Londres: Esta Mas Cerca a Ver tu a Primo Aqui

My parents raised us not to be on time, but to show up early, even if that means just waiting in the parking lot until they unlock the doors. Their training persisted and when Emma and I created this trip, we had early trips leaving each city and leaving Brussels for London was no exception. Although our train ride was not too too early, we gave ourselves extra time as the customs to go in and out of the UK are thorough and they recommend getting there an hour and a half early to go through security that mirrors an airports.

We swiftly passed through, we were the head of the line, and then waited for our train to London. Again, the Eurostar train was so smooth I fell asleep. I cannot recommend it enough. The train plopped us right in St. Pancras Station, completing our circle of cities. We ubered to the AirBNB in Chelsea to drop our stuff off as we weren’t able to fully check in, and then wondered around the neighborhood. We didn’t make it far as we were very hungry. We had jet lag: it wasn’t 11 AM, it was noon which means lunchtime. The first restaurant in sight was right across the street, the Goat. Unfortunately, their kitchen didn’t open until noon, so we had a drink and chatted with the friendly host. He told us that it was a more new age restaurant that also had a bar upstairs and a speakeasy. When I asked him what English beer to drink, he pointed across the street to a pub that we had overlooked. The Goat wasn’t the GOAT when it came to beers. Nevertheless, I got a Spanish beer, which they did have. He also gave us a long list of things to do, but we only had two days, so we checked off maybe one or two things from his list. We did take him up on his recommendation and went across the street after lunch.

Now this was the quintessential pub. The wood bar, the sports banners, cricket on the TV. I knew I would get a good British brew here, and that’s what I did. Turns out, I don’t love British brews. They’re served room temperature and didn’t have a lot of flavor, but I tried it. They also had Fish n Chips, which was on my bucket list. It was too bad we had already eaten. So, we whiled the hours playing cards and trying to figure out how to play cricket before officially checking in to the AirBNB.

After settling, our jet lagged hunger struck again and we searched for a place for food. Our sights settled on Ollie’s, an Asian fusion restaurant. Although a tad spicy, the food we ordered off the prix fixe was delicious. We also learned something about happy hours. We’re from puritanical Massachusetts where happy hour, if a restaurant has it, only applies to food. Here we found ourselves in the country we freed ourselves from and they knew how to do happy hour. We spotted the sign immediately and each put in our order for two for one drinks: we were going to save so much money. Imagine our surprise when all of our drinks came out two of each like they were disembarking Noah’s Cocktail Ark. It was certainly a good surprise and we were good for the rest of the night.

I didn’t drink them all, but let’s just say no drink went to waste.

As with each city, we had two full days in London and we hit the ground running. Our first stop, the British Museum. We added it to our itinerary when we saw Hammurabi's Code as it reminded us of the Rosetta Stone, which was housed in the British Museum. The line was long, curving around the block, and we didn’t have tickets. We ultimately said, “screw it” and hopped in line. This would be the second time that YOLOing it worked in our favor. We waited even less than the Louvre and the museum was free (they did ask for donations). Soon after, we found the Rosetta Stone. When I gazed upon it, I learned a new language: speaking with your elbows. Everyone was trying to get their photo of one of the most well known rocks in the world, and I was no exception. After I snapped a shot, I did appreciate the fine etchings demonstrating the same sentences in three different languages. What a lucky find!

Quickly, we tired of the museum as there were a lot of people and there was more of the city we wanted to see. We left and headed to Piccadilly Circus, a smaller Times Square and then through Trafalgar Square and then to Big Ben. I honestly didn’t think I was going to be impressed with Big Ben, but it was spectacular. It was so shiny and big and told us the time. It’s kind of like an iPhone. At this point we were swimming with all of the tourists, but we wanted to get to the Thames to see the London Eye that we kept swimming. The walk to the Thames was slower than the walk back towards Westminster Abbey, and fortunately we didn’t lose anyone. From here, we wanted to see Buckinham Palace. We were trying to knock out as many places as possible in one day. Unfortunately, our bodies needed fuel, so we stopped at several restaurants before finding one that didn’t have a 45 minute food wait (it ended up being 35 minutes). It was here that I drew an x next to Fish n Chips and enjoyed a quite delicious meal.

A close, close-up of Big Ben with my 20x zoom digital camera.

Next, we continued to Buckinham Palace and saw the building that felt reminiscent of the White House albeit a different color. We had one more palace to get to, so we set off through Green Park, towards Hyde Park, and then ultimately Kensington Palace. It might have been that it was after sunset, so we couldn’t see much, but I wasn’t impressed with Kensington. Definitely not the place I would shack up if I were royalty. This was the last site we had on our list for the day, and good thing too because we had special, impromptu plans to meet up with a family back in Chelsea.

