AmsterDAM

hell0oOo0o to all my loyal readers… and bless you all for not getting sick of my posts yet. This one is about Amsterdam.

Rearranged Plans

I’ve had this weekend booked for a while now – Since this was the one long weekend our program gets, 8 of us were set to explore two big cities in one weekend: Brussels and Amsterdam. However, with everything that happened there this past week, we were forced to rearrange our travel plans. Originally we had plans to fly into Brussels on Thursday and spend the night there, then late Friday night take a bus to Amsterdam, and stay there until our flight back Monday evening. The situation forced us to purchase a last-minute bus pass to Amsterdam for the early hours of Friday morning. We left Prague at 3:30 AM, arrived in Berlin, Germany first and spent a few hours there, then continued on to Amsterdam. With traffic delays and our stop-over in Germany, we didn’t end up getting to Amsterdam until around 8 PM. Very thankful for the WiFi we had on our journey, because when I couldn’t fall asleep I was able to talk on the phone which made the time pass much quicker. It wasn’t the best day of travels, but it got us there…

Overall thoughts on Amsterdam:

• Everyone is friendly, helpful and happy. It was a pleasant change from Prague
• There isn’t a TON of sight-seeing to do, but that makes it even better to truly experience the city and get a feel for it
• People walk and bike EVERYWHERE, and eat very organically. Another pleasant change from Prague
• I could live here

This brings me to our first night… We got to our Airbnb relatively late. It was such a beautiful home and the 8 of us actually fit comfortably in it. I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better accommodation. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the place. Once we were settled, we went to an Italian restaurant that was recommended to us, and was conveniently right around the corner. We rolled up a few minutes after 10 PM, and were unfortunately told that their kitchen had just closed for the night. But (this is where bullet point 1 comes into play) they were willing to stay open and cook certain meals just for us. They were so unbelievably friendly and cheery; it made our long day of travels very much worth it. After dinner we decided to ~Netflix and chill~ and put on Shutter Island.

PS: Netherlands Netflix >>> United States Netflix … so if you have Hola, I highly recommend making the switch.

I AMsterdam

Like I said, there aren’t many landmarks for tourists to sight-see in this city, but we couldn’t pass up the “I Amsterdam” letters that you’ve probably seen on 14 different Instagram accounts (mine included!) That was our first destination in the morning, but we got side tracked by a market that must’ve been 4 blocks long on our walk there. We had the most delicious handmade paninis made by a street vendor called Greg Monsieur. They had some really interesting choices, like one that used peanut butter, banana and cheese (?) but all looked delicious. We made a few more stops in the market and then finally found the I Amsterdam letters – and a few street performers break dancing, too.

We had the great idea to rent bikes after that, and when I say great idea I mean probably the best we’ve had since being abroad. Bike riding through the parks and canal-lined streets of Amsterdam was absolutely the best way to immerse yourself in the city life. It was so fun trying to keep all 8 of us in a line, winding our way through people, building and other bikers, and we had the NICEST weather for it. We did get harassed by an older woman for a few minutes there… still unsure what she was yelling at us, but sometimes language barriers are a good thing right? Seriously can’t explain enough how much fun I had biking.

We did some more wandering around that day, got dinner at Hummus Bar – I think most of us were seriously craving hummus since Prague lacks that – and then got some wine for another night of Netflix and chill. That was a theme of ours; we didn’t get to experience any nightlife in Amsterdam, but honestly I was very happy with a chill weekend.

Easter in Amsterdam

Our Easter morning began with a home cooked brunch in our Airbnb’s fancy kitchen. That made it feel more like Easter in my opinion… but our next stop, not so much. The Heineken Experience. Because what says Easter morning better than drinking a few Heinekens with eight of your close friends in Amsterdam, right? Right. The Heineken Experience was incredible, and honestly beats out the Guinness Storehouse Brewery in Dublin by a LOT (Sorry Dublin, I still love you) but this was just much more interactive and entertaining. It also included a canal-ride at the end of the experience, so what more can you ask for? We got lucky with another beautiful afternoon riding through the canals of Amsterdam.

When we got dropped off, we found ourselves near the Red Light District and couldn’t resist checking this out. I don’t have many words for that, but I am thankful we saw it during the day and not the night… it definitely makes you realize how different your life can be than other peoples’ in this world.

