This post is a collection of short journal entries I took throughout my two week break. I kept the writing informal because I thought it might help you get a feel for everything I did and saw. Hopefully that works!
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Krakow, Poland:
Snowing on Easter. Despite the cold, I really enjoy it. It adds so much to the beautiful city, and gives tourists on free walking tours a reason to stick together. There is so much in this city, we could have easily spent two more days here. During our walk home last night, we accidentally took a different route and saw buildings we would have never seen had we stuck to the guide book. The people in our hostel are extremely nice. A guy from Greece who was staying in the hostel for twenty days for vacation shared his water with Alaina and I when we went to fill up from the sink. Easter is huge for Poland, and nearly everything was closed today, and I’m told the same will be true for tomorrow. So long as there isn’t a strike, I think we’ll be okay.
Budapest, Hungary:
Both here and Poland have really fun exchange rates. I held my first thousand dollar bill here. Food is super cheap, even more so than Poland, which is supposed to be one of the cheapest places in Europe. After arriving, Alaina and I went to a Chinese restaurant and got two large meals and a drink for around $4. The “chef” kept three microwaves behind the buffet, and our food came in and out of one of them. I loved that. Ran into Julia Trowbridge, another Valpo student who is studying in the Reutlingen program, as I crossed a bridge. She and her Valpo friends directed Alaina and me to another restaurant for dinner and it too was cheap. The food I got was delicious, was presented as if it came from a four star restaurant, and only cost me $6. More happened here than just eating food, but this was too awesome to not talk about.
Zagreb, Croatia:
My small world just got smaller. Yesterday afternoon, Julia was in the same train car as Alaina and me. We talked during the eight hour ride to Zagreb, where, after exploring the breathtakingly clean city, we ran into even more Valpo students. The other Reutlingen group also happened to be in Zagreb. Just before we thought the coincidences would end, Julia’s group ended up accidentally reserving seats in the same compartment in our sleeper train that night.Thank god, because this allowed us to spread out the seats to make a huge bed. I tried sleeping on the floor, but eventually moved back onto the seats.
For me, the best part about Zagreb was all the cool logos.
Dubrovnik, Croatia:
Got a room from a woman at the bus station, and she gave us two free glasses of wine when we arrived at her home. The city was beautiful and was also my first taste of a tourist town. Alaina and I sat on the rock shelves and had wine and cheese next to the see. It didn’t rain until we left, and it was relaxing to eat and have the tide come up right next to our feet. The next day we went to a beach club which was abandoned because of the cold weather and rain. The water was incredibly, beautifully blue throughout the country. I didn’t realize how much cooking my own food meant to me until I had the chance to do it again. I’m looking forward to being able to do that again when I get back to Cambridge.