The family in question, our own! My mom’s first cousin and his family had also been in London…staying in Chelsea. We found a bar in the middle and met up for a pint, as the locals say. It was actually Fizzy Friday, so our group split two bottles of champagne. It’s not everyday that it’s Fizzy Friday. I remember meeting Cousin Rob and Lou Carol maybe 10 or so years ago, so there was a lot to catch up on. We chatted so long that when they left, they were actually 15 minutes late for their dinner reservation, and we had chosen this time early to avoid that. All in all, it was great catching up with family, but who knew that the closest point between Indiana and Massachusetts is Chelsea.

Our last day was finally here. First things first, we HAD to go to Abbey Road and re-enact the iconic photo. See how close (or far) we got below. Then the strategy was to go further down the Thames from the day prior and do the sights we had left. We started at Borough Market, which was a lively area with amazing foods. From there, we walked across the famous London Bridge. You can probably picture it. It looks big and ornate and is in every scene of a London romcom. Well, you’re picturing the wrong bridge. That would Tower Bridge. London Bridge, known for falling down, is the oldest bridge that spans that Thames and really looks like a normal bridge. No pomp or fanfare. From the bridge, you do get a great view of Tower Bridge, the Shard, the tallest building in the UK, and the Tower of London. The Tower of London was our next destination, so we walked along the Thames, by the Balloon Museum, a venture for a future trip, towards the Tower of London. 

If you don’t know the Tower of London, its biggest claim to fame is that it houses the royal family jewels. This would be the second set of royal jewels that I see on this trip; I probably should have sought out the Belgian ones. The jewels did not disappoint. How can a rock be worth so much money? They had me entranced just as all of those waiting in line with me. The jewels were by far the longest line we had to wait in within the Tower of London court. One of my favorite if not the saddest parts was the exhibit on the animals that were kept in this castle. A former king had a polar bear that he used to put on a leash so he could fish in the Thames. Fortunately, the animals are no longer housed here, but it was another reminder of the lifestyle of the rich and royal.

Sitting in solidarity to my animal brethren.

Sites had been seen. Food had been eaten. Drink had been drunk. We accomplished everything we could on our trip and the final activity was Secret Santa. I won’t go into every gift, but I had my dad and got him several souvenir coins and one real, defunct Belgian Franc as my dad likes collecting coins. Everyone did a great job with their gifts. After we swapped gifts, we packed all of our gifts and souvenirs into our small suitcases and prepared for our trip home. It was crazy how fast 9 days went and how it felt like such little time but also we fit so much into each day. Possibly the most impressive is how we didn’t kill each other. We had some tight living quarters but we all made it work. We also didn’t kill my dad, making him walk tens of thousands of steps every day. That being said, I think we all agreed that our next trip was going to be to a resort with a beach. Until the next time I come back after forgetting I have a blog, haste luego!

Bruselas: Donde Las Luces Bailan Por Los Edificios

Another train, another city. We woke up early to catch our train, thinking that the customs we passed through for our train to Paris from London, would also require additional time. It didn’t, so we quickly became acquainted with our new favorite breakfast-on-the-go chain: Pret A Manger. Sorry Dunkin. Once we were fueled and caffeinated, we boarded the train to…sleep for the hour and a half train ride to Brussels.

Now, I had been to Paris before, about 12 years ago, but now we were entering new territory with Brussels. Not that I was scared of going to a new city. In reality, I enjoy it. Rather, I came to Paris with ideas on where things are and how to get around, and for Brussels, I didn’t know much at all. This wasn’t a problem for one big reason: Brussels isn’t that big.

The family arrived at the hotel to drop our things off before check-in, and then we were off. My strategy for travel is to get all of the site seeing out of the way early and then spend your remaining time enjoying the city. At a local cafe, we pulled up a walking tour app and mapped out where to go. We started with my personal favorite building: the city hall, Hotel de Ville. In a long plaza surrounded by beautiful buildings that I would say are typical of European cities, and smack in the middle is this gothic building that has a short wing. Rumor has it that the architect wanted to make the two wings even, but that would require closing a popular street and through way. The town preferred to keep the street and the architect was ridiculed for the asymmetry of the cities most important building. Immediately opposite of the town hall is a building called the King’s House which was erected for the Spanish to stay at and keep an eye on the people when they were under Spanish rule. The Belgians were not very fond of Spain, for good reason, but they weren’t convincing enough during our trip to shift my allegiances. Please read blog posts below for more detail.

From there, we walked down a road to the Stock Exchange, La Bourse. This landmark was very important as it was on the same street as our hotel. The building itself is very impressive, looking like a large bank. It didn’t function as a bank nor as a stock exchange as the stock exchange relocated. It was used now as a glimpse through history and also a beer garden. I knew that Belgian and I would get along since they seem to love beer possibly more than I  do. 

We then went to possibly the most loved landmark: Manneken Pis. Get your mind out of the gutter, pis can mean something different in a different language. In this language, however, it means what you think it means. This statue depicts a boy peeing into a fountain. The mythos is that when Brussels was being attacked, a child foiled the invading armies attack by peeing on a fuse. Whatever the story, the child is immortalized with what was possibly the most crowded attraction that we went to. He also dons many outfits and today he was not wearing his birthday suit. He was wearing a Santa hat and shirt with a bib number affixed to it. There are also other peeing statues including a girl, Jeanneken Pis, and a dog, Het Zinneke. These have no relation to the original statue and were created much after. We still checked them off of our list.

