We're in Rome! Our train ride here was a smooth ride. We got a place to store our luggage (which has now reached "ridiculously heavy" status), got in our assigned seats, and enjoyed a swift air conditioned ride to Rome. The catch came when our taxi driver cheated us and charged WAY too much for our ride. But oh well, we got to our hotel! It's called Nizza (like Pizza with an N...see how I remember it?) The room is much bigger than our last and the bathroom has a real tub, but then things get a bit confusing. The AC is about as effective as an astmatic child in a balloon blowing contest, we compare the pillows to bags of rocks, and the shower head points to the middle of the bathroom and there's no shower curtain to stop it! It is hilarious! The TV is the best though. I'm going to make an instructional video on how to use it because it is insane. I'm going to be a millionaire my marketing shower curtains, air conditioniners, tv's, and dvd players over here. But the hotel really is great. They serve some wonderful coffee and croissants in the morning and the elevator arrives at our floor whenever I sit down to wait for it.
The first day, we developed a great system to avoid a heat stroke. We'd go visit places on our list (The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, gelato stands) and on the way between each of them, we'd stop in each church we passed. They are always beautiful, quiet, and cool. They even started saying mass in German for a tour group of teenagers so we stayed.
The sights here are unreal. I'll load pictures soon because anything I say just won't cut it. We visited ancient Rome yesterday. The Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and the Roman Forum were first of all incredibly old, and secondly filled with so much history. The whole city is like that. We were walking around the other day and passed a place that looked like some ruins, so we stopped to read the sign. In small writing on one of the places marked in those ruins it said, "This is where Caesar was killed". In any other city, a sight like that would stand out way more than a slight mention on an average map.
We've been having some great food too (duh). I went with veal with tomato sauce and a side of spinach with olive oil and lemon the other night. Talk about good. The veal was in little chunks still on the bone (is that a shank?). It was amazing and only about 9€.
We went to the Vatican today and that is by far my favorite thus far on the trip. The Sistine Chapel is a sight everyone should see. They didn't allow pictures, but there are some online I'm sure. Michaelangelo was quite the guy. St. Peter's basilica is ginormous and every nook and cranny is filled with something more amazing than the nook and/or cranny you just passed. We visited the tombs of the popes and (of course) climbed to the top of the dome. We cheated a little (per my request) and we took the elevator up to skip 200 of the 551 steps. I was able to get a rosary for my mom and get it blessed in St. Peter's (by a German priest I chased down and who originally thought I was trying to sell him the rosary), so that was exciting.
After that (and taking a few pictures of the Swiss Guard and their wonderful outfits), we began our treck home, which we are still on. We stopped in Piazzo Nuovo and listened to a 4 man band, then watched a hand puppeteer (guy who puts gloves on that look like costumes and makes his hands dance to look like people dancing...odd). After this, we'll head off to dinner to celebrate the 4th of July with the Italians!
I can't believe we're leaving on Monday! The trip has flown by!
(P.S. Thankfully, there have been no pigeon incidents since the bombardment. I appreciate your prayers. They are helping keep me out of ... it...)
P.P.S. I forgot to mention that we went to see Sex and the City the other night. It was great, but before the movie started, I got stuck in the horrible bathroom stall. After a momentary freak out and Rebecca's help on the outside, I made it out. The movie theaters here still have an intermission, so right in the middle of the movie it stopped for a few minutes. Some people thought it was the end so they left. They must have been very disappointed.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Luck?
The past couple days in Florence have been very memorable. First of all, if being pooped on by a pigeon is luck, I must be the luckiest person in the world. Yesterday on our day trip to Siena, two different pigeons got me, and two others ran into my head. This wasn't all at once either, it was over the span of 4 hours. It was hilarious.
Earlier that day at the train station, one of them flew right into the back of my head. The first time a pigeon bombe me, it got me on the inside of my left foot. Obviously, this was a sniper pigeon. I had even commented to Rebecca, "Wow, that bird had it out for someone. Good thing it missed me." We then climbed to the top of the bell tower (which was a maze of around 325 tiny steps), I look down, and realize that it did not miss me. We crack up, I clean up, and we make our way to the big church there. As soon as we leave the church, I am bombed again, this time on the head. We were cracking up at this point. Again, I go clean up and we move on. The final attack was by far the mildest and was a mere skimming of the head in the Siena train station. Quite impressive, right?
