Czech Me Out - Prague Weekend

Czech out Prague!!

Since I had two 12 hour bus rides to think about everything and anything; I've already mentally written and rewritten this blog about 7 times. So it will be long. And I may ramble. You've been warned.

First. I have random facts/statements I feel the need to share with the world:
1. Prague is in the Czech Republic (since not many people seem to know that). Their currency is Crowns and they speak Czech (which I did not know was a language... I had to ask my Italian teacher.)
2. Traveling Europe is A LOT of math. 200 Crowns = 8 Euros = 12 USD (US Dollars). Try doing that math every single stickin time you want to buy anything. Even a post card.
3. I think I am funnier than the rest of the world thinks I am. For example I said "czech yourself before you wreck yourself" and I thought I was so punny that I laughed hysterically. The other 4 people with me didn't even chuckle... Oh well. I got a kick out of it. Still do actually.
4. In Italy, when they teach WWII they mainly refer to the Civil War because Italy was in the middle of their Civil war. Their territories were divided by the Arno River in Florence. All bridges where destroyed except the Ponte Vecchio which is how it got that name, which translates to "The Old Bridge".
5. Even in cultures that don't speak Italian I still find myself saying "ciao" and "grazie" ... gonna be a hard habit to change in May.
6. I found an even more popular Italian song. It was even played in Prague. It's huge in Europe. Everyone here even knows the same dance for it. Click Here for the Dance

Alright now on to Prague:

So American... 

Thursday night around 9 PM we left for Prague and after a rather boring bus ride we arrived at 9 AM on Friday. We checked into our hostel and immediately began to wander around the city. Our first stop was Starbucks because it had been over a month since any of us had seen a Starbucks and I was traveling with some avid coffee drinkers so to them it was like seeing Heaven... I just got a hot chocolate to make my roommate Kendall jealous because she wasn't with us and LOVES Starbucks.

Chair in the Sex Machine Museum

Then we headed to Old Town Square to see some of the famous sights such as the Astronomical Clock Tower, but we decided to wait a day to climb up it because we were staying literally a block away. So instead we followed Kristi (who had the map and surprisingly did an amazing job with guiding us) to the famous Charles Bridge that would lead us across the river towards the Prague Castle and the fake Eiffel Tower. Along the way we ran into some strange sights....
We saw more churches, which we stopped in but to be honest I feel like all of the churches are starting to blur together. They are amazing and beautiful, but I'm kind of getting a "been there done that" feel about them. Whoops. Then we passed the Torture Museum, the Chocolate Museum, the Sex Machine Museum, and the Wax Museum (just to name a view...).
We got a tour of the Chocolate Museum and got some free chocolate from my new friend who worked there. He asked me to marry him... said he finds Swedish girls very beautiful. Everyone in Europe assumes I am from Sweden... I wonder what they would think if I was in Ireland. Guess I won't know though cause I'm not going to make it to Ireland :( Anyways. After seeing the chocolate museum and the sex machine museum we randomly found some massive guns they just hung in the air. The trigger gets pulled on of the four guns about every 30 seconds and a huge bang is heard. Modern art these days.... fricken weird. Anyways, after being typical tourists there we left and finally we reached the Charles Bridge.

One of the Statues

The bridge had this huge entrance to it that had a guard standing inside and beautiful statues on top of it. On the bridge there were statues lining it left and right. Later we were informed that all the statues on the bridge are actually just replicas while the original statues are being held in a museum. They looked pretty real to me though. There is one statue that has a woman on the right and a dog on the left. Supposedly if you rub the woman and make a wish it will come true, but if you rub the dog you will forever have bad luck. I was told this just in the knick of time. Sooooooo close to touching the dog, because obviously that's what my dog loving instincts told me to do. After we crossed the bridge we looked up a huge hill and saw the Prague Castle.

