Well its no secret my favorite time of year is my birthday. To celebrate the start to my “roaring 20s”, we packed up to go to Florence. This was possibly the most heavily anticipated trip of the semester. Since senior year, the one city I’ve wanted to visit in Europe is Florence. The food. The art. The people. The leather. The wine. I could go on, but it would get annoying. My birthday happened to fall on Easter weekend and NYU was nice enough to give us Monday off so we got a 4 day weekend in Italy. We flew into Rome then took the hour and a half train to Florence.  I instantly loved it. The streets were small and the architecture was beautiful. The people were nice and happy to help with directions. I loved how small and easy to get around it was. We settled into our hotel room with a perfect location next to the Duomo and headed off to dinner. Of course I made reservations for dinner every night (2 just in case I wasn’t feeling one of the restaurants). We headed off to Il Latini that night, a restaurant with meat hanging from the ceilings and communal tables. We made friends with the Germans next to us who told us there was no way we could eat all the food that the waiter would bring us. We proved her wrong. This was my brthday weekend…no holds bar. Well, even if it wasn’t my birthday weekend there was no way I was going to Italy and not eating every morsel of food on my plate. That meal left us stuffed and we waited for Erins flight to get in and she got to the hotel just before midnight so we could wave bye to my teenage years.
The next day was my birthday which we celebrated with a great Iunch full of bruscetta, pasta, and wine before our tour around the city. Papa G was nice enough to hire a tour guide for us who took us to every major site and museum.  By the end of the day we were exhausted and unwound with champagne and pizza then prepared for the marathon that was dinner. We went to this amazing restaurant across the river called Quattra Leoni that Anton suggested. We got our first serving of pasta and quickly decided that would not be enough for us and ordered seconds. This time, our waitress made fun of us instead of the Germans. We followed it up with great gelato and we were all very happy.
The next day we went to mass outside the Duomo which had to be one of the best Easters I’ve ever experienced. There was such a big crowd around all these dancers who were throwing flags in the air along to the beat of the people singing hymns behind them. Then out of nowhere at the end of the mass fireworks started going off!! I’ve never seen fireworks go off in the daytime. It was such a cool thing to watch and definitely very magical. The rest of the day we shopped, ate, and explored more. We had an amazing dinner across the river again where we continued the birthday celebration. It was such a fun trip and I can’t thank Andrea and Erin enough for Being such great friends and making my birthday amazing. It exceeded all expectations (which were high, believe me) and definitely started my 20s off right. Also, special thanks to the parents:)

Before they flew off to London. To see Erin star in her Shakespearean play, the McDonnell’s (aka my second parents) made a trip to Praha! Unfortunately, just like Erin’s visit, the weather went from 70 degrees to rainy and freezing, but we still had a great time. For some reason, Prague does not want to show McDonnell family members how beautiful and clear it can be. I took them on the same tour I took my family which they really enjoyed. We also saw the Magic Flute at the State Opera then had a great dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse (my new favorite cuisine). I was sad to see them off, but so happy they were able to see my city!!

New favorite way to travel: overnight train. I have always been a fan of trains. I love seeing the countryside and relaxing on my visit to a city, but I have to say overnight trains are the way to go. I wish I had discovered this love before the last month of the trip. We were greeted in our sleeper car with bottled water and a bunk bed, fell asleep for 8 hours, and woke up the next morning with the train attendant aerating us coffee. I already loved Budapest and had not even exited the train yet.
Sick Andrea slept another 5 hours when we got to the Ibis in Andrea while I read and waited for Caroline’s plane to land so she could join us. Andrea, like a champ, braved her cold and we all went out to explore Pest that day. We walked around, found the fashion street, drank beers, ate shawrma, and then got ready for a Hungarian dinner with Mo and Rob. Hungarian food is not all that different from Czech food. Like most of my meals, it consisted of potatoes, goulash, and wine.
We slept early and woke up for a full day of exploring. We found their farmers market (as we do in every city), but I wasn’t as impressed as I was in Barcelona. Not enough nuts and dried fruit selection for me haha.  We then walked to Buda and saw the castle district which looks so much like Prague with the colorful Baroque buildings and small streets. We then did a wine tasting of Hungrian wines which are DELICIOUS. Ht was definitely the highlight of our trip. That night we went to a Club called White Angels. Good experience. Never going back.
The next day before we had to leave we went to the baths.  Not sure if they had just been talked up too much or what but they were seriously an overpriced YMCA. The jacuzzis had lukewarm water and they were swarming with people. I am so glad we went just to check them out, but the whole thing grossed me out. We were out of there in about an hour.