Well Siena was really cool. The town is divided into something like 17 sections, each with a mascot. My favorite was the turtle (shout out to Amanda) and Rebecca's favorite was the goose. The people in each section are expected to only marry someone in their section. Each July and August, there is a horse race around the town square. The race happens tomorrow, so we got to see it all set up. They lay sand down and put up wooden bleachers and people either sit in the bleachers or in the middle of the track. The race last for only 90 seconds but is apparently quite a big deal. A rider from each section of the town races on horses that are chosen at random. If someone does marry someone from a different section, they return to their home sections during the time of the race. Very old school. I think the race is pretty dangerous too since it's a bareback horse race with people right up next to the track, seperated only by a wimpy fence. We're gonna see who won when we get to Rome. My bet is on the turtle, because slow and steady wins the race. Haaa...
Today we saw David and he was a lot taller than I thought he would be. We weren't supposed to take pictures, so we started taking some by not aiming at all (so we wouldn't get caught). Those came out great (off center, of only random body parts), so then we hid in the crowd and aimed to get some good ones.
After David, we tried (again) to go to the science museum, but it closes at 1:00 on Tuesdays (cuz that makes sense) so we were denied. With much objection, we suffered through another serving of gelato. The food has been amazing so far. Your meal is out to you a lot quicker than in the US, and they've apoligized to us if it takes longer than 10 minutes or so. Niffer's should learn from this.
Last night, Reba and I went to the movies (an English speaking one, of course) and they were showing The Other Boleyn (sp?) Girl. That was a crazy story that neither of us knew very many details of before the movie. It was good to go to the movies and get a little taste of home. We've been borrowing movies from our hotel's collection, but after an hour or so, the DVD player sounds like it is going to take off into outer space, so that's not so cool.
Well tomorrow we head to our final stop, Rome! Our train leaves at 10:15 AM and I will be glad to take my last train for a while. The train always ends up getting us some way (no AC, no seats, no reservations, pigeon attacks, etc), so I'm interested to see what tomorrow brings! Ciao!
Earlier that day at the train station, one of them flew right into the back of my head. The first time a pigeon bombe me, it got me on the inside of my left foot. Obviously, this was a sniper pigeon. I had even commented to Rebecca, "Wow, that bird had it out for someone. Good thing it missed me." We then climbed to the top of the bell tower (which was a maze of around 325 tiny steps), I look down, and realize that it did not miss me. We crack up, I clean up, and we make our way to the big church there. As soon as we leave the church, I am bombed again, this time on the head. We were cracking up at this point. Again, I go clean up and we move on. The final attack was by far the mildest and was a mere skimming of the head in the Siena train station. Quite impressive, right?
Well Siena was really cool. The town is divided into something like 17 sections, each with a mascot. My favorite was the turtle (shout out to Amanda) and Rebecca's favorite was the goose. The people in each section are expected to only marry someone in their section. Each July and August, there is a horse race around the town square. The race happens tomorrow, so we got to see it all set up. They lay sand down and put up wooden bleachers and people either sit in the bleachers or in the middle of the track. The race last for only 90 seconds but is apparently quite a big deal. A rider from each section of the town races on horses that are chosen at random. If someone does marry someone from a different section, they return to their home sections during the time of the race. Very old school. I think the race is pretty dangerous too since it's a bareback horse race with people right up next to the track, seperated only by a wimpy fence. We're gonna see who won when we get to Rome. My bet is on the turtle, because slow and steady wins the race. Haaa...
Today we saw David and he was a lot taller than I thought he would be. We weren't supposed to take pictures, so we started taking some by not aiming at all (so we wouldn't get caught). Those came out great (off center, of only random body parts), so then we hid in the crowd and aimed to get some good ones.
After David, we tried (again) to go to the science museum, but it closes at 1:00 on Tuesdays (cuz that makes sense) so we were denied. With much objection, we suffered through another serving of gelato. The food has been amazing so far. Your meal is out to you a lot quicker than in the US, and they've apoligized to us if it takes longer than 10 minutes or so. Niffer's should learn from this.
