Thanksgiving Weeked Abroad!

So the bad news is I didn't have much of a Thanksgiving per se. But the good news is, that instead of turkey and pie, I got to see two new coutries! I was really worried about my travels last weekend because we were trying to fit so much into only 4 days, but luckily everything went perfectly!

So Wednesday (after my Italian presentation, which was a huge relief to get over with) I headed to Milan and stayed there for the night. Then Thursday morning we flew to Prague and spent 2 days there. Prague was WAY more than I imagined. Granted I honestly didn't know much about Prague to begin with, it surpassed all of my expectations. It was so beautiful! It was freezing cold, but the city was gorgeous. Some highlights included seeing the Charles Bridge, the historical Prague castle and walking up to the top of the tower to see the view, the Astronomical Clock, the main city center, and eating traditional potato pancake-like food. The Czech Republic uses Czech Crowns, so that was confusing at first, considering the Euro is equivalent to about 200 Crowns. But we got used to it. The Czech language was crazy! Sounded almost a little like German, but had really strange pronunciations and symbols. I caught myself starting to ask for directions in Italian, then realized neither my Italian or English could help me there! So there was lots of mimicking and charades on my part =)

Then on Friday night, I took an overnight 16 hour train ride to Amsterdam. The first leg was 10 hours on a sleeper car, which was nice to be able to sleep. But we were awoken 3 times by the police at different stops to check passports when entering new countries. At 6am we got into Germany and took another train to Amsterdam. In my opinion, AMsterdam was very similar to Venice with its canals and old buildings. The architecture was somewhat different, but I got the feeling of a Venice-Boston mixed together. We visited the Van Gough Museum, which was incredible and also saw Anne Frank's house, where she hid upstairs. Then as it got dark, we headed to the Red Light District, which was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and really would never care to see again. It was quite an experience. Prostitutes in windows with red backlighting and live sex shows and weed and sex shops. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I'm glad I got to experience it. Then We flew out of Amsterdam and back to Milan. We stayed in Milan for a night, explored the city the next day, and took a bus back to Siena.

It was so nice to be back in Siena! I never thought I'd be so comfortable there. The language was finally back to one I knew, Italian! I didn't think I knew so much Italian until I got back and realized I could ask for or say anything, or at least get my point across. I wouldn't quite call Siena "home", but it definitely feels comfortable and familiar now =)

A little explanation to the pictures I posted: The top 4 are of Prague, with one of me on the Charles Bridge in a goofy hat I had to buy because it was so cold! The bottom 4 are of Amsterdam, showing the fields, canals, and beautiful night scenery.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ciao!