BRRRRRRRRRLIN!

“Family Dinner” takes on “Family Vacation”! … but not before the weekly food gathering of course. Instead of dinner this past week we decided to go big and do a full on dessert night – everyone welcome! And considering only one apartment has an oven the desserts were quite impressive and Pinteresters everywhere would be in awe of our success. Tuesday Erica, Kat and I prepped for dessert night as I made my Nutella cookies with my “advanced easy bake oven” (it only has an on/off switch) and we got in the Christmas mood blasting our holiday tunes and watching Elf. We’re in Europe so all my Americans back home you STILL have to wait till after Thanksgiving to start Christmas festivities because you get turkey this Thursday and we don’t. So what did dessert night entail? Snickers salad dip, apple crisp crumble, worms n’ dirt, truffles, cake, chocolate banana truffles, cookies, gourmet popcorn, brie, bread, raspberries, dark chocolate almond bark, whipped cream and bottles and bottles of wine. This was a night you did not want to miss out on and we are planning on doing it again considering we only have…uhhh let’s not talk about it…days left.

So Thursday the family headed to Berlin! That is all of us minus Nathan since he had to go sing for the Czech President in honor of the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution…I guess that's more important than family vaca. It was about a 4.5 hour bus ride and they showed The Terminal AGAIN. This is the 3^rd time I’ve been shown this movie on the bus and a movie I never thought I would be able to quote. Luckily the second movie was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (notice Philosopher not Sorcerer in Europe hehe). But when we arrived it was the beginning of a very, very, very cold weekend and once we eventually found our hostel we ate the first of many kebabs.

Ken, Anna, Matt, Me, Sunny, Rachel, Vanessa

Friday we went on a nearly 4 hour walking tour and by the end I did not have feeling in my toes. Our tour guide was an awesome Brit who definitely knew his history. We saw the Holocaust memorial, the Berlin Wall, the window that Michael Jackson horrifically dangled his baby from, Checkpoint Charlie, the ground above Hitler’s suicide, the Nazi book burning memorial, and a suicidal horse statue on top of a building that nobody knows why it’s there. 

As evident by everything I just listed, Germany has a very dark past and as the tour guide mentioned it’s easy to naturally think of all these things when you think of Germany but we have to remember there is so much to appreciate in this part of the world. For example, we got to see Humboldt University where 29 Nobel Peace Prize winners have studied and where the original stories of the Grimm brothers are kept. After the tour we ran to find warmth and eat some good food…neither of those things happened. After finally gaining the feeling back in our bodies we realized the restaurant was just not AS cold as the outside and the soup we had was gross. But things got better once we took a visit to Ritter Sport to stuff our faces with the best chocolate we have ever had!

After stopping back at the hostel to figure out our next plans, preferably sooner rather than later since our hostel was one of the least welcoming environments we’ve been in and if we stayed too long you would start freaking yourself out by the people that were staying there. We decided to go the famous Hofbräuhaus for a liter of beer, a pretzel, and a great German atmosphere complete with a dance floor! We then attempted to venture into a different neighborhood and stumbled upon a cool candle-lit bar and on the walk back ended the night in the strangest disco kebab place for kebab #2 and ran into some rabbits on our walk home.

Saturday we hit up the East Side Gallery, which is the longest permanent open air gallery in the world! We then went to Alexanderplatz to walk around and enjoy some street food.  After getting lost, but luckily had a metro pass for the day so we didn’t have to freeze quite as much, we stumbled upon Potsdamer Platz where Christmas festivities were going on including a giant snow hill for people to tube down – we seriously were watching families and little kids going down this for 30 minutes - it was the perfect combination of hilarity and cuteness. Then on our way back to the hostel we ate kebab #3 for dinner.