I loved Budapest, it was such a gorgeous city and I had so much fun with Caroline- so happy she could come!

The first week of April mom and Jake visited for 6 days and we had such a blast exploring Prague. I did the Prague tour for them which I have now perfected- Old Town Square, Wenceslas, Jewish quarter, Mala Strana, Prague castle, Lennon wall, and of course beautiful Holesovice. Mom wanted to try a lot of Czech food so we went to a few great places that had pigs knuckle for her (ew) and duck for Jake ( which by the way is my new favorite food…tastes exactly like t

urkey) and of course lots of Pilsner.  I had so much fun with them here. Jake even came out with us one night after much cajoling.  I will definitely miss the Four Seasons bed, spa, gym, and breakfast. As much as I love my Osadni queen bed, it does not compare to their down comforters!

I LOVE SPAIN. I love the food, I love the atmosphere, I love the people, I love the weather. We started off Spring Break in BARCELONA! Such a fun and beautiful city.  I loved the combination of the beach/laid back atmosphere with modern architecture. 

We were there for about 4 days and saw a lot by just walking around the entire city.  The first night we were there we celebrated Chelsea’s birthday and met up with a bunch of NYU study abroad people from other campus’s. 

The next day, after eating our free breakfast, we walked around for eight hours exploring Las Ramblas and other sites.  I loved Las Ramblas, but I loved La Boqueria even more.  La Boqueria is the farmers market right off Las Ramblas with all this fresh fruit, smoothies, nuts, chocolate, fish, cheese, meat, and tapas stands.

I got a bunch of almonds (duh), lots of dried and fresh fruit, and amazing tapas from this organic stand.  We then went to Park Guell and of course it took us two hours to get there because we got lost and had to basically climb a mountain of windy streets before we got there.  Nevertheless, the view was beautiful and the two hour walk up there was worth it.

We were so exhausted from our day, our nap at 10 turned into a 13-hour coma.  Fortunately, we were well rested for all of Sunday’s fun.  We toured more and then met up with the rest of our friends at La Segrada Familia then had an amazing dinner with GREAT Paella. 

I was not ready to leave Barcelona mainly because of the Paella.  The seafood was so fresh and it was prepared so well. I would keep talking about food, but it’s probably getting annoying for you all.

The next day we took a plane to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for the week. We were blessed with great weather which was perfect for tanning and reading by the beach.  Our time there was defined by beach, water, tanning, pool, and food.  By far the best day there (and arguably all of spring break) was Wednesday when 20 of us rented a yacht for four hours. It was such a gorgeous day and we all could not have been happier to soak up the sun and enjoy dolphin watching. 

After a few more days of sun, beach, tanning, swimming, and eating we left for Madrid!

We met Caroline in Madrid and she was nice enough to show us around her amazing city! Madrid is absoloutely gorgeous and it really reminded me a lot of Paris with all the “fancy” buildings, wide streets, and beautiful parks.  The food, like Barcelona, was amazing.  We went to this amazing market called Mercado de San Miguel and had the best tapas.  Since there are really no sites we HAD to see, like in other cities, we just walked around a lot.  We did see the Royal Palace, Retiro Park, and Sol. 

It was such a fun city, with great nightlife, and really nice people!

I could not have asked for a better March.  I had such fun experiences.  I can’t believe I leave in a month.  This semester has REALLY flown by.

