saying “na shledanou”

As the semester comes to a close its overwhelming to think how much has happened in just 4 short (TOO SHORT) months. Living in Europe, trying new foods, and traveling to some of the greatest cities on Earth was an incredible experience, but as the semester ends its the people I am sure I will miss the most.

Of course, I know I will see most of them in New York, but it will never be like it was in Prague. In New York we have our separate friends, schedules, living arrangements, whereas in Prague we are like one big family.

We traveled together, figured out Prague together, and danced until the sun rose together. The friends I have made here will always be a part of a special time in my life.

Although I am so sad that this experience is ending, I am so excited for everything waiting for me at home: my best friends, my family, a new baby, Burgies, my first apartment, New York City, an internship, hummus…the list goes on and on.

Prague and the people who have shared this experience with me will always have a special place in my memories.

Miluju tě, Praha! Na shledanou!

Split, Croatia

Split, Croatia was more like a vacation rather than a tourist excursion. We spent 2 days laying on the beach in the sun, sleeping, and eating seafood and gelato.

 

The beaches are all very rocky. We all left with cuts all over the bottom of our feet.

We found a spot where you can just jump into the water and avoid the rocky bottom!

We also found a small cliff to jump off…don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I watched at least 10 people do it before trying it. 

The last day we visited Krka National Park, where some of Croatia’s famous waterfalls are located. As you can see its absolutely beautiful!

 

Perhaps the only bad part of the trip was the 13+ hour bus ride. On the way back we got stuck that the Slovenia border for about 2 hours (not sure why…) making the trip even longer! It was definitely worth it to be able to spend 3 days swimming and tanning. 🙂

Paris, France

Although I wasn’t originally planning to travel to Paris this semester, one of my good friends (who is studying abroad in London) wanted to celebrate his birthday there. I am so glad I went because I was absolutely enchanted by the city. It was something like being in New York. The energy is similar, the young people dress the same, there is good food and museums (also tourists!) everywhere….it really made me homesick for  NYC.

The Eiffel Tower at night.

 

The Moulin Rouge! 

 

Notre Dame

 

We spent a day a the Lourve, which is MUCH bigger than I imagined. After 4-5 hours we only saw the most famous pieces, the French section and the Italian section.

The Venus de Milo

The Winged Victory

The Mona Lisa

 

For my friend’s birthday we went out to a French restaurant, where I tried escargot and tartare (raw meat!!). Both were good, but I especially liked the escargot. I wasn’t expecting it to be so tasty (must have been all the butter)!

 

Paris has many bridges, but my favorite was a bridge where people leave locks.

 

Arc du Triomphe! Reminds me of Washington Square…

 

About one hour outside of the city is the town of Giverny, where Claude Monet lived. There I saw his garden, where he painted his famous water lilies, his home and his grave.

Beautiful!

 

Paris was by far the best city I visited all semester.

frýdek-místek, czech republic

This past weekend I went with 12 other NYU students to Frýdek-Místek, a town close to Ostrava in Moravia.

It was about a 3.5 hour train ride from Prague. The most surprising part of the train was that we were served free tea and coffee and the tea had real mint leaves in it (and honey!)!

After arriving in Frýdek-Místek we went to the high school where we were to meet the students whose families we would be staying with. Before meeting them we had lunch in the school cafeteria. I had a sausage with beans and soup, much heavier than American school lunches (but maybe more nutritious?)! Next, we met the students and joined their English class. We went over over verb tenses (i.e. Sit, I am sitting, I have sat, I sat) and then went on a scavenger hunt around the town. Most of the students were nervous and thought that their English was bad, but, in my opinion, their English was pretty good. I usually had no trouble understanding what they were trying to say. Of course, there were some mistakes and I had to explain some of the words I was using, but we had almost no trouble communicating.

That night, after going bowling and to a club with the group, we all stayed with our new Czech friends in their homes. Here are my new Czech friends, Carolina and Marek:

The next day we hiked on Radhost mountain. We took a chairlift most of the way up, then walked the rest of the way to the statue of Radhost, the beer god.

Here is my new Czech friend, Carolina, and me by the Radhost statue.

