Eat, Pray, Love: The Elena Edition

Number one lesson I learned in Italy: Hazelnut Gelato can substitute any meal of the day.

So I arrived in Rome to see my mom, dad, brother and sister. What a great surprise! I did not even suspect that they were all coming even when my parents kept saying "we" can't wait to see you. We took a bus to the hotel, and it was refreshing to be staying in a hotel instead of a hostel. It felt great to have our own shower.

The first night, my dad and I explored the streets surrounding our hotel. We found a gelato place which wasn't difficult since there seems to be one on every corner. We tried Nocciola (hazelnut) and Pistachio. The man made the gelato into a beautiful masterpiece. He overflowed the cup with gelato and finished it off with a cone on top. I am not sure how I will ever be able to cherish eating a Danish or gelato back in the States after tasting delicacies from Denmark and Italy (unless they are from Frances bakery in Connecticut!)

We had a relaxing and enjoyable dinner. Some might say that Aidan enjoyed himself a little too much:

A few observations from the first night:

-One bottle of water (flat water, water without bubbles as the servers in Italy would say) is 3 euros. Tap water is not free.

-It's very difficult to read street signs. The first night we struggled to find Piazza Navarro and the Pantheon, but it took us longer than we thought.

-Crossing the street means you just start walking in the middle of traffic. No one follows the rules or street lights. In Denmark, if you don't wait until the light turns green to walk, you could receive a ticket. They take j walking very seriously.

-The cars are so tiny, and there's barely a centimeter of space between them on the street. Our tour guide said you don't need a license to drive a vespa.

Day 1

We went on a tour of Rome's famous sites. What an extraordinary landmark! Everyone was having a rough time with the jet lag, but we were up bright and early to catch the bus to meet our tour. The bus system in Italy is not the most efficient since we couldn't tell which stop to get off. Aidan had a particularly difficult time with the jet lag. The little "bambino" needed to be held half the time and the other half of the tour he played with dirt. Good thing I took a lot of pictures so I can remind him that he was actually there, when he gets older!

After we went back to the hotel to relax, and Aidan and I went to the gym (one of his favorite parts of the hotel). 

*Best part of the tour: We stopped for a gelato break! More Nocciola...

The Colosseum 

Piazza Navarro

The Pantheon

Travel Adventures Continued...

The journey to Prague was definitely a traveling experience. Well, we knew it would take six hours from Salzburg, but we just didn't know we would have to get on four different trains. Our first train in Austria was nice and spacious but as we went further into the Czech Republic, the more dirty and scary the trains were. On our last train, there were clear signs in the bathroom telling us to not drink the tap water. Despite that, we arrived in Prague around 10:30 and then needed to find our way to the hostel. We didn't have any coins in Czech krones to get metro passes and everything was closed, so we had to take a taxi.


We arrived safe and sound at our hostel and went to bed peacefully until... a man staying in our hostel room started snoring (We stayed in a co-ed room). This is not some kind of quiet snoring that you can ignore if you put the pillow over your head. It was like Hillary and I were sleeping in a room with some kind of wild animal! So I got up and when I came back, Hillary was awake. We didn't know what to do or if we should wake him up, so... We  sat there giggling at three in the morning, trying to sleep with two pillows over our heads. Eventually we fell back asleep, and there is wonderful video commentary of Hillary and I describing the whole situation in detail.


The next day, we did some sight-seeing. We went on the Charles Bridge and visited Old Town Square. It was nice to see that the prices were a bit cheaper (sandwiches were $4 instead of $9 in Copenhagen). While in the square, we went up in a building to get the "best view of Prague." The building is famous for the astronomical clock that hangs on the outside of it. 

Every hour a man comes out of a window at the top of the building to play the trumpet. Hillary and I thought it might be a rare occasion, so we stayed to watch. We later found out that he does that every hour. It's not really anything spectacular, yet crowds of tourists gather every hour.

During the day, we found a quaint, little cafe and enjoyed cheese bagels, tea and hot chocolate. It was richest hot chocolate I have ever tasted. It tasted like I was drinking Hershey's chocolate syrup. On that topic in Copenhagen, at some cafes if you order a hot chocolate, they will often fill a glass with warm milk and then drop a stick with a chocolate cube into the glass.

