FULL fledged tourist Casey has been out and at it once again, except this time exploring Hungary and the Czech Republic over the 4th of July weekend. Last year for the 4th I was touring the Tuscan countryside on a wine tour, this year I was able to explore two countries over the course of a 4 day period, and next summer for the 4th I imagine I will be working 4 jobs.
I was fortunate to be able to meet up with my good friend and traveling companion, Mariah, whom I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts.
When we were in Amsterdam we talked about how both of us were dying to visit Prague and Budapest and pretty much decided that we were going to make it happen over the 4th. One may wonder how we accomplished so much over just 4 days. The short answer is that we simply did not sleep.
We both flew into Prague on Thursday and met at the hostel we booked to stay in together. The cheapest way to find accommodation is by booking a single bed in a 8-10 person room. Sometimes this is a blessing because you have really awesome bunkmates from all over the world, and sometimes this is a curse for a plethora of different reasons. We got lucky and only had 2 other roommates the first night that were very friendly. Although I have to admit that the one fellow’s absurd snoring was less than ideal. Thankfully I kept my earplugs courtesy of Delta Airlines.
On Friday we spent most of the day exploring the city.
Of the many famous sights there is to see around the city, we visited the John Lennon Wall, which offers a panoramic view of rainbow-like illustrations with quotes, mosaics, spray painted designs, and lyrics from Beatles’ songs symbolizing global ideals such as world peace and love for one another. Seeing this was a breath of fresh air amidst all of the negative events and tragedies that are taking place around the world today.
While we were wandering around the small cobblestone streets of Prague, you cannot help to notice the alluring scent of fresh Trdelník, also referred to as chimney cakes –if you are someone like myself who cannot understand nor pronounce words of Czech origin. For the longest time I resisted the temptation to try one and eventually gave in. This is made from rolled dough that is wrapped around a stick, grilled, and then topped with sugar and walnut mix. There are a variety of different ways you can customize these to your liking. I ordered mine with chocolate laced on the inside and ice-cream in the middle. It is pretty pathetic that I can honestly say words cannot describe how good this tasted, but it is true. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE. I had another one of these the next day and did not feel one ounce of guilt. HIGHLY recommend trying this if you ever visit the Czech Republic. You can mark my words that I will be returning to Prague sometime in my lifetime just to eat another one of these.
Friday night we met a number of new people all thanks to the famous pub crawl that apparently you HAVE to partake in if you visit. We partook. And thrived. My favorite part of traveling is undoubtedly the people that I meet along the way.
It is, however, very bittersweet because you spend your evening, weekends, and sometimes months with people and leave knowing that you will never see the majority of them again. With that said, the “sweet” part of that equation is that in every country and city that I visit, I always leave feeling inspired by the unique individuals that I was privileged to meet and am grateful to know that there is good in every part of the world, despite the recent tragedies that have taken place.
Saturday embodied quite the adventure(s). We were sort of asked to leave our hostel but the disclaimer is that it was not because we were engaging in delinquent behavior. Although an Instagram caption mis-informed my worried mother, I assure you that our sleeping in the park that day was out of pure innocence. Since we were taking an overnight bus to Budapest, we had literally all day to kill in Prague. We underestimated this. The entire day we joked about being homeless because we literally had no place to go (except the park). It was a blessing in disguise though because it is those type of situations that make you laugh until your stomachs hurt. We weathered the rain and enjoyed some authentic Czech fried cheese, which is literally one giant cheese ball deep fried and breaded. It didn’t really occur to me how inexpensive Prague was until we went to the Beer Museum. We got together with the two friends who were our hostel roommates and enjoyed our final hours in Prague enjoying good company, conversation, and blueberry beverages.
Before heading to the bus stop, we went to a convenience store and spent a significant amount of time hand picking the perfect snacks for the trip. When we brought everything up to the register and had everything rung up. It was much to our surprise that they didn’t accept cards. Great, we thought. We spent literally all day strategically spending our Czech money so we did not have any left over. It was harder than you think. As we motioned to return everything to the shelves, the man at the register asked us what we had in our wallets. We literally scrambled together the most ridiculous combination of Czech coins and Euros that no where near equalled the correct amount that we owed. We even offered him U.S. nickels, dimes and the British Pound. He so generously let us take all of our snacks and when we expressed our gratitude he hand signaled us out the door to get on our way. We think he felt sorry for our homeless-like appearance and obvious state of exhaustion, haha.
Our bus to Budapest left approximately 10:00PM that evening. We made a stop in a city in the middle of no where and had a layover from midnight – 1AM. There was nothing open and it was raining. We sat under the shelter counting down the minutes to get on the next bus. On the way to Budapest, we drove through Slovakia but unfortunately could not see anything because it was dark. We arrived at 5:45 AM with hardly any sleep and no clue what we were going to do because we couldn’t check into our hostel until 2 PM that day. After wandering into a random hotel and using the wifi, we got an Uber to the hostel and planned to beg and plead them to let us check in early or at least take a shower and leave our backpacks there. The woman working was a lifesaver. There was one extra bed open that she said we could share to get some sleep until a normal hour in the morning and she didn’t even charge us for it!
After getting a few hours of sleep, we went to the Széchenyi Thermal Bath, which is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Apparently there are multiple different components in the thermal water such as calcium, sulphate and magnesium. There is said to be many different therapeutic benefits of bathing in the water. All I know for sure is that it was like swimming around in one giant hot tub and I was loving life. Additionally, it was especially nice to have a break from wearing sweaters and raincoats. It was my first real taste of “summer” since being here. London weather has been mainly comparable to October and April weather back home.
The rest of the day on that Sunday we spent exploring the city. The Budapest Parliament building was hands down my favorite. The architecture is truly incredible and it is built right on the river where you can view all the beautiful bridges. For some reason we always end up at an Italian restaurant, which must be inherent in our nature. We enjoyed a very elaborate and delicious meal watching the sunset over the city.
It was a very successful “4th of July weekend” to say the least. The best part is, our adventures aren’t over as I will be visiting Mariah in Milan next week when I take my trip to Italy.
The days continue to fly by faster than I thought possible. Two weeks from today I will be riding down the escalator of the Sioux Falls airport returning home. It seems like just yesterday I was riding up that escalator, waving goodbye to my mom and dad. This upcoming week will be crazy busy ( I feel like I say that every time I write? ). I have a written final exam and two research papers due for my class in the next few days and on top of that I have just 3 days left of my internship. On Saturday I will be flying to Zurich, Switzerland to spend a few days sightseeing before I head to Milan then on to Florence later the next week. Although my time here is running short, I intend to make the very most of the days that I have left.
Later this week I will write another post about the neat adventures I have been taking myself on around London. Until then — thank you for reading & ciao for now 🙂
CLM
EUROPEAN ADVENTURES 