Bonjour tout le monde!
Seeing as I have a little bit of
time after my quick visit to Musée Rodin, I thought it would be a great
opportunity to let you all know what I have been up to for the past couple of
weeks.
Before I start recounting stories
from my whirlwind of a spring break, it is important to state that prior to
leaving for my 12-day-4-country extravaganza, I decided, along with my friend
Sara, that I wanted an adventure. So with an adventure in mind, we had planned
a train to Amsterdam from Paris, an overnight train from Amsterdam to Prague,
(I parted ways with Sara and friends from Paris at this leg of the trip.)
Flight from Prague to Rome, 14-hour bus ride from Rome to Croatia, 9 hour ferry
from Croatia to Italy, 4 hour busride back to Rome from the Italian coast and
finally, a plane from Rome to Paris.
The first leg of the trip started
on a sunny Thursday in Paris. Sara and I left the IES center in Paris and
headed to Gare du Nord. With my overly stuffed carry-on slung on my side and sunglasses
on, we were headed to Amsterdam. It was at Gare du Nord where Sara and I
experienced our first bout of miscommunication and first set of obstacles. Upon
showing the confirmation email that contained both of our ticket information to
the ticket booth, the attendant was quick to tell us that the payment for our
tickets had not gone through, womp. So, we re-bought our tickets and finally
got on the train.
The train began experiencing some
mechanical issues, which resulted in a two-hour delay. At the beginning of the
delay, trying to kill some time, I asked Sara what the address was for our
apartment that we rented so we could make a game-plan for getting there from
the train station. She then looked at me with a puzzled look on our face and
said, “ummm, I’m not too sure what you mean? Don’t you have the address?” In
that moment we quickly realized that neither of us had booked any lodging for
that night, womp. After some taking some deep breaths, we were able to make some
phonecalls and arrange a reservation at a hotel in the city—looks like we were
going to be diva-ing it up in Amsterdam.
After all of the bumps, we were
finally roaming the canal-ridden streets of Amsterdam. We stumbled upon a fast
food restaurant that was basically a giant coin-operated vending machine. We
both went for the lighter fare of deep-fried cheese—and yes,
deep-fried-vending-machine cheese is as magnificent as it sounds.
The next day we rolled our butts
out of bed and were off to see the city. As corny and cliché as it sounds (is
using the word cliché a cliché?), the canals lined with bikes and quaint
pastel-colored houses were spectacular. It was a wee bit overwhelming crossing
any streets because not only were there many pedestrians to navigate around but
you also always had to be on the lookout for bikes, cars, trams, motorcycles
and buses…but mostly bikes, and even though they are eco-friendly, man can
bikers be nasty!
Being the doofuses we were, we
didn’t reserve our ‘Anne Frank House’ tickets online beforehand which meant
about a 6 hour wait for the museum. So, we scrapped that idea and opted for just
taking the city in by walking. During the day we saw the Iamsterdam sign, the
tulip market, the main town square, the tulip gardens, Vondelpark, and many
many cheese shops because, well, cheese is never a bad idea.
After a jam-packed day in the
Netherlands, we boarded our fourteen-hour-overnight train and got ready for the
next adventure. The train wasn’t half as bad as we had expected there were no
delays, no weirdos and no problems—it was actually the longest sleep I have
gotten while abroad so, self-five to me!
We got to
Prague relatively early Saturday morning and after using the visitors washroom
as a make-shift change room/shower (we weren’t able to check in till 4pm) we
were off to explore the capital of the Czech Republic. We met up with our
friend from Paris, Elle, in Olde Towne square where the famous Prague
Observation Tower resides. It was actually great timing for us to be there because
there was a huge Easter fair happening in Olde Towne square so we were able to
taste samples of many local favorites such as bratwurst, potato chips on a
stick, craft beer, some sort of cinnamon dough bread that was made on a fiery-stick and
of course, fried cheese. With the currency rates between euros and Czech crowns
we were able to indulge more than our wallets could even imagine feasible in
Paris. Long story short, crowns rule, euros drool.
We then
headed across the scenic Charles Bridge to see all of the historic sites
including the Lennon Wall, the love Locks, Prague Castle, Prague Gardens,
Petrin Hill and finally Strahov Monastery.
After leaving the picturesque fairytale scene that was
Prague’s historic Old Towne, (*reference
picture for reinforcement of this term), we finally scrubbed up and headed out to a hoity toity restaurant called Café Savoy. I got the pea soup (highly
recommended from a Ms. Lauren Goewey) and it was absolutely delicious
Unfortunately, the evening took a
rather sour turn when I left a bar only to realize that within my purse was
well, nothing. No crowns, no Iphone…womp. However, due to my sobbing near a
local Doner Kebab, some kind British man bought me a falafel in an attempt to
alleviate the situation. The deep-fried chickpea sandwich helped a little bit,
(I mean falafels=life), but it was still quite the bummer especially after
having such a wonderful day.
The following day we had a late
brunch and next thing I know, I’m at the Prague airport getting ready for the next
installment of my spring break, Rome!
Stay tuned for stories from the
rest of the week!
Amsterdam!
Boootiful canals!
Iamsterdam sign, Amsterdam
Charles Bridge, Prague
Boootiful canals!
Iamsterdam sign, Amsterdam
Charles Bridge, Prague
John Lennon Wall, Prague