Our attempts to visit the Anne Frank house were shut down when the line was a mile-long out the door. We definitely didn’t expect a lot of tourists to be in Amsterdam on Easter, but what do you know… We didn’t get into the Van Gogh Museum the following day either. I guess a lot of people had the same idea as us.

We DID get to explore a lot, though, and stumble across some very posh cafés and shops within the narrow streets. The relaxed atmosphere of Amsterdam combined with the picturesque canals and narrow streets are unparalleled to any other city I’ve been to so far.

Our travels there (and back, come to think of it..) may not have been the most pleasant, but Amsterdam is a trip I will never forget and a place I really hope to return.

Visitors on visitors

If you haven’t heard me say enough how small of a world it is, get excited to read this post. In just a few short days I combined high school friends, college friends, and new friends together and we all stayed out way, way too late.

We got back to Prague on Sunday and it became the laziest day of our lives, thankfully. We cooked ourselves dinner and were all laying in our beds by 8:30 pm I’m pretty sure. It was much needed after a weekend of traveling and a somehow exhausting bus ride despite the fact that we slept the whole time???

Monday we met up with Shayna and Abby’s two friends Prarthi and Libby from Barcelona that were also in Prague for a few days. After breakfast I had to leave them to do some exploring on their own while I was in class / having a phone interview for an internship (One that I was offered the job for, woo!) but the four of them managed to do a lot of sight seeing. That night I showed them two of my favorite bars: AnonymouS and U Sudu. The first just has the most interesting drinks and presentations of the drinks, plus a secret menu that you need special binoculars for. U Sudu is a cave bar where you walk into what looks like a very small, normal pub but once you find the staircase and head downstairs you realize that it’s massive. There are multiple bars that you get to by going through cave-like tunnels. It’s a very smokey atmosphere, but something worth checking out in Prague. Some of our friends from USC that were in Prague for the week ended up meeting us at U Sudu for a while, too. Around 2:30 we wandered on home.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, my friends and I are all VERY much about the brunch life, so it was no surprise that we started our Tuesday with an amazing brunch at my new favorite place, Cafe Savoy. From here they ventured to explore more and see the Prague Castle and I went to my class. We had thai food for dinner, then headed back to my dorm to wait for Mike and Jonny’s arrival. Taking one second to say that I’m thanking God they were able to make it safely to me. Mike and Johnny had been in Brussels and, with everything that happened, I wasn’t sure if they’d be able to fly out of there to get to me but they made it safe and sound and I am very, very happy about that. Once they got there we broke open the bottles and went out for the night, ending in one very strange night… Sometime after 5 AM we ended up back in my dorm, where Mike and Johnny shared my twin sized bed and Shayna, Abby and I squeezed onto the air mattress I have. Not ideal, but not too shabby either.

Wednesday I took them to Krakora, which is more commonly known as “the puma bar” here. That’s because they have live pumas – yes, the jungle cat –  in a little area in their backyard. Luckily for us, it was beautiful and sunny out so we sat outside and got to watch the pumas play. From here, I headed to class again and met up with everyone later for dinner and to begin yet another night out.

I brought all 4 of them to my friends’ Colin and Austin apartment for a pregame, and this is where the world gets smaller. Jack, Johnny and Mike’s other roommate in Barcelona, was also in Prague for a couple days with his girlfriend, so they came. Another friend of mine, Leeann, was doing the same thing with her boyfriend, so they came as well. Even weirder, the night before I had run into a girl Natalie in the bathroom of a restaurant. Once we realized we were both from the U.S. we started talking and discovered we had some mutual friends. Yup, Austin, Lexi, Colin and Sonum. So her and her friend Michael were also at the pregame. SMALL. WORLD. 

We headed to Retro, which is the club to go to on Wednesday nights in Prague, and had a great night dancing and singing. Shayna and Abby were staying in a hostel that night with another one of their friends and they left earlier, but Mike Johnny and I ended up getting home around 4 AM.

Team no-sleep was a serious thing this week and my body hates me for it, but I had so much fun with everyone visiting that I can’t even be mad. Now I leave for Amsterdam tomorrow at 3 AM, so basically tonight. Originally I was supposed to be flying to Brussels tonight, but with everything going on we cancelled our trip there and are now taking a bus straight to Amsterdam. Wish me luck on catching up on some sleep because my body is going to shut down otherwise.

