Living like a Nomad; Ten days, Three Countries

The past week has been one I will truly never forget! Bren, Kimm, and I packed up our backpacks with as much as we could fit for ten days (and leaving some room for shopping of course!) and headed off on the road! After not getting much sleep, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning on Thursday and went right to the Sevilla airport to catch our flight to Prague! Being overly cautious, we got there a couple hours earlier than we needed, but we our track record of flights and problems we thought it'd be better to play it safe. I made the joke that this was our "final test" when it came to traveling. Three countries in ten days is a big task, and we were about to see if we were up for it! Luckily we've had a lot of practice (I've been to thirteen cities and 7 different counties in less than four months!) The flight went really smoothly and before we knew it we were in Prague, Czech Republic, our first stop! We luckily ran into Amanda, a UF student who studied in Paris with us that we meeting us for part of the trip, in the airport so we all headed to the hostel together. As soon as we stepped outside I was glad I borrowed my friend's Northface! It was definitely chilly out, but we knew what we were in for. We got to the hostel, "Blind Eye Hostel" and were greeted by a really chill owner who knew all the ins and outs of Prague. He recommended a restaurant next door or some cheap but yummy eats, and as college students nothing sounds better than that! We started the trip off right with soup and kabassi!
We knew we had a long day the next day and were exhausted from traveling on only a few hours of sleep we headed off to bed. The next morning we started off in the center of the city, which was only about a twenty minute walk from the hostel and then took a walking tour of the city! But first we strolled through some of the Easter markets! There were decorated eggs, souvenirs and yummy treats. In Prague there is a Pagan tradition that the Monday after Easter Sunday the men and boys of the city will go around with sticks whipping the girls in return of decorated eggs. This is actually seen as good luck and it is said that being whipped promised you good health and beauty for the following year.  I wasn't whipped... But I think that might be a good thing. Our tour guide was very animated and showed us around, explaining the history of the city and the communist influence Prague was under and how it has affected the history. We saw major sights like the Astronomical Clock, surviving bombings of WWII! We ended out by Charles Bridge seeing a great view of the Prague Castle! It was drizzling majority of the day, but it added to the eery romantic essence of Prague as a city. We were hoping we would be able to see Swan Lake that night, but were let down when we found out it wasn't playing that weekend, so we opted to see an Opera, La Traviata! I had only seen one opera before, Carmen, for a class I took Freshman year but it was an interesting experience, and Prague is known for it's theatrics so we thought we'd see what it had to offer! The opera was really nice, even if it isn't quite my typical type of entertainment. After we went out for dessert before heading back to our "home away from home". Our second full day we started off at the local Easter market, and then shopping at the big markets in the center. Prague isn't on the euro so everything is so much cheaper! But it was so hard to convert. We would spend almost 700 coronas on a meal (yikes!) when really that is only six American dollars for an entire meal! It took a while to get used to! After a little shopping spree we head to the other side of the Charles Bridge to go to the Prague Castle! Our tour guide said that not going to the Castle was like not seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, so we figured it was important! On the way we went to the John Lennon Wall, my favorite part of Prague! The wall was covered in murals after the death of Lennon as an anti-communist act, and the tradition continues. The wall was covered in different inspirational quotes and lyrics. I could've spent hours reading through all of it. We made our way up the hill to the Castle where the sun decided to sneak out as a little present for us, which made the view even more beautiful! We went inside the cathedral. As many churches I've been in since being in Europe, this one was one of my favorites with the stained glass windows. Since the sun was shining we decided to take a walk through a park after grabbing fallafel for lunch (It didn't compare to Paris still!) where we came across three huge babies. Our tour guide had told us about these yesterday; The faces of the giant babies were bar codes symbolizing the brain washing that the media had on society. I thought the babies were creepy, but it was a very powerful message. There were also babies climbing an electricity tower by our hostel! On our way back to the hostel we caught some traditional dance performance which was interesting. That night Amanda, Kimm, and I grabbed Indian food for dinner (poor Bren was under the weather!) and then we woke up bright and early for Easter Sunday Mass! We went to a really nice church, St. James. There is an eery story about the church that once someone tried stealing a rosary from the hands of a statue of Mary and Mary came to life, grabbing onto his hand and not letting him go. The hand is now mummified inside the church to this day (eek!) We grabbed bagels for brunch, mmm how I missed veggie cream cheese! and then it was off for our bus to Vienna! It was definitely hard being away from home on Easter! It was our first time being away from home on a major holiday (St. Patty's Day and Valentine's day don't quite count) so it was nice to have my two best friends with me to have a little feeling of home! And on our bus (basically an airplane on wheels it was so nice!) Kimm and I watched "My Sister's Keeper", which probably wasn't the best choice seeing we both ended up bawling, but it's such a great movie! After five and a half hours (and even some snow!) we made it to Vienna!

