Europe 2018: Istanbul, Prague, Barcelona and Milan

Hello! Ahoj! Ciao! Merhaba! Hola!

After a crazy insane 10 days jetting from America to Italy to Turkey to Czechia to Spain back to Italy back to America, I have lots of photos and words to share!

Last week, I took 10 days off work and visited four different European countries.

I don’t think I spent anywhere close to as much time as I wanted to in each of these countries, and if I could do this trip again, I probably would have done it a little bit differently. More on that later.

Regardless, I wanted to share with you guys. So here we go!

My trip kind of got off to a pretty rough start. I booked a redeye flight from ORD to MXP with a layover in MUC. My United flight from O’Hare to Munich was delayed, so I literally RAN to the gate to make my connecting flight. I got there JUST as the gate was closing. I had toyed with the idea of checking my backpack for the flight there, and that connecting flight made me so glad I didn’t!

Once I got into MXP, I ended up taking a shuttle to Milano Centrale and then went straight to the Airbnb (where my friend met up with me) to sleep. The next day I woke up and went straight to Milan’s other airport — BGY — for my flight to Istanbul, Turkey. (You’re going to hear A LOT about airports in this post, I apologize!)

· · · ISTANBUL, TURKEY · · ·

We ended up getting into Istanbul pretty late due to the flight (delayed, of course), the time difference (a two-hour loss) and Turkish security. We took an Uber to our Airbnb and were worried about facing another situation like the one we did in Milan — a late arrival and no open restaurants.

Turns out, our worries were for nothing.

Istanbul was insanely alive… until and probably past 4 a.m.!

We had originally booked an Airbnb in Sultanahment, which is the old town historic neighborhood at the center of the city. However, our host ended up canceling like, 12 hours before we were supposed to check in, so we had to scramble to find a new place to stay. We ended up with a studio apartment in Beyoğlu, and we actually ended up being incredibly glad for the cancelation. Beyoğlu was an incredible neighborhood to stay in! We ended up walking to go get pide for dinner, and ended up bar hopping for the next eight or so hours in our neighborhood around our Airbnb.

It was so incredibly fun.

Neither of us was really sure what to expect, but we were both so surprised at how vibrant our neighborhood was at night. We ended up walking up and down İstiklal Avenue and all its side streets, stopping to grab beers on patios, pop in and out of clothing stores (they were all open at midnight!) grabbing baklava and just soaking in everything. We stayed out until almost 4 a.m., and throughout our entire time, nothing died down.

Then… we were woken up at 6 a.m. by the daily prayer… which was a really interesting experience given that we were both a little tipsy and not entirely sure what was going on, haha.

After a few more hours of sleep, we woke up and went to Van Kahvaltı Evi for breakfast, which was really delicious! Turkish breakfasts are basically comprised of a never-ending basket of bread served with a slew of vegetarian-friendly dishes, including cheeses, hard boiled eggs, nut butters, honey and olives… with Turkish tea on the side.

After that, we walked through the Karaköy neighborhood — stopping for coffee and baked goods — before exploring Sultanahmet for the day. We took in the mosques and walked through the markets. I was really bummed that the Grand Bazaar was closed since we were there on a Sunday, but everything else was saw was so vibrant and exciting that I ended up not minding all too much at all. I actually ended up bartering for a scarf at the Spice Bazaar, which was open for the day.

After we toured the old city, we went back across the Bosphorus to head to the top of Galata Kulesi, which was incredibly impressive. The tower itself is drenched in history and was cool to explore (tip: take the stairs down!) and the view — while cloudy, foggy and rainy — was stunning. One of the highlights of my trip was offering to take a photo for a couple… and then being stunned when I ended up photographing a proposal!

We went back to our Airbnb area for the afternoon and spent another night bar hopping and eating along İstiklal Avenue before calling it a night so we could wake up early for our flight to Prague.

· · · PRAGUE, CZECHIA · · ·

Honestly, the Prague part of our trip was probably the most disappointing. The weather was just completely uncooperative — low 30’s with a mix of rain and snow — and I hadn’t done much in terms of looking up the things I wanted to see and do in the city. By the time we got in, we were both exhausted. We ate food at the biggest tourist trap restaurant ever (it was literally called “Typical Czech Restaurant”) and then went to our Airbnb to go to sleep early. We ended up sleeping in until almost noon on our only full day in the city, and the rest of the day kind of went downhill from there. We walked over to the Charles Bridge and took in some of the architecture… but most of it — like the astronomical clock — was under construction. We couldn’t really see Castle Hill through the fog and snow, so we figured a trek to take in a view of the city from above would be fruitless. We ended up grabbing cheese and wine at a random crepe restaurant and then went to the Lennon Wall and had some beers.

