More Christmas Markets!

Monday, 11/29, my 1:30 pm class was canceled so I took advantage of the few extra hours of daylight in my afternoon and I explored the Christmas markets. Over the weekend on Saturday, the Christmas market had opened up in Old Town Square and there was a festive tree lighting ceremony at 5 pm. I walked around the Old Town Square market and saw the tree, nativity set, and the other decorations.

Old Town Square

Next up? The Namesti Republiky markets located outside of the Palladium mall. These were not nearly as grandiose, and only had a few food stalls.

Namesti Republiky

Overall, I was more impressed with the size and extent of the Christmas markets in Budapest than in Prague. Maybe one day I will even get to travel to Vienna for their world famed markets. The traditions everywhere are all still great to experience though. This Sunday, 12/5, is Mikulas (St. Nicholas Day) when Mikulas, the angel, and the devil come to Old Town Square to give the good children sweets and the naughty children coal... Or to be placed in the Devil's sack and sent to hell. Oh, the Czech's and their black humor. I will unfortunately be missing this event as well since I will be out of the country (again).

Budapest, Magyarország: Day 3

Budapest, Hungary

Day 3: Sunday, 11/28

On Sunday we had to check out of the hostel, but the workers were nice enough not to shove us out at a ridiculous hour and to let us keep our bags there until we had to catch out return bus. We had breakfast at the Alexandra bookstore... which was really dessert, but we had to go back to this place! I had the dobos torte which layers yellow sponge cake with chocolate butter cream and is topped with a slice of solid caramel.

 Alexandra bookstore cafe - complete with Christmas tree!

Afterward, we headed downtown to the Great Market Hall, which is a three story building that has tons of stalls and vendors inside. I was excited to look around and get some souvenirs - possibly paprika. We were pretty bummed out to find that the place was closed on Sundays though! We now had a lot of downtime so we went to the location in the middle of the market and our hostel - uncharted territory. Luckily enough, we stumbled across the Christmas markets!

 Christmas tree at the Markets

After getting out fill of the markets, we headed back to get some lunch.. at the hummus bar! This time I had the pita with hummus and sabik (eggplant and egg) and the malabi (rice pudding) with coconut (Hummus Bar.) After our lunch it was time to go to the hostel to pick up our bags and go back to the Nepliget station to catch our 4:00 pm bus back to Prague.

The 7 hour ride went quickly enough, thanks in large part to the better movies they played this time - The Proposal, The Ugly Truth and Blue Streak. We had a stop at Bratislava for a half an hour, where it was snowing. By 11:30 pm we were back in snowy Praha!

And it was back to the "real" world...

Budapest, Magyarország: Day 2

Budapest, Hungary


Day 2: Saturday, 11/27

We woke up with the intent on having a spa day - Hungarian style, that is. Our destination was the Széchenyi medicinal baths. We got a hot chocolate at a local cafe (with the most overbearing and pushy waitress I have ever encountered), and then started our walk to the baths. We passed Hero's Square, and the Museum of Fine Arts and Art Gallery that flank its two sides. We also passed the Vajdahunyad Castle.

 Hero's Square

The Széchenyi Bath is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Its water is supplied by two thermal springs, their temperature is 74°C/165°F and 77°C/171°F, respectively. It was built in 1913 in Neo-baroque style to the design of Győző Czigler. We opted out of going into the actual baths (it was a cold day outside) and decided to get massages instead - when in Budapest... We had an hour to go until our reservation so we walked around the city park for a bit.

Széchenyi Baths - outside

Széchenyi Baths - inside

My first massage was great! Very relaxing amidst all the walking we were doing. Next up? Lunch. We went to Paprika, on the recommendations of some of our NYU in Prague friends who had went there earlier in the semester. They had traditional Hungarian food and I can safely say I like it a lot better than the Czech goulashes! We split an appetizer of cold goose liver in its own fat with onions, tomatoes, toasted bread, and peppers. My entree was turkey breast stuffed with french plums and smoked cheese served with rice, croquettes and walnut sauce. We finished off the meal by splitting a dessert of pancakes: 1 jam, 1 cottage cheese, and 1 cocoa powder (Paprika).