On Friday, we stumbled onto a market in Old Town Square. We had some interesting with different cheeses and meats and enjoyed the view. It was nice to walk around with only a light coat. We then went on a boat ride around Prague and later found the Lennon wall.

That was probably my favorite part of visiting Prague besides the beautiful architecture.

Now my goal of this blog is to give the good, bad, and the ugly so here it is: Hillary and I unfortunately got a bit of food poisoning on Friday night. We suspect the pizza!

Prague Castle.

On Saturday, I headed on my way to Rome...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Today, I'm extremely thankful for wonderful, family, friends and travels.

Here are a few updates before I continue writing about Prague and Italy:

-It's freezing and snowing in Copenhagen (in November!) As sad as I am to be leaving in a few weeks, I'm not sure if I could take this weather for four straight months. It's is only light out from nine to four, and it has been a bit depressing. Today, it snowed all day. I woke up in the dark and came home in the dark. I don't know how the Danes do this every winter!

Yes, people are still biking in the snow.

A ridiculously expensive cappuccino I drank to warm me up.

-The other day my host family surprised me with some traditional Danish Christmas food. It's fun seeing all of the streets in central Copenhagen decorated with signs and lights. My host family loves talking about their Christmas traditions. The traditional meal pictured below is pork, regular potatoes and then potatoes dipped in caramel and sugar. Typically, Danes will eat goose or duck as well. For dessert, they make a special cake (I'm not sure of the name), and there's an almond in the cake. Whoever gets the piece with the almond in it gets a small present. I loved that idea!

Christmas dinner with my host family.

Goodbye, Salzburg, Hello, Prague!

We spent our last half-day in Salzburg visiting the fortress. It’s a main attraction in Salzburg and can be viewed from anywhere in the city. We took some beautiful shots of Salzburg from the top, and we had to take a train just to get up there. I thought, “Oh we can just walk up! Save some money! But Hillary wisely told me it was too steep, scary, and we would be exhausted.”

A view from the fortress.

We also went on a horse-drawn carriage ride. I have been telling Hillary I wanted to go on one in Copenhagen for months, and we finally decided to go. We took a relaxing, scenic trip around the city.

Then, it was getting late, so we needed to head to the train station, buy our tickets to Prague and get on the train. In a momentary lapse of judgment, we decided to walk to the train station with our backpacks and suitcases. We followed the map for about thirty minutes when we realized we did not know where we were going. Then we dragged them another twenty minutes in the right direction. It was so frustrating! Words of advice: Just get a bus pass to get to the train station in Salzburg. So we arrive at the train station to find that our train has just left. We missed it by 10 minutes. We bought our tickets and found that we couldn’t leave until 4:00. So what do we do with two hours of free time?? … Have ice cream sundaes!!!

At least it was beautiful while we were lost!

My Four Hours in Germany

When Hillary and I were planning our trip, we wanted to go to Switzerland to do some kind of adventure sports like skydiving or paragliding, but sadly, we could not fit that trip into our journey. We walked into our hostel in Salzburg and saw a brochure for adventure sports in Salzburg, and we got so excited. We went up to the main desk, and the lady called to see if the weather was nice enough to go paragliding, but it wasn’t. We tried the next day, and we still couldn’t go. Now, Hillary and I have decided that we have unfinished business in Salzburg and must return one day.

We found a tour to the Bavarian mountains in Germany and decided to go for it. Salzburg is extremely close to the Austrian-German border, so our tour guide picked us up and we drove right across it. The day was very foggy, and we did not get the best views but stopped at some quaint, pretty German towns. Our tour guide was another interesting character. His wife treated him terribly, took his money and kicked him out of their home, and he decided to visit Austria. He met an Austrian woman and has been living there ever since with her. He was nice and recommended a restaurant where we could get traditional Austrian food for dinner. We had a wonderful feast of schnitzel, soup, potatoes, and salad. The lady was very patient with us since the whole menu was in German, and we did not know what half of the food was. In case you don’t know what schnitzel is, here’s the wikipedia quick link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnitzel.

That night, Hillary and I decided to check out the nightlife in Salzburg. Well, there was not too much since it was a Tuesday, but we happened to stumble onto a salsa club. We had to go in and check it out. We walked in, and there were all these couples doing complicated salsa moves. Hillary and I headed to the dance floor, and she taught me a little.

One of the places we stopped in Germany.

Delicious soup at dinner.

Schnitzel.