Sadly this will be the last time I see Shay Shay and Abby until we’re back in the states, so thanks for being lovely visitors and travel partners :’) Mike and Johnny, see ya in Munich in a few weeks. XOXO to all.

 

Hungry in Hungary

7 hours and a very inconsistent sleep later, we made it. Lauren and I were dropped off quite literally on the side of the road in Budapest, having very little idea of how to get to our Airbnb. But we made the decision to hop on a tram and then a bus without any tickets and somehow, someway, we were greeted by our host Marton outside the door to our Airbnb.

It wasn’t long before Shayna and Abby arrived and we all agreed that before we started our day of exploration, we desperately needed food (are you starting to see a pattern here? Eating may or may not be all we do abroad) so we went to a cute brunch café nearby called Cirkuzs. From here started our day. We went to walk up Gellert Hill, which we were told by our host Marton had the best views of Budapest. The view was nice, but we saw a castle-looking building nearby and decided to walk that way. What turned out to be the Budapest History Museum offered us the absolute best view of Budapest that I could have asked for. We spent a long time exploring and taking our fair share of pictures. The surrounding area was gorgeous and the views to the other side of the river only added to the beauty. It was so picturesque that we all agreed it was an ideal spot for a wedding. Ironically, MINUTES later we were suddenly surrounded by people dressed in traditional Hungarian outfits. If you aren’t understanding the significance, essentially we were crashing a wedding party. People were dressed in huge, puffy, colorful outfits and in the midst of it all was the bride and groom. Honestly, it made me realize how boring American weddings can be… but anyways…

Cutest little violinist

 

Once our adventures were over we headed for the other side of the river. The four of us had booked a night time boat tour through Budapest. Free champagne and incredible views of the Parlamento Budapest lit up at night, what more could we ask for?

Post-boat trip, we stumbled upon a restaurant called Bonnie’s where we had dinner before beginning our night out. We had every intention of visiting Szimpla, the famous ruin bar of Budapest that we had heard great things about. After a few bottles of champagne (one of which popped so forcefully that it left a hole in our ceiling… we won’t discuss that part) we realized that it was already 1 AM. Oops. We headed to the ruin bar, only to be told that they were having “technical difficulties” and we couldn’t go. On our way back we found another bar where the walls were covered top to bottom in coasters. How coincidental; Lauren and I have been collecting coasters everywhere we go abroad. Hmmm. An hour later and some 50+ stolen coasters later, we left with our purses full. Sorry mom.

BATHING IN BUDAPEST

The next day consisted of another recovery brunch and a relaxing afternoon in the famous Széchenyi thermal baths. Relaxing may not be the right word though, because once we found the jet-powered whirl pool we were quite literally ripped from the grounds of the pool and uncontrollably shot in circles. It involved getting uncomfortably close to strangers, a few hilarious go-pro videos, and an undeniable fear of drowning. I don’t think I’ve laughed harder than that in months.

That night we planned on having dinner at The Big Fish, which was highly recommended to us. It’s a restaurant run by the largest Hungarian fish market and sounded delicious but unfortunately they were filled up with reservations, so we found ourselves walking around browsing menus until we finally settled into one restaurant we could all agree on. After dinner we determinedly set out for the Szimpla ruin bar that was conveniently right next door to our Airbnb. It’s definitely the thing you hear most about in Budapest, so we figured we would hate ourselves if we didn’t make it there, and thank GOD we did. It was 100% the coolest bar/pub/club I have EVER been to, and it was absolutely massive. Unfortunately I have no pictures because of how crowded and dimly lit it was, but just take my word for it – this place was incredible. The farther back you walked the weirder things got. There was an outdoor area (mainly for smokers), a wine bar, cocktail bar, beer bar, etc. and upstairs there was a food bar for those drunk munchies that people inevitably get. Search for “Szimpla ruin bar Budapest” on google images and you will kind of get an idea of what I’m talking about. This place is indescribable and, sober or not, we had an amazing time.

(Stole this picture to show the ceiling… like I said, indescribable)

Overall, I would absolutely disagree with everyone who has told me “Oh you only need 2 days in Budapest, it’s a small city so that’s plenty of time.” I would have LOVED to have another two days there. It’s bigger than people explain it to be, and you could go to those ruin bars every night of the week and have a completely different experience each time. I had an amazing time with amazing company, and from Budapest we all headed back to Prague. Now it was my turn to be a tour guide again and show Shayna and Abby my city! That blog post is coming soon

VISITORS

Lauren’s here!!!!!!!!