We were fairly stuffed after our meal so we relaxed for a while at the Alexandra bookstore. We read our books in the upstairs cafe area while listening to the live piano music. Yes, this is a bookstore. It was designed by Zsigmond Sziklai and built as the first modern department store in Budapest in the 20th century, opening in 1911. The interior is decorated with frescoes by the German Hungarian painter Károly Lotz.

We stopped back at the hostel to wind down and headed back out again when we realized our stomachs had digested our massive lunch. We went to Tavernas for a light meal of meatball soup and olympos pie. No rain tonight!

Budapest, Magyarország: Day 1

Budapest, Hungary

Day 1: Friday, 11/26

Our bus arrived at the Nepliget station in Budapest at around 7 am. We took the metro to the city center and after a little difficult in finding which direction the river was, made our way to The Groove, our hostel. No one was awake to check us in at 8 am so Kim and I walked next door to a cafe and got a coffee and hot chocolate. After waiting enough time we went back to the hostel and got our stuff in our room. The place was a pleasant surprise- hardwood floors, bright colors, huge windows, high ceilings and open spaces. This was no cramped hostel! No bunk beds either.

We had heard rave reviews from several others who had traveled to Budapest about the Hummus Bar, so we had to try this place for lunch. I had the falafel in a pita and baklava for dessert. Afterward, we made our way to the Buda Castle. On the way we passed a couple of pretty churches that we stopped at. After crossing the bridge over the Duna river we walked along the bank to see some of the sights from afar. Most notably, we passed the Parliament - the largest building in Hungary and the largest parliament in Europe.

 The Parliament

We took the funicular up Castle Hill to go to Buda Castle - a castle complex of the Hungarian kings. Nowadays, the castle houses the Budapest History Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Hungarian National Gallery. The last of which we looked around its permanent exhibition. This included Medieval and Renaissance stone carvings, wooden sculptures from the Gothic period, late gothic winged altar pieces, 19th century paintings, 20th century paintings, and contemporary art.

The Buda Castle

It was already getting dark by 4 pm when we were finished here and so it was hard to find the Buda Cave labyrinth so a while later we found our way back on the opposite side of the Duna and went back to the hostel. The employees had recommended a restaurant called Most, so we headed over there. They didn't have traditional Hungarian food - but they did have Indian and Oriental! I had the crispy taco chicken and the galuska for dessert. After our very long, relaxed dinner it was pouring rain so we headed to the hostel. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/25 was Thanksgiving. Czechs obviously don't celebrate this American holiday, but NYU in Prague does. Opting out of going to one of the all you can eat buffet's at Bohemia Bagel or the Hard Rock Cafe, I decided to go to the student council run potluck dinner. Each attendee was supposed to bring one dish that would feed 6-8 people and they would supply the drinks, utensils, and turkey.

After class I ran to Tesco to buy the necessary ingredients (frozen baby carrots, dried cranberries, butter - a lot of it, ginger, rosemary, and honey). I came back to Machova to pack (for Budapest!) then headed to Osadni where the dinner would be taking place in the upstairs common room. Kim and I cooked two saucepans full of carrots - and this is the finished product!

Our potlock contribution!

We started arriving at 7 pm and got numbers that would dictate the order in which we would be served in at 7:30. There was a TON of food. About 40 people showed up - all bringing dishes. The turkey was two hours late, but the dinner was still great.

The FEAST

By 10 pm when the night was over, I could barely move. By no stretch at all this was the most I had ever eaten at any Thanksgiving... or ever. But it wasn't just yet time to let the tryptophan do it's magic - we had an 11:30 pm (to 7 am) orange ways bus to catch to go to Budapest!

Malastrana, take 5

Today, 11/24, after class I headed out to Malastrana again. The 'Lesser Town' is on the western side of the Vltava River, underneath the Prague Castle, and is predominated with Baroque architecture.

