Vienna!

Sunday Morning we took a train straight to Vienna which was definitely less eventful than our travelling the day before. Unfortunately, the first night was not only cold and rainy but also many bars were closed because it was Sunday. Kacey made a good point that we have been lucky enough to live in two places (NYC and Prague) that do not close bars for any reason. We called it an early night and decided to rest up for a busy, full day in Vienna.

Monday was beautiful: sunny, pleasant autumn weather. We grabbed a cheap, delicious breakfast at a student cafe and then headed out on a city tour that we organized ourselves in an attempt to save precious Euros. This ended up being a great idea because we saw everything we wanted to see at our own pace.
















We all fell in love with Vienna. It's not only an old and gorgeous city but it's also come into its own in the past decade. It reminded me a lot of NYC - a very young diverse population (and with it, similar NYC prices.) One of my absolute favorite things about Vienna were the bikes though. There are bike lanes and bike stop lights on every single street. Bike racks are loaded with cute bikes yet it didn't appear that Viennese bikers were obsessed with showing off their bike-snobbery. The only downside was the lack of helmets- otherwise I would've definitely rented a bike and rode around the city.









After a long, fun day of wandering around the city we grabbed dinner at a vegan Viennese restaurant and whiskey bar which had over 400 kinds of whiskey. This place was made for me (for those of you who don't know, I drink like a 60 year old Irishman). The food was fantastic and relatively cheap and well, the whiskey wasn't so bad either. The night ended at a dive bar that was projecting American films on the wall which we all got a kick out of.







I really hope to make it back again this semester! It's such an interesting place.

Mishaps in Southern Moravia

Last week we found out that we had an unexpected 5 day weekend due to a Czech holiday. Alyssa, Kacey, and I quickly booked trained tickets and decided to go to Vienna- stopping in the Southern Moravian town of Hodonín on the way. Our train was delayed causing us to miss our connection and to have to deal with a whole lot of unpleasant rerouting. We ended up sitting around a beautiful old train station for an hour in a tiny town which was a lot more fun that I would've ever thought. In fact, it was better than Hodonín itself- due to our delay, we did not have time to go to wine cellars in Southern Moravia and ended up bored in a tiny border town.

Praha, etc.

Jsem v Praze!

Not too shockingly, I haven't been great about updating the blog. While I've been taking lots of photos, I rarely find myself at the computer long enough to post.

I really don't know how to express how much fun I'm having in Prague. The city is beautiful and the weather has been exceptionally nice since the second week here. I've been taking Czech classes and I have fallen in love with the language. School is interesting but my workload is light which leaves me lots of time to explore the city and plan trips elsewhere. I've also been doing a lot of cooking with my friends Kacey and Alyssa since Czech food does not agree well with our vegan bodies.

Here are some photos from the past month...

Ahoj, Praha!

Prague is a wonderful, beautiful place. That's the best way I can sum up my time here so far.

This past week has been a blur. A mostly fun blur but also exhausting and a bit frustrating. Adjusting to life in a new city, country, and continent is not easy but mostly it has been a lot of fun. I was warned about culture shock but so far, I love the Czech Republic's culture. Dry, cynical humor is my kind of thing. And any country that bases their culture around a love of beer is fine by me. Also- little known fact but the country's southern region produces pretty great white wine.

Coming to Prague, one of my main concerns was eating: In NYC I maintain a strict vegan diet but I knew I'd have to compromise a lot coming here. While I understood I would do my best, many people warned me that I wouldn't be able to avoid meat. However, veganism is actually quiet easy here. While I try my best to stay vegan at least when cooking for myself, even going out to eat there are many vegan options. Adjusting to a new cuisine is still difficult but luckily the warnings about the lack of vegetables in Prague did not ring true.

I'm still reeling from the week but I'm trying to post photos while I still have the chance. Classes start tomorrow but I'm sure there will still be plenty of time for photos.