My first official visitor in Prague. I was so excited to host my best friend in my new home for a few days and give her a little taste of Prague. She got here last Tuesday – perfect timing since Tuesday nights are our biggest nights of the week to go out.

After her shuttle driver dropped her off in the wrong area and a confusing few texts later, I eventually found Lauren and her oversized suitcase wandering the streets of Prague. We headed back to my apartment to drop off her stuff and then spent some time catching up and exploring the city before the night ahead of us.

Our night began at my favorite sushi restaurant ever, because obviously I knew Lauren would appreciate this. The two of us met up with 5 of my other friends and had dinner, then headed straight to Lexi and Sonum’s apartment to pregame the Nation-2-Nation party of the night. We got tied up playing games so we didn’t end up leaving until post 1 AM, which is a relatively late start for a night out in Prague. We ended up at the club (which was called Rodeo… we had no idea what to expect) and ran into even more familiar faces. Within a few seconds of stepping inside this club we saw two girls from USC that we recognized. I can’t reiterate enough how much of a small world it is and how much being abroad has made that even more obvious to me. Lauren and I both agree that we aren’t huge fans of clubs that play dubstep-type music all night (by this I mean when we go out we like to dance and actually sing, not awkwardly shake our bodies to a never-ending beat) so we didn’t last too long at the club before calling it a night, yet we still managed to get home close to 4 AM.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

We decided to keep one of our weekend traditions from USC alive and head out for brunch. After a long night out, that’s exactly what our bodies always need. Lauren Huber met us there (I’m sorry for all of the close Lauren friends I have in my life. I know it’s confusing. Just pretend to follow along) and together we all ventured to the John Lennon wall, got Lauren a newly famous ice-cream filled trdelnik, and then into Old Town. I wanted to show her my favorite view of the city, which is from the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower in the center of Prague’s Old Town. When we got there we were greeted by a pleasant surprise – the Easter markets have arrived! Old Town was filled with markets, pastel streamers, beautifully decorated Easter eggs, tasty street foods and cheerful music. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, too, so we got especially lucky. Unfortunately, after just stuffing ourselves with brunch, we weren’t hungry so we decided we’d head back the following day to get souvenirs and street food.

SPARTA PRAHA

Thursday night I took Lauren, along with my other friends Lauren and Taylor, to a Sparta Praha playoff hockey game. Czech Republic is full of hockey lovers, so going to a game was on my bucket list for the semester, and I was glad to get to check this off with Lauren here. Prague didn’t do so hot that night (we lost 4-0) but it was an exciting game nonetheless. Our seats were conveniently in the middle of the rowdiest section of fans, so we had a fun time pretending to understand their chants. Post hockey game we headed back for an early night because we were off to meet Shayna and Abby in Budapest the next morning and had to catch our bus at 5 AM. I’m making a separate blog post for Budapest, so look for that one soon! (aka the next 20 minutes)

 

Polish for the weekend

(Warning: this is a long post)

Getting to Poland was an actual nightmare. We (Taylor, Hannah and myself) got on a night train headed to Kraków on Wednesday night. We had to transfer trains at another station in Czech Republic at 1:15 AM. Fine, good, whatever. We knew we wouldn’t get much sleep but a simple train transfer was something we could handle. We thought.

We found ourselves at the worlds smallest train station, with no open information desk, no employees, and no one that spoke English. The board listing train departures didn’t have anything matching the train we were supposed to be getting on, but there was another one headed for Kraków a little later so we figured we would just get on that. We also saw that it was delayed 10 minutes, and since it was freezing and dark outside we thought “we’ll just wait inside until the time it would normally have departed. Then we’ll have 10 minutes to get on the train and situated” …but the minute we walked outside, our train took off without us.

Unfortunately for us, there were no other trains headed to Kraków. Fortunately for us, a group of men told us (actually hand-signaled to us, since they spoke no English) to get on a random train, get off at the next stop, and grab a train to Kraków from there. So that’s what we did, and to sum it up: after jumping on a random train, getting fined for it, and Hannah throwing up in our train cart, we made it to our destination at 7 AM. Coincidentally we ended up on the same train as Lexi, Colin, Austin and Molly who we were meeting for the weekend, so we were conveniently able to get to our Airbnb all together and start our weekend in Poland.