Our last day we visited the Topography of Terror Museum since it was free and near our hostel and went back to the chocolate store Ritter Sport to make our own chocolate and enjoy some peppermint hot chocolate aka Christmas in a cup. My last meal being Curryworst we said goodbye to Berlin and could not wait to get back to Prague! It was a great family vacation but once again another trip done and we all could not help but talk about how much we belong in Prague. Most topics of conversation revolved around our love for kepabs, Prague, trying to understand the dislike of traveling but wanting to go everywhere, Prague, and complaining about how cold, tired, and in desperate need of a shower we were – but what’s a family vacation without complaints and whining? 

ONE MONTH LEFT. 
How do we measure...measure a month?

Kebabs. Photo credit to Sunny Wilson.

In fried cheese? In goulash? In dumplings? In mugs of beer? In movie nights? In pub crawls? In family dinners? In metro stops? In Kebabs? In Marcel's smirks at our pub? In the amount of times I say nemluvím český? In "Oh maños? In pitchers of sangria? In Sunny's pictures of trash? 

These are all sad, unfortunate questions to ponder. I think it's safe to say none of us are ready to leave this place. 





*ps I accidentally forget to hit publish on my last blog post until today so go read "keeping it glassy" if you want to read some outdated material to go with Facebook pictures of a week ago.

Keeping it Glassy

This past week has been very…Czech. Last weekend Marisa’s mom and grandma were visiting and treated us to an Organ Performance at the St. Martin in the Wall in Old Town followed by a delicious dinner at the famous Lokal for a typical Czech meal consisting of goulash, fried cheese, and pickled camembert. 

A meal I'm going to miss: goulash.

This week it was finally my turn to prepare Family Dinner and after going to 3 different grocery stores I was successful in finding all the ingredients for some enchiladas, which were a great success. The night would have been even better if my best friends back home were there and Molly could have played the song she so beautifully composed last year on the guitar about me entitled “EnchiLara”. After dinner, most of us then squeezed in the smallest apartment in R30 for a post-Halloween party since we couldn’t all be together during fall break.

Friday we went on our last program-lead field trip to the Glassworks! All the men were wearing slippers, opened button shirts, no gloves, and even when dealing with hot metal rods and fire they don’t find any harm drinking a beer. Actually, they are only allowed 4 beers a day but being in the Czech Republic for this long surrounded by construction workers in sandals and no hard hats we really were not surprised. We each got a chance to blow our own glass to make a vase and beer mug. None of us are exactly sure how we are going to get these things back home considering most of us packed our suitcases full coming here but we'll figure it out.  After we all attempted blowing glass we got to enjoy some yummy cesnecka and goulash and board the bus to go to yet another castle where most of us preferred to play with the leaves or create new fall fashions with twigs and buttons during the tour rather than listen.

Marisa blowing glass!

This coming week I unfortunately have been hit hard with the “study” part of “study abroad”  having all my midterms this week so wish me luck! Below I have compiled a list of things to do while in class...not that you should actually listen to me because I am feeling incredibly unprepared for these midterms of mine. 

Ways to keep busy in class:

• Make lists comparing your current teacher to a Hogwarts professor
• Write down observations.For example: a surprising amount of students were wearing flannel one day (myself included) 
• Make lists: Groceries, places you want to go, things you still need to do, things you want for Christmas, food you want your mom to send you, etc.
• Write postcards: Yes all postcards have been written during Global Economy and my midterm grade better not reflect it.
• Go old school and pass notes with a friend.
• Give dirty looks to the French boys behind you who won't shut up while the professor is talking

Buda Belly

The remainder of Fall Break Rachel, Sunny, Anna, and I decided to go back to Budapest since we agreed that the 24 hours we spent during our 5-day trip just wouldn’t cut it. Our first stop? The Szechenyi Baths for a girls' day!

Over the course of the trip I came to the realization that I will always choose food over museums. Not to say I don’t enjoy seeing original works of art, or old bones, rocks, books, clothes, and rooms where old important people who are now dead once sat. Honestly, history is one of my favorite subjects, but when you’re short on time and money I’m going to choose the option that will allow me to experience the culture in the most satisfying way possible: FOOD. I hope the following pictures won’t make you too…Hungary (had to). 

