Prague- Day 2

This morning after breakfast we went to the castle. It was pretty expensive and we got an audio guide which wasn't really worth it but I liked walking around. There's a palace and a really famous cathedral (St. Vitus's Cathedral) and a little village kind of thing. Here are a few pictures from that.

Nice view of the city:

St. Vitus's Cathedral:

The Defenestration Window (that they threw people out of)

Kafka lived here for awhile:

Inside St. Vitus's Cathedral:

After the castle we walked through the city a bit to Petrin Hill, a big hill in the middle of the city. We hiked up to the top of it where we climbed to the top of the observation tower for some great views.

View from Petrin Hill observation tower:

Dustin, Alex and I on the observation tower:

The observation tower:

We hiked back down, then crossed the river to see "The Dancing Building". It's famous, but I forget the name of the architect. The area around there is really beautiful too.

The Dancing Building:

Then we went back across the river to see the Lenin wall, which was pretty interesting, then we got bratwurst again for lunch.

Lenin Wall:

There was still some time before Alex and Dustin had to catch their train so we went back to Old Town Square. We got Pikle (I think that's what they were called), an awesome dessert that were just like chocolate con churros (that we got in Spain) but the "churros" were rolled in cinnamon. Sooo awesome. We ate that while we watched a crazy street show. I'm so glad we were here around Easter, there's so much cool stuff going on. Although that street show was pretty insane, Ill upload a video of it when its working.

Pikle:

Crazy street show:

Alex and Dustin left after that. I did some shopping, some planning, and some photo uploading. I was going to go to a concert tonight but decided to save the money. Tomorrow I'm going hiking in the Prachov Rocks and it's going to be amazing!

Prague-Day 1

So... Prague is awesome. But to start at the beginning...

Train is definitely the way to travel around Europe. The 5 hour train ride from Berlin to Prague had absolutely incredible scenery. For most of the ride we went along a big river, and there were all these little picturesque villages nestled in the mountain sides. So, so cool. It really felt like a movie. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the villages but here's one of some mountains. The color is a little off because it was taken through the train window.

View from train:

So yeah the train ride was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. I got to Prague in time to meet Alex and Dustin for the free tour (they took an earlier train this morning because they're only here til tomorrow night), so I dropped my stuff off at the hostel then went to the tour starting point, which was in Old Town Square, the center of the city. So cool. There was a huge Easter market going on with all kinds of food stalls and tons of people (these markets were all over the city) and the atmospohere was just incredible.

Easter market:

We did the free tour which showed us all the highlights so that was nice. I didn't take many pictures because the skies were grey, so I'm going to go back and take pictures on a nicer day (I'm here til Wednesday afternoon). But near the end the sun came out and the clouds looked really cool so here are a few pictures I took then.




The city is absolutely gorgeous. I really, really like it. It's just so cool.

The tour ended at 5 so we went right over to St. Nicholas Cathedral for an Easter concert. The interior of the cathedral is stunning and it was really awesome to see a concert (orchestra and choir) perform there. They did works by Mozart and 2 composers from Prague. It was a great thing to do on Easter, and pretty cheap. I think I'm going to try to go to concerts the next 2 nights too. Here are some pictures of the cathedral where we saw the concert:



After the concert we got dinner, and we all got traditional Czech dishes. Mine was some kind of roast beef thing with a sauce and dumplings. Then we wandered around the city for a bit, enjoying the awesome atmosphere. The city is really pretty at night.

View of the castle from the Charles Bridge at dusk:

We each bought a traditional Czech dessert called trdelink, and they were delicious. They're kind of a bread-y dough cooked over a fire then rolled in a topping. I got walnut but there were also coconut, peanut, cinnamon, and almond options. Delicious.

Trdelink:

We wandered while we ate those (there were still lots of people out enjoying the evening and the remaining stalls at the Easter markets), then found a restaraunt in Old Town Square where we could sit outside with drinks. We sat there for about an hour and a half drinking the local specialty and talking. We saw a girl from Wash U who is studying in London. I really can't emphasize enough how awesome the atmosphere around the city is. It was a great night.

Tomorrow we're going to the castle and doing other stuff that Alex and Dustin want to do before they leave. On Tuesday the weather is supposed to be nice so I'm going hiking in the area called the "Bohemian Paradise" which will be awesome, then I'll spend Wednesday doing more stuff in the city.

Berlin- Day 2

Today was pretty good. We got up at 8, ate breakfast at the hostel, then went to the Reichstag, which is now the parliament building. There's a cool dome thing that's free so we waited in line for about an hour and a half to do that. It was a long wait but the dome was cool and there was a nice view from the top.

Reichstag:

Yeah we waited in that line:

Middle of the dome:

Different levels in the dome:

After that we were going to do the free tour but we thought it would be warmer so we didn't have our heavier jackets, so we decided to do the later free tour. So we went back to the hostel for our jackets, then walked through Tiergarten, a big park, to Schloss Charlettonburg, the palace. On the way we walked through a street market, and got bratwursts so that was good. We didn't have time or money to go into the palace so we just walked around the gardens which were nice.

Street market, where we got bratwursts:

Schloss Charlettonburg (palace):

Schloss Charlettonburg, viewed from the gardens:

We took the metro back to the Brandenburg Gate after that for the free tour but we were late and missed it. That was a huge bummer. So basically we just walked back to all the places I went yesterday, which is what the tour would have done, but without the information. That was really too bad.

We ended up at the Berliner Dom again, and since Dustin and I had already been in there were waited in a park by it while Alex went in.

