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!