Sbohem Praha

Coming to the ending hours of my time in Prague and its been so nice!

Ashley and I have been sick, almost the whole time we've been here, and although we've been sluggish and groggy, we have made the best of our time here.

The first day was just me walking around and getting a bit familiar with the city a bit, and relaxing., while the second day was meant to be very productive, but due to not feeling well, we ended up just walking around quite a bit, coming back to the hostile and relaxing, and then inviting two other girls out to dinner.

After dinner we walked across the Charles bridge and got some great views at night with the lights and the music people were playing along the sides. It was magical.

Today Ash and I thought we would have a very productive day, and we definitely did. We started out walking to the John Lennon graffiti wall to take pictures, and then went and got hot chocolate at the Choco cafe. Now, when I said hot chocolate, it literally was chocolate melted into a cup.. And then of course I made sure I got mine with a scoop of ice cream in it. So thick you need to eat it with a spoon!

After a small heart attack, followed by high blood sugar, and maybe some diabetes, we walked around to run some errands before heading to the monastery up on the hill that over looks the city, so we could have some lunch. We both got these really yummy pizzas that were definitely able to feed two people per one pizza, but now we have our dinner as well ;) (THUMBS UP!)

We then... Get ready for this!.... Went to a Thai massage place and had fish eat the dead skin off our feet!! It was so ticklish and weird, and then when you finally got use to the feeling, it just felt like bubbles were on your feet. Weirdest thing ever, but such a cool experience.

Tonight, to say good bye to each other, Ashley and I are going for drinks and dessert. Its very sad to say bye to Ash seeing as she's become such a dear friend of mine. However, she's planning on coming to the U.S. In December and staying with me for a bit, so I have something to look forward too. And who knows we may decide to meet up in another country in the future.. It will happen!

In total, it will have been a collective of 8days Ashley and I have spent together, and they have all been a blast!


Miss ya already Ash!   

happy happy joy joy

I always get these little thoughts, side notes, or pauses that just kind of pass through my head. Sometime in one ear and out the other and sometimes I keep thinking about them. So why not share them, because I can..


I've already jotted down the down falls, negative, upsetting, and Debbie downer side of things, so lets perk things up a bit with all the happy, positive, upbeat, fun thoughts I've had!


-I LOVE all the people I've met! Some good some bad, all sorts of personalities. Some that leave a bitter taste and some that I tear up when I have to leave! Every single one of them, however, makes me feel so lucky to have experience so many crazy, fun, strange, opinionated, know I all, funny, spiritual people! From all over the world!


-I can't wait for these people to visit me in the states! I always tell the people I like that if they are ever in Seattle to come stay with me!


- I may have an Australian room mate at one point! Ashley wants to come.to the states and maybe stay a while, and ill have an extra room when I move out sooooooo, ROOMIES!!


- The longer I travel, the more I love it. I know I said before that I felt like maybe this wasn't my passion, and maybe its not. BUT after I got over the hump of the negative, I really do love it! I can't wait to explore more places in the future. I think because it was so new and I've never been away from friends and family for so long that it was a bit of a news flash and shock.. SHOCK GONE! Yes I miss my family and friends, but I've pretty much talked to them everyday, Ana is always saying 'hiiiiiii teta!' When I'm on Skype with her (which, might I add, I'm so thankful.for Clare Dowd to be watching my favorite person! Ana is in such great hands and I couldn't be more happy that such a wonderful person is making sure that Ana is having fun and gets to see her teta on Skype. THANK YOU CLARE FOR BEING SO AMAZING!)


-When you hit a city that you fall in love with, it makes traveling that much better! If you don't like a city.. Guess what, SEE YA! I mean I always try to give every city a chance, but its nice to not have to stay there if I don't want to :D


-thank you to all the friends and family who have given me advice on where to stay, where to go and things to do. I may not have done them while I was in those countries, but I'm so thankful you guys are helping me out and giving me some tricks of the trade! (zuzu!)


-it will be interesting when I get home from this adventure. The world is my oyster!! (I never got that expression, sooo I'm gon a change it now) THE WORLD IS MY PLAYGROUND!


-I love talking to people, whether I become friends with them or its just a short little chat. I can always find out cool things to do, things I've never thought of doing.


happy Monday everyone!

