It deserves the hype

When people talk about budget travel, they really are not talking about budget travel. You know you are a “real” budget traveler when a hot meal on a plane confuses, surprises, and elates you. 

Natalie and I were excited enough to be able to go to Prague (it is not at all close to Spain) having a hot breakfast on the way there was like having dessert before dinner. If that were not enough, while on the flight we had a perfect view of the Pyrenees in Spain and then the Swiss Alps. I stand by my assertion that Lufthansa is the best airline out there.

Best plane-view I have ever had

Our first dinner in Prague was everything I hoped it would be:

Goulash ABSOLUTELY AMAZING GOULASH

Pork Knuckle

Beer and free (!!!!) bread

(...and I think it all amounted to 9 euro each)

The next morning we woke up and walked to the town square, which was embarrassingly difficult. We saw the Astronomical Clock (the most famous site in Prague) and went up the tower as per my friend Liz's recommendation. It was clear that we were going to have a very fortunate weather day.

I saw the pastries that I had enjoyed in Budapest (cylindrical rings of sweet dough that are soft on the hollow inside and hard on the outside) and HAD to get one. Take note: the ones in Budapest are more delicious. 

I was pretty sick of hearing how great the NewEurope free tours are (they are obviously not free; they are based on tips with the idea that the tour-guide will do a better job, a mindset with which I completely agree) so Natalie and I decided Prague would be the person place to try one.  It was AMAZING. Our tour guide, James, from Northern Ireland, was as knowledgable (probably more) than and Prague(r?) and told us all the great funny, sad, quirky, and historical stories everyone hopes to hear when visiting a city like this one. The tour was three and half hours and Natalie and I gave James 15 euros together (we might have given more if there were not so many people in our group) I swear I saw one couple give him a 50. I mean he WAS good, but damn.

Powder Tower and Municipal House

Natalie is obsessed with Stalin and Communism

Charles Bridge (it said eggs were mixed into the mortar to strengthen it)
complete with 30 baroque statues on ever 

We walked across the bridge and up the VERY large hill to Prague Castle and were rewarded with some amazing views of Prague. The Prague Castle area felt like an entirely different city, maybe even a different country; it was exciting to have so many different sites and sounds than from the place where we had been a half our before. We went to the cathedral first that which was very impressive and reminded me quite a lot of Notre Dame (but with better stained glass inside- sorry Paris).  We had to buy a ticket for a group of sites in order to get into the cathedral, which I was not happy about. The other things were boring art museums and more churches; basically I am just a really good friend and spent $10 more than I wanted to because Natalie is museum-obsessed. 

Prague Cathedral

Colored light shed on the cathedral from the stained glass

The hi-light was definitely seeing the window that the imperial regents were thrown out of by Protestants (for not letting them practice their religion) in the defenestration of Prague led to the Bohemian Revolt and the Thirty Years war. Nothing has brought me back to AP European History more.

Defenestration of Prague window in Prague Castle!!!!!

On the walk to the Lenon Wall, Natalie and I split my first HotDog in a baguette for one euro. I would love to bring these to Comm Ave (ahem. Commonwealth Avenue) and be open from midnight to 4 am. This thing would be college-drunk-food gold, I am sure of it (that, along with crepes, kebab, chocolate con churros…). We got stopped again along the way with what appeared to be a medieval festival complete with a walk-up cocktail bar and a giant Czech man carving an entire pig. Natalie and I enjoyed literally the best sausage I have ever had in my life and some freshly warm roasted nuts, which is possibly my favorite street food in the world (file that under Shelagh-facts).

After John Lennon died in 1980, pop music was banned in Czechoslovakia until 1989 by the
communist regime, so the youth of the city grafittied this wall over and over as a monument to John Lennon
 and his ideals of peace, even after it was whitewashed over and over, as a sign of rebellion.
 Eventually, authorities gave up and it is now a free space for grafitti.

Next, we went to see the courtyard of the Franz Kafka museum to see the statue of Hitler and Gorbachev peeing on Prague. 

Hitler and Gorbachev peeing on the Czech Republic in front of the Franz Kafka museum

We walked across the famously (crowded) Charles Bridge, rubbed the guy falling, averted the dog (see explanation under the picture), and then enjoyed some much deserved sitting-and-doing-nothing time in a café.

This bronze plaque, next to John of Nepomuk that is supposed to bring good luck (and is therefore shiny by everyone rubbing it), was shined only overnight by some tricksters hoping to make tourists apt to rub it as well, but in fact it brings BAD LUCK! I hope there are no superstitions tied to taking pictures of it.

