Weekend Traveler: Part Two

Vienna, Austria March 26th - 28th, 2010

First, I would like to apologize in advance for the length of this blog; Vienna was just SO much fun that it is hard not to include everything.

My concept of time has been completely altered. The weeks are flying by too quickly; sometimes I wish I had a pause button on my life so that I could just stay here a little longer. Unfortunately, such a thing does not exist. So before my life becomes really busy with basically traveling 4 weekends in a row, finals/papers and then somehow managing to explore Prague as much as I can before I am forced to go back home, I will catch everyone up on my life.

A few weekends past, almost my entire program *cough, Alex Horn* traveled by bus to Vienna. The bus ride was around 6 hours, which by now is a piece of cake. But for some odd reason I decided on taking a Tylenol PM to fall asleep on the bus, which wasn't such a good idea because at one of the rest stops we made we stopped at the most bizarre places I have ever been to. EXCALIDUR. From being woken up from my Tylenol PM coma, I was utterly confused as to where on Earth we were. It was some kind of amusement park with a "convenient" store that had an entire two rooms filled with liquors and beers, another room filled with giant bags of candy and then another room with kids toys, where they sold pregnant barbies... SO please try to picture me, dead tired in my coma state in this ridiculous place... after much debate, I still don't know if we were in the Czech Republic or if we were in Austria. You would think I would be able to tell based on the currency used, right? Nope, you could either use Koruna's (Czech "crowns") or the Euro. Oh, Europe. Anyways, I ended up leaving the store within 5 minutes and decided to sunbath/nap by myself on this man made bridge in the parking lot instead... which I'm sure I ended up looking like the weird one in this bizarre adventure amusement park/rest stop.

So onto Vienna.

We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday. Checked into our hotel, I "shared" a room with Celia and our rooms had TVs in them. Heaven on Earth. We listened to the radio in German and then went around the corner to the Centimeter, a local pub, and got Iced Coffee to wake us up before our early evening tour. Their concept of an iced coffee is hot coffee with a extra glass with only ice. It was real interesting, but I needed the energy and didn't want to waste my euros so I drank it all.

On our evening tour we were able to see the Town Hall, the Stephansdom (famous church), the Imperial Parliament and the Hofburg (the historical seat of Habsburg emperors & imperial apartments). After our guided tour we were free to wander around the city ourselves. We walked for a few hours around the city center and then slowly made our way back to find this highly recommended restaurant. After searching for an hour we found the Augustine Wine Cellar where I got the BEST veal wiener schnitzel I will probably ever consume. Just thinking of it makes my mouth water a little. Yum!

(Imperial Parliament)

(The Hofburg)

(Stephansdom)

Instead of journeying 45mins back to the hotel after dinner, we decided to kill time while we waited for everyone else to come back into the city center. There is no better way to kill time than to sit in a chic European bar, right? I slowly drank 2 Heineken's, which were 10x more expensive in Austria than in the Czech Republic... Oh how I love the CZ! Once everyone traveled back into town we met up with them and tried to find the "Bermuda Triangle", which we were informed to NOT go there because when tourists tend to go in, they tend to never come back out. Well of course we had to find this place... We found the Bermuda bar, which was pretty cool. Later we found out that we weren't at the true Bermuda Triangle, I guess which was lucky for us.

(Queen Elisabeth's Garden)

On Saturday, we did a lot of sight seeing and to be completely honest I cannot remember the names of the places, but I can remember exactly what everything looked like. The city is very heavily stylized in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, which reminds me a lot of Rome. Every building in Vienna is unique, even the more modern buildings. During our guided tour in the morning we found a German Easter market. The market looked a lot like the ones in Prague during Easter time, but it had its own charm to it along with Austrian souvenirs.

During our free time we wandered the city more, but once our feet were too blistered to move, we stopped for lunch at a Chinese Restaurant. I know, awful, who goes to Vienna to get Chinese? Simple answer: Starving students. In the afternoon we went on another tour, but this time to the Belvedere Palace (Schloss Belvedere) it is the former residence of the Prince of Savoy. It was breathtaking...

