These Are Special Times

I arrived in Prague and my first move was to get some moolah, and get to my hostel.  I stopped at an ATM to withdraw Czech crowns and then bought a ticket for the metro to get to my hostel.  Arriving at my hostel I was given an introduction to the city, and thankfully, allowed to check into my room.  Because the night train that brought me to Prague isn’t really the Ritz Hotel and because of all the rainy weather in Amsterdam, I was feeling pretty tired and had a sore throat.  So, after I went to the grocery store to get some lunch, I decided a nap and some reading was in order. 

Waking from my restful daytime slumber I decided to explore the area around my hostel a bit.  I found a nearby market that had lots of traditional Czech food and other local goodies.  After checking out the market, I decided to head down to the old town center to buy some cough drops, and grab some chow.  I managed to find Palladium, a new, large Czech shopping mall.  I hit the jackpot in terms of shopping!  First things first, I grabbed some cough drops and some McDo before heading back to the hostel.  I hung out in the basement of my hostel for a while, drinking tea, reading, and chatting with other travelers before heading to bed for an early night’s sleep. 

The next morning I woke up early to head to the airport and pick up Olivia and my dad.  After traveling on trams, metros, and buses for an hour I arrived at the airport where I only had to wait about 20 minutes before they arrived.  Understandably, these two were pretty hungry and tired after they arrived, so we went back to the hotel, got a delicious lunch in the restaurant next door, and took a nap.  (Now, let me just say right now, all the food we ate was phenoms!  Seriously, following the advice of our Rick Steve’s guidebook and exploring until we found something that look good, were two tactics that worked amazingly for us!  To sum up our visits to the Czech Republic and Poland, you could say that we ate a lot, and walked a lot!  There are pictures to document all the nom nom nommmy food we wolfed down.  However, due to the serious amounts of exploring and walking around we usually only ate breakfast and one other meal—whether that was at 3 in the afternoon or 9pm. Luckily, we had some candy to tide us over on those reallllll long days)

After the nap it was practically dark outside, which isn’t surprising considering that it was the 22^nd of December.  We hopped on the closest tram and wandered around downtown Prague, checking out the many Christmas markets!  Prague was interesting because there was a Christmas market around every corner.  Each market might not have been very big, but you never had to walk very far to find one.  Since we had had a big lunch we decided to try the local sausages that were being sold at all the markets.  The sausages themselves were delicious, however, they came on a piece of dry bread.  This bread proved to be a problem for me due to the copious amounts of ketchup I prefer to consume with my sausages.  Needless to say, my bread became a crumbly bumbly mess and there was ketchup all over.  To “compliment” our sausages we all purchased the traditional Gluhwein, hot wine, which was being consumed by all the Czech people around us.  None of us enjoyed this wine, and we made sure that was the last Gluhwein we purchased during our trip.  

After standing around outside and eating our dinner we were getting a bit chilly so we decided to walk around inside the mall that I had discovered the night before.  After warming our fingers and toesies we decided to continue and wonder towards the main Old Towne Square.  We arrived to see the place crawling with Christmas booths and people exploring everything the market had to offer.  

Christmas Market goodies!

Don't buy these cookies!  They suck; we
learned that the hard way.

After doing a thorough examination of all the booths we walked on with no particular destination in mind.  We found a little shoe store that had signs for black boots for the equivalent of only 20 euros!  This, being too good to pass up, required a pit stop.  I managed to find a pair of good black boots that were really comfortable for walking, but I wasn’t sure they would look good with my other jeans.  So, I told the lady that I would be coming back the following morning in my other pair of jeans.  I’m sure she thought I was just joshin’ her and didn’t attend to ever see me again.  But she just didn’t know how determined I can be!  After our boot fashion show we continued to press on in our exploration of the city.  We eventually came across a man in a weird underpass area who was selling his paintings.  These paintings were different from any of the landscape paintings I had come across in other cities, they were very brightly colored and quirky in design.  Olivia found one that she had her heart set on, but we wanted to continue to see if there was anything better, so decided we would keep looking.  After we had finished exploring the greater part of the Old City, we hadn’t found a cooler painting for as good of a price, so we returned to the man in the weird underpass area to make our purchases.  We left three paintings richer and not too much poorer.  After those purchases we were cold and tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel where I read a little in our guide book to prepare for the following day, and we went to bed. 