After that, we stopped for some trdelník and then went to U Fleků for beer and goulash, and then bar hopping for a few hours.

That was pretty much it for our time in Prague. I was pretty bummed in how little I got out of this stop on our mini-Europe tour, and I would really love to go back and spend more time actually exploring the city and taking in the sights. The heavy fog and obstructed views just put such a damper on the entire trip, which was really disappointing.

Anyway, on to…

· · · BARCELONA, SPAIN · · ·

Barcelona pretty much ties even with Istanbul in terms of trip highlights. I’ve wanted to go to Spain pretty much forever… or at least since I started taking Spanish classes in the ninth grade. Barcelona really did not disappoint me one bit.

Go figure, of course, my first trip to Spain is to the portion that doesn’t primarily speak Spanish.

After our flight got in, we shuttled to our Airbnb, which was in an adorable neighborhood called El Born. I would 1,000 percent recommend this neighborhood. It was lively and jam-packed full of tapas restaurants, sangria bars, coffee shops, cute boutiques and gorgeous patios.

We had tapas and wine at Alsur Café, then more tapas and wine at Bona Sort, which was a gorgeous restaurant with delicious food. (I wasn’t completely sold on Alsur, but would definitely recommend Bona Sort!

The next day, we grabbed coffee at a shop near our Airbnb, had breakfast at Picnic Restaurant and then walked to La Sagrada Familia and then to Park Güell and El Carmel, where we hiked and explored the bunkers — abandoned after the Spanish Civil War — for several hours. I climbed more than 80 flights of stairs and walked/ hiked 10 miles over the course of our full day in Barcelona, and I don’t regret a second of it. It was so fun to walk along the streets and take in the sights and the view of the city from the bunkers was phenomenal.

After our hike, we wandered around the Gothic Quarter for a bit before heading back to our neighborhood for tapas, paella and sangria at Nou Cellar — which I also would recommend.

That was it for our time in Barcelona. We called it a night kind of early since our flight from Barcelona back to Milan left before 6 a.m. the next day. Yikes.

I’m so glad that we managed to cram as much as we did into our one full day in Barcelona, because I did feel like I saw so much! However, there was still a TON I wanted to see — and eat! — and I really wished I’d have had more time to do so.

· · · MILAN, ITALY · · ·

OK, so my experience with Milan is really similar to my experience with Prague. I feel like I didn’t get to do anything here. Since I flew in and out of Milan, my entire experience in this city — and Italy, even — was basically a jumping-off point for the rest of this trip.

A quick note that this itinerary wasn’t my ideal plan, and involved a lot of compromise on my end.

Anyway. We didn’t even have a full day in Italy. We stored our bags at Milano Centrale when we got in from the airport and walked around for a bit. We stopped in a cat cafe and had rice and vegetables for lunch at a random restaurant, then checked into our Airbnb and fell asleep for four hours thanks to that 3 a.m. wakeup call in Barcelona.

After we woke up, we went to see the Duomo (it was gorgeous) and grab some gelato and pizza before calling it a night.

We woke up the next morning, had croissants and espresso… and then my shuttle took me back to MXP to MUC to ORD.

Fin!

So, here’s a little disclaimer. My trip was so much fun, but I would NOT recommend this itinerary.

Of my 10-day trip, I spent seven days either in airports/ on airplanes/ in passport control lines/ on shuttles to airports. There were only three full days that did not involve travel: One in Istanbul, one in Prague and one in Barcelona. I took eight flights total during this trip.

(No joke, I totaled up the time and I spent a grand total of about 70-80 hours dealing with the nuances of traveling: getting to and from airports, standing in customs/ security lines, sitting on planes, etc.)

Oddly, this was also the first trip I’ve taken abroad where I didn’t come back with a dozen new Facebook friends and the promises of couches to crash on for future travels, which was a little upsetting. I really think I like hostel-hopping more than Airbnbs.

I had a ton of fun and, hey, I got to (briefly) experience four new countries and cultures, but this trip was just completely exhausting and I had no time to really relax and enjoy myself. I think airports stress me out too much.

Regardless, it was definitely a memorable trip, and I’m already excited to go back to a few of these cities and explore them more.