First dinner! Kabassa!

The Astronomical Clock!

Charles Bridge!

First view of Prague Castle!

Yummy Easter treats!

At the Opera!

Easter Markets!

Charles Bridge

The Lennon Wall!

View from up the hill!

Prague Castle Cathedral

Giant babies!

Easter Performance!

Vienna was absolutely gorgeous! It was the perfect mix of city and the hustle and bustle, but with the beauty of an old city with gorgeous white buildings and a majestic feel. After checking into our second home of the week we went to dinner at a Italian restaurant down the street that was recommended to us. I had my Easter glass of wine and yummy bolagnase pizza. We were so stuffed after we made it back to the hostel and passed right out! The next morning and sun was shining before we were even out of bed and we hit the streets! We didn't have too much planned for Vienna so a lot of the time we strolled the streets where famous composers like Mozart and Bach once had and saw the landmarks that were pointed out to us on a tram tour we took that morning. As great as the metro system was, with the beautiful architecture and art around the streets and great weather we wanted to walk everywhere! We spent the day roaming around and ended up at yet another Easter market! There were hundreds of beautifully painted eggs, and I got a yummy pizza pretzel for lunch (Eastern Europe is known of the pretzels!). We went to the famous St. Stephen's Cathedral from there. It was definitely one of my favorites I've seen, second to the Sacre Coeur in Paris. Something about it inside was very moving; Maybe it was a mixture of missing my family from Easter the day before or thinking about all I've been blessed with traveling across Europe, but it was a very reflective moment for me as I lit a candle and wrote a prayer for safe travels home. And then we went to Cafe Hawkens for some down time! It is said to be one of the oldest cafes in Vienna, with delicious cappuccinos! As much as I was craving my Starbucks (I couldn't help but get one in Prague to warm up!) I couldn't bring myself to get Starbucks in one of the coffee capitals of Europe! the Plat Park, which is an amusement park! We went on the famous Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel! It was built back in 1897 and was 65 meters tall! There was a beautiful view of the city from the top! That night we decided to go out (we are on Spring Break after all!) so we went to a bar and had some drinks, playing never-have- I-ever and learned even more about each other (who would've thought that was possible at this point?!) We made some friends we decided to go find another bar, but being just after Easter a lot was still closed down so we went back to the hostel and hung over there. The next morning we woke up and went to the local market! I absolutely loved it. All the food smelled delicious and there were so many treats, we decided we'd go back there for lunch! But not without going to see Mozart's grave first. We were deceived by the map and walked I kid you not, at least six miles to see the final resting place of Mozart himself. From there we decided our stomach's wouldn't put up with us much longer so we hopped on the metro and went back to the market where I got fallaffel (soooo good!) and then humus with a sesame circle bread! It was to die for- even though the chocolate balls Bren and I decided to split weren't quite as good. At this point we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel for a quick snooze, and after filling up on so much food at the market we just went for a walk as our last night to a cafe for dessert and coffee! I had strawberry shortcake and of course a cappuccino. Despite my caffeine intake I was still able to fall right asleep once we got back.

Easter wine at dinner! Thanks Papa!

Random art in the street!

Mozart's Statue!

Capital Building! My favorite!

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs!

The Easter Bunny himself!

St. Stephen's Cathedral!

Yum yum yum!

Walking in the park!

We <3 Selfies! Getting excited for the ferris wheel!

The view from the top!

Night out!

The market!

WWII Memorial

Finally made it to Mozart!

Mozart's actual grave!

My favorite food! Fallafel!

And humus and sesame bread!

Bye Vienna! Hello Barcelona!