The next morning, we enjoyed the traditional Czech breakfast offered at our hotel and meandered to the Old Towne Center to start our day.  The first stop was at a money exchange booth where Olivia needed to get some cash.  We later realized she was ROYALY ripped off.  I found it to be absolutely hilarious, and continued to ask her if she need some money every time we passed one of those booths.  We were able to laugh it off and joke about it for the rest of the trip. 

The famous Prague Astronomical Clock that we
stopped to watch while walking around.

He was so proud he got this going!

Stop number two was the boot store.  The lady was beyond surprised to see us there.  I made my incredible purchase and we then we were able to commence our game plan for that day.  It was Friday the 23^rd and the many Jewish synagogues would be closed on Saturday, so we were going to tackle the many different synagogues there were to see.  We bought our package tickets or all of the synagogues and began to explore the first building.  The first building has a small synagogue and there were names written on all of the walls of the building.  There were thousands of names of the individuals who were members of the synagogue and who died during WWII.  It was quite interesting to see all of the names of these individuals.  It was organized alphabetically by last name, and we were even able to find about 20 Haas’ written on the wall. 

Practically out the back door of this building was one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in all of Prague.  It was a small area that was crowded with thousands of tombstones and absolutely astounding.  It was impossible to imagine that in this small, confined area there were thousands of bodies buried.  There were many Jewish people who had come to pray and a specific tombstone, and that was very touching to see. 

At the opposite end of the cemetery was another museum containing many garments and relics from past Jewish ceremonies.  The museum explained the different customs that the Jewish had for burials and religious ceremonies.  After completing this museum we were getting a little hungry.  We took the advice of our guidebook and went to a small Czech restaurant not too far away.  The book stated that many locals go to this restaurant to enjoy the good and fairly priced lunch menu.  We made the right choice in going there.  There weren’t any other tourists and the food was great!  My dad and I got salmon and fries, while Olivia got a traditional goulash dish.  We had our 3 very satisfying meals plus drinks for the equivalent of about 18 dollars!  We could barely go to McDonald’s for that price! 

After being satiated we left to continue to explore the Jewish museums.  My favorite of the ones that remained was the Spanish synagogue.  Every inch of this building was hand painted and it was absolutely gorgeous!  I seriously loved it, and it is probably my favorite building I saw on the entire trip!  We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I knew that I wouldn’t ever want to forget this building when I’m old and my memory fails me. Soooo, I snuck a couple of pictures on my iphone without flash—I mean, how much damage could I really be doing?

We toured all of the Jewish museums, and then just decided to wonder around for the rest of the night.  We walked to the famous Charles Bridge, found the Dancing House (which a building constructed to look like two figures dancing with each other), and after a walk around the backside of the building, found the Opera house.  By this point we had essentially walked the entirety of downtown Prague and decided to head back towards the Old Towne Square to get a drink and some dinner.  We stopped at this bar we knew was geared towards tourists, just to sit and get a drink.  I got some red wine that I could only describe as skunky, while dad and Olivia had beer.  After we got our free entry drinks, which were shots of peach schnapps, we decided to try and find a place to get a bite to eat. 

View of the Prague Castle and Cathedral
from the Charles Bridge

The Dancing House.  My vote is that
the left structure is the girl!

The Prague Opera House

This was quite the process!  We just couldn’t decide what we wanted or where we wanted to go.  A man working on commission to bring people into a little restaurant on the second floor of a building right on the Old Towne Square, convinced us to enter his restaurant.  We went all the way in, sat down, and then looked at the menu again before deciding we didn’t want to stay there, and getting up and walking out.  It was one of our classier moments.  We eventually settled on this little Italian/Pizza restaurant/bar.  Again, we made the right choice.  The pizzas that my dad and I got were super delicious, and Olivia really enjoyed her pasta.  Olivia and I split a carafe of red wine while my dad got some beer.  At this point Olivia and I decided that we were going to drink red wine every day for the rest of the trip, and we succeeded with that goal for the following 4 days at least.  After we finally finished dinner and our drinks, it was pretty late and we decided to call it a night. 

