Although a flat tire in the middle of Hungary seems like the worst thing that could ever possibly happen, and although it seemed that at the time, within fifteen minutes, we were back on the road. Who knew that a Czech student bus company would be so good with repairs?
We pulled into Prague slightly ahead of schedule, much to our surprise, and within half an hour, we were sitting at a McDonald's, gorging on value meals and catching up with Rob. We made our way back to his residence building, where the woman on duty who was about 80 million years old told us that there was no reservation for the night, only to find a sheet of paper right behind her that stated otherwise. She instructed us to pay the next day, then sent us on our way with our room key.
We didn't pay the next day, and as the secretary's office was closed all weekend, thought we'd get away with not paying at all. On Friday, we had plans to meet up with Justin Quinn, a professor at Charles University who did a semester of teaching at Villanova last year. He's an Irish ex-pat living and teaching in Prague, and went to Blackrock College in Dublin, meaning he probably played rugby against Dad. Coll and I had both taken a creative writing class with him, and after emailing to let him know we'd be visiting Prague, he offered to take us out for lunch at a "suitably disreputable Czech pub". We feasted on meat and potatoes, and were schooled in the art of Czech beer, enriched with vitamins.
It rained the entire time we were in Prague, until the moment we had to leave.
Rob did a great job of playing tour guide, and it was really nice to be playing the tourist for once, after being the tour guide so frequently with visitors coming to Paris. Although some of the history lessons were a little lost on me after a while, Prague is a beautiful city, despite the rain.
On Saturday morning, Coll and I found ourselves at a restaurant called Cafe Radost, where we feasted on a full vegetarian breakfast, complete with fruit salad. Any fresh fruits or vegetables were a treat at that point! That night, we paid the equivalent of $1.50 to see a performance of Mozart's
Don Giovanni, which premiered in Prague, where Mozart was locked up until he finished writing the opera. The movie
Amadeus was also filmed in Prague, so we got to see a lot of the buildings featured in the movie. The opera was great; at intermission, since our tickets only got us standing room, we scoped out empty seats and grabbed three together at the very front of the balcony. Delighted with ourselves, we took lots of photos of our VIP seats, only to be kicked out of them five minutes later by a very friendly (not), elderly Czech couple with tickets, who apparently had no problem showing up halfway through the performance.
After the opera ended, we searched the city for ice-cream and unfortunately ended up at McDonald's once again. We waited in line for about 20 minutes and had almost reached the register when a leggy blonde dressed in silver pushed her way to the front, and sat on the counter. Needless to say, neither we nor the group of large British men behind us were impressed. After canoodling with her American boyfriend/customer for about ten minutes, the manager kindly informed her that she would not be receiving her food unless she climbed down. She eventually did, but not without some really hilarious comments from the Brits.
Sunday saw the end of our time with Rob, and as we made our way downstairs with our duffel bags that just seemed to keep on getting heavier, we threw our room keys on the entryway desk and ran out the door, hoping to avoid having to pay altogether. The woman angrily tapped on the window and we made our way back inside, utterly disgusted that our plan had failed.
After paying and lunch at "Bohemia Bagel", we bid farewell to Rob and boarded yet another bus, which would take us to Vienna. Once we crossed the border, the bus was stopped by "border patrol", and although Coll's passport was underneath with her luggage, the police didn't seem to mind. Long live the E.U.
We checked into our hostel on Sunday night, and found ourselves pretty tired, so we relaxed with some beer and a game of Scrabble, during which I used all my letters and a Triple Word Score to become the Scrabble Queen, but only that once. Colleen's friend Will, who we had also hung out with in Budapest and Prague, managed to get a room in the same hostel, so we sat and chatted with him for a while before heading to bed.
The first order of business on Monday, as the sun streamed into our 8-bed dorm room, was to wander in search of flip-flops. Our limited baggage had limited our footwear options, as well as the fact that the constant rain had ruined Coll's shoes. Twenty minutes down the road, in classic European style, we found about 80 H&Ms, where cheap flip-flops & skirts were purchased and donned with glee.
Vienna was really beautiful. The weather was glorious and the buildings are absolutely magnificent, but I found myself a little bored by the time we had circled the Hapsburg Palace for the third time. We snacked on apple strudel in the afternoon, and eventually decided to buy a bottle of wine and settle in the park for an hour or two. It was really relaxing; I think by that point, our energy was running low. We bought some pasta in an effort to save money, and sort of made spaghetti carbonara, but the brand of ham we used had a distinct hot dog flavor, which sort of ruined the taste a bit.
