Goodbye, Prague! So… four our last dinner we wanted something delicious and goood so a fellow traveler in our hostel suggested Kavarna Slavia. So thank you, strange traveling man! We called him “O.G.” for “Old Guy.” He didn’t know that though.

So Kavarna Slavia was the isssh. It was cute and there was an old man playing piano in a suit and the food was AMAZING! Say hello to my mushroom goulash!

Does that look gross? I don’t care! It was amazing! But Nora’s dish was actually the best. EVA!

She had farm-stewed chicken with paprika sauce, gnocchi, sour cream and lemon. Oh MA Goodness. We all tried it and we all agreed it was the best. So if you go, get this. Man I wish I was there right now.

Here is Nora about to go to town:

Get it, girl.

And here is when I talk about desserts again. They had a whole ice cream menu with crazy sundaes but D said it was stupid for me to get a sundae so we went for the more traditional Czech desserts instead: pancakes.

D’s was just okay. Mine had ice cream on it. I would have rather had ice cream by itself. But oh wellie! I love Kavarna Slavia. I love Prague, too.

We took a stroll over the Charles Bridge one last time.

I am sorry for being so ridiculous to STILL be posting pictures from my latest trip to Europe. Already feels like ages ago but after this post, there is one goody left (a delicious one, at that) and then it is back to the normal City Mitten. But what can I say? Traveling is too fun. But seriously this already feels like it was ages ago. Guess I should look at some more flights (oh wait, I spent all my money…)

Btw, I was the Map Girl in Prague. Basically I think I’ve got a pretty good sense of direction these days. Also you should know that being the Map Girl translates into D calling you “bossy” because you’re always, duh, telling everybody where to go. It’s true, I like to make decisions and some people (not mentioning names, of course) never made suggestions and never “knew what there was to do” so I laid out the options and we picked. So that’s what’s up. And I’m not going to lie, every time he called me bossy (because he knew it was making me mad) a certain Lindsay Lohan jam came to mind and I went with it. I like Lindsay Lohan.

Moving on…

And this is the “Dancing House” by Frank Gehry. My little sister’s favorite building… which is also a segway to the fact that it was my big sister’s birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday, Emily!

Well look at me drinking (eating?) some of the world’s most fantastique hot chocolate, found at Cafe Louvre in Prague. I just happened to mention my longing for some hot chocolate in the elevator coming down from the Astronomical Clock and a gentleman interrupted me and told me Cafe Louvre was the place to go. So thank you, gentleman for your wise suggestion because Cafe Louvre did not disappoint.

Not only did we have the cutest waiter known to man – seriously, you should have seen the way we talked to him and stared at him after he left, he was like a button. Too cute. We thought about asking him what he was doing later but then decided we didn’t want to break the allure and find out any details of his actual life. We’d rather just stare at him.

But the hot chocolate was thick like a candy bar, the kind that solidifies at the top and sort of turns into pudding when you’re not stirring it. Awesome!

Look at that beaut. The strange gentleman who told us of this place also told us they had fabulous desserts so we ordered these as well:

I’m not gonna lie, I’m not sure if Prague knows what they are doing with desserts, or if they have a different taste for them (side note – they do definitely know what they are doing with candy bars). Nora had tiramisu, D had apple crisp, and I had chocolate cake. Maybe it was because they were all served cold that we weren’t impressed, but really we weren’t fans of any of them. That chocolate cake did not get eaten. And I love me some chocolate cake. I should have had another hot chocolate instead.

And this is what we walked by on the way home:

Rough life. And ladies and gentlemen, I believe I have two final posts on Prague and then we are back to the good ol’ U S of A and back to the good ol’ NYC.

Walking down a random street in Prague, we came across this door with this woman’s face on it. When you pull the cord, the woman’s eye shuts and she sheds a tear. Um, cool.

Here’s Nora and I in front of a fountain in the Senate grounds. This is where D complained that he was a guest on “Nora and Amanda’s vacation” but he doesn’t like being in pictures so what was I supposed to do?!

