I’m back. I know you missed me. Now it is time to catch up…
Vacance ! Hey-o !
So, back in the last week of October/first week of November, we had a week long break from university. So with those 10 days (the week including the weekends I’m not crazy I know a week is only 7 days) we decided to do some traveling. Out of our group of 10 students from the University of Delaware, I have become pretty close with three other girls in my group. Before we even stepped foot in Paris, two of them had already planned their entire week of fall vacation. So, me and the other girl decided we would plan our week together too (but we definitely waited until it was like a month away to actually plan anything..). The two that had it all planned in August were planning on going to Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; and Warsaw, Poland. My other friend and I decided we would follow them a little bit, but I wanted to go to Berlin, Germany instead of Warsaw. So that is what we did:
Vienna, Austria
{3 days}
Well, early Friday morning (because we are lucky and don’t ever have class on Fridays) we headed over to the Charles De Gaulle Airport on the RER B to catch our 8:55am flight. After landing, we had to figure out how to take the train into the city and how to get the metro to our Airbnb. That was a task. I am still unsure if we took the train that we were supposed to take to Wien Mitte, but we got there eventually and ended up on the U2 and somehow managed to get off at the right stop by just knowing it was the one that started with an ‘F.’ And thanks to the data on my friend, Kaitlyn’s phone we made it from that metro stop over to our Airbnb.
After we met our host and got some much needed wifi, we headed back into town to meet our friends. They told us to meet them outside of the metro going to Karlsplatz, and to just follow signs. We ended up actually going to Karlsplatz, not to the metro stop they were waiting at that was going to Karlsplatz. So it took us longer than necessary to find our friends. But we did it. But I was getting cranky and I was already hungry.
Then one of my friends had done research on this guy over summer (I think he made paints or textiles or something, I’m not really sure) and she wanted to go see his house. See, he wasn’t that famous and when we got to his address, there was a modern apartment complex built over it. No plaque no nothing. Just an apartment building. So then, we decided to go get some food to avoid a crankier Becca. We walked through this market, and for some reason noodle boxes seemed to be a big thing in Vienna. I have no idea how or why. But how some places have kebab stands, others have chicken shops, others have Jimmy John’s Sandwiches; Vienna had noodle boxes. And they were amazing. I ate a total of three noodle boxes in my 3 days there. No regrets.
just walking and walking and walking around
After we walked through the market a smidge more we sat down and had some more food, bratwurst and schnitzel of course!
Then it was off to the city center to try to see something that day! We walked around Stephansplatz and the surrounding area (including the shopping street) and then ended up eating at a terrace café in Stephansplatz. I just got a typical Viennese chocolate cake (whose name I am blanking on) and an Aperol spritz. But it was delish.
yummmmmmm
Afterwards we walked around a little more and ended up inside of a church. Then we continued our walk and ran into a lot of things that we didn’t know what they were.. Walk into a church & walk around the city
Then it was time for bed because me and my travel buddy were exhausted from being up since 5am..
The next day it was up bright and early, so about 10, to meet all together at Stephansplatz by 11.
The first order of business was to go into Stephanskirke to buy tickets for Mozart’s Requiem concert that night. I figured I was in Vienna, Mozart’s birth place, so I should go see a Mozart concert.
Next was breakfast at an old café called Café Diglas. I don’t remember what I ordered, but I do remember it was delicious. And I got a café viennoise, which is basically espresso and whipped cream. Also delicious.
coffee and cake for breakfast 🙂
Then we headed out of the city center to go take a gander at the Schönbrunn Schlöss. This place was beautiful. It reminded me of Versailles with the massive gardens in the back. And the interior of the palace was gorgeous as well! It is the former imperial summer residence of the royalty of Austria. Link here for more info on it: https://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/
We tried to figure out how to get to the Klimt Museum, until we figured out that there actually is no Gustav Klimt Museum. His works are all in another museum. So instead we headed into town, back to Stephansplatz and got some food and drinks.
spritzzzzz for the win
Next up, after going home and showering and getting ready, was the Mozart concert! Unfortunately, we had no sight tickets. They were the cheapest at 20 euros, but that meant that we couldn’t see the orchestra at all. They did have little screens hung that broadcasted the view of the orchestra. I definitely wish that we could have seen the orchestra, but just listening to it was also excellent. My friend, the same one that did the research on the unknown man this past summer, is very into classical music and was telling me and Kaitlyn critiques on what could have been better – I had no idea, but I liked it.