Continuing to piss the day away, we walked to Place Sainte-Catherine. Now, the Bourse had a small Christmas market, but the one in this square was much bigger and included a steampunk carousel that the children, and myself if I’m being honest, ate up. I had never seen a ride like that and was tempted to hop in line myself. 

Just a stone’s throw away was by far the biggest market we saw was in the plaza Marche aux Poissons, the Fish Market. We didn’t end up spending much time as it was time for us to go on our Chocolate Tour.

For our mom’s birthday, we gifted her the experience of a chocolate tour of Brussels best and well known chocolate shops. Our tour guide, Nina, was amazing. She first started with a brief history of Brussels and explained why we had been seeing street signs in both French and Dutch. The explanation was simple, given the location, and the history of different peoples passing through Belgium, the country has two official languages: French and Dutch. We had just used rudimentary French in Paris, so when I conversed with locals, I used French. Had we come from the Netherlands, maybe we would’ve spoken Dutch. 

The tour continued, we were located in what I can describe as a covered street lined by shops, or, in other words, a mall. Here in Las Galerias Royales Saint-Hubert, there were three chocolate shops we were pursuing. We started at Leonidas, a large Belgian brand with sweet chocolate, and then went to Neuburger who created his chocolates to make bitter medicines more palatable. The last stop here was to Mary’s, a rare female run chocolate chain with delicious chocolate and beautiful boxes for these treats. Mary’s chocolate was so renowned that she was the official chocolatier to the king, and I understand because the chocolate was delicious. The three shops in this mall were typical chocolates and the last two shops we were to see were more experimental.  These shops definitely did not have bad chocolate, but definitely more unique ways to create chocolates that required infusing and playing around with the bitterness.

The phases of chocolate.

All in all, the tour was a great way to get acquainted with the city. We regrouped at the hotel where some rested and others walked around the city before dinner. Our reservation was actually close to where the chocolate tour started, so we knew how to get there and budgeted enough time. When we left the hotel, there was a lot of people and a lot of commotion. Upon further inspection, there was a barrier on the sidewalk and we couldn’t cross in the direction we needed to go to for dinner. Once I saw a group of people crossing, I took the chance expecting my family to be behind me. I was admonished by a cop and my family had stayed on the other side. At this point, there was no visible way to cross and we were separated without cellular data to contact each other. We had the same destination, so I made my way there and two minutes after I arrived, the rest of the family joined me. It turned out that the outfit of Manneken Pis was informing us that the day after Christmas road race was occurring, which explained the barriers. 

After dinner, all of the commotion had ended and we decided to take our parents sneakily to the Gran Place for 10:00 PM. Why? Well, when Jared and Emma had went on their own after the chocolate tour, they discovered that every hour, the city of Brussels performs a light show that has projections on the city hall and the exterior lights on the other buildings changed colors and flickered rhythmically. It was amazing. The current theme was of Native American art and it really came alive against the city hall. It was a beautiful way to conclude our first day.

City hall covered in flowers and the surrounding buildings complementing.

The agenda for day two was simple: cover the landmarks that were a little further out, eat waffles, and beer. These landmarks were quick and included the EU Parliament, the Royal Palace, and Mont des Artes. It was quick to do and we found ourselves at the first stop of our brewery crawl that Emma created: Delirium Tremens. Now, I had seen their logo throughout Europe, but I had no clue how globally recognized they were nor that they had made an alley in Brussels into a brewery, tequileria, cafe, and absinthe house. We were there for beers, so between Emma, Spencer, and myself, we split a 10 beer flight. Also, because it was cheap and, you know, when in Brussels, we also did an absinthe shot. The shot went down like swallowing fire, but the beers were overall good. Some expiremental ones missed the boat, but one of my favorites being the cactus beer. The beer wasn’t the only cool thing, each building was so neat. The cafe in the basement where we set up base had what looked like bottle caps the size of frisbees decorating the ceiling and posters of different beers adorning the walls. I probably could have stayed all day there, but knowing how crowded it gets, we went to our second destination.

This is our face post absinthe shot.

Our second stop was a waffle house. I just needed to have a Belgian waffle in Belgium. Although the line was long due to one of the waffle irons being out of commission, it was certainly worth the wait for the strawberry and ice cream waffle I got. Then the beer tour continued. We went to two more bars before getting the recommendation to go to La Machine, a steampunk bar with amazing drinks. They even had a mechanical dragon on the ceiling. We scooted from here to the final brewery, Brasserie Surrealiste, for a beer in a beautiful venue. We then went to dinner: underneath the Gran Place in a quaint, read: small, restaurant. Our parents had trouble finding the place, but they made it there eventually.