(Belvedere Palace)

Saturday night we went to the pub right by our hotel, The Centimeter. It is by far my FAVORITE place that I have eaten in all of Europe. Three Reasons: 1. If you go with a big group you can order a variety of food... that is served on a SWORD! (that should be reason enough, but...) 2. If you are feeling adventurous you can order 5 Liters of Beer that comes out in this huge test tube looking beer tap, which you pour your drinks yourself. 3. Good company, Good Food and Good Drinks, but in a VERY unique way. After dinner and a few drinks later we went around the corner to a Mexican Restaurant and got Mango Margaritas, a little weird after the heavy meal and beer, but it was still great fun!

(Reason 1)

(Reason 2)

(Reason 1. 2. & 3.)

Sunday came too soon. We had to be checked out of the hotel and on the bus by 10:30am... too bad at 2am that morning it was daylights savings and NO ones phone (because we all have the same cheap Vodaphone) automatically changed. That 10:30am departure time became a joke just waiting to happen. After we got going though we stopped at the Hundertwasser House, which is an apartment house designed by Austrian artist Friedenreich Hunderwasser. The house is very original and is one of the most visited buildings.

(Hundertwasser House)

On our way back to Prague we stopped one more time, but this time at the Schonbrunn, the Imperial summer residence of the Habsburg Dynasty. We were able to choose from a variety of things to do, but we only had time for one thing. So we picked touring the inside of the palace instead of going on the Hedge Maze (if I had more time that was going to be my #2 pick). The inside was so beautiful and we were actually able to see the furniture and how the rooms were laid out, which is so rare because most palaces don't hold true to their history.

This was our last stop in Vienna, so we all boarded the buses and drove the 6hours back to Prague, but not before stopping at EXCALIDUR. This time around Celia and I bought a huge bag of Gummy Bears, which took us two classes of Globalization to destroy.

My weekend in Vienna was by far my favorite weekend. I love traveling with our entire program because not only do you not have to worry about anything, but you don't have to deal with the stress of planning and organizing. Unfortunately that was our final trip traveling all together, but this weekend I will be going to Krakow, Poland with 1/2 of my program.

This weekend is going to be very interesting... especially after the recent events. On Sunday in Krakow, the President's Funeral will be taking place. So I am very curious to see how everything plans out.

I guess you will have to stay tuned in to find out.

Until next time...

☮

Weekend Traveler: Part One

Budapest (March 19th-21st, 2010)

Traveling to Budapest, Hungary is quite simple. Just take an 8 hour bus traveling through Moravia and Slovakia and you will end up in the capital of Hungary.

Two weeks ago, Celia and I took the lengthy bus ride to reach our desired location. On Friday morning we had to be at the Praha bus station at 6am, which meant we had to be up and ready to go by 5am... it was an early morning, but definitely worth it. The bus ride wasn't too painful, there was an unpleasant smell of B.O. that lingered in the air, but luckily I had some scented lotion, which I applied and re-applied multiple times throughout the 8 hour journey.

(Budapest)

We arrived in Budapest in the early afternoon. The first thing that we needed to do was take out money. In Hungary they use the HUF. When we arrived in Budapest, we didn't know what $1 was equal to so at the ATM our options for money were 10000HUF -100000HUF. Celia and I decided to take out 50000HUF since it was in the middle. (Later we found out that 190HUF = $1, which means we took out $263 for two days... WAY too much money for a weekend trip!) Luckily this was the only mistake we made all weekend, which is an accomplishment.

In Hungary they speak Hungarian. I think it is even more confusing than the Czech language. Just like in the Czech Republic, there are no signs in English, but unlike the Czech Republic the Hungarian people knew more English and were more willing to help us. Thank goodness.

