Spring Break pt. 2, Czech Republic, Holland, Belgium

I managed to squeeze in these three countries in 4 freaking days!! 

Monday morning I took a flight to Prague by myself to do a little solo travel for a day. I'd initially planned this trip with a friend, but she didn't book her flight in time and the ticket prices skyrocketed. I scrambled last minute to cancel our hostel (thankfully they refunded the poor, flustered American girl who was practically begging for her money back over the phone), and found a hotel room on Expedia for €59 in a hotel that had great reviews, so I booked it. 

Guys, first off, my uber driver dropped me nowhere near the hotel and spoke 0 english so I had to wander around Prague to find the place. I opened the front doors of this hotel and started laughing... exquisite mahogany furniture, big beautiful chests and beautifully decorated interior... this hotel was too nice for a 21 year old kid traveling alone. I checked in and was handed a large glass of champagne while they processed my booking and passport information (as if I needed ANY alcohol after the prior 24 hours), and handed me the keys to my room. The bellman proceeded to take me on a literal tour up to my bedroom. Sidenote, the description of this place on Expedia said "private studio with kitchen".... yeah well they completely failed to mention the full kitchen with a massive mahogany dining table set, the full family room with a flatscreen TV and sofas, my bedroom that had not one, but TWO private balconies overlooking the city, my California king size bed, and the shower that was glass with a floor to ceiling mirror. HAHAHA LIKE WHAT??? I wish someone could've seen my reaction... the bellman goes "is this ok?" LIKE YEAH THIS WILL DO I THINK ?? I proceeded to look up the CZK to USD conversion.... 1 CZK = 0.044 USD... not even a full freaking cent. A lovely surprise, as you can imagine. 

After leaving my penthouse, I wandered around Prague for the day. The city looks like a little fairytale setting and smells of sweet food. I wish I could take pictures of smells and share them with everyone, this entire city smelled like a fresh bakery. I hit all the top sights to see in Prague, as the city is relatively small. I ended my night in my hotel pretty early since my flight the next morning was at 6 am. 

After taking a nice little overnight nap, I got picked up by my Uber at 4 am and made my day to the airport. I flew to Amsterdam and got in around 9 am, a few hours earlier than my two friends who I was meeting up with. I ran by our hostel to drop off my bag, and found myself in the freaking cutest hostel I've ever seen. The front part is a coffee house that's open the public with a trendy seating area. The back of the hostel had a seating area, a full kitchen, and an area to watch movies downstairs. The entire place was very hipster and trendy, and looked like something out of an Urban Outfitters magazine. 

I made my way to a juice bar where I got a nice green pressed juice (my body NEEDED this after the excessive consumption of poison in Dublin) and then got lost wandering around for 2 hours. I instantly fell in love with Amsterdam and it's architecture and canals. I made my way back to the hostel around 12 and grabbed a coffee and waited for my friend Sam, whose phone was stolen in London a few days prior so I had to wait and meet up with her.

After Sam and Sandra checked in, we bought a 24 hour metro pass and made our way across town to FoodHallen, a giant farmers market-like restaurant pop up shop place. We spent about an hour wandering around and trying things before the three of us all settled on different meals. I ordered a vegan 7 GF Vietnamese salad with braised tofu and rice noodles. Holy YUM it was so good and relatively inexpensive. 

After lunch, we went to Moco, Amsterdam's modern art museum that is showcasing Bansky's iconic artwork. After getting our culture in for the day, we walked to a chocolate shop and picked up some goodies before sitting by a canal and enjoying our treat. We all were laughing and saying 'what a life we live,' just relishing in the fact that it was a Tuesday afternoon and we were just casually eating delicious chocolate by the water in a European

country. For dinner, we went to a burger place, and I had a really good veggie burger served on a salad and topped with Baba Ganoush. My meal was so fresh and it was a nice change up from the pub food that Ireland had to offer. 

Wednesday morning I woke up and went to another juice bar while Sam and Sandra went to the Anne Frank house. I was unfortunately unable to get tickets which was a huge bummer. They said the tour was very powerful and definitely worth seeing if the opportunity presents itself. Amsterdam has been my favorite city thus far, so I have a strong feeling I'll be back someday. We grabbed a danish pancake, and they had a GF, lactose free, vegan pancake option (BLESS UP!), and I had it topped with lemon and sugar. My friend Sam is me in another body and has all of the same stomach/eating issues that I do, so we were thrilled with the amount of options that Amsterdam had to offer for people with food allergies! Even their grocery stores sold fresh cold-pressed juice and a variety of GF snacks and power bars. I think part of the reason I liked this city was so much was that it felt like California with how fresh the food was and how healthy the options were. 