After taking the metro to Malastranska, I walked on my way to the Kafka museum. On the way down I stopped at a bank overlooking the Vltava river and looked at the eastern landscape. The Charles Bridge and Old Town Square were in the nearby distance across the river. Proceeding along, I got to the museum where there is a small square with the peeing man statues. These statues were created by famous Czech artist and sculptor David Cerny. With the stream of water they write quotes from famous Prague residents. Visitors can even send text message from a cell phone to a number, displayed next to the sculptures and the living statue then ‘writes’ the text of the message, before carrying on as before.

Peeing Man statues

Curious to investigate the layout of the area, I kept walking and came across the Charles Bridge and shortly thereafter the love locks bridge and the Lennon Wall. I then walked to my second intended destination: Malastrana Namesti. This is where the St. Nicholas Church is located. Characterized by the greenish Dome and Bell Tower, the church holds concerts - the same venue where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played the organ!

St. Nicholas Church

Well, it was a successful and productive day of Prague touring, and modesty aside, after all these trips I have made over there I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say that I would make a decent tour guide of the area!

National Museum (II) and Christmas Market!

Tuesday, 11/23, I had what I could call a busy day - but what I should really just call a normal day. I might as well get used to it by now that my next three and a half weeks (yikes! Am I leaving that soon?!?!) is going to be absolutely jammed pack if I want to do everything I'd like to before saying good bye to Praha.

For my history class, instead of the usual in class lecture we went to the National Museum. Remember that place from an October blog post? I wasn't too impressed with the taxidermy there then, but we were going to see the new exhibit on St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech lands, and although I wasn't setting my expectations too high, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The information was interesting and informative, as were the displays of ancient manuscripts, paintings, and sets typical of the age.

 Part of the exhibit

After that and my sociology class, I headed off to do some errands around Old Town and then took the metro to Namesti Miru ("Peace Square"). The Christmas market had been set up here over the weekend, and although not as grandiose as the market that will be up in Old Town Square this weekend, it was still fun to walk around in and be mesmerized by the lights and decorated tree.

The Christmas market and tree!

Back to Machova and more mundane chores such as homework and laundry, I took a study break later with Brandy and Bonnie when we went to a local Czech eatery, U Draka, for a quick snack. I tried out the side dish of potato croquettes, and I think I have a new favorite Czech food (not like there is much competition on that list anyway...) Basically a deep fried version of a gnocchi ball, they were a good pick me up in the midst of catching up on readings, research, editing, oh and blog entries...

København, Danmark: Day 3

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 3: Sunday, 11/21

Sadly, it was my last day in Copenhagen. I had a flight out at 7 pm, so we made the most of the day and Nelly took me on a walking tour of the city's highlights. We walked through Strøget, which is a pedestrian street that stretches form the city's Town Hall Square to Kongens Nytorv (The Kings New Square. At 3.2 km (1.98 mi) it is the oldest (45 years) and longest of it's kind in the world. We milled around through the tourists tourist attraction and walked by the many restaurants, outdoor sidewalk cafes, fast food, specialty shops, art galleries, gift stores, department stores, street entertainment, theaters, and museums that the place offers.

 Strøget

After walking through Kongens Nytorv, we then walked through a neighborhood on the side of a canal called Nyhaven where a Christmas type market was set up. There were several stalls selling a variety of goods, and even Christmas trees! We then walked to the playhouse, a huge glass building right on the water. This theater is right across water from and facing the Opera House In terms of scenery, the only thing Copenhagen's got on land-locked Prague is the water. Seeing colorful rows of houses lined up by the harbor that anchored movie set like ships with windmills in the distance was definitely picture perfect.

 "Yule in Nyhaven"

 Some colorful buildings and ships by the harbor!

We then went to the palaces called Amalienborg, which is where the royal Danish family lives in the wintertime. It's made up of four identical palaces with rococo interiors around an octagonal courtyard, the Amalienborg Slotsplads. In the center of the square is a monumental equestrian statue of Amalienborg's founder, King Frederick V. Next up was another palace, Christiansborg Slot, which is located in Slotsholmen. This is comprised of different buildings with a neo-baroque centerpiece, and is the seat of the Folketing (the Danish parliament), the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court. It is the only building in the world that houses all three of a country's branches of government. Beneath the palace are ruins, open to the public, of Bishop Absalon’s Castle and Copenhagen Castle.