The next day, Christmas Eve, was our last day in Prague.  We had plans to go visit the St. Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle.  However, because of the death and funeral for Vaclav Havel we couldn’t visit the castle.  Vaclav Havel was a Czech politician; he was the last president of the Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic.  He fought against communism and was one of the most liked men in all of the Czech Republic.  His funeral was the 21^st-23^rd of December, so we could therefore go into the cathedral on the 24^th, while the castle was still closed.  By the time we got up and made our way across town, across the river, and to the top of the hill it was after noon.  The cathedral was beautiful and the large stained glass windows were stunning.  After visiting the cathedral we wondered around the castle grounds a bit before we were hungry for lunch. 

A memorial for those who suffered from communism

Inside the Prague Cathedral

Prague Cathedral!

View of Prague from on top of the castle hill

By this point it had started raining a bit and we didn’t have much patience for wandering trying to find a good place to eat.  Scoping out the options on a couple of blocks we finally settled for this little café where we got some food that was good, but just couldn’t compare to the previous meals we had eaten.  The desserts, however, were wonderful!  We split a crêpe and a tiramisu!  The best part about that café was the mom and son that came and sat at the table next to us.  They were French (not surprisingly, since I mentioned in my previous post that I saw a lot of French people on this vacay).  When they arrived we were half way through our meal and it was nearly 3pm.  They were just getting drinks and getting out of the rain.  The cute part was what the little boy, who was probably around 6, said.  He was talking to his mom, in French obviously, and asked his mom if we were eating dinner.  She said “no,” and then he proceeded to ask what time it was.  She said it was 3pm, and in the most shocked voice ever he says “they’re eating lunch?!”  I couldn’t help myself and I laughed.  Crap!  I blew my cover!  They had heard us speaking English and I am sure assumed that I don’t understand French.  But he was honestly so surprised, and so adorable I couldn’t help myself from laughing at his comment.  I tried to cover my laugh with a cough, but I’m pretty sure I failed big time.  I proceeded to look away embarrassed, and try and start a completely different conversation with dad and Olivia.  Real smooth Emily, real smooth. 

After finishing lunch, the rain had pretty much stopped, and we had already accomplished seeing all the major sights we had wanted to see.  So, we decided to just walk around and meander the streets.  We ended up walking all around that side of the river and eventually made our way all the back up to the top of the hill.  We stopped and looked in several tourist shops along the way, but didn’t really find anything that tripped our trigger.  After a while of this we decided we should probably head back downtown.  We accidentally overshot our tram stop by one stop on the way back.  This kinda sucked because it was cold and raining again.  However, it ended up working out well because we ended up walking past Wencelas Square, where people had placed thousands of candles for the mourning of Vaclav Havel’s death.  It was beautiful; it showed how much this man really meant a lot to the Czech people.  I felt so fortunate to be there at that time and to be able to experience that moment. 

Fully taking in that moment left us wet and cold from the rain, so we decided to sit down some place for a drink.  The problem was that it was about 6 or 7pm on Christmas Eve, so not many places were open.  We finally found a traditional Czech restaurant/bar that was open and completely packed with people, mostly tourists.  We sat down for a drink, myself with the classic red wine, and Olivia and dad with their beer.  Time was passing and it was getting to be closer to when we needed to catch our night train to Krakow, Poland.  We decided we needed to get going on the search for some kind of food that we could take on the train.  We were nervous that it was going to be incredibly difficult to find something considering how difficult it was for us to find that bar.  Luckily, we only had to walk a block before we stumbled across a little pizza and Panini place.  Also, the predicament was that we only had 250 crowns (I’m not exactly sure how much it was, but it came out to about 10 dollars) in cash left and didn’t want to have to take any more money out of an ATM—and I wanted to use up that cash because I didn’t want to be stuck with it after we left.  We were able to purchase 3 sandwiches and 3 drinks with just that much money and only change to spare. 

