big damn eurotravel post, part un
sooooooo this trip recap has been months in the making, but i am finally knuckling down and banging it out, mostly because the memories are fading fast and also i've sat on this so long that i now have other trips to post about that my anal nature won't let me get to before this one's done, yay! this trip was a dream in some ways and nightmarish in others, and just sitting down to look through photos is making me :DDDDDD: with glee and anxiety both, ha.
it was a huge family trip, with my favourite cousins' family (ken and tynislove), their aunt lh, and the 'c's (family friends), who had a daughter my age, fc, that i'd met maybe once before. and then there was me. (why i decided to do that to myself, i will never know.)
day 1 - i joined this trip way last minute, and booked my tickets separate (and cheaper) than everyone else which meant that i had a ridiculously lengthy layover in doha. thankfully, i slept through the entire first leg of my flight and felt refreshed enough to wander the airport at ass o'clock in the morning when we landed. WHICH MEANT that when i realised there was a shake shack there, i was awake enough to think about screaming and then prevent myself from doing it. (score!) it was DELICIOUS. but it also put me in a food coma that ended with me being stopped by security at my gate, and pissing the guard off because i couldn't understand her seriously thick accent and made her repeat herself maybe twelve separate times. i diffused the situation by telling her i was really tired, but in truth... HER ACCENT WAS REALLY THICK. and i was really tired.
during my second flight, my entertainment system was fucked, so i attempted to sleep through the whole eight hours again. i failed, but it was fine. unfortunately, the ordeal wasn't quite over, since i had to take the longass tube ride to woodside park once i got to heathrow. poor tynislove waited for like thirty minutes at the tube station for me because london is still in the middle ages and you can't get free wifi on the train without a phone number. also, there is no reception underground, so no texting either! (ilu london but s e r i o u s l y.) but then i finally made it to tynislove's xiaogu's house, where we would be holing up till our flight to budapest two days later. we settled in with her xiaogu and cousin to watch some tv and order in indian for dinner. it was a little awks because i will forever be awks around people, but fine overall. it was nice when the rest of our family arrived, and ken and i crashed on the living room floor. apparently one of us spoke (loudly) in our sleep, and we still don't know which one of us did it. ken swears it was me, and lh swears it was him. i slept through the entire debacle, soooo.
day 2 - we woke up to a delicious brunch prepared by their xiaogu.
that's only a fraction of the food prepared *________*
it was mostly cold foods, but there was also a spanish omelette type thing, which i didn't try. because we are pigs, after we'd spent the morning eating, my cousins, fc and i headed out to camden town to explore the food market (and also to buy sim cards for the family, but mostly for the food market).
churros! halloumi fries! cupcakes with sparkles! fruit juices! mmmm
we also explored a bunch of the stores selling little trinkets. the weather was awful and it kept raining on us but we stuck it out for a couple of hours, then headed to a nearby mall to meet the parents! i didn't wind up getting anything except food from m&s and i ended up leaving most of that at xiaogu's house anyway ): dinner was some roast duck and rice but we were pretty stuffed still, and only pecked at the food. overall, it was a pretty lovely, restful food-filled day. my favourite kind.
day 3 - we bid xiaogu's family a temporary farewell before setting off to the airport bright and early to make our flight to budapest! idk why but the airport experience was always so chaotic with this group. family c apparently hadn't read any of the information that was sent out before about luggage allowances etc, so there were issues and ruffled feathers (and rolled eyes on my part) there, but we all got checked in and settled at last. once we landed, there was a bit of a mess up with our pick up transport, but we got checked into our airbnb without too much hassle, and then we went to buy lunch from the little convenience store around the corner. IT TURNED OUT TO BE DELICIOUS??? all fried, but delicious!
and then it was time to head out for a tour with the lovely kinga to hit up all the main touristy spots of budapest. it was forty fucking degrees out, but it amazing nonetheless and i loved every minute, especially hearing about all the history of the country (though i was in the minority). if it hadn't been so excruciatingly hot it would've been perfect. it would've been nice to be traveling with a different, hardier group too, but c'est la vie.
it was exciting getting to see heroes square and the baths and public transport and the ministry of agriculture with all the different styles of architecture. and then there was st mathias church with the braille sculpture and fisherman's bastion and cute boys making strudel (the salty cabbage one was the best omg SO DELICIOUS) and beautiful ridiculously priced hotels, it was GREAT.
