Family. Shortly after returning from fall break, my family arrived in Prague. We had a lovely long weekend in Prague visiting the castle, eating great meals and doing lots of walking. It was very good to see all of them. Plus, dave’s mom was there as well so it was a family affair!

Grammy, Dave's Mom, My Mom, Me, Shelley and Grumps

Berlin

The following weekend my mom and I hopped on a train and headed 4 hours north to Berlin. Train travel really is the way to go. You don’t have to worry about getting there 2 hours before departure time or waiting in security lines. As long as you figure out what train you are supposed to get on, it is very pleasant. Our first day we decided to take the New Berlin free tour. I was absolutely fascinated at how much important history the city of Berlin has been the main stage for. Now most of you know I am not one to be interested much in history, but Berlin’s history is so overwhelming: Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust then Communism, East and West Berlin, the Berlin Wall and so much more. Our tour started at the Brandenburg Gate (on the East Berlin side looking through to west Berlin):

Then we got to see the new Holocaust memorial. The designer said that he got his main inspiration from the Old Jewish cemetery in Prague. Here is my mom in the middle of the memorial:

This building was originally built to be the Nazi Headquarters, then it became the Communist Party’s Headquarters and now it is the Tax Department of Germany:

Since Berlin was such a war center, the oldest buildings they have were from the Enlightenment period (18th -  early 19th Centuries). That night my mom and I found our way to Potsdamer Platz. Apparently this used to be the main center of the city, but it was completely bombed. So now they have the Sony Center there which was one of the more impressive modern structures I have ever seen. My mom described it as a clean version of the Bladerunner set:

The Berlin wall is marked in the city by a row of double cobble stones laid into the floor. So the next day we decided to be adventurous and follow the stone path east hoping to eventually find the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall). After walking for a long time, we found it! They call it the East Side Gallery because they keep it up as a public art domain, like Five Pointz in Brooklyn, NY so it is completely covered in graffiti.

Bullets in the side of a building:

Old building and East German tv tower:

Berlin was such a huge city that I would have needed at least a week to really get to see everything the city had to offer. I am glad that I got to at least see a bit of it especially because Prague is so close.

Zermatt

Two days after returning to Prague, Dave and I were off on our big adventure to the most infamous Swiss Alps. We were headed to a small ski town called Zermatt located over 5,000 feet up at the base of the Matterhorn on the Italian – Swiss border. Our journey was a long one:

• 1.5 hr flight from Prague to Milan
• 1.5 hr bus ride to Milano Stazione Centrale
• 2 hr international train ride to Visp, Switzerland
• 1 hr regional train up to Zermatt

From door to door it took us 10 hours, but it was well worth the journey. We arrived at midnight to a silent mountain town and we made our way to the Matterhorn Hostel. The next morning we woke to a snow storm. The town was completely covered in fresh snow and it continued to dump all day long. We decided to spend the day hiking on the winter trails in the surrounding mountains. We made it up to a small ski lodge town at 6500 ft. Thanks to the heavy snow, we could not see much of the surrounding mountains and the Matterhorn was nowhere to be found. Here are some pictures of the town of Zermatt:

Due to bad weather, we spent a lot of time in our cozy hostel room:

We were disappointed when we woke up Saturday morning to see it still dumping snow because we had planned to ski that day. Apparently the winds had picked up, so the entire mountain was closed. We spent the day walking around town shopping for souvenirs and swiss chocolate. Dave and I ended up buying each other Swatch watches for Christmas presents. They are pretty snazzy. That night we went to bed hoping that we would wake up to clear weather because it was our last chance to ski. Also, we had yet to see the Matterhorn (which was essentially the entire reason why I wanted to visit Zermatt). We got up at 7am to see this:

It was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking and everything I thought it would be. Seeing that the weather was going to be good we hurried back to the hostel to put on our gear, we rented skis, boots and polls from the shop at the base of the main gondola and we proceeded to ski the swiss alps! It was really great. Since it was still early in the ski season, we had to take 3 gondolas up before we reached the open runs high up on the mountain:

Once we reached the top, the views were spectacular, not to mentioned that the runs were all under the base of the Matterhorn. The skiing was very different than Mammoth, the runs were so expansive and sometimes rather flat. The alps (you can see one of the chair lifts at the bottom of the picture):

At the top portion of the mountain, you had to option of skiing down into Italy or staying in Switzerland. International skiing! No border patrol at 10,000 feet.

The Matterhorn at the beginning and end of the day:

I was so happy that we decided to go to the alps. It was so beautiful up there and nice to get out of European urban cities for a long weekend.

Upcoming. Tomorrow I leave for Copenhagen, Denmark for the weekend/. Then we have one more weekend in Prague and then Dave and I stop in London before we head back to the states. My time here is quickly running out and so is my bank account.

Long Overdue. With the family visit and trips nonstop, November has been a hectic month. This is why my post about Fall Break is coming to you now. I will start this entry off with a picture of our travel group waiting to board our first flight with our brand new backpacks:

Milan

Attempting to travel for as cheap as possible landed us in Milan for one day on our way to Spain. I had less than high hopes for this city from what I was told by other people. Surprisingly, we had a really good day. The main attraction was the Duomo di Milano (click to view full size):

No picture really does this piece of architecture justice. It was one of the most intricate Gothic structures I had ever seen. The great thing about churches and cathedrals is that they are almost always free to go inside (click to view full size):

The rest of the day we spent roaming around the city center. We attempted to go see the Last Supper, but the ticket lady laughed in our faces and told us that you have to make a reservation at least two months in advance. We were slightly disappointed, but continued on. Oh, and I got attacked by birds and then was forced to pay 1 euro for getting swarmed.