From there we went back to the hotel to grab our suitcases before heading to the train station.  Fortunately, we had left ourselves plenty of time because the trams were running very infrequently because of the holiday, and we therefore had to walk to the train station.  We arrived we just the perfect amount of time to find our train, board, and get settled in our room before we took off.  The timing couldn’t have been planned to work out better!  The only unfortunate thing was that this sleeper cabin was not nearly as nice as the previous one I had been on, on the way to Prague.  The beds were very hard, and I knew that a good night’s sleep was not going to be had on this train.  Despite this, I was still very excited for all the marvels that Krakow had to offer us the following day!

All in all, Prague was a beautiful city.  It’s a big city that is very manageable and it’s Old Towne Square are gives it a small town feel.  We saw some amazing things, ate delicious food, and had a great time in the Czech Republic!

The Greatest Love of All

Amsterdam.  I arrived sometime after 8 in the evening I believe.  I meandered my way out of the train station and found the appropriate tram that would take me to the hostel.  I was immediately glad that I arrived at night because the city was lit up in all its glory with Christmas lights.  My 10-minute tram ride permitted me to see a good portion of the city and all the beautiful lights that adorned it! 

This building had my favorite Christmas lights of all
the buildings I saw!  They changed and moved!

When I arrived at the hostel I was greeted by the beautiful Katie Reshel.  We didn’t waste anytime before heading straight up to our room and catching up on the past 3 weeks of our lives (and there was a lot to catch up on, such as my trip back to America, and her tour of Europe).  After our splendid love chat we went to bed, as we were both tired from our busy days of traveling. 

The next day we made sure to get up in time to get the free hot breakfast that was included in the price of our stay at the hostel.  Afterwards, we made ourselves beautiful then took a day trip to Haarlem—a little city just outside of Amsterdam, approximately 20 minutes by train.  We decided to go to Haarlem because it is not a tourist town and we would be able to get a feel for what real Dutch life is like.  Well, I must say, getting there was quite the adventure.  We took the train, but proceeded to get off at the first train station for Haarlem instead of the second one.  This meant that we would have to walk what ended up being about 1.5-2 miles down the world’s windiest road until we actually got to Haarlem.  This ended up really enhancing the experience as it gave Katie and I lots of bonding time.  I serenaded Katie with Whitney Houston music for a good portion of this walk; she’s so fortunate, isn’t she?!  The other portion consisted of me threatening to go-all-South-Park-on-Katie’s-ass.  As most of you know Katie’s walking speed is the average person’s 50-yard dash speed.  Therefore, I proceeded to threaten to beat Katie with the bikes I found tied up on the sidewalk if she didn’t slow the stink down!  Katie’s so lucky to have such a great friend as me!  Hahaha, I’m joking.  Well, I’m not joking about this happening.  These threats were actually made, and for some of you this may sound like something that should be reported for physical abuse.  But trust me, the greatest sentiments of love were shared on this walk! 

By the time we actually got to the Haarlem city area we had to ask about 3 different people which direction to go to get to the city centre.  It was nuts, but none of the people we asked knew where we needed to go!  Well I guess one old lady did, but she was muttering away in Dutch and pointing and we just weren’t sure how trustworthy she was.  Some more wandering occurred and eventually we made it to the city center.  Phew!

Haarlem delighted us with its lovely market in the main square of the city center.  Katie and I had to walk around the whole market and look at all the booths before we could officially decide what we wanted to eat for lunch.  We bought some bread and delicious homemade pesto to dip the bread in.  Then for the main course the fish stand caught our fancy.  I got a fried piece of fish, while Katie chose the smoked salmon.  Both of our choices were absolutely delicious!  Then for desert we bought some fresh pineapple (while I don’t really understand how pineapple can really be “fresh” in the Netherlands in the middle of winter.  I mean, it’s clearly imported, and therefore it couldn’t have been picked recently…).  Regardless of the degree of freshness of said pineapple, it was truly phenomenal!  I ate so much pineapple that I think I have permanent acid damage in my mouth.  Seriously, my mouth hurt for the rest of the day!  After finishing our fish and while enjoying our pineapple, we enjoyed watching the Dutch carolers who had stationed themselves at the far end of the midnight.  It was so Christmas-y and cute with their little accents; I just loved it! 