family portrait at heroes square!
goofing off at the gorgeous gresham palace!
stealing a little inspiration from anonymous' pencil in city park
st mathias church and the amazingly forward-thinking mini braille replica
after our tour with kinga, she arranged a last minute dinner reservation for us as well, which was faaaaaab, even though the service was crazy slow. it was family c dad's birthday so we also got a little birthday dessert (with sparklers!!) at the end of the meal, which would have gone down better if a) we hadn't had to wait an additional hour for it, and b) we hadn't had to pay for it. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT WAS A THING, RESTAURANTS MAKING YOU PAY FOR BIRTHDAY DESSERTS!?!!??!?! anyway. there were issues getting back to the airbnb (classic case of old people don't trust google maps and young people don't have patience, and then drunk asshole possibly-racist teenagers heckling us on the bus, funtiems!) but once we did it was fine. except not really because budapest was in the middle of a heatwave and there is no air conditioning in most of the apartments there, yay. let's not forget that the room i shared with tynislove was the only room without a working fan! double yay! the delightful perks of airbnb.
day 4 - THE DAY OF OUR FOOD TOUR!!! aka probably one of my favouritest things we did on this trip. i wish we'd done more but it was costly in prague, and there isn't enough exciting food in london to make me fork out that kind of cash ): still, we had a delightful experience, and there was SO MUCH food it was ridiculous. FRIED BREAD, FOR ONE!!!!!!
who knew bread and dip could be so good? (i knew.)
my favourite was the pork crackling dip, though it was all amazing, despite it being basically french toast and sauces. then it was off to the central market hall to look at fresh produce like meats and foie gras and spices (hungary, land of paprika!!).
this huge market had all the delights to offer!
and after all that it was time for proper food (LANGOS! SOME POTATO CONCOCTION THAT WAS AMAZING! GOULASH! which i couldn't try because it was beef, but the restaurant had a band of three old people playing quirky old instruments and adorable old dancing waiters omg BEST THING).
all the spicy meats and pickles and cheeses tyvm!
LANGOS = FRIED PIZZA WHY ISN'T THIS A THING EVERYWHERE!?!?
ALL THE EMPTY GOULASH POTS. and the live band :')
and then we headed out to a gorgeous little cafe for some cake! it wasn't awesome, but the lemonade was, and so was the environment, our tour guide barbi was lovely and we had great conversation. (idk what it says about me that we were on a tour with 9 people and without words i was always singled out by the guides as the leader of the group).
the cakes, unfortunately, looked better than they tasted
and then we went to the jewish quarter for some alcohol, learnt (and promptly forgot) how to toast in hungarian, and bid barbi adieu.
cheers, barbi!
we were pretty close by to our apartment, so we took a little walk home. the group was pooped, but i went out with ken to the house of terror (omg what a great museum, even if a lot of it feels very propaganda-y, it doesn't make the suffering any less intense, and there were multiple moments i had to walk away from a tv screen or out of a room because i was getting way too emotional) and then went for a little walk down their equivalent of orchard road.
we grabbed a little scoop of gelato during our walk, and then my cousin went home and left me to join fam c and tynislove for an evening of traditional hungarian dancing! (at least that's what it was marketed at, but who really knows these things.) it was... interesting, but ten minutes would've sufficed. after the first twenty or so, i was ready to boogy on out of there. while this was going on, there was some awkweird unpleasantness in the group chat at some point in the night re: dinner plans, but it was forgotten by the time we went on the danube dinner cruise. can i just say: BUDAPEST AT NIGHT IS GORGEOUS AND I LOVE IT.
cities at night are my favourite
unfortunately, the cruise itself was grooooooooss. lots of eight-legged friends hanging around, and the food was terrible, and the organisation was even worse.
our clearly unimpressed dinner party
i was pleasantly exhausted at the end of the day, and more than happy to be heading back to the apartment.
day 5 - i had a full day of (my own) plans today (sans most of the family!!)! ken and i had fried bread for breakfast again (OMG AMAZINGNESS) and then met fc and tynislove to set off for the zoo! we got a bit of a late start, so it was ridiculously hot by the time we started poking around the zoo for real. it wasn't the fanciest or the best laid out, but it had the MOST active animals i've ever seen in any zoo!! (note: i have since been to the bali safari park and must retract this statement.)
we got to watch two mountain goats and an entire group of babboons fight (not intergroup, though that would've been cool, but they were all in the same enclosure!), and tynislove got super smosh over the meerkats, and we also caught the tail end of an adorable sealion show!!