We got up early the next morning so that we could get tickets to see the morning rehearsal of the famous Spanish Riding School, where Lipizzaner horses are trained to jump around and dance. We had to be quite pushy to purchase our tickets, much to the disgust of people in line around us. The rehearsal itself was decent, but we didn't stay for the full three hours, and went instead for a coffee at Cafe Central, where Trotsky hung out and apparently Hitler first started to write
Mein Kampf. Lovely environment. After a failed attempt to find Beethoven's apartment, we grabbed lunch and then I visited the Fine Arts Museum while Coll went to an Architecture exhibit. Back at the hostel, we napped for three hours before eating
weinerschnitzel at a little corner place down the street from where we stayed. Will left us for Italy, and Coll and I attempted another Scrabble game which was interrupted by a pompous French boy from Lyon. Amends were made when we met a really amusing Swedish girl. We chatted with her for a few hours, got some recommendations for our trip to Milan, and then collapsed into bed.
We arrived in Milan on Wednesday afternoon, after a slightly delayed flight and some overpriced airport food. The sun continued to shine, and we found ourselves at Hotel ABC by 6:00-- slightly more expensive accommodation, but for our own room and a free breakfast, it was worth it. We were also lucky enough to stay right next to the Duomo, one of the main sights in the city.
We feasted on pizza and red wine, followed by gelato, and sat back in our chairs, marveling that we were finally in Italy. It was a great place to end our trip, as things felt more familiar.
We were up early the next morning, as we'd purchased train tickets to go to Verona for the day. Before arriving in Milan, many people had not had good things to say about the city, and for the real Italian "experience", we thought that buying a cheap train ticket was a good idea. On a recommendation from the ticket girl at the train station, Verona would be "very beautiful" so off we went.
And beautiful it was.
Somewhere between the two aperitivos, ancient buildings, and sunshine, we found exactly what we were looking for: a day of genuine Italian life. We strolled around, felt completely at ease to see whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. As Verona is the famed setting for Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, the city reaps the benefits by claiming one of their buildings as her house, and the walls leading into the courtyard are covered in graffiti proclaiming all sorts of lovers' vows. I'd been to Verona before, just briefly, to see
Carmen performed in the ancient arena, and a visit to Juliet's house then proved very different. It's since been cleaned up and renovated, and just wasn't the same.
We ate delicious pasta and pizza for dinner in one of the piazza, then wandered to the train station in search of a train back to Milan. Our tickets were open, so we could take whichever train we wanted, but apparently not the high-speed ones, as we were promptly kicked off our chosen locomotive into the Italian countryside. As a train zoomed past us on the platform, we feared we'd never see Hotel ABC again, but the next train was for us, and we got back to Milano Centrale in one piece. After a nerve-wracking, expensive cab ride back to the hotel, we climbed into foreign beds for the last time.
Our flights out of Milan weren't until the late afternoon on Friday, so we took some time to see more of the city before catching the shuttle to the "budget airport". It was another beautiful day, and although we had to make another dreaded trip to the ATM, soaking up the Italian sun with a delicious cafe latte in my belly was a really great feeling.
Colleen's flight left about an hour before mine, and RyanAir wouldn't let me check in at the same time as her, so we killed some time at Bergamo's only cafe before hugs goodbye. It's strange to think that in a matter of weeks, we'll both be back in America, hanging out like we always did, and not running around Europe, experiencing new things, new food, and new currency.
I was really glad to get back to Paris, even though the trip was fantastic; I wouldn't have traded it for the world. As I took the escalator up towards Rue de Naples, after a lengthy shuttle ride from Beauvais, outside the city, the air smelled different. I looked around, and the few people on the streets weren't wrapped up in woolly scarves for once.
Spring has arrived. I have very little time left here, and it's starting to scare me. I had thought about going to Nice for the weekend, as we have 5 days off starting on Thursday (just when I needed another break!), but Paris has so much to offer that I have yet to take advantage of. I can't say I'll hate to leave; I'll be glad to go home, of course, back to the comforts of being with my family and friends in Pennsylvania. But I'll sure miss Paris.