Wednesday morning we headed to the airport after seeing the Castle and gardens to catch our flight to Barcelona! Once we arrived the sun was shining! It felt great to not have to wear a scarf and jacket and to put my sandles on! Of course we headed right to the beach after dropping our stuff off, and I got an ice cream to celebrate safely getting to the last leg of our trip! Kimm, Bren, and I met up with our friends Jason and Martel (who are both studying in Paris) and we went to get some sangria, tapas, and paella for dinner. It was nice all catching up after not seeing each other for a while! Tipsy from the sangria, we walked around and explored a little bit of Barcelona by night! We let ourselves sleep in a little bit the next day before going to the beach, but it started to rain so we decided to start our site seeing! We went to the Sagrada Familia, a church whose construction started by Gaudi, but after his death was taken over by other architects. It is definitely an interesting site. The Gaudi part of the church was beautiful, looking like candle wax dripping, but the other half was cubism, which didn't fit at all. And after over 100 years it is still under construction! Then we hopped onto the metro and went to Gaudi's park where we saw more of his work and beautiful mossaics (There's a scene from "Vicki Christina Barcelona" here!) It was a little rainy, but the view from the top of the hill was still great! We went back to the hostel for a little bit of siesta before going out to dinner and getting ready for the night! We went to Chipitos, which is a shots bar known throughout Barcelona. They have a wall of hundreds of different shots! So we had to try a bunch of course, and Bren and I met some friends from the Army stationed in Germany who took them with us! After trying a handful (you have to be careful, they sneak up on you!) Bren and I went and had some sangria before woozily falling alseep. The next day it was unexpectidally sunny in the morning so we decided to walk to the beach, but accidentally got split up with Jason and Kimm on the way so Bren and I spent the day shopping and basking in the sun in a Plaza! The streets of Barcelona remind me of what I expect from Spain; small, curvey paths with eccentric shops scattered throughout and cute coffee shops (like the one Bren showed us that she would always go to when she was there with her friends a couple summers ago). We even ran into some other St. John's students while we were out! We slightly broke the bank (rightfully so, we are on vacation!)  we went back to relax a little bit before meeting up with our friends Lauren and Evane, but apparently we got too much sun that day and didn't wake up on time (oops!) So the two of us went out to dinner at a restaurant Milk. And it was sooo yummy! I had my first cesear salad since being in Europe (they don't use dressing here! So it was a treat!) and had some drinks there! It's going to be so weird going home and not being able to order a drink at dinner at home! I sure am going to miss my wine. We walked around for a bit after since it was such a clear night! The next day, our last day of Spring break!, we met up with our friend James and walked around until Bren and I went to the beach to lay out while being hackled by Asian women asking if we wanted a massage. You would think they would get the point, but even after two hours they still came up to us every three minutes. Can't a girl catch a break and just enjoy the sun?! We eventually got off our lazy bums and went to the cafe to grab lunch and explore some more. That night we got sandwiches for dinner; it was the best I've had since being in Europe (besides my grilled peanut butter and jelly in Prague; Oh, how I miss peanut butter!). The five of us went back to the hostel and despite the pouring rain we went out to Chipitos with our friends Tara, Korrie, and Alan who just had gotten to Barcelona! Then we ventured to a couple of more bars as a celebration of our last night in Barcelona. Somehow we must of lost track of time because before you knew it I was being woken up by Kimm and Bren to to catch the bus to the airport. Still tipsy from the night before I piled up all of my clothes (I couldn't fit all of it back into my backpack!) and we were on our way!

Ice cream on the beach!

Barcelona Cathedral

Gotta love sangria!

And paella!

Beach in the morning!

Haha!

One part is not like the other....

Still under construction!

Gaudi's mosaics!

All the shots at Chipitos, the shots bar!

Shots on fire!

S'more shots! SO GOOD!

The local market!

In the park!

Elephant love!

Cheers!

Beautiful day with the girls!

Our new friend from Germany!

Aww!

At that point our traveling had gone so well, I was so proud of us! We were passing our final test with flying colors to say the least. Until we got onto the plane where the turbulents were worse than any I had experienced and on stomachs filled with little but alcohol it wasn't pleasant for any of us. I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes right before the landing, and prayed to God as soon as we stopped bouncing on our landing. As fun as Spring Break was, it was nice to be home in Seville! The weather is great here now and it looks like it is supposed to be a beautiful week, and the school has a ton of excursions planned for us so there is a lot to look forward to! Yesterday we went and tanned out by the river, and today Amy and I went to Starbucks City Center and then shopping! We're down to hands and toes for the countdown of going home, and we're all catching the itch, but after my little break away I'm back on track and ready to make the most of these last three weeks! Looking back on our Spring Break it is crazy to see how much we got done in only ten days! Three different cities (in three different countries on top of that!) and we checked everything off our lists of what we wanted to see and do! We are definitely experts at traveling now!