Everything is close in Europe! So I took advantage of 10 days off during the Christmas period to travel with another friend with wanderlust to 4 European capital cities: Bratislava, Vienna, Prague and finally Berlin. Tiring but very nice (and cold) experience!

Bratislava

2 days were enough to visit the charming – especially with the snow – but rather small Slovak capital. Here are the main attractions:

• Look for the quirky statues around the Old Town by day while enjoying the major landmarks of the city: St Martin’s Cathedral, St Michael’s gate, the Franciscan church and Monastery
• Visit the Old Town hall and the Bratislava City Museum, a very interesting and complete museum. Climb on top of the museum to enjoy a beautiful view on the Castle.
• Walk up to the Bratislava Castle to take amazing pictures of the Danube and the old city
• Experience Bratislava by night: taste traditional Slovak food and party in the bars if the centre

Vienna

One hour and a half after leaving from Bratislava, we arrived in Vienna. Vienna was clearly the highlight of our trip. It is clearly an underrated city that is worth a visit. We had only planned to stay there 2 days but I would advise to stay at least 4 days. Here is what we had time to do:

• Be amazed by the Rathaus and the beautiful buildings and galleries around it
• Feel like a princess in the Hofburg and the imperial apartments
• Have a few drink in Vienna’s Bermuda Triangle
• Wonder if I was in Barcelona when in front of the Hundertwasserhaus
• Have a romantic walk in the Stadtpark
• Taste the famous sachertorte in the Café Sacher
• Listen to the Blue Danube in the Konzerthaus
• Contemplate famous paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Prague

We took a 4-hour bus ride to arrive in the Czech capital on the 30th December and spend New Year’s Eve there. I must admit this time of the year was probably not the perfect one to discover Prague (or maybe any city in fact). The streets were all very crowded.  Here are the highlights of our short visit:

• Experience the Christmas feeling on the Old Town Square in Stare Mesto
• Dance among drug addicts in Chapeau Rouge
• Observe squirrels running in the snow in Letenské Sady
• Be squeezed among tourists in front of Prague Castle and on Charles Bridge
• Explore Malá Strana and taste very cheap and delicious food in Pod Petřinem
• Have another romantic walk on the Kampa island
• Hear fireworks all day long on the 31th but not see the official one on the 1^st at 6.00pm (too late.. we had already left!)
• Party for New Year’s eve in a random bar with half naked girls and run to catch a night tram

Berlin

Another bus ride to arrive in the last stop of our Christmas trip: Berlin. We had planned to stay there a bit more than 3 days. Of course, it was not enough to see everything but by this time we were pretty tired! Here are our key moments in the German Capital:

• Walk from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate with a stop at the impressive Berliner Dom
• Laugh at the kitschiest show ever at the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz
• Take a moment to remember all the lost lives due to nazism at the Jewish Memorial and the Topography of Terror
• Discover the East Side Gallery and the street art of Kreuzberg on a free tour with an Aussie guide that had been living in the squat in Cuvrystraße
• Drink, party and take pictures in photo booths in Friedrichshain
• Not regret to have frozen in a very long queue to book a ticket for the Bundestag and its amazing panorama on the city

Time to fly back to Brussels… I’ll go back to Vienna and Berlin for sure!