Kelly Meets Amsterdam, Prague, and Budapest

Hello world!

Life update: I have officially left Athens behind (tears) and (partially) moved into my new Roman home. I had a ten day break separating my time in Athens and Rome which meant ten days of traveling Europe! I was fortunate enough to have my good friend Amelia from my Mankato Loyola days come to visit Europe and travel with me. In our ten days together we visited Amsterdam, Holland, Prague, Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungary and Rome, Italy. So much happened in these ten days, so I will try my best to summarize.

Amsterdam

Things we did:

- Toured The Anne Frank House

- Ate Danish Pancakes

- Enjoyed a Canal Boat Tour

- Explored The Red Light district and the Jewish Quarter districts of Amsterdam

side note: Amsterdam is famous for its Red Light District while the beauty of Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter is less known, but it really should be the other way around. You would expect the Red Light District to be dirty and dangerous but it was actually very well kept and it's a pretty safe area. More than anything, the Red Light District is uncomfortable and depressing. Amsterdam is a such beautiful city with so much to offer and it makes me sad that sometimes places like the Red Light District overshadow other historic, impressive neighborhoods.

- Enjoyed ice cold Heineken at the Xtreme Ice Bar

- Toured the Van Gough Museum

- Toured the Diamond Museum

- Toured Museum Van Loon and Museum Willet-Holthuysen (historic canal houses)

Highlights:

- The Anne Frank House: Visiting the Anne Frank House was such an informational and eye-opening experience. I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a 7th grader and visiting her hiding place was like stepping into the pages her diary. A particular aspect of her home that has stuck with me is the spot in her home where you can still see where her and her sister's heights were marked on the wall. This is such a normal family ritual under such abnormal circumstances. It sounds like a weird thing to be emotional about, but after talking with others who had visited the home I found that a lot of people felt the same way when they saw these height markings on the wall. Walking through the Anne Frank House was depressing, enlightening, humbling and inspiring all at the same time. Like visiting Dachau concentration camp, it really is a challenging experience to describe but it is one that has changed me for the rest of my life.

- Historic canal houses: we visited two canal houses (Museum Van Loon and Museum Willet-Holthuysen) that had been restored to how they would have looked circa 1900s. I love history and HGTV and seeing the canal houses was kind of like a combination of the two... what more could you want? I would compare seeing them to seeing the Glensheen mansion in Duluth as that home is also from the same time period. I don't think a lot of people know about these museums in Amsterdam, but they were really cool to see and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam!

Amelia and I smiling through the pain of the cold at Xtreme Ice Bar .

Fully loving Amsterdam and its beauty!

Prague

Things we did:

- A walking tour of the Jewish Quarter and Old Town Square (two of the most historic and famous areas of Prague)

- Visited Prague Castle

- Walked St. Charles Bridge

- Prague Pub Crawl

Highlights:

- The food! Who knew the Prague has such great food? Out of all the places I've been to, (including Italy!) the food in Prague was my favorite. You can walk into any restaurant and have an absolutely delicious meal for $10. An average meal mostly consists of meat and potatoes, similar to Minnesota, which is maybe why I liked it so much. I would go back to Prague any time, if nothing more than to have more wonderful food!

- The view from the top of St. Vitus Cathedral: St. Vitus Cathedral is a church within Prague Castle, a castle complex that was home the royal family of Czechoslovakia and now home to the Czech Republic president, and it is an absolutely beautiful church. One of the church's towers is open to the public and you can climb to the top for panoramic views of Prague. Although walking up all those stairs is quite exhausting, the view is totally worth it. It was so neat to see Prague from up above and I could've stared at its beauty all day.

The view of Prague from the tower of St. Vitus church.

Trying a Pilsner beer, the famous beer of Prague. Despite the smile on my face, it was easily the worst beer I've ever had.

Beautiful scenery from St. Charles Bridge!

One of many delicious meals! This one consisted of pork, sausage, red and white cabbage, a potato pancake, and potato and bread dumplings.

Budapest: The city we visited but not really

Ah, Budapest. Amelia and I hit Budapest for the last leg of our journey and sadly we were not able to explore much of the city for many reasons. First of all, we only really had one day in Budapest. The morning of our full day was spent at Gellert baths, one of the famous, natural thermal baths of Budapest. The facility is extremely old and beautiful, containing a spa with several pools, saunas and steam rooms. We spent the morning testing the different temperatured water of each of pools and overall just relaxing from many days of traveling. In the afternoon, things took a turn. In Prague Amelia had caught a nasty cold and by the time we got to Budapest she couldn't quite fight through the pain any more. We ended up spending the short amount of time we had there mostly at the Dr's office, where we discovered she had a sinus infection and needed antibiotics. Poor Amelia! She was definitely a trooper through the whole thing. Although our time in Budapest was not quite what we had wanted it to be, we made the most of the experience and were able to get some rest. After visiting the Dr, Amelia felt much better and we were pumped to continue our travels in Rome.

A short, but sweet, summary

Although I loved everywhere we visited during our travels, I found Amsterdam to be my favorite city. I loved exploring streets filled with the tall, leaning canal homes and canals that separated them. I loved the cold and rainy weather and how everyone rode bikes around the city. Even though I only spent four days there, I felt completely at home and fell in the love with the city. Prague was also beautiful in a completely different way and I loved that it was a quieter, less crowded city. Overall, it was an exhausting but wonderful ten days, and it feels good to be settling into my new home here in Rome.... but more on that a different time. Ciao!