Last night, Reba and I went to the movies (an English speaking one, of course) and they were showing The Other Boleyn (sp?) Girl. That was a crazy story that neither of us knew very many details of before the movie. It was good to go to the movies and get a little taste of home. We've been borrowing movies from our hotel's collection, but after an hour or so, the DVD player sounds like it is going to take off into outer space, so that's not so cool.
Well tomorrow we head to our final stop, Rome! Our train leaves at 10:15 AM and I will be glad to take my last train for a while. The train always ends up getting us some way (no AC, no seats, no reservations, pigeon attacks, etc), so I'm interested to see what tomorrow brings! Ciao!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Flo Rence
We made it to Florence! We've been here since Friday and although we miss the unique water-city that was Venice, we are happy to see taxis with wheels.
The day after we went on the bike adventure on Lido, we behaved as true Venicians. We climbed to the top of the San Marcos church (yes, we average 300+ stairs a day) and had a great view of the city. We then saw the bell tower that we "had to climb", so we got some water bottles to prepare for our journey, and then found out there was an ELEVATOR!!! This made my day. After a short trip to the top, we got yet another amazing view of the city. We were then treated with a front row seat to the ringing of the noon bells. Let's talk about loud.
After a slight hearing loss, we fed the pigeons in San Marcos Square, which is the only place to legally feed birds in Venice without a 517€ fine. Angie was not so keen on the idea, but was very brave and gave the birds a piece of bread while they were literally all over Rebecca and me. They figured out we were getting the pieces of bread from a bag, so they started going after the bag. They sat on our heads for no apparent reason, and liked to hang out on our arms even when we had no more food. This was quite funny and I recommend watching the video on Rebecca's blog of it.
After that, we had some lunch. I got a little adventurous again and ordered something I'd seen on every menu in Italy so far: french fry pizza. Best decision ever. We were then fueled up for our next strenous task, a gondola ride. It was a little expensive, but totally worth it because you get to see the city from a totally different view point...AND you look cool. We chilled at the hotel for a bit (literally chilled because it was fire hot outside), got some dinner, and finished our chill evening with a drink by the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. We did get to test out some of the games Angie made up for the kids she'll be working with on the mission trip, so it wasn't a totally chill night.
The next morning, Angie left us for Prague :( But, she informed us that she got a Czech me out! shirt too, so we'll all be modeling them the next time we're together. Our trip on the train from Venice to Florence was once again eventful. A train to Florence left Venice every hour, so we hopped on one, thought we were in heaven when we sat down with 2 seats for each of us in an air conditioned car, and got comfy for the 3 hr ride. We then were told to leave our seats because we didn't make reservations (which are apparently required haha woops). So we hung out in the dining car with some Canadians (woo Steph!) our age and played Uno. I won 2 games, Rebecca won zero. Woot! Haha jk.
We caught a cab to the hotel, lugged our over stuffed bags up the 40 steps to the hotel (which is more of a boarding house), and relaxed. Apparently our room is the only one with AC, so praise the Lord on that one. However, we do have the loudest bed ever and the craziest shower ever. The shower has 2 doors that don't really close, and it's on the same level as the floor, so the whole bathroom gets flooded whenever you shower. It's pretty funny, and challenging, but mostly funny.
Since we've been here, we've enjoyed gelato every day (duh), some fabulous meals, and interesting street shopping. I'll try to get a picture/video of this, but there are lots of illegal street vendors who sell strange things like dancing pieces of paper that are folded to look like cartoon characters. The way they dance is they are secretly attached to a boom box and the vendor by string (that you can't see), so they try to convince you that they are magic dancing paper things. Hilarious.