We found out that this particular night there would be a light show in the town square to commemorate the 600^th year anniversary of the construction of the Astronomical clock (how lucky are we?). We swam through the crowd of people to get a view as the light show started and it was pretty darn impressive. The only problem with this spectacle was that there were four in a row, with the thought that this way, everyone who wanted to see the show would be able to. Like any European city, the streets leading to the town square are very narrow. Therefore, one can realize the problem that arises when thousands of people are trying to get INTO the town square at the same that thousands of people are trying to get OUT of the town square. It really brought me back to warped tour ´06 (yeah, I went), especially when a fight almost broke out right in front of us. I don´t know how there would have been enough physical space for it to continue and Natalie and I were befuddled by what was going on this guy’s mind.

REAL absinthe is legal in Prague! The problem is that it is completely disguting

We enjoyed a quiet night with a beer like the boring old couple that we are in our hostel bar (which was confusingly classy) to top off the day.

The next day was JEW DAY! Absolutely everything in the Jewish quarter is closed Saturday so we had to wait until the day we were leaving, Sunday, to visit the area. We bought a group-of-sites ticket (I don’t know why Prague is so obsessed with these; I am not) and started with the Spanish Synagogue. 

Spanish Synagogue: I am so happy I took an illegal picture inside because it was so beautiful

We went to the Pinkas synagogue next, which is not in use for worship anymore. Our tour guide told us the very upsetting story of its history the previous day. Between 1954 and 1959, the synagogue was turned into a memorial for some 77,294 Jews who died in the holocaust. Each victim’s name and some personal detail (like a birthday) was written by hand on the walls. In 1967, Communist forces closed the memorial and painted over the meticulously made wall. Between 1992 and 1996, after the fall of communism, every name was rewritten by hand. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but you can imagine how overwhelming it may look.

More upsetting visits ensued with the Jewish Cementary. The cemetery is well-known for its grave (should I have used a pun there? Probably not) and uncommon appearance. From the 15^th to the 18^th century, the Jews of Czeckoslovakia had one small area to bury their dead and were forced to build up… 12 meters up. The result was a piece of  lopsided land over-filled with graves looking like they are battling for a spot to help those underneath to rest in peace. 

Old Jewish Cemetery

Being silly with Franz Kafka

If you could not tell, Prague is awesome. That is all. Paris next. Yes, again.

Universities... at home and abroad

So I had this teacher... Professor Palmer- David Scott Palmer. The class was Latin American Politics, a seminar style class with 100 people that met twice a week. Lucky me, I was one of eight who had an extra weekly section to attend and 6 extra papers to write. The professor was certainly one of a kind at 6 foot 8, 60-something (70-something?), a former Peace Corps volunteer, writer of two books, and with a heavy Boston accent that disappeared when he spoke fluent Spanish. He seemed like the sweetest grandpa-like professor I had ever had... until he returned 10-page paper on the validity of the Hugo Chavez regime with a B- on it. I had the chance to revise and get a different grade on it, which I did, but in all honesty, I was expecting an A the first time and I started to resent for several months. I attended office hour after office hour, begging Professor Palmer to tell me what he wanted. I argued with him, he challenged me, I almost cried; this was NOT my favorite class. This was NOT my favorite teacher. This whole analyzation-across-a-spectrum-of-time-and-not-including-my-opinion concept was difficult for me when he said he especially did not want a research paper. I did not think there was something besides opinion piece and research paper. He did. Even when Professor Palmer invited our small section to dinner at his home in Boston, I admit I was still not his biggest fan, even while he told us impressive stories about spontaneously hopping on a private plane to get out of Cuba in the 60s and his dabbling in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru. It was not until I found one of the most well-deserved A-´s on my transcript after the semesters end that I finally started to like this professor. I know this is a little shallow and I know really dont care.

During the summer working in Boston, one of my friends was also in one of Professor Palmers class ,so we decided to go out to lunch with him during one of our breaks and it was beyond pleasant to spend time with this professor when grades, papers and analyzing Latin American regimes were not part of the discussion. He told us he would be on sabbatical in Salamanca, Spain, not too far from Madrid, during the spring semester of next year and we briefly discussed me visiting, since I would only be 2 and a half hours away.

A couple weeks ago, after lots of emailing back and forth with my professor, I finally arrived to the old city with Natalie (of course) and our new awesome and feisty friend, Kristely.

Kristely and I en route to Salamanca!

We enjoyed café con leche in the Plaza Mayor, then started exploring.

Natalie and Kristely in Plaza Mayor de Salamanca

The city felt a lot like Segovia to me, of which I was a fan. We went to the New Cathedral first, constructed in 1500 and it looked like... a cathedral (I am jaded when it comes to Cathedrals). Then, we went to el Convento de las dueñas, of which we unfortunately could only enter the courtyard.