 The Amalienborg palaces

We walked past the stock exchange building and later the Black Diamond. The Old Stock Exchange was designed in  Dutch Renaissance style with a prominent spire of four dragons with their tails twisting towards the top and ending in a spear with three crowns representing The Kalmar Union (between the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Built in 1999 the Black Diamond is adjacent to the Royal library (the national library of Denmark and that of University of Copenhagen). Named for its outside cover of black marble and glass, inside the Black Diamond is a library and a concert hall. There are 3 bridges connecting it to the Royal Library.

We had seen a lot by this point and made our way back to the Kings New Square where we got traditional Danish street food - hot dogs. These weren't any regular hot dogs though. Wrapped around the long, skinny sausage was a strip of bacon! Refueled with food, we headed back to Nelly's to regroup and figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to go to Glyptotek, a local art museum, focusing on sculpture. We saw exhibits on the Romans, Greeks, Egyptian, Mediterranean, and art including Van Gogh's.

 The central area of the Glyptotek

The time was nearing for me to pack up my things and get ready for my flight, so we went to the metro and I took the 15 minute ride to the Kastrup airport. Going to Denmark was my first solo traveling flight, and all went smoothly. By 9:30 I was back in Prague, and looking forward to the week ahead of me... at least before I have to leave for my next trip!

København, Danmark: Day 2

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 2: Saturday, 11/20

We slept in and after having some french toast, headed out to explore Copenhagen and Tivoli. Nelly's located right in the heart of the city so it was a short walk to nearby Tivoli. This is a famous amusement park and garden, which opened on August 15, 1843. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and this time of the year was all decked out for Christmas! Although I'm used to start the festivities a little later on in the year - preferably after Thanksgiving, it was nice to get into the spirit a little earlier this year. The twinkling lights compensating for the early nightfall (around 4 pm) didn't hurt either.

We got an all ride pass and proceeded to go on several of the park's rides. Quite conveniently there was barely a wait for any of them. We went on Rutsjebanen ('Mountain Track') the wooden roller coaster, Dæmonen ('The Demon') that has an infinity loop, the tower that drops you, the tower with flying swings at the top where we got the best views of the city, and my all time favorite - the bumper cars.

We later saw some ice sculptures and walked through the market type aisles that sold Christmas related goods. We were inspired by seeing the food stands to make our own zeppole's - and that night, that we did! Some flour, yeast, frying oil, and powdered sugar later... we had our own homemade creations made from scratch!

 Tivoli!

 

Ice sculptures

København, Danmark: Day 1

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 1: Friday, 11/19

I had a 7 am flight to Copenhagen so I left Machova around 5 am to catch my flight. By 8:30 I had landed and was headed on the metro to meet Nelly. She had class from 12-5 and I was exhausted from staying up all night. So I took a nap for a few hours then woke up to do a little exploring on my own. I didn't make it too far since it was raining, but I did like what I saw so far though!

Conveniently enough, I made it back right as she was getting back as well. We proceeded to have a low-key evening and watched 'Animal House' then made (err, I kind of watched..) a delicious dinner of swedish meatballs!

I proceeded to take another nap, and afterward we met up with Nelly's friends at the Student House. That's a pretty cool concept that we don't have in Prague - a place for all the international / abroad students to hang out. And that was my first day / night in Prague!

Malastrana, take 4

I'm pretty sure I already have at least 3 posts on Malastrana, but there is so much more sight seeing I am yet to do in this place. I live on the opposite side of the river (on one side) of Malastrana, or the lesser town, so I don't go there that often.

After class on Thursday, 11/18, I got some hot chocolate from Old Town Square to bribe myself from changing my mind about going over. The weather was miserable and the day was dreary, but the cup of hot chocolate - basically a cup of melted chocolate, was enough to coax me from copping out and simply taking the metro home. I walked around first to two different theaters to get ballet tickets (for Goldilocks and the Nutcracker!!!) and spent some time on Legii Bridge taking pictures of Malastrana and Charles Bridge in the distance.