Yesterday, we got lunch from a big market. They sell all kinds of meat (including cow faces...seriously), cheese, fruits, and veggies. So we walked around and got all kinds of goodies and relaxed at the hotel while watching 13 going on 30. We then hiked up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo (dome), which was an adventure in itself. It wasn't just a spiral staircase like in Notre Dame. It would switch from spiral, to regular, to very steep, to "seriously we have to do that?" every few minutes. But we did get a great view of the inside of the church dome and the city itself, so that was great. Later that night, we picked our dinner spot by accepting an offer from a waiter for a free limoncello shot if we ate there. The dinner was really good (penne with a spicy tomato sauce for me, lasagna for Reba), and the after dinner shot, which is inteded to cleanse your palate, did its job. We then went to a place where we had seen a sign for karaoke, went downstairs where everyone else was, and were told that it was a private pub crawl, so we couldn't hang out down there. LAME. So we went back upstairs to hang for the rest of the non-cool-clubbers (in no AC land), waited until karaoke was supposed to start, and left because no one was left after the pub crawl departed. Rebecca decided she didn't want to sing to the bartender, and I'm thankful for this because she wanted me to sing some Journey with her. (phew)
Today, we went to the Boboli Gardens. Thankfully, we did not run into the bad guy from Harry Potter like we did in the Versailles gardens. We tried to go to the science museum and the Baptistry, but both are closed today. So we're taking it easy until our dinner reservation at a place that makes an incredible steak with a blueberry sauce (according to Reba). They eat a lot later here. Our reservation is at 7:30 and that is when the restaurant opens. After dinner, we're going to find a place to watch the Euro Cup finals between Germany and Spain! We're not sure who to root for, I'm thinking Germany, but we'll see who the crowd wants and go with them. We were going to watch it at the karaoke place, but we decided that they are not cool enough for us, so we'll find a better place.
Oh and we just ran into 2 girls from our Sound of Music tour in Salzburg on the street in Florence! How crazy is that? Answer: Very crazy, Emily. Well that's about all I got. I'm sure everyone at home is getting ready for the 4th of July. We'll be celebrating it by taking a tour of the Vatican! I have a red, white, and blue dress set aside already. Ciao!
(side note: this internet cafe won't let us upload pics or videos, but I'll try again later)
The day after we went on the bike adventure on Lido, we behaved as true Venicians. We climbed to the top of the San Marcos church (yes, we average 300+ stairs a day) and had a great view of the city. We then saw the bell tower that we "had to climb", so we got some water bottles to prepare for our journey, and then found out there was an ELEVATOR!!! This made my day. After a short trip to the top, we got yet another amazing view of the city. We were then treated with a front row seat to the ringing of the noon bells. Let's talk about loud.
After a slight hearing loss, we fed the pigeons in San Marcos Square, which is the only place to legally feed birds in Venice without a 517€ fine. Angie was not so keen on the idea, but was very brave and gave the birds a piece of bread while they were literally all over Rebecca and me. They figured out we were getting the pieces of bread from a bag, so they started going after the bag. They sat on our heads for no apparent reason, and liked to hang out on our arms even when we had no more food. This was quite funny and I recommend watching the video on Rebecca's blog of it.
After that, we had some lunch. I got a little adventurous again and ordered something I'd seen on every menu in Italy so far: french fry pizza. Best decision ever. We were then fueled up for our next strenous task, a gondola ride. It was a little expensive, but totally worth it because you get to see the city from a totally different view point...AND you look cool. We chilled at the hotel for a bit (literally chilled because it was fire hot outside), got some dinner, and finished our chill evening with a drink by the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. We did get to test out some of the games Angie made up for the kids she'll be working with on the mission trip, so it wasn't a totally chill night.
The next morning, Angie left us for Prague :( But, she informed us that she got a Czech me out! shirt too, so we'll all be modeling them the next time we're together. Our trip on the train from Venice to Florence was once again eventful. A train to Florence left Venice every hour, so we hopped on one, thought we were in heaven when we sat down with 2 seats for each of us in an air conditioned car, and got comfy for the 3 hr ride. We then were told to leave our seats because we didn't make reservations (which are apparently required haha woops). So we hung out in the dining car with some Canadians (woo Steph!) our age and played Uno. I won 2 games, Rebecca won zero. Woot! Haha jk.
We caught a cab to the hotel, lugged our over stuffed bags up the 40 steps to the hotel (which is more of a boarding house), and relaxed. Apparently our room is the only one with AC, so praise the Lord on that one. However, we do have the loudest bed ever and the craziest shower ever. The shower has 2 doors that don't really close, and it's on the same level as the floor, so the whole bathroom gets flooded whenever you shower. It's pretty funny, and challenging, but mostly funny.
Since we've been here, we've enjoyed gelato every day (duh), some fabulous meals, and interesting street shopping. I'll try to get a picture/video of this, but there are lots of illegal street vendors who sell strange things like dancing pieces of paper that are folded to look like cartoon characters. The way they dance is they are secretly attached to a boom box and the vendor by string (that you can't see), so they try to convince you that they are magic dancing paper things. Hilarious.
