Pretty Prague

After Budapest came Prague, one of my favorite cities that I’ve visited. The Vltava River flows through it, similar to Budapest and the Danube. First thing we did was walk down to see the Dancing House, which looks cool if nothing else. And the view of the Prague Castle from across the river at night is beautiful.

There’s another free walking tour that meets in the Old Town Square that’s really good, this one is by Sandeman’s new Europe tours or something like that. It’s long, but it’s really informative and takes you to all of the main places on the east side of the river. After that we went back to the Old Town Square to see the astronomical clock go off (it’s disappointing) and go into the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn. It’s gorgeous on the inside, and apparently the outside inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. The National Gallery is also on this square, but it’s much smaller than I expected.

The next day was dedicated to the west side of the river. We started off by crossing the Charles Bridge, it’s really pretty and a must see for sure. After that was the John Lennon Wall, an absolute necessity for me. It’s a really cool place because of all the art and love that manifests here, but you can also see it change over time if you look up older photos of it. It’s a living breathing monument, which you don’t see all the time. Then Klampa park, which is actually a small island right next to the bank of the river.

After that we went to the Museum of Music which is such a cool place! There’s all sorts of instruments across time and space in there, including one that Mozart played while he was there. The people of Prague love Mozart, the Estates Theatre in the Old Town is where “Don Giovanni” premiered and has a statue of a character from the opera outside of it now.

Then there’s the Prague Castle. You can enter the collection of buildings for free, and even get into the lobby of St. Giles Cathedral without paying! You need to pay if you want to see the exhibits or go farther into the Cathedral though. I was fine with just wandering around. You also get a really nice view of the city since the castle is so high up on a hill.

That’s everything to do in Prague, but then there’s also the food. Beer is very popular there, as are dumplings. Not the dumplings like in Chinese food, more like they took the dough from the pork buns you can get in dim sum, balled it up, and cut into slices. They’re delicious! Potato pancakes are also very common, as is Prague ham (it’s overpriced on the streets though).

The general atmosphere of Prague is amazing, every building looks so pretty and even the sidewalks are a work of art. The people are all passionate and care about their country and are very nice when it comes to foreigners. I loved it there so much, and fully intent to return for longer as soon as I get the chance!

My Hostel in Budapest

(Note: the title is a play on that George Ezra song, this post is about Budapest not specifically my hostel.)

First stop on my January adventures across Europe was Budapest! Another gorgeous city! The people here speak Hungarian, but most know English as well, so that’s not too big of a problem. Also the currency used is the forint, and not many places take credit cards, so make sure you grab some.

I arrived kind of late, so the first thing I did was get dinner and then check out a ruin bar. Ruin bars are essentially old buildings that get converted into bars without any refurbishment. The decorations are usually repurposed from elsewhere, and each one has its own atmosphere. Most of them are in the Jewish Quarter near the Grand Synagogue. The best one, in my opinion, is Szimpla, which is pretty close to the synagogue itself. All of the decorations are repurposed, and there are plenty of tables and chairs in every room. There’s even a tub you can sit in! Tons of events take place inside, including live music and screenings.

The next day we did a free walking tour from Hostel Culture, which was really good despite the freezing cold. (It started snowing pretty heavily in the middle of the tour.) They show you the main sites on both the Pest (east) side of the Danube River, and the Buda (west) side of the Danube. This includes St. Stephen’s church with the holy Right Hand (I saw it, it was strange), Vorosmarty Ter with the food market, the Chain Bridge, and Castle Hill. Afterwards I explored more of the Pest side, including food from Vorosmarty Ter (the fried dough and chimney cakes are a favorite), the inside of St. Stephen’s (beautiful), and the Parliament building. There are tours of the Parliament building, and they’re pretty cheap so I’d recommend doing that. I’d also recommend seeing the Parliament building at night while walking along the Danube. They turn the outside lights on and make it even more beautiful, if you can believe it.

The next day was an exploration of the Buda side. Thankfully it was clearer, so we could easily see the Citadel from the banks of the Danube with the statue at the top. Then there’s the Hungarian National Gallery, located within Buda Castle on Castle Hill. The collection is really cool, there’s everything from medieval art to modern Hungarian works. There’s also the Square of the Holy Trinity, right next to Castle Hill with the great views from the Fisherman’s Bastion and the Matthias church.

Another great place to eat is in the Central Market, south of Vorosmarty Ter. They have some cheap street food and souvenirs on the first floor, while the ground floor has more produce and meats.

One other thing about Budapest, there are a ton of statues everywhere of many different people. There’s an artist painting along the Danube promenade, and leaders on horseback near the different historical sites. Find your favorites!

And that was my taste of Budapest. It’s a beautiful city, I hope that I can return there someday.