And so concludes our two day sprint through Brussels. Now, off to London!

Paris: La Primera Parada Para Las Fiestas

Wow, this seat hasn’t been sat in in a while. Let me roll it back and forth a few times. Ah, this is the familiar chair I used to write these blog posts in. I can’t believe I’m back! I’ll thank Emma and mum for bringing up journaling on our trip. I didn’t have the means to write this while on the trip, so after being back for a week, I thought that I would journal about the family’s trip to Europe (and former EU-nations)! Unfortunately, “family” does not include my new husband as he had to work, but we still endeavored into the city of love with 3 full couples as tribute, and me, the 7th wheel.

Our story starts before even getting onto a plane. Emma and I had planned the trip and in order to maximize time, we scheduled a train right after we landed in London to Paris. At the time, this seemed like a good idea, but as the trip approached, I got increasingly nervous that something would happen and we’d miss the train and start our trip off to a poor start. I wasn’t able to sleep on the flight because of it, which is unlike me because I can fall asleep anywhere. My fears were unfounded and we booked it from the plane, through customs, where he had to collect our forced-checked bags, and then made it on the Tube to St. Pancras where we boarded the famous Eurostar to dive beneath the English Channel. I would say that it was super cool, but this is where I fell asleep. It was a smooth ride from London to Paris.

Now, our original plan, to maximize time, was to go from Gare du Nord station to a suitcase drop off location right next to the Louvre so we could see the museum on our first day since we got to Paris around 1pm. The poor start that I feared did not occur, but another fear that we should have been aware of did darken our door. In trying to get from Gare du Nord to the Louvre, we used Paris’ metro system as it is quick and affordable. What we didn’t anticipate was that a family of 7 with their suitcases, jet lagged hobbling around the station made us perfect marks for pickpocketers. Our train came and a rush of people boarded. My instincts from traveling and being a commuter is to push all the way in away from the doors, so that’s where I went with three of our group. The three that remained were my mom, dad, and sister, who stayed by the doors. The two groups were now separated by a group of people where we could see them but couldn’t talk to them. All of a sudden, I hear Emma yell, “I’ve got your suitcase!” Which alerted everyone with me that something was going on. We couldn’t get towards my family so we watched as onlookers, hearing my dad yell, then seeing him smile and shake a guy’s hand. At the next stop they got off, and we only had a few more stops to go. Once we got to the Louvre stop, we disembark and Emma turns to us, “Dad got his wallet stolen.”

Apparently, many distractions were aimed at my dad: they were playing with his suitcase, they spilled soda on him, they apologized and shook his hand, and then got off at the next station. In all of the commotion, my dad’s wallet was stolen. Thankfully, he had stored his phone and passport separately. All in all, they got 50 € and tried to put $7,000 of expenses on the credit cards, which were immediately flagged by the credit companies who froze the cards. A bumpy start to the trip, but it definitely could have been worse. Anyways, this is why, instead of heading to the Louvre on the first day, we went straight to the AirBNB.

Our first night included a delicious dinner at the AirBNB’s recommendation and a walk around the Eiffel Tower and the Christmas Market. We pulled names for Secret Santa and these Christmas Markets, as there were markets in each of the three cities, served as great places to get presents. We pulled names on day one and were going to give the gifts on the last day of our trip.

Day two was an aggressive day from the get go. We had to accomplish two major sites because they both would be closed the following day, Christmas. You think they would keep them open for all of the tourists, and there were so many of us, but alas, we had to fit them both in the same day. These two sites were Versailles, a 30 min train out of the city, and The Louvre, another reason we had hoped to include it in our first day. Nevertheless, we were determined. We woke up early and went west to Versailles, walking around the gardens before our ticketed time to enter the palace. Now, I had been to Versailles when I was in Paris 12 years prior, but it still amazed me at the grandiosity of the rooms and the art. The hall of mirrors lived up to my memory as well, but some of the best views were the ceilings. Each room had a Greek god looking down on you from above. I’m still in awe at the luxury of it and understand why the French rose up against the monarchs.

We didn’t give enough time for rest and took the train back but going past our stop and continued on towards the Louvre. Traveling pro tip: there are ticketed times slots for the Louvre. They sell out and can be inconvenient if you don’t know what time you’re going to get there after seeing Versailles. There’s also a line for those that just show up. This line is often shorter and you can get in with the ticketed holders. Although not guaranteed, I can say that our experience had us waiting about half an hour and then we were in! The Louvre was our oyster.

I had not visited the Louvre before, so I was eager to see all of the must-sees. We beelined for the Mona Lisa, knowing that we wouldn’t stand in line, but to see it from afar was good enough. Then we moseyed around the massive building. Some of the highlights included sarcophaguses (stolen), the Crown Jewels (not stolen), and Hammurabi's Code (stolen). The Code was interesting because it was something we’ve been taught since middle school as being the oldest evidence of written law. It even includes an early version of innocent until proven guilty. After walking both buildings, we were exhausted and headed back to the AirBNB to rest before dinner. All in all, we walked over 28,000 steps and saw two of the best monuments of Paris. 