A Peak at Prague

Well I made it to Prague this afternoon!
I arrived by bus and my directions said I needed to take an underground and then a tram....
okay so first of all, the money here is SO confusing! And I thought this girl from a previous hostile had given me her left over money for Prague but I was wrong...
I had to pee so bad when I got off the bus, but you need money for that because God forbid you use the toilets for free in Europe! Well the lady manning the bathroom didn't speak English, but was very clear that I couldn't use the bathroom because I didn't have money, so I held it and thought, huh I'll get to my hostile pretty quick and then I'll go there...


An hour of trying to figure out what the cash machines say (they are not in English, nor did they give me the options) and what the ticket machines say (again not in English at all), God sent me a blonde haired angel in a blue shirt and big sunnies on her head!!! This girl heard me struggling and offered to help, noticing her accents I asked where she was from and she replied, South Carolina.
I already forgot her name and feel like such an ass cause she was amazing. But she had been in Prague for school for 9 weeks and was headed home and had come to the station to get a train ticket to the airport for the next day. Just my luck!!


So this magnificent human being helped with the cash machine, helped me with my ticket (only after we ran around trying to get change for the 2000 paper bill of korunas- and no that's not mistyped) I was so thankful I bought her 2$ train ticket for her!
she gave me some tricks of the trade for Prague and off I went to catch my train and my tram.


After a LONGGGGG while, I made it to hostel Santini Prague and its so cute. Almost like a hotel but just slightly not as nice. Still very nice though. Got settled, and walked around the city for a little while.

First things first, I kept seeing people with these sugary treats that were like a tube, so my first step out the door was to find them and buy one... And ill probably get one everyday till I leave :D

I'm VERY happy I'm in Prague, this place is so cute and I love it. Cobblestone roads, tons of shops and venders, beautiful architecture, water where you can rent paddle boats and such. Its lively and just my kind of place! Can't wait for these next four nights

I then had a lovely evening with two of my girl rookies! We went out to dinner and had a great time and amazing food! Prague is going well so far.

Bye Bye Berlin

My last day in Berlin was pretty laid back. Since Ashley and I had walked so much the previous day, we were still kind of beat.
I moseyed through the morning, talked to some girls from Vegas, a handsome guy from DC ;) and headed to Ashley's hostile around noon. We actually stayed at her hostile for a while because we both had to figure out our next travel moves and she had a computer and good wifi. I got my place in Prague booked and my bus ticket ready to go and we decided to head out for our day.

 

We walked to the cathedral we saw the previous day and decided to head in and check it out. It was gorgeous. They had a wedding going on at the same time which was weird cause if I was the bride I would be a bit pissy if tourists were being so loud while I was trying to say some vows...we headed down to the crypt and then up to the top to get a fantastic view of Berlin. 200 and something stairs later, we were not disappointed.

We ventured over to the chocolate shop where you can create your own personalized chocolate and made some concoctions for gifts for our family and while we waited for them to cool and be ready to take home our stomachs once again told us we need to feed.
Mission: FIND CURRYWURST!
Mission accomplished! We found a great place by Checkpoint Charlie, and our bellies thanked us. And I will add that it was fantastic. Usually just the word 'curry' makes me think of diarrhea, I don't even know why, nonetheless I was gonna give it a try.. Sooo good!!
** 

After our lunch we had AMAZING ice cream from the Woop Woop truck! All fresh ingredients put in and then turned into ice cream with liquid nitrogen! I had mint/lime (sounds weird but it was very refreshing with mint leaves and fresh line juice, and Ashley had strawberry cheesecake... Both were amazing)

After that we did some.shopping for stuff that we 'needed', tanks, rompers, stupid hats, ya know the usually things that girls need. (we did not buy a stupid hat, but it was funny to try it on!)

After that we were so exhausted that we went back to her hostile and just relaxes, took a load off. Ashley napped and I blogged for a bit to catch up. Then we just went to the store and bought some salads for dinner, had a romantic dinner from our plastic containers and I headed back to my hostile.


All around thought of Berlin:
the city is really dirty. Graffiti, and cigarette butts EVERYWHERE. also lots of broken beer bottles and bottle caps litter the city. Now not every part of the city is like this but a lot of places we went to were pretty gross. Obviously the touristy parts aren't as bad, but a lot of places that I saw were pretty dirty, especially by my hostile. Berlin, is nice when you hit the tourist spots, grungy and dirty in other parts. Will I go back? Maybe, but not a high priority.

My first full day in Berlin was just that.. a FULL day.

Obviously I met up with my buddy Ashley, who I met in Brussels, and we had a jammed pack plan for taking on Berlin.

