from madrid to israel to prague !

Hello world. I have returned to the land of wireless internet in the magical city of Prague! I arrived here two days and am already completely and totally head over heals in love with this city. It's so beautiful and unlike any place i have seen so far. i am sooo happy that i get to spend the next 3 months here!

but, before prague i was in madrid for 7 days with joey and then went off to israel to spend 8 days with avishag--both trips were great! madrid definitely had a different vibe than barcelona, a lot less internationally influenced. joe and i made it to all of the 3 major museums which were very impressive. we went through the entire Prado and saw every piece of artwork (took about 5 hours...). We also spent lots of time relaxing (in the intense heat) in parks and gardens. My brother was definitely a great travel buddy :)

israel was really, really special. i immediately realized it when i arrived. don't know why, but the atmosphere just feels soo important and heavy. avishag's father (who is a professional tourguide) took her and i into jerusalem for a day and gave us a very comprehensive tour. Jerusalem is a magical, magical place. Aside from that we visited Golan heights (the city above lake kinneret aka the sea of galilee ), tel aviv, jaffa, and...some other places which i can't remember the hebrew names :). my hebrew is terrible by the way... i couldn't really understand much of anything, but could usually read street signs at least. i met pretty much all the members of avishag's family and they were so great and generous--definitely made me miss my own family though!

i'll stop typing and let the pictures do the talking now...

 church in madrid. i can't remember the name :(

 

skittles- taste the rainbow

 

royal palace

 

gorgeous park

the spanish breakfast joe and i enjoyed every morning for 2.50 euros each YUM

fountain on "paseo del prado"

plaza mayor?

picasso's "guernica" at the reina sofia

Avishag (!) and I at the Tel Aviv Port

shabbat dinner with my new family

view of the old city from mt. olives. dome of the rock in the background

western wall. so so surreal and amazing. when you walk into the area there is a simple sign in about 7 different languages stating "the divine presence is here". and it is. it was a really moving place to be!

promise my updates will be more frequent from here on out! 

ciao roma! adios barcelona!

the past week has been insanely busy and action packed. freethy and i left florence and headed to rome. we absolutely liked florence much more than rome--it was far too overrun by tourists to be enjoyable. we also found it too big to navigate without the use of the metro (probably also had something to do with the extreme heat). anywho, i'll let the pictures do the talking. 

 

trevi fountain 

 

mmm gelatoooooo

 

pantheon

 

piazza navona with bernini's fontana dei quattro fiumi

oh look! joey showed up! 

 

quintessential dg wave at the coliseum 

 

inside st peter's basilica, vatican city

 

sistine chapel! sooo awesome

 

for you dad. some astronomical tools at the vatican museum. 

 

 

joe at the spanish steps on our last night in rome. 

 

on friday morning, we set off for BARCELONA! we were immediately 1,000 times happier when we arrived in spain. something about the atmosphere was so much different than it was in rome. barcelona is by far the best best best city i've been to. i know i say that a lot, but i really mean it. it was so vibrant and full of life and joe and i met some incredible travelers at the hostels we stayed at. above is joe in the plaza real. 

 

FOOD. WAS. AMAZING. veggies and sangria at les quinze nitz

 

el barrio gottico

 

la boqueria 

 

BEACH! 

 

after a nice relaxing day at the beach and an incredible dinner on the boardwalk. 

 

magical fountain show! 

 

new friends! 

 

parc guell 

 

siiick. 

 

el monument del colom

 

more great food. duck breast with strawberries and sweet potatoes. mmm i licked my plate clean! 

 

our new dutch friends :)

 

joe decided to bring us all to an absinthe bar.... surprisingly, i lived to tell the tale. 

 

 

 

:)

joe and i left barcelona this morning and took an 8 hour busride to madrid, where we are currently relaxing in our lovely 2 star hotel, trying to avoid the 100 degree heat. we will be here for 7 more days and hope to go to salamanca and toledo as well. 

vaya con dios! 

buongiorno!

greetings from florence! my program in london ended on thursday, and so early (early!) saturday morning i left foggy london town and headed to rome to meet up with kristen freethy! getting there was no easy feat though... i almost missed my flight due to TWO incompetent taxi cab drivers ("alitalia is terminal one!" "no, it's terminal three!"...no, actually, it's terminal two guys). then i enjoyed the exciting task of finding my way to termini station from the airport, and then locating freethy at one (of the many) mcdolands inside. eventually we found each other though (i have never been so relieved to see such a familiar face!) and picked up where we left off over some french fries and chicken mcnuggets. we hopped on the train to florence, where we have spent the past 2 and a half days battling the heat and temptation to stop for gelato at every turn. here are some pictures. but if you're hungry...you might not want to scroll down!

artichoke, mushroom and olive pizza in piazza de la republica

duomo

to. die. for.

sunset on the arno river

more sunset

prettyyy

me and freezepop. notice that stain on my dress...yes, a bird pooped on me as we were watching the sunset. freethy had just commented on how romantic it was...and then BOOM! i was hit from above!

night time on via calzaiuoli

we decided to skip the city heat, and head out to the coast! we took a train about an hour and half outside of the city to the cute town of Viareggio.This is a silly video we took on the way in the early morning.

the water was amaaazingly refreshing.

for a small fee, we rented two lounge charis and an umbrella and relaxed alll day in the sun. such a nice break from all the sightseeing! and to top it all off, we found a crepe place for lunch and indulged in our favorite--nutella (mine with banana!) crepes.

my wet feet, proof that i went in the ocean :)