The painting that hangs opposite the Mona Lisa. Pretty impressive, right?

Despite the amount of steps, we still decided to go out for a nice drink at a rooftop bar near the AirBNB. Our AirBNB was close to the Eiffel Tower and, because of the hotel’s location, the 11th floor overlooked the Eiffel Tower. Pretty cool! We took the elevator and entered the bar. On our way in, we saw a sign that had 230€, but didn’t take too much notice, that is, until we ordered. The drinks were slightly expensive, but we could see the Eiffel Tower, so it justified the price. That’s what started freaking us out, if the drink prices were reasonable, could that 230€ have been the cover or a minimum? Well, if that was the case, we were going to get our money’s worth. We went twice out on the balcony to get the photos of the Eiffel Tower that we had paid for. We also ordered a second drink, but because of the poor service, instead of the pour service, we didn’t end up getting it. Nervously, we asked for the check, and to our surprise, we paid only for the drinks we ordered, so a view of the Eiffel Tower for only 21€, not too shabby. It turns out that the 230€ was for VIP service, so we were spared of an expensive tab.

Honestly, that could be a 230€ view.

We had to get creative with our third and final day, as it was Christmas and not much was open. Before heading out, we celebrated my brother’s birthday as best we could while abroad. This included two birthday cards, one that was for someone turning 25 and the other for someone turning 3. Hey, we scrounged up what we could find.

Just because it was Christmas Day didn’t mean that we had to sit at home with our family. I know that’s what it means normally, but we were in frickin’ Paris, so we did some site seeing. Using the public transportation, which had scarred us on our first day but had treated us well throughout, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur. I had never seen the Arc up close, and man, is it impressive with all of the detail and the sheer size of it. I was also impressed at the 12 way intersection, one of my worse nightmares. If they work like any of the rotaries in the US, there must be so many accidents with people not knowing what yield means. Sacre Coeur is also an impressive beast of its own. It sits atop a hill about 3.5 miles from the Eiffel Tower. What always strikes me is how white the building is. It is said that after rainy days, the church shines even brighter. We lucked out as it had been spitting that morning.

From Sacre Coeur, we went back towards the neighborhood we were staying at, catching the Louvre pyramid lit up at night and the Christmas Market that was right beside it. This market was packed with people that we could barely move. Once we had did one length, we exited and went back to our familiar Christmas Market. It was there that we got beer, mulled wine, and chicken shawarma. I was reminded that shawarma is so plentiful in Europe. It’s much harder to find in the US.

There was no going out on this night as we had to catch a train to Brussels early in the morning. The Ubers were ordered to pick us up at 6:30 AM, we were no longer risking the metro while carrying our suitcases. We’d learned from our mistakes.

Berlin: Un Cuento de Dos Ciudades

We spent the most time in Berlin; a complete week.  At first glance, it was a great amount of time where we could relax and get to know the city.  Compared to all of the other cities, however, it was a long period of time for sight seeing.  We were located in a great location as we were near Checkpoint Charlie: a border crossing between East and West Germany.  Although the countries weren't actually in power, the two countries had it manned until 1989 when the wall fell.

On our first day, we went and bought essentials: food (as to not spend too much money), shaving cream and a razor (because I had a beard or as close as I had ever gotten to having one), and we did laundry.  On the second day, we decided to do another walking tour of Berlin.  It was a tour that was supposed to last 3 hours that ended up taking 5.  We walked all over Berlin, which is a big city, and learned so much history about the Prussian Kingdom and, obviously, about World War II.  Berlin has an incredible history in such a short period of time and we didn't even mind that the tour ended late; it was free!  We even continued afterwards.

Our tour guide asked if anyone wanted to get beers after the tour and most of us said yes and we grabbed beers and headed towards the river right in front of the giant cathedral.  Our tour guide even called it the real Berlin experience because it is a common activity for young people and we were participating in it.  We found out that Berlin is an extremely international city.  Our tour guide was Irish and we met an Australian, another American, a Canadian, and two actual Germans.  It was an incredible night and a great way to start to our week.

The next night, we participated in a bar crawl after we climbed the Radisson Hotel to get the best view of the city.  This recommendation was actually made by our tour guide because you see all of the monuments for 10€ less than the famous Televison Tower and the TV Tower even shows in the pictures.  We timed it perfectly as when we were leaving the top it started to downpour and we ran to the metro.  By the time that we exited the metro, it had stopped raining and we made it back to our hostel to prepare for the bar crawl.  We stayed out until 4 AM which was late for some of us, but we had a blast.  It was incredible because while we were walking back to the hostel, the sun was coming out and we took a picture at Checkpoint Charlie with the lilac sky in the background.

We didn't think that we would want to do anything the next day, but we went walking by a strip of the Berlin wall that gave you an insight for Jews before and during the war and then the Berliners after the war.  It's incredible what other humans do to each other and this was in the 20th Century!

