Grace and I have been doing a horrible job of keeping up with this blogging business. Although it will be beneficial for us also, its difficult to give up precious time in foreign countries to sit at the computer and type, but we want everyone to feel like they are along on the ride with us, so here is an update of what we have been up to. It's been a long road since the end of May so sit tight and enjoy the stories!
I think the last update ended with Prague, so I will elaborate on that more (I was going to cleverly name this post Czech-x Mix bur never actually got around to writing it)...
En route to prauge, we took an overnight train from Frankfurt and pictured us falling soundly asleep on the train ride and waking up to magically find ourselves with no disturbances whatsoever. Boy were we wrong. The overnight train is a NIGHTMARE, for those looking to ever take one. If you have the option, take the bunk bed and not the reclining chair. People wake up at the crack of dawn (the sun rises around 3:30 or4 am mind you) and there is virtually mp way to get any sleep. We ended up making it there early in the morning and navigated the underground metro rail until we made it to the stop for our hotel. We wandered in circles for nearly two hours looking for the right street, unbeknownst to us that were pronouncing it vy incorrectly. Fortunately, we got it all settled and found it. The Best Western on Na Morani, definite recommend it and they give free wifi on all devices which is a luxury we haven't seen too often overseas. We spent our days seeing the sights: Charles bridge, the castle, the Vysherad old castle and the cemetery accompanying it, and we spent our nights salsa dancing with Czech men and getting much too drunk. We found a Cuban bar (of course haha) named Bodeguita del Medio and after some flirtatious exchanges with our waiter, we made friends with pretty much the entire staff. From the bar manager, Jirka (George in Czech, to the bartender Karel (who liked for us to call him Maxamillion), we had so much fun with them that it kept us coming back...eve...single....night. Oops! We even went out with them after Bodeguita closed down at 4 am and wet to some local Czech hot spots (Harley Bar) which turned out to be really fun. Needless to say, we had a difficult time waking up at 6:30 am the next day to catch our train back to Germany. We actually missed it, but all was well and we just jumped on the next. Thank God for EU rail passes.
Oh before I forgt, we also spent a night with this man who actually has a house in my neighborhood in Miami, but lives in CR. Arthur, if you are reading this we had the best time ever with you! Arthur took us for dinner and listened to us ramble on about all that we have seen so far, and then gave us our own personal tour of old town Prague where we were able to see the famous astronomical clock and the castle that inspired the Disney one (I think).. He also introduced us to his step som Andrew. We all went to a bar together for drinks, and had a blast laughing and taking about all sorts of things (mainly miami and how awesome it is). They were both very gracious hosts and we appreciated their efforts a TON, so thanks again! :)
After we left the CR, we spent one more night in Framkfurt (my biggest trip planning regret up to this point has been not picking Berlin instead) and the next day departed to italia!
I wish I could express to you how much of a fight I put up with my parent when planning this trip because I NEEDED us to have 10 days in Italy. Don't get me wrong, I loved our time there but it definit took me some time to warm up to it. We started off in Rome for three nights. Upon arrival to fuimicino airport, we took the train all the way to Termini and actually had a pretty easy time locating our hotel - Domus Mea. As we went to check in, we found that the hotel was located on th 5th floor of a pretty delapidated building with an old creaky elevator that barely worked, and "hotel domus mea" written in faded sharpie on the doorbell. We tried very hard to give it the benefit of the doubt until I got in the shower, started washing my hair, and turned around to find cocaroaches crawling up the back of the shower door. My head is itching now just thinking about it! Needless to say I called my mom and broke the news, so we ended up switching hotels and got to stay right on Via Nazionale, just a few blocks away from the Colloseum - rough huh? :)
We spent our days in Rome navigating through the hustle and bustle of the crowds at every single tourist attraction, and fending off street dealers that can really become overwhelming. By night we wet too much Gelato, and bought beers to sit by "our" fountain and hang out wth the locals. We ate lots of delicious pasta (and really took everyone's #1 advice to stay off the beaten path and find delicious food in different places). When people say this, they mean it. The food was so much more delicious and affordable on the small side streets. We immedialtely became attached to our favorite pasta place, and a gelato place called Beebop where we were allowed to they ALL the flavors we wanted (it won us over really).
On our last day in Rome, my dads italian colleague, Gian Franco came down to Rome with his daughter Eleonora and gave us our own personal tour of all of the ruins, the colosseum, and pretty much the whole rest of the city.
After 3 nights, we moved onto Florence. You will NEVER guess who we ran into there. Well two sets of shocking people actually. The first was the cast of Jersey shore who we actually were inches away from right off a street by the duomo. We saw them and grace must have been star struck and in awe because right after that we walked into a store full of gorgeous Italian leather boots and... Well I'll let her tell you about that herself. We also spent an entire day biking to Tuscany where we saw lots of grape and olive branches and learned the ways and regulations of growing grapes and making them into Chianti Classico wine, and the steps in pressing olive oil. We also got to have a real 3 course Italian meal, complete with wine tasting and all. It was really such an aWesome experience, but I did have to get off my bike and walk it down some of those massive hills because I was scared of face planting.
The second shocking person was...Toni! Weird huh? Of all places, we ran into her in Florence which was fun and unexpected, and really shows how there are foresters EVERYWHERE we go! ;)
There is still more to tell about the rest of our time in Italy, and all of Greece, but we are headed out now so I will update more later! Enjoy!
Oh and PS: leave comments because we really miss everyone and love to know that people are following our blog and miss us too :)
Xo
BECCA
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