Colorful Buildings + Street Food + Street Performers= Prague

Prague was definitely the most beautiful city we've visited so far. The buildings were bright, cheerful, and so colorful. Gorgeous. But, I think one thing I will forever remember about Prague is the amount of street food we consumed in our two and a half days there. After the long train ride and sad attempts to find our hotel room we ate some chicken kabobs and walked around the city. Jeff and I also grabbed some dessert. He got a piece of cheesecake at a small little store, and I got a trdelnik (rolled sugary dough) at a nearby street vendor.

Colorful buildings along the river. 

They make the trdelnik on these long rods and they wind them up. 

During our first full day in Prague we stopped to snap a few photos of the "Dancing House". We were disappointed in this place as the internet made it appear way cooler than it actually was. I think a little piece of me thought the building was going to do something cool...like dance.

We headed to the Prague Castle and stayed there for a few hours to enjoy the giant area filled with museums, churches, restaurants, and little shops. We got a ticket to visit seven different buildings, but only made it to six of them, while in the castle walls. We visited the Old Royal Palace, The Story of Prague Castle (museum), Basilica of St. George, Golden Lane, St. Vitus's Cathedral, and the Rosenberg Palace.  We were most impressed, as always, with the cathedral. We even said a few times while we were inside that the pictures will not do this place justice. Jeff and I were in awe of the stained glass as a lot of it was new since the Cathedral had been through war and a major fire. We stood there and discussed the stories each of the windows told. They were beautiful.

 Outside of the cathedral. 

 The stained glass windows.

The Golden Lane, which had a bunch of houses, shops, etc. set up like that time period. We were also lucky enough to see the last bit of the changing of the guards. Pretty cool!

 I told Jeff this picture looks fake, but we found this little area in between the trees and saw the opportunity to take a picture. 

We walked around the city some more, and grabbed some food...you guessed it, street food! This time it was a goulash. Jeff got some sort of chicken, potato, & onion mixture as I got a potato, onion, & bacon one.

 My goulash is on the left and Jeff's is on the right. 

We walked around the winding city roads, saw the Astronomical Clock & Tower, the Old Town Square, and the New Town Square. I loved all of the shops the city had, especially the toy shops.  There were tons of puppets, wooden toys, and crystal shops. Jeff and I are not big on souvenirs, but I bought this little red/green painted egg.  There were quite a few stands selling these eggs at the Easter Market. It makes us wonder if half of the street food, performances, & set-up would have been there had it not been Easter weekend.

 Toy store. The puppets in the center danced around in a circle. 

 At the top of the Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock. 

I do believe at this point our "thing" is to climb towers.

View from the top of the tower. You can see all the vendor stands selling merchandise and food. The other pictures is the side view of the clock. 

We headed towards the Petrin Hill & Observation Tower. It was an interesting attempt to get to the top. We traveled through the city and by accident found the Embassy of the United States of America. We headed up and reached a park where we could see a map that showed how to get to the tower. We knew there were shuttles and trams you could pay for to take you straight to the top. There were also paths that we found when it was too late. We headed up a super steep dirt path (huffing & puffing, might I add) and luckily made it to a spot that was close to a real path. We headed up numerous stairs and headed uphill to reach the tower. 

The tower was 299 steps and was not in an enclosed stairwell like other towers we've climbed. This completely freaked me out. I felt like I was going to fall out, and Jeff was amused by this the entire time. Once you reached the top, you could feel the tower sway...creepy! Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be at the ground level once we climbed back down. 

 Embassy of the United States of America. I was hoping for an invitation inside. hehe

 The Petrin Tower on the left and the tame part of the walk to the tower on the right. 

 Amazing view from the top of the tower. 

The 5-day trip was absolutely amazing and were so happy to be able to both a modern city and a picturesque one. 

Total Amount of Transportation Between the Two Cities: 

• 2 plane rides
• 1 train
• 2 airport shuttles
• 2 transfer buses
• 3 metro rides
• 1 boat
• 2 car rides to/from London.

Now, we rest.

Thanks Berlin. I Needed a New Phone Anyway...