After the listening to Mozart’s Requiem we tried to go to the roof top bar with a view of the city. (I got a noodle box on the way) But, it was already at capacity when we arrived, so we ended up at another bar around the corner that had cool lighting. It turned out to be a fun night with good friends and the waitress even brought us over two rounds of free shots. They were called cosmopolitan shots and they were delicious.
Our two other friends had left early that morning to head to Prague, so it was just me and Kaitlyn on our own for the day. We started off our day by heading into town and going to Karlskirke. We bought tickets so we could go to the top of the dome. It was really neat, almost more cool to see the paintings on the ceiling up close than it was to see the view of the city from there, but both were spectacular!
Our next mission of the day was to find coffee! That was no easy feat on a Sunday morning. We stumble upon some city bikes on our walk to find coffee. And it only costs one euro to register to use the city bikes and it is free for the first hour of riding. But we don’t really know where we want to go. There is a man who had just gotten his bike, so we ask him for recommendation for a coffee shop. He recommends a place called Gold Egg (which I heard pronounced at [gordrich], so we almost got lost when we headed over there. We also asked him for a good recommendation on where to get schnitzel. He then informed us that he was vegan and had no idea. Well, we tried.
But we went to the Gold Egg and got some cappuccinos and also got schnitzel and gulasch.
Next, we actually did rent bikes and rode around the city. We rode over to Museum quarter and around the city to see what else was there that we hadn’t seen yet.
After walking for a while we grabbed a hot chocolate at a café and then headed out to find the carnival.
After a little bit of walking the wrong direction we found Prater (the carnival in Vienna)! We walked around there for a bit and ended up getting caught in the wrong direction of a haunted 5k, so there were bunch of people decked out in full monster makeup running towards us for a little bit. After we made our way out of the 5k, we rode a ride that went really high and spun you around and we also got on the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel, which is actually called the Weiner Reisenrad, is a staple of Vienna and has a long history there. If you want to read more about it, you can go here: https://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/prater/giant-ferris-wheel. In the Ferris wheel there is also this car that is a dinner car. So it is set up for a romantic dinner in the sky and you can rent it out. We got the car right next to it and it was cool to see the set-up of it. Also, Kaitlyn determined that she wants to be proposed to in the dinner car of the Ferris wheel (so, keep that in mind boys).
We grabbed a box of noodles on our way home for dinner. But going back to our Airbnb was a mistake. We were supposed to go out to the rooftop bar that night to actually see if we could make it in, but we never made it because we were both too comfortable in bed and didn’t want to get dressed nicely again. So it was off to sleep until we had to wake up for our 8am bus the next morning.
Prague, Czech Republic
{4 days}
From Vienna, we took an 8 am bus into Prague and we figured out the metro and got to our Airbnb by 3pm.
Then it was off to go find our friends! Again. In a different city. They told us that they were at the end of the Charles Bridge, so we figured out the metro again and headed into town. On our way to the bridge we ran into a gingerbread shop, so of course Kaitlyn and I both had to buy fresh-made gingerbread and a cup of the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted! Then we were off to find them again. They told us that they were waiting at the Starbucks at the end of the Charles Bridge charging their phones and mooching Wi-Fi. That would have been amazing directions, if we understood they were on the other side of the bridge. So Kaitlyn and I were walking around for a good half an hour before we decided to call (and pay international fees) and figure out where they were. The other side of the bridge. So we crossed the bridge, but it took us a while because of all the beauty we were encountering. So an hour after actually getting to Charles Bridge, we finally found our friends at the Starbucks. At that point it was too late to go to the castle and most of the monuments were closed (it was like 5-6pm by this point). But, we made the best of it and headed over to the Lennon Wall.