Now, if you haven't traveled with me, you might not know that I love castles and palaces.  I guess I just see them as potential future houses.  It turns out that a 40 minute train ride from Berlin is a town that has a garden of palaces that were either used by the royalty or used as summer homes.  We spent the majority of the day there seeing the gardens and the palaces, but we only went in one of them: the New Palace.  This was the last residence of the Prussian Kings before they were exiled to the Netherlands.  It reminded me a lot of Versaille and the Vienna Palace meaning that there was a clear sense of luxury and money put into the design.  It would make a great second house.

After the palaces, we decided to get dinner at the best kebab place in Berlin at a restaurant called Mustafa's.  It's lest of a restaurant and more of a stand and we're not talking about shish kebob, we're talking about pita bread full of shaved meat, lettuce, and sauces.  Well, in this particular stand, you bring your 3€ and not only do they include the original ingredients, they stuff it with peppers, eggplant, and add a spicy sauce.  It was one of the best kebabs I've had in my life and I ate them a lot in Spain.

Sometimes surprises happen and you just have to go with it.  This instance happened our last full day in Berlin.  We had climbed the Reichstag (German Parliament) and didn't know what we were going to do for dinner.  As luck would have it, one of the directors of my study abroad program saw that I was in Berlin and she invited us to Spanish tapas for dinner.  Obviously, I was over the moon.  This was an authentic Spanish experience where all of the employees are natives.  The food was magnificent and cheap.  It brought back memories of Spain and for a second I forgot in what country I was.  I even got to practice my Spanish although only sentences here and there as Emma doesn't know the language. I was in heaven.

REflecting back on Berlin, it was definitely a livable city as in I could see myself living there.  It would come in a close second to Spain as a place where I could see myself.  Maybe if they had more authentice Spanish tapas...

Praga: La Vengaza del Golem

Our next stop on our Eurotrip was Prague.  Prague was a top locale on my list because of all of the rave reviews from others that had gone there.  It did not disappoint as it has an enormous old part of the city and our hostel was inside of it.  It took five minutes to get to the main square that was so cool and quaint that we would just sit there to take it all in.

This trip started early as we got to our hostel at 9:00 AM when check-in was at 3:00 PM.  The hostel was so accommodating that they allowed us to drop off all of luggage, gave us breakfast, and wifi.  Reception even recommended a Free Walking Tour to pass the time that started at 11:00 and went until 2:00.  We took her up on that offer and went on the tour.  This decision turned out to be a great one as we got acquainted with the city from our very first moments in the city.  We toured the historical center of the city, saw the Prague Castle, and met the old Jewish section.  Our tour guide even told us the story about the golem created to protect the Jews but ultimately caused too much destruction and they had to destroy it.  We saw the synagogue where Rabbi Loew created and destroyed this clay monster.  I loved the story so much that I bought myself a little golem of my own.

After the tour we got typical Prague goulash with a pretzel.  We also wanted to try our palette with Prague beer as it is very well known.  We ordered the pilsner but got confused with our units and order 1 Liter each.  We were shocked to see how big the liter mugs were and even more surprised that it cost around $5.  Why's that? Well, the Czech Koruna is pretty weak right now and $1 is 24 czech koruna.  We were so happy! This city was the complete opposite of Geneva.

The next day, we decided to check out the Jewish museums, which is a string of synagogues and museums all under the same ticket.  It was a very emotional journey as the main reason that these buildings and artifacts were spared during the German occupation of the Czech Republic was because Hitler wanted to save this city as a tourist attraction for people who wanted to see an extinct religion.  Thankfully, it is used as a museum, but for a persevering religion with a rich history.  Doing these museums took up the entire day.  At night, we met a Mexican and a Venezuelan and went out with them.  I was so excited to use Spanish again.  Not having constant conversations in Spanish is definitely going to give me culture shock when I get back home.

The next couple of days were filled with sightseeing.  We walked around the main plaza that had my favorite attraction: the astronomical clock.  This enormous clock tells momre than the time; it tells you the position of the sun, the phase of the moon, and even the astrological sign of the moment all based on complicated math problems from 1410.  Yeah, it made us feel pretty stupid too.  I was so torn because I wanted the clock to be my souvenir, but after hearing the story of the golem, I changed my mind.

We also climbed up to Prague castle, the largest palace in Europe today.  We got another ticket that allowed us to go into many places including the lavish cathedral in the center and the palace itself.   We even entered a small street that resembled diagon alley and is where many famous Czechs lived.  Unfortunately, good weather didn't accompany us and we got a little wet.

After 4 days in Prague, when we had to leave, I decided that I could've studied abroad there, but it wouldn't be a city that I'd live in.  This little city is very touristic and caters to the tourists so much so that it was impossible to find a typical Czech experience.  I don't think we met even one Czech.  It was still a beautiful city though that I could have walked around for many more days.  Next off to Berlin!