We started off spring break with a bang in Paris! I left Friday afternoon and met Caroline there before Erin joined us Saturday morning. We ate at a great bistro around the corner from out hotel. I got soo much fish because that is what I miss the most that Prague doesn’t really have (downside to studying in a landlocked country). My started was a salad with mussels, shrimp, and salmon that was sooooooo delicious and for my main course i got cod with a delicious buttery white wine sauce. Then of course, for desert we ate French fries since I gave up sugar for lent and Caroline gave up desserts. (Sorry that all of my posts are basically a menu of my weekend, but what else do you expect from me?!) We were exhausted so we went to bed early (surprise, surprise) and waited for Erin the next morning who(not surprisingly) got lost because my directions were a little bit vague. We walked everywhere that day. After getting lost in what we can only assume is the wig district of paris (since there were so many wig shops), we made our way to saint chapelle which caroline and Erin had never seen.

Then we walked over to Notre Dame, said hi to Quasimodo, and then stopped for crepes (when in Paris, right?!) we ate dinner that night at Les Deux Magots because it came highly recommended by two friends.

While the meal was great, but we were definitely the youngest people in the restaurant and felt very out of place.  Its ok though, by beef tartare definitely made up for it. Turns out this whole no-sugar-for-lent-thing isn’t too bad…..I SPOKE TOO SOON….there was tarte tatin on the menu that kept taunting me.
Next day we got an early rise, got some breakfast, and walked around more and went to the l’orangerie and the Tuileries Gardens then met SARA FISCHER(!!!!!) for lunch at an amazing crepe place off of montparnasse. I highly recommend the chicken, egg, and spinach galette.

We tried our hardest to avoid the shopping on St. Germain, so we walked through the invalides to the eiffel tower, around the the arc de triumph, down the champs élysées, stopped for wine and tea, and then went on our search for falafel.

What felt like 10 miles later, after walked through marais, we found l’as du falafel. Best. Falafel. Ever. Hands down. We had a cheese plate and French fries for dinner at a restaurant nearby and took a taxi back because we were so exhausted from walking since 10am. Highlight of the night- our taxi driver who laughed the most evil laugh for 2 minutes then kept saying “mademoiselle” to us. I wish you could’ve seen Caroline gripping the car for an easy escape. THEN he started singing imagine by John Lennon and asked us to join along with him. Two seconds later at the stop light , he whips out his guitar and starts playing the song!!! SO FUNNY.  We slept early (duh) to wake up at 5am for….SALZBURG!!!!!!!!
Ok… wasn’t that excited for Salzburg, but I admit it was a beautiful city. After the plane flight and train it took us to get there, we arrived to perfect weather in the small town. It really reminded me a lot of the spa town Karlovy Vary we went to in the Czech Republic in the beginning of February with all the baroque architecture, cute little shops, the river in the middle of it, and the perfect view of the snow topped mountains. Food wise-great city, except I couldn’t eat the pretzels or pastries which I really wanted because of the whole no sugar for lent thing. Ugh. But they had this outdoor market with all these nuts, fruits, and cheese so that was great. Tuesday we went on the sound of music tour -highlight of Erins time in Europe. She has made her new life plan: graduate Clemson and use her acting degree to be a tour guide.  I fully support this decision because she would’ve done a lot better job than our tour guide.  Erin knew every piece of trivia she told us, plus WAY more. (yes, that’s me and erin being rolph and leisel…except we’re 19 going on 20)

A bit underwhelming…I accidentally fell asleep in the bus at one point. Oops. Not my fault though, the tour guide wasn’t playing the music!!! We had this image that we would be in a big sound of music bus frolicking through the fields, but instead we were in a small van with really dumb people that thought that the Von Trapp family escaped to Germany in the movie. HELLO people-Captain Von Trapp was escaping from the Germans. Even I knew that and I know NOTHING about the sound of music. Anyway, we saw some beautiful sites in the countryside of Austria and it was a beautiful day(I clearly dressed  for cooler weather).

After the tour we went back to the outdoor market and bought some strawberries, cheese, bread, nuts, dried fruit and enjoyed a nice picnic on the train.

And we are finally back in Prague!!!! New post in a week and a half after I come back from Barcelona, Tenerife, and Madrid!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post! It has been a really busy week with midterms. I’m really excited for this post though because I want to share one of the best experiences I have had so far here with you.  Last Friday and Saturday we made the four hour trek to the South of Moravia (a region of the Czech Republic) to celebrate Mardi Gras with them. Friday was very low key- we just explored the town of Luhacovice and went to dinner. Saturday is when we had the BEST TIME! We started off in a really small town where there were only about 20 houses.  We were the ONLY tourists.  It was an authentic Mardi Gras celebration complete with costumes, face paint, and music.  Right as we got off the bus, they painted our face, and then we were off to go door to door for food and alcohol!