I then took the metro to the Malastrana stop with the intention of going to Malastrana square. Well, the trip wasn't a complete failure, but I did find out that I have a lot of learning to do about this place. I don't know the area well at all and armed with a map of only a snippet of the area (via Google) I was ill-prepared.

I walked around Malastrana namesti (square) and saw the St. Nicholas Church. I do have a couple of pictures of Malastrana, but I'm not putting them up. My camera takes absolutely horrible night pictures (by 4:30 it is already very dark outside) so next time I go to Malastrana I'll make sure to arrive there earlier so I can take pictures that are actually visible.

Cityscape: Prazky Hrad (Prague Castle) and Karluv Most (Charle's Bridge)

Next trip, I aim to find the peeing man statue. Promise.

The Velvet Revolution and Karlovy Vary

Wednesday, 11/17, was a Czech Republic national holiday, so NYU in Prague had no classes. Called the Day of a Struggle for Freedom and Democracy, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution started on this day. As a result, the first democratic elections since 1946 were held in June 1990 and brought the first completely non-communist government to Czechs and Slovaks in over 40 years.

To make full use of the day off, Shradda and I had decided to take a day trip to Karlovy Vary. About 2 hours away, it is an easy trip by bus. For the cost of a round trip ticket from Morris County to NYC, we purchased 10:30 am and 6:00 pm student agency bus tickets to and from Karlovy Vary at the Florenc bus station in Prague.

Karlovy Vary is known in English, from the Germans, as Carlsbad. It is the biggest and most famous of the Czech "spa-triange." Named after Charles IV, this spa town has warm mineral springs and is home of the annual International Film Festical and the location for films such as Last Holiday and Casino Royale. The town is also home to the famous Czech liquor, Becherovka, local spa wafers, and the Moser glass museum.

We arrived at 1 pm, and this town is so small there is not even a tourist center where we could get a map! Some nice English speaking people at the Albert's (grocery store) did direct us to the Becherovka museum though, and after purchasing our 2:30 tour tickets, we walked around in search of a spa. Unfortunately, a lot of the spas were closed due to the holiday and we didn't have a lot of time before we had to get back for the start of the tour (although we would have had plenty of time if we had left at the initially planned time... ahem).

Inside the Becherovka museum

 

Mill Colonnade: this is a comfortable place where spa guests can drink the spring's curative water

After the tour, we went back to the central bus area and took a short bus ride to the Moser glass museum. After finishing up here we did some last minute souvenir shopping and walked along Old Louka street, a pretty pedestrian street. We also passed through Dvorakovy Sady where there is a huge ornate, wrought iron gazebo. We got some vanilla wafers to go before heading back to the station where our bus dropped us off to catch the bus back to Praha.

Inside the Moser glass museum

Dvorakovy Sady

In the process of making spa wafers!

Little did we know, we were actually waiting in the wrong area. The bus was picking us up at the bus terminals at the train station - more than 300 m away. When we didn't see any bus pull up to the station we were standing at, and after finally finding English speakers, we sprinted to the terminal... only to see our bus pull away from the curb, and literally start driving away from us.

What were we going to do now? The bus comes every hour so at 7 pm we were first on line to ask about available seats. There were none. At 8 pm, the last bus of the day pulled up. Again, the bus was fully reserved. We were just crossing our fingers that someone wouldn't show up. And luckily enough, 2 people canceled their reservation! The seats were ours and boy were we glad.

We got off at the Dejvicka stop and took metro A straight to Namesti Miru. It was 10:30 pm and we were about 2 hours late in coming back, but we at least had a warm bed to look forward to... not a cold street corner - yikes!

Back in Prague - ballets and sight seeing

Monday, 11/15, was back to school for me. Nicely enough though, my second class was canceled as my English professor was away on a trip. I went to Bakeshop in the morning before Czech. Bakeshop is a gourmet type bakery with French and American items. It's located really close to Old Town Square, and it was nice to have a frosted cupcake after months in the land of trdelnik and medovnik (honey) cake.

