Tuesday 17 April 2012

Budapest & Prague

This year, I spent Easter weekend in Budapest and Prague! We arrived late on Thursday night in Budapest and went straight to bed. Friday morning, we went to the train station to buy our train tickets to Prague. The plan was to go caving in the afternoon, but with having trouble navigating the city and finding people who spoke English, it turned out we would not have enough time to see the city if we went caving. We walked around the whole city and visiting amazing views of the Danube. The transportation system was a little difficult to navigate so we did a lot of walking. For that evening, we signed up for a Danube River boat tour with drinks. We first had dinner at this cheap restaurant with amazing Hungarian food. I got mushroom goulash with it being Good Friday, along with an amazing thin pancake like I make at home from my Hungarian recipe book. The river boat tour was spectacular and the weather was great the whole time. The next morning we went to the baths before getting on our train to Prague. The weather was great so the outside baths were nice, however not as nice as the sauna and sulfur hot tub inside. The baths were not as authentic as the Turkish baths but were still very enjoyable. 

The train to Prague was very enjoyable and relaxing. We went through Slovakia which was cool to see too. When we arrived in Prague, we checked out Charles Bridge and grabbed a late dinner around there. We went to bed early that night to get a head start on the day. We went on a free walking tour around Prague and saw the whole city. We also checked out the John Lenon Wall and Prague Castle before grabbing dinner in the Easter Market in Old Town Square. After that we headed to the pub crawl that was associated with our free tour that day. We went all over the city and ended up at the 5 story club which is the largest in all of Europe. We even checked out the ice bar where everything was completely made out of ice. After a long Easter night, we left Prague on the scariest flight I have ever been on with an airline called SmartWings. Needless to say, I was so happy to be back home in Roma!
Buda Castle

Overlooking Chain Bridge

St. Matthias 

Fisherman's Bastion 
Danube River at night

Parliament Building at night

Jewish Cemetery in Prague

Powder Tower in Prague

Astronomical Clock in Prague

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn

Charles Bridge in Prague

John Lenon Wall in Prague

Prague Castle

St. Vitas Cathedral in Prague

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Venice & Milan

I met my mom and sister for the weekend to visit Venice and Milan. The first day, we walked around the St. Mark's Square, saw Rialto Bridge, and took our gondola ride while taking stops to eat and shop. The second day we went up the St. Mark's Bell Tower and did more of a tour around the entire city of Venice. On Sunday we headed to Milan and saw the Duomo before visiting the large department store there, La Rinascente. 
St. Mark's Bell Tower

St. Mark's Square


gondola ride


Rialto Bridge

View of Grand Canal


St. Mark's Cathedral


Bells of St. Mark's

Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Santa Maria della Salute 
Duomo in Milan



Da Vinci Statue

Dublin!

Dublin was an amazing city but the country of Ireland is even more amazing. Dublin was very Americanized, so it was a sort of tease being with people speaking English and eating other food besides Italian food. The country is only the size of South Carolina, so touring the rest of country via car has to be done in the future. The first day we took a tour of the city and then went to the Guinness Factory. The Guinness never tasted so good as it does in Ireland. We went out on Friday night to a bar where there was live music. The man played some traditional Irish songs but mostly covered many songs from U2, Tom Petty, The Beatles, and even Adele. On Saturday we took a tour of the countryside and went to Wicklow National Park and to Glendalough. Movies such as Braveheart and P.S. I Love You were filmed there. On Sunday, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral and enjoyed the beautiful spring day and had a cup of coffee and a traditional Irish Breakfast before returning to Rome.
Christ's Church

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle
Temple Bar

Trinity College

St. Stephen's Green

Guinness Factory

View of Dublin from Guiness Factory

Wicklow National Park

Glendalough



Maggy Malone Statue

St. Patrick's Cathedral