Spring Break '10: Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam

My Birthday

March 4^th, my 21^st birthday. Great way to start a birthday with a final in Marketing Research. At least it wasn’t very difficult. I finished around 11am. Just in time for the Mexican Restaurant to open up. I went there with Steph, Claire, and Meredith to get Margaritas so find half my class there to celebrate with me. It was a great surprise; I had no idea Claire sent out a facebook event to the whole class called “Margs for Meg.” I had a couple margaritas and shared chicken quesadillas with Steph. It was delicious; I forgot how much I missed my weekly trip to el rods. After lunch we went to the park and sat along to the water and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Right as we walked back, Greg’s little, Brandon, had just arrived in Lugano to spend his spring break with us. Then we went to enjoy Pavlov’s amazing cooking. After dinner we got on a train to Zurich then connected to our overnight sleeper train. In our coquette were Me and Claire on the top bunk. Steph and Brandon on the middle bunk and Cory and Emily on the bottom bunk. To my luck Brandon had the worst smelling feet and he slept right below me. After a minor panic attack to try to get fresh air by opening up the window, I managed to fall asleep. Next thing I new it was 8am and we were in Budapest, Hungary.

BUDAPEST

Once we got off the train we searched for the nearest ATM. The currency was Krowns. I took out the equivalent of 100 USD, which equals 20,000 Kc’s! I felt weird holding a thousand dollar bill even if it only was worth 5$. Once everyone got out money we took a bus to our hostel. Our hostel called Suite Hostel was indeed a Sweet Hostel or Apartment you could say. The ten of us walked in to a living room with couch and TV, bathroom, and kitchen. Then we walked up the stairs to our bedroom and another full bathroom. It was a shock to us to have such a nice place to stay for nearly 12$ a night. By this time we were all starving. In our attempt to avoid kebabs and fast food we managed to find a Subway! I tried to order my usual, a Chicken Bacon Ranch but of course they had no idea what I was saying so I settled with a turkey sub. After indulging we walked across the dhadsfhs bridge, which was much more difficult then I thought. The wind nearly blew me into traffic. We ventured up a huge hill to the top of the sljkjkfla castle. From here you could see the whole town of Budapest. We headed back to the hostel after a few hours. We napped and showered before going out. We walked past the shops before we ended up stopping at a bar called Fat Moe’s. Little did we know it was jazz night. We got drinks and I got an amazing Caesar salad. Brandon and Steph started dancing to Elvis it was entertaining to watch. On our walk home we soon realized that the bar we were at was right around the corner but somehow it took us 20 minutes to find it. We will figure out how to get around sooner or later.

The next morning the girls all went shopping. First we went to the Budapest market. It had every souvenir and authentic Hungarian food imaginable. We wandered for about an hour and bought a “secret box.” This is a very popular authentic souvenir that has you move and shift and take out about 5 different things which finally unveils a key that opens the box. Me and steph found our new favorite store MANGO, and quickly became obsessed. I bought a few things then kept shopping till we met up with the guys for a free walking tour. Many of the tours we have been on were very good, this one however was horrible. Our tour guide was so boring we ended up leaving 15 minutes into the tour. We decided to use the map and see the things on our own, including the Parliament and St. Peters church. After touring around the city we went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We were recommended to go to the For Sale Pub so we decided to check it out. When we walked in there were peanuts on every table and it was the kind of place you throw your shells on the ground. This was my type of restaurant! Most of the group of the traditional Hungarian meal, Beef Goulash but it didn’t look very appealing to be so I got grilled chicken and veggies, which was delicious! We went back to the hostel and pregamed in our little apartment playing card games and blasting music. We were getting ready to go to the famous Turkish Baths. Luckily we came at the right time and there was a party that night that only happens twice a year in the Rudas Bath “Winnie da pool” where hundreds of young people come to party in the water. This was much different to the ones that you go to during the day where old men sit there in barley nothing. We got our suits on and left for the baths around 12:00. When we got to the pool there was a line out the door of people dying to get it. We knew at this point it was defiantly worth waiting for. About a half hour later we got in, paid our 7000 Forint’s (35 USD) and were handed a big blue trash bag to put our dry clothes in and a wristband. We were so excited that we ran to the locker room, stripped down to our bikinis and headed for the pools. There were 3 dry rooms where people were dancing in their bathing suits, then came the pool. It was HUGE and everyone was ravin’. We jumped in and to my surprise is was really warm. Hundreds of people were standing in the pool and around the edge of the pool dancing. It was INSANE! There was a circus acrobat show going on with fire performers when we got there, then a light show, and eventually a shower of water there followed us over the entire pool. It was a crazy night but Im glad I went! Around 4 AM we decided to head home. So we got our trash bags of clothes, changed and trekked across the bridge.

