Mad Hatter Tea

March 31st - During the brief couple of days after I got home from Prague and before I left for Paris my friends and I went to Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea at the Sanderson Hotel. If was delicious and so much fun! After we ate we decided to have a mini photo shoot in the lobby because they had so many good props! It was funny because they were having a model casting in a room at the hotel so several models were waiting in the lobby... just looking at our ridiculous attempts at modeling. Good times :)

me, Victoria, Ginan, Michelle, Kristy, & Annie

my food :)

Victoria and me
Ray-Ban ad

Czech out the WIENer!

March 25th - What a stressful day I had! I got out of class in the afternoon and had to rush to the airport for my flight at 4:40 pm. It was raining... the train to the bus pickup point was late... I missed my original bus and had to wait for the next one... and I finally got through security just before my flight to find that it had just been delayed! I shouldn't be complaining though. I'm just glad I made it! However, it was probably the scariest flight I have ever been on. Once we were on the plane and the doors were closed they told us that the delay was because the plane was having electrical problems. They went on to say that they couldn't start the engine normally but would have to do some strange external start that would cause some smoke but not to be alarmed! Great. I'm not really scared of flying but all of the stress of the day definitely made the flight a little uncomfortable... and I didn't even mention the strong turbulence that made everyone clap (and not the fake, polite clapping you sometimes get on planes) but actual joy that we had made it to the ground safely. Traveling by yourself is so stressful!

March 26th - After meeting up with my friend Kasey from USC (I also visited her in Athens) and another girl from her program named Claire, my weekend became much more enjoyable. We started the morning by heading to Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral) in downtown Vienna. Closeby was the Mozarthaus, where Mozart lived for the longest period of time out of any of his 17 homes and also where he is thought to have written The Marriage of Figaro. We then walked around the area for a bit before getting lunch and stopping at a famous chocolatier called Manner. We stocked up on delicious chocolate (I always seem to seek it out when I travel!) and made our way to Hofburg Palace, the main home for the Habsburg Dynasty. This palace was HUGE. It contained gardens with people laying out on the grass, a national library that makes the Beauty and the Beast library pale in comparison, a detailed account of the life of Empress Sissi, and a China collection that would've made any Brit gasp. We headed back towards Staatsoper (the opera house...which, unfortunately, we weren't able to go into unless we had tickets) and got sachertortes from the famous Sacher Hotel where they were created. Sachertortes are a traditional Viennese chocolate cake that is covered in a layer of apricot preserves and a hard chocolate shell. Delicious! We sat on a bench and did some people watching while we ate. We took the trolley over to Belvedere Palace, which is not a royal palace but actually the home of a very wealthy man. We had traditional wienerschnitzels for dinner!

me and Kasey inside Stephansdom
National Library inside Hofburg Palace
Sachertorte
Belvedere Palace

March 27th - We got up fairly early so we could make it to Schonbrunn Palace (Habsburg's summer palace) before getting on the train. It was sunny outside so the palace looked beautiful :) Our tour got cut a little short because the inside was being renovated. It was a little frustrating but gave us time to browse the cute little Easter Market in front of the palace. We made our way to the train station to head to Prague. The three of decided that Austria is one of the most underrated countries to visit. They have such a rich history but you don't hear much about it in the US. Our train ride was relaxing - I watched the countryside and dozed. After Claire realized our hostel was pretty far from the center of Prague, we spent some quality time at the train station booking another one. While on the metro on the way to our new hostel, both Kasey and I were victims of an attempted pickpocket! There was a couple in their late 20s standing next to me. The man had on a big jacket. I felt the magnetic clip of my bag open (but wasn't sure if I had caught it on something) so I closed it and stepped back so I wouldn't be touching anything. When we were getting off, Kasey and Claire were trying to make their way out of the door but the couple would not move. Eventually they got off the train as well. Kasey felt her pocket and realized her wallet was missing so she grabbed the guy's arm and he dropped her wallet onto the platform. He and his girlfriend ran back onto the train. Such a close call! We decided to ease our stressed minds with a pub crawl. We hit up several bars and ended at a 5-story club along the Vltava River.

