Prauge, Czech Republic

Our last stop on our trip to Europe this year was Prague.  Or as it's called and spelled there- Praha.  Everyone talked up Prague before I left- how cheap it was, how beautiful it was, how much I was going to absolutely love it.  And for the most part, I did. 

BA and I decided to stay in a hostel to save some cash.  A few of my old friends from tour had stayed at this place called The Mosaic House and said it was great, so we went for it.  I really can't believe they call it a hostel!  With the exception of the bunk beds, it was a super nice hotel.  It was a "green" hostel, and very new.  We had four beds in our room, a private bathroom, and the lobby was pretty swanky.  And the staff rocked.  We saw a big group of drunk idiot guys come in on our second night, and we checked with the front desk to make sure that they were not our roomies.  Luckily, we got some cool girls from like Holland or something.

Our first night there we just wandered around the city.  It was so, so beautiful.  We walked over the Charles Bridge and saw the Prague Castle.  Then we wound up in the Old Town Square where the famous Astronomical Clock.  I thought it would be like the famous clock we saw in Munich and it was going to put on a fabulous show.  So we stood there at the top of the hour, watched it, and then everyone started walking away.  I was very confused.  But it was pretty!

Prague had some great shopping, and we did a fair amount of it.  More trying on clothes and having them not fit (damn skinny Euro girls), but I found a few new dresses and pants.  It was much warmer there than we thought, so we literally had to buy clothes to get us by because my leather boots and wool coat were not going to cut it in 80 degree weather!  On a side note, I think this is one of the few trips in my life I have gone on and had nice weather.  Ever.

We ate at some decent restaurants, my favorite being La Boca, which was a little bit off the beaten path.  A lot of the restaurants were in the tourist-y areas and didn't really have the old world charm I like when traveling.  The waiters spoke English, menus were in English, prices were high... so we looked for places that were a little different.

One major sightseeing thing that we did was visit the Jewish Museum.  It's actually an area that used to be the Jewish ghetto with five synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery.  Sadly, the only reason this party of town in still intact is because the Nazi's kept it standing so that when they had wiped out the population, they could use it as a museum of an extinct race.  Now it is used to teach visitors about the Jewish culture and history in Prague, within its small Jewish community.  The cemetery was really something to see- I don't think I have ever seen headstones that old.

Unlike Budapest, for some reason we tended to backtrack a lot in Prague.  We had the streets down pretty well after just two days.  We must have walked across the Charles Bridge six times going back and forth between the different areas of the city. 

On our last night there, we went to what wound up being our favorite place, called Maleho Glena.  Bethanne's friend Lindsey spent some time in Prague and recommended it.  We were pretty bummed we didn't go earlier, because I think we would have gone back every night!  It was WAY cheaper than other places, had a cool atmosphere, good food, and jazz musicians.  That last night I had to catch at bus to the airport (yep- brave of me, I know but it was the equivalent of $2 instead of a cab for $60) at 3:30am, so we just stayed up so I didn't miss it.  Unfortunately on our way home we had to walk over the Charles Bridge AGAIN, and it was closed because they were shooting a movie.  We walked so far out of the way to cross the water that I thought my legs were going to fall off.  Looonggg night.  :)

Overall, I liked Prague.  I think it's different now than the Prague people told me about that they visited 10+ years ago.  There were lots of tourists there which creates an industry to serve the tourists.  Mobs of people in the town and on the bridge, and it was definitely the most expensive place out of the three that we visited.  However, if you ignore the people, hustle and bustle around you, there is no arguing that Prague is absolutely a beautiful, breathtaking city.

Eating at our window side table a La Boca

The Old Jewish Cemetery

The lobby of our hostel

My very early morning flight out of Prague

Bratislava, Slovakia

I'm not even going to think about how overdue these posts are.  Bethanne and I were in Slovakia on APRIL 25th!!!  Oops.

When we decided to go to Budapest and Prague, I looked at a map and told her that I wanted to stop over in Bratislava, Slovakia.  For no reason other than that is was right between the two, and why not?  I knew nothing about Slovakia, but a few people on Facebook said they loved it.  With all of the research and reading I did before the trip, I literally didn't look at one thing about Bratislava.  It just wasn't top on my list of things we were doing and I was much more excited about Budapest and Prague.