The next morning we woke up around 11 am, we were pretty tired from the night before. We looked outside and it was SNOWING! UGH! So we weren’t really in the mood to do any sightseeing in that weather. So we decided to wander a little bit around town. We stopped in some clothing stores, and then into some other souvenir shops. After about an hour we stopped into a restaurant which had a title “100 type of beers,” of course we couldn’t pass that up. So we stopped in there, I got a DELCIOUS chicken caesar salad and tomato soup. After the meal we headed back to the hotel and hung out a little more, watched some TV in the main room, and played some cards. After this Brandon, Greg, Claire, Steph, Meeks and I decided we were going to go out to a bar, apparently this bar we were planning to go to was in tact during World War II. Half of the bar was destroyed during the war, but the other was still in tact so we were really excited. Before we left Steph, Claire and I got some traditional Hungarian bread. It was thinly twirled dough covered in cinnamon. It was PHENOMINAL. The walk from our hotel to the bar was not far at all, it did however take us down an extremely sketchy ally. When we got inside it was so interesting. There were so many different things left over from the war. There were letters, weapons, pictures all over used as decorations. There was also an upstairs, which had another bar, but it looked over the rest of the bottom floor. We had a couple beers, but we were mainly there to see the bar. So around midnight we headed home, because we had a 5:30 train to catch! Except after we got home Meeks, Greg, and Brandon decided their night wasn’t over so they headed to the strip club. When they got back they were bumping all around the room knocking things over, and Meeks thought it was a great idea to use his lighter to see his way around the room. Cory shot out of bed thinking that he was smoking a cigarette in our room. By this time it was around 3:30 and we had to wake up in an hour… great. So in an hour everyone was pretty tired but we were all yelling to get up I kind of threw everything in my backpack and walked downstairs. From there we had to carry our stuff downstairs. The lights went out as we were lugging everything and I hear meeks shout “AW S**T.” And we heard him slamming down the stairs, and he was like 5th person that weekend to fall down those dreaded stairs. I lugged my hiking backpack to the metro where we got on our train, where I PASSED OUT all the way to Prague.

PRAGUE

After a 7hour train ride we were all distraught when we got to Prague. We exited the train and took the tram to our hostel only 3 stops away. The “Czech Inn” looked like one of the nicest hostels we have ever stayed at. Our room was even better. It had 10 beds in it we had 2 sinks and a marble covered bathroom. We dropped off our bags then walked down the street to a restaurant were I got a pizza with cream sauce broccoli and chicken. I usually can’t eat the whole thing but today I was especially hungry. Coincidently the other group traveling through Eastern Europe was in Prague the same night and at the same hostel. This rarely happens so we decided to all go out that night. I booked a reservation for 23 at the Beer Factory. We got ready and went to happy hour at the bar on the bottom level of our hostel. Once everyone was done getting ready we walked to the tram stop toward the bar/club. The Beer Factory was a huge place with beer taps coming through the middle of the table with 4 spouts. We had 3 tables next to each other. Each table had a number on it and the number showed up on a big screen showing how many liters your table had drank. This of course led to competition within our group. I sat with Claire, Steph, Laura, Kyle, Meghan, Julia, and Chris Stahl. We weren’t much into the competition; instead we drank, laughed, and played drinking games. After a few hours a couple of us followed Meghan’s friend in Prague to an underground bar. When we walked in it looked like a small bar with not many people in it, unit I realized the stairs going down to another level, then more stairs another level, and another and another till we were finally at the bottom. It was small but lively. I got a drink called Caipiroska it was vodka squeezed limes and brown sugar. It sounds random but it was tasty. Claire and me shared a taxi home, stopping at pizza Roma to get a gyro first.