After class I did some grocery shopping and had some downtime in Machova... and then it was off to the ballet! I first met Kim at the Grand Cafe Orient, better known as the Cubist Cafe. It's on the first floor of the House of the Black Madonna. The House of the Black Madonna was created by the reowned architect Josef Gočár when he was only 31 years old, and the building symbolizes the unique Czech contribution to the cubist movement in architecture, furniture, pottery and glass. (Grand Cafe Orient)

Neither of us were too hungry as it was only in the 5 pm range, so we both just got dessert. Although apple strudel may not seem to be a particularly Eastern dessert dish, it actually originates from Vienna. Thus, it's a common item to find on the menu in Eastern European countries. I hadn't yet tried it in Prague, so it seemed like an ideal time to try the apple strudel with caramel sauce, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.

After paying our bill (which often can take quite a long time here - they don't rush you out at all like in American restaurants... in fact they don't seem to want you to leave at all!) we headed to the Statni Opera House where the ballet was taking place. We saw Lady of the Camellias, and I wasn't too familiar with the story before the ballet, but I still enjoyed it.

 

The cast taking a bow

On Tuesday, 11/16, it was another dreary and rainy day... but I also only had 1 class again! My 1:30 class was canceled for some reason so I took advantage of the extra time I now had and did a little sight seeing around Prague. Close to Old Town Square is the Powder Tower. This was built in 1475 during the reign of King Vladislav II at the site of an 11th century gate. The tower is based on the 14th century Old Town Bridge Tower, and has a covered bridge connecting itself to the Municipal House. 

The site of the Municipal House was originally the site of the Royal Court. This palace was built around 1383 when King Wenceslas IV made it his residence. After a later king felt the central location was too dangerous, and opted to live in Prague Castle instead, the building became a seminary. Later it became a military academy, and was finally demolished in 1903. Construction then began on the Municipal House - a large cultural center and concert hall in the Art Noveau style.

 The Powder Tower

The Municipal House

Amsterdam, Nederland: Day 4

Sunday, 10/14

I wanted to show Alex the I Amsterdam sign, so we woke up earlier than the rest and headed down there. Our hotel check out was at 10 am so we just lugged our things with us, since the others would wake up later and check out our room. We passed by the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Concert "gebouw" hall and the Stedelijk Museum. After taking plenty of pictures (without a million tourists milling around at this early hour) we went to the tulip market to meet up with the others.

Alex and I in the 'm'

I was done with my souvenir shopping so a little while later Alex, Cassidy and I split up from the other 2 and went back to the Damrak area to walk around. I got a falafel sandwich to go from a small restaurant (these places were everywhere) and we spent what seemed like a huge amount of time but was really just a couple of hours walking and laughing along.

We met up with Erin and Brandy back at Sara's Pancakes for our last meal in Amsterdam. I paid some homage to the motherland and got an international pancake... The Indian pancake I had was filled with fried chicken in a spicy Tandoori sauce with peppers, onions, and garlic and a small side salad.

Shortly afterward, we had to head back to the train station to catch our 6:40 flight back to Prague. Alex's flight was at 7:30 so she just came along with us. We picked up some delicious baked goods to hold us over while waiting at the airport and then said our goodbyes. (See you in December in Italy, Alex!) The Prague group checked in and went through security.. only to find our flight was delayed by 40 minutes.. what a surprise. It was after 10 when we were back in Machova, and although I was sad to leave Amsterdam, I was happy to be back in Prague!

Amsterdam, Nederland: Day 3

Saturday, 11/13

On Saturday Alex came to Amsterdam!! If you don't remember, she is my roommate at Bucknell and is studying with NYU in Florence. She had "Italian Day" for one of her classes the day before so was only able to fly in on Saturday. I picked her up from the train station (right down the street) and gave her a quick mini tour of Amsterdam while the others waited in the hour long line at the Anne Frank house. We saw the National Monument in the Dam Square, got breakfast at Renee's (I got a strawberry tart filled with custard), went to a souvenir shop where they have a life-size clog shoe, and dropped off her stuff at the hotel.