Kasey, me & Claire at the Easter Market in front of Schonbrunn Palace

March 28th - We were planning on going on a walking tour but ended up missing it because we forgot to change our clocks for daylight savings! We weren't too upset though because it started raining. Instead we went to the Jewish Quarter and toured through a bunch of sites. The Old Jewish Cemetery, where Rabbi Loew of the Golem fable and David Gans (who the Star of David was named after) are buried, had layers and layers of tombstones because the city would not give the Jews any more land for the burials. It is super crowded, definitely would be one of the creepiest cemeteries at night. The Old-New Synagogue, which is the oldest working synagogue in Europe, has displays of various Jewish artifacts along the walls. My favorite stop was the Spanish Synagogue. The inside had amazing gold patterns covering the entire wall. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed seeing historical Jewish buildings and artifacts because it is much less common to find post-WWII. One of our tour guides later mentioned that the reason Prague's Jewish Quarter was so well-preserved was that Hitler had planned on using it as a museum for the exterminated race. It's really chilling, but lucky for us now. After having latkes for lunch at a Kafka themed cafe, we headed back into Old Town Square and checked out the Czech version of an Easter Market. This one was much more exciting! There were blacksmiths, children dressed in traditional garb singing on a stage, and so much food! We tried a pastry called a trdelnik - it is similar to a cinnamon roll but spun over fire on a thick pole and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Like almost everything I've been tasting, delish! I'm kinda craving one as I write this haha. We saw the astronomical clock (known as Orloy to the Czechs) do its little performance as the hour struck and got tickets to head to the top of the tower. There was a great view of the entire city from the top and we took pictures with the trumpeter. Later we were casually browsing the area, waiting for our ghost tour to start when Kasey noticed her camera was gone. Despite epic searching, we realized she had actually become the victim of a skilled pickpocketer. She was really upset the rest of the night. She felt guilty that she had let her guard down and was upset that she had lost so many irreplaceable pictures. We still went on the ghost tour... which was more interesting than creepy because we got to hear a lot of the old myths about Prague. It was difficult to get back in a good mood though.

Old Jewish Cemetery
Spanish Synagogue
with a statue of characters from Kafka story
Kasey and I with our trdelnik
in front of the Astronomical Clock

March 29th - We made it to the walking tour this time! We covered a lot of the areas we had already been, but it was nice to get an informed tour of the history of the area. We walked across the river and took a tram up to Prague Castle. St. Vitus' Cathedral was beautiful, but the rest of the castle had pretty much been hollowed out. In some parts of Prague it is very noticeable that they are just starting to get into to the groove of tourism. We had an early dinner and I made my way to the airport (Kasey and Claire were staying an extra day because they were on their spring break). So I got to the airport and had gone through security... was waiting for the gate to show up on the screen... when my flight got canceled. I was trying to communicate with some of the security guards about where to go but they had a lot of difficulty speaking English. Luckily I found some other people that were on my flight who also spoke Czech so I kinda tagged along with them. I had to wait in line for about an hour, meanwhile calling back home talking to Sean and my dad and having them help me reschedule a flight on a different airline for the next day. (EasyJet was already booked and I would've had to wait 2 days...). After going through the line I was sent across the street to the Courtyard Marriott where we were getting free accommodations and stand in line for another hour to get checked in. After reconnecting with Kasey and Claire I had been planning to go back into the city to hang out with them, but everything took so long public transportation stopped running. Meanwhile, my pay-as-you-go British phone ran out of money... so the calls to the US from the hotel room ended up costing way too much. I decided to just crash.

from the clock tower with view of the Tyn Church
(doesn't it look like a fairytale?)
Charles Bridge and Vltava River
St. Vitus' Cathedral

March 30th - One good thing about having my flight canceled was that I got to cover all the things I had missed. After an awesome free breakfast and a pleasant night's rest with my own king size bed, I went back to Old Town Square. I walked along the Vltava and across Charles Bridge, where I rubbed the lucky plaque that all the tourists rub! I headed to the John Lennon Wall and took some pictures (while listening to the Beatles on my iPod of course!). I hit up a couple shops in the area. It was fun because one place I stopped was a vintage store - in the US and more westernized nations these stores can be really expensive and feel combed-over. This one was fun and reasonably priced! I had a really relaxing, independent day and in the afternoon successfully made it back to London.

rubbing the lucky plaque on Charles Bridge
John Lennon Wall

Prague was probably the most beautiful city I visited. Most of the buildings and architecture are unchanged and all of the roads are still cobblestone. If you keep your line of sight above the people you feel like you are transported back into Medieval times. I loved it!