The next morning it was hard to wake up, we finally got up and went downstairs for breakfast. We went into Old Times Square and took the free walking tour. Along the way we saw pretty much all of Prague from the square to the Jewish ghetto and church’s. We stopped at Bohemian Bagel about half way through the tour. I got a turkey club on a bagel. It was delicious and too big to finish. We finished the tour around sunset. Being that we are rebels are never buy tickets for the tram, we got on the metro like usual. When we were getting off the metro, a line of police officers were standing at the gate, and began to ask us for tickets one by one. C-ham and Christian whipped around and went back down the escalator. While none of us had tickets on us, the ticket man started to give us a speech. He then took us to an ATM so we could get out money because a fine was 700 crowns. We were going to go shopping but after this escapade we just wanted to go home. We once again rested after a big day of walking around. That night we drank in the hostel for a little bit, and then we headed to the 5 story club. Maybe it was because it was a Tuesday night, but it was pretty empty. I even saw the village men… so the girls tried to dance on the dance floor but then about 20 men flocked to us so we ran away. Then Claire and I decided to be bold, and sat down with a group of about 5 guys. They were all from Switzerland and were in the Swiss army. They fed us drinks for the rest of the night. Around 3:30 Claire and I decided to leave so we went out and got a taxi. We stopped in front of the train station. When we got out and paid, we saw a bright light… like a sign from God… PIZZARIA. We hurried inside and got ourselves a big old GYRO. As we were chowing down we were staring out the window, when before I knew it, I was making eye contact with steph. They had the SAME idea we did. Late night food is the best. After we all finished eating we finished our walk home.