By this point we were pretty darned cold, and what is the best solution to having to stand out in the cold?  Shopping!  Yes, we decided to check out the local Dutch stores and see what they were like in order to get of the cold for a bit.  After shopping resulted in no purchases except a .18 Euro cent water bottle, (YES!  A water bottle only cost .18 euro cents!  I know!  It’s incredible!  It blew my mind so much, that I just had to take a picture—this embarrassed a lot, so that was a plus!) we decided to sit down for a coffee and desert even though we weren’t the slightest bit hungry.  As everyone knows, this girl doesn’t drink coffee, so I got a hot chocolate and desert.  I chose a cherry tart type of desert with a creamy middle.  Nom nom nom!  Katie chose something with nuts and it was therefore gross, hahaha. 

After this last pit stop we decided to head back to Amsterdam.  This time we managed to take the correct train back, which was only a short distance walk from the city center.  Upon arrival back in Amsterdam we went to a little grocery store where we bought some salads, crepes, and nutella to have for dinner at the hostel.  After nomming down our dinner we got ourselves ready for a Dutch night on the town.  It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived at the club, which ended up being perfect timing.  At this point the line wasn’t terribly long, but there were still enough people inside that the dance floor wasn’t empty.

In this club, which is supposedly the biggest club in all of Amsterdam, there are two dance floors.  One dance floor is rockin’ your classic American pop songs that we all love so much.  The other floor was much larger and had a DJ who played a lot of techno/house music.  We started dancing on the U.S. music floor.  It was a lot of fun, but we wanted to explore the other floor as well.  There were tons of people on this floor, but the music was not good dancing music.  This meant that there were a lot of people who were just bouncing, or swaying back in forth—something that was very entertaining in and of itself.  There was one man who was quite the hoot.  He was a very good dancer and he knew it.  He came up to Katie and they had a spicy little dance off until he concluded that she was equally good.  This kid was all over the place and all over everyone, but he was very funny to watch.  After having had enough of that we went back up to the pop music dance floor where we shook our booties all night long!

After an intense night of dancing we decided to sleep in the next day.  Well, we woke up to go eat our free breakfast, and then went back to bed afterwards.  A couple more hours of snoozing did us some good.  The plans for the day included the infamous Anne Frank House.  This was quite the interesting experience.  It was absolutely fascinating and incredibly sad to stand in the very rooms where Anne and her family spent months in hiding.  There were a couple of spots in the museum where I almost broke into tears, such as at the end of the exhibit during a video interview with Anne’s father.  However, I managed to keep it together because I didn’t want to look like a freak being the only one in the whole place crying. 

To lift up our spirits after some sad WWII reminders some shopping was in order.  We wondered the streets of Amsterdam trying to see if anything tickled our fancy.  Katie was in the search of spicy birthday outfit, but nothing seemed to be just right.  After successfully browsing the entire shopping district, and walking around all of downtown Amsterdam we were ready to eat and relax a bit.  

While walking back to the hostel we stopped at an Italian restaurant, where we were the only patrons in the joint during the entire time we ate.  I had a pretty decent spaghetti Bolognese and Katie had a vegetarian pizza.  From there we went back to the hostel where we spent the rest of the night.  The weather was a poopy combination of rain, wind, and cold, so we were cool just chilling.  I did some reading in whichever of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books I was reading at that point (these books are amazing by the way!  Seriously, if you haven’t read them, you need to!  You need to read them ASAP!), and Katie did some blogging before we settled in to our bunk beds for the night.   

The next day was our last official day in Amsterdam.  We started the day at the Rijksmuseum, where we got our fill of Dutch art.  Even myself, being much less of an art fanatic than Miss Katie, enjoyed a lot of the cool things in this museum.  The first thing I noticed was the manner in which the walls were painted.  They all had a Victorian Era pattern painted on the wall in a glaze that was the same color as the rest of the wall.  This meant that the pattern was visible but only when looking at an angle.  I decided that there will be at least one room in my future home that will be painted in such a way.  Additionally, this museum not only housed art in the typical sense of paintings and sculptures, but it had an amazing collection of Delftware.  I thought all of these pieces were absolutely beautiful, and I particularly enjoyed a rather original planter—big surprise there, Emily likes something that has to do with flowers, woohoo! 