Let me explain and get the only negative comment out of the way here in the beginning of my post. Within the first hour of being in Berlin, we lost my US cell phone. We weren't pick-pocketed; it was just pure dumb bad luck and stupidity. We were using WiFi at a hotel in hopes to see a map on where our real hotel was located. We think it fell out of a pocket, and we didn't notice it was missing until about 5 minutes later when we were walking down the street. We quickly went back, but could not find the phone. Not sure if at that point someone found it and took it. On the plus side, it was malfunctioning and you couldn't get past the unlock button easily anymore. I switched all my account passwords, and my pictures automatically update to an online portal. So not much was lost, and I still have my UK phone.

Now onto the good stuff...

Berlin was officially our favorite trip (minus the phone mishap). It was such a beautiful and modern city.  We spent our first afternoon exploring the city, eating street food, and walking until our legs almost fell off. Our trip here in Berlin was definitely filled with street food (sausages, pretzels, and beer). Yum, there is just something about street food that makes me so happy. Can you tell that I go crazy at the State Fair?

After filling out bellies full of currywurst (cut up sausage with a curry sauce) and beer, we headed to the Berlin wall.  Underneath the wall was lined with information about the historical events before/after the wall was torn down.  We really enjoyed reading the facts and seeing all of the photographs.

We also ventured out into the city to see the other historical buildings and monuments. We walked through this beautiful park that was similar to Central Park in NYC. In the middle was the Victory Monument. We headed back through the park to see the Soviet War Monument, Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, and the Reichstag (Parliament).

 Brandenburg Gate

 Reichstag

 Soviet War Monument

 Victory Monument

Day Two started bright and early with a visit Checkpoint Charlie. We snagged a photo before the crowds were filled and the actors came back to play their part. There isn't much else to see in this area, but a few museums going into more detail about the division.

 

Next was to the Berlin Cathedral. Jeff thoroughly enjoyed it as he had a nifty little audio guide that he listened to as we toured the church.  He loves those audio guides! I, on the other hand, do not have the attention span to get me through my own guided tour. We were both able to tour the building and then climb to to the top to get a great view of the city.

 Outside of the Cathedral 

Beautiful, right? 

 Inside of the the cathedral and Jeff with his audio guide.  

 The views from the top of the dome. One cool fact we learned was that one of the men building the dome filled one of the gold balls on top of the mini-domes with newspapers from that date. 

You can see the TV Tower and how much taller it is from the dome even!

After the church, we grabbed some breakfast on the Spree, which was beautiful. We walked up and down the spree, had a beer at these "beaches" near the river. Then we took an hour-long boat cruise down the Spree, which was one of our favorite things we did.

 Enjoying some "beach" time next to the Spree. 

 Lovin' the boat tour! 

Riding in style down the Spree

Jeff and I headed to the top of the Berlin TV Tower which is 617 feet high and it one of the tallest towers in the world. It only took 40 seconds to get to the top in the elevator. They wouldn't let us walk to the top of this one. haha! We were able to see some great views of the city and pick out some new destinations to try to go and visit. We thought about having dinner at the top, as it rotates just like the Eagles Nest in Indianapolis. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to get some chocolate at a local shop. Although we weren't the best at ordering, we ended up with a few we really liked!

Top of the TV Tower

The amazing chocolate shop. Jeff may have taken a picture, but they recreated some of the monuments, boats, etc. out of chocolate and placed them in the window. Really cool!

Before we hit the 5-hour train ride to Prague we attempted to visit the 2nd Largest Department Store in Europe...unfortunately it was closed because it was Sunday. We took some pictures....of the outside.

 

I pretty much disliked the majority of the train ride to Prague. Although it was beautiful, being in a space like that for 5 hours was not my cup of tea. Jeff, on the other hand, loved the train ride. At least we were smart and bought some extra chocolate to enjoy on the long ride.

Jeff with his 39% milk chocolate...I got 60% dark chocolate. 

Be on the lookout for the Prague post soon! Xx

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

I know you all are going to be disappointed, but this post is not going to be about Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Just thought I would create a mini-post today.  It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day here in Nottingham. It is barely reaching 60 degrees, but the sun is out and zero clouds.

I walked around the city centre earlier this morning to pick up a few things, and walked around the City Market Square where it was filled with many different booths with food from around the world. I am hoping to drag Jeff back there later tonight or tomorrow if it is still around to try some fudge, gyros, and other tasty treats. I'll keep you posted.

