Budapest, Vienna & Prague's Top Ten Fun Facts

Alrighty - so I wanted to save some of the funny tidbits for the Top Ten...hopefully you'll enjoy!

1) Changing currency is harder than you think. Not only are we now FINALLY used to thinking in euros (though we always convert back to the American dollar) but now we had to think in forints (Budapest) and in korunas (Prague...and yes, like the beer.) Forints are hard to calculate in your mind because 1 euro = 270 forints. When making large purchases you're handing over thousand forint bills. I was freaking out the first time, calculating and then recalculating...as I've never paid for dinner let alone ANYTHING with a thousand bill. We never got used to it and were very excited about Vienna, where we could again use our euros! But, in Prague we had korunas, which were a bit easier to work with - 4 euros was about equal to 100 korunas. Easier on the brain to calculate. BUT - in all, we were so excited whenever we could use our euros, not only was it easier, but cheaper as the money exchange places really didn't have the best rates. At all.

2) Lofts are the best way to go! As you read and saw in pictures - Budapest had the coolest loft ever. No idea why, but you feel like a little kid who won the bet for getting to sleep in the best spot at the top. There weren't any guard railings, so I was EXTRA careful as my bed was on the side of the railings. Thank goodness I'm not a roller. We would have had a problem. Carolyn is - so we made sure I was by the railing. Took one for the team! Vienna also had a cool loft - and was the coziest little nook I've ever slept in. We had little curtains to pull to hide us from below, and even the rest of the loft. Theresia and I shared one little part of the loft, and we both slept better than EVER! As did Carolyn over on her side. If Prague had a loft option - we would have taken it. Hands down. Lofts = a good time. Picture shows a view from my bed from the loft in Vienna.

3) Packing your bag for the way there should be focused on keeping it light. Not only if you have to put your purse inside your bag like we did, but because you may buy things that take up space on the way home. I actually was impressed with how light I packed - as my parents would tell you I love to bring along everything and the kitchen sink normally. BUT, not light enough. On the way home on the plane - I was wearing two tank tops, two shirts, my fleece, my biggest scarf and my pea coat...and leggings with jeans on top. I still barely had enough space and I was pretty uncomfortable and large looking on the plane. Haha - noted for next time, must bring EVEN less.

4)Helmets are extremely necessary when caving. The people in front of me and behind me could hear the loud CLANG of my helmet on the roof of the cave REPEATEDLY followed by some appropriate choice words from me. I would just start laughing eventually because I hit my head so much. And NO ONE ELSE DID! What the heck was my problem, I have no idea. But it was pretty entertaining to hear CLANGS every three minutes and me shouting at myself loudly afterward. Haha...providing humor to all.

5) Coffee is never served in a huge mug. Or even a normal sized mug for that matter. It's like each restaurant wants to compete to see who can have the smallest cup. I could have brought the cups from my old tea set at home and they would have fit right in. I must admit, the coffee is pretty potent, so it doesn't need a huge mug, but it still made me chuckle when I'd get my coffee. We also noticed, the more chocolate mixed with the coffee - the mug got bigger. (Fine by me!!) See picture, where we each got something different. Hot chocolate for me (the BIG one), a coffee and chocolate mix for Carolyn (the middle one) and a coffee for Theresia (the baby one).

6) Train conductors are not happy people. If they can yell at you for ANYTHING, they will. Do not anger them. At all! We discovered this on the way to Bratislava as we had our feet resting on the edges of the chairs in front of us. Where NO ONE was sitting. The train conductor came over and asked if we were sick and needed a doctor. Confused we of course said no. He then started yelling to sit up straight blah blah blah. I felt like I was being lectured for punching someone. We both were silent for a bit (sitting up straight as possible) before we started to giggle. To make matters worse, most people on the train heard him, and the majority of these people understand English. Not helping the 'stupid American' image with that one. Noted - shoes are not to be put on the seats. Not acceptable.

7) Food is just as cool if not cooler than walking around and seeing the sites of the city! But, I'm sure you already gathered that from my previous posts describing in detail my meals and pastries. I tried to take pictures of my meals as much as possible, and of course of as many pastries as possible. I feel like QUITE the expert on pastries at this point. If the pastry has chocolate, it'll be better. If it's frosted in something, it'll be better. If there is some sort of filling, it'll be better. If the filling is also chocolate then you're in for one heck of a pastry. And finally, powdered sugar on top does look nice, but doesn't add much to the taste, and just ends up all over your clothes. Below are some of the pastries/cakes from the trip!