Yesterday, we got lunch from a big market. They sell all kinds of meat (including cow faces...seriously), cheese, fruits, and veggies. So we walked around and got all kinds of goodies and relaxed at the hotel while watching 13 going on 30. We then hiked up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo (dome), which was an adventure in itself. It wasn't just a spiral staircase like in Notre Dame. It would switch from spiral, to regular, to very steep, to "seriously we have to do that?" every few minutes. But we did get a great view of the inside of the church dome and the city itself, so that was great. Later that night, we picked our dinner spot by accepting an offer from a waiter for a free limoncello shot if we ate there. The dinner was really good (penne with a spicy tomato sauce for me, lasagna for Reba), and the after dinner shot, which is inteded to cleanse your palate, did its job. We then went to a place where we had seen a sign for karaoke, went downstairs where everyone else was, and were told that it was a private pub crawl, so we couldn't hang out down there. LAME. So we went back upstairs to hang for the rest of the non-cool-clubbers (in no AC land), waited until karaoke was supposed to start, and left because no one was left after the pub crawl departed. Rebecca decided she didn't want to sing to the bartender, and I'm thankful for this because she wanted me to sing some Journey with her. (phew)
Today, we went to the Boboli Gardens. Thankfully, we did not run into the bad guy from Harry Potter like we did in the Versailles gardens. We tried to go to the science museum and the Baptistry, but both are closed today. So we're taking it easy until our dinner reservation at a place that makes an incredible steak with a blueberry sauce (according to Reba). They eat a lot later here. Our reservation is at 7:30 and that is when the restaurant opens. After dinner, we're going to find a place to watch the Euro Cup finals between Germany and Spain! We're not sure who to root for, I'm thinking Germany, but we'll see who the crowd wants and go with them. We were going to watch it at the karaoke place, but we decided that they are not cool enough for us, so we'll find a better place.
Oh and we just ran into 2 girls from our Sound of Music tour in Salzburg on the street in Florence! How crazy is that? Answer: Very crazy, Emily. Well that's about all I got. I'm sure everyone at home is getting ready for the 4th of July. We'll be celebrating it by taking a tour of the Vatican! I have a red, white, and blue dress set aside already. Ciao!
(side note: this internet cafe won't let us upload pics or videos, but I'll try again later)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The first 36 hours in Venice
Last night, we wandered around a bit, found some wonderful food (with a few surprises), and made some friends. We stopped for dinner at a nice place on the Grand Canal. I wanted to get something that Venice was known for, so I opted for one of their seafood specialties. The oysters I ordered came out on a HUGE rack with a tub of ice and 6 oysters on it. We were cracking up because that is not what we expected at all. The thing took up the whole table and I couldn't see Angie until I finished it. The waiters were a kick and really liked it when I ordered a second dinner. Then, the waiters brought another table a dessert and sang Happy Birthday. Obviously, we had to do this. Since Rebecca's birthday is closest, we chose her. I told the waiters her name and a couple minutes later...
We were officially the popular people at the restaurant at this point. If we weren't yet, then this action shot sealed the deal. Here's Angie fishing in the fresh seafood display.
Today, we went to the island of Lido per Angie's suggestion. She told us about when she, her mom, and friend were in Venice and mentioned a "3 person bicycle". Obviously, we had to try this. Rebecca and I were picturing a bicycle built for 2 with just a 3rd seat, so we were quite nervous about this plan. But, we didn't say anything and just went with it. To our surprise, this bicycle was close to the best invention ever made. It's like a golf cart with 2 sets of pedals and obviously no motor. Let me just tell you, we were the coolest thing since sliced bread while riding in this thing. Hills were a challenge, but if the 3rd person (the non-pedaller) would simply fling herself to the front, that would help with some of it. It had a hand break and the two pedalers were sorta hanging off the side a little, but that was all part of the fun. Also, only one of the stearing wheels actually did anything. This really bothered Rebecca when she was at the "dummy wheel".
As we made stops along our way, we had to enable the security system. This involved us chaining it to a pole. This thing was awesome. Here's a video of Reba and Angie rockin the Pimp Wagon.
