taking on eastern europa

Praha

I am just sitting at our hostel waiting to leave the beautiful Prague. Almost every person I talked to about backpacking through Europe has told me this was one of their favorite cities and I must agree that it is quite beautiful. We arrived to the cutest hostel called Sir Tobys that is very pub/cottage esque. A little exhausted, we decided to grab a late lunch and relax at our hostel the first evening. The free nutella crepe night also lured us to stay in for the night. It is 3 days later and I still can not look at a crepe. I never thought I would see the day when I can't look at Nutella due to overload. The one thing the 4 of us are good at is taking FULL advantage of a free meal over here. There currently is a international theatre design show going on in Prague and it seems our hostel has attracted quite a few of these people. While very interesting, we have found they more enjoy to sit around and talk intellectual literature and theatre.

FREE patries the bakery gave us at 3 am

We headed out the next day on our FREE walking tour. We walked around the old town and Jewish district and learned quite a bit about the history and legends of Prague. We went to the Prague castle and the church attached had the most amazing stainedglass windows I have ever seen. So many colors and detail. That evening, we went to a traditonal Czech restaurant. Christina, Liz, and I split a massive platter of duck, ribs, sausage, pork, cabbage, and potato dumplings. It was suuper cheap and one of my favorite feast of the trip. Later that night, we went on a bar crawl (I mean Prague is known for its night life). As mentioned in my first post, I am not opposed to staying here if the opportunity were to present itself. Christina and I were offered jobs as bar crawl guides...we are playing that one by ear right now...The next day we headed to a monastery perched at one of the highest points in Prague that makes their own beer. The IPA was delicious and we got some great views of the city and castle. We did not have enough time in Prague. I would have loved to stay one more night but we had to hurry on to catch a train to Budapest.

turkish baths

Budapest was a last minute decision. After speaking with some fellow backpackers, we decided we would be missing out by not making our way over to more of Eastern Europe. First of all, the city is completely not what I was expecting. Honestly, it was one of the most beautiful cities I have been to in Europe. I know I say that about a lot of places but Budapest blew us away. We only had 1 full day so we decided to do a bike tour so we could see as much of the city as possible. The architecture was old and beautiful. The history also was very interesting because everything was so recent. They were just freed from Soviet control in 1989. But enough with the history lessons, Budapest nightlife is also one of the best in Europe. Prepared to take full advantage of that, we stayed at the Instant Groove! Party Hostel. I think they focused so much on having a good time at the hostel that they forgot to turn the AC on. After relaxing in the baths (a massive area filled with all different kinds of pools, baths, waters with minerals, etc.), we made our way out last night with a 6 am train to catch. We made it...barely. I am currently in Zagreb, Croatia at the bus station waiting for a bus to Pag, Croatia.

Note: this post was written about a week in a half ago. 

My current city is Cinque Terre