Kelsie, Matt, Andy (or Glue as we call him), and I all arrived in Prague on Monday evening and trekked to the hostel with all our stuff. We got slightly lost on the way there, but finally made it. The hostel we stayed in – Sir Toby’s – was amazing. Not only was the staff super nice, but the rooms were spacious, clean, and the breakfast (only 4 euro) was delicious. And it was cheap! Best decision to room there. The first morning we were there we went on an “off the beaten track” tour of the Castle district of Prague with one of the guys at the front desk, Richard. The tour was great and even though it was a very overcast day, I quickly fell in love with the city.
The outside of a little café we passed – it was really pretty with all the fallen leaves.
I honestly don’t remember what this building was but it was in the Castle district and the outside was quite pretty.
Everywhere we turned we bombarded with fall images – some of the leaves were just starting to turn and fall off the trees, which didn’t happen as much in Denmark. Needless to say it reminded me of home in October.
Petrin tower. We didn’t actually go up to the top since Richard told us we could a great view from another spot as well so we didn’t have to pay. The architecture certainly reminded us all of the Eiffel Tower.
View of Prague with Prague Castle in the background. Stunning (even when overcast)!
One of the sights we all really wanted to see was the Lennon Wall. The Lennon Wall is a wall in Prague that is filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and art as well as lyrics. I took a few pictures of my favorite parts, including this one from the song.
MUSIC NEVER DIES...so true.
Matt and Glue signing the Lennon Wall. One of my favorite pictures of the entire trip for sure.
More locks!
On our way back to the tram station we stopped to see this creepy alien babies that are just chilling in a park by Petrin. Of course we had to jump on the opportunity to take some hilarious pictures.
The park by Petrin is also very close to the Charles Bridge (absolutely beautiful at night) and we were just standing by the railing appreciating the beauty. The penguins were a nice little addition.
Trdelnik, a sweet pastry, is basically just dough that is rolled around a stick and then grilled and topped with copious amounts of cinnamon sugar and nuts. We all know how much I love cinnamon sugar and this dessert definitely lived up to my expectations.
This was a picture of Old Town Square that reminded me so much of fall at home. I wanted to go jump and play in the leaves!
We ate at this amazing vegetarian restaurant – Lehka Hlava. It was the most hyggeligt experience of the entire break. Not only was the food delicious, but the ceiling had little lights as stars and it was dimly lit with a little flower and candle for each table. It also happened to be quite cold that day, so we stayed a while after finishing lunch just so we could chat and stay warm. The best.
Karlovy Lazne – the biggest music club in central Europe. Enough said. We went on our last night and it was an absolute blast. It has 5 floors (only 3 were open because it was a random Wednesday). My favorites were obviously Oldies and Dance music.
Old Town at night is a magical sight.
This is the infamous “I amsterdam" sign where we took numerous pictures (see Facebook). I think the best part was climbing up to sit on top of the m and then getting stuck between the a and m as I tried to get down. Typical.
After seeing the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum, Matt, Glue, Kelsie and I hit up the Heineken brewery for the “Heineken Experience.” For only 16 euros we got 2 free beers, a beer tasting, and a ride (it was actually just us standing on a moving platform as we were “made into the beer”...lame, but funny).
Amen?
All the different Heineken bottles. I’d never seen of these before so it was kind of cool to read what they were all for and how many of each were produced. Who knew beer history could be so interesting?
The second night that we went out in Amsterdam we stumbled upon this drumming band in the middle of the square by our hostel. I was so excited and insisted on taking pictures and videos while my friends looked on rolling their eyes.
A man of mirrors! Luckily we ran away super quickly after taking this picture so we didn’t have to pay.
Hello Amsterdam! We met up with Becca and Sarah (two of my friends at Bowdoin) – it was so great to see them. We also ran into two other kids from Bowdoin as we were walking back to our hostel. It is such a small world and traveling throughout Europe has only made me even more aware of that (also ran into my Danish teacher and a bunch of people from my DIS program).
The Bulldog...there were so many coffee shops all throughout Amsterdam it was crazy. You could smell them from miles away (literally).
Pretty Amsterdam! All the little canals reminded me of Denmark, which made it a nice transition to come back home here.
On our last day in Amsterdam we went on a bus tour to three different cities. This was the first where we enjoyed hot chocolate and a beautiful view of the water.
Sarah and I spotted these waffles right before we left to get on the bus and we couldn’t resist. We got one with chocolate and strawberries. It was possibly the best waffle I’ve ever had (but no I’ve never had Belgian waffles).
This was our second stop where we watched as a guy explained how to make traditional Dutch clogs. I honestly do not understand how people wear them since they appear to be 100% uncomfortable, but hey...to each his own. Plus there were some really pretty ones around the shop.
Our last stop included windmills and a cheese tasting. The scenery was stunning – everything was so green (sometimes it even seemed fake).
Cheese factory! A woman explained how the cheese was made and then we had the pleasure of tasting 15 different kinds of cheese. Clearly I went back through the line approximately 3 times. One of my favorites was sheep cheese – omnomnom.
Phew. I’m just as exhausted captioning all these as I was being there. That’s all for now!
LOVED the pics and especially the title. Good choice!
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