Spring Break 2010: Part 1: Exploring Europe

Spring Break 2010 was a perfect 10. This two and a half week vacation was a great break and such a wonderful experience. During my Spring Break I was able to visit 6 different countries and travel around Europe by train, cruise ship, and airplanes. Here was my agenda as well as my wonderful memories exploring Europe.

First week: (spent with 5 girlfriends from DIS, who actually attend Gettysburg College— my rival school that is located 20 minutes from Dickinson!)

-Prague, Czech Republic
-Budapest, Hungary
-Vienna, Austria

*I traveled by train throughout the first week of Spring Break. I was able to do this by purchasing a EuroRail Pass that allowed me to travel 6 countries in two months!

Second week: (9 girlfriends from DIS)

-Cruise around the Turkish and Greek Islands which included:
-Mykonos
-Rhodes
-Patmos
-Kusadasi
-Crete
-Santorini
-Spent the weekend with a friend from Dickinson in Athens, Greece

However, in this blog I will only be talking about my first week. I figured you would be asleep if I kept continuing on with my epic vacation. So make sure you read the next blog-- you won’t want to miss the details of my cruise to beautiful Greece and Turkey.

The beginning of the unforgettable spring break:

My first destination was to Prague, Czech Republic. Five of my girlfriends and I wanted to truly experience the whole “traveling throughout Europe” idea so we put our lives in one large backpack and headed towards the train station---haha gotchya, they did the backpack thing, I brought along my bright luggage full of shoes and clothes! Hey, give me some credit; I was going on a cruise! Anyways, our first train experience was what I originally thought trains would be like. We sat on the edge of the steps in the train because we were poor college students who didn’t want to pay for a seat. However, what could have been better--five girlfriends, tons of food, and Europe ahead of us? We were perfectly content sitting on uncomfortable steps thinking of what we wanted to accomplish in Prague. That first train to Berlin, Germany was a long one, but then we switched trains after arriving in Berlin and headed towards the Czech with a seat! We got into Prague very late and walked outside of the train station because the station was closing. It was that late, I believe somewhere around 3 a.m. Therefore, we decided to walk throughout town and find our way to the hostel on our own. I suggested getting a taxi because we had no idea where we were going; however, I am glad the majority voted no. I saw a lot of things on the way to the hostel and we had fun asking drunk-people where the hostel was located. I truly felt like I was getting the “traveling around Europe experience”. We were walking through an unfamiliar place, luggage in hand, in sweatpants, five friends, but excited for the journey ahead of us. While walking to our hostel, I passed a group of boys that looked so familiar. After passing them, I looked back and they looked at me. One said, “Chelsea?” I immediately recognized the voice and realized it was my friend Mikey from DICKINSON! He and a group of track boys were visiting Prague for their spring break during their time abroad. I about tackled him when I realized it was him! It was so wonderful to have such a familiar face and a friend from school. We exchanged hostel information and promised we would meet up tomorrow.

We finally found our hostel and luckily for me we had to climb three sets of stairs. Needless to say, I was struggling up those stairs with my heavy luggage while my friends had an easy time with their backpacks! Yep again with my luggage, I was teased throughout the whole trip. My first hostel experience wasn’t all that bad. I guess my expectations for a hostel were very low, therefore I didn’t think it was unbearable! When you read this blog, try to separate your image from the stereotypical hostel you may be thinking of because they truly aren’t terrible. Trust me, I have been to many throughout this travel break and kinda enjoy them (Mom I still would like to stay in hotels when we travel, don’t get any “cheap” ideas:). In the hostel, we shared a fifteen person room with many different individuals. I think that’s what I liked best about being in a hostel. I was able to meet a bunch of individuals from different countries. Needless to say, some of them needed some body-spray but overall we weren’t there to sleep, we were there to enjoy one of the most gorgeous cities I have been able to visit.

The first full day in Prague was amazing and early…We got up before 6 a.m. and headed to—Starbucks! There was a Starbucks in Prague and I decided I would try coffee because I truly needed it. I wouldn’t say it was coffee more like a yummy, chocolatey, waker-upper. Yes I got a frappuccino. Loved the 500 million calories! We then headed to meet some of our friends because her mother was in Prague for the weekend and arranged a private walking tour for just us girls. It was fabulous to have a guide all to ourselves. We walked around the Old Town Square (where our hostel was located) and visited the clock tower. Everyone in the town (mostly tourists) crowds around the tower around noon. This is because the clock’s bells ring, figures move (which are on the tower), and a man sounds his trumpet. It was very cute to see and many people were there to see the noon ringing. We then headed to one of the bridges located in Prague! It was such a beautiful sight to see and we could see an International Marathon on the other side of the bridge so we headed that way to watch it. There were so many athletes from all different countries and it was truly exciting. We then visited many churches along with different castles. We finished the tour at the Jewish Quarters! After finishing the tour we headed to the Market in the middle of Old Town and ate sausages, crepes, sugar coated bread, and chocolate covered strawberries! This was a special market set up for the Easter Holiday so eggs were hung in trees, musicians were putting on shows, people were selling jewelry, and so much more. We spent a lot of time in this square not only because of the good food but because it was so festive and cute. After lunch we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our fun evening.

All five girls went out to dinner that night at a really cool pub. The pub was your ordinary restaurant; however, you drank from a beer dispenser on the table! It was the coolest thing to see. I want to bring the idea to the US because it was so fun. Everyone had a glass and then you pressed your glass on this round circular thing and it would wash your glass for you. Then you would type in a number and you would hold your glass up. The machine would then fill it with beer. Why a number? Well the machine kept track of how many beers you had been drinking. Not to mention there was a table to table competition. Therefore, each table had a number and you would be drinking against all of the other tables within the pub. It was so much fun and we American girls were quite competitive! After the pub we went to a “pub crawl”. A “pub crawl” is where you go to about 5-10 different clubs and or pubs and you are given a certain amount of drinks per club as well as you stay at each for a certain amount of time. For this pub crawl, ladies received a free shirt and we started at a location where there was free (all you can drink) beer, absinthe shots, and liquor shots for an hour (it cost 35 US dollars to be involved in the pub crawl). After the first hour, we headed to our first stop and received one free drink of choice and so on and so forth. It was SO much fun. We met boys from England, met awesome Aussie women, Russians, and also US soldiers who were stationed in Germany. It was a lot of fun and I actually ran into Mikey and other Dickinson friends (who were on a different pub crawl) stopping at the same club. We reached the ending club which was a five story dance club that played different music on each floor. So the first floor was rap, the second was 90’s music (favorite floor), the third was 80’s and---I didn’t go any higher, so I am not sure :). At this club, I ran into DIS students! It was a great first night out in Prague.

The next day we all were dragging a bit so we made another stop to Starbucks! After the caffeine kicked in we headed to the clock tower so we could climb to the top. The view from the top was amazing. Prague is so gorgeous. From the top of the tower you could see “mini Venice”, which is a little river in the middle of town that looks like Venice. There is also a “mini Eiffel tower”. You could see New Town Square, the Jewish Quarters, and what seemed like miles of the amazing city. We then shopped, grabbed lunch, and explored more of the town for the rest of the evening. At night we stopped at a cute little bar called “Bed and Bar”. This is a bar that is filled with beds, so you kick off your shoes, climb on top of the beds and order a drink. It was a relaxing ambiance and a great end to the perfect trip in Prague.

The next morning Jenni, Brittany, Hillary, and I were sad that we didn’t go to the Lennon Wall so we woke up around 6 and headed through Prague to find the Lennon Wall. We got lost of course but we did find it, eventually. It was amazing to see this wall. There was so much color and creativity throughout the wall. It was very neat to see. Sidenote: Last year my big tagged me in a photo with an elephant on it. I had no idea where it was or when she took it while she was in Europe. However, I looked extensively at the amazing wall and saw the very photo she took and tagged me in. I was so excited that I looked for her name throughout the whole wall but couldn’t find it. I wrote my name in the middle of the white peace sign and left a little bit of myself in Prague. After leaving the wall we were ready for our next country visit. We had quite the walk to the train station because when we originally walked to the hostel, it was dark. Therefore, our sense of direction was a little off. But we got there and made our train to Bud-PEST! This was my favorite train trip. We were able to get our own little cabin with six seats (just like in Harry Potter!). So therefore, we were able to kick our feat up, play music from an iPod, eat, talk about boys, and laugh at all of our stories from Prague.
I forgot how beautiful laughter was. I can distinctly remember laughing to the point of tears with these five, amazing girls. It hit me on this trip, how much a girlfriend can make you laugh. I was so lucky to be able to sit with great friends and experience this journey that many aren’t as fortunate enough to experience. I was lucky and extremely happy.
We arrived to Budapest at night and thankfully we had a very short walk to the hostel this time. It was the cutest hostel called, Oleander. It was in the middle of a garden and the hostel was specifically for a small group. There were only two rooms, one kitchen, and two bathrooms. So we put our stuff down and headed out to a hidden and very traditional Hungarian restaurant. I ordered Schnitzel and Goulash soup. I shouldn’t have ordered all of it because the Schniztel was literally half of a frying pan; long piece of meat. It was gigantic! I looked like a fat American with that piece of meat in front of me but it was yummy anyways. We all ordered a drink and cheered to our next adventure in Budapest.

The first full day in Budapest involved a walking tour. We wanted to hear everything about the city. Our tour guide was such a cute woman and was very knowledgeable about the town. We walked across tons of bridges, looked at museums, castles, churches, walked through Old Town and even ate lunch with the group. Fun fact, Budapest is actually two different cities---Buda and Pest. Among the many facts I learned on the walking tour! During the walking tour we stopped at an overlook and saw the most gorgeous building---Parliament. After the tour finished we headed to Parliament to see if we could go inside. When we reached Parliament we learned that only English speaking tours were given at three times and we unfortunately missed all of them. So we decided we would come back tomorrow morning and get a guided tour of the inside. After this, we headed to the Jewish Quarters because I wanted to visit the second largest synagogue in the world. Anyone know where the largest is??--> NYC. Of course since I am not a super jew like my mother, I totally forgot that it was Passover this past week so the Synagogue was closed (to all of my Jewish relatives and friends, no I did not observe on Spring Break. I could not find matzah in Denmark and I wanted to be able to experience all of the culture including the food—first time in a very long time). So I was officially bummed and embarrassed but I took pictures and we headed to get ice cream! This wasn’t ordinary ice cream for it was flowered shaped--so cool and yummy. We then headed to the market to get food. We went into this underground market and it was like a whole different world. There were fruits, veggies, meat, cheese, nuts, and more everywhere. I couldn’t even walk through the whole thing in an hour. The girls and I decided to buy food and have a picnic while the sun went down at the tallest point of Budapest. This was by far my favorite memory in Budapest. I really enjoyed doing all of the touristy things; however, its little things like picnics with girlfriends that make the vacation a bit more special. We passed the wine around, ate cheese and bread, and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets fade throughout the city. It was so gorgeous that the pictures, unfortunately, do not do justice. Once the sun went down it was chilly so we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night. That night was one of the girls’ 21st birthdays so we headed to an underground night club and began the festivities.

The next morning we woke up early and headed for the inside tour of the Parliament. Parliament was beautiful and I enjoyed all of factual information of the building. After the tour we headed back to the main square and shopped. After having plenty of bags in our hands we headed to the hostel to get our swimsuits for the Szcheyani baths. The Szcheyani baths are an underneath, all natural, hot springs (over 111 degrees F) which are brought to the surface and cooled for the public. They correlated closely with a country club for there were many pools, tons of people, and kids running around. The water was so relaxing and very warm. The baths were located in a beautiful yellow building with statues everywhere. We paid for a day pass and also got a Hungarian massage. I was a little nervous for the massage because I knew it would be---foreign. However, I did not expect what I experienced. I was relieved that I had a woman; however, when I walked into the room she said “off your clothes”. I didn’t get it because I was already in just my undies and a towl. But apparently that was too much clothing. In the Hungarian culture, you get massages completely nude. I was shy but eventually got over it. However, I was a bit uncomfortable when she was massaging my butt muscles. I mean seriously, who wants to feel their butt fat giggle up and down? Afterwards, all of the girls and I spoke about our experiences and I was the lucky one because everyone else had a man :). We were sad it was our last night in Hungary so instead of taking the train home we walked the 45 minutes home. It was such a great way to enjoy the last night. We saw beautiful buildings, typical Hungarian neighborhoods, and we even got to stop and have Chinese on the way home. I was so excited. It was so cute because we were seated in our own little room. You know the ones where you have to open the door and walk down stairs to get to your table? It was so cool. The lady didn’t speak English so we did our best to order correctly. However, it didn’t work out to our advantage so we ate what we got. We walked around for a while after dinner to digest and then made our way back to the hostel. It was time to hit the lights and say goodbye to Budapest.

The next morning we headed to Vienna which would be my last city with these wonderful ladies and unfortunately my shortest trip. Before we hopped on the train, we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed towards Austria. Thankfully, this was our shortest train trip and we did have seats. Yay. Once we got to Austria we checked into a beautiful hostel. Luckily a pizzeria was right next door so we dropped out stuff, got dressed, and grabbed some lunch before heading out to explore the city. After we devoured the pizza we decided to explore a little bit on our own. We grabbed a map and started walking. It was gorgeous. There were so many beautiful buildings and many, many museums. Vienna is known to be the city of music and home to Mozart, for those of you who did not know. So, the girls and I thought it would be appropriate to go to an opera! Since we are poor college students we bought a ticket for the standing section and had quite the experience. All operas are a challenge due to the different languages however; because I am short I had trouble seeing at times. Also, that day I had the sniffles and an old lady next to me kept shushing me. There was nothing I could do! I tried to sniff into my forearm and even tried to hold it back but you know where it goes after that---so then I tried clearing my throat and she got so angry that during intermission she told on me! Oh boy, we decided to leave after that because not only did our feat hurt but I was fed up with the lady! It was a very unique experience. Afterwards we decided to walk to a restaurant and look up what the opera was about. While eating our food, we learned that the opera was a very interesting love story. Bummer.

That night we headed to McDonalds to investigate the difference between American McFlurries and Austrian McFlurries; however, they were the same! It was a good way to end the night. We hit the lights with a bit of American satisfaction in our tummies.

The next morning we took the map out again and visited everything we weren’t able to go to the day before. We had a great time getting lost in the city and trying to figure out what building was what. Before we knew it, it was night time. That night my friend Jamie met me in Vienna and we got ready to head out for the cruise. However, we had one night in Vienna together so we went to a local bar and talked about how our different spring breaks were going. It seemed as if she was having a great time but we were both looking forward to the cruise ahead! The next morning I said goodbye to the girls and Jamie and I set off to the airport. We were ready for a 5 day cruise, with 9 girlfriends and the trip of a lifetime.

-Chelsea