The next morning Claire and I were extremely groggy, but we knew breakfast was ending in an hour. So we rolled out of bed, grabbed our 120 crowns and shuffled downstairs. After we feasted we came back upstairs and went back to bed for a little bit. Everyone except for us decided to get up and get food and “Bohemian Bagel,” a restaurant that we ate at the day before. Claire and I said that we would meet the rest at Starbucks at 1:45pm before the Castle Tour started. When we got to Starbucks we waited until 2 for them. After we bought our tickets for the tour, we still held up the group and had the owner of the tours wait for our friends. After 30 more minutes he said we couldn’t wait any longer… so after feeling very defeated and humiliated Claire and I walked to meet the rest of the tour group. Our tour guide Katka, complained most of the tour about how hung-over and tired she was. Don’t get me wrong I like a fun tour, but her cursing and vulgarity was a bit much… I learned a lot about the castle, and we got some amazing views over the city of Prague. We were even taken to the castle monetary where they brew their own beer! No where else in the world could you get the same brew! And they had a special Lenten beer, which I tried in the large class of course. After the tour Claire and I headed stopped at KFC, then home to meet up with the other retards who didn’t make it on the tour. Meeks, Stephanie, Greg, Emily, Cory, and Brandon went to a sports bar to watch the Man U v. A.C. Milan game on TV. While Claire, Scott, C-ham, Christian, James and Yimmy went to a casino. After 30 minutes of slots, we decided to get on the tram and go to a bar someone had recommended. Unfortunately we got on the wrong tram, but there was an American who lived In Prague who was going to the same bar, Chapeau Rouge, so he led us the rest of the way there, with his new friend from Holland… the bar we went to was so cool. It was 3 levels. The first was just a regular bar. Then downstairs was a dance club and bar. Then the next level down was an underground rave. The only reason I went to the bottom floor was for the 28 crown beers! NICE. But Claire and I actually met a nice kid from Tennessee, who goes to Notre Dame, but was studying in London. We talked to him for almost 30 minutes. But after a while we were pretty tired, so we got in a cab and headed home. The next morning Claire and I (geeeeeez we’ve been spending a lot of time together on this trip), got up early and packed up all our stuff and took it to the luggage room. There was some site seeing that the others had done, that we hadn’t so we got up early to finish it before our night train. We saw the John Lennon wall, which is an entire wall with quotes and drawings from all over the world. We had to make our mark too! On our tour the day before we were told about a monument made, where two men were "peeing on prague." It had the option of texting a number and they would spell it out with their pee! So of course we had to see that! After this we went to the Jewish ghetto. After walking around souvenier shopping we got on a tram. Next thing I knew my arm was being tapped asking for my ticket. OH NO, NOT AGAIN. Claire and I both had tickets in our purse that we hadn’t validated. But to them not being validated meant no ticket. But Claire and I weren’t going to give up so easily. The local American who we met the night before said he’d been caught 35 times and had never paid. So the man grabbed my arm when she went to validate her ticket, he then said to get off at the next stop. He asked for ID and we stupidly gave our hokie P’s. He then told us we had to pay another 700 crowns. And we said NO. He then said he was calling the police, and got on the phone and talked in Czech to someone. Claire and I were just walking away from him and he was just following us down the road muttering about the police. He even grabbed my arm when I tried to walk away. After about 25 minutes of him following us around Prague we were at a corner, all of a sudden he spotted a police car and shouted “WAIT HERE. I GET POLICE. POLICE. POLICE.” He started running to get the police. Right then I yelled “CLAIRE RUNNNNNNNNN.” As soon as we could we ducked into a small watch shop. Our hearts were racing and we were freaking out. I then told me to take off her lime green coat ASAP. After we realized we couldn’t stay in there forever we started to walk down the road, terrified we would find that scary guy again. We flagged down a taxi as soon as we could and took it to the main train station. When we got out there were police everywhere and we panicked! We started darting down side alleys and we got pretty lost but FINALLY we were home. Unfortunately we never got our Hokie passports back but we were back and safe. We sat in the hostel bar drinking a big beer until everyone got home. Before we left for our train we got some Chinese food. Claire and I walked with our hoods up the entire way to the train, and we DEFINITELY had validated tickets. We safely got on our night train ready for our crazy last stop. AMSTERDAMMMMM

AMSTERDAM

We couldn’t check in to the hostel. So we put our luggage in the bar until we could check in, then decided to head into town for some food. We stopped at the “Pancake Corner.” Apparently Amsterdam was really famous for their pancakes so we had to try it out. The guys said screw food we’re going right to the coffee shop. So the girls got a table. I order a large glass of Orange Juice and a Pancake filled with mushrooms, cheese, & Bacon! When the food came out the pancakes were nothing like I was used to. It looked more like an oversized crepe than a pancake, but so DELICIOUS! After devouring our food. We headed across the street to the underground coffee shop. We picked up some goods, and hung out there for a while. After we were done there, we walked back towards our hostel, but stopped at the House of Bols museum. It cost 13 Euro to get in. we got to walk around reading about the founding of Bols. There were also taste strips that were vanilla and mint. Except for being liquid it was only the smell of the vodka, with the type hidden behind a flap. After we smelled everything we headed upstairs, for our free cocktail! We each got to pick from a long list of cocktails, and we crowded around our table. C-ham was last to come over with his drink and when he did everyone started laughing, because he was the ONLY ONE who had gotten a cocktail, in a martini glass! He was so embarrassed and flustered that right when he got to the table, he sloshed half of his drink on the table. Obviously he proceeded to complain the rest of the time there. As well Brandon was paranoid thinking that the bartender didn’t want him there. After our free drinks we got to pick two liquor shots. I picked kiwi and Mango MMHMMM. After Bols we walked back to our hostel. But before we reached our hostel we stopped at the big “I AMSTERDAM” letters. They were HUGE. We took a big group picture, each peeking out from behind a letter, but we realized afterwards we were on the wrong side… we tried to get some pictures but it was pretty occupied by some Spaniards. After a couple hours we showered and got ready for the night. We got ready and headed back into town. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Claire, Steph and I split a pitcher of margaritas. Our table ordered a basket of guacamole and within a matter of seconds it was GONE. There was not a moment where hands weren’t flying from chips to guac. Of course when the waitress came back we ordered another basket. I got a little fajita after that. When we were finished and paid. We went outside looking for a place to drink a bit. We saw a sign of 10 shots of jager for 10 dollars. YEP. We walked inside and the first thing we saw on TV was a basketball game. We looked a little closer and realized VIRGINIA TECH WAS PLAYING!!!!!!!! We flipped out and immediately posted up at the bar. After a couple hours, we walked to club Paradiso. The line was pretty long so we decided against it.