First things first we both had to get on the train and meet in the middle of our hostels because we were about 30 minutes away. Thanks Jesus for the train.
Once we met up, we got back on the train and head to a bike rental place, which we ended up finding a super cheap one run by an old Asian couple that had a store that basically looked like they were trying to sell all their old junk... at discount prices...

We got our bikes, and because Ashley had gone on the bike tour the day before, she was now my tour guide. Lucky for me she wanted to do everything again because on the bike tour they didn't have time to stop and take pictures.

Our first short stop was to the oldest church in Berlin, grant it everything here is very old, but because it was all destroyed in one way or another, its all been rebuilt, or fixed. We stopped and looked at the church and then we stopped and fumbled around the big fountain there as well, while also getting a great view of the TV tour. All sites in a little triangle of the same area so you just have to basically turn and snap a photo, turn and snap. 

We rode on and sat with some big fellas, and rode on some more to Museum Island. There they had the most beautiful cathedral, which we decided to venture in the following day, and the Altes Museum.

So we rode and rode some more until we came to the hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby, Blanket, over the balcony! member that?! and people went nuts.. but also we saw Brandenburg gate which was really cool! We snapped some pictures, people watched for a brief moment, watching people blow giant bubbles and the horse carriages go by, the people on the bike tours, and all sorts of characters walking around. Then we hopped on our noble steeds and headed off!

Rode to Reichstag, where they dome on top is transparent to show that they people of the transparency in government and a way to show that the government didn't want to hide things from the people.

We took a water break and stalked up before we scampered off again to go see the astonishing memorial for the murdered Jews. This memorial was HUGE. made up of 2,711 solid concrete bricks all different sizes, it was like a labyrinth walking though. Absolutely amazing. Ashley and i were taking photos and just felt bad smiling in them because it was such a heart breaking thing to be around, knowing that millions of Jews died for being in the sites of a delusional psychopath.

On a more upbeat note, we then stopped at Check point Charlie! you had to pay to take pictures, so I just decided to stand on the side and take one... just as good in my book!
grumble grumble... that's the sound our stomachs made and we decided that we needed to stop at Lidl, my favorite, super cheap grocery store, and grab some salami, cheese, rolls, pre-made salad, chips and lollies (that's what these weird Aussies call any kind of candy, except chocolate, that's just chocolate.) and some canned wine to spice our our magnificent picnic we were going to have in the park.

We rode around for a bit trying to find the perfect spot in the park, of which people liked to nude sun bathe... and for some reason it was only men that did that.... FREE WILLIES! (i feel like maybe someone already destroyed the lovely whale movie title and made a porno out of it now that i decided to use that name.. yuck.)

 

We found our spot and enjoyed a nice lunch that filled us up for basically the rest of the day, until I needed ice cream, but I always have room for that... its a gift of mine, to always have room for something sweet.

We finished and got back on our bikes and rode to the Victory column, the Berlin Wall, was held ever so lovingly by a bear and then stopped by a really eerie spot. The spot where Hitlers bunker was found.

When they found Hitlers bunker, they found all the bodies inside. They all took cyanide in the bunker to commit suicide, and even the kids! Their mother thought that her children would be better off dead than live in a world without Hitler. How insane and brainwashed!!! after that when they found the bunker they attempted to blow it up, but the bunker was so strong that when they tried, the roof of the bunker lifted a bit and then fell back down, not damaging a thing! Because they it was pretty indestructible, they decided to simply take the roof off, fill it up and turn it into a parking lot. so really there is just a gravel small parking lot there now, but the bunker stills lives underneath it all... freaky.

Lastly we rode back to the square where they had a street market, got some ice cream and sat by the fountain and called it a day.. a very very long, exhausting, sun filled day that i would trade for the world..

As far as if I like Berlin? its okay.... much too spread out for me. I really like being able to walk everywhere and have lots of little markets and nice things like that. I love the history, as horrifying as it is, and the beautiful architecture, but I don't know that I would make this a main place to stop in the future.

Eating in Pitch Black... treat yo self.

MY FIRST AMAZING DINNER IN BERLIN!
Have you ever heard of that thing where you go eat in a pitch black restaurant, can't see your hand in front of your face and wondering how you could ever possibly manage to eat food like that? Well that's what I did!