This castle was still a good 40 minute walk, all up hill, in not the most comfortable pair of shoes. It was a struggle. What kept me going was that the castle reminded me of Hogwarts... I'm such a nerd. Finally we made it to the top and thought there was a beautiful scenic view (this view would soon be put to shame) so we took pictures of the view and the castle (which was absolutely stunning. Not like any other castle I could think of... and also the largest in Europe) Next we asked the Police, who don't speak much English... shocking

Prague Castle - Gothic Architecture

how to get to the fake Eiffel Tower (I don't remember the actual name of this tower...). He informed us it was about 30 minutes away, all up hill, again. So we started our hike up hill to make it to the Tower. It closes at 6 PM and we made it there at 5:34 PM.  However, the worker told us that they stop letting people up at 5:30 so that they can close at 6 sharp. I was sweating my butt off, as was Kristi, because we had virtually just ran all the way up there to get there before 6. We begged him to please let us go and he looked to make sure no one was around before he said, "you have 15 minutes. Go." ... this tower has NO elevator. So we began running up the stairs... again. I was wheezing by the time we got to the top. But it was an amazing view! Totally worth it. The entire city was lit up and I felt like I was on top of the world. We snapped some pictures, stood for a minute to take it all in, and then ran back down the stairs! This day was the best workout I've had in months.

View from the Tower

The Tower that we RAN up

Then we were heading for the Tram to take us back to the Charles Bridge when we met the worker that had let us go up the tower. He helped us figure out the tram and then even offered to show us where the John Lennon Wall was. He is studying in Prague from Russia, so I'm making international friends. I know, stranger danger, but we were in well lit areas with crowds, he didn't creep me out, and it was always me AND Kristi with him. I was being safe Mom... no worries. Plus at the John Lennon Wall and American mom and her daughter came up to me and warned me about foreign boys. It actually made me really happy because I could totally see my mom doing the same thing to total strangers she sees with foreigns boys. I reassured her there was nothing to worry about, explained the situation, and she told me "Good. You were raised well. Now I can sleep well tonight knowing nothing bad will happen to you two." So there you go parental unit... you apparently did a good job with me.

Any ways, we were at the John Lennon wall for awhile. It's this wall covered in graffiti because back when John Lennon was murdered someone painted him on this wall, which was illegal. The police kept painting over it but it would always reappear the next day. Eventually they gave up and now the wall is covered with quotes and pictures, people sign it from all around the world. I wrote "Bre and Kristi '12" and "DJBJ" (just for you Dani and Jackie) and "AGD" because my Alpha Gams needed to be represented on the wall (Miss you girls). We didn't have a sharpie or spray paint... but Kristi had nail polish. So that's what we wrote with. It worked.

Mole Character

After that eventful day we said goodbye to our little Russian Tour Guide and walked back to our Hostel and just kind of crashed. We woke up bright and early the next day (aka 9 AM) to head out for more fun. We did all of our souvenir shopping... the shop owners in Prague watch you like a hawk. They seem to have a zone defense going on. Once you leave a certain section of the store the worker backs off of you while another one quickly begins breathing down your neck. It's really annoying actually. Also, every single store had this little stuffed animal mole. Apparently he is a huge cartoon character in Prague that has something to do with wars... I didn't really understand the story but I was going to buy him solely because he seemed so important to the culture. He was an expensive character... even in key chain form. So instead I just took a picture with a really big version of him. It works.

Next we went to the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower. More stairs... It had an amazing view. Nothing too exciting happened but I took a ton of pictures. It was beautiful.

 After walking around some more we found the Jewish Cemetery. This cemetery is the largest in the world because under each tombstone is about 10-15 people. You're supposed to pay to get in but it was closed by the time Kristi and I got there... so I just kind of climbed on top of the stone wall and took pictures of the inside... I think that's probably frowned upon. Whoops.

We began to walk around Prague to see the night life, and I was singing The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars because it was stuck in my head all day, when some random man comes up to me and Kristi and says, "Oh! Michael Jackson!" and then proceeds to dance like Michael... including grabbing his crotch and hip thrusting. Wrong artist, but I'm glad even in the Czech Republic they associate that dance move with Michael Jackson. After he danced he simply walked away... This wasn't a street performer. Just a "normal" man who danced and left. It was soooooo strange. Next our new friends from our hostel (Armi, Andre, and John) came with us to find a peeing statue. It was hilarious. 1. Armi and Andre are from New Zeland so they're a blast to talk to naturally. and 2. we found a peeing fountain. I took pictures and videos with it because it had to be the funniest thing there was. The butts and penises of the men peeing move all around. I died laughing.

... drinking from the fountain. ;)

Casually taking a leak

After that we went to a night club that is 5 stories high. Each floor has a different theme, which was pretty cool. I was forced to dance by Kristi and John.... I don't dance. Silly children. But on one floor there was an Abba poster... so I had to take a picture with it for you Mar Mar. Hope you like it. I think that was everything for Prague. For those of you still reading this, I give you props. I think this is even longer than Siena. If only I could write my papers this easily. Next weekend I'm going to Switzerland. I'll try to sum that one up shorter. No promises though. Ciao! 

"Long Hair Don't Care" -- Just for you Jackie

Carnevale Venice

For those of you who read this and are jealous that I am here, just know that on Thursday night there were a solid 8 hours where I was jealous of all of you for being home. The worst homesickness I have ever felt hit me late Thursday and kept me awake until 6 AM. It wasn't a fun time and I just want you guys to know I love and miss you all like crazy! Enough of that though, because I am in Italy, and it is awesome. So the best way to get over being home sick? Go do something that is a one in a life time experience... like visit Venice Carnevale!!

Venice from the Rialto Bridge

Kristi, Sara, Ashley and I got to Venice around noon on Saturday to begin our awesome day trip. When we took the water taxi we meant to head straight to Mirano (the island known for glass blowing) so that we could watch people actually do the glass blowing. However the water taxi ended up being the exact taxi our guide told us not to get on because it would take us the opposite direction of Mirano... whoops. So we had to walk straight across San Marco to get to the side of the island that had the taxi that would take us to Mirano. Since it was literally a straight shot across we thought it would be easy to get there. For anyone who has been to Venice you know that that is not the case. At all. It's a maze!! We ended up doing circles. Miraculously found the Rialto Bridge (even though we weren't looking for it yet) and after stopping there to take some gorgeous pictures we ventured down some more side streets.

Virtually a Massive Mosh Pit

Slowly the crowd begin to get thicker and thicker until there was literally no where left to walk. It was like being in a mosh pit. Police were there to try to get people to: A. actually move somewhere and B. not trample and kill each other, it was that crowded. The guy behind me at one point decided it was obviously my fault people weren't moving and that the solution to this problem was to dig his elbow into my back to get me to move forward. I had to scream "basta, basta!" (enough, enough!) to get the punk to get off of me or else I would have turned around to slap him. Then the two women to my left got into a loud Italian fight over, what I can only assume was, one of them pushing the other. It was a hot mess.

Some of the glass made there.

Finally, after about 30 minutes of this, we made our way out of the crowd and found the water taxi. It was a hell of a journey for a taxi but it was well worth it. Mirano was beautiful and had some amazing pieces that were made right there. I fell in love with a lot of dishes and ornaments but I didn't dare buy them because I knew they would be too expensive to ship home or would break in my suit case. Later, we found a cute little restaurant right on the water and got a lunch/dinner and then headed back to San Marco where the main events of Carnevale were being held.

On the water taxi back to San Marco the sun was setting and it was beautiful. I started playing around with the settings on my camera and got some amazing pictures of it! It was stunning. When we got off at San Marco we did some shopping even though I already bought some souvenirs at Mirano. But how many times do I have the chance to buy things from Venice? But don't worry (because I bet everyone is worried...?) I had set a budget for myself and managed to stay under it. So all was good financially. After shopping around and trying to stay warm, because the beautiful temperature was rapidly dropping, we headed back to the Piazza for the Carnevale to truly being.

There were some crazy costumes (like the two at the beginning of this post) and even some American costumes like the Simpsons! People went all out. This one furry pink guy kept putting his finger in Kristi's ear when she was trying to get a picture with him. It was funny... but really weird. He didn't do much to me though, thank God or else I would have freaked out. While we were there they were awarding the best costume (which went to someone who's costume I didn't like very much, but I'm just an American tourist... what do I know?). Then they started to play some Queen, which I naturally had to sing along with, and the YMCA. Kristi got a beautiful video of me singing and dancing to those songs.. I was just excited I knew the dance to the song they were playing since they are usually in Italian!

John, me, Nick, Jason, Sara, Kristin, Ashley, Chris, Dave, and some girl...

After getting hot chocolate (they had hot wine too... don't buy it. It's gross.) and walking around the Piazza some more we met our new friends. There was a group of guys that are in the American Army that are stationed in Italy. We started talking to them in the Piazza and decided to go get crepes together (with Nutella... YUM!). They were a nice group of guys and we had a lot of fun! One of them (John) looks identical to Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies (he even had red hair! even though he usually wore his hat). Obviously, this made him my new best friend and I made him speak in a british accent. I got him to say "ello" "bloody hell" and "merry Christmas, Ron!". It was hilarious. Sara called him Ron all night long... I'm not sure she knew his actual name. But all of the guys thought I looked just like Taylor Swift (which I strongly disagree with...). So it was just a night full of celebrities and laughs. Jason was the only one who knew his way around Venice (how, I have no idea... not too sound repetitive but it seriously is a maze) but he showed us back to the bus station and even though we were a little late (we weren't the only ones!) we said good-bye to our new friends and we got back on the Bus2Alps tour bus to head home to Florence.

Even though I didn't get to do all the amazing things that people usually do in Venice like gondola rides, feeding pigeons in San Marco (it was too crowded for there to be any pigeons... I wonder where they went?), or simply walk around freely I had an amazing time! We laughed so much (even though there were no funny hills this time...) and I got to experience Venice in a way most people don't; during the eccentric and amazing Carnevale! Hopefully some day I'll be able to go back and reflect on all my awesome memories as well as do all the things tourists love to do in Venice, because I definitley want to go back to this amazingly unique city on water. It was one of the best nights I have had so far =]

Fountain of Wine

Part of Kristi, Sara, me, and part of Ashley in our masks for Carnevale

Next weekend I am going to Prague!! I can't wait!!

Calm Week In Florence

You know you are living the good life when you can describe your weekend as "uneventful" when you spent it in Florence, Italy. I was baffled when that realization hit me, I am truly living in Florence if I am able to have bored moments of just sitting around because I'm not just a tourist. Anyways, that was my thought process today while I sat around eating peanut butter that I brought from home :)

So I just bought all of the flights, trains, and hostels for Spring Break 2012... holy sticker shock. I have to keep reminding myself that I was also paying for Shannon's tickets so really the price is doubled right now. And even with that doubled price I am still under the travel budget I gave myself so that's calming. But the spring break plan is to show Shannon around Florence for a little while, then we are going to hit up Paris and London before doing a quick stop at Pisa and making our way back to Florence. I'm so excited!

mmmm chocolate strawberries

Chocolate Gucci Shoes... (no joke)

Other than booking trips and sitting around eating peanut butter this weekend me and two of my friends here decided this would be a good weekend to really explore Florence. There is a chocolate festival going on right now and the chocolate in it is to die for! There were samples and tons of hot chocolate because it is still freezing outside. Naturally I got dark chocolate covered strawberries -- they were delicious. This festival had everything made in chocolate though. There were chocolate shoes, animals, tools, and more. There was even a sink just spewing hot chocolate. I'm licking my lips just thinking about it. 

Jersey Shore Pizzeria. Yummmmm

After wandering around the festival we decided it would be a good time for some dinner so we stopped at O'Vesuvio for dinner. For those of you who aren't Jersey Shore fanatics (and I pray most of you are not... it's a stupid show) that is where the cast worked when they came to Florence for Season 3. It was cool to recognize an American hot spot with an Italian atmosphere. Not to mention amazing Italian pizza!!! I'm so obsessed with all food here. With our bellies literally stuffed to breaking point we began to meander through the city again. Eventually we froze so we stopped back at my apartment to warm up and I went to upload my pictures to my computer. Then Sara and I decided we wanted to take a little bit of a hike up a fairly steep hill (put that hill in Siena to shame...) to Piazza Michelangelo because it has a very scenic view of Florence. After panting our way up this hill, literally such a struggle, we finally make it to the top where I realized.... I forgot my camera's memory card in my computer!!!! All that effort and I wouldn't be able to show people our scenic pictures because I currently can't upload them to my computer from my camera. Oh well, we decided to go back on a sunnier (and hopefully warmer) day with Kristi and Kendall so no worries blog followers, there will eventually be scenic views of Florence on here. It's a promise.

After that we pretty much ran down the hill, with how steep it was walking wasn't really an option. We had to stop half way down and laugh at how ridiculous we looked running in sync with each other down this hill with our arms flailing wildly... I don't know what it is about my friends here and steep land but we don't seem to handle it very well.

Next weekend I'm going to Venice for Carnevale!! It's supposed to be a little bit warmer next weekend but raining, hopefully that forecast is wrong so I can get some sunny pictures of me on a gondola and in a carnevale mask! I can't wait!

Siena in a Nut Shell

Totally not tourists...

We went to Siena on Friday for the night, and I honestly can not remember the last time I laughed so hard. I got an ab workout from this vacation. You know you made a great group of friends when the best part of a vacation was just a free walk down a hill. But in order to do this Siena story some justice, I'll start from the beginning.
We missed the Siena Rapida bus so we caught the one that left just a short ten minutes after it. NEVER take a non-rapida bus... The one hour bus ride turned into one that was over two hours. But after that was out of the way we all wandered to our hotel, totally blending into the crowd....

Way too happy that I didn't fall. That smile is huge

After the mission of finding our hotel was completed we decided to get some pizza for lunch (it was nothing really special) and find Piazza del Campo. Now normally this piazza is crowded with tourists because it has the city hall and a lot of shops and bars, but because we picked the one weekend in seven years that Siena is covered in ice and snow, it was deserted. We did see some kids sledding... on garbage bags!! I wanted to join but instead Sienna (a girl in the group I traveled with, I'm not just referring to the town as a person) and I attempted to walk down the hill in the middle of the Piazza. It was like walking on an ice rink that had a down hill slope. EVERYONE was screaming "Bre you're going to die!" and they were just waiting for me to fall down. I didn't though! Had way too many close calls but I stayed on my feet and made it all the way down. It was a proud moment for me.

The Piazza

The Cathedral Outside

The Siena Duomo 

After that we decided to do the normal tourist things, head to the museums and the Duomo and the huge towers that give an amazing view of Siena. However when we went to buy the passes to do all of this we learned all of the towers were closed because apparently Siena doesn't know how to clear off snow and ice from their stairs so it was too hazardous.... I'm still alittle bitter about it. But we still managed to have a great time. We went to the museum, the bapistry, the duomo... all of which were beautiful.

Clearly Italians can handle hills better than me... But look at all the ICE!

      The real fun started when Kendall, Kristi, Sara, and I all headed back outside to the FREEZING cold weather in search of the Cripta. I still can't even tell you what a cripta is but what I can tell you is we circled this huge church (which sits on a hill) about three times before we actually found it. On the first time around we decided to try to walk down the ice covered hill. Now in order to really make you understand just how funny this scenario is I'm going to have to try to paint a picture for you. There are 4 american girls scaling the side of a building (as if clinging to brick will really keep us from falling) inching our way slowly down what seemed like a HUGE hill. Less than a fourth of the way down an Italian man sees us doing this. So he assumes the hill is incredibly icy and slowly begins his own descent. However, he must be wearing shoes that actually have traction, because he shortly discovered HE can walk just fine down this damn hill. He looks at us as if to say "what on earth is wrong with you girls?!" and then proceeds to casually stroll past us down the hill. By the time he gets to the bottom of the entire hill, we've managed to move maybe 5 feet. Maybe. This makes us start to laugh, and then quickly we all can not stop laughing at how ridiculous I look. I decided to be the leader down this expedition (only God knows why....) and I was not being successful. I would slip every foot or so and take a stance that can only be related to a sumo wrestler. So here I am inching down a hill in a sumo pose against a brick wall, laughing my butt off! To clearly show how much I was laughing; I was shaking violently from trying not to laugh too loud (which made me slip even more!), tears were streaming with a constant flow down my face, there may or may not have been a snort or two thrown in there, and at one point I had to crouch down because I honestly thought I was going to wet myself! I was dying! It was the high light of our trip because it was HILARIOUS! I feel like just telling the story isn't giving it justice but I don't know how else to explain how much this hill makes me laugh still.

Kristi snapped this beauty on the way down. This is what I looked like when I wasn't struggling.... That corner up there was a struggle though! I referred to is as "The Corner from Hell"

So after managing the damn hill with no grace whatsoever, we realized we needed to go back up because the Cripta wasn't at the bottom of the hill. We chose to try to other side of the church to see if that would be easier. It was a very narrow street with cars parked on the left. As car drove by us we all went to the right side of the rode to get out of the way. After seeing how close to us the car still came we discussed out loud that next time we should move to the left side of the road between parked cars. Not even a minute later a car comes. Kristi, Sara, and I all move to the left. Kendall however throws herself at a door on the right side of the road. We all stare at her in stunned silence because she is honestly in a position people take when they are going to be frisked! Hands over her head, flat against the door, feet spread apart. We DIED laughing yet again. It became the joke of the weekend. Anytime a car drives by we screamed "KENDALL, CAR!" and all dove against a door. I'm laughing now just thinking about it. 

She had just started moving out of her pose... but this was Kendall against the door.

I managed to eat that entire thing.... Wow.

So after all that laughter we finally found the stupid cripta. It was just a lot of rocks under glass windows... But then we were hungry and decided to go to this pizza place Ellen had heard about. La Pizzeria Di Nonno. I recommend it to any one who ever plans to go to Siena. I got a huge calzone! It was amazing!!!!!! Best food I've had so far, and I've had some great food. 

This picture may not give the grandeur of it justice. 

The next day we went to the soccer stadium we saw on the bus ride in. It is HUGE. I wish I got to play on a field like that, it would be absolutely amazing. I just kept thinking, if these seats were filled it would be such a rush to have such a large audience. Oh well, I can keep dreaming. Maybe one day?

Then we didn't have much time left before our bus left, so we marched on over to The Chapel of Saint Catherine. Saint Catherine was the 24th of 25 children born to Lucca. At age 7 she vowed chastity because Jesus provided all the ecstasy she needed. She was the first woman to ever be published and it was an amazing accomplishment that she was able to get her voice heard in the 1300's. She died in 1380 and the chapel was named after her. It has a beautiful stained glass window and hand painted ceiling. To the right it has this large shrine that has a window in a golden frame. Inside this window is the actual head of Saint Catherine! I did NOT see that coming when we were wandering around!! We were freaking out and Ashley may have let out a swear word (but we've accidentally sworn in every single church we have been into... sorry God.). But the fact that in 1380 people thought "oh we really need to preserve this woman's head for forever!" it crazy!!! I'm still freaking out about it.

Saint Catherine... just chillin'.
(I took this picture off of Google. You aren't allowed to take pictures in the church)

So gross. Anyways for those of you still reading this novel of a post we only did one more thing in Siena. We went back to the pizzeria because it had a beautiful view that we couldn't get a good picture of the night before because it was too dark outside. This view defines Siena I feel like. It was breath taking in person. Made me less mad that we couldn't get the aerial views from the towers.  

Siena

After that we wasted about 30 minutes looking in shops. I got a dress for just ten euro :) . Then we got on the Rapida Firenze bus (soooo much better than the non-Rapida) and headed back to Florence. Tonight at like 1 AM I am going to a bar for the Super Bowl. Tomorrow seems like its going to be a homework day, and then classes start up again. I'll post again when life is interesting again. Ciao.