Well boy was I wrong.  What an AWESOME place!  It was definitely my favorite night of the entire trip.

We decided to walk to our hotel from the train station.  The train station was not a good first impression of this place, to say the least.  I was having a little bit of trouble because something happened with a muscle or nerve in my neck, and I wasn't able to use my right arm for a few days.  Poor Bethanne had to help me out quite a bit during that time, but we survived.  Our hotel was under renovation, so they gave us a free bottle of sparkling wine when we checked in.  So far, so good.

We decided to take Poppy's golden advice and take the bus tour of the city, since we only had one day and one night.  I couldn't believe how modern, clean and fun it was!  They have random statues all over the city that were so fun.  The bus took us to the castle at the highest point of the city, and the view was really beautiful.  We then found a place in town to sit and people watch, get an app, and have a few martinis.  We couldn't let our free wine go to waste, so we hung out on the hotel patio for a while and played cards before going to dinner.  We went to a place called the Bratislava Flag Ship Restaurant and had the best meal of our trip.  It was like a giant beer hall, and we had no problem drinking a few of them as well as after dinner liqueur before stopping at a hostel bar on the way home and drinking more beer.  And I think we spent a total of 40 euros all night.

I was a big fan of Brat, and kind of wish we had more time there!



One of many random statues around the city.

I think this was the Opera House?

A view of Bratislava- and you can eat in the little spaceship looking thing on top of the bridge!

Our ride for the afternoon.

Bratislava is so clean they even vacuum their streets.

A little patio vino and card playing.

Hungary Day Trips

When we were in Budapest, we took a few day trips out of the city to check out some other areas of Hungary.  First on our list was Lake Balaton, which was about 2.5 hours Southwest of Budapest.  We had read about it and it is Hungary's hot spot vacation destination.  Some of the towns are known for their crazy parties and nightlife, and others are known for their hiking trails and beauty.  We opted for option two.  We took a train into a town on the North called Balatonfured and arrived late morning.  We couldn't wait to check out this super cool place! 

There was literally no one there.  No one.  We walked out of the small train station and the streets were just vacant.  There were some people working on patios of cool places we had read about to eat, and a bunch of closed bars and restaurants.  We realized that this was a summer town, NOT a spring town!  Literally hunderds of thousands of people visit the lake every year.  And it must be in June, July and August.

We walked for a bit and then happily found a waterfront area with some open restaurants that was really beautiful.  I definitely did not feel like I was in Hungary!  People were dressed fairly nice, and we totally looked like scuz buckets because we were planning on hiking later.  Lunch was great, and then we took off to find the bus to Tihany, a small little town with hiking trails on the river.

Well, we got there and there was no one there either.  And the town was under contruction with large machines and sledge hammers everywhere.  So funny!  We visited the tourist center on top of a hill, and never found the cool trails we wanted to walk.  We actually wound up on someone's property thinking it was a trail!  That would be my fault.  By the time we realized there was a house at the end of the driveway we were walking on, we just gave up, used their trees as a restroom, and did our own thing for a while.  Just another adventure in traveling, I guess!

Lake Balaton, Hungary

A giant turkey leg at the restaurant we ate at- we didn't ask, but really wanted to. 

Early afternoon cocktails on the lake

Hungary is ALL ABOUT the Paprika!  It's everywhere, and on everything.

Hiking on our not trail in Tihany.

One other little half-day trip that we took was to a small town called Szentendre.  I have no idea how that is pronounced.  It was only 13 miles North of Budapest and had cute little shops and restaurants.  One thing about this place is that there didn't seem to be too many rules for children.  Bethanne and I literally saw small kids just running around, up and down city steps, at the church, through town.... it was like Pleasure Island!  It think they were on their version of recess from school, but it was pretty funny.  Guess there's not a lot of kidnapping incidents in Szentendre. 

It took us forever to decide where we were going to eat, and we finally decided on a little restaurant where we ordered sandwiches.  But it was funny when they came out- it was just a large piece of bread with a thin slice of meat and melted cheese.  But it was good! 

I'm not sure what the lesser of two evils would be for the places we visited.  I can't stand hoards of tourists, so maybe I'm happy that we were there when it was quiet, despite missing out on things I think would be open or more lively during the higher tourist season.  Regardless, they were both beautiful!



Szentendre

My Hungarian ham "sandwich".