Convento de las dueñas

The New Cathedral

Impressive organ in the New Cathedral

We visited the must-see Universidad de Salamanca, the oldest University in Spain and the fourth oldest in Europe (dating back to 1254) too. We saw the famous ornate facade and found the carved frog (according to legend if you find the frog, you will have good luck for the next year, have good academic luck for life, get married in the next year, have success in Spanish, and/or other ridiculous things will happen). Finding the frog was NOT easy. I will warn with a spoiler alert before I post the picture that shows where it is. Inside, we got to see the oldest library in Spain and an old Classrom with some very uncomfortable looking seats.

Can you see the frog??? Probably not. See the next photo to find out it´s ridiculous location 

On top of the skull on the way left (a little right of center in the picture)

Typical Natalie and Shelagh

Oldest Library in Spain what what

Hall of Fray Luis de León. Looks the most fun place I have ever seen to get some knowledge NAHT.

I met up with my Professor after that in the Plaza, which, even though he towers over any normal sized person, was very difficult, due to the abundance of people soaking up the perfect afternoon weather.

We went to Restaurante Cervantes (they really love that guy in Spain) and I had a very delicious salad (I know. I know. Salads are not exciting AT ALL, but when you are living in a home-stay that rarely gives you vegetables and NEVER gives you vegetables that have not touched a large amount of oil, they are). I had never been so excited to choose how much dressing I wanted on my salad. My professor also treated me to some house wine and made me order a lemon ice scream for dessert for which I am very grateful. Can you say “BU tour-guide fodder”?

I introduced my professor to Natalie and Kristely and he showed us around the city a little more and brought us to the Old Cathedral (built in 1150). He took us across the Old Roman Bridge, which has since been fixed up from its construction in the 1^st century and we headed to his car to visit his house on the outskirts of Salamanca. 

Professor Palmer and some midget girls 

Old Roman Bridge and El Río Tormes

Professor Palmer drove us back to the bus stop, on which we fell asleep instantly. Somehow we all managed to wake up to see the city wall of Ávila (built in the 1090 at the request of Alfonso XI). We only got a bus view, but it was still pretty awesome.

Needless to say, Professor Palmer and I got over our differences and he is now one undoubtedly one of my favorite people.

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move, to get down off this featherbed of civilisation and to find the globe granite underneath and strewn with cutting flints"

Robert Louis Stevenson

Breadlin, Beerlin, Brrrlin, Berlin

One Friday night in Poland while checking my email I received a message from my friend Natalie. “Liz and I got tickets to Berlin; sorry I wasn’t sure if you wanted to go.” She gave me the flight details and I proceeded to be incredibly pissed at her for the next week and a day…. not that it mattered much because I did not see her until a week later. I hastily bought the tickets and luckily, even in my fit of my rage, I didn’t mess anything up. A month and a half later Natalie and I were on our way to Berlin, our second trip to Germany, to meet up with our friends Liz and Kat (who are studying in London).

The troubles started immediately after we landed. Even though I thoroughly looked up how to get to the city from the airport, actually BEING there proved that I could have done better. Luckily some Germans, seeing our confused faces and giant backpacks, helped us get the city. We arrived at about 11 PM and were not feeling hardcore enough to go out, so we went right to bed in preparation for a very full day of touring starting at 9 AM.

Natalie was overexcited to see the Reichstag, which I will admit I was not familiar with (it’s basically the parliament building), so we met Liz and Kat there. Before they arrived, Natalie and I went to the entrance to ask how visits worked. “Do you have a reservation?” he asked coldly and rehearsed. I looked at Natalie, sure that she did not. “No,” she answered flustered. “Then you cannot enter,” he stated with a look that sent us away from the entrance, defeated. Natalie was pretty devastated,… and pissed at Rick Steves.

I should explain Rick Steves.  Mr. Steves is a travel writer with a guide book for every major tourist destination in Europe. Natalie and her family think he is the best thing since the internet, but I think he is just some guy who writes travel-guides. He is no better than anyone else who does it. Nevertheless, Natalie brings a Rick Steves book with us on every trip.

Memorial to Politicians who opposed Hitler. Not random at all

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

I digress. Liz and Kat arrived, we told them the bad news, took some pictures in front of the Reichstag, regrouped over coffee, then headed to the Brandenburg Gate. Even if you don´t know the name, it is the very recognizable symbol of Berlin and a united Germany.

