (the national museum) and the Anne Frank House. Okay, the second one wasn't negotiable if we're being honest.

So here's a quick look at some of the fun things I saw:

It SNOWED! So I took the tram this day--walking for hours in the freezing cold isn't quite my deal.

Tulip/Flower vases --each of those little tubes holds a single flower--as shown:

When Dutch people discovered Chinese porcelain...they loved it. And Delftware, as the Dutch version is known, is EVERYWHERE. And while generally I ignored it, some pieces truly were too beautiful to be looked over.

But like really. They were obsessed.

Also, they had WAY better doll houses than us.

Just so we're clear--these doll houses, if placed on the floor--we're taller than me. I'm 5'5".

Got to see some Van Gogh.

And Vermeer--this was by far my favorite piece. So perfectly done.

AND this guy, who really had a terrible life:

ROUGH.

After a few hours spent going through Dutch history, I made my way to the Anne Frank House. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside and the outside was too blocked by tourists to get a proper photo. But, if you ever end up in Amsterdam, I highly recommend it. Perhaps it's my interest in the atrocities of World War II, the insanity of the pain people could do one another, or maybe that God can use even the smallest of us to do great things; but whatever the reason, the museum, while small (and quite steep!) was really impactful. To walk through rooms where whole families slept and ate and snuck about for 2 years, was just heart wrenching. Beautifully done, and so inspiring to hear her father speak about his daughter and why he published her stories/diaries.

Finally, I made my way again to see the pretty lights of the city and then headed back for a final drink and hangout with Anne before heading off to Prague!

Eurotrip 2017: Marvelous Maastricht

I left Brussels for Maastricht early Sunday evening. The train was calm and comfortable, giving me enough time to read a bit and enjoy the darkening view outside the window. And during our one 3 minute stopover--luckily I remembered JUST enough French to understand what platform I needed to get to for before my next train took off. Three cheers for language learning!  

Upon arrival there were a few brief minutes of confusion where I attempted to get wifi to reach Jessica, found out I was one station off (I'd gotten off at the university hospital instead of Maastricht central--OOPS!) and then waited a bit for her to come find me so we could walk back to her flat. But getting to see Jessi was PHENOMENAL. 

Just so you all have a bit of background, during my first year at UVA, Jessica stayed with my family as an exchange student. Given that she ended up staying in my room for those 7 months we always joked that she had replaced me in mi familia. Luckily, rather than actually replacing me, she just added on to our family. Plus, she's German and goodness knows I'm all about getting to use my Deutsch whenever possible :)

That evening on the way back to her flat, we wandered through the old city of Maastricht. It's a university town, so lots of bars, restaurants and shops intermixed with the buildings that have stood through centuries. Plus the holiday season just passed so it was a gorgeous night of lights glimmering over the quietly moving city.

Jessi making dinner for the two of us :)

The next day after getting to sleep in a bit, Jessi showed me around her city. From the old town wall, to other more recent school buildings. In between we grabbed a small lunch with some of her friends where I got to try Bitterballen which is a Dutch favorite--just don't ask what's in them. No one knows. Afterwards we all decided a waffle was in order, before we all parted ways.

Bitterballen

The building behind the little pergola is where they signed the paper to create the EU. --obviously I didn't deem that as important or pretty as the churches behind it.

They made sure to keep his jaw in case anyone questioned whether or not he was real.

WOOF. What a sad, blurry, last picture. But This is where I finally headed off that evening to make my way to Anne in Amsterdam!

So, more fun stories to come!