Spring Break Part 1: Exploring Eastern Europe

     It's been a while since my last travel post. Where have I been all April? Well, it feels to me, like almost everywhere. I just returned from two and a half weeks traveling around Europe. It was an Odyssey. It was like the Amazing Race, only without the actual race and the million dollars at the end. I feel like I just walked across half of this continent. But it was unforgettable, a true once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'll cherish forever. Since there's no way to cover the entire trip in one post, I'm going to split it into three. First, there were the eastern cities of Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. Then, there was Italy. Finally, I'm going to have one more installment of "The Best Things I Ate," a spring break edition.

Prague:
     We kicked off our break in Prague, a place I've wanted to visit for years. It was one of the cities on our itinerary that I was most excited for, and in the end, it still was one of my favorites. Everyone says it's ridiculously beautiful, and everyone is right. It's more similar to Germany than even I had expected, and that made me feel at home, despite the language barrier and confusing currency. My favorite things we did there were the very thorough free walking tour, seeing the castle (and the whole city) light up at night, and most of all, learning about my Bohemian heritage. All weekend, I just kept eating everything I could find that my grandma and mom make at home.

Budapest:

     The language barrier I had experienced in Prague was even worse in Hungary. Still, it helps that in these smaller countries, no one expects you to speak the language, and it's not too difficult to get by. This was definitely the city that felt most foreign to me. It's the farthest east, it's not super touristy, but the good side of that is that it's even cheaper than prague. Despite the challenges, I found the history of this city really fascinating, and found a bunch of fun things to do. Here, we went to the third best bar in the world, and we spent our entire second day in one of the famous bath houses, which I highly recommend.

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Vienna:

     This was my second time in Vienna, so I had mixed feeling about coming back. It is one of my favorite cities in the world because of its imperial elegance and long list of cultural attractions. I did really enjoy coming back because I got to do all different things than the first time. Last time, I really wanted to have Wiener Schnitzel in Wien, but I ran out of time, so I always told myself I'd come back someday just for that. Besides the Schnitzel, my favorite things were the grand tour of the Hapsburg's Schönbrunn Palace and the view at night from the oldest Ferris wheel.

     These three cities made up the first week of my break. Each has its own distinct character, and I love them all almost equally for different reasons. For the second week of break, we went south to explore some of Italy's greatest cities, but that's another story for another post.