Prague

So after a long night in the overnight train, we finally arrived in Prague! We checked in to our apartment, and our lovely hosts gave us tips on where to go and where to change money! (: 

We walked around a bit and decided to grab a spot of lunch, soup and quiche lorraine! (: 

It was nice and warm, but i find the food in the Czech republic a tad salty!! 

I love this picture of people walking in the streets, looking stylish, with typical European cobbled streets and quaint architecture. Reminds me of quintessential Europe haha

Walked around in Prague Old Town for a bit, this is my absolute favourite shop! I bought at least 100 euros worth of chocolates. I especially loved it because the brand is VIVA, which is the same name as my dance group haha

yummy seashell pralines!!!

MY STASH :D hahah i bought so much chocolate that they actually gave us free tickets to the chocolate museum! (: The museum was okayyy, wouldn't be worth paying for, but since it was free it was okay. haha

 look at this cute cup in the chocolate museum, it's designed for people with mustaches to drink hot chocolate without getting chocolate on the mustache! so funny!

and this is a chocolate making demo!

After walking around and shopping for a bit, we went to watch the Prague Chamber orchestra at the gorgeous municipal hall. I thought it was a bit of a tourist trap actually :/ the musicians were good, but they had to perform in a hall with terrible acoustics so it was quite sad ):

anyway, i wasn't feeling super well, had a slight fever, so we had some comfort food! Ramen! (: totally legit, and delicious haha. the owner was czech, and kept coming to check with us if the food was alright. maybe it was like getting an 'Asian stamp of approval' haha i thought he was so cute(: and the ramen was delicious! yumyum!

after which it was cold and i was really feverish, so we went homeee. sigh temperature that night was like 38.4 ): which made me freeze in the cold Prague night.

Next day, we got up around noon, and went in search of more Asian food haha Vietnamese!

I really really enjoyed this meal, because i missed rice! and i loved the way they cooked the sweet and sour chicken (:

After lunch we went walking, and here's some pictures of beautiful Prague (:

simply love the architecture

 and we climbed up the hill to visit the palace, and were treated to sights of Prague from above

This is the palace!

We chilled at the starbucks here for a grand total of 3 hours, because we were sick and also cos it had a beautiful terrace overlooking the city

and then this picture is from when we were walking down the hill. love the streets, and lamp posts and cobble stones

Charles Bridge is simply magnificent at sunset. It makes everything golden and the sight was just stunning 

oh and this is a Czech traditional cake! a hollow donut like cake with cinnamon sugar dusting! Yum!

Dinner was at the cafe louvre, an old restaurant with lots of history! in the past, intellectuals would gather here to discuss ideas, and women were not allowed! glad that that's changed! hahah

 pumpkin soup (: 

 amazing melt in your mouth duck confit, with red cabbage and potato pancakes

chilling after dinner with cakes and tea (: tiramisu and raspberry slice

the next day we were too lazy to walk anywhere to eat, so we literally ate downstairs, one minute away from our apartment. It was a lovely Mediterranean restaurant 

I had a fish spaghetti, with olives and capers! It sounds funny, but it tasted quite refreshing and delicious (: 

and mussels!

this was an awesome molten chocolate lava cake with pistachio sauce

and panna cotta

we then basically lazed the day away, bought more chocolates, and went for dinner at cafe louvre again. so sad to be sick in Prague. thankfully, my appetite was still good, as evidenced. so i could at least enjoy the food even though i was in no mood or condition to walk or sightsee much hahaha. or maybe nothing can diminish my appetite. 

beef broth!

chicken wrapped with sundried tomato and ham, with potato gratin.

banana ice cream :D

and that was how we spent 3 days in prague, haha basically being super chill, sitting around in cafes, drinking tea, breathing in europe, and also eating yummy food.

I've kinda gotten used to 3 hour dinners, with soup, main course, dessert, tea and conversations. It's really quite an awesome feeling to be able to take such long dinners, and enjoy the food, the ambience and everything. (: unfortunately it also means i eat a lot more than usual, which is why i have post europe weight gain ):

Next and last stop: Munich in Germany!

Love,
Shermine

Krakow

My posts from Poland are not in exact chronological order, because after Krakow, we headed back to Warsaw before going to Prague. But anyway, I thought that Krakow was very beautiful, much more so than Warsaw. 

First stop was the Kosciuszko Mound that is basically a little hill that took 3 years to build. It was built as a look out point, so it's wrapped by a fort. 

so this is basically what it is, and we can climb to the top for a good view of Krakow!  I was pretty scared because there are no railings at the side, but it's actually quite a wide path, so it's okay. actually not okay, i was scared and imagining falling to my death at any moment lols.

 after that, we wandered around the Krakow old town looking for dinner! We didn't feel like having Polish food, so we had Georgian food! we basically looked at the lonely planet guide and picked the most exotic sounding thing we could have

 a really nice bread that tastes more like cake

 cheese pita which was supposed to be a specialty, but was super not worth it. just like cheese bread.

 grilled chicken with cous cous! I felt healthy for once

 Krakow old town is really pretty, but rather expansive too, that it is quite difficult to capture it in a picture. it just has to be enjoyed there and the, for the pretty cafes, large square and chill atmosphere

the day we went, there was a nice large market going on, and so we wandered around for ages, buying little snacks, and doing some souvenir shopping. we bought a chess set, some boxes carved out of wood etc.

 cheeses!

 grill bars

 grilled bratwurst

 more fried cheese

 pastries

 amazing potato pancakes

then we headed to the Galica Jewish Museum, which was a photo gallery, and a rather sombre one

 i thought that this was heart wrenching ):

after that, we drove to the Jewish quarters of Krakow, which surprisingly seemed desolate and quite run down. We weren't exactly sure why.

 this is a famous Jewish restaurant, that was apparently used in some movie. We were more amused by the owner of the cafe who had a nice little speech and was basically repeating it like a tape recorder to potential customers.

 but anyway it was a nice place to enjoy some Kosher beeer! tastes exactly like beer, but it has no alcohol in it! that's my type of drink man!

We had bought tickets to a chamber orchestra concert, held in a grand church. The program was Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I was happily taking pictures of the evening scenery around me, and the pretty buildings

concert tickets!

and concert program! it's super common to find these all over poland, and prague too actually. haha, arts are well developed there. It was quite a treat to enjoy the music, even though i'm not super enthusiastic about music. Nevertheless, it was nice because the acoustics were very good, and the musicians were awesome.

after the concert, we headed to a milk bar for supper. love that you can pick whatever you want and weigh it and pay for food by weight. haha

yum!! i think i have been deprived of green veggies, so i heaped veges on my plate! as well as potato pancakes of course! I LOVE milk bars, because it's like a buffet so you can pick whatever you like and try a bit of everything (: and it's quite cheap too!

The rest of these food pictures were actually taken in Warsaw on the day before we left Warsaw for Prague:

 Udon in soup!

 Our sushi boat which I thought was so cute

 polish milk bar again!

after this, we also caught a movie, Divergent, before we went to catch our overnight train that would take us to the gorgeous city of Prague!

Love,
Shermine