MONDAY night, we arrived in prague, lovingly referred to by our travel bunch as prahahahaha. as soon as we stepped off the train, the czech puns began: czech that out, czech that off the list, etc. after successfully navigating the metro and tram system to the little town budget hotel, we settled in to our room, which was surprisingly very nice and comfortable. upon setting out for a late dinner, we found that every restaurant in the vicinity of our lovely hotel was closed. part of the problem was that it was now 10:45, as we had spent quite a while dealing with class registration (weird that we are already doing that? i think so.)--go 'dores! anyway, after wandering to the charles bridge and taking in the city at night, we settled in at the golden arches. yes, that's right, i ate mcdonald's twice in one week while on a cool european vacation. i PROMISE it was the ONLY open eating establishment in the entire czech republic...maybe. anyway, the great news is this time i actually got my chicken mcnuggets! at least i ate a balanced mcdonald's diet. if that's possible. another bonus: it was definitely the swankiest/swankyest (is that a word?) fast food restaurant i have ever been in. AND they had toblerone mcflurrys. so euro.
after a satisfying dinner and a good night's sleep, we headed out to see the city!
first off: we crossed the charles bridge. lovely.
next stop: old town square. complete with the astronomical clock (at this point, speaking no czech and never having been to prague, my mentality became "hey, that looks important! i'll take a picture and look it up later"...hence, i have many pictures of unidentified objects) the great news is our very own amy has invented an app for searching the identity of objects in photographs (you heard it here first! but that's triple-top-secret. wouldn't want anyone stealing the idea...)
then: the jewish quarter.
the jewish cemetary: in some places there are twelve layers of bodies under the ground. a tangible and heartbreaking picture of the oppression of the war.
after some sightseeing, we found some "old traditional goodies," specifically "trdelnik," (can you pronounce that? i can't...needless to say, we did not pick up on very much czech during our stay). it's a pastry wrapped around a metal cylinder, cooked over a fire, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. delicious. then, we got tickets to go to a classical music concert in a beautiful church. there are concerts everywhere in prague. it's just lovely. after a relaxing hour being serenaded by a string quartet, we stopped at an outside restaurant in old town square where we sat under heaters and snuggled with blankets they gave us (it was FREEZING) and enjoyed some hot wine, another "prague thing." so cultured, i know.
then, on to the main event: the most delicious dinner i have ever eaten. some food-y friends who had visited prague a few weeks before said that this restaurant was a must-do in prague. so we headed to a new part of the city and enjoyed the tasting menu, which included salmon sashimi, pork and watermelon salad, chicken satay, calamari, duck sliders, and toffee pudding. YUM. my mouth is watering just talking about it.
it was such a treat. how can you go wrong with good food and good friends???
just forgetting about my camera's double flash...typical. i kind of like this though, so here ya go!
day 2: after a starbucks run (there was one right across the street from the little town budget hotel. did i mention that? destiny.), where i was given the name "berry" by a very confused czech barista (a new one for me). i enjoyed my pike place roast and good ole fashioned blueberry muffin just the same. a small taste of home...then we were off to prague castle, the most important monument in prague, and possibly in the entire czech republic! kind of a big deal. it is HUGE.
our first stop was the cathedral of st. vitus, which sits in the middle of the castle complex. complete with beautiful stained glass! then we went through the old royal palace, an exhibit on the history of prague castle, the basilica of st. george, and the exhibition of the national gallery.
after many museums, we walked down golden lane, a tiny shopping street in the castle complex. here i am with amy in front of cute little blue shop. don't mind my pippi longstocking-style striped socks with converse and cropped pants. it made quite the statement, but i was just with friends! i just wasn't really thinking when i packed my tiny backpack apparently...
the whole crew at a beautiful lookout over the city...minus the cool view
and there's the view! and beautiful changing leaves!
we had to stop and get some delicious pastries for energy before an afternoon of power-sightseeing. geg and i hiked across the city to go to the mucha museum (he started/invented art nouveau. it was really cool.) and the national museum, which happens to be closed for a five-year remodel, just fyi...so then we continued wandering and stumbled on some cool gardens, saw the national theater, and went to find the john lennon wall.
with geg, my sightseeing buddy, leaving our mark!
after resting our tired feet, we had dinner at a cool thai restaurant close to our hotel and turned in early since we had a taxi coming at 5 AM to take us to the airport...it was all worth it when we arrived
IN PARIS!!!!
after settling in to the lovely home of one of my dear travel buddies (how nice to be in a home after staying in hostels for a week! a big thank you to our hostess and star tour guide!!!), we went to the market to stock the fridge, enjoyed baguette sandwiches (so french!) and explored the neighborhood. then we headed to the rodin museum. rodin's famous thinker is in this picture!
the museum is also surrounded by beautiful gardens. it was a lovely first taste of paris.
the next day, the sun came out!
casual eiffel tower in the background...it just doesn't get old.
the seine the lock bridge!
musee d'orsay: possibly my favorite museum i have ever been to. this is a view of the city through the clock. the museum is in the old train station. everything about it is lovely: the architecture, they layout, the escalators, and of course the paintings. monet. manet. cezanne. renoir. degas. van gogh. incredible.
then we were off to ile de la cite & ile st louis (the two islands in paris) for crepes and more beautiful sights!
a flower market & the front of notre dame
with amy behind notre dame
the inside of notre dame & sainte chapelle (it has stained glass on all sides. beautiful.)
luxembourg gardens
and the main event: the eiffel tower! AND, look who we found?? our friends natalie and rachel, who are studying in scotland for the semester met us in this lovely city for the weekend!
reunited!!! sorry it's a little blurry...i'll try to choose more wisely when asking strangers to take group pictures. and then rachel and i tried to take the classic "finger touching the top of the eiffel tower" picture...it was not exactly successful. we probably needed to be a little farther back? oh well, i'll just have to go back! that pretty much sums up my attitude about paris. as we found through experience, it is impossible to do everything. the simplest solution is that i will just have to plan another trip. done and done. paris is officially maybe my favorite european city.
back to the sightseeing: we hit the ground running bright and early the next day to beat the crowds to the louvre (which is impossible, by the way, but it was still awesome!). we found this random painting so we thought we would take pictures with it. look familiar? crazy. also somewhat disappointingly small. but still cool.
outside of the louvre
stop for pain au chocolat (a necessity in paris!). it's blurry because i was trying to casually take a picture in a very nice establishment without making a scene. i have found that this is pretty much impossible when your camera has a double flash and when you're me...oops! i have decided to embrace my inner tourist. especially when it comes to picture taking. then we went to l'orangerie, where monet's water lilies are on display. another really cool museum. i could have sat there all day taking it all in (the water lilies are actually painted on curved boards and displayed in two oval-shaped rooms. also, the paintings are huge! it's just really beautiful.)
then we hopped on the metro (so big-city...i am now obsessed with metros.) and headed to the sacre coeur, a beautiful church with incredible views of paris.
like this one...with sweet friends! (and a really cool guy with sweet soccer/futbol tricks in the column in the background)
after getting a taste of paris in just three days, i have decided that i must go back. it's just going to have to happen. hands down. what an incredible way to end an incredible break!!! the next day, we got on a bus, then a plane, then yet another bus and were finally back in florence! we were welcomed by the paper we had due the next day...kind of cruel, if you ask me but hey, we are "studying" abroad...
we are now in the home stretch of this study abroad experience, which i CANNOT get over. soaking up all the italy i can!
adieu, revoir, arrivederci, gute nacht!