After our pancake snack, we just wandered around Amsterdam for a little bit and popped in and out of stores before our 'rock the city' tour at 14:30. We got lunch at an organic salad place called SLA, and I had an amazing Vegan Sushi bowl. Again, Amsterdam continuing to blow me away with all of their healthy food!!! We ate lunch outside in the sun and enjoyed our delicious food. 

For our 'rock the city' tour, we paid €30 for a ticket to the Amsterdam Lookout point, a canal tour, and the Heineken Experience. The lookout point was sick and allowed for us to walk all around the roof and see the city from every point of view. We then took a 45 minute boat ride along the Amsterdam canals which was cool because we were able to see all the houseboats up close. People not only live in them, but rent them out as AirBNBs! We got dropped off right in front of the Heineken Brewery experience tour, where we learned about their history and beer making process. The tour ended in a tasting, where Sandra enjoyed her 2 beers, and my 2 beers, and 1 of Sam's beers (pro tip-- take gluten free people along with you to beer tastings, haha). 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called the Vegan Junk Food Bar which was a suggestion that every local made. Guys, if food heaven existed, it would be this place. I haven't eaten meat in over a year and a half and practically cried when my burger tasted identical to in-n-out. I'm attaching the link so you can check it out for yourself, it was one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been to!! https://www.veganjunkfoodbar.com 

After another phenomenal meal, my friends and I took a trip on down to the Red Light District. Long story short, a place I never need to visit again!! Super creepy, the scummy people walking around were a lot to handle, and it was honestly really disturbing, lol. Definitely not a place I need to see again, but we felt like we had to since we were there. Needless to say, no associated photos attached to this paragraph. 

Thursday morning we woke up and jumped on a bus to Brussels. Sam and Sandra were going to  just do a half-day trip and then head to Paris later that night, but one of my best friends from Carolina is studying abroad in Belgium so I planned to stay the night. We met Abbey for lunch at a restaurant called The Avocado Show, were I had gluten free avocado toast topped with curry and mangos-- YUMMMYYYY!! I've been working on trying new foods since coming abroad and have found that Middle Eastern and Mediterranean meals are so good.

Abbey showed us around pretty quickly, since there isn't too much to see in Brussels. We did, however, buy some delicious Belgian chocolate and snacked on that while we walked around. I also bought myself a GF, Lactose free, Vegan Belgian Waffle which I was psyched about. Definitely had a 'treat yourself' day in Belgium. 

After Sam and Sandra jumped on their bus to Paris, Abbey and I took the train back to her little town. She's studying at a small private Catholic university about 45 minutes outside of Brussels. It was a total college town and was freaking awesome!! She lives in what they call  a cot, which is essentially a giant dorm with 18 people. Everyone has their own room, but they all share a giant kitchen and common space. Her roommates are from all over the world-- Ireland, Spain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Italy! It was so cute, they take turns making dinner and knew I was coming (Abbey informed them of my eating issues), so they made salmon, broccoli and pasta so I could eat some of it :))) The kids were all awesome and it was so fun to experience Abbey's version of abroad, which is entirely different from mine! We had a big pregame and all went out to the bars last night, Abbey was instant on showing me how sloppy the Belgians get. It was definitely a change of scenery from the Italian Club life I've become accustomed to where we get all dressed up to go out, these kids wear sweatshirts and leggings to the bars! 

I'm currently waiting in the Belgium airport for my flight back to Italy :) I'm so happy with the way my spring break turned out, and loved every country I visited. Amsterdam DEFINITELY takes over as my favorite city in Europe so far though! Hopefully someday I'll have the opportunity to go back and visit when I'm older. I'd also love to go back to Ireland and do a road trip around the entire country along the coast. It was a beautiful country, and I feel like I only scratched the surface! 

I will be home in Florence this week, but I am traveling this weekend with my school program. There's a free (!!!!) trip that they offer to us that takes us to 4 Italian towns and a national park too. I'm excited to get off the beaten path and see some new things in Italy! 

Week 9 of school starts this week, which means I have less than 7 weeks here... time is freaking flying. 

Ciao for now, 

Katie girl