That wall is super cool and very picturesque. AKA great for the Instagram photo opportunities. We took some pics and enjoyed the beauty of the wall, and I enjoyed all of the people watching opportunities! Then we started walking because we were hungry and wanted dinner. But, instead we went to the mall. I decided (since this is how I always live my European life) that we were not going to use data or our phones to get there, we were strictly going to use the map that I bought earlier that day for the equivalent of two dollars. On our way to the mall, we walked through the main square. We saw the Astrological Clock (something you are supposed to see in Prague) and some pretty cool buildings. All of the architecture in Prague is really amazing! It just looks so medieval and like it is straight out of a fairytale. Honestly my jaw hit the ground more than once in this city because of how beautiful it was.
Anyway, we continued on our way to the mall, where we were going to go shopping for Halloween costumes. Another stop we made was inside this kind of bizarre art exhibition. It was free to go in and look at all the works, but some of the works were interesting to say the least.
Then we kept on our way, and found the mall! We did some shopping and decided just to be dressed in all black and wear masks. You know, typical last-minute-basic-white-girl costume ideas… At least I didn’t dress as a cat. Then we just decided to grab a quick dinner at the mall food court which really wasn’t bad and was also pretty cheap.
Then we went back to our respective residences and got read for the night to come.
We met outside one of the metro stops and headed to a bar to start off the night. We were supposed to have a reservation for 9pm (21h), but my friend accidentally made the reservation for 7pm (19h). So we had to just steal someone else’s table. But you know, that 24-hour clock life can get confusing for some of the Americans out there.. It was ladies’ night, so we got free drinks for about 2 hours, and then we had to pay for a couple, and then we left. We decided to head over to a club called Roxy.
My friends always make me walk in places first because I have mastered the art of looking like I know what I am doing. So usually I am not questioned. So I walked in first, and the first bouncer said nothing, the second bouncer said nothing, and finally a very large and bald third bouncer turned around and saw us and yelled in a mix of Czech and English for us to get out. Yea, it turned out the club didn’t open until 12:30 and it was only 12. So we left, and ended up going to a Kebab shop to wait it out.
my make up made me look like a drag queen. but this kebab was so good.
At the Kebab Shop, of course I got a kebab, and a beer, and enjoyed. And the people working there were speaking Russian, so I attempted my Russian. My Russian has gotten very bad unfortunately, so I asked them how to say things in Czech and repeated it that way (but I have forgotten that by this point now too). So a very language confused Becca enjoyed her Kebab, then we all headed back over to the club. We could actually get in now and that was great! But once we got inside I completely did not want to be there. There were only Americans there. Only. Americans. And I know I am American, I do. But I am not a very big fan of meeting other Americans while abroad to say the least. And this club, on Halloween in Prague was swarming with hundreds of Americans. I stayed for an hour and was really ready to leave. So I suggested leaving to Kaitlyn and she agreed with me. There was one of the four of us that wanted to stay, and we offered to stay. But we left J. However, me and Kaitlyn took the tram in the wrong direction and luckily we met a nice man on a street corner that looked up (using his iPhone and data) how to get home from there. It ended up taking us over an hour to get back to our Airbnb.
The next day was a super tourist day! Except, being bad tourists, we ended up meeting up at noon and starting our day from there. We started in the main square, and then headed over to the castle (across the Charles Bridge). So we went to the Prague Castle complex, where we saw some churches, a nice square, a castle, and at a chimney pastry (look at the picture and it will make more sense..) It was really neat to see all these things, but I really wish we had gotten the audio guides to learn a little bit more about it. After spending most of our day there we headed back across the bridge and were looking for dinner! There is a place called Budvarka, that is a brewery and serves dishes that the majority of them contain beer. Of course I had a beer, but it was accompanied by a beautiful meal of lamb, potato pancakes, and creamed spinach; and even beer ice cream for dessert!
That night, we just decided to go to the grocery store and grab some snacks and have a movie night at our friends’ hotel. It was great.
just a pic of my latte and cookie from earlier that day.
The next morning, one of my friends was supposed to head out to these caves that were 3 hours out of the city center, but she didn’t make her train. So all of us just got up and headed over to this adorable little pancake restaurant called DEN NOC. They had AMAZING pancakes. Beautiful and Amazing. I had savory pancakes with goat cheese, arugula, prosciutto, and cherry tomatoes; accompanied by a cappuccino. It was so so so so so good.