After Celia purchased our Metro passes, we took the ancient metro to downtown Pest. The Hungarian Metro was the first metro ever built in Europe, it is a little scary because the doors SLAM shut. If you were in between the doors when they shut, you would be badly damaged! After we rode the metro once, we decided that we would walk the rest of the weekend. And surprisingly we were able to keep to our promise, only until we had to take the metro back to the bus station. :)

Once we were downtown Pest, we made our way to our Hostel, checked in, and then headed out to explore. We walked along the Danube river on the Pest side, making our way to the largest indoor market I have ever seen. We then grabbed dinner at this amazing restaurant that Andrew, the Hostel owner, recommended. I decided to try something new and got fried duck with cabbage noddles... it was SO good and now I love duck!

(Market)

After dinner, Celia and I decided we wanted to see the best night view of Budapest. This meant that we had to hike up a hill in the dark. There was a path already paved out, so it was not bad at all... nothing like hiking in Scotland, where I was wearing Keds and Sarah was determined to kill me. The view was worth every step and is seriously the best view of Budapest that you can get. Truly Gorgeous!

(The Best View)

Saturday, we woke up early and walked to the Buda side of the city. Our hostel was situated right next to the river on the Pest side. There are many bridges that connect the two areas, but the first bridge that was built to connect Buda & Pest was the Chain Bridge. The Pest side is more of the downtown, tons of restaurants, Parliament, shopping and much more. The Buda side is more historical with the Palace and Old Town residing on that side.

(Chain Bridge)

We went on the Fisherman's Bastion to see amazing views of the Pest side. We also explored the Palace and the area of Old Town before walking back to the Pest side. We decided to go to the House of Terror. It was a museum about the communist era and how life was back then. It was more focused on Stalin's reign, but there were somethings about Hitler in it. It was unreal and very depressing. We were able to see Stalin's car, which was really weird. There was an entire room dedicated to propaganda. Unfortunately the propaganda posters and ads weren't in English so we couldn't understand them, but it was still really interesting to see.

(Fisherman's Bastion)

We ended the day with the Baths that were heated with natural springs. It was such a perfect way to end the day because we were on our feet and walking for over 8 hours and the baths relaxed every muscle in my body. The baths were SO cool because they were where the royalty would come to relax back in the day and now it is common for normal people to go and spend the afternoon in the baths. It was such a cool experience. On our walk back to our hostel we grabbed some Turkish food, which was pretty good. It was an early night for us because we had to be back at the bus station at 9am.

My weekend in Budapest was very relaxing and it was great to get away for a few days. The city of Budapest reminded me a lot of Prague, which was comforting because I consider Prague my home away from home. In less than 2 months I will be returning back to the states, whether I am ready to leave or not and life will either go back to "normal" or it will be forever changed. Only time will tell.

Until next time...

☮

We just touched down in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Amsterdam...

In the beginning of the March (which feels like months ago) I traveled to The Netherlands, more specifically Amsterdam, with my friends Celia, Sarah, Sara, Becca, and Elyssa. We embarked on our worldly adventure, Thursday evening, where we flew the lengthy two hours.

As soon as we arrived I knew I was going to love the city- the train station was below the airport- which made everything WAY more efficient and WAY less confusing... take note Czech Republic. In The Netherlands they speak Dutch, which is a lot like German. Even though I forgot my 15 language phrase book and don't know a word of Dutch, I was able to get around much easier in a weekend than I have been in 8 weeks in the Czech Republic. The majority of the people spoke English and it was more Americanized than the Czech Republic. I've gotten so use to how different things are in Prague that not until I traveled out of the CZ did I realize how different/hard it is to be studying in Prague. I've been in the CZ for over 2 months now and I am a little proud of myself for making it this far...