Nora on the Charles Bridge, which was a beautiful bridge.

While in Prague, we went up the Astronomical Clock to get a view of the city and this is what we saw. I just love the reds of the rooftops. Sooo pretty.

So there are my postcards from Prague for this post. I know it’s random, doesn’t have a theme and there is no food involved, but I couldn’t not post them.

Hello, Nora. I have been a bad blogger lately, and my friend Kelly just said the same thing on her blog too. What can I say? I keep myself way too busy sometimes. It’s time for me to finish out these Prague posts so let’s get cooking.

One thing we did when we stayed at Sir Toby’s in Prague was we went on Richard’s four-hour walking tour. He took us around, told us stories and we ended up in a restaurant inside the monastery. And it was good. Nora and I split a beer and it was delicious.

I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I’ve obviously acquired the taste for (some) beer. In college, I thought it was the grossest thing in the world. But then again we were broke so we were not drinking quality beer. Now I actually enjoy the taste of some brews and it strikes me as extremely odd.

This is the part of the post where I mention that we were sitting outside. In Prague. In October. Our tour guide Richard was shocked by the weather and we were too… except in a different fashion. I knew it would be colder in Germany and Prague than it was in the U.S. but I don’t think my brain really accepted that thought because I did not dress very warm.

And now we talk about fries. Look at those babies. Golden and delicious. And warm, because it was a little cold. Sometimes really nothing can hit the spot besides some warm fries. Europe knows how to do fries. Some places in the U.S. do too. But I love these fries the most.

And finally – beer goulash. BEER goulash! What does that mean? I have no idea. But goulash is one of my favorite things in the WORLD and I must discover where I can find some good goulash in New York because I know it has got to be somewhere. I mean it’s basically a stew and I realize that goulash does not photograph well. At all. But my goodness is it good. So if you find yourself in the monastery grounds in Prague – this is where you eat and this is what you get. Do it.

And now we turn a new page in the book of City Mitten: Travels! Welcome to Prague! We took the train from Munich and it was about 6-7 hours. It was a gorgeous ride with farmlands and small towns passing by.

One thing you should know is right before we got on the train at the station in Munich, we bought a teeny tiny sandwich that was just bread, butter and turkey or something for Nora and I to share. Well we should have bought twelve of them because it was the best sandwich we have ever had. We kept talking about it and D kept making fun of us. Oh that random sandwich, I hope to have you again one day.

This is our room from Sir Toby’s in Prague. Um… my sister recommended this hostel and I am so glad she did because it was perfect! Not the most central location, but easily accessible by tram and it was SO CUTE! I loved our room and the strangers we shared it with (not really – one was a HUGE snorer and we’d throw things at him occasionally).

This is a picture of Nora and I from a walking tour we did the day after we arrived. It kind of embodies the spirit of our three days there – as you can see we were laughing it up.

This is just so you can see how pretty everything was. Here we were walking on the castle grounds.

And there we are on our tour again. That concludes today’s “Touristy pictures in Prague.” Next up will be some very good Czech eats. Man, I’m hungry.

One thing Germany has a lot of is gelato and I would have never guessed. This gelato happened to be down the block from Hofbrahaus, but it could have been anywhere, because it’s everywhere. I get the feeling that there is one gelato company that owns half of Germany because a lot of the branding and flavors were the same too. Of course it was no Caffe e Gelato. But it was still good. Lots of different flavors that the Germans translated for us – one that is based on a popular German candy/chocolate that I tried. It was delicious:

I’m so glad these boys were into sweets. Made life very nice.

And this is where I leave them. They didn’t come with us to Prague so say goodbye to the Germans! They should be coming back to the U.S. sometime in the spring – maybe April – so don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll be seeing of them. :)

FYI, as you’re reading this I am actually on a plane on my way back from Amsterdam (we went back for one day before heading back to the US). But this post is about one of my last days in Berlin. Also, this photo is not of Alexander Platz. Alexander Platz has been one of the major points in this trip, it’s kind of the center of everything and it’s also the first place my German friend Alex took us when we saw him on Sunday. Alex in Alexander Platz. There you go.