After the almost religious experience eating those pancakes, me and Kaitlyn had to go back to our Airbnb to take a quick shower and change our clothes from the previous day… Afterwards, Kaitlyn, Riley (our other friend) headed to an island and walked around there for a bit – it was beautiful and so quaint. Then we walked over to another part of the river to get a boat tour of Prague. That was kind of cool to hear the little facts about the city. Facts like: the river/canal is 1-kilometer-long and only 3 feet deep at its deepest point; the river is constantly 4 degrees Celsius due to the dams, so it never freezes over; and the Prague castle is the largest castle complex in the world.
After the boat tour we met back up with our fourth friend, who met some of her other study abroad friends in town that day, and we headed to the Ice Bar. I had been to the ice bar in Stockholm before, but this one was a little different. This one didn’t give you anywhere near as warm of things to wear, and you were only allowed to stay in there for fifteen minutes. So we went in, downed two ice-themed vodka drinks, took some necessary pictures and then we were told we had to leave. At that point we were basically frozen and ready to go though…
you can call me Ice Queen
After the Ice Bar, Kaitlyn and I decided to walk the city a bit and see sites that maybe we hadn’t seen yet. It was cozy and cute!
the pretty city by night
We then headed back to our place, watched a movie and then went to bed – very unmotivated to try going out again…
The next day we woke up and grabbed breakfast in town with our friends before we parted ways. We were off to Berlin, Germany and they were headed to Warsaw, Poland.
So we hopped on our 3:15 FlixBus over to Berlin and we were off!
Berlin, Germany
{3 days}
On our bus ride over from Prague to Berlin we met this nice Irish boy who was studying a year at university in Prague with Erasmus. We talked with him for a bit until it became impossible for us to keep our eyes open. So we napped the rest of the trip there and when we woke up the Irish boy was ready to talk to us, but we had arrived at the bus station already. But we did go with him to figure out how to actually use and navigate the Berlin metro. We got to our metro stop and were generally confused so we got a box of noodles, then decided to be on our way. It was dark and looked a little sketchy, at least the directions that Kaitlyn’s phone gave us took us down a really dark back road. But, we made it to the Airbnb, just to find out that there was no Wi-Fi there. I was not happy. So we went to a Russian café right down the block and ate some Russian pancakes and had a beer each (ok, maybe I had two).
The next day we were out and about! We started off by taking the metro into town, and went to the Brandenburg Gate, which used to be the old gate to the city. We went into the information booth to buy maps of the city, and we asked about the history of the gate, but they tried to sell us a pamphlet for 2 euros. We found a plaque on the other side of the gate which told you the history of when and why it was there and who and what went through it.
Link to the history of the gate if you want to read more: http://www.history.com/news/brandenburg-gate-a-brief-history
Then we found a place to rent bikes, and we got those suckers for the entire three days we were there. It was from a company called – and it was only 21 euro each for us to rent the bikes for all three days. We started to ride around town, and were wanting to find the remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, but we never managed. Because we got lost. So we had a new mission of finding the Jewish Museum. We got there after an hour of trying to find it. Because we got lost.
The Jewish Museum was amazing, though! We shelled out the extra 3 euros for the audio guides and I am glad that we did. The architecture of the museum has as much of a meaning as the contents of the museum. If you are in Berlin I would 10/10 recommend going! Very informative and very moving. It was a bit long; it ended up taking us 3 hours, but it was well worth it.
Afterwards it was dinner time! We asked the man at the audio guides desk for a recommendation of where a good place was to eat. He told us about this traditional German place called Max & Moritz. We were very happy we asked for that recommendation, because it was delicious! Both of us got the beer of the day, and we were both kind of sick of eating a lot of meat at this point, so we both got a soup starter (because it was cold) and a pasta. OH MY GOSH. This pasta was amazing! And the beer was amazing! And we also sat next to a father and daughter that were on a European trip together for a vacation. They were from and the daughter was working in Africa, so the father came and met her half way. They were nice to talk to during dinner, and they even ended up paying our bill!!! If you read this, thank you again Father and Daughter from Ohio!
After dinner we headed back to the Airbnb, and decided we should probably try to go out, since we were in the clubbing capitol of the world. It was a good idea, but after one bar, we were cold and tired and went back home. We also had to meet for a tour at 10 am the next morning, so we used that as an excuse too..