 

At the Czech restaurant I had the national dish of Slovakia, halušky. It is a special cheese made in Slovakia that tastes something like feta cheese, but it is very melty. 

For dessert we all shared knedla (dumpling filled with preserves) and šišky (kind of like donuts but in a different shape). 

After lunch we hiked 2 hours down the mountain, which was harder than it sounds!

 

prague zoo

The past weekend we visited the Prague Zoo.

My roommate and I made some new friends at the petting zoo.

The zoo had a chairlift!

All of the zoo’s exhibits are a comfortable distance from each other and its very easy to get a good look at the animals. For example, the picture of cheetahs below was possible because all there was separating the cheetahs and us was a ditch and a low fence. Dangerous? Maybe, but the cheetahs didn’t seem to notice us.

Monkeys!

We heard this lion roar!

This guy has the right idea…

 

prague writers’ festival 22

This semester I was lucky enough to have an internship with the Prague Writers’ Festival.  This past week it was finally time for the festival.

The other intern, Katie, and I agree that the Gala Evening was one of the best nights of the festival. It featured a conversations entitled “Long Live the Future” (the theme of the festival was “Only the future exists”) with Anita Desai, Juan Goytisolo, and Gunduz Vassaf. Afterwards, we enjoyed wine and food and spent the night getting to know a couple of the authors.

I went to most of the events, but the highlights for me were Anita Desai’s (who I also had a chance to talk to because I was assigned to take her to the National Theater) reading and the conversation “The Future of Islam” with Hamdy el-Gazzar, Juan Goytisolo and Hanif Kureishi.

neustadt an der weinstrasse, germany

Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, a small town located in a valley rich with wineries, is the home of my grandparents, as well as many of my cousins. The town is very old and the construction of some buildings date back to the 1200s.

The fountain features the creatures of the town, who according to the legend, emerge every year and must be gathered in a sack.

The asparagus is white!

We mostly ate my grandmother’s cooking (always delicious, of course), but we did have one traditional German meal at a restaurant. I tried a platter of bratwurst, saumagen and leberknodel with bread and sauerkraut on the side.

One of the many vineyards around Neustadt:

My grandfather and me at the top of Trifels castle:

We made a quick stop in Luxembourg!

Speyer cathedral:

kutna hora, czech republic

The Sedlec Ossuary, just outside of Kutna Hora, is a small Catholic chapel filled with thousands of human bones. The bones come from mass graves that were unearthed during reconstruction of the chapel.

amsterdam, netherlands

This past weekend I travelled to Amsterdam. I was impressed how incredibly kind the people are. For example, upon arriving, we were struggling to buy a train ticket and the woman behind us spend about 5-7 minutes calmly helping us and making sure we bought the tickets we needed and we knew where exactly we were going.

The city itself is beautiful. It is a web of canals and bridges,  which is also what makes it so easy to navigate.

The food was excellent. I did not have the chance to have some authentic dutch food (other than pancakes!), but I did have the next best things: Indonesian and Surinamese.

Here is a Dutch pancake from The Pancake Bakery. Dutch pancakes are not only served with what we’re used to in America (fruit, chocolate, syrup, etc.), but they are served with meats and cheeses. The pancake I tried was with chicken and cheese. I was hesitant at first, but it tasted like a buttery cheese quesadilla (Needless to say, delicious).

This is a stroop waffle, two waffles filled with caramel in the middle–YUM. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Amsterdam also has a fast food restaurant called “Febo.” Instead of ordering from a person, the food is stored in many little compartments. After putting in the correct amount of money, you are able to take the food you want. I tried a croquette, which was surprisingly delicious (perhaps the experience clouded my taste bud’s judgement).

Here is the Amsterdam, located right next to all the museums.

 

We also made a visit to the Heineken Experience, where we drank lots of beer and learned how Heineken is made.

Other museums we visited were the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum.

The best part of the trip was reuniting with Christa, who is studying in Madrid for the semester!

running around prague…

My new way of multitasking during the weekends I’m in Prague is to run to the sights I want to see. This weekend I ran through Letna Park, where the Stalin monument used to be. The statue was destroyed in 1962. The park has a beautiful view (see below) and they sell beer!

Next, I ran to Prague Castle. See pictures below!