Okay so back to Amsterdam... after flying we arrived in the central of Amsterdam by Train. We didn't plan too ahead so we were map-less, but luckily Sara was thinking ahead and got directions from the train station to our hostel. Our hostel was situated in the heart of the red light district, yep... classy. The Witte Tulip was our home away from home. It was one of the most expensive hostels I have ever stayed in, but it was also the worst hostel I have ever stayed in. It wasn't that bad, but I guess we were paying for the location not the place. We were in a 6 person room so we didn't have any creepy randoms, but we did have a 7th roommate... a mouse. Luckily, I love the top bunk... hehe

After we had a map, we traveled around the red light district to Bird, which is a very delicious Thai restaurant. It was one of the best meals that I had had in a while, Czech food just isn't good. Once we were all full we wandered the red light district.

The following day we got up early and found a breakfast restaurant called “Sara’s Pancakes,” I got the American breakfast: dippy eggs, a pancake, bacon, hash browns, and freshly squeezed orange juice. If that doesn’t sound appetizing to you… well you should probably leave the country and then see what you think. The weather was cold, windy, and rainy, which isn’t ideal walking weather, but we made it work. We saw the Anne Frank House, which was so surreal. I remember reading “The Diary of Anne Frank” years back, but actually being in the house and seeing the original artwork on the walls is truly a once in a life-time opportunity that I will always remember.

During the day Saturday, we ended up splitting up because we couldn’t all fit in the breakfast diner. Celia, Becca, and I ended up going to The Pancake House, which was actually the most famous Dutch pancake house in all of Amsterdam; we didn’t find this out until the end of our meal when we received a free post card with the picture of the historical pancake house on it. I love stumbling upon hidden treasures. After breakfast, the three of us walked around the Jordaan District in Amsterdam, it is more residential and less touristy. We found a market, where I bought a flowered knit hat that was made out of recycled Cashmere and Wool.

We ended up making our way to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijikismuseum. I loved the Van Gogh Museum because during my art history course it was my favorite section. I love art, it makes the world beautiful, I wish I was more creative and had the artistic abilities that my dad, older brother (Joey), and older sister (Susan) have… I guess Ceramics is good enough.

On Saturday evening we saw the movie, An Education. Going into the movie I had no idea what it was about, but I walked out loving the movie. I know, who goes to Amsterdam and see’s a movie… but it was so comforting to see a movie that was actually in English.

Sunday we woke up, had French toast for breakfast and then went on a canal ride before heading to the airport. It was such a beautiful day and it was a great way to end our adventures in Amsterdam.

The weekend was surprisingly not too wild, well not like the stereotypical Amsterdam stories that you may hear. Before leaving we managed to find an American food store. I only bought two things: 1 box of Kraft Mac & Cheese and 1 box of Gushers… the best $15 I have ever spent. Yes, $15 for those two things.

I am so glad that I was able to travel to Amsterdam; it was such a gorgeous city and it was comforting being in such an Americanized place, but I realized that I am so thankful that I chose to study abroad in Prague. Yes, it may be extremely difficult at times, and the people might not be the friendliest, but there are reasons behind everything they do and I would not have learned any of these things unless I picked this place to study. I am finally realizing that you will never truly understand who you are until you step out of your comfort zone, learn about other cultures, and re-evaluate the things you do and the way you live because other people have it way worse. Complaining is just a waste time, learn how to have fun in any situation that you are in… this is key if you want to be happy.

Until next time…

☮

Catching Up: Birthday Madness

BIRTHDAY MADNESS:

Two weeks ago I turned 21. I'm not really sure where I should begin, maybe to best describe my birthday I should start at the end...

The day after my birthday, was the most beautiful day and I spent it under my covers hating life. I didn't really get out of bed until 7pm and even then I was struggling. You probably are wondering, how hard did I party for my 21st birthday?

It was epic, or at least I remember it being epic. Recovering from my birthday took an entire weekend. I slept all day Thursday and Friday. Saturday I ventured out of the kolej (dorm) and went to breakfast, two American bookstores, and then to the Soccer game where Sparta (the Czech team) tied 1-1 against Pribram. It was a beautiful day in Prague, a perfect day for a sporting event. While the sun was out I was able to take off my jacket and really enjoy the sun.

After the game was over it was time for me to crawl back in my bed and take a much needed nap...


