Czeching out Prague!

Ok so this weekend we booked a trip to Prague! Side note: we are booking most of our trips through a company called bus2alps. They are really handy and do a great job with having a lot of awesome trips planned. Some include transportation to your destination, others don't. Either way, it's a great time. Another side note: I should get paid for this bus2alps advertising! lol. So, back to Prague. It is beautiful and picturesque, like living in a fairy tale. The people were friendly to us and they mostly spoke english which was a plus. The only bummer was it was freezing!! Although, the snow did add to the beauty of it. Just make sure you pack lots of layers if you go during cold months. We stayed at the Czech Inn hostel which was great. I was a little nervous about the whole hostel thing because truthfully I was picturing dirty bunk beds and sharing a room with 20 other strangers, but to my pleasant surprise I was greeted by a 4-star hotel equivalent that had a really yummy free breakfast (i think it was free because of bus2alps though) and they had a cute bar downstairs (we were greeted by a burlesque show the first night.....interesting...). While in Prague we did 2 walking tours of the city and also a tour of the Prague Castle. The tours included stops at history places, the John Lennon wall, and all around Prague. We also ate some delicious food! Meat is their thing so definitely get either the pork meat platters or the goulash. Also the beer is indeed cheaper than the water, and the restaurants basically assume you want beer and just bring it out. They are known for their beer, so it is pretty good. I'm not a huge beer fan so I didn't have a lot, but if you like beer you will definitely like Prague. The metro and the tram were our forms of transportation and they were pretty easy to figure out. Also the money was very different there. 1 euro was roughly 25 czech, so we were walking around with like 1000 czech, but thats not really a lot of money. I spent 1100 while I was there. I bought 2 sit down meals, souvenirs, a  bar meal at the hostel which was cheap and just like water and soda from the mini mart across the street. If you wanted to do more sit down meals or buy a lot of souvenirs then I would suggest a little more. I also was there only for a weekend also. Prague was a great trip and I would seriously recommend going there.

FOOD

This is where I will post pics of all the delicious food I get and hopefully where to get it so that if anyone comes to Florence they can check it out!

1) First Gelato: bought from Perche No!

2) Food from the Chocolate Festival
This was at the plaza in front of Santa Maria Novella but its only here Feb. 8th to the 17th but im sure it comes back at least yearly....keep an eye out!

3) Gelato from Grom

4) Dante's- Great Pizza, free unlimited wine for students, its "americanized" but its delicious anyways

5)Gelato from Gelateria Antica Florentina --> Via Faenza 2a- has delicious gelato for a really inexpensive price, smallest cone is 1 euro and smallest cup is 1.50 and he gives a generous amount.

****side note*** my professor said that if the gelato place doesn't serve the flavor buontalenti then it isn't authentic

6)Tijuana-->Mexican food-i know why would you eat mexican when in italy, but if you are here for a long period of time its fun to change it up and the food is delicious. I also strongly recommend the frozen margaritas.

7) Gilli-cappuccinos and pastries, all delicious, it is better to stand at the bar when you order because you have to pay a really high sitting fee

8) News Cafe...its located right across from giglio 15, which is the corner of via giglio and via melarancio

9) Pizza Man

10) Secret Bakeries-basically u go there really late at night and knock on a sketchy door, wait for them to answer, hand over ur money and order. Then they take it close the door and u wait there til they come back with your fresh made pastry. I always just ask for watever they have with chocolate/nutella

11) Gusta Pizza- AMAZING pizza...delicious...go over the bridge to the right of the Ponte Vecchio (when you are on the same side of the river as the Duomo) and keep heading down and it will be on the corner on your right

12) Gatto

13) Aqua al 2-Get the Bluberry Steak!! Everything from the meats to the pastas are really good! A little bit more on the expensive side but not unreasonable plus they give student discounts!

14)The Diner- Trust me, if you are staying in Italy for a long period of time you will be craving American food. They have AMAZING burgers and milkshakes!!

15)Astor Cafe- Another good place to get burgers and also an american breakfast. So delicious, also a bar at night, really cool vibe plus the jersey store cast went there a lot when they were in Florence

Valencia Carnevale and Murano

On February 8th we went to Carnevale with Bus2Alps <-- by the way everyone should use this to book things it was super helpful and had great trips at good prices <--I should get paid for this lol
Venice and Murano were so beautiful as well. Murano is where they are well known for glass blowing and they had glass blown sculptures everywhere. Venice is spectacular. Its crazy how everything is surrounded by water. We traveled by water taxi the whole time. Which brings me to a side story of a crazy cat lady on the water taxi. She had this poor little cat in a basket that was meowing like crazy and she kept yelling BASTA! at it (which we later learned means enough!). It was kinda sad. Anyways we got cool masks and everyone was dressed up. We rode a gondola (which was crazy expensive but ur there so u gotta do it) and walked all around. It definitely isn't necessary to go there for more than a day we were there from 1230 til like 10 but we were ready to leave by 6 or 7.

Topics in Nutrition Through Italian Style Cooking

On this post I will update everyone with what I make in my cooking class!! Look back every week for some deliciousness! All of the meals are less than 600 calories in total and are very filling if you can believe it. Trust me I like food so I wouldn't lie. Comment if you want the recipes!

WEEK 1- Eggplant, bruschetta, fruit salad, and homemade bread with sauteed peppers and onions inside (sorry dont have picture of that)

WEEK 2- Risotto with zucchini, Rice Balls, and a Chocolate Torte with Strawberry Sauce and a Mandarine covered with Caramel

WEEK 3-Fresh pasta with mushroom sauce, Freshly made Calzone Classico, Apple and Peach jam tart with almonds

WEEK 4-Cocoa Ravioli stuffed with brie pears, Chicken with a mushroom, apple and chocolate sauce, Chocolate cake with raspberry sauce

WEEK5- Visit to the Perugina Chocolate Factory

WEEK 6-Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese Burgers, Fresh baked french fries, Homemade Ketchup, Apple and Raspberry Pastry

WEEK 7- Focaccia algi spinaci (Spinach Bread), Pasta with Turnip greens, Green Tomato Pastries

Sorry I forgot to take pics this week!!!!!

WEEK 8-  Ravioli with ricotta cheese and spinach with tomato sauce, mini cheesecakes, caprese

WEEK 9- Swordfish kebabs, pasta with bell pepper sauce, crepes, chicken with mushroom sauce

Welcome to Firenze

Ok so basically this is because Lindsay wanted to follow me and my journey and since she doesn't have facebook this is how its gotta be. So far so good. Florence is soooo beautiful and actually a lot smaller then what I thought when I looked at it on the map. It was weird first getting here because of the exhausting traveling and then to top it off our apartment was pretty much empty. Not even toilet paper!!! We figured it out though finally. Enjoy the blog!