Next on the agenda was the “Memorial to Jews who died in the holocaust.” Cue sarcasm. WHAT A GREAT TITLE! I will be honest and say I was unimpressed with this memorial. There is supposedly absolutely no significance to the number of columns nor the location of the memorial, it makes Jews seem greedy (we know that gypsies and political prisoners and homosexuals and others suffered- A LOT of them- I don´t if the Jews deserve a huge expensive memorial EXCLUSIVELY for them) and my list of complaints goes on. 

Memorial for the Jews who died in the Holocaust

Memorial and a lil bit o' Reichstag

Next we went to Museum Island, which is exactly what it sounds like. I should mention that I left my wallet at home during this trip. This should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me or reads my blog posts depicting my many bouts of forgetfulness. This left me money-less and student-card-less in Berlin, so Natalie lent be about 120 euros. MAJOR NATALIE POINTS. This almost made us even for the surprise-your-best-friends-bought-plane-tickets-without-consulting-you-until-after-the-fact-email thing. Luckily, my friends IDs gave me youth cred and I got all the discounts without having to “prove” my current 4-year stage of sponging-up delicious, weekly, collegiate knowledge.

The first museum was Pergamonmuseum, famous for holding the Gates of Ishtar. Next we went to Neues Museum, famous for the Mask of Nefertiti, which we were not allowed to take pictures of. While there, Liz saw her friend Brian, who I had met before as well, who goes to BU and is studying in Copnhagen and visiting Berlin for the weekend. Yeah. That happened. I guess I should mention that before that, while we were leaving the first museum, Natalie saw her friend from BU who studying abroad and visiting Berlin. These encounters maintain their excitement for me. Brian and his incredibly attractive Australian friend invited us to meet up later at their hostel bar and go out together, an invitation we graciously accepted.

Pergamonmuseum

Tourin'

Gates of Ishtar! So cool

Neues Museum

Sometimes, Berlin is pretty

We enjoyed a lovely supermarket dinner that included a Natalie-and-Shelagh staple- Magnum Ice Cream bars. We were able to deflower Liz and Kat´s from their Magnum virginity too, which made them that much better. 

I NEED TO BRING THESE TO AMERICA SOMEHOW

Natalie bought and ate an entire avocado as part of her dinner.

We headed to “The Generator” hostel to find a HUGE building which had about 200 rooms and 900 beds and the most impressive hostel bar I have ever seen. We met up with Brian and the four guys he was traveling with, enjoyed some yeger shots and wine and headed to experience the Berlin nightlife. We ran into a pub-crawl and naturally decided to follow them to their last destination, a modestly sized club for Spanish standards, with two dance-floors, one playing top-40 and house and the other, everyone’s favorites awkward oldies. We bounced between rooms until leaving at 6am when the HORRIBLE public transportation system that is the UBAHN and SBAHN opened for the day.

Just another possible engagement photo.

Kat, Natalie and I at the Generator Hostel bar

slightly rowdy.

Perfectly epitomizes Berlin's quirky nightlife.

Tied with the Boston T for worst public transportation I have ever experienced

The first order of the next day started far too early, at 11 AM, with the Jewish Museum of Berlin. The museum outlined every aspect of Jewish life including the holocaust, ancient history, and belief systems. I felt like I was in Hebrew School class all over again, but I will admit the architecture of the building was undeniably cool.

Most awkward trip picture. Too funny not to include.
The blonde one behind is Liz. hahahaha

Jewish Museum

Then, we went to Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie museum. The museum was overwhelming to say the least- a hodgepodge of articles in German, Russian, and badly translated English. Although the museum was crowded, I did enjoy reading about some of the brave attempts and successes people had in crossing the Wall, which included the use of hot air balloons, pulley-systems, and kayaks.

Yay for famous checkpoints at the Berlin Wall!

Of course, we were in Berlin, so I was most excited about seeing The East Side Gallery, which is the longest section of the Berlin Wall still standing. Today, it serves as a venue for artists to display their work. 

Favorite 

We ended the day with dinner and giant beers with some German friends we made. Liz and Kat had to leave early the next day, so we said our sad good-byes and Natalie and I went to a boring art museum the next day (I am such a good friend I accompanied her, did not buy a ticket because it was not worth it to me, and waited in the café until she was done looking around). Right before we left, we FINALLY got to try currywurst, which is bratwurst with ketchup and curry. It was fairly delicious, but too ketchupy for my liking.

A piece of the original wall with original graffiti in Pottsdamerplatz

CURRYWURST NOMM Natalie loved it because she loves ketchup

Note my backpack, we really were not willing to leave without trying this stuff. 

…and so, my second trip to Germany ended, a little less crazy than the first, but still had its- ahem- special moments. This was a brief summary of events, ask for the play-by-play next time you see me.