Time to Say Goodbye: Prague, Berlin, and Amserdam

When we arrived in Prague we had to take the metro to a different station, then a bus to our hostel. We stayed at a place called Hostel Marabou. The hostel was really nice (the price even included breakfast!), the only downside was that it wasn't near the city center. After we put away our bags we took a walk down our street to find some dinner. The restaurant we chose was really good, called Mood. Above the restaurant there was an apartment building, which we found out a few minutes after we sat down. There was the sound of a woman moaning loudly, which I thought was a part of the music at first! Then we realized that it was the sound of a couple having loud sex, which continued the entire time we were eating dinner! It was so awkward and uncomfortable, but we had a good laugh with the waiter about it. After dinner we went back to the hostel where we had a few beers with a nice group of Belgian guys that we met.

The next day we didn't do much, we mostly explored the city on our own. For dinner we ate at our hostel, where a very sweet old man from Louisiana made homemade spaghetti. It was delicious, he was so nice to do that for everyone at the hostel. He was such an inspiration, out traveling on his own and staying in hostels at his age. He proves that it is never too late to start traveling. Our next day was busier, starting with a free tour of the city. The tour was really interesting, we enjoyed the Astronomical Clock.

That night we went on the pub crawl. We met up with a group of people from our hostel, and it was a lot of fun! The crawl brought us to three bars and then ended at the biggest club in central europe, Karlovy Lazne. The club is 5 levels, each level has a different kind of music and layout.

From Prague we went to Berlin, where we stayed at a hostel called Amstel House. The dorm had 40 beds in it, but we weren't complaining- it was only 13 euro! Unfortunately both of us were feeling sick, so we decided to eat dinner at a restaurant around the corner and then chill out at the hostel. Our first day there we went out to explore the city, we went to a Jewish holocaust memorial, an international bookstore, the Brandenburg Gate, and saw a bit of the Berlin Wall. We also got Starbucks and sat in Berlin's biggest park, listening to street performers and people watching.

On Monday Evan slept in and I went on the free Berlin city tour. I met a nice girl from Wisconsin who I went on the tour with. I just loved hearing about the history of the city- so much happened there! So much modern history, what with being in the middle of both of the World Wars and The Cold War. After the tour I went back to the hostel to meet up with Evan, and we went out for lunch at a traditional German restaurant. I had this weird dish that sounded like a German mac and cheese, but ended up tasting like cheesy potatoes. It was good either way! I think Evan had another cheeseburger! The rest of the day I showed him the places I went in the tour, we went to a holocaust museum, and then we ate Italian food for dinner at Vapianos.

The rest of our time in Berlin was spent trying to recover from being sick! We went to the zoo for a little while, the aquatic bird exhibit was really cool.

When we arrived in Amsterdam we already knew how to get to the apartment that we were staying at, because we stayed in a different apartment on the same street our first time there. The stairs to get up to the apartment were scary, they were all crooked and very steep. We felt like we were in a fun house! The apartment was really nice though, especially for the price. The rest of the night we just walked along the river and had dinner then headed back home to watch the Olympics. The next day we walked around the streets, ate some ice cream, tried (and failed) to find a post office, and packed. For dinner we went to Kees again, the restaurant we went to at the beginning of the trip and absolutely loved. We loved it this time as well, we even had the same waitress. Eating dinner at our favorite restaurant was the perfect way to end our grand adventure.

We woke up early the next day to finish packing and head to the airport. Our plane left at 2:00 and we only had one layover this time, in Iceland. The flights were very long but went well. Ending the trip was very bittersweet, we were both happy to be home while at the same time wishing we had more time to travel and experience more. I had the best traveling companion, I saw so many amazing places, I met some great people, I really realized my passion for traveling, and I can't wait to go back again soon!

Pasta, Gelato, Tourist Traps, and Hitler: Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Munich

When we arrived in Florence it was SO HOT! I was not ready for Italy heat- I understand now why they eat so much gelato. Luckily where we were staying was only a 15 minute walk from the train station. On our first day we mainly just walked around and explored. We stayed right next to the Duomo, the big beautiful church in Florence, so we admired that for a while. For lunch we ate at O'Vesuvios, a pizzeria that Katie recommended to us. She ate there when she studied abroad in Florence, and loved it. The pizza was amazing!

