Adventure Time!!

As you may have heard, last Wednesday Rachelle, Erin and I decided to go to Prague and Vienna, so we bought tickets and left the next day. The next day! It was crazy that things actually happened that fast! So this was the basic plan for our trip: 

• stay in Prague Thursday night and Friday night
• take the train to Vienna Saturday and then go back to Prague on Monday
• fly back to Paris from Prague on Tuesday

And so that's what we did! It was so much fun, and I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends to travel with! Rather than typing out the whole story here and leaving the pictures until the end, I'll try to summarize and give descriptions under the pictures. We'll see how it goes because let's be honest, I usually have lots to say :P 

PRAGUE

This is all I took with me, and there was even a bit of space left at the top of my backpack! Impressed? I sure was.

When we got to Prague we were totally lost, even with the help of the tour guide we met. Luckily this is how pretty the city is at night, so we weren't too concerned about being late to the hostel.

This is part of town square, which we were introduced to during our walking tour. Apparently all the buildings have buried cellars or else two levels of cellars because the street level had to be raised to stop the annual flooding. These buildings are hundreds of years old and they were actually unharmed fr the most part during wars.

Almost all of the buildings were this elaborate around the city center. It was so cool!

The Astronomical Clock. It was built 600 years ago and engineered to tell the time of day, date, and time of sunset, the phases of the moon, as well as which name day it is. In the Czech Republic a name is celebrated every day, so 365 names are listed on the bottom face of the clock, so if you're one of those lucky people to have your name on the clock you get to celebrate your name day and your birthday! 

This is the Powder Gate, which was part of the wall that used to separate Old Prague from New Prague. This is where important visitors would enter into the city on their way to the palace. Also, it used to house the gun powder. Go figure!

For our lunch break on the walking tour we stopped at a local pub and I ordered the potato soup. It tasted fantastic and the bowl was quite impressive too. I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but it was massive!

Prague Castle is basically the whole top line of roofs, and the cathedral is part of it as well. Apparently it's the world's biggest castle. Note that it's at the top of a pretty significant hill that feels like you're climbing a mountain when you're carrying your backpack and only have a few hours to walk there, do a tour, and then walk back to catch a train. Just so you know.

On the way to the castle, over the Charles bridge. This used to be the only way across the river so that the castle would be protected.

Once you finally get to the top of the hill, this is the type of view you get! It looks a bit hazy but that's because the sun was so bright and my camera couldn't handle it haha. It was such a gorgeous day and totally worth the effort of walking there :)

St Vitus Cathedral, inside the Prague castle complex. Such a big, beautiful building. I just can't imagine the number of hours it would take to construct something this intricate out of stone.

Inside the cathedral.

Even the stained glass windows seemed extra elaborate. The pieces of glass were all really small, so there would be hundreds of pieces used for one image. 

Inside the castle there are rooms painted with the coats of arms of the highest officials in the Bohemian Kingdom. There were a lot if them!

We visited the Jewish quarter on our last morning in Prague before heading to the airport. It was a very different experience going there than any of the other places we visited. The ghetto area went from being severely over populated, to being abandoned and empty, and has now been restored and become part of the city again. The synagogues here have been turned into museums, which is actually a project Hitler first started. His efforts to save pieces to form a museum of the "extinct race" have now become part of a museum that serves as a memorial for the lives lost. 

The synagogue was filled ceiling to floor in every room with names of Czech Jews who died in internment camps. 

Part of the Jewish cemetery. There are three centuries of bodies here and to accommodate so many, workers would remove the tombstones, add another layer of dirt, then replace all the tombstones and add in the new ones. The cemetery is 12 layers deep.

There are thousands of tombstones in a very small area, so this is what they end up looking like.

VIENNA

On the train and ready to relax for a while! We felt like we were on the way to Hogwarts because the train was all divided into compartments and we got one all to ourselves to stretch out in!

Our first night in Vienna we went skating at town hall. It was pretty sweet!

These are the skating paths they make. Such a great idea!

This is Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna. This is where the Habsburgs used to hang out in the summer. Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, because the rooms were all way over the top! Even something like a breakfast nook had to be super fancy and super expensive for the Empress to be happy.

Part of the palace grounds, but as you can see it was pouring rain so we went to watch an apple strudel demonstration instead of walking more outside :)

Pretty sure this is the first time I've had apple strudel, and it was so good! It's basically like apple pie but with a thinner crust covered in icing sugar. I definitely have to try making this once I'm home! They gave us all recipes and the number to their strudel hotline, so if something goes wrong people call to get help. Apparently they actually get quite a few phone calls and emails from desperate strudel makers haha.

And then we went to Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence for the rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Once again, in true Habsburg fashion everything was way over the top but it all was really neat to see. We also got to see a special exhibit on Empress Elizabeth, or "Sisi," which was really interesting. 

"30 foot gold mirrored centerpiece? I guess it will have to do...

...it might go nicely with these gold place settings we have handy. The other six rooms full of porcelain, silver, and gold place settings aren't enough." These people had insane amounts of dishes!

We also tried sachertorte, which is basically a really rich chocolate cake with apricot jam under the top layer of icing. Also very tasty!

St Stephen's Cathedral.

With the double eagles of Austria made in the roof tile pattern.

The inside of the cathedral was a lot like others we'd seen, but much better lit.

And then we stopped by Belvedere Palace before catching the train back to Prague. Again, no pictures allowed inside, but they've turned it into an art gallery/museum that takes you through the different periods of art in Vienna. It was really cool!

And that's it for Vienna! 

So the trip was amazing, and I learned a lot from going. First off, travelling is a lot of fun! And you meet the most interesting and random people. Seeing and interacting with different cultures is always an interesting experience...we have so much to learn from each other. I got to see a whole bunch of places I never dreamed of (or heard of) and tried lots of interesting and delicious food!

Here's a quick list of foods we tried in Prague:

• goulash
• czech dumplings
• deer in wine sauce
• pork with cabbage
• ice cream served with hot plums
• pilsner urquell (the local beer)
• trdlo (tastes like cinnamon buns but is made by roasting dough on a stick over coals)

And Vienna:

• local wine
• schnitzel
• fresh noodles and traditional sauce
• sachertorte
• apple strudel

Anyways, if you're still reading, thanks for sticking it out! I know this post was a long one, but there's just so much to share! Also, I have really been enjoying sending out post cards and letters, so if you'd like to get one let me know! 

Happy Valentine's Day!