National Monument

We met the others in line and shortly after entered the Anne Frank house. What exactly is this? It's the place where for more than two years Anne Frank and her family lived while hiding from the Nazi's during the Holocaust. This is where Anne’s father, Otto Frank, had his business, and they, along with the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer, hid in the secret annex of the building. The doorway to the annex was concealed behind a moveable bookcase. The office personnel knew of the hiding place and helped the eight people by supplying them with food and news of the outside world, but the factory workers in the building alongside didn't. So, those hiding had to stay silent all throughout the day. On August 4, 1944, the hiding place was betrayed. All those in hiding were deported to various concentration camps. Only Otto Frank survived the war.

Quotations from Anne Frank's diary, historical documents, photographs, film images, and original objects that belonged to those in hiding are displayed. It's a sad place to visit, but as Otto Frank said, "to build up a future, you have to know the past." His intention in making the Secret Annex accessible to the public as a museum was not just so tourists could see the annex, "but also that they are helped to realize that people are also persecuted today because of their race, religion or political convictions.”

The cue outside the Anne Frank house at Prinsengracht 263

Moving on... we were quite hungry after the museum, and The Netherlands is famous for its pancakes. So we went on the hunt for pancake houses and came upon Sara's Pancakes. I got the Dutch waffle with chocolate sauce, bananas, and whipped cream (these can be likened to how I imagine Belgian waffles taste like - small square griddled shape, but thick and dense with lots of sugar). I also got the poffertjes with powdered sugar and butter - a traditional Dutch treat that resembles small, sponge-like pancakes.

 

Poffertjes!

We did quite a bit of walking around Amsterdam afterward and walked past the Red Light District as well. This is a really bizarre place. I don't want to comment on this further, since I'm not using my travel blog as a platform for any political statements, other than saying that it is a very disturbing place, but people are different everywhere and this is a part of their (legal) culture.

After lots of walking around canals, and poking our heads into different stores, it was time to munch on some dinner. We got burgers and fries and then it was back to the hotel to sleep!

Amsterdam, Nederland: Days 1 and 2

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Day 1: Thursday, 11/11

On Thursday, I packed and headed to class, luggage in tow. I left my 1:30 class a little early (it usually ends at 2:50), and I took the metro then bus to the Ruzyne airport. My flight was leaving Prague at 4:35 and getting to the Schipol airport in Amsterdam at 6:40. Our flight was delayed (of course) but by around 9 we were checked in and settled into our hotel. I had traveled with 3 girls who are in my program and since our Amsterdam weekends coincided, we also booked the same hotel. The hotel (a mix of a hotel and hostel, actually) was tiny and had bunk beds, but was right off of Damrak - the main street from the train station so it was a great location. We were too tired to do much of anything except scavenge around for food. We went to an Italian place for dinner and I had the beef cannelloni. I guess the cons of having a €6 dinner in a sit down restaurant is that the portions may leave you still hungry afterward... so on the way back to the hotel I picked up a cone of fries. These things were sold everywhere on stands and small street shops, and came with a variety of options for the sauces... I was boring and chose the ketchup - and discovered European ketchup is incredibly sweet.

Day 2: Friday, 11/12

We woke up ready to start a day of exploring Amsterdam. We first got breakfast at Renee's, a small local bakery with a ton of fresh baked goods. I got the waffle topped with hardened chocolate. I also picked up a snack for later: traditional dutch Oliebolen (fried dough with raisins). Stopping by some souvenir shops on the way, we went to the tulip market. It's around 150 years old and on the Singel canal. The Netherlands is famous for tulips, windmills, and wooden clogs... and we found a ton of all of these things here (but mostly the tulips).