ALL THE COOL ANIMALS FOR ME PLS AND TY
we headed back shortly after lunch time, and fc decided to stay in to rest. tynislove, ken and i planned on heading back to gresham palace for a fancy but affordable high tea, but when we got there we realised they'd stopped that amazing deal ): so we wandered into the nearest restaurant for a bite instead. that turned out to be the BEST decision ever, because the food was great! not mind-blowing (though at the time it certainly felt like it was) but pretty great for a random discovery. AND ALSO THE LEMONADE WAS DELICIOUS (i may or may not have developed an obsession while i was there).
duck risotto, foie gras burgers and sausages, what else could we possibly ask for?
we wandered over to the basilica since we were nearby, and went to look at the church, which was pretty but nothing i hadn't seen before, and then i climbed the 302 steps to the top!! it was definitely a work out, and i was so glad there was a little landing in the middle for you to catch your breath and look at the mini art gallery. i met a lovely indonesian girl at the peak, and we chatted for a little before i headed back down. the only view i've ever really enjoyed was the one from the space needle in seattle, but this wasn't bad. growing up in high-rise buildings makes it hard to appreciate views you have to pay for, i guess.
the buda basilica from afar, and the inside of the tower!
check out that view!
when i got down (which didn't take as long as i expected it to), we grabbed some rose gelato (a tourist gimmick, but a gorgeous (tasty) gimmick i'm willing to pay for nonetheless).
ROSES FOR SALE~
i was so grumpy once i got home, though, and when we went to this little foodcourt in the jewish quarter, i was annoyed by the people and the weather and basically everything, especially when the food turned out to be not awesome :/ but then i slept it off once we got home, and things were better in the morning.
day 6 - ken and i set out on our very own foodventure (which we encountered some unhappiness about because family trips mean spending all our time together apparently, buuuut i had a much better time on my own so i can't be sorry)! but first, MOAR FRIED BREAD FOR BREAKFAST :D!!!! we got lost finding our way to our food stops, but it was a gorgeous walk with all manners of quaint shops and narrow alleys and i LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. if we'd only found those alleys earlier! we finally found our first stop: the donut library. it ended up being kind of meh, but it was one of the only places in budapest we'd found with air conditioning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111 leaving was a difficult decision.
how pretty is that!!
we also tried budapest's chimney cake (ew) before heading over to the palace to take the hospital in the rock tour.
the tour entrance! we weren't allowed to take photographs during the tour, though, so this is the only piece of physical evidence i have that it took place at all
we had a little time to kill before the tour started, so we walked around a little and somehow found ourselves in an underground labyrinth that supposedly housed dracula at some point in history. we are the BIGGEST WUSSES though so it freaked us out, especially when they were like HERE GO INTO COMPLETE AND TOTAL DARKNESS omg no thank you. this is the only picture we got out of the whole thing and then we freaked and left.
MANNEQUINS WEARING OLD OPERA COSTUMES HOW IS THAT NOT CREEPY AF
i'm laughing hysterically thinking about it now, but at least 70% of that laughter is borne out of fear. the hospital in the rock tour was SO WORTH IT THOUGH. it was such an amazing experience, and we had an adorable host, so the hour flew by. we had a flight to prague to catch that evening, so we took the tram back to our neighbourhood and went for our last meal at bock bisztro. we intended to have fisherman's soup there but THEY DIDN'T SERVE IT D: but we had the BEST foie gras on our entire trip there!! and also the most delicious chicken goulash o m g. the salmon/tartares i could've done without, but nothing was bad! and it was a great last food memory to have of budapest.
I WOULD GO BACK TO BUDAPEST FOR THAT FOIE GRAS ALONE
after, we took a quick look around new york cafe, which was a little overwhelming and GORGEOUS, if crazily overpriced.
just look at that fantastic interior, my god
after, we headed back to our airbnb, where my poor cousin basically dragged the luggage of eight people down several flights of stairs, and got zero thanks for it, because family sucks. (fam c sucks THE HARDEST, LIKE HOOVER HARD, but that's a story that involves too many headaches and angry rants). thankfully we got to prague just fine, and split up after dropping the fam at their airbnb. from this point on, i stayed on my own (or with ken), avoiding sharing hot water and showers with 8 other people, flooded bathrooms, and unfair room allocation unpleasantness. (MOAR FRUSTRATING DO NOT TRAVEL WITH EXTENDED FAMILY STORIES!!) thus began the more fulfilling part of my european trip!