8) Hershey doesn't exist in Europe. What does, is Milka. Milka bars come in a variety of delicious flavors and are a snack of choice when a pastry isn't possible. Our go-to flavor is chocolate and hazelnuts, and it's the perfect size to split btwn three people. We had more Milka bars on this trip than I dare admit, but since we all LIKE them, why not?!?! I may have to take a few for when I come back to see what you all think. You would like that right?? :)

9)Ear plugs ARE a good idea. We dealt with a fair share of snorers this trip as well as people who were banging around at 4 AM when they got back from a night out. Carolyn DID have ear plugs and rarely heard any of these noises. Theresia and I could describe them for you in DETAIL. My favorite was when someone dropped the lid to a metal trash can in our room in Budapest at approximately 4:18 AM. That was a lovely sound to jolt awake to. So fun. I had my iPod on blast a couple of time to block out the noise, but the iPod juice had to be rationed, as I don't have a wall plug-in to charge it. ANYWAY - ear plugs for next time will be a worthwhile investment.

10) You know when we are all infants, we cry when we're hungry and when we need to go the bathroom. Well, not much changes when you're old. No tears, but mood swings DEFINITELY. I am guilty of this, ha, as my fellow travelers will note. When one of us would start to be snippy, it meant they either need food or the bathroom 90% of the time. Mood swings through-out the day truly followed how often we ate, plus, as you eat you're usually sitting down - so it's a foot-resting time as well. Either way, found that to be hilarious, especially with myself. Cranky until fed. And I think I'm okay with that. I DO like to eat, remember?

Well friends, that's all the fun tid bits from our big trip. There are always things to learn - things to remember to pack next time or that you DON'T really need. Always things to remember about planes vs. trains vs. the metro. Always things to remember about hostels. And biggest thing learned from the trip, which is actually...

11) Always give your parental units a detailed schedule of your entire trip. Including train rides, plane rides etc. with exact times. That way, when there is a HUGE train crash, they will know you were not involved. Also - make sure your phone works internationally so when the above happens, you can contact them. I had one of those completed and one not...so for next time...must make sure both things are covered. Always good.

I will write either another later today or tmrw to catch up in total with a summery of the last week and this weekend for you all. Then I'm no longer behind. FINALLY!

Sending love from to Holland to everyone back home!

Sunshine at last...in Prague!

My apologies that this post is so delayed...but I finally have time to sit down and relive the last city of the big trip for you all!

Our train left Vienna very early in the morning...and we were up before 7 to pack/shower and hit the road. (Not my favorite thing...but traveling motivates one to get up!) We took a short metro ride to our train station, and then climbed aboard the train for the 4 hour+ train ride to Prague! I was excited to see more compartments like on our last train, and we all munched on some goodies we picked up at the train station for breakfast. Soon, we all were trying to nap...when Theresia made a discovery! We could pull all the seats down to create beds! WIN! We woke ourselves up enough to resituate ourselves and then we were OUT on our much more comfortable seats! :) We had a very COLD compartment though, so we all had our scarves and coats either on or being used blankets...and eventually had enough and relocated to a different compartment. The trip passed quickly as we slept for almost the entire trip, ha, and then munched on the rest of our snacks until we reached Prague.

We were a little worried about finding our hostel in Prague, as there were LOTS of directions...but we soon figured out it was simpler than we originally anticipated. We took the metro on two different lines, then walked two blocks and we were there! This hostel looked and felt more like a hotel than a hostel, and we had our own suite of three beds, a mini kitchen and most importantly - our own bathroom! After a week of being affected by others' sleeping routines, it was nice to have our own room. We also had the luxury of leaving our stuff out in our room instead of having to repack it and lock it up every day. THAT was nice! We unloaded our stuff and hit the streets!


The sun was shining!! We hadn't seen sun the whole trip, let alone since arriving in Europe. This was perhaps the third sunny day I have experienced since arriving on the continent, and the other days had only a few hours of it. Needless to say, we all were in a great mood and wanted to take as many pictures as possible to capture the sunlight!! We walked along the Vltava river toward Old Town - the place where most of the big sites were. We caught our first glimpse of Prague castle and St. Vitus cathedral, which truly took our breath away! We took pictures from far away....then as we got closer...then from the middle of the Charles Bridge! Haha...we took TOO many, but we couldn't help it as the sun made it look gorgeous, on top of the obvious beauty of the structure itself. After satisfying our picture taking needs, we headed into the heart of Old Town in search of the Astronomical Clock we had heard so much about.

We needed some lunch at this point and the smell of a shop selling kabobs (their word or perhaps another term for schwarmas) caught out eye. It was delicious and the guys working there were pretty entertaining as well. We downed our lunch and headed out in search of the Clock...

Prague is pretty small, so it didn't take long until we were in eye sight of the Astronomical Clock tower and the square that surrounds it. We luckily arrived right before the top of the hour and got to witness the small windows opening above the clock face and seeing the figures that rotated past. A trumpet player leaned out at the top of the tower as well and played a little tune. It wasn't until then that we noticed we could go to TOP of this tower! So...we did! We climbed up the ramps inside...which were a bit easier than stairs, but still made your calves ache! The view at the top was worth it - as you could see across all of Prague. We took pictures on every side...and took even more of Prague Castle! (Hey...it was a good shot! And one can't have too many pictures, right?!?)