The next stop on the list was the infamous Van Gogh museum, but before we had some grumbling tummies to deal with.  We found this nice little restaurant to stop at that must be some kind of French people stomping grounds.  Seriously, we walked in and sat down at a table next to a French man and his son.  Then, once they left a different French couple sat on the other side of us.  (SIDE NOTE** This is just the beginning of a journey filled with French people.  Don’t get me wrong; I think this is absolutely awesome!  Everyone who knows me knows how much I love French.  But it was just surprising how many French people I saw in all of the countries I visited.  There were definitely more frenchies than any other nationality, and it seemed I heard more French speakers than I did English speakers.  But anyway…)

After a delicious meal we proceeded to the Van Gogh museum.  This museum was interesting; I thought the beginning of the museum was well done.  The first couple of rooms were about Van Gogh’s inspiration and his training as he grew up.  We could see his progression as an artist and how he developed his skills.  Throughout the rest of the museum, however, I found the explanations very repetitive and strangely vague.  For example, they mentioned that Van Gogh submitted himself to a psychiatric hospital but there was no explanation as to why.  They did even mention anything anywhere about him cutting his ear off!  I mean, I know those aren’t the best memories of Van Gogh, but he was a troubled artist.  If I’m gonna learn about an artist, I want to know all the nitty gritty details.  I don’t want to don’t want to be shown this edited story of ponies, rainbows, and unicorns!  I want the truth, dang it!  Regardless, it was still a cool museum, and it was pretty sweet to see a lot of famous pieces.  I even sneakily took this picture (which happens to be the cover image of an awesome David Sedaris book), despite not being allowed to. 

Visiting Amsterdam wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Red light district, so that is where we head next.  After a little questioning of where exactly is this “district,” we found it.  After a walk through one of the sketchy alleys (yes, it was sketchy even in the early evening), we had seen about enough.  We continued to walk about the downtown area for a while before we went to the nearby theatre to watch a movie.  We were nervous because we weren't sure if the film was going to be in English or even have English subtitles.  To our great fortune the movie, New Year's Eve, was in English, woooo!  The movie was in this awesome theatre that was all painted in a style that made me think of the 70's, but Katie liked it.  After the movie we were tired and decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel.   

The next morning Katie was up early, as she had to get to the airport to catch her flight home.  I joined her for breakfast before we said our goodbyes and she took off.  I decided to catch a couple more zzz’s before starting the day.  After I finally woke back up and got ready for the day, I walked to the downtown square where I bought myself a “hotdog,” for lunch.  I say “hotdog,” because this was not a hotdog like any I had ever had before.  It was rather soft and mushy, and not the best lunch purchase I could have made.  After finishing my mushdog and fending off pigeons, I continued walking.  Eventually, I reached my touristic destination, Museum our Lord in the Attic.  This is actually a catholic church that was built in the attic of a house during the Reformation.  It was interesting to see how they managed to built a rather large church in an attic, and learn about how people would secretly go there every week for mass.  Upon completion of my audioguide tour, I decided that I would do some more shopping. 

I wondered back to the shopping district in search for a winter scarf that would do a better job of keeping me warm than the one I was currently rockin’.  I successfully found a versatile black scarf that would do just the trick.  I also managed to buy a sweet ring at my new favorite store Bijou Brigitte before heading back the hostel to pick up my suitcase.  

Off to the train station I was.  I was taking my first night train to Prague, Czech Republic.  I had booked myself a bed in a two-bed sleeper cabin.  I was very lucky as the woman who was sharing the cabin with me was very nice and spoke English.  We spent about two hours chatting before we watched a movie and then went to bed.  With many stops throughout the night, I wouldn’t say I got my best nights sleep, but it was better than nothing.  I woke up in the morning thanks to the train attendant’s alarm 30 minutes before our arrival at Prague.  My cabin mate had already gotten off the train at a stop in Germany, and to my surprise she left me a Christmas chocolate bar!  That was a very friendly and fun surprise that really helped me start my day off on the right foot!