Christmas in Italy

After departing from my French friend, I headed down to Rome to meet my family for the holidays. Italy is a much more laid-back country compared to the UK. Things move at a slower pace and shops are usually closed during the siesta time around 1-4 pm. It’s still a gorgeous country, and the food is amazing, which is really all that matters.

The important points to see are Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps of course. Make sure you get some tortufo (chocolate gelato) at Piazza Navona, and find Raphael’s grave within the Pantheon! Also at Piazza Navona is the church of St. Agnes in Agone and the interior is absolutely stunning, definitely stop by there. When I was there the Spanish Steps were mostly boarded off for cleaning, but apparently they just finished doing the same thing to the Trevi Fountain and it’s gorgeous now!

There’s also a great food and clothes market in the Campo del Fiore if you’re into that, I’d recommend trying the limoncello since it’s a regional specialty. Oh and the pasta of course!

There is so much more to see, just not within walking distance like those other stops. This trip was the first time that I’d seen the Borghese gallery, which is a beautiful collection. The building that it’s housed in it gorgeous as well. The collection isn’t huge, but it features a lot of Greco-Roman works and I’d highly recommend it. There’s also the Coliseum, get there early even if you bought your tickets online because the line is always very long. The Roman Forum and the Circus Maximus are nearby, but there isn’t too much to see there, you can just drive by it.

Having said all that, I really couldn’t enjoy hanging out in any of these places that I mentioned because they’re all tourist-y areas and therefore there are guys everywhere practically shoving selfie sticks into your hands and trying to make you buy them. It’s incredibly aggravating. However, if you cross the Tiber River and walk around in the Trastevere area, it’s more residential and no one is trying to get you to buy anything. It’s lovely.

If you cross the Tiber in a westerly direction, you’ll head towards the Vatican. Of course since it was Christmas time and it’s a special jubilee this year it was packed when I went, so that meant more selfie stick hassle. This was also the first time I saw the Vatican museum, and I would highly recommend it. I saw the Greco-Roman works, the hall of tapestries, and the hall of maps (this section was particularly interesting), but there’s so much more than that, I’ll have to go back again! And of course the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica with the Pieta are always amazing.

After doing all that in Rome, my family headed to Sorrento to relax for a bit. There’s less to do here, but the Amalfi coast is gorgeous (if you’re courageous enough to drive down it, haha) and the food is amazing.

We also went to see Pompeii, which was cool but not as cool as you’d expect it honestly. The people are all in a museum, and you really have to know what you’re looking for to fully appreciate it. It’s also a little hard to walk around because the roads are in such bad shape. Still a cool way to spend a day though.

And that was my grand Italy adventure with my family! That country still has the best food anywhere, despite all the tourists.

Friends in Aix-en-Provence

Back in December, I visited my friend in Aix-en-Provence in France. This was probably one of my favorite trips, since I was able to see her family and her neighborhood, a rare enough occurrence among my college friends back home, let alone ones abroad. And it meant that she could show me around, which meant that I could take a backseat on planning for once.

Provencal France is really pretty, there are those classic old, European stucco houses and narrow streets everywhere. It was kind of amusing that electric cars would drive by and since they’re silent you often wouldn’t realize that you were in their way until they were right behind you.

While I was there, there was a Christmas market of course, but also a market dedicated entirely to sandon which are nativity figurines. They’re of characters from provencal folklore, which means that they’re almost exclusively in Victorian era clothing which is sometimes juxtaposed with the ancient holy family in some sets I saw. They can be doing anything from carting off a drunk in a wheelbarrow to playing cards, so there’s a ton of variety.

In town there’s also the public library which has these giant book sculptures incorporated into the architecture that I really liked. There are also many fountains that are covered in moss or some sort of plant, which I thought were cute. It’s a very green city in general, lots of trees and plants around and incorporated into the decoration.

There’s also a mountain nearby that Cezanne painted, and he was also from the area, so there are a ton of random shops and restaurants named after him or other painters, which is probably the most French thing I’ve ever heard. I went for a hike up the mountain to a small hermitage with my friend’s family, which was a ton of fun and resulted in some really incredible views.

That’s my only France experience for this trip. I was in Paris a few years ago so I’m not too bothered by it, and honestly this trip was so enjoyable that I’m fine leaving it at that!

Happy 2016!

Good job everyone for making it this far! 2015 for me was a year full of surprises and changes and adventures (and much better than 2014 haha), and I hope yours was as well!

I'll be traveling around for most of January, so there will be more of those fun stories to tell, but then I return to school and our regularly scheduled nonsense, so that should be exciting.

Anyways, hope everyone who sees this is hanging in there and celebrated our arbitrary position around the sun in their favorite way. <3 Lots of love to everyone out there!