Prague, Warsaw, London and Gayle. The End of a Journey.

Prague

Prague.

John and I arrived in Prague on Easter day. We checked into our AirBnB and hopped right across the street to a small local restaurant, U Bohouse. The food was delicious! My bestie Gayle was flying to Prague in 3 days to spend the rest of our adventure with us. We wanted to get a feel for the neighborhood before she arrived. We found a great little Martini bar a half block from our flat so we decided to go in and have a drink. We were the only ones there and it was an eclectic mix of books and monkey themed artwork. We loved the vibe and decided this was a place to take Gayle.

Beer Garden

Over the next 3 days we scoped out more restaurants, bars and the beer garden that was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM OUR FLAT!

The BEST Pork knuckle!

Gayle arrived and we started her stay out at U Bohouse. For the next week, we toured the city, visited the beer garden more than once, had a wild night at the martini bar, drank wine in the park and discovered the very delicious pork knuckle!

Monastic Brewery. Pic by Gayle.

We also visited a brewery in the cellar of a monastery!

Vinohrady

Prague is the most beautiful city I have seen. Our neighborhood, Vinohrady, was in the city yet felt very much like a small neighborhood with beautiful buildings, friendly people and great places to eat and drink. I would not hesitate to stay in Vinohrady again sometime.

Warsaw

Warsaw.

From Prague we took a train to Warsaw Poland. On our train ride to Budapest from Oradea Romania, we had a dining car which was wonderful. As it was the same train system going to Warsaw and the website also indicated a dining car, John and I were eager to show Gayle the perks of European train travel by dining and drinking in the dining car. Well, we were informed by a very nice train employee that there was no dining CAR but instead a dining CART. I guess they forgot the “T” on the website.
We had a first class compartment on the train all to ourselves until we crossed into Poland. We were then joined by less than friendly passengers but they kept to themselves and we just ate our snacks.

Warsaw was very different from the other European cities we visited. During WWII, Hitler destroyed approximately 85% of the city. Because of this, Warsaw for the most part has been completely rebuilt. It is a beautiful city with modern buildings and gorgeous parks. Our AirBnB was in the city and right across from several bars.

Gayle and John right before getting yelled at

There were also milk bars in our neighborhood. Milk Bars. A Polish tradition. They started at the turn of the 1900's and became extremely popular during the communist era. It's like an American diner - kind of. Milk Bars in Warsaw are all the same. There is a large menu (all in Polish) when you walk in. You order from the cashier and then give your receipt to a cook in a window. If you linger around the window she will tell you to sit your ass down (right Gayle and John?) When your food is ready she will call it out, in Polish of course. You bus your own table when you leave. Did I mention the food is authentic polish fare and is so so good! Oh! The 3 of us ate for $8-$12 !

Radio Cafe. My favorite European cafe.

One day we decided to take the Hop On Hop Off tour. It was a bit of a mess, there was only 1 bus and a lot of waiting around. However, it allowed us to have a great lunch at Radio Café waiting for the next bus to arrive. We had, of course, pork knuckle. We also ordered perogies. It was a classic meal at a classic café in Poland.

We found a great bar to have drinks (and pork knuckle), a great restaurant to have one of the greatest brunches I have had and a great neighborhood central to Warsaw.

London

London.

So we took a very early flight out of Warsaw to London. We stayed in the Elephant & Castle neighborhood. At first, arriving at the train station, we found the neighborhood a bit sketchy. But after we got settled in at our AirBnB flat, we ventured out and found the nearest pub. We ordered traditional English fare, Fish and chips, bangers and mash and sticky toffee pudding. Quite good I must say. A very nice English guy named Joe who worked at the pub gave us several suggestions for things to do, eat and drink in the neighborhood and London in general.

We took a tour of London and also a nice bus ride or two and took in the sights. London is so big that you wouldn’t be able to see all of it in a month of Sundays. It is an incredible city!

Mercado Metropolitano

One of Joe’s recommendations was the Mercado Metropolitano. An Italian market, it was designed to look like the huge food halls in Turin and Milan, but a bit more funky.   There were so many food stalls offering everything from BBQ to pizza to charcuterie to our favorite, raclette. We went there twice and just stuffed ourselves. 

We took Gayle to one of our favorite parts of London, Islington. We sat outside and drank beer and then introduced Gayle to middle eastern food at Harman’s.

Going home. Pic by Gayle.

Leaving London and Europe was very bittersweet. We were anxious to see everybody back in the states and be back in our own space would be exciting but I truly love Europe. We have made new friends and have seen so many beautiful places. From pet sitting to AirBnBs, it was an incredible journey. I’ll miss saying to John “Did ya ever think we’d be doing this?” and waking up in the mornings and for the first few seconds wondering where in the world I am. Our plan is to go back, not right away but in the future.

Goodbye Europe and goodbye to AbroadWithJohn.

Cheers.

Barb

Budapest Part 2

We just finished up our month long stay in Budapest. We are on to Prague but we will definitely miss Budapest.

Here are some of the highlights of our last 3 weeks in Budapest...

The Parliament Building

A boat ride down the Danube. We did the touristy thing and bought tickets for a night time cruise down the Danube to see Budapest at night. Wow! This is one beautiful city! The Parliament Building is easily the most impressive building I have seen in Europe. It is huge and when lit up at night it is breathtaking.

You can see more of photos I took from the cruise HERE

Hungary National Holiday. March 15 stands for democracy and freedom and it commemorates the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 which grew into a war for independence from Habsburg rule. The freedom bridge is just down the road from where we were staying and there was quite the crowd there. There were speakers and singers and lots of political sign waving.

You can see a short video of the end of the gathering HERE

Stolpersteins. I saw the first ones in East Berlin. Stolpersteins mark the building where these people (mostly Jews but anyone that the Nazis found unacceptable) were forcibly removed from their residences during WWII. This one was just around the corner from where we were staying. If you would like to learn more about Stolpersteins, NPR did a story on them and you can here it HERE  

The Easter Market. This market was incredible! Oh the food! It was food porn at its finest. John and I would just walk around and drool over everything from pork knuckles to pastries to Langos. Wonderful art and crafts also. We went twice and had intended to go back a third time but rain put a halt to that idea.

I have lots more photos from the Easter Market. You can view them HERE  

The Cat Cafe. So the first week we went to The Zoo Cafe. Well there is also a Cat Cafe with just cats, lots of them. John and I sat and drank coffee while trying to get the attention of every cat that walked by. They're cats and being cats, they do as they please. I did get to pet a couple but they just went about their business and pretty much ignored us.

Fisherman's Bastion

The Buda side. One day we hopped on a bus and took a short ride around the Buda side of Budapest. Buda is much more quiet than the Pest side and it is beautiful. We stopped at the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church.

Matthias Church

Again, the buildings in Budapest amaze me. The church was stunning and the view from the Bastion of the Pest side was incredible.












So are just some of the highlights from the last part of our stay. We LOVED Budapest and it was hard to leave such a unique and beautiful city. But leave we did on a train for Prague, Czech Republic. Our adventures in Prague coming up next!

If you would like to see more of my photos from Budapest, just click HERE

Cheers!
Barb