Kraków

Day 1 in Kraków was exhausting because of our lack of sleep the night before, but we made the most of it. We went to breakfast at the Milkbar Tomasza. Who knew breakfast could be so cheap and so delicious at the same time. Then we spent the day wandering around, trying a lot of food (peanut butter lattes, caramel popcorn cupcakes, zapiekankas — open faced pizza/sandwiches that are a common street food in Poland, and more). The food was probably my favorite part about Poland and I have no shame in admitting that. Not only was it delicious, but it was easily the cheapest food I have come across in Europe thus far. We spent our day exploring cathedrals, interactive museums, Kraków’s Old Town, Saint Mary’s basilica, the Wawel castle, the Jewish quarters, and Cloth Hall which was a marketplace with the best souvenirs. Can’t say what I bought because I don’t want to give anything away for some people at home, BUT they were very cool. Thursday night was an early night, which was okay with everyone since we were headed to Auschwitz concentration camp the next morning.

Auschwitz. It’s something I never expected to see in real life. I’ve seen pictures, heard stories, watched documentaries.. but seeing it in person is a lot more authentic, and a lot more emotional. I know a lot of you are going to ask me about Auschwitz and how this experience was for me, so I apologize in advance for not giving a very good answer. It was hard to see so it’s hard to explain. Saying it was a “good” experience feels wrong. Saying it was interesting and emotional doesn’t do it justice. It made my stomach turn and made it hard to talk for a while, and I still can’t fully fathom what went on there. For lack of a better word, I am happy I got to see this huge piece of our world’s history. One thing I will mention that stuck with me is the Book of Names. There was a “book” (see below, it was much bigger than any book I’ve ever seen) that named 4.2 million Jews that were executed during the Holocaust. I don’t know why I got the idea to search, but I looked up my last name. I’ve never met anyone with the same last name as me before; the closest I’ve seen is “Haussmann” but there they were, 4 people with the last name “Housman” in this book of names. It wasn’t anything I expected to find, and was unsettling to say the least.

Touring Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau took up the majority of our day.

When we got back, Taylor Hannah and I found a sweet Polish street vendor selling 5 types of pierogies. Yes, we all tried one of each. Yes, we went back for more. Yes, they were among the best foods I’ve tried abroad. They were filled with combinations of spinach, potatoes, cheese, pork, basil, sun-dried tomatoes and who even knows what else. I could cry just thinking about it because I will probably never eat a pierogi as good as those for the rest of my life.

Once we joined back up with Colin, Austin, Lexi and Molly we headed out for dinner. Italian, because why not? But we had heard a rumor that Poland had the best Italian food around. It doesn’t make much sense but it definitely held true. Afterwards we headed to the House of Beer to get some drinks and enjoy the nightlife in Kraków, but we didn’t last too long before heading to back to our aAirbnb for the night.

 

Warsaw

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the train station. We were headed to Warsaw for the night, a short 24 hour trip, and one that I’m very glad we took. After seeing both, I definitely prefer Warsaw to Kraków. The Old Town area was beautiful with narrow streets and old buildings that reminded me of Prague, but it was also a very lively city with a lot going on. Within our first hour in Warsaw we actually found ourselves stumbling into a protest that was taking place outside of our hostel.

Since we only had one day in Warsaw, we set out to make the most of it. We wandered around to find Old Town, the Royal Castle (that didn’t look anything like a castle to be honest) and a marketplace. Eventually we headed back to the hostel and hungout for a while before heading downstairs to the bar. The walls were covered top to bottom in bottle caps, and there must have been at least 50 beers on tap in this place. We played cards for a while (thanks for teaching me how to play euchre, Austin Lexi and Molly) and then headed out to sushi for dinner. From there we went straight to a shot bar. If anyone remembers me describing the shot bar I went to in Barcelona that involved marshmallows, fire and whipped cream, it was essentially the same thing. We tried our fair share of shots that included all of the above and with names varying from “girl scout” to “TNT” to “iScream” and everything in between. I think the most interesting one was the iScream, which was literally an ice cream cone that somehow incorporated alcohol. Looked delicious, tasted atrocious. We ended the night at a club called Bank, and danced until we were outshone by the locals.