I would compare this to Halloween in the States. The kids and adults join in the celebration and EVERYONE dresses up. 

At every house, they sing the same song about how if the owner gives us food their daughter will be married in a year, and then they go off to the next house. Every home owner gave us a version of the same food: bootleg vodka, sausage sandwiches, and fried donuts with jelly on top.  I was obviously in heaven.

After an hour, we moved on to the next town which was a bit different.  This town was more like a festival or street fair.  There were street venders selling everything from candy to socks.  They had my favorite Czech food which are potato pancakes (kind of like Latkes)…SO SOOOO good. I tried everything because it was so cheap and also delicious.  The most interesting food I tried was this pastry that look like a pizza. It was blueberry and soo sugary and delicious. Perfect for the day before Lent since I’m giving up sugar.

This was such a fun day and unlike anything I’ve done here so far.  I was so glad I could explore other parts of the Czech Republic and partake in such a festive day!

These are pictures from the Warhol Exhibit we went to with my Advertising Class.  Warhol’s family was from Czechoslavakia, so the Czech people are very proud to call him one of their own.  It was so cool to see, especially after going to the Tate Modern last weekend and seeing a lot of Warhol pieces!

Our trip to London was nothing short of perfect besides the hectic beginning and stressful end (see more later). We woke up at 3:30 to catch the 3:50 tram to the airport. We made the first connection to the next tram, but that tram was late pulling up to the bus station so as we were running up the bus, it drove away.  We were left with no other choice than to spend $35 on a taxi ride to the airport( a total ripoff). Our flight was great but then we had to take a bus and then another bus to our hotel. This ended up being an 8 hour journey! After trying to figure out London transportation (those red buses are not just for tourists-apparently some are overground transportation), we settled in. We got lunch at Pret a Manger, mainly because it reminded us a lot of New York and made our way to the free tour where we saw Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, The Changing of the Guard, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Wellington Arch, St. James’s Park, the Horseguards, and Big Ben!

Afterwards we went to the National Gallery which has the most amazing display of artwork. I stood in front of Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors for a good 10 minutes. I kept moving around it so I could see the momento mori skull flatten. They had such a great collection of Renaissance artwork so I loved it!

After the gallery we made our way to Erin’s dorm and had the most amazing Indian dinner(indian food really is better in London!) At this point we were up for 20 hours straight(so very unlike us), so we decided to live it up and go out.  When in London, right?!?!

Day 2 we woke up late, took full advantage of the free breakfast in our hotel and In typical Andrea and Teny style, took as much nutella and tea that we could get our hands on. Erin thought we had gone completely mad but she just doesn’t understand how much tea we drink.  We explored the city and shopped around a little until high tea where we got the most amazing scones and fruit tarts. I could live in London for the sole reason that I could have high tea whenever I felt like it.

Then it was off to explore the British Museum which was INCREDIBLE. It was a compilation of everything I haves ever studied in Latin class and Art History. I could not believe my eyes. It was even better having tour guide Erin there giving us a history of the building and the exhibits.

That night was her roommates birthday so we went out for Korean BBQ in Soho. I wish I could’ve stayed another night to explore Soho’s food options more. Every restaurant looked so good and so appetizing. For everyone who said London has bad food: YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!! Mainly because that night when we were lost at 1am and trying to get home, I found LACMEDJUN!!!!!!!!! ( for all you Odar’s out there, it’s one of my favorite Armenian foods-Armenian pizza basically). Anyway, that was delicious and made up for the fact we we’re lost in London. For some reason when Andrea, Erin, and I get together the chances are we will find ourselves lost at one point during the trip. Lesson I learned: I need to spend my money on maps and not clothes.

Day 3 we took more tea and went to the Tate Modern. The weather was sunny with blue skies. I dont know how we lucked out so much  You probably already guessed what I thought about it -amazing. This is tour guide Erin educating us about Mondrian:

When you see the outside it is the imposing, ugly brick factory, but they really mad it work on the inside. It s a great collection of modern art with everything from Monet to picasso to duchamp and Warhol. (Of course our favorite was the artwork that involved a mirror)…

Afterwards, we walked to St Paul’s cathedral and admired the beautiful architecture.