Madrid

After leaving for the airport at 4am and another easyJet flight later, we were in Spain. The sun was shining, it was gorgeous and, best of all, I could understand the language! Bienvenidos a Espana!

My overall impression of Spain was that it was a more laid back Italy. I am sure that our great experience in Madrid was helped by the fact that our hostel was fantastic. The Hostel Sant Jordi was situated in the very city center, right off of Puerta Del Sol and we paid only 17 euros per night per bed. Here we are hanging out the window of our 8 bed room, warm nights are a wonderful thing:

Meghan showed up a day after we got there and she convinced us to go on a Free Tour of Madrid, they are offered in several European cities and since then I have gone on 2 of their other tours. It was really great. We learned all the history we needed to really appreciate Madrid. Our tour guide:

Meghan and I seeing the sites (photo by dave):

The food was also really great in Spain. Tapas is just a really fun dining experience because everyone is sharing and you get a little taste of everything. Also it is really simple to split the bill. We also drank a lot of sangria. It is so much better there than anywhere I have had it in the states, not to mention it is a lot cheaper! We paid 10 euros for 2 litre pitchers.

Amsterdam

Our last stop was Amsterdam, Netherlands and I have to say I was less than impressed. We arrived to a disgusting hostel complete with loud 18-yr-old Swedish hippies chugging whisky out of the bottle and smoking cigarettes in our room that had no windows. I decided that I could not sleep there for 3 nights after seeing the communal showers. So we forfeited our deposit and went out and found a hotel. Now, the hotel we ended up at was nothing nice either, but it was a private room with a private bathroom and that was all I could ask for. Here was one of our rooms, welcome to the 70s:

The weather was not too good during our visit. After being in Spain, the rain and cold of northern europe was less than welcoming. Some people call Amsterdam the “venice of the north” because they have canals, but I don’t think they even compare (click to view larger):

We took another free tour of Amsterdam, but it wasn’t as interesting as the tour of Madrid. We learned a few things, but everything was focused on the main features of the city: marijuana and prostitution of the Red Light District. Prostitution was big in Amsterdam because when the sailors would come in, all they would want was to spend the evening with a woman and then after they would proceed to purchase indulgences to forgive their sins. This way, the church and the prostitutes worked well together. We also learned that in Amsterdam, marijuana was one of the main herbs that were shipped in through their port and now they just keep it around for all of the tourists. Amsterdam is a really strange place. Here is Max in a “coffee shop” called Dampkring where they filmed part of Ocean’s 12 (yes, we are tourists after all):

One of Holland’s redeeming qualities were their pancakes:

Summary. Living out of a backpack for 10 days was quite a task. I enjoyed being a jet-setter, but after a while, I craved my own bed and my own desk and my computer. It has something to do with the lack of personal space you have while traveling. Also, the many hours spent traveling to and from airports and then waiting in terminals… it gets a bit tiring after 5 flights in 10 days. Flying on budget airlines is definitely the way to go in Europe, but we were constantly trying to convince the check-in people that our bags met the requirements for carry-on luggage.

Next Time. Since then I have traveled to Germany and Switzerland, so expect another entry in the near future. Also, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Weekend Trips. It is strange to be able to hop over to another country just for a weekend getaway. But that luxury comes with our “Central European” location (Side note: we learned in one of my classes that it is actually really offensive to the Czech people to say that the Czech Republic is in Eastern Europe. They would much prefer to be called Central Europeans). This past weekend found Dave and me in Venice, Italy. I have been waiting to visit the city of canals since The Venetian Hotel opened in Las Vegas and our family trip 4 years ago brought me as close as Florence… what a tease! We took a budget airline from Prague to Venice-Treviso (only a 70 minute flight) early Friday morning and hopped on a bus straight onto the island where we were promptly greeted by the glorious Grand Canal.

We immediately started exploring- hoping to eventually end up at our hotel. Of course, we headed in exactly the wrong direction. Every corner we turned took us to a dead end or water.

We eventually made it to our little hotel, which happened to be only steps from where we got off the bus. After dropping off our stuff, we sat down for a Cappuccino … the best in the world (but almost as good as my dad’s).

We eventually found our way to San Marco Square and to the southern side of the island

Apparently, Venice is sinking, so all of structures with any height are leaning as you can see in this next picture.

We decided to pick up a litre of wine from one of the many wine shops, where they serve the wine from big jugs into a bottle of your choice.

Our self-portrait:

Pretty sunset over the canal:

Venice at night, still gorgeous:

Self-portrait #2:

We then had an amazing pasta dinner and got brutally destroyed by the euro-us dollar exchange rate (about $1.50 = 1 EURO), it was still delicious regardless.

After dinner we were faced with the task of again finding our way to our hotel. A lot easier said than done. 40 minutes later we found ourselves at the complete opposite side of the island. This next picture sums up our evening experience: lost with a litre of wine and a map.

Day two we decided to explore the farther reaches of Venice. We happened upon the more residential areas which was really neat. The streets (or canals) were lined with clothing lines and the boats were of a more useful type than the gondola.

We happened upon a really neat architecture exhibit. I would tell you more about it, but the sign was in Italian.

We made it all the way to the eastern-most tip of the island where there was another leaning tower.

We flew home Sunday morning over the Alps and they were spectacular! I am so excited to be visiting the Swiss Alps in November. Someone told me a while ago that Venice was overrated and I entirely disagree! This is a city that everyone should visit at least once- there is no other place like it. It is so amazing to me that all of these amazing places are so close to me, here in Prague. As far as travel is concerned, the sky is the limit… or maybe my bank account is.

Well folks, for the first time since I have been here, I am leaving this lovely city and heading to Venice for the weekend. Expect a lengthy update upon my return. Ciao!

Prague Castle