I have been on a kick to find a perfect route to run around the city. There is a very peaceful area very close to our house that is gorgeous and although hilly, it is a relaxing run.  Today, I stopped mid-run to realize my beautiful surroundings that I am so blessed to be around every single day.  To be honest, most days I take this experience for granted, and I am sure Jeff can say the same thing. But anywho--I stopped to take a picture just to remember how wonderful it is over here and to always try to keep that positive voice in my heading going as it isn't always easy being so far away from loved ones.

 

And another note to leave you on...who thinks it is fair that I have to run with not one key, but 3 large keys? Not cool.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Xx

Corfu 5-Star Hotel ≠ American 5-Star Hotel

Well, we definitely had an interesting Day 1 in Corfu, Greece.

• 1AM: Woke up to drive to London
• 4AM: Arrive at car park and head to airport
• 6AM: Fly to Corfu, Greece
• (7 hour time difference from US, 2 hour time difference from UK)
• 11AM: Head to our resort

As you can tell, the morning really flew by and we were exhausted. We were excited to get unpacked, but were quickly disappointed by the room seeing flaws all over the place. (Warning: the snobs in us are coming out) The problem was by the 5-Star Hotel description we were expecting more of a resort-style feel. Our current room had a few spiders that we had to kill, cobwebs, and dust everywhere. We went straight to the pool to get out of there and a little disappointed in the place. Jeff decided to go and talk to the hotel management. So this happened:

 

So we got this seaside suite instead! Although it still wasn't up to the Mexico or American 5-Star Resorts we have been to or heard about, it definitely changed our moods and we were extremely content again. I mean, no one should have to spend a good amount of money and have spiders crawling on the ceiling. Ew.



The resort had a lot of great amenities: pool,  beach, 4 restaurants, bowling alley, among many other things. We were really risking the weather given the time of year we chose Greece, but we really lucked out! Each day it was at least in the mid-60's, but our last full-day there it had to have been a lot hotter as we were sweating on the beach.

The hotel had an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea. During some parts of the day, there was a smog effect out into the ocean, so you were unable to see the mountains in the background. As for the beach, it was filled with small pebbles and rocks instead of fine grained sand.

Our first day, we just lounged around the pool enjoying the warm weather. It was nice to get away from the Non-UK, windy, rainy weather. As I type this...it is raining here. 

We were able to enjoy some really great dishes at the restaurants and some really cheap wine! Although, I think Jeff loved his meal so much on Dinner #1 that he ordered the same thing for the rest of our time there. 

We ventured out into the town of Corfu on the second day. It was cloudy and a bit on the colder-side. We walked around, realizing that the city was not in the best condition. It was really interesting to experience a city that wasn't necessarily made for tourists like many other beach cities. One of my favorite experiences of the trip was my fish pedicure. I am not sure how many Bachelor fans there are reading this right now, but it was something very similar to what they did on one of their international dates in Seoul. 

Anyway, there were tiny little fish (without teeth) who would nibble/suck on all the dead skin on my feet. It freaked me out at first, and then quickly began to tickle (especially in between my toes)! I soaked my feet and the fish were hard at work for about 15 minutes. My feet felt fairly smooth and relaxed after it was over. I don't think the fish worked as hard as a person giving a normal pedicure, but it was a really cool once in a lifetime experience. 

After the fish had a great meal, we explored the city a little more. There were not many tourist attractions, so we were just roaming around. Most of the houses and buildings were not in the best condition. There were lots of broken items, stains, and junk on the balconies on most the places we saw.  It was amazing how many people were able to speak English, especially being such a small secluded island. 

We were able to enjoy some street food for lunch: gyros. They were fantastic. I think I could go for another one right about now! We ate in a small little area, filled with pigeons, grabbed some desserts for Mr. Sweet Tooth, and headed back to the resort on the bus. 

 

 

 

The island is pretty neat in the sense that all the buildings are up on the side of mountains. Because of that, we had to take a small tram down to the beach. The beach was much more peaceful, and less windy as well. We spent all day on Saturday laying on the beach, reading, and enjoying the wonderful weather.

We had a wonderful and relaxing long weekend in Greece. Not sure we would go back to the same resort, but I would definitely visit another part of Greece again.

I leave you with a sign that speaks for itself. Do you feel at least a little bad for us?