Copenhagen (Days 37-39)

Wow. I thought I loved Prague (and I still do) but Scandanavia is a whole different animal. During my stay in Copenhagen I came up with a new theory as to why I never studied abroad. Initial reasoning: I didn't want to be confined to doing work/only traveling on weekends and I wanted to take leadership positions on campus. I also knew that one day I would be able to travel like I wanted to (that time is now!!!) New theory: I subconsciously knew that I would LOVE Europe so I saved my friends and family the pain of me being exposed early on and either never returning or only looking for jobs across the pond. Yep. New theory wins.

Copenhagen is just the beginning of my Scandanavia exposure as I'll be traveling to Oslo in a couple days (YAY!!!!!!!!!). So far my thoughts are that Danes are super trendy, fashionable, fit, attractive, and (mostly) nice. Lucky for me I have a couple friends who studied here and were able to give me the inside scoop. SO. HELPFUL. So thank you Danielle/Jamie, Laura, and Claire (through Mackenzie). You all rock :)

Site Highlights:

Nyhavn: The very picturesque street in Copenhagen! If you've seen pictures of the city, they're probably of this point. Nyhavn (pronounced NuHaven) has a bunch of restaurants and cafes along it and is also the starting point for the water tours (which I didn't do).

The Little Mermaid: Another famous site. The Little Mermaid is a statue on the water that pays tribute to Hans Christian Anderson, the writer of the story. She has been beheaded twice and is a VERY popular site for tourists!

That's all folks.

Amalienborg Palace: One of the many homes of Danish royalty, this is where the changing of the guards takes place everyday at noon. While the palace is pretty, my favorite part of this site was the garden located just past the palace grounds. The park had some really cool architecture and stunning views of the opera house.

Opera house

Changing of the guards

Love their hats!

Christiansborg Palace: Another palace, this has a free tower that you can go up to have beautiful views overlooking the city. On a clear day (which it was when I visited) you can even see Sweeden across the bridge!

It has been pretty chilly here, like 40 degrees

The palace, complete with sun shadow

Other sites worth mentioning: I will talk a little more about a couple of these in the food section but Christianshavn (a town where marijuana is legal) was a fun place to walk around and explore, the National museum gave me a good history lesson, and the various gardens were probably my favorite part of the city. My brief 2 day stay didn't give me time to see Tivoli or the Louisiana Museum which were high on my to-see list.

Food Highlights:

Ugh. I don't know where to start! 

Markets: Markets with food truck-esque stands seem to be a trend in Copenhagen, and I'm a HUGE fan. The two big ones that I visited were the glass market and Copenhagen street food. After grabbing food at each market I would go to the nearest park, sit down, enjoy the scenery, and eat my food. It was very peaceful!

Entrance to Torvehallerne Market (aka the glass market).

The first night I grabbed a sandwich at smag 

It was SO GOOD that I went back the next morning to grab breakfast at grød, a famous porridge shop.

Porridge was topped with Greek yogurt, muesli, and applesauce. It was one of the best bowls of oatmeal I've ever eaten! It seems to be Scandanavian to put some sort of apple or rhubarb compote in with yogurt as a natural sweetener, definitely a trick I will bring home with me.

Recommended by Laura and Claire as a "local" spot, I munched on some spring rolls for lunch the next day.

Most of the stalls looked like street vendor stalls in a giant warehouse

My wraps! One was teriyaki chicken and the other was avocado. The yogurt dip was the flavor add on these.

La Glacé: A cake shop. I got an almond chocolate cake with apricot preserve. Incredible. It was better than the cake I had in Vienna! But I may be biased because almond is probably my all time favorite flavor.

Juice shops: I hadn't seen these in Europe and was thrilled to find one of my go-tos in the states here in Cooenhagen. There were two that I tried that I enjoyed (both recommended by Danielle). Joe and the Juice was described to me as the Abercrombie of juice shops. And thats exactly what it was...attractive people serving healthy food. I had the avocado pesto sandwich. The second was called The Big Apple. Here I enjoyed a strawberry-ginger-apple juice (delicious) and a croissant. I think I preferred the vibe of The Big Apple more, but I would honestly visit both places again.

