Parentals in Europe!

 
This past week was fall break, and while all my friends went off on their various adventures my parents came to visit! It was such a great week, and I loved seeing Europe with them (not to mention not on a poor college student budget). We started off in Florence for the first weekend, then we traveled to Prague for the week and then back to Florence until they left on Sunday. I was sad to see them go, but I'll see them soon and I'm going to treasure the last few weeks I have here. I fly home 5 weeks from Friday! I can't believe how fast the time is going.

My parents on the Ponte Vecchio

So the first Sunday we went to the Pitti Palace, which is in front of the Boboli gardens (my cousin described them as being straight out of a fairy tale!), but we just went inside the Palace because it was raining. The Medici family owned the Palace (or Palazzo, in Italian), and it was used as a power base during Napolean's reign. It is amazingly preserved and just brimming with art and ornate wall work. After that we went to lunch and then I took them to see campus. Since it was raining they didn't get the full effect of how beautiful it is here, but they liked seeing it all the same (it was still gorgeous in my opinion). That night we went to dinner with my friend Hannah at a delicious pizza place, and I got my typical Laura lady date food (napoli pizza).

Pitti Palace courtyard

Dining Room in Pitti Palace

Napoli pizza!

Outside the hotel my parents stayed at in 1989, the last time they were in Europe, 23 years later!

Monday morning we went to the airport in the early afternoon to catch our plane to Prague. We flew through Munich to get there, so I guess I can say I've been there twice now! My dad did a lot of research about what to do in Prague so my mom and I looked at the notes he had made and tried to figure out what we wanted to definitely do during the week.

my dad, all week

Since it was a whole week the trip is a bit of a fantastic blur, and as a major part of my reader base was on the trip with me, I'll just give the highlights. When we arrived on Monday night we took a shuttle into Prague and went to our (fantastic) hotel, Hotel Pariz. It was located really near the Old Town Center of Prague and we headed that way for dinner, to a place called Les Moules where I had Moules Frites for the second time in Europe, and I tried escargot! The jury is still out on whether that counts as vegetarian, but I'm attempting to give myself a break while I'm still in Europe. Either way, they were delicious.

My dad on our hotel balcony's ledge

escargot au gratin

Tuesday we spent the whole day exploring the Jewish Quarter, where we toured a bunch of different synagogues. Prague had a massive Jewish population that was just decimated during WW2 and the Holocaust, so the tribute to them in Prague was haunting. The most intense part was the Jewish cemetary, which used to be the only place in Prague where Jews could be buried, and consequently bodies buried there are stacked as high as 6 people on top of one another in the ground, with gravestones haphazardly placed all over the place, filling the small plot of land.

The Jewish Cemetary

Lunch– salmon and vegetables

GARLIC BREAD FRIES

After touring all day we had a leisurely afternoon and then saw some jazz at night, per my dad's request. We were only there for about an hour, but it was clear that the group was really talented, and my dad enjoyed it a lot. The guy playing the bass looked JUST like the main character from the movie "Despicable Me," but I couldn't really get a telling picture.

do you see it?!

On Wednesday we went across the St. Charles Bridge to the castle in Prague. Across the river is the John Lennon wall, which is covered with lyrics of Beatles songs and messages of peace. When the graffiti first started the city officials tried to continuously paint over it, but it would all just reappear by the next night, so  eventually they gave up.

John Lennon Wall

My Dad and I on the St Charles Bridge

The Castle is on these huge grounds where the royals used to live, including a massive church and a small street where some commoners lived (including Franz Kafka– I went into his house!). Unfortunately my camera battery died in the beginning of the day, so I don't have too many pictures. The castle and grounds are situated on a huge hill overlooking Prague, so we took a tram up the hill and walked down. Then we went to an early dinner at a restaurant right on the river, because we were going to a "black box light show" that night at 8.

Franz Kafka statue

This show was absolutely as bizarre as it sounds. My mom and I saw an ad for it the first night that made it seem really cool, but alas, we were misled. The entire 80 minute show was in pantomime, interchanging dancers in neon costumes performing in black light and a group of 3 actors portraying a story of a resort in Africa. I know that description is nonsensical, but I literally cannot explain it any better. Needless to say, my parents and I needed a drink afterwards, so we went to a restaurant before heading back to our hotel.

On our last day, Thursday, we played catch-up with all the things we didn't get to, like climbing a big church in Old Town, going in a few others and finally going to New Town. The afternoon had a slight damper when my mom's wallet got stolen unfortunately. She had been so careful all trip, but we were in a store in New Town and someone unzipped her purse and took her wallet. But, as I just had my wallet stolen in Paris this summer, we knew the drill, got everything sorted out and rallied for our last dinner in Prague.

My Mom and I overlooking Old Town Square

the parentals

Overlooking Old Town

dinner that night– egg and tuna sandwich

Overall I loved the city. It was a unique and interesting blend of old and new in the city, with a clear distinction between the two. But mostly, it was great to see my parents for a whole week. When we got back to Florence we ate great food of course, and spent all of Saturday doing all of the touristy stuff we hadn't gotten to the weekend before (Duomo, Archaeology Museum, Santa Croce, gelato, etc). I was sad to see them go on Sunday but it was a fantastic week, and the perfect dose of home to get me through the rest of the semester. I'm starting to feel it wrapping up and I'm so sad! I know I'll probably be ready to go home when the time comes, but in the meantime I'm treasuring every minute.

Santa Croce courtyard

New thing: escargot of course!