Ginebra: Se Paga Triple Por Un Kebab

The beginning of our sibling adventure started in Geneva.  Emma and I had planned a massive Eurotrip through 6 cities in one month.  I was working in Spain and she had recently graduated from college.  Being in two different countries, we needed to time our flights to arrive at nearly the same hour to meet up.  We wouldn't have any wifi or smart phones to connect us; we had to rely on good old fashioned timing.  Emma did have to suffer through a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam, but all her exhaustiveness went away when we saw each other in the baggage claim on June 2nd.

Without saying anything, we both had one thing on our mind: food.  After checking into an Air bnb, we went to the only open restaurant on Tuesdays after 11:30 PM, McDonald's.  Here, we received our wake up call that Geneva was flipping expensive.  Our meal cost over $25, more than triple the prices in America and Spain.  This realization became the norm and we immediately became conscious of what we were spending.  Although we tried, it didn't help too much seeing as everything had unified prices.  We tried not to let this get to us, however, we had a budget and we couldn't drain it all in our first city.  In order to do this, we chose to do more walking.

Our first full day in Geneva, we walked the old district.  It was a great test for Emma's new FitBit as we were walking up and downhill all day.  The old town is also in between the center and where we were living so we went up and down several staircases.  We saw the first big church of Geneva which had reached the level of cathedral.  We passed through the gates and noticed it's massive size for such a small town.  After, we entered the oldest house in Geneva called Maison Tavel.  This turned out to be a perfect start to our trip as it gave us the entire history of Geneva starting from the Ice Age to current day Geneva.  Up to now all of this was free and we were learning a lot.  Then we went to the archaeological museum to see the remnants of the first church upon which the cathedral was built.

We also saw two very famous monuments of Genva: the flower clock and the Jet d'Eau.  The former is the second largest flower clock in the world.  A flower clock is exactly like it sounds except that the hands aren't made of flowers. It makes sense that they once had the largest in the world since Switzerland is known for its impeccable watches.  While looking a little above the flower clock, you see a never ending stream of water.  This is the latter monument: the Jet d'Eau.  Originally, a method of releasing the water pressure within Lake Geneva, it is now a principal symbol of Geneva.  It's incredible seeing this jet of water tower over everything and it even became a reference point for when we got lost.

Finally, we went to the Clock Museum.  This museum is dedicated to Patek and Phillipe, two famous watchmakers of Geneva.  They showed us a great collection of watches that were hundreds of years old and later showed us some of the most impressive watches that this famous pair made.  Finally, they told us about the most complicated watch in the world and how it works.  A lot of that went right over my head, but when I was watching the video, I thought I could reproduce the watch in my very own workshop.  And that's how we concluded our first day.  It turns out that outside of food, you don't really need to spend a lot of money in Geneva.  However, the second day, we did spend a little bit more. 

One of the few things that we did know about Geneva was the United Nations.  So we chose our second day to go to the Palais du Nations, the European center of the UN.  This didn't cost us money to get to as wee walked the long trek to the palace, however, we  we did pay the cover charge for the guided tour, which was totally worth it.  The Palace of Nations is such a beautiful building, and this branch of the UN deals with many humanitarian issues and peace efforts.  The tour was really informative and we enjoyed every minute.  On the way back to the apartment, we followed the river and then stopped to have lunch.  We took a break and watched the gorgeous aquamarine waters that reminded us so much of Lake Winnepesaukee.

The next two days we took really slow getting to know the beautiful city of Geneva.  Although not very touristy, it did have it's special nooks and crannies like the parks next to the river Rhone or the Mediterannean style Carouge.  We saw the sights less travelled and made living in Geneva affordable.  Our second stop was Prague!

Budapest y Estambul: Eres El Hombre Con Más Suerte y El Hombre Con Menos Suerte

Uh oh.  I did it again.  I went on a trip and I didn't blog about it.  I don't know what's gotten into me, I used to love writing about my adventures and reliving them through writing and photos.  Somehow, it's gotten away from me.  I could continue to make false promises, but that's not who I am.  It's who I was, but not who I am no, I swear.

And there were baths!

Anyways, the last trip I took was to two amazing cities and countries.  Over semana santa, or holy week, I went to Budapest, Hungary and Istanbul, Turkey.  Budapest was just like any European city that I had been to, but it had its quirks, which I will get into later.  Istanbul, on the other hand, had much more Islamic influence that was noted in much of the architecture.  That being said, it was also extremely European, even on the Asian side.

Having been to Vienna, I saw many similarities with Budapest.  For instance they have a similar looking palace and architecture.  Both cities also have a rich history, however Budapest was on the receiving end of many empires and cultures including the Austrians.  They also were sacked by the Ottomans and bombed by the Nazis.  After all of this damage, Budapest has become a cheap city with lots of buildings that represent its tough history.

