Kelly à Paris!: So I asked for an adventure...Spring Break Pt. 1

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!