Ashley had me two other Aussie girls and said they were going to dinner at one of those restaurants where its pitch black and asked if I wanted to go.. I immediately said yes! The price was a pretty penny, but I thought holy crap who else would ever do this with me and when would I ever get the chance to do it! I also have mount Vesuvius growing on my forehead so I thought what a perfect coincidence that this is an option when I look like I'm growing a horn! She could have just been being nice and wanted to spare my feelings foe the stares I would have gotten from a normal food place. Either way, we got dressed and headed on our way!


outline of the dinner:
4 course meal
-appetizer
-starter
-main meal
-dessert


You choose from the menu of three options for dinner. Vegetarian. Meat. Surprise. I like to live dangerously so I chose the surprise meal, which you dont find out what it is until your done eating and your waiter (who,like all waiters that work, was blind)


We got there and sat in the outside dining area. Still in the light of day and they brought out our starter:
beautifully presented pot-sticker type thing on a bed of some sort of seaweed that had a sweet layer of sauce and then a little spot of some sort of yellowy sauce that was equally amazing and sprinkled over with a light cheese.
so first course amazing and led us into a night of delicious food.


Then we were led down these stairs into a dim lit room. Instructed to place your hand on the person in front of yous shoulder and the lights when off to which the man knocked on the door and another man appeared. Wolfgang, our waiter, who was indeed actually blind, led us to our table placed each of our hands on our chair and told us to sit and he would be right back with our drinks.


Drinks check.


Second course:
a scallop, perfectly prepared in a light peanut sauce laid on a bed of arugula with a leper marmalade dressing and cucumbers, with a side of a chip and some guacamole.


All food now becomes finger food. As I cannot see what I'm eating where my fork is going and what I'm picking up, I flash back in time and touch everything on my plate to try and guess what it is... Thank god no one can see my cause I'm pretty sure I looked like a homeless toddler...


Third course:
this was our main dish and as.it was brought out smelled amazing. Small potatoes cut up with rosemary, veal which was so tender and delicious, and a little pile of mushrooms that were in some sort of a sweet sauce. These meals were more extravagant than I'm explaining, but I'm but a simple peasant and now nothing of the words or ingredients that were on my plate.


Fourth course: DESSERT MY FAVE!
a freshly made strawberry ice cream with a cherry crisp cake and fresh blueberries... So good. The cake was very soft and delicious but with the too and edges perfectly crisp, so when you bite into it, you got that tad crunch and then soft delectable warm cake.


we kept joking that this is the best place to have a blind date, and giggled through our evening, relaxed at the fact that no one could see that we, or more like I, was by all means not 'sucking it in' you know what I mean ladies! With blind servers and pitch black, it was basically the best way to eat dinner.


it was an experience that I will never forget, that's for sure!

Berlin Bound

July 23rd 2015
Woke up at 3:45... Silvia was already awake and hadn't slept all night.. I on the other hand had a pretty good sleep for going to bed at 12:30 and waking up before the ass crack of dawn but not even the crack was showing yet. It was still dark out.

Today is the day that marks one whole week that I was with Silvia! That's a long time! Who knew I would travel with her for so long! It was so amazing to have someone to be my companion for a WEEK!

To be honest, as much as I already miss Silvia, I think I'm ready to do it alone again. I loved every minute with Silvia, but the thing about traveling with someone is that you have to compromise and come to agreements, make decisions, spend more money than you need to. I think being with someone for a week has given me a new appreciation for traveling alone.
Not to say I wont ever travel with someone, but I will for sure never jump the gun and travel with someone just because I feel I need a buddy. It will take an extremely laid back person for me to have another travel partner. It feels like being in a relationship would... You have to deal with everything about the other person and have patients, understanding, a sense of humor, and know that we all have our quarks that you can really be like nails on a chalk board.

Back on track!
I took a 5:20am train to Berlin, and its basically filled with just backpackers from alllllll over the world. A true mixing pot. I'll be on the train a total of 6 hours. SLEEP!


3..2...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Train ride was SO long. I'm glad that's over with. Got to the train station and had to get food seeing as I hadn't eaten yet and was starting to get a head ache. It took me a while, walking around aimlessly trying to figure out the whole train thing to get to my hostel.... Trains freak me out. Don't know why, they just do. But I was victorious and got to my hostel!
The hostel is in a kind of.outskirt type area (damn it) and right next to the train (thank god). Sadly I'm 30 minutes from where Ashley is staying (NOOO!) But were going to find a.central location to meet the days that we can. So my hostel is clean and nice. Just not in the right location unfortunately :/ live and learn I guess.. Shit.


Met up with Ashley shortly after where we tried to figure out if we would meet again in our travels. We then decided to do the coolest thing ever with two girls that she met from Australia previously in Berlin, and that itself deserves its own post!