The mosque

On that note I want to mention my favorite part of Budapest, the ruin bars.  These bars were once buildings: cafeterias, apartment buildings, theaters, that they were going to destroy, but someone bought them and made them into a bar.  That means that we were drinking in wide open buildings with different rooms.  Some places used these rooms to play different styles of music.  Some people used these rooms to make some quieter places outside of the loud bass of the songs.  There were some with a giant dance floor and some with giant figures hanging from the ceiling.  Each place was a different hipster's paradise.

Other than bar life, Budapest also has the second largest synagogue in the world.  This religious building is absolutely stunning from the outside.  Unfortunately, we didn't want to pay the steep price to enter, but I'm sure the inside would have been just as spectacular.  One site that we did enter was the palace.  Unlike Vienna, this palace didn't have much to offer.  The entrance fee was surprisingly cheap compared to the other palaces that I've been to in Europe and it's because there really doesn't remain too much from all the different eras.

One interesting sight in Budapest was the St. Stephen's Basicila, this large church that was right next to where we were staying in the Air BNB.  It was truly stunning, but what really stuck with me was the original hand of St. Stephen.  Yeah, they had it cased in a room and it looked just like you would expect a hand to look like after 1,000 years.

And this doesn't even come close to all that we saw in Budapest and we were there for only 2 and a half days!

We were in Istanbul for 5 days and boy was it worth it.  Budapest was similar to Vienna because they are both smaller cities that are easily walkable.  Istanbul, on the other hand, is a gigantic city with half of the city being on the Asian continent.  It isn't as easily walked, but that doesn't mean we didn't do it.

Looking at Asia from the European side

Istanbul has three main sections.  One is where we stayed, called Beyoglu, and then there is the Golden Horn with many beautiful mosques, and finally there's the Asian side, which doesn't have too much, but is an experience in itself.  Now, I'll rate each side and my favorite parts of each zone.

The Turkish drink tea with every meal

We started with Beyoglu.  Now, I said before about how Istanbul isn't as European, but I don't want to convey that it doesn't have a European feel because it does.  Especially in Beyoglu where there were many buildings that had the stature of European styled buildings.  The biggest difference for me was really the mosques.  I don't think I had ever seen a mosque in my life until I went to Istanbul and they were everywhere.  You could find them easily because they had at least on large pillar outside of a court yard.  This is where they used to climb to call the worship.  Now, they use speakers to call to worship.  It was strange being in a country where the primary religion was Islam, however that soon passed.

Anyways, in Beyoglu, my favorite part was definitely a palace.  For those non-histoy buffs out there, there were two giant empires that called Istanbul their capital.  These empires were the Byzantine and the Ottoman.  The Ottomans were the most recent one and they have many structures still standing.  That's not to say that the Byzantines don't.  In fact, many of the standing Ottoman structures still hold Byzantine architecture.  In this case, my favorite site was an Ottoman palace.  When the Ottomans got bored, they built a new palace and this was the most recent one.  It was amazing to see the luxurious life that they led.  The theme for this palace was gold and glass.  They actually have the largest chandelier in Europe! A gift from Queen Victoria.  Anyways, this was by far my favorite place that we entered and one of the more beautiful ones.

Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

The Golden Horn was the second zone that we visited and it was chock-full of mosques.  It even houses the Hagia Sofia, an old mosque that houses Byzantine art and the Blue Mosque, which was my favorite one.  It was so grand from the outside looking like a castle and mountains and the painted walls on the inside left you breathless.  What's great about mosques is that they are free to enter.  You do need to conform to their religious laws which means that you have to remove your shoes and women must cover their heads with scarves.

The Golden Horn also some of the oldest cisterns in the city.  Although they used to be used for water storage, they are a popular tourist attraction now.  I didn't realize it until I went down there, but I had read a book where the cisterns play a major role.  I was walking and I thought, this place seems familiar, almost as if I had been there before.  Later, I looked it up and I had read about it in a book!  Another fun activity on this side of Istanbul is the Grand Bazaar, a giant market that was built centuries ago and still exists to this day.  Now, they sell knock-offs for fractions of the price and just haggling is an experience in itself.  It was something I had never done before and I ended up buying presents for some of you back home.

Finally, the Asian side.  We spent a full day here and we quickly learned that there weren't many special monuments here.  We did have the best Turkish Breakfast here.  A Turkish breakfast consists of jam, honey, all types of cheese, olives, butter, bread, eggs, and meat.  All of that food was only 7€!  It filled us up for the day.  Right after we went on a walk and saw the few sights like a lighthouse in the middle of the Bosphorus Strait.  We were then told about the best place to see Istanbul and we took the 2 mile climb to see a jaw dropping view of the city, the one you can see above.  The hike was worth it to see such a beautiful city from amazing heights.  We walked around the Asian side some more and then went home.

And that was it.  Well, not all of it, but I can't write any more or people won't read it! So there you have it.  This was a trip I took a month ago and I just got around to writing about it.  I hope for those of you who have read this entire post that you've enjoyed it and if you didn't hopefully you enjoyed the pictures!