After that we went back to Alexanderplatz, then started walking along the river looking for the East Side Gallery, which is a long section of the remaining Berlin wall that has been painted by tons of different people. It was a long walk to it but it was really cool.

East Side Gallery:

Example of part of the East Side Gallery:

Then we took the metro back to the Jewish Museum and went in there for about an hour and a half until it closed at 8. It was a really interesting museum because of the way that it was designed, like it's a really weird shape and the design features have all this meaning and stuff.

Jewish Museum:

After that we went to dinner, now we're back at the hostel. Leaving for Prague tomorrow morning.

Berlin- Day 1

I added pictures to yesterday's Brussels post so check that out if you want! I'll try to put up pictures for this post tomorrow so you can just read it tomorrow if you want, things will make more sense with pictures.

Today was a great day! The overnight bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I got some sleep and it went by pretty quickly. It was about an hour late so I got to the hostel around noon. I dropped my stuff off then headed out to see the city (Dustin and Alex weren't arriving til later). The weather was just perfect. Nice and warm and very sunny. There were lots of people out enjoying the weather and it was a great atmosphere.

I headed to Unter den Linden, the main street in east Berlin. It's a big wide tree-lined boulevard with lots of shops and stuff. I could see the Brandenburg Gate from where I ate lunch.

View from where I ate lunch (notice Brandenburg Gate) :

After I ate I walked over to see the gate.

Brandenburg Gate:

Then I headed over to the Holocaust Memorial, which is a bunch of grey stone slabs of different sizes. It was pretty cool to walk through, you could get lost in there.

Holocaust Memorial:

From there I walked down Unter den Linden, seeing the sights along the way.

Unter den Linden:

First was Gendarmarkt, which has two big churches (Franzosischer Dom and Deutscher Dom) and a concert house.

Concert House in Gendarmarkt:

Next was Bebalplatz. It has a church (St Hedwigs) and a memorial to a big book burning that took place there. It's a clear square in the middle of the plaza and if you look into it there are a bunch of empty book shelves.

Bebalplatz:

After Bebalplatz Unter den Linden crossed the river and entered into Museum Island. There are a bunch of museums and a lot of grassy areas, and since it was such a nice day a lot of people were out. I went into Berliner Dom, the big cathedral, and it was really incredible. I bought tickets for Dustin and I to go to a Good Friday organ concert tonight.

Berliner Dom:

Then I just sat outside for a while. I bought a giant soft pretzel (they're big here apparently) and just sat and ate it. Quite delightful.

Pretzel:

Lustgarten, where I sat for a while eating that pretzel:

I finally decided it was time to move on and I wandered up to Alexanderplatz, a crazy market thing. There was so much stuff going on there, like market stalls and tourist attractions and a little carnival and stuff.

Alexanderplatz:

Next to Alexanderplatz is a sweet fountain and church, so I sat there for a while too.

Neptune Fountain:

Then I went over to Nikolaiviertel, a pedestrian area with lots of nice little shops and the oldest church in Berlin (Nikolaikirche).

Nikolaivertel:

I decided to go back to the hostel after that to shower and wait for Dustin. He got here at about 5, so we went right to the service. I didn't really know what to expect but it was pretty cool. There was a guy and he read (in German, so we didn't really know what was going on) parts of the crucifixtion story, then after each part a piece would be played on the organ that was kind of like a musical score for the story. It was pretty awesome to see that kind of thing in a cathedral like that (see pictures above).

Then we wandered back down Unter den Linden, saw the Brandenburg Gate at sunset, and got some dinner.

Sunset behind Brandenburg Gate:

We went back to the hostel after that which is where we are now, and Alex just got here so we're going to plan tomorrow.

Brussels- Day 3

I added pictures to the blog from spring break, so if you want you can go back to the past couple entries and see the places I was talking about. There are a few videos too. All the pictures are on facebook now with captions as well.

Today turned out pretty well considering I didn't have a plan. I slept in til 8, but didn't want to sleep any later so I'll be able to sleep on my overnight bus to Berlin tonight. After breakfast and stuff I jumped on the metro and headed over to the Atomium, another symbol of Brussels. It's too expensive to go up it so I didn't, but I did walk around the park that it's in. It was nice, very relaxing.

The Atomium:

I spent about an hour and a half there then got back on the metro to the city center. I went to the Botanical Gardens, which were pretty small but I wanted to see it.

Botanical Gardens:

Then I wandered around looking for an internet shop. The first place I found was kind of sketchy so I didn't stay there long, but then I found a nice place and ended up staying there for 3 hours. It was soooo nice to get all caught up with pictures and the blog and everything. That felt really good. The best part was that it was a super cheap place, only .50 an hour! That's fantastic! The place in Dublin was 2 euro/hour. So that was a nice way to spend part of the day.

It turned into a really nice day after that. Still kind of cold, but sunny, and it was nice in the sun. I decided just to wander around the city. I saw a couple streets I hadn't seen before, and eventually ended up at the Grand Palce again. I took more pictures of it because it looked even cooler in sunlight instead of storm clouds.

Hotel de Ville again:

I had some time to kill so I bought another Belgian waffle (with strawberries this time) and ate it in the Grand Place while I people watched. Then I stayed there and read for about an hour. It was very enjoyable.

Another Belgian waffle:

After that I headed back to my hostel, which is where I am now. I'm going to shower, do some Berlin planning, then head to the bus station. Wish me luck on this overnight bus....

Oh by the way I do have a small cold but it's not bad at all. I think I'm already getting better.