it was a huge family trip, with my favourite cousins' family (ken and tynislove), their aunt lh, and the 'c's (family friends), who had a daughter my age, fc, that i'd met maybe once before. and then there was me. (why i decided to do that to myself, i will never know.)
day 1 - i joined this trip way last minute, and booked my tickets separate (and cheaper) than everyone else which meant that i had a ridiculously lengthy layover in doha. thankfully, i slept through the entire first leg of my flight and felt refreshed enough to wander the airport at ass o'clock in the morning when we landed. WHICH MEANT that when i realised there was a shake shack there, i was awake enough to think about screaming and then prevent myself from doing it. (score!) it was DELICIOUS. but it also put me in a food coma that ended with me being stopped by security at my gate, and pissing the guard off because i couldn't understand her seriously thick accent and made her repeat herself maybe twelve separate times. i diffused the situation by telling her i was really tired, but in truth... HER ACCENT WAS REALLY THICK. and i was really tired.
during my second flight, my entertainment system was fucked, so i attempted to sleep through the whole eight hours again. i failed, but it was fine. unfortunately, the ordeal wasn't quite over, since i had to take the longass tube ride to woodside park once i got to heathrow. poor tynislove waited for like thirty minutes at the tube station for me because london is still in the middle ages and you can't get free wifi on the train without a phone number. also, there is no reception underground, so no texting either! (ilu london but s e r i o u s l y.) but then i finally made it to tynislove's xiaogu's house, where we would be holing up till our flight to budapest two days later. we settled in with her xiaogu and cousin to watch some tv and order in indian for dinner. it was a little awks because i will forever be awks around people, but fine overall. it was nice when the rest of our family arrived, and ken and i crashed on the living room floor. apparently one of us spoke (loudly) in our sleep, and we still don't know which one of us did it. ken swears it was me, and lh swears it was him. i slept through the entire debacle, soooo.
day 2 - we woke up to a delicious brunch prepared by their xiaogu.
that's only a fraction of the food prepared *________*
it was mostly cold foods, but there was also a spanish omelette type thing, which i didn't try. because we are pigs, after we'd spent the morning eating, my cousins, fc and i headed out to camden town to explore the food market (and also to buy sim cards for the family, but mostly for the food market).
churros! halloumi fries! cupcakes with sparkles! fruit juices! mmmm
we also explored a bunch of the stores selling little trinkets. the weather was awful and it kept raining on us but we stuck it out for a couple of hours, then headed to a nearby mall to meet the parents! i didn't wind up getting anything except food from m&s and i ended up leaving most of that at xiaogu's house anyway ): dinner was some roast duck and rice but we were pretty stuffed still, and only pecked at the food. overall, it was a pretty lovely, restful food-filled day. my favourite kind.
day 3 - we bid xiaogu's family a temporary farewell before setting off to the airport bright and early to make our flight to budapest! idk why but the airport experience was always so chaotic with this group. family c apparently hadn't read any of the information that was sent out before about luggage allowances etc, so there were issues and ruffled feathers (and rolled eyes on my part) there, but we all got checked in and settled at last. once we landed, there was a bit of a mess up with our pick up transport, but we got checked into our airbnb without too much hassle, and then we went to buy lunch from the little convenience store around the corner. IT TURNED OUT TO BE DELICIOUS??? all fried, but delicious!
and then it was time to head out for a tour with the lovely kinga to hit up all the main touristy spots of budapest. it was forty fucking degrees out, but it amazing nonetheless and i loved every minute, especially hearing about all the history of the country (though i was in the minority). if it hadn't been so excruciatingly hot it would've been perfect. it would've been nice to be traveling with a different, hardier group too, but c'est la vie.
it was exciting getting to see heroes square and the baths and public transport and the ministry of agriculture with all the different styles of architecture. and then there was st mathias church with the braille sculpture and fisherman's bastion and cute boys making strudel (the salty cabbage one was the best omg SO DELICIOUS) and beautiful ridiculously priced hotels, it was GREAT.
family portrait at heroes square!
goofing off at the gorgeous gresham palace!