Here we are at Alexander Platz:

The first picture in this post is the Charlottenburg Palace, which according to Alex, I should be moving into soon. I was nice enough to let my mom pick out her very own room to live in it too, even though he suggested most of the rooms should be filled with my household staff. Sure, that sounds nice.

This palace was quite a surprise though. When we got there it was closed for tours of the interior but we walked around the side and were able to explore the giant garden and park behind it. It was the kind of palace and garden you see in the movies, the ones where there’s drama and women running away in their long, fancy dresses. But this garden was open to the public and there were people running around it and dogs and tourists and people just sitting there reading a book. It was lovely.

My mom and Alex are best friends now. It was so cute when he introduced himself to my mom. He was like, “Hello, Mrs. S., I am Alexander Lehmann.” Oh, if you’re wondering how I know this Alexander Lehmann, I met him when he was on holiday this summer in New York. And now we hang out in Germany. The world is not so big!

After exploring the palace grounds we went to another area in Berlin, one we wouldn’t have even known existed had it not been for Alex driving us there in his fancy car. How nice it is to ride around in a car in the city. Berlin, New York… it makes no difference, anytime being in a car is a treat. We got some German food, drank some German beers. This time my mom got some raspberry beer and I got my beer with Fanta. Yum!

So it was a very good day. Thanks, Alex, for being our tour guide.

And now, I am on my way back to New York! YAY! See you soon!

We sat at the fish bar for awhile trying to figure out what was going on before my mom decided to ask the youngest chef guy there, “Do you speak English?” “Yes…” So he was really nice and he gave us an English menu and we were able to order successfully.

There is the nice young man we ordered from and here is the grill where all the action was.

Yum, yum, yum. Also, I got a glass of wine. White German wine and my mom says she’s going to start feeding me wine more often.

Here’s our food. Our meals also came with small salads and bread.

Delicious! And I love love wine with dinner. Except this was lunch, so…

Anyway. I was feeling a bit buzzing after that glass of wine. You know I had my smiley face going on and we wandered our way over to the childrens toy section on one of the floors and I found me a new Steiff friend to take home with me from Germany.

Yep, yep. There’s me and my bear. Ok, not the big bear, the little bear. He’s my new friend. I picked him up and carried him around KaDeWe with me before finally purchasing him and now he is sitting on the bed, waiting for me back at the hotel. He is such a dear. I’m going to name him something German… perhaps after one of the areas in the city? But for now I’ve just been calling him “Bear.”

Bear!

Today we went on a bike tour with this lovely fella, a part of Fat Tire Bike Tours. Four and a half hours of easy riding through the city, seeing all the sites and learning stuff and seeing naked men in the gay nude area in the park (seriously). And our little tour guide was a handsome one, always was a plus. This picture doesn’t do him justice, he’s half German, half American and all rugged. Haha. So that was fun.

We went alll over town.

One of our stops was a beer garden! I hope I get to go to another while I’m here (hopefully with my German friend Alex who we are meeting up with on Sunday) but it was wayy cool. I got a radler which is half beer, half Sprite, cause let’s be honest, I’m not a huge beer drinker. I like Blue Moon and I used to think I liked Yuengling but that’s pretty much it. So this half beer/half Sprite thing was amazing. It would have been even better if the bees weren’t swarming me but I’d still say it’s pretty good. I wonder if I ordered that in a bar in NY what they would think of me.

We also got some food.

My mother got Nuremberg Sausage that came with fries and that whitish stuff which I thought was cole slaw and maybe it was but it was served warm so who knows. I went for the potato goulash with sausage which was A-mazing and also had lots of veggies.

I’m thinking German food is pretty good so far. I’m also thinking I’m a huge fan of beer gardens.

Cheers!