JUICE!

Overall, I liked the lighter/healthier cuisine of Copenhagen and can't wait to continue eating my way through Scandanavia!

Summary:

Rating: 9.5/10 (Katie)

Likelihood of Returning: 95% (K)

Berlin (Days 34-37)

And I've officially hit the five week mark which means two things: 1. I have less than 2 weeks left of my adventure :((( 2. I get to see all my friends at home/back in Evanston in less than 4 weeks :))) 

**This post is delayed because my beloved Wild won a couple nights back and I spent my last night in Berlin live streaming the game. I also took a plane from Berlin to my next destination which meant less time for writing.

Site Highlights:

The Holocaust Memorial: Probably my favorite site in Berlin. It is a beautifully done monument that acknowledges the role that Germany had in the Holocaust and pays tribute to the many victims. We decided to stop in the visitors center and spent nearly two hours reading the stories of the families killed. It was so moving and engaging. If you're ever in Berlin you need to check out this place.

Reischmart: This is the German capital building and if you don't know that when you first see it, you'll figure it out pretty quickly with all the flags. Advice: book at least 2 weeks in advance if you want to tour or go into the glass dome. We didn't and therefore were unable to go inside this supposedly incredible structure.

View of the dome from across the river

Front of the building, note all the flags

The Berlin Wall (and check point Charlie): Before coming to Berlin I had seen some pictures of the Berlin Wall, but I didn't really have perspective on its size. It's crazy that this massive fortress successfully stood and divided Berlin for so many years. One thing that I found fascinating about the wall was how it was more like a strip enclosed by two walls, some trenches, and other obstacles that would block an escape attempt. What I found most disheartening was the large number of innocent deaths that occurred from West Germans falling into East German territory on accident and not being rescued because any rescuers from the West would have been shot. It's also cool that you can see how the wall ran through the city by a metal bar that runs the complete border of East and West Berlin in the city.

The less formidable wall

The bigger wall

A replica of what the wall looked like when it was in use. This is the only complete part of the wall that still exists today.

Standing on both sides at once

Friends divided?

Check point Charlie

Food Highlights:

We're a little sick of meat and potatoes at this point....luckily Berlin is home to a lot of worldly cuisines. Breakdown of our food: Day 1- Spanish tapas, Day 2- Traditional kebaps and Japanese noodles, Day 3- Traditional currywurst and burgers (!!!)

Kebaps: Apparently this Berlin street food is world renowned! They're very similar to a gyro, but I personally preferred the gyros. Cristina loved the kebaps! 

Mustafa's is the most well known kebap place in Berlin. We waited in line for almost 90 minutes to try them, and they met our expectations! Mustafa's was recomended to us by Jakub, who studied in Berlin a couple summers ago.

She's sooooo happy to eat

My kebap

Currywurst: Currywurst is basically sausage with curry. We first had them in Munich but for some reason Berlin is known as their home. For those of you who don't know, I don't usually eat red meat, so I ate a veggie currywurst instead! AND it actually tasted pretty yummy.

Piri's: So I was going to skip mentioning this but decided to include partially for the neighborhood. Very very good chicken sandwiches, fries, and soda. Cristina actually took a second soda for the walk home! Piri's is not located in the center of Berlin but in a more hip/up-and-coming neighborhood. We liked the food and the vibe we got from the Austraillians  working there.

Summary:

Rating: 7.5/10 (Katie), 7/10 (Aspen), 7.25/10 (Cristina)

Likelihood of Returning: 65% (K), 60% (A), 65% (C)

**If you've read all the way through, good work. Your prize is knowledge that I'll be posting again tomorrow! Sorry for the delays :)

Prague (Days 31-34)

OMG Prague.

