The Little Things

I thought I'd make a blog ot show everyone all of the little details that are different here. Most of these stood out more at the start of the year than they used to, but they're all just little things that made me say "Hey!" 

So here are the some of the normal things here that aren't normal back home:

There is NO HONEY AT STARBUCKS. Honey is necessary at Starbucks. When mom was here and sick, I tried to find honey for her green tea - no luck. More importantly, how am I supposed to swipe honey and bring it home with me after paying 7 euros (~10 Canadian dollars) for a drink?

Here's what the plugs look like:

Here's what the light switches look like:

Bread is seriously cheap - I always imagined the reason is because of Marie Antoinette saying "let them eat cake" and that to this day the French are telling her to shove it by making bread extra affordable. But you can buy these packs of 4 baguettes for around a euro (they aren't very filling though).

Nanny, aunt vi and and aunt jean - sorry for making part of your carts, they're super popular here! Apparently you girls are just ahead of the curve. 

When we're travelling buses generally take twice as long and cost half as much as trains. 

Generally people really do smoke more here, like chimneys, and sometimes indoors. Yuck. :-(

If I think of more tiny differences I'll add them here. Barcelona blog soon to come!

 

Cute Hedgehog

I couldn't find a spot for this in the last blog, so I made a new one.

Here is a cute baby hedgehog!

Extravaganza

So here's the ins and outs on our big trip,  I put the highlights above everything else since I thought you might want to skip right to the goodies.

Here is our route

Highlights in order:
-Concert in Vienna
-Sunset river boat cruise in Budapest (sounds so grown up)
-Playing in the sculpture garden in Prague
-Kittens!!!!
-Playing in the bubbles in Prague
-Dancing at any and all bars we went to

And a shout out to everyone we met and loved (to Megan, Heather, Sam and Chandrika from Prague, to Sammy for making us welcome in Budapest and to Mel and boyfriend who's name I forget for making our hostel in Bratislava bearable)

Tastiest foods:
-Kava Cafe in Bratislava had tasty coffee plus blackberry cheesecake that melted in your mouth the way all cheesecakes should. I got the enjoy this while listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers with teacups dangling above me, heavenly.
-Lokal restaurant in Prague has locally sourced everything, had this thing that was like a solid version of split pea soup (I then tried to explain split pea soup that we make home to our waiter, he told me they did also make soups, I don't know if my point made it across the language barrier)
-Best beer - Czech - I did not have a bad beer this whole trip, but I was especially into the dark flat ales here
-Re:fresh in Bratislava made me really plain bean chili and rice and it saved my life

Cheers!

PRAGUE

Prague ended up being my favourite of the four cities. I think probably because we spent the most time there. It was generally just really pretty, and had lots of good vibes, and felt really safe, and had good beer.

Prague Old Town Square

Goes to Europe to find out I don't really enjoy crowds - Charles Bridge

Playing with bubbles in Wenceslas Square

VIENNA

Being in Vienna was similar to what I imgine being in the eye of a hurricane might feel like. We definitely did not have nearly enough time so it felt like we were whirling around trying to visit everything. We went to a fabulous performance (and I mean fab) and ate and slept and went for a big bus tour and I saw the first floor of the Hapsburg treasury and BAM we were out!

Concert hall in Vienna

The girls and me went to different restaurants for supper -  enjoying beer while waiting

Hapsburg coronation robe from the treasury

BUDAPEST

Budapest felt slightly longer than Vienna. I think that's because we stayed in a cooler neighbourhood that was more central, we went out to a bar at night (not doing night time activities shortens like 50% of the time you're in a city and could be doing stuff!), spent an afternoon lounging. I think I can pinpoint Budapest day 2 as when I really started to feel travel weary. Generally didn't like the food here.

***So, is it worth the price of staying in the middle of the city? If you ask me, yes. When we were in Prague and Budapest we were within spittin distance of the city centre/ stuff we cared about seeing. And those are the two cities I felt like I got the best feel for. When it's borderline late and you don't want to take the metro in to town, or your walks home could be any city, I think that sucks, so stay somewhere cool.

During the bingo bar crawl

At the laundromat the morning after the bar crawl

Spot the odd one out

Sunset cruise looking at the Budapest castle

BRATISLAVA

Okay, let's face it, we had no collective opinion on Bratislava. We heard from Megan in Prague that it was a hidden gem, I thought it would be too, Natasha didn't have high hopes and Kaelan was somewhere in the middle.

We stayed in a shitty bed bug infested hostel that did boast some cool Australians and seven kittens!  Day two we went to the castle, had a sleep in the sun on the observatory deck above the city, found honest to God the best cafe I've been in in a long time.

Kitty cat baby 

Our hostel was shit so we found a new spot to crash

I thought this looked really cool and was neat instead of ceiling medalians

Teacups on twine at Kava cafe, Momma - thought you'd like this!

AND THEN WE CAME BACK TO FRANCE!

So weary we barely made it home

Remembering to Blog More

Hi everyone! I'm back from my 10 Day Extravaganza!!!

It was super super fun. The things that made it the most fun were some of the people we met along the way. I've learned that British and Australians can generally always be relied on for fun. (I might be not so subconsciously stereotyping all Brits as awesome because of how much fun I had in the UK.)

We (the five then 4 then 3 of us) spent the whole trip together, and have since spent our 2 days here in solitary confinement recovering from all that togetherness.

Currently listening to Christmas music and eating tea from mamma's nanny with chocolate chip cookies from papa's nanny.

NEXT DESTINATION YOU ASK? This weekend! I'll be on the way to Hamburg to see Laura for the first time in 3 (4?) years!!

Other things? I have to go to school now, for a couple hours, then I'll get back here and do a more serious job of filling everyone in on our trip.

ENJOY THIS SNEAK PEAK INTO MY LIFE, A WEBCAM PICTURE!