My weekend starts at 4:30pm on Wednesday, so I have 4 day weekends. I slept the long weekend away...

(At the Soccer game)

Now that I am fully recovered I can tell you a little about my birthday.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 was not just an ordinary day, it was mine and Sarah's 21st birthday. Before midnight, a group of us went to the pub in our dorm. At 12am on 2/24/2010 I had my first legal beer (US standards) and then somehow, Alex thought it would be a great idea if I punched him in the stomach... so around 12:15am... I also punched my friend in the rib because I accidentally missed his stomach. Whoopsies...

(Birthday Punch #1)

During the day I had class and in between my two classes I went out to lunch with my friends Celia, Sarah, Sara, and Kacy. We went to a cute little cafe called Au Gourment. After my afternoon class, it was officially my weekend.

(Celia & I at the Ballet)

That evening I went to the ballet with Celia and Alex. The ballet was of Romeo & Juliet, so I obviously LOVED it! After the ballet, we returned back to the kolej and had a few drinks in Alex & Walt's room. During our pregame session I was presented with a birthday cake & 21 candles!! The cake was dark chocolate espresso... enough said. And again, somehow Alex convinced me to punch him in the stomach, after a little peer pressure I successfully punched my friend in the stomach for the second time. (I swear I don't have anger issues...) After viewing these photos, I will never punch a friend again... even if they peer pressure me... not cool.

(Punch #2)

(This is Walt, I forgot to mention him in my previous blog, but basically he is a riot. He plays the accordion and he wore his "birthday shirt" for my birthday. As you can see from the picture, it is very flashy)

For my birthday, we decided to try a new club called Roxy. It was Ms. Erasmus night and free cover for students before midnight. So around 11:15pm, after taking some shots in our dorms pub, we headed to the metro. On our way to the metro, Alex decided he would do a flip between two signs... so of course I wanted to do a flip too. That wasn't such a wonderful idea... I landed it, but since I have short arms, it could have ended badly. :)

(Yager Shot in the Kolej's Pub)

Well anyways... we got to Roxy at 11:55pm and I of course didn't have my student ID, but with a little convincing I was allowed in with no charge. We immediately went to the bar and had some vodka shots, one of which I chased with beer... I do not recommend this to anyone. The music that they played at Roxy were actual hits. For once... no 80s or 90s music. We danced a lot, had a lot of fun, and then the Ms. Erasmus contest started... which at that point I was feeling pretty good. Somehow I entered myself in this contest, so I was on stage, people were wishing me happy birthday and then... fuzziness ... and the next thing I know it is 8am on Thursday morning.

(Celia & I at Roxy)

During the day Thursday, my friends recapped the night for me and from all the stories that I have heard and the things that I remember, my birthday was very successful. Unfortunately, I had to take a taxi home on my birthday so I wasn't able to get fried cheese while waiting for the Tram, but luckily Celia and Walt had some for me!

From everyone that I have talked to, your 21st birthday is the last one that really counts or the last one that is really "fun". If this is true, I am proud to say that I went out with a bang and I won't mind if all the other birthdays are mediocre! I'm so thankful for all the friends that I have made because if it weren't for them I don't know how my birthday would have ended up. To all my friends, thank you so much! To all my family, thanks for all the birthday wishes!

I guess this is enough for now, but later this weekend I will be blogging about my adventures in Amsterdam. Enjoy!

Until next time...

☮

Happy 21st Birthday Sarah!

Happy 21st Birthday,
Sarah!

Enjoy your day and drink at least 2 shots for me!!