The next morning we got up kind of early, because we had a lot of site seeing to do, before we left, we ate some of the sub- par free breakfast. Side note: EVERYONE in Amsterdam rides bikes. There are 10 times more bike lanes than there are sidewalks. Hardly anyone takes public transit or drives. We all walked to meet up with Josh. We stopped in burger king before the day. We then spotted whirley and his brother, who looked exactly like him. We walked towards the Anne Frank house. It was pretty far, and Josh’s brother warned us it would be a pretty long line, but we decided to check it out anyways. When we got there of course, there was a line all the way around the building. So we decided to pass the time by going to a coffee shop for a bit, near the red light district. We stayed there “hanging out” for about an hour and then I got a muffin to go, and we walked back to the Anne Frank house. The line was just about as long as before and so we just stood in line. It only took about 20 minutes, and then it was 8 Euro once we got inside. It was so surreal actually being in the house when the Franks lived. The house was surprisingly larger than I imagined. When you walked past the bookshelf, to get to the second floor, you had to walk up the STEEPEST flight of stairs ever, I practically crawled up the stairs. At the top there were little blurbs about the house, and a couple artifacts. But once again the room up there was pretty big. Once we were done at the house, we decided to go to the Van Gough museum. This was 14 Euros to get into the museum. I had JUST eaten a muffin. So the artwork was absolutely amazing. They even had different artists, like Monet and Picasso in the museum. Then we headed back to our hostel, and showered up. When we were ready we headed back to town. We went to the RED LIGHT DISTRICT! It was UNREAL. We first stopped into a place that said “PEEP SHOW 2 Euro”. We were all for it until we found out that we had to sit through the live sex show ALONE. In our own little box… we said no thanks. We also had the option of going to a theatrical version of the show, but that would be 25 Euro. So we kept walking. Also the prostitution was CrAzY. You literally would walk down the street and there would be a girl in a bathing suit knocking on the window waving you in. but on some of the side streets there were the downgraded version of the main strip girls. After we took the scene in, we went back to town. We tried out a couple different bars, and walked by Paradiso again. Then finally we went to a bar called Pirates which was PACKED but when we paid cover, guys got a free beer while girls got a free shot. It was a fun bar but after a while we were tired of being sardines. Side note from this bar: the Cha Cha slide music video is slightly pornographic, found that out the hard way. After we left here, we were all pretty tired, and it had gotten pretty late, so we headed home.

The next morning we had a train ALL DAY. Our train left at 11, so we woke up early, and went back to the coffee shop for some goodies. Not without stopping in Burger King again. Our train ride was around 12 hours long so Steph and I decided to get “SPACEY!” When we got to our second to last stop we were FAMISHED and only had 10 minutes for an opportunity of food. WE RAN to a pizza place, and hopped back on the train with a few minutes to spare. Within a couple hours we were home sweet Montarina.