Our morning consisted of being woken up by the children in our hostel, finding a bagel shop for breakfast (FINALLY), and being lectured by our taxi driver about how America was not a good place for “normal people” to live and that Poland was much better. Life.

Overall, Poland was great. The weather might not have been great but the food and Polish mojitos were delicious, the souvenirs are fun, everything is cheap and we were in good company so what more is there to ask for? Now I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lauren who comes to visit on Tuesday!

LISBON, PORTUGAL

After 1.5 months in Europe and 6 countries later, I have learned one thing for sure: it is not possible to take a trip that won’t be amazing. Of course there are those places that don’t EXACTLY live up to your expectations, but then there are the places that you don’t have expectations for and they just blow your mind. For me, that was Lisbon, Portugal.

I was anxious about getting to Lisbon for a number of reasons. I was about to be spending a weekend with some of my best friends from high school (Halley and Becca) who I hadn’t spent much time with in forever. Secondly, I was going back to the city that my great grandmother was born 96 years ago. That was an incredible realization for me. Even though she was too young to remember it, it’s amazing to think that the sights I was seeing and the streets I was walking she probably walked and saw once, too.

But before I could experience any of this I had to get there. For me, this meant waking up at 3:15 AM after being on the phone until 1:30 (oops), getting a tram, transferring to a metro, then to a bus, and finally making it to the airport at around 4:45 AM. When I arrived in Lisbon, I met up with Halley and we set off for our first day of exploring Lisbon.

We first stopped at Café Nicola for lunch and then headed straight towards the ocean. It’s funny to think about being on the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean as my family. We walked through the Rua Augusta Arch, only to be assaulted by wind, rain, and Halley’s umbrella. For a brief second we got to see the “25 de Abril Bridge” aka the Lisbon version of the Golden Gate bridge, as well as the Cristo Rei which looks like a much smaller version of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, Brazil. From afar we saw the São Jorge Castle peering over the tops of all the buildings, so we decided that we would walk towards it. And walk, and walk, and walk… until eventually we stumbled upon the most amazing view I have seen abroad so far.

We never actually made it to the castle that day, but the views were still unparalleled. It was about time for us to check into our AirBnB where our third friend Becca was meeting us. When our taxi dropped us off at our address, there were 4 buttons to buzz us into the building. It was pouring rain and we had no working cellphones, so I buzzed all four hoping that someone would rescue us from the weather. Luckily the cutest elderly Portuguese woman came downstairs. She clearly questioned who we were and what we were doing, but she didn’t speak a word of English. We stood there laughing and smiling at each other for a few minutes until (thankfully) our host found us and let us into our room – which was not even connected to the rooms we were buzzing. Oops. Well, eventually we were settled in to our cute Airbnb and Becca made it to us shortly after. Together the three of us ventured out for dinner and drinks to celebrate Halley’s 21st birthday, woop woop!

We were in an awesome neighborhood with plenty of restaurants and bars, but somehow we got suckered in to one restaurant by a man who told us they would give us free wine. We had some yummy tapas and our promised wine (which was essentially a shot of very strong wine) and then set off to another bar, which was so much fun. We spent the night hopping from bar to bar, avoiding the rain, being asked 100 times where we were from, and ending the night with much needed kebabs.

The next day was our only full day in Lisbon. We woke up early and set out for the São Jorge Castle, making it our mission to actually reach the top today. After a faulty tram ride we ended up making it to the castle, just in time for the rain to pick up again. The weather would go from sunny and warm to rainy and windy in a matter of minutes, and it continued to go back and forth for the remainder of our day. The castle was still amazing though, and the views from the top were incredible as they looked over the entire city of Lisbon. After the castle we stopped to get some souvenirs and lunch at Chapito. This restaurant sat on the side of the hilly streets towards the top of the mountain, so as you can imagine the views were incredible. We ate delicious food including some Portuguese soups and sangria, and then set out for Belém. Here we saw the Belém Tower, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, and had world famous pastéis de nata, which are basically custard pastries, at Pastéis de Belém. And trust me, try one and you’ll understand why this shop is so famous.

It was a short trip, but an incredible one nonetheless. I was happy to get back to Prague just out of pure exhaustion, but Lisbon definitely holds a piece of my heart now.

Obragado, Lisboa ♥