stealing a little inspiration from anonymous' pencil in city park
st mathias church and the amazingly forward-thinking mini braille replica
after our tour with kinga, she arranged a last minute dinner reservation for us as well, which was faaaaaab, even though the service was crazy slow. it was family c dad's birthday so we also got a little birthday dessert (with sparklers!!) at the end of the meal, which would have gone down better if a) we hadn't had to wait an additional hour for it, and b) we hadn't had to pay for it. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT WAS A THING, RESTAURANTS MAKING YOU PAY FOR BIRTHDAY DESSERTS!?!!??!?! anyway. there were issues getting back to the airbnb (classic case of old people don't trust google maps and young people don't have patience, and then drunk asshole possibly-racist teenagers heckling us on the bus, funtiems!) but once we did it was fine. except not really because budapest was in the middle of a heatwave and there is no air conditioning in most of the apartments there, yay. let's not forget that the room i shared with tynislove was the only room without a working fan! double yay! the delightful perks of airbnb.
day 4 - THE DAY OF OUR FOOD TOUR!!! aka probably one of my favouritest things we did on this trip. i wish we'd done more but it was costly in prague, and there isn't enough exciting food in london to make me fork out that kind of cash ): still, we had a delightful experience, and there was SO MUCH food it was ridiculous. FRIED BREAD, FOR ONE!!!!!!
who knew bread and dip could be so good? (i knew.)
my favourite was the pork crackling dip, though it was all amazing, despite it being basically french toast and sauces. then it was off to the central market hall to look at fresh produce like meats and foie gras and spices (hungary, land of paprika!!).
this huge market had all the delights to offer!
and after all that it was time for proper food (LANGOS! SOME POTATO CONCOCTION THAT WAS AMAZING! GOULASH! which i couldn't try because it was beef, but the restaurant had a band of three old people playing quirky old instruments and adorable old dancing waiters omg BEST THING).
all the spicy meats and pickles and cheeses tyvm!
LANGOS = FRIED PIZZA WHY ISN'T THIS A THING EVERYWHERE!?!?
ALL THE EMPTY GOULASH POTS. and the live band :')
and then we headed out to a gorgeous little cafe for some cake! it wasn't awesome, but the lemonade was, and so was the environment, our tour guide barbi was lovely and we had great conversation. (idk what it says about me that we were on a tour with 9 people and without words i was always singled out by the guides as the leader of the group).
the cakes, unfortunately, looked better than they tasted
and then we went to the jewish quarter for some alcohol, learnt (and promptly forgot) how to toast in hungarian, and bid barbi adieu.
cheers, barbi!
we were pretty close by to our apartment, so we took a little walk home. the group was pooped, but i went out with ken to the house of terror (omg what a great museum, even if a lot of it feels very propaganda-y, it doesn't make the suffering any less intense, and there were multiple moments i had to walk away from a tv screen or out of a room because i was getting way too emotional) and then went for a little walk down their equivalent of orchard road.
we grabbed a little scoop of gelato during our walk, and then my cousin went home and left me to join fam c and tynislove for an evening of traditional hungarian dancing! (at least that's what it was marketed at, but who really knows these things.) it was... interesting, but ten minutes would've sufficed. after the first twenty or so, i was ready to boogy on out of there. while this was going on, there was some awkweird unpleasantness in the group chat at some point in the night re: dinner plans, but it was forgotten by the time we went on the danube dinner cruise. can i just say: BUDAPEST AT NIGHT IS GORGEOUS AND I LOVE IT.
cities at night are my favourite
unfortunately, the cruise itself was grooooooooss. lots of eight-legged friends hanging around, and the food was terrible, and the organisation was even worse.
our clearly unimpressed dinner party
i was pleasantly exhausted at the end of the day, and more than happy to be heading back to the apartment.
day 5 - i had a full day of (my own) plans today (sans most of the family!!)! ken and i had fried bread for breakfast again (OMG AMAZINGNESS) and then met fc and tynislove to set off for the zoo! we got a bit of a late start, so it was ridiculously hot by the time we started poking around the zoo for real. it wasn't the fanciest or the best laid out, but it had the MOST active animals i've ever seen in any zoo!! (note: i have since been to the bali safari park and must retract this statement.)
we got to watch two mountain goats and an entire group of babboons fight (not intergroup, though that would've been cool, but they were all in the same enclosure!), and tynislove got super smosh over the meerkats, and we also caught the tail end of an adorable sealion show!!