For our Halloween meal we went to Marxim: a pizza place with a communist theme. All the pizzas had very entertaining names like “Snow White and the Seven Small Proletariats” or the one I got: “Pussy Pussy Bill & Monica” which was covered in hot peppers, salami, paprika, mushrooms, cheese, onions, and for the sauce they bring you a little gravy boat to put it on yourself. Sunny and I decided to go halfsies so we could indulge in two different pizzas.

Thursday we only left the hostel once. This was due to the rainy weather and the fact that everything was closed for All Saints' Day. Since we didn't have any graves to visit we decided to venture to the fanciest cafe in Budapest, which was luckily open: Café Gerbeaud for some pricy but delicious chocolate and caramel ice cream. The café had a very Titanic vibe due to the 19th century decor, gorgeous fireplaces, and chandeliers. It is also home to a piano that was supposed to board the ship with Jack and Rose but it failed to make it on...that piano will never know it was a blessing in disguise.

So what else did we do in Budapest outside the world of food? We walked. A lot. Rachel and I visited the House of Terror, which is a museum now, but the building was the actual headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis where they would torture their victims. It was very eery walking into the actual cells people were tortured in, but it was the one museum Jan suggested we go to and I understand why. 

Margaret Island

Afterwards, we walked over to the beautiful park of Margaret Island but since it was getting cold and we still had a couple more hours until we had to meet up with Sunny and Anna to go to Granny's Pancake house, we decided to detour at Szeraj - Rachel's sister's recommendation for the best gyro. Even though the menu was all in Hungarian so I'm not sure what I even ate it was delicious and that's all that matters. 

Next stop: Nagyi Palacsintazoja! (Granny's Pancake House): Best Pancakes in Hungary!

Crépe #1: Ham, mushroom, cheese

Crépe #2: Nutella and cream

Crépe #3: Cinnamon

Sunny decided to go for the "salty layered" (meaning savory) and pictured in the bottom right. We don't even know what it consisted of or how many crépes made up that slice of happiness but we've all agreed everything should be served in crépe form from now on. Afterwards we once again admired the beauty of Budapest by night. 

Our last day we went to the Central Market where I know Dad would easily spend hours in and if my suitcase and airport security allowed it I would definitely bring back the salami that was as tall as me. Floors of Hungarian meats, cheeses, breads, whosits and whatsits galore! I decided to go for the chocolate croissant the size of my head. 

Photo credit: Sunny Wilson

Overall, I’ve come to the conclusion that I will always choose food over museums because you can see pictures of exhibits but you can’t taste my cinnamon crepe through the computer screen OR the 3 gyros I would consume within 24 hours. Hmm...maybe it was a bad idea blogging about all the food I ate. Oh well, NO REGRETS.  And after indulging in that much culture you have to work it off somehow. My suggestion is dancing: that is if you got the moves like MacDaddy:

A thing or 2 about hostels:

• “Free Breakfast”: This not only means free breakfast, it also means making a sandwich for lunch. That’s a 2-in-1 deal!
• Games: From personal experience I can proudly say I won Halloween Trivia, the winning question being name 2 actresses from Hocus Pocus and the prize being a free beer.
• Skyping: I prefer people to Skype in anything but English or else my eavesdropping gets in the way of my Facebooking.
• I now have more motivation to get a job so one day I can stay in hotels instead. I honestly don't know how you did this, Lyndsey.

Budapest round 2 was awesome: Buda is budaful and Pest is the best, but it is such a comfort to know Prague really has turned into my home away from home. I never appreciated my bed in apartment K17 more than when I got back after that 7 hour bus ride on Saturday. Prague really is something special and even though I haven’t traveled to too many other European cities I can’t imagine any of them topping Prague.