My Never Ending Saga

The dilemma has returned. As we all know, I had some trouble with packing for Prague. This time, the trouble was packing for spring break. A girl needs her clothes, and more importantly, her shoes! My little duffel just wasn't cutting it for me. Between clothes appropriate for weather ranging from 40 to 75 degrees, shoes, hygenic supplies, a towel, and the extra space that will be filled with cheese from Italy, we had a serious problem on our hands. Upon inquiring next door, I learned that Maria was having a similar issue. Luckily, we are smart girls, and realized that we could pack one big bag and one little bag between us and have just the right amount of space. Packing crisis averted! How's that for putting our Stern educations to work?

So I leave tomorrow right after class for an epic spring break adventure. We start with two nights up in London where I'll be staying with Imran. Saturday we head down to Athens, but we are only there for 16 hours so we aren't even booking a hostel. Sleeping in the airport is not beneath us. Then it's further south to Cyprus, where we've rented a car so we can drive across the Connecticut-sized country and maybe even venture into North Cyprus (scary idea, North Cyprus is so sketchy only Turkey actually recognizes its existence as a country). Tuesday it's back up to Athens. On Thursday we fly over to Calabria in Southern Italy to visit Maria's family there. Then up to Milan for a day in Sunday, and finally we head home to Praha Monday morning.

Wish us luck! When I get back I'll blog about Mallory's recent visit to Prague (so much fun!) and SPRING BREAK!

Berlin: "I touched the bus...!"

Lauren, Lisa, and I decided to spontaneously go to Berlin two weekends ago. The city was absolutely spectacular, my new favorite place! I loved the street art and culture of Berlin. We arrived Friday evening and decided to try traditional German food, which was not delicious like Hungarian food. I was rather disappointed. Our hostel was nice, I'd definitely recommend the Wombat City Hostel line. We were in a four person room with our own bathroom. On the first night it was just the three of us, but the second night we were joined by Bruno from Brazil. Saturday morning we went on the free walking tour and saw a lot from Berlin's history including the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, and Museum Island.

I could keep adding more of my favorite pictures, but I'll stop there. Make sure to check out my picasa album for more! After that we went to a small flea market where I bought some cool art.

Interesting fact, in Berlin the pedestrian lights have this cute little guy called the ample man, he looks like this...

That night we decided to do something a little different... By chance we stumbled into the Babylon Theater, a movie theater built in the 1920s that still has its original silent film screen. We learned that they were showing a silent film, Metropolis, with a live orchestra and decided to go. It was a really cool experience, although a bit hard to follow since all the words were in German!

After that we went to White Trash Fast Food, a super amazing indie club that I wish I could go to whenever I want! It was made even better by having an American restaurant upstairs!

Sunday morning we originally planned to go to Potsdam, but since it was raining we stayed in Berlin. We started the day at a huge art flea market that had some really great stuff. At the end was a hill with a graffiti wall and swings.

Then we went to see the East Side Gallery which was probably my favorite thing in Berlin. It's all paintings done directly onto what's left of the Berlin Wall.

So that's the abbreviated version of Berlin. I highly recommend going there some day, it's wonderful. 

Before spring break my goal is to write a post about Terezin, Kutná Hora, and Mallory's visit to Prague! I leave for London, Athens, Cyprus, and Borgia on Thursday so look for another post before then!

"Szia, Siya...it means hello!": NYU takes over Budapest

Two weekends ago Maria, Lisa, Siya, Susan, me, and about half of NYU in Prague went to Budapest. It wasn't planned this way, but apparently around 60 people from NYU went that weekend. Talk about taking over the city. So I should start by mentioning that I was quite sick this entire trip with a sore throat and a fever, so it was slightly less adventurous than it would have been, but amazing nonetheless. 

We arrived in Budapest Friday evening after a 7 hour bus ride that seemed about double as long without an iPod. Upon checking into Central Backpack King we learned that we had been upgraded to an apartment owned by the hostel a few blocks away. It was a three bedroom apartment with a bathroom, kitchen, and balcony for just the five of us. Needless to say, we were happy. We started our night with dinner at Lugas, a delicious traditional Hungarian restaurant. It was some of the most delicious food I've ever had, and coming from Miss Picky that means a lot. After that we did a little shopping since we were located right in the middle of the main fashion avenue. That night we decided to start by wandering about looking for a good bar to pre-game at. Along the way we met three very drunk Hungarians who asked us to take pictures with them and a statue and invited us to their work party; we didn't go. We then stumbled into Cheers, where we discovered a really good Hungarian liquor that I cannot remember the name of. We spent some time and quite a bit of money there before heading to Instant, a crowded club that was a lot of fun. Sadly, after a little while there I had to head back to the apartment because I wasn't feeling good.

The next day started with a long, but worthwhile, free walking tour. We saw sites such as the Chain Bridge, Fisherman's Bastion, "The Budapest Penis," and the Buda Castle, while also learning a lot about Budapest and how the city is still trying to recover from the effects of Communism. 

Afterwards, we went to the House of Terror, a museum that depicts the fascist and communist regimes in Hungary. The museum was pretty scary and really sad. It's definitely worth going to if you are ever in Budapest.

For dinner we went to Menza, another delicious restaurant, and I got to have steak and amazing wine. Everything there was so good!

On Sunday we decided to trek out to Monument Park, a dumping group for the old communism statues that used to be throughout the city. Now the sole purpose of the statues is for people to mock them.

So that was Budapest!

The city briefly reigned as my favorite visited, but then this past weekend Berlin just blew past everywhere else. A post about that trip soon to come!