After lunch we went to San Lorenzo market and shopped around for a while. The place is huge! There are so many stands, and about half of them are selling leather handbags and wallets. Evan bought an Italian leather wallet, and I bought a couple of handbags. So hard to resist! Its a lot of fun bargaining with the venders. For dinner we ate at Cafe Duomo, right next to the Duomo. Its another place my sister recommended, and I'm so glad she did! They have a 10 euro dinner special where you get salad, bruscetta, pasta, and wine. All of the food was absolutely incredible.

The rest of our time in Florence was spent drinking wine, eating a LOT of gelato, walking around the city, and eating as much pasta as possible. We walked up this hill for sunset where a lot of people go, the views of the city and beyond were unreal.

We left Florence early so that we could make a day trip to Pisa before going to Rome. Pisa wasn't very interesting, other than the leaning tower. It was really funny to see so many people leaning over in the air to take a picture that looks like they are leaning on the tower. We made sure to get the classic pictures though...

The train arrived in Rome pretty late, but luckily the hostel is open 24 hours. For dinner we ate at a little restaurant down the street called The Steak House. I had a gnocci dish that was to die for! Evan had a pizza that he really enjoyed, and we tried their house white wine which was fantastic. I would definitely recommend this restaurant, we ate there twice and the food was great, and it was all ridiculously cheap.

On Saturday we went to the center of Rome to check out the ruins. We walked to the Trevi Fountain and then to the Colosseum. I was amazed at how many ruins are still standing!! The next day we went inside the Colosseum and went to the Vatican City. The Colosseum is so big- its incredible how much of it is still there considering its age. I think that was my favorite part of Rome.

At around 7pm our train left for Munich. It was a night train, so we had the option of buying a bed to sleep on, but we are cheap so we settled for "reclining" chairs. Honestly... it was kind of terrible. The train had no air conditioning so everyone was sticking their heads out of the windows, the windows being open made everything SUPER loud (fine in the day, bad for sleeping), the train was overbooked so a lot of people had to sleep in the aisles (there were a lot of angry people), people are coming in and out, the conductor wakes you up in the middle of the night to check your ticket, the list goes on! Even through all of that, I'm glad I experienced it.

Something that I found to be ridiculous was the officers on the train who checked our passports. In our car there was me and Evan, two other white people (not from the U.S.), a guy from India who had dual citizenship in Italy, and a girl who was traveling from South Africa. The officer open the door to the car and demands to see our passports. So I pull mine out, he sees that its from the U.S., and he doesn't even look at it. He does the same to Evan, and dismissed the two other white people in a similar way. As for the guy from India, the officer paged through every single page of his passport at least once. The guy was very irritated, because the officer wouldnt look at his Italian passport card, he just kept paging through his book. For the South African girl he asked her a few questions then studied every single page of her passport booklet as well. Maybe he was looking for some sort of visa, but it seems like it was a lot more than that.

We arrived in Munich at 6:30 in the morning, crabby and tired. We got breakfast at the train station- I had the most amazing cream cheese danish, it had whole strawberries on top! Our hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the station, so we dropped off our bags and walked around the city. Germany is beautiful, I absolutely loved it there. We ran across a Starbucks so we got some coffee (much needed) and walked around the main square.

My favorite part of Munich was going on a tour called The Third Reich Tour. Basically we walked around and saw all of the places that were significant during or before World War 2. There are so many places! I learned so much history, and enjoyed every minute of it. We also went and took a tour of the concentration camp Dachau. I couldn't believe the horrifying things that the soldiers did to the prisoners. Visiting a concentration camp s something everyone should do once in their life.

In Munich we also tried a lot of German food, went to the Hofbrauhaus, drank a lot of beer, and saw a lot of great street performers. I love Germany.

Can you figure out what this painting used to be?

Window of Hitler's office