Since I had two visitors over my weeklong break (which turned into almost 2 weeks), it only makes sense to divide it up that way as well. This part could also be called Kristi, since we did all of this traveling together!
Since it was Kristi's first time in Germany, I thought it would be fun for her to see one of the biggest touristy cities, Munich. We took the bus on Thursday morning (only 9 euro!) and got to Munich in the afternoon, slightly exhausted and a little hungover, but we wanted to make the most out of our day there. We checked into the hostel right by the Hauptbahnhof, then headed to Marienplatz for the Glocken (bells) and then to the English Gardens, where we hung out in a Biergarten, right next to the Chinese Tower. Afterwards we took the subway to the Augustiner brewery and had some pretty delicious schnitzel and natürlich beer, all the while amazed that this brewery was founded in 1328-- practically twice as old as the USA! We were pretty exhausted at this point, so headed back to the hostel bar for a drink, then went to bed since our bus left at 7am the next morning.
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| At the John Lennon Wall |
We got to Prague midday Friday and stayed until Monday at the cute little Hostel Elf. After some initial complete confusion with the currency and language, we really had a great time in the city, the farthest east I have been so far in Europe! The currency was pretty hard to get used to since 25 krones is 1 euro, and about 20 krones to $1. Everything was amazingly cheap though, and a traditional Czech meal in a restaurant usually cost only 5 or 6 euro, much cheaper than anything in Germany. Our hostel had happy hour every night as well, where the typically 17 krone beers were only 9 krones! Unbelievable.
Our favorite part of Prague was definitely the bike tour, which ended up being a private tour since we were the only ones that showed up that morning. They were advertising "free bike tours" which naturally made me a little skeptical, but they really were just a couple guys that love biking and like to show tourists the sights of Prague. We did the 2-hour long historical tour and biked all the way up and around the castle, then back into the city. Our tour guide Karel (Carl) was the coolest guy, and afterwards I gave him 500 krones, since we definitely would have paid that much for a much lamer tour anywhere else. Our other daytime activities included the Prague Zoo (the 7th largest in the world), walking around the old town and across the Charles Bridge, where we coincidentally ran into a friend from UM, and climbing up the Czech Eiffel Tower, which is actually as tall as the one in Paris if you include the hill it's on (a joke among the Czechs according to Karel). The first night we met up with Kristi's friend who is studying abroad in Prague, then to this cool underground "Labyrinth" bar. The next two nights we hung out with our German roommates and did a silly pub crawl (with the t-shirts) that Saturday. It was pretty funny to have met so many Germans in Prague, since I live in Germany and honestly don't hang out with too many considering that I live in the international dorm.
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| View of Prague from the top of the Eiffel Tower |
After a fun couple days in Prague, we headed over to Croatia, where Kristi's parents were both born and most of her family still lives. We flew into Split and were taken around the city by her cousin who studies there, then went out for a nice dinner (I had a delicious bowl of seafood gnocchi) before catching the bus to Zadar, where her family's house is. I only got to stay two nights at her place before flying to London to meet Gus, and it rained almost the whole day I was there. Still, it was fun to met her family and have some delicious home-cooked food for a change, and also to hear her speaking Croatian with her family (she's fluent!) since I definitely had never heard it before.
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| The boardwalk at Split |
Kristi was definitely a good traveling partner since we have a lot of the same interests, and also because we were always hungry at the same times! We did quite a bit of traveling (at least 10 hours on a bus and also a plane ride), but also saw quite a bit, and with a couple naps squeezed in, I wasn't exhausted by the time I flew to London. ;)
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