Berlin & Prague

Berlin Cathedral

National Gallery of Berlin on Museum Island

Cute little Berlin car

Humboldt University on Museum Island

Berlin Cathedral

River around Museum Island

Walking man wearing a Berlin hat

Alexia and I in front of the Berlin Wall

Memorial for all of the Jews in the Holocaust

Pariser Platz

Sign outside Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Sign on the other side of Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

Outside our Prague hostel window

Old Town Square, Prague

Prague Astronomical Clock

Markets in Old Town Square, Prague

Delicious Czech pastries!

Old Town Square, Prague

Prague Astronomical Clock

Prague

National Museum of Prague & Wenceslas Square, Prague

Wenceslas Square, Prague

Charles Bridge, Prague

Prague's Eiffel Tower (used in the movie Eurotrip as the Eiffel Tower)

One of the first forms of graffiti

Church inside the Prague Castle grounds

Tori, Molly, Alexia, and me in the Prague Castle church

Prague Castle Church

Prague Castle Church

The girls plus Jindrich and his daughter and her friend at a traditional Czech pub/ restaurant

Another Church in Prague

 Last Saturday, my roommate Alexia and I went to Berlin.  It was interesting, I am glad I went, but will probably not return.  Seeing parts of the Berlin Wall still standing was quite interesting, but other than that, Berlin really only had a lot of museums (Museum Island) and bratwurst.  I have had my fill of museums and galleries in London, so was not really interested in paying 15 euro to get in.  The city itself was not very pretty, a lot more modern than I thought it would be.  So Alexia and I ran around the city for 5 hours making sure to see all the main sites.  After all of the running around, we went for dinner at an oh so very authentic German restaurant, a Tapas restaurant.  We were not so interested in eating brats and sauerkraut, but now we know Berlin can do Spanish food quite well.  From dinner we headed to a club.  It was much for of a European club than any of the London clubs.  Techno music, crazy lights, strange European dancing, smoking inside (I smelled like an astray afterwards, did not much appreciate that), strange drinks, etc.  It was a lot of fun, we met some very interesting people there.  We tried out first shot of Absinthe, absolutely disgusting, tasted like black licorice.  And no hallucinating, no seeing green, not sure if that is all a myth.  


The next morning, we headed to Prague on a train from Berlin.  It was an absolutely beautiful train ride, gorgeous hills, rivers, houses, castles, etc.  Much different of a train ride than the Amtrak ride from Chicago to Springfield, and surprisingly shorter.  Only 4.5 hours versus Amtrak's at least 5 hour train ride.  Once we got to Prague, we headed to our hostel which was located in Old Town Square.  Prague was beautiful.  It was so pretty it looked fake.  It took me awhile to realize I was not walking around Epcot at Disney.  Walking around, I could definitely tell that my mom's side of the family is pure Czech.  I had to do some double takes, thinking my grandma Kutilek had somehow arrived in Prague.  The food was good, very similar to what we eat at my grandma's; pork, ham, sauerkraut, dumplings, and kolaches.  In Prague, we did quite a bit of walking around, 9 straight hours of it to be exact.  It was tiring, but very pretty the whole time.  After we found out you could bring an empty bottle of sorts, a large water bottle, to a pub and they would just fill it up for you, the walking was much easier.  We went out to a pub with live music, pretty fun.  The beer there was very good, much better than any british beer I have had.  Tuesday we headed back to London, it was a short trip, but fun nonetheless.  On Monday, Shannon is coming to London and then on Wednesday we are going to Paris, quite exciting.