The next morning, we woke up actually bright and early this time (like 7:30am), so that we had time to get ready and head over to our meeting spot for the tour. We gave ourselves some time to get lost too, because we knew that was bound to happen. We got some coffee and a muffin from the train station and then met our tour group. We were off to go take a tour of the Sachsenausen Concentration Camp. This was a 6-hour tour, 1 ½ of transportation each way, and then a 3-hour tour of the camp. It was very informative, but also very hard to hear about and imagine happening. Sachsenausen Camp was actually the camp that they invited visitors to come see to show off that it was a good labor camp, not the awful concentration camp that we all know it was today.
For more info, you can go to this website: http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/
After we got back into the city, we needed food. It was dinner time. Then we headed back to our Airbnb to take a nap before actually going out this night.
When we did wake up from our nap though, the last thing we wanted to do was get ready and go out. But we did. An hour and a half after waking up we were on the metro and into town. We went to this bar called Bar Tausend. It was really cool. It was just a steel door in a brick wall and we had to ring a door bell to get inside. After we rang the doorbell, a man looked thought the peep hole and, I guess, accepted that we looked good enough to enter, and let us through the steel door. It looked like an old time bunker transformed into a bar, but they told us we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside; so y’all will have to just go check it out for yourselves!
I made a friend at this bar, who then asked us if we wanted to go to another bar with him. At first we said no, then he got on the same metro as us, so then we said yes.. We got off at this stop, and he didn’t exactly know where he was going, but in Germany, in case you didn’t know it is possible to get a beer to go from a bar. We got to this one bar that looked like it was closing, but he asked if we could get a Stella to go, and she said sure. And it was only 9 euros for three beers to-go! Where in Paris one beer would be 9 euros…
We finally got to the other bar after walking in circles, we are there for about 10 minutes, manage to get free peppermint shots, then we left because it was past 4 am and we were tired. We ended up laying our heads to rest at 6am.
We got up the next morning at 9am to go ride our bikes to go see what remained of the Berlin Wall. We road down to what is known as the East Gallery, where the most famous sections of the wall are still standing. It was really cool to see, and to read the history about was also so interesting! We had to check out of our Airbnb by 11am, and then we were back on the metro to downtown to go return our bikes. After returning our bikes we went to this adorable café called Café Einstein to get a coffee and (a dessert for) breakfast!
Then we managed to figure out the train to get to the airport. Once we got to the airport it was a little bit of a fiasco. At first we were 3 hours early, so they wouldn’t let us check in for our flight yet. Then we went back when it was 2 hours, and they checked us in, but told us our flight was over-booked by 5 and booked in full, so we may not be able to get on. We weren’t able to check-in 24-hours before hand because our Airbnb had no Wi-Fi and we were very limited on Wi-Fi in general to be able to check-in at the right time for our flight. So we patiently waited and thankfully ended up getting the last two seats on the plane back to Paris. Thank goodness because both of us had class the next morning at 9am…
We got back to our homestay families and were both extremely exhausted, but were very happy with the little adventure that we had taken.
Overall, it was a little crazy for my style of travel. I honestly prefer to stay in one place for longer and fully see and absorb what is there to strictly being a tourist who doesn’t know much of the history and doesn’t speak much of the language. But it was a fun-filled but exhausting 10 days !!!
back in PARIS
But a general tip for all these locations: HAVE CASH! I cannot stress that enough. It was nearly impossible to use card for anything, and when it was accepted, the worker still gave you a nasty look when you pulled out your card. Don’t ask me how, don’t ask me why. I am just letting you know if you go to any of the above places, just know that cash is the best way to pay for anything and everything.
Also, note about FlixBus. It was the cheapest way to get from place to place (each leg being about 15-19 euros) and we also got to see the country side which we probably wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. But, they said they were going to have Wi-Fi, and the Wi-Fi didn’t work on either bus. At all. When we got to Prague, my Wi-Fi connected as soon as I stepped off the bus and going to Berlin, it just never worked. It isn’t a huge problem, but I don’t have data on my phone when I am out of the US. So, it was just an inconvenience is all.
Can We Go Please? 