Love,
Your Favorite Twin

First Day of Class & New Friends

Classes started yesterday and they don't seem too awful, but I am not familiar with the subject matter of any of my classes. I am curious to see how I will adapt... I am taking 4 courses: Czech and European History, Globalization, Central and European Films: Search for Identity, and Art and Architecture. I have had all of my classes except for Art; so far I can tell history is going to bore me and my film class is going to be a little more intensive than I had anticipated. My film class is 3.5hrs on Tuesday mornings and we basically watch old foreign movies (with English subtitles) and write papers, but I am not familiar with anything, so I am a little nervous about that class. While sitting in class today, I realized that I would rather be sitting in my regular comm. or art classes at Salisbury. I know what to expect from those classes... BUT this whole experience is suppose to teach me how to live out of my comfort zone, so I guess I will need to suck it up, not drop anything, and try my hardest.

Culture Shock. Before I left home, I believed that this theory was fabricated to help those who suffered from the home sickness blues. Now I know that it does exist. Hard to admit this, but I am definitely experiencing some type of culture shock. I have made a lot of amazing friends here and if I hadn't met them, I know that I would be miserable. Things always seem to work out for a reason and I am so glad that I have met these great people. I would like to take a moment to introduce my friends:

Celia

Celia and I met before we even landed in London, in the Dullis Airport. By luck we were roommates in London and ever since than we have been partners in crime!! Sarah, you could say that I found my Anna and oddly the same way you met Anna... in the airport. This past Tuesday, Celia celebrated her 21st birthday, the night ended with fried cheese from a corner grease vendor -yum- at 3am. It was an epic 21st.

Sara & Sarah

(Left- Sara, Right- Sarah)

The Sara(h)'s are roommates and both go to Puget Sound in Washington State. They are my first west coast friends and I love them! They are both hysterical in their own ways. For example, Sara Sloyer (Left) resembles Topanga from Boy Meets World, but don't tell her that or you might get a very serious evil glare in response. haha. Sarah Paulos (Right) shares her secret stash of Oreo cookies with me, which is a BIG deal because Oreo Cookies do NOT exist in the Czech Republic... and I miss them terribly.

Sara Sloyer?! Yes, I think so. :)

Kacy

Aka: My Roommate or the greatest roommate of all times! She also goes to Puget Sound in Washington State. She is hysterical and can cook a mean meal! :)

Alex

Alex goes to Texas A&M and has introduced me to Jägermeister!! Even though it tastes like lickerish, which I hate, I surprisingly love Jager. Alex keeps the creepers at bay while we are at, which is definitely appreciated!

Becca

(On the Left)

Becca is from Texas, but attends the University of Maryland, College Park. She tells the best stories and is always making me laugh. Alex and Becca are childhood friends and together they are riots! They have taught us a drinking game called "Nelson", which can entertain us for hours at bars.


Turning 21 in Prague

Tomorrow is my 21st birthday and instead of being back in Salisbury, I am in Prague. Before I left everyone asked me how I felt about turning 21 abroad. To be honest I was nervous about my 21st birthday because everyone I know party's hard for the big day and I was afraid that I would be missing out. It doesn't help that Prague's drinking age is 18... since I have been here I haven't even been IDed once... I know I don't look 18, but in the UK, which has the same 18yr drinking age, I was carded several times. Drinking in the Czech Republic isn't a big deal; pivo (beer), vino (wine), and liker (liquor) are extremely cheap here... beer is around 38cz ($2). So basically everyone drinks here and turning 21 here means absolutely nothing. But that doesn't mean that you can't have a great birthday!!! Right?!

Last week my entire mind-set changed...

Celia celebrated her 21st birthday last Tuesday and after experiencing it with her, I have realized that it doesn't matter how grand your birthday is. The only thing that does matter is that you surround yourself with great friends and enjoy the day because being 21 means that you have officially become an adult-- meaning that you shouldn't get upset or mad if something doesn't go your way... just go with the flow and you will enjoy yourself more.

A month has gone by since I left home and I can already tell that I am changing, I am doing things for me and I cannot wait to see what the next 3 months have in store for me.

To everyone, have a fabulous day and enjoy yourself because life is too short to not have a little fun!! Love ya!

Until next time...

☮

Ps- Check out my blog tomorrow... it is dedicated to my twin sister... who is also celebrating her 21st birthday.

If something smells bad...