We stopped at a "private beach" on the Adriatic Sea with all the real Europeans. After collecting some shells and cooling off, we were asked to leave. So we did, and rode around a little more in CTE (coolest thing ever), got some pizza, and hunted for gelato.
We returned our ride and aired ourselves out while eating gelato. (It's a LITTLE hot here) While walking around Lido, we found the reason to return there with MORE friends. This baby can fit 6 people. AND it has headlights and a bell that works. What more could you want?
Well, we're going to go suffer through another Italian meal and most likely round it out with some gelato while watching the Euro Cup semi-finals. What a rough life we are leading.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Italia!
Well after a crazy few days, Rebecca and I made it to Venice! But first, I'll backtrack a little to cover what things since the last post.
The black light theater was quite interesting. The description was an absurd mime show with visual effects, and that is exactly what we got. It started off with a scene consisting of a Barney Fife-esque cop chasing after a guy and a sketchy looking girl who have just robbed a bank. After a few minutes, they left the stage and the whole thing went dark. Then people in glowing outfits came out and did some modern dance using their clothes that glowed in the black light to create illusions like they were flying or whatever. Then after a few minutes of that, it went back to the bank robbery scene. The transitions were hilarious because there weren't any, but both parts of the show were great. It was definitely a Czech show and not American, because it was a "kid's show" where the lady who robbed the bank also snorted something white off of the table. We all looked at each other like, "Did that just happen???" Haha anyway, it really was cool because we could not figure out how they did some of the illusions.
The marianette show the next night was equally intersting. They performed Don Giovanni, which none of us had ever seen, so we had to work to pick up the story line for a few minutes from the Italian puppets. Between scenes, a Motzart marianette would come out to the front of the stage to conduct the orchestra. Each time, Motzart would get crazier and crazier. He jumped in a pool and splashed the audience once, then he came out drunk the next time. For a puppet, all of this was impressive. The story seemed pretty good, and right when we started figuring out that Don Giovanni was a bit of a player, a giant monster (an actual person in a costume) came out and took Don Giovanni off to hell. Talk about a twist. After that, it was pretty much over, except for some songs, during which Motzart came out and started making fun of how boring the singing was. I had to agree that his timing was spot on.
From Prague, we went to Salzburg. The route there was a little complicated, as it required us to get on 6 different trains for a total trip time of 8 hours. Crazy. We accidentally sat in first class on the first train, but we asked how much it was to be able to stay there (because neither us nor our stuff was moving), so we each happily paid 5 Euro to stay where we were. We were on each train for a little over an hour each time, which was basically enough time to hop on, search for a seat, find out we picked the wrong seats, find new seats, look out the window for 5 minutes, then get ready to hop off. Even though we were on a train all day, we certainly got a good workout. We often joke with taxi drivers and other people who are unfortunate enough to deal with our luggage that we have packed other friends in our bags to save money. They usually don't get it, but I laugh every time because they don't get it.
We made it to Salzburg without much trouble and checked into my favorite hotel so far. It was right in the middle of the city, and less than 100 yards from the square where the soccer games were being shown on the big screen. The shower in the room was made for midgets, however. The shower head was below my shoulders, but you could take it off the hook and do it yourself. Mary found this challenging the first day, as I had to tread water to get to the shower when she was done (hahaha jk Mary, it wasn't that bad). Breakfast in the morning was simliar to that in Paris, with the individual coffee pots and the wonderful food.
The first day in Salzburg was really our only full day, so we were very lucky that the weather was beautiful. We went on a "Sound of Music Tour", and Rebecca was in heaven. It was fun to see some of the beautiful places in the movie and to find out first that the Von Trapp family was real (yeah I didn't know that) and that they fled to Italy, then Ellis Island, and settled in Vermont, not to Switzerland as it showed in the movie. There were 4 other American girls our age on the tour, so that was a good time. The tour guide pulled over at one point and said, "Ok, this is your chance to dance around the meadows like Maria." She then blared "The Hills are Alive" and we all got out. A couple of the girls were standing there taking pictures and not really don't anything overly impressive, so Rebecca and I set up our cameras on top of the van to take a video, waited for a good musical moment, and took off! (Video on Reba's blog, soon to be on here too). We then stopped at a luge on the side of a hill. Apparently this is a common thing, but we sat on these little seats with wheels and a hand break, got pulled up the hill, got on the track, and flew down it! It was about a 2 minute ride to the bottom and it was a blast! We were especially popular since we were wearing dresses, but I think that shows how much more brave we are.