After...we grabbed some hot wine to warm up, as the sunshine had disappeared and the chill was creeping in. The hot wine was delicious!!! Theresia told us that she and her mom make homemade hot wine at home...I think she should pass along the recipe! :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the town, checking out some of the stores and shops until we ended up on Wenceslas Square. We walked down to the end where the National Museum sits to take some pictures of the whole street/square. Dusk was just setting in - so the pictures turned out pretty cool!

We headed back to our hostel to get a suggestion for a dinner spot that served authentic Czech food...as we loved the local food so much in our last two spots! We learned of a beer hall/restaurant that was 5 minutes from our hostel...so we headed there to fill our stomachs! We walked in to the sounds of men singing loudly to an accordion player and clinking their beer steins! Hilarious! We all got a good chuckle watching them at their table...singing loudly and happily downing their drinks. We all ordered some type of meat (the name escapes me) and also had some traditional kinedliki, which are dumplings. My meat also came covered in saurkraut! YUM! The dumplings weren't my favorite...but the meal was wonderfully filling. We also each got a beer that was brewed by this particular beer hall - one of the best I've ever had! Oh - and the beer hall was founded in 1499, no big deal. (SO COOL!)

We went home to rest up and get ready for another day out on the town! We had seen most of the sites we wanted to see this first day, and all that was left was Prague Castle...so we slept in and then leisurely headed out the door on Day #2. We started with breakfast which consisted of hot blackberries on top of crepes along with sour cream and whipped cream. Oh yeah, it was drizzled with honey as well. IT WAS DELICIOUS! One of the best things I've ever tasted. (Clean plate club below.) Full and in great moods from a wonderful breakfast we wandered towards Charles Bridge which would take us over to the castle.


Walking across the Charles Bridge we saw multiple homemade goodies at souvenir stands - earrings, magnets, photographs etc. We knew we'd be coming back at the end of the day to purchase some! We followed the crowd that was headed up to the castle, winding through the streets of Lesser Town. We found the historic steps that lead up to the castle and cathedral - which were LONG and STEEP! (Joy). We started the long walk to the top which was made easier by the beautiful view we could see as we climbed higher and higher. (Oh...and the sun was out again! YES!) We took plenty of pictures once we got to the top..and then walked over to the St. Vitus cathedral to look around inside. It was built originally back before the year 1000, but has been added to and expanded much in the centuries that followed. It was beautiful inside and we took lots of pictures. I was especially impressed with the intricate stained glass on the windows...each which had a unique color palette. I was also blown away by the age of the church - it's amazing what our species was capable of, back before they had the technology of today. Truly amazing to see!!

We took a small tour of Prague castle afterward...but we couldn't take pictures. We saw another smaller church as well as other buildings that were a part of the Castle. We ended on this little street that had small shops with homemade Czech gifts taunting us in their windows. We looked in multiple of these shops and even purchased a few things! We then went to find some lunch...and found a cafe not far away. I had a delicious lox sandwich and then Carolyn and I shared this mouth-watering piece of chocolate and cherry cake. YUM!

We proceeded to simply stroll around for the rest of the afternoon in Lesser Town...stocking up on souvenirs and also revisiting the Charles Bridge for some fun jewelry as well. We grabbed dinner later that night at a favorite and cheap place - Subway! Always nice to have a taste from home once in awhile...especially when it's easy on the wallet! We ended the evening with a lot of Olympics watching (with German commentary) and then hit the sack.

The day of traveling home was a long one - with an hour plane delay, missing a train and doing LOTS of waiting in lines. (My favorite. Not.) But - we were safely home by about 9 the next night...and all needing to do LOTS of homework to get ready for the busy week that lay ahead.

Prague was a wonderful way to end our trip - with a laid back approach to the city and stunning views from everywhere we went. Great food was had and also some of the coolest souvenirs of the trip were found as well. The trip as whole was a blast! The girls and I all were on the same wave-length about what to see and when to eat etc., which makes everything very fun and less stressful. We all liked to eat, ha, so we enjoyed quite a lot of local cuisine in each of the respective countries we visited - which is just as cool as touring old buildings (to me...but perhaps that's because I love to eat!). It was nice to finally be home in Maastricht - which truly does feel like home now. I came home expecting a roommate...and there was still an empty bed to greet me. I feel I may end up alone in this large room for the semester - which is actually kind of fun! (I host a lot of get-togethers due to this...and all the space available, which is also a bonus!)

The top ten for this trip is coming soon, lots of fun tidbits to share with you all! :)