We made it back to our hotel to get our stuff for our 8:30 flight. We went to catch the bus but you already know the issues we have with the buses in London. It took us a good 10 minutes to find our stop, then the driver wouldn’t let us buy a ticket and we didn’t have exact change for the ticket kiosk so we missed the next two buses trying to find change. At that point we knew we would miss the flight if we took a bus in all the traffic to Luton airport. So after wasting 7 pounds buying the bus tickets we walked to St Pancreas station to take a train. We thought we would definitely make it because the train got us there 40 minutes before the plane took off. Leave it to London, though, to not let us on the flight even though the gate had not closed yet. After shedding a few tears, our parents calmed us down and were nice enough to pay for another night at the Ibis hotel and a great dinner. We fell asleep early and made it back to Prague this morning!
I loved loved loved London-even if London didn’t love love love me back. It was a great city and it was even better that I could speak their language!!!

Like most of my weekend trips, my time is usually defined by the food and art.  Sooo like most of my posts on this blog, this one will be about the food and art in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is such a cute, quaint, and well organized city. It is exactly what I expected from The Netherlands. I only wish I could have been there in the Spring to see the tulips in bloom. We got there Friday early morning,checked into our amazing Ibis Hotel (Andrea and i LOVE the Ibis a ridiculous amount  they even gave us a frequent guest card!) and explored the city. We were so exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, that we took a nap before meeting for an amazing Chinese food meal. Amsterdam is very very westernized—much more than Prague. They had soo many different cuisines, cute sandwich shops, amazing bakeries, the obligatory Burger King, and a lot of French fry shops. Anyway, that night we hung out with friends and walked past the red light district which is an experience I would never like to live out again. It was so sad to me to see the prostitutes in the windows basically selling their pride.

The next day, Andrea and I took advantage of our free breakfast. Compared to our free breakfast in Rome (which only served cereal, pastries and coffee), this was amazing!!!! They had eggs (hard boiled and scrambled), this sausage that was to die for, crepes,freshly baked rugalach (Liah- you would’ve loved it!)and croissants, AND INDIVIDUAL PEANUT BUTTER PACKETS along with jam and nutella.  The peanut butter is SO much better in Amsterdam. It is so rich and delicious that I took about a dozen packets home with me(as if i need any more peanut butter. I think i have about 12 jars that people have sent to me.) Andrea and I (never ones to pass up free food) had a hearty breakfast and took off to the Anne Frank museum with Asha and Chelsea. After waiting in line for an hour and getting pooped on my head by a bird(was realllly not funny at the time), we toured the secret annex.  It was much bigger than I thought it would have been. The only decorations were a few pictures Anne actually had on the wall when she was living there. They took away all of the original furniture per request by her father, Otto Frank. It was an amazingly well done museum, and one that was very interesting to see following our visit to the Holocaust museum 3 weeks ago in Berlin. We then walked to the I Amsterdam sign and I of course had to have the waffles from the street cart on the way to the Van Gogh museum.

The waffles in Amsterdam are out of this world GOOD!! Im not usually a waffle person(except for Grandma Denie McDonnell’s waffles which i never get to eat) but in Amsterdam they cover them with sugar and chocolate and serve them to you warm.  I had two everyday we were there and i could’ve gone for a third if i was not concerned about my heart and its well-being. The Van Gogh museum was four floors and had a special Picasso in Paris exhibit which was spectacular. We spent two house there and I still felt like that was rushed. I definitely could have been there another two hours exploring.
Today we walked around the city because our public transportation card expired and walked to the famous French fry place that Annie Zaro had told me about.

Wow, did they live up to their reputation. The fries are perfectly well done and then topped with “fritesauce” which is basically a better version of mayonnaise(mom, stop cringing.) I got another waffle that was covered with white chocolate and m n ms (by far my favorite) and then were en route to the airport!!

Stay tuned for updates from Prague this week and London this weekend. YAY I get to see Erin!!!!!!!