That night, we (as we do every night) went to the square to watch the soccer game. The Netherlands and Russia were playing and I think it went into double overtime, so it was quite a game. Some German guys sat next to us (of course) and after talking for a bit, one of them told me that he was going to fly to the U.S. so we could "make a party". I wasn't quite sure what we were going to make a party out of, but it was an interesting idea. Then they asked what has turned out to be the most common question anyone asks us once they find out we are Americans, "Who are you going to vote for and why?" They seem to really like Obama out here. It's pretty crazy that everyone who we've talked to for more than a minute has brought up the election.
The next morning, I went to church in a beautiful church just across from the hotel and got to experience it in German. That was pretty unique, but I kept up with everything except for the songs (that was a hopeless cause). Then we walked around a bit, went to Motzart's birthplace, and headed to our favorite place ever...the train station. We had found out earlier that Italy and Spain were playing soccer in Vienne that night we were going to be there, so we were really excited! Until we saw that our train was PACKED. Mary went down one car to try to find us seats, I went down another, and Rebecca watched our enormous pile of stuff. Mary found a nice gentleman who refused to move both his feet and hand (which were taking up 3 empty seats) because he was hot. I went through the Italy fan zone car, and there were a few people missing here and there, but everyone told me that the seats were taken by people who were temporarily in the dining car. I asked one guy, and he said, "No no, I'm married." So I laughed and said, "well dang, how about just a few seats then?" They were taken, so no dice. So we both return to the luggage (which is beweeen cars by the bathroom, awesome), discouraged. After a few minutes, the guy who told me he was married came to find us to tell us he had found us 3 seats together! He had rearranged his friends to make room for us. If he had not already been married, I would have proposed. His friends even put our luggage away for us. We sat by a guy a couple years older than us who was fun San Francisco. He was really nice and was kind of a free spirit. He said he and his friends had slept in a park one night in Switzerland because they couldn't find a hotel. I don't think I'd ever do that...hopefully. Another perk of this train was that they had turned the AC off and the windows did not open. It was literally a sauna! I fell asleep or passed out for a couple hours, and we were soon in Vienna.
We got a cab to our hotel, which was amazing (the Eurostar, since that's what we were), checked in and walked into our VIP suite! It was awesome. First, there was air conditioning, which was an luxury we hadn't enjoyed since Paris. Next, it had a normal size shower! Then, there were 2 couches, 2 tv's (one plasma...what what), and a fire escape that we called the balcony. We recovered from the train ride for a little while then got some food and found the soccer fan zone. This fan zone was bigger than any of the others we had seen. There were about 10 big screens on a long street, so bunches of people were at each one. We happened upon one where everyone was sitting, so we picked that one since we were pretty pooped. Sadly, Italy did not win in the shootout, but it was still a good game.
The next morning (yesterday June 23), Mary left us to head back home :( After we saw her off, I went back to sleep for a bit, then Reba and I caught a tram (thankfully not a deadly one like Prague) to meet up with Reba's friend from high school, Chris. He had been living in Vienna for a while and was an amazing tour guide. We had an excellent final schnitzle meal and an authentic Vienese cafe experience, along with seeing many of the beautiful palaces in the city. I plan to have a palace some day, just FYI. It has gotten quite hot here, so we took frequent breaks near fountains or sprinklers that would "accidentally" splash us.
Rebecca and I said bye to Chris around 7pm and headed to the train station (again)! We took our first overnight train in a sleeper car last night. The beds were quite similar to Mary's faux masseuse table bed in Prague, but were an enormous improvement to our last overnight train experience. We shared our cabin with an Austrain teacher who spoke English and a very nice man who spoke a little English. The teacher worked at a school for kids who want to work in/run wineries, which I thought was pretty neat.
The train ride was pretty good, a little warm with the window closing on its own (which we called the European semi-automatic AC), but still fun. We got to Venice around 10:00, took a water bus to Rialto Bridge, and found our hotel. The directions to the hotel were quite Italian. They said to go through 2 squares, and then 10 meters before the next square, look for the green door. Miraculously, we found it and were able to leave our luggage there while they got the room ready. We then got some wonderful Italian food and wandered around a bit. Now it's time to check in to the room and to wait for Angie to arrive in a couple hours!
