Prague > France

So long ago in September my friend from high school, Alexi, posted as her status on facebook: "Prague booked for thanksgiving." Prague was the one trip I wanted to do so bad when I came to Europe and I was worried at the beginning of the year when no one in my program seem to want to go so when I saw this post I jumped at the chance to join in on her travel plans! However, France seemed to have different plans for my thanksgiving. I had to take a train to Lyon (about 2 hours away) for my flight and in my plans I was going to arrive 4 hours early plenty of time. However, my train had to connect and the first train was late so I missed the connection.The conductor assured me that the next train would get me there in time for my flight but then that train was late and I arrived at the airport just half an hour before my flight. Thinking I could still make I ran through the airport and got to my gate to find out that my flight had left 10 min early! So moral of the story I spent my thanksgiving alone at the Lyon airport miserable until I finally got to Prague the next morning!

I got to Prague and immediately went on a walking tour of all the main attractions in Prague. We went to the astronomical clock which is the oldest astronomical clock in the world. We also saw some churches and walked through the Jewish Quarter in which I learned many fun fact such as:
 1) Hitler loved Prague so much that he planned to retire there after he conquered the world.
 2) There is a Hugo Boss store in the Jewish Quarter which is ironic because Hugo Boss was very anti-Semitic and made all the uniforms for the Nazis.
 3) There are so many synagogues preserved in Prague because Hitler wanted to set up a museum of an extinct race after he exterminated all of the Jews.
 4) Prague was very cheap 100 Czech Crowns is about 4 euros however it is not very cheap for Czech people where the minimum wage is 50 Czech Crowns.

Astronomical Clock

Prague National Museum and Christmas Market

Oldest Synagogue

Beautiful Prague Night with Megan and Kristen. It was a coincidence because Megan and Kristen are on Alexi's program in Rome with her but also go to Villanova!

After the tour we stumbled upon the Prague Chocolate Museum. We got free samples of Pralines and saw the whole process of how they make the chocolate it was a very delicious experience. Then for dinner we had a delicious meal (the first of many in Prague) I was able to try goulash, foie gras, deer, pheasant, duck it was the most food cultural experience of my life and for so much cheaper than those dishes would have cost in America or Western Europe. After dinner we went to the biggest club in Eastern Europe. It had 5 floors of dancing including Radio hits, hip hop, oldies, and electronica. It is probably the coolest club I have ever been to in my life.

Alexi and I at the Chocolate Museum

Chocolate!!

Kristen and I enjoying 1 of many Pilsners

Duck!

Awesome Night Club

The next morning we slept in which was awesome because I was so tired from my flight debacle and then walking around all day and night and then we made our way to a delicious lunch/breakfast with beer of course and then the Charles Bridge. I think the Charles Bridge was by far my favorite attraction in Prague. It is a beautiful bridge across the Vltava River. There were gorgeous statues all across and the view of the river was impeccable. At night it was even more amazing because there were Christmas Carolers on the bridge which just made me that more excited for Christmas time! Across the Charles Bridge we visited one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen: The Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Lesser Town. Then we went up to the Prague Castle and saw where the Czech President lives, the Church of St. Vitus which was also beautiful and we got these awesome Czech pastries (Trdelniks) they are these cylindrical sugar pastries and we got ours filled with chocolate they were so good!! Another fun fact: at a conference in Chile, the Czech President stole a gold pen and since then people have been mailing him pens asking if he had enough pens!

Beer before noon, typical Prague

Charles Bridgeeeeeeeeee

Amazing View of the Prague Castle

Church of Saint Nicholas

Entrance to the Castle

Kristen and I with our Trdelniks

Wj '09 hits Prague: Alexi and I on the Charles Bridge!! 

After the Prague Castle we walked around looking for souvenirs so get excited because you may have gotten one! Then we walked through the Prague Christmas market which was gorgeous. There was mulled wine and traditional Czech pastries and sausages everywhere along with Christmas ornaments and a big tree! They have started setting up Montpellier's Christmas market which opens on Friday and I'm so pumped to explore that as well! That night we went out for another amazing dinner this time I tried deer, it was also amazing! I can safely say that Prague was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and I really want to go back again sometime but at least I got to see the main attractions and I'm so glad I was able to make the trip even with my travel problems it was definitely worth it!

Fried Cheese and fries apparently a Czech specialty

Roastbeef, cranberries and dumplings!

Christmas Market

Our awesome hostel that was jungle themed complete with ivy and a swing!

Time is Flying...What's Next
I have less than 3 weeks left in Montpellier and I had my first final exam tonight how crazy is that! The next 3 weeks will be spent shopping, exploring Montpellier, this beautiful city I live in, and studying for more finals and a presentation with a day trip to Avignon and maybe Grenoble mixed in!

Trying to Soak It All In

This past week included the 1 month left mark in my time in France and although I am so excited to go home and see friends and family that I haven't seen for the most part since May it is very bittersweet because I still feel like there is so much more to do and see and that now every spare moment I have should be spent embracing some cultural aspect of Southern France or exploring a city in Europe. So this week I literally spent every night out trying to fit in everything that Montpellier has to offer. On Tuesday night I went to see the movie Intouchables with a few friends. It was a great movie and I am very proud to say that I understood everything without subtitles or anything! The movie describes the life of a handicapped man in Paris. For those of you who have been to France before you know that France is probably the least handicapped accessible country in Europe and this movie highlights those flaws and French attitudes towards the handicap in a funny and captivating way. I definitely recommend it! On Wednesday night we had our weekly apartment wide dinners and my apartment was in charge of cooking so we decided we would test out some new cheese that we had yet to try (there is no way I will be able to try every unknown cheese ever, and I have accepted that haha) After the dinner we have our weekly conversation night at a bar called the Vert Anglais. Every Wednesday our teachers, French Students and American students all come out and converse in a variety of languages it is always a good night! After the Vert Anglais we went to a bar called the Barberousse which is a pirate themed party that I had yet to try and happens to be only a few blocks from my apartment! (There are still so many other bars I need to try in the next month!)
Thursday night I went to another play for my theater class except this time it was actually in French thank God! The play was called Costa La Rouge which is about a boy who grows up being raised by his Grandfather and acting out stories until one day his grandfather disappears and he has to learn to be a man without him. The play showed me how I really am starting to be competent in French that I can sit down to a play and comprehend the story!

Morgane, Katy, Mary and I at the play

Mary loving the cider!

After the play Mary and I decided to grab a drink at Fitzpatrick's this Irish Bar in Montpellier which I had really wanted to try because they have cider on tap which I became obsessed with in London. The bar is also cool because it is a lot more local French people as opposed to the clubs we usually go to which have a lot of Americans and other foreign students. Now you may think wow so many activities you probably just relaxed for the weekend but no! Friday morning I woke up at 6:50 am to head off to Barcelona for the weekend with about 10 other people from our program! Yes I know I'm crazy!

Barcelona

So getting to Barcelona was quite hectic! Our bus was supposed to leave from Montpellier at 8:30 and arrive in Barcelona at 12:30 however we get to the bus terminal and 8:30 rolls around, there is no bus and the office wasn't even open! We weren't worried yet we were thinking okay its typical France the bus will be late. However around 9:15 we started to be concerned. After many phone calls to our program office, Eurolines (the bus company) and talking to other people waiting for the bus we discovered that our bus was still coming it was just very late. So we continued waiting and at 10:30 the bus finally arrived!   Now of course since the bus came late we didn't get to Barcelona till 4pm because of traffic and transportation in France is evil but nonetheless we finally made it to beautiful and sunny Barcelona! We went to our hostel first (this was my first hostel experience and I was pleasantly surprised). Starved after being on a bus for 6 hours we went to indulge in some Spanish food and got tapas delicious! That night we just explored the city a little which is so beautiful at night!

Sam, Katy and I at our first dinner in Barcelona!

On Saturday morning Katy and I decided that we wanted to really see all of Barcelona so we got up early to go on a walking tour of Goudi's designs throughout Barcelona so while the rest of the group snoozed away we visited Goudi's amazing architecture throughout Barcelona including the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia is this amazing church that was started by Goudi and is still under construction today, it is the most amazing piece of architecture I have ever seen and ever facade is completely different it is currently supposed to be finished in 2026 but everyday that they build it it is the longest construction project ever in Spain. Our tour guide was great and told us how the church probably won't even be completely finished till 2050 or 2060 because once the church is built they can't charge people to go in so they are currently making a lot of money off the unfinished church and to work on the church you have to be Catalan born no one else. Here are some of Goudi's amazing designs:

Gaudi's first creation was this lamp post for the city of Barcelona but after this he vowed he would never build anything for the city ever again because they tried not to pay him for this lamp post and he had to sue them in order to eventually get paid.

Katy in front of Casa Batlo

Casa Mila: The Mila family sued Gaudi after this was built because they thought it was ugly and did not meet any of their specifications that they wanted for their house. Today it is currently an apartment building that costs between 20,000 and 30,000 euros per months

Sagrada Familia! The towers that are in the picture will be the shortest towers once the church is finished

 After the tour we went to lunch and got Pinchos which are these little pieces of bread that have any assortment of things on top and you can eat as many as you want and they just count up the number of toothpicks that you have on your plate at the end and that's how much you pay and then we also got some sausage and eggs for lunch again traditionally Spanish before we hit up the Picasso museum! The Picasso museum was great although unfortunately you cannot take pictures inside but it was so cool to see so many actual Picasso paintings up close!

Matt and Katy loving the Pinchos!

Kat and I with our egg/potato/sausage lunch!

Saturday night was by far the best part of the entire trip! My friend Dan had the idea to buy tickets to an FC Barcelona game and Katy and I jumped at the opportunity to go as well! So Katy, Kat, Dan, Dan's brother Matt who is visiting him this week and myself went to see FC Barcelona vs. Real Zaragoza and it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. FC Barcelona was way better and they won 4-0 but it was so fun and such a great experience that I didn't even plan on until the day before!

Before the game enjoying some Spanish beer and Kebabs!

Dan, Kat and I repping the FC Barcelona scarves!

Matt, Katy, Kat, myself and Dan, you can see how huge the stadium was!

Sunday our bus home was at 1:30 so we tried to fit in as much as possible before we left! We woke up Sunday morning and went down to the water which was beautiful and it started to be a lot sunnier and warmer which was awesome because the forecast had predicted rain! Then we went up to Park Guell which was an entire Gaudi park and literally everything was so beautiful and amazing and it was up on a hill so there were amazing views of the whole city of Barcelona from the top. It was a great last morning to a jam packed trip!

Good Morning Barcelona!

Park Guell

Dan, Katy, Kat, Matt and I

Up close at Gaudi's work

Miscellaneous Fun Pictures...

Pinchos!

Katy attempting (and failing) to whistle at the soccer game

this beer was bigger than her face

Paella!! My last meal in Barcelona and it was worth it

Had to have some sangria in Spain

Last Trip Prague this weekend!!!!

This One's For You Dad

So in this blog post I am going to compare shopping at American supermarkets with French supermarkets which if you know my dad he is obsessed with food shopping. First of all, in the supermarket in France they have 4 aisles of just different types of alcohol: wine, beer, champagne, liquor (legitimately everything) which you do not have in the United States and it is all super cheap, especially wine. You can buy a pretty quality bottle of wine for 2 or 3 euros which is not true at all in America and boxed wine in France is actually quality and tastes nothing like Franzia.

Another benefit of France really cheap and delicious cheese. I've never seen so many different types of cheese in my life including: Camembert, Brie, Gouda, Emmental (the French staple cheese which is kind of like Swiss cheese), Mimmolette, Mozzarella, they have it all. I bought a box of camembert cheese for 1.82 euros which in America would probably cost around 8 $ same with brie it is so cheap here and they have so many options ready and available in your average supermarket.

However, not everything about French groceries is not better. First of all people in France go food shopping about 2 or 3 times per week. Their expiration dates are so much sooner and food goes bad so easily so you can basically never buy in bulk like with cold cuts they only sell slices of ham and turkey in packs of 2, 4 or 6 slices personally that is just not enough slices for me! In addition to their meat being a little weird their fruit is very different too! They have so many different fruits that I have never seen before and they pretty much sell no berries or they are really expensive I miss raspberries so much!! And they only sometimes have bananas because they are out of season. But an interesting fact is that the fruit here is a lot smaller the strawberries are about half the size because the farmers don't use any pesticides or hormones with their fruits and vegetables which I guess is another reason why everything expires so quickly.

The orange fruit is Kaki fruit it is basically a sweet orange tomato so strange!