 

Tulip Market

Inside one of the stores

Next up? Finding the Rijksmuseum. The great thing about Amsterdam is that everything is in walking distance, so we also got to see a lot of the city just in walking from place to place. We had a quick lunch at Bagels and Beans before heading into the museum. I had the bagel with hummus there, and if I haven't mentioned before, the Czech Republic does not know what bagels are. The Rijksmuseum is all about Dutch art, crafts, and history. We spent a couple of hours there, and it was all pretty interesting - especially since I had little to no prior knowledge about any of the historical information.

By the time we were finished, it was already getting dark outside when we stepped out to the Museumplein. This is a grass square with a pond and fountain. And of course this is where the famous I Amsterdam sign is! There were a ton of people there at the time, but we still took plenty of pictures.

Rijksmuseum with gardens outside

I Amsterdam sign

 After spending a sufficient amount of time at the sign, it was time to eat. We found a Chinese buffet and had dinner there before heading back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.

St. Nicholas Church

Today before class I did a little sight seeing. I went to St. Nicholas Church in Old Town Square. The church was completed in 1735, and is a Baroque church. It is now used as both a church and as a venue for concerts.

 St. Nicholas Church

Interior of St. Nicholas Church

Afterward, we meandered through the stalls that are currently set up in the center of Old Town Square and then went to 'Ceske Kuchyne' for lunch. This place is visited by the locals and is set up cafeteria style - trays and all. I got the potato soup and an entree of chicken goulash over pasta. Then it was off to class for the day for me!

Czech Currency - the koruna česká (Kč)

Interested about Czech currency?

The Czech koruna replaced the Czechoslovak koruna when it was introduced in 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. 1 crown consists of 100 hellers (haléř), abbreviated as hal. Heller coins have not been in use as of September of 2008, but hellers are still incorporated into merchandise prices. The final price is always rounded off to the nearest crown value.

The exchange rate when we came here in late August was about 19 crowns to 1 USD. Lately this rate has been slipping, and it fluctuates between 16-17 crowns to $1 now!

Crowns in coins (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50)

And here are some bills...

 500 and 200 notes

100 bills

There is also the 5000, 2000, 1000 and 50 crown bills, but I don't have any of those in my possession, so you will just have to use your imagination (or you can go here) for those!

Fall Break: Day 11

Sunday, 10/31/2010

All 5 of us had to check out of the hostel by 10 AM on Sunday. The other three girls were leaving Barcelona around noon so they decided to hang out in the common room until catching their buses and planes. Laura and I, however, only had a flight back to Prague at 8 pm, so in essence we had the afternoon to still sight see in Barcelona. We decided to give Gaudi a rest, and go to the aquarium. The place was right by the harbor too, which was nice. And the weather was finally perfect (on our last day) - blue skies and sunny temperatures! It felt like summer. The aquarium had a lot of interesting exhibits, but was somewhat of a letdown. The place inside was surprisingly small (it looked a lot bigger on the outside since the building was connected to its neighboring Imax movie theater) and not really worth the hefty admission ticket. But it had been a while since I had been to an aquarium, and it is one of the top visited sites in Barcelona.

  Some sharks in L'Aquàrium

Some colorful fish

Not sure what these are called...

Jelly fish

Angel fish

We were finished at the aquarium earlier than we'd initially anticipated so after walking around the water for a while we headed back to the city center to go to Las Ramblas. We were able to take our time browsing here for a couple of hours. We stopped by a small eatery and got some food to go (I had a ham and mozzarella calzone). Around 4 we were back at the hostel to pick up our belongings and head to the airport. Our flight ended up being delayed an hour and a half so instead of arriving in Prague after 10, we were instead back at almost midnight... when the metros close. So, we had to take the night bus (which we hadn't previously researched since we weren't expecting our return flight to be delayed. I mean, we were flying out of Barcelona, not Paris where there are strikes...). The bus took a while but luckily 40 minutes later it stopped at I. P. Pavlova, which is within walking distance to Machova. I still waited for a night tram though since I had my luggage and that conveniently dropped me off at Jana Masaryka, 1 block away from Machova. It was by then 1 AM but we were finally back in home, sweet, Praha!

The harbor

Common room of the Paraiso hostel