ALL THE COOL ANIMALS FOR ME PLS AND TY
we headed back shortly after lunch time, and fc decided to stay in to rest. tynislove, ken and i planned on heading back to gresham palace for a fancy but affordable high tea, but when we got there we realised they'd stopped that amazing deal ): so we wandered into the nearest restaurant for a bite instead. that turned out to be the BEST decision ever, because the food was great! not mind-blowing (though at the time it certainly felt like it was) but pretty great for a random discovery. AND ALSO THE LEMONADE WAS DELICIOUS (i may or may not have developed an obsession while i was there).
duck risotto, foie gras burgers and sausages, what else could we possibly ask for?
we wandered over to the basilica since we were nearby, and went to look at the church, which was pretty but nothing i hadn't seen before, and then i climbed the 302 steps to the top!! it was definitely a work out, and i was so glad there was a little landing in the middle for you to catch your breath and look at the mini art gallery. i met a lovely indonesian girl at the peak, and we chatted for a little before i headed back down. the only view i've ever really enjoyed was the one from the space needle in seattle, but this wasn't bad. growing up in high-rise buildings makes it hard to appreciate views you have to pay for, i guess.
the buda basilica from afar, and the inside of the tower!
check out that view!
when i got down (which didn't take as long as i expected it to), we grabbed some rose gelato (a tourist gimmick, but a gorgeous (tasty) gimmick i'm willing to pay for nonetheless).
ROSES FOR SALE~
i was so grumpy once i got home, though, and when we went to this little foodcourt in the jewish quarter, i was annoyed by the people and the weather and basically everything, especially when the food turned out to be not awesome :/ but then i slept it off once we got home, and things were better in the morning.
day 6 - ken and i set out on our very own foodventure (which we encountered some unhappiness about because family trips mean spending all our time together apparently, buuuut i had a much better time on my own so i can't be sorry)! but first, MOAR FRIED BREAD FOR BREAKFAST :D!!!! we got lost finding our way to our food stops, but it was a gorgeous walk with all manners of quaint shops and narrow alleys and i LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. if we'd only found those alleys earlier! we finally found our first stop: the donut library. it ended up being kind of meh, but it was one of the only places in budapest we'd found with air conditioning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111 leaving was a difficult decision.
how pretty is that!!
we also tried budapest's chimney cake (ew) before heading over to the palace to take the hospital in the rock tour.
the tour entrance! we weren't allowed to take photographs during the tour, though, so this is the only piece of physical evidence i have that it took place at all
we had a little time to kill before the tour started, so we walked around a little and somehow found ourselves in an underground labyrinth that supposedly housed dracula at some point in history. we are the BIGGEST WUSSES though so it freaked us out, especially when they were like HERE GO INTO COMPLETE AND TOTAL DARKNESS omg no thank you. this is the only picture we got out of the whole thing and then we freaked and left.
MANNEQUINS WEARING OLD OPERA COSTUMES HOW IS THAT NOT CREEPY AF
i'm laughing hysterically thinking about it now, but at least 70% of that laughter is borne out of fear. the hospital in the rock tour was SO WORTH IT THOUGH. it was such an amazing experience, and we had an adorable host, so the hour flew by. we had a flight to prague to catch that evening, so we took the tram back to our neighbourhood and went for our last meal at bock bisztro. we intended to have fisherman's soup there but THEY DIDN'T SERVE IT D: but we had the BEST foie gras on our entire trip there!! and also the most delicious chicken goulash o m g. the salmon/tartares i could've done without, but nothing was bad! and it was a great last food memory to have of budapest.
I WOULD GO BACK TO BUDAPEST FOR THAT FOIE GRAS ALONE
after, we took a quick look around new york cafe, which was a little overwhelming and GORGEOUS, if crazily overpriced.
just look at that fantastic interior, my god
after, we headed back to our airbnb, where my poor cousin basically dragged the luggage of eight people down several flights of stairs, and got zero thanks for it, because family sucks. (fam c sucks THE HARDEST, LIKE HOOVER HARD, but that's a story that involves too many headaches and angry rants). thankfully we got to prague just fine, and split up after dropping the fam at their airbnb. from this point on, i stayed on my own (or with ken), avoiding sharing hot water and showers with 8 other people, flooded bathrooms, and unfair room allocation unpleasantness. (MOAR FRUSTRATING DO NOT TRAVEL WITH EXTENDED FAMILY STORIES!!) thus began the more fulfilling part of my european trip!