That is all. Done. Never coming home.

Just kidding, but I actually fell in love with this beautiful city. Not sure if it is the old world charm, the friendly locals, or the cobblestone streets but something about it definitely hooked me. I wrote about this a little earlier but I really am incredibly lucky that so many of my friends were #trailblazers for me on this journey. Without their endless supply of site, food, and social recommendations we would definitely be a bit lost. Prague was no different as we got recommendations from Arielle (my little Emily's older sister who studied there for a semester) and our new friend Frankie who we met in Vienna. I also want to give a shout out to Kevin, our marine friend who we met and spent a night out with in Prague, who will probably never read this. He was really cool. And to the guy who went to high school with Aspen who we randomly ran into in the streets of Prague twice. And Aspen failed to acknowledge him both times. He will also probably never read this but "Hello" from Katie and Cristina.

Side note: my phone is running out of space so there will be significantly fewer photos in posts from this point forward. I've taken over 1000 pics on my phone and need to use my real camera a little more frequently.

Site Highlights:

Slav Epic: Set of 20 HUGE paintings that portray monumental moments in Czech history. They were done by Alfons Mucha and were actually pretty interesting to look at. We also bought the guide for 10 Prague currency which gave a brief synopsis of the importance of each piece. 

The paintings are literally 10-12 feet tall. Shown here is the series that depict three of the Czech Republic's most important leaders.

Old Town Square: Main square in the middle of Prague. There are a couple really important buildings/monuments that are located around the square: Astronomical Clock Tower, Tyn Church, and the Jan Hus Memorial. Another cool thing about the square is that there are four different types of architecture represented that give the square a really cool vibe. During our visit in Prague we spent a couple hours just sitting in the square watching people and street performers (Take me to Church was a fave). I also want to briefly mention the Charles bridge here as it is a short walk away from the square. This is a statue lined bridge that offers so great views of the castle.

Some of the buildings in the square

Clock tower at night

Bridge

Petrin Hill: A hill with an Eiffel Tower structure on top! The top of Prague's Eiffel Tower is at the same height as the real one in Paris. Breathtaking views of the city (and a literally breathtaking walk to the top of the hill). This was probably one of my favorite things that we did.

View

Paris or Prague?

Castle: Something that we probably didn't do properly. Very very busy. We were lucky that the day we visited the President of the Czech Republic was actually greeting the new ambassadors to the Czech Republic. This gave us an opportunity to see some pomp, circumstance, and the ambassador from Thailand. There is also a beautiful church on the property, St. Vitus Cathedral.

Stained glass in the church

Church

Absinth: No visit to Prague is complete without a visit to an absinthery. For those who are unfamiliar with the drink it is basically a very highly concentrated alcoholic beverage. It was the drink of choice for many literary superstars back in the day. When you consume it you mix the absybth with sugar and water to dilute and sweeten. It's quite the experience!

The ice being dropped into the machine that will dilute the absynth

Lennon Wall: All you need is...Prague? This wall is pretty cool because it is constantly changing and getting new things painted on it. Cristina thought it was a let down but it was one of Aspen's favorite spots!

Just hanging with Lennon

Food Highlights:

Cafe Savoy: Superb brunch. Really good, relatively inexpensive, and they have daily specials that are on point. Definitely up there with Brunch and Cake and THE parfait as one of my favorite breakfasts on the trip!

Clear Head: Recommended by Arielle, this is the best vegetarian restaurant I have eaten at. I ate cucumber noodles with walnut pesto and it was delicious. Like you couldn't even tell it was super clean/vegan!

Other things: Kolkovna was fantastic ethnic food. Al Dente was our choice for Italian and it was also good, just not Italy good.

Summary:

Rating: 9/10 (Katie), 9/10 (Aspen), 8.5/10 (Cristina)

Likelihood of Returning: 90% (K), 75% (A), 86% (C)