European Vacation

It is time for a post about our European Vacation! We spent our holiday in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest with our friends Paul and Lisa. Instead of doing a day by day recap of what we did I thought I would share the highlights!

Walking: We did a lot of walking on our trip. It's such a great way to see lots of different things in the city and also find tucked away places. We walked everywhere! Whenever we got cold we just popped into the next restaurant, cafe, or bar. In Prague all of the sidewalks and most of the roads were cobblestone. It really made you feel like you were in an older place. In Vienna and Budapest they were paved sidewalks. We were amazed at how clean all of the cities were while we walked around. In the picture to the right you can see Ben in the blue jacket. I was always in the back, short legs = slow walker.
 






Christmas markets: There were Christmas markets in every city we went to. They were really fun to walk around because you could get a feel of the kind of food we ate, different crafts, and things that represented the city. There were usually a couple different markets in each city. We really enjoyed exploring them and looking at all the different items. The picture to the left is a Christmas Market in Vienna. 

Dogs: From the moment we landed in Prague when we loaded onto the bus there were dogs. The first dog we met was on the bus and he rested his head on Paul's knee. We were amazed to see so many dogs on public transport, walking in the streets, playing in the park, in restaurants, and just ever where. I think there might have been some law that dogs must be muzzled because most that we saw had a muzzle on them. None of the dogs looked scared though, they usually kept to themselves and didn't mind all of the people. We don't see many dogs in Abu Dhabi so it was really fun to see all the dogs and how they acted. In Budapest we even where in a park where some dogs were playing. There was a greyhound and to watch him take off in a sprint was pretty amazing, they are fast dogs!  

Sausage:  I think all of you may know this, but we don't get a lot of pork in Abu Dhabi and when we do its mediocre at best. Now I am not a huge pork fan, I don't LOVE bacon, but I do really enjoy sausage. And one thing we learned in Central Europe is that they do sausage right. We probably had some sort of sausage everyday in our 2 week trip. We had them at the markets, in restaurants, from street vendors. I think our favorite sausage was from Vienna. Now they really did sausage right. They would take a large long roll, cut off the end, stick it on a spike to toast, then squirt mustard and ketcup in it. They then would stick the sausage in the roll. OHHH it was awesome! The picture above was taken on Christmas day, with our awesome sausage dog from Vienna! 

Christmas: We were in Vienna for Christmas. That day Ben and I rented bikes and rode around the city. Vienna had such wonderful bike lanes everywhere. Even in the winter time many people were still riding their bikes. So we rode around for about two hours. We ended up getting our yummy sausage dogs for lunch. That night Paul, Lisa, Ben, and I were trying to find a place to eat. Since it is a Christian country many things were closed. We walked around for a while and found a bar that was open. We walked in and everyone looked at us like we had 4 heads. We asked if they had food, they didn't, but we figured we would stay for a drink anyway. We stayed and the 12 year old behind the bar brought us this fried pastry, very good. He was learning English in school and his friends/family were trying so hard for him to speak to us, but I am sure he didn't know too many English words. It was a funny time and we left after a drink to find some real food. We found a place and walked in and asked if they were serving food they said yes but it was Kosher. We had walked into maybe one of two Jewish restaurants in all of Vienna. We ordered some food, it was very good, and headed back to our hotel. 
 
Cathedrals: In all of the cities they had the most amazing cathedrals. You could tell how much work it took to complete each one. Inside the stain glass was just amazing. You really got a sense of how old Europe is by the Cathedrals. They were truly amazing.

Weather: We found out that this part of Europe usually has snow during Christmas. Let me tell you that it snowed for about 2 seconds one of the last days in Prague, then it turned into snow. Although I was a little upset it didn't snow it was probably for the best since it would have been much colder walking around in the snow. It did rain a little a couple days but overall the weather was nice. I mean we were cold at times but we expected that. When we back to Abu Dhabi we both said although it was fun to be cold for a while the 70 degree weather isn't so bad either!  

New Years:  We were back in Prague for New Years since we were leaving on New Years day. All of the hotels and hostels (dorm rooms, you rent a bed) were expensive. So our friend Paul found a site that had rooms to rent. Well he found this guy that was reasonable and we decided it would be a good idea. The room we rented out was in an apartment this guy lived in with his girlfriend and daughter. I am pretty sure the room we stayed in was his daughters room but we didn't mind. So it was all four of us in this room, rather amusing. We didn't want to go downtown that night because we knew we had to get up early so we stayed in. Well the owner of the apartment also stayed in and invited friends over. It was a fun night meeting new people and having good conversation. This dog belong to the apartment but he was cute! Look at those ears! I think he wanted some sausage! 

We had such a great time, although we missed our families very much. But we know we will be back in the states soon and we will be able to see you more often! We hope you all had a great holiday and hope 2012 has started off with a bang! Love and miss you all! 

Ben and Tanya