TUESDAY:

If something smells bad, don't just check under your bed, or even just in and around your drawers. Make sure you check under your mattress because you may be lucky enough to find a 3 month old ROTTING banana. Yes, a banana. Well that is at least what I found today under my mattress. You may be wondering, why didn't I rip my room apart looking for the source of the bad smell. To answer your questioning thoughts, I did, but I was very unsuccessful until this morning.

Today I decided that I would change my sheets, which is a process in itself because here at the dorms you can only change them Tuesday's 7:30-8:30am or Thursday's 1:30-2:30pm. Both random times, but that is how the Czech Republic works. So I went to the Lobby of my building to switch out my sheets and I came back up to make my bed before I headed out to my czech class. When I lifted up my mattress to tuck in the sheets, I smelled that mysterious smell, but way more intense. At this very moment I thought, ...Oh god, I have finally found where that smell was hiding... good thing it is under my mattress that I SLEEP on!... I lifted the mattress and the smell started to escape like a stink bomb. There, under my mattress at the foot of the bed, was a brown pile of disgusting-ness. I'm thinking OMG someone pooped under my mattress before I moved it... The pile of disgusting-ness looked and smelled like human waste. I showed my roommate and we were both purely disgusted. It smelled so awful that within seconds our room smelled like an outhouse on a boiling hot summer day; we had to open the window.

I was lost for thoughts and fuming. I decided that I should probably go attempt to tell the front desk about my findings. I let my anger take hold of me, leaving me lost in translation. It was 8:15am and I didn't need to be at class until 9am, but I just left. I walked to school by myself listening to my ipod. For the first time since I arrived, I didn't care who was looking at me or if I looked like an American... I just looked pissed. Thinking back, it was probably the first time that I actually fit in around here since Czechs look pissed all the time.

......

I wasn't able to finish my post from Tuesday so I am going to complete it now.

Long story short, I took care of the issue. I now have new bedding and my mattress is "sterilized." I don't believe this though because I was informed that my room was "sterilized" before I moved in, obviously not.


Tuesday was Celia's 21st Birthday, it was pretty epic. We ended up going to a new bar called "The Dubliner", it was an Irish bar that was pretty laid back. After a few rounds we decided to go to Chapeau Rouge, a bar and club combined. Celia had a great time, which meant that we all had a great time!

Wednesday I was struggling in Czech class, Red Bull helped out a lot. Wednesday night the Sara(h)s made Celia and I dinner, Chicken and Veggies... very yummy! After dinner we all had to study for our Czech final, which was on Thursday.

Studying here is going to be VERY challenging because I cannot find note cards anywhere!!! Plus I usually just pull allnighters for everything, but now that I have a roommate again, who I love, I wouldn't really be able to stay up all night. But I am sure I will figure something out.

My Czech final was interesting... It wasn't actually too terrible, but I still didn't know all of it. Once the test was finished a group of us went to a pub called George & Dragon. Last Friday, after our Midterm, we went there for the first time and had drinks to celebrate our halfway mark. We obviously had to return and celebrate the end of Czech class! So around noon we arrive, we were the first ones in the pub so the bartender greeted us with shots! After my 3rd round of drinks, I decided it was wise to leave while I was ahead.

The final day of Czech class was this past Friday. During the day I traveled with my class to the Jewish Quarters, where I saw the famous Jewish Cemetery. Later that night we went back to Lucerna, it was 80s/90s night! Round dva was just as epic as the first.

Yesterday was another sunny day in Prague so we decided to go exploring. We traveled to the Prague Castle, which is SO pretty. You can see the best views of Prague in the Castle. In the spring I definitely will be making many return trips just to gaze out at Prague, the city that I have come to love.

I guess that is it for now, but expect another post within a few days because my BIRTHDAY... and I guess Sarah's too... is this Wednesday!

Oh I forgot to mention, classes start tomorrow. BLAH! I guess you now know that I didn't come abroad to take the classes. :)

Until next time...

☮