The black light theater was quite interesting. The description was an absurd mime show with visual effects, and that is exactly what we got. It started off with a scene consisting of a Barney Fife-esque cop chasing after a guy and a sketchy looking girl who have just robbed a bank. After a few minutes, they left the stage and the whole thing went dark. Then people in glowing outfits came out and did some modern dance using their clothes that glowed in the black light to create illusions like they were flying or whatever. Then after a few minutes of that, it went back to the bank robbery scene. The transitions were hilarious because there weren't any, but both parts of the show were great. It was definitely a Czech show and not American, because it was a "kid's show" where the lady who robbed the bank also snorted something white off of the table. We all looked at each other like, "Did that just happen???" Haha anyway, it really was cool because we could not figure out how they did some of the illusions.
The marianette show the next night was equally intersting. They performed Don Giovanni, which none of us had ever seen, so we had to work to pick up the story line for a few minutes from the Italian puppets. Between scenes, a Motzart marianette would come out to the front of the stage to conduct the orchestra. Each time, Motzart would get crazier and crazier. He jumped in a pool and splashed the audience once, then he came out drunk the next time. For a puppet, all of this was impressive. The story seemed pretty good, and right when we started figuring out that Don Giovanni was a bit of a player, a giant monster (an actual person in a costume) came out and took Don Giovanni off to hell. Talk about a twist. After that, it was pretty much over, except for some songs, during which Motzart came out and started making fun of how boring the singing was. I had to agree that his timing was spot on.
From Prague, we went to Salzburg. The route there was a little complicated, as it required us to get on 6 different trains for a total trip time of 8 hours. Crazy. We accidentally sat in first class on the first train, but we asked how much it was to be able to stay there (because neither us nor our stuff was moving), so we each happily paid 5 Euro to stay where we were. We were on each train for a little over an hour each time, which was basically enough time to hop on, search for a seat, find out we picked the wrong seats, find new seats, look out the window for 5 minutes, then get ready to hop off. Even though we were on a train all day, we certainly got a good workout. We often joke with taxi drivers and other people who are unfortunate enough to deal with our luggage that we have packed other friends in our bags to save money. They usually don't get it, but I laugh every time because they don't get it.
We made it to Salzburg without much trouble and checked into my favorite hotel so far. It was right in the middle of the city, and less than 100 yards from the square where the soccer games were being shown on the big screen. The shower in the room was made for midgets, however. The shower head was below my shoulders, but you could take it off the hook and do it yourself. Mary found this challenging the first day, as I had to tread water to get to the shower when she was done (hahaha jk Mary, it wasn't that bad). Breakfast in the morning was simliar to that in Paris, with the individual coffee pots and the wonderful food.
The first day in Salzburg was really our only full day, so we were very lucky that the weather was beautiful. We went on a "Sound of Music Tour", and Rebecca was in heaven. It was fun to see some of the beautiful places in the movie and to find out first that the Von Trapp family was real (yeah I didn't know that) and that they fled to Italy, then Ellis Island, and settled in Vermont, not to Switzerland as it showed in the movie. There were 4 other American girls our age on the tour, so that was a good time. The tour guide pulled over at one point and said, "Ok, this is your chance to dance around the meadows like Maria." She then blared "The Hills are Alive" and we all got out. A couple of the girls were standing there taking pictures and not really don't anything overly impressive, so Rebecca and I set up our cameras on top of the van to take a video, waited for a good musical moment, and took off! (Video on Reba's blog, soon to be on here too). We then stopped at a luge on the side of a hill. Apparently this is a common thing, but we sat on these little seats with wheels and a hand break, got pulled up the hill, got on the track, and flew down it! It was about a 2 minute ride to the bottom and it was a blast! We were especially popular since we were wearing dresses, but I think that shows how much more brave we are.
That night, we (as we do every night) went to the square to watch the soccer game. The Netherlands and Russia were playing and I think it went into double overtime, so it was quite a game. Some German guys sat next to us (of course) and after talking for a bit, one of them told me that he was going to fly to the U.S. so we could "make a party". I wasn't quite sure what we were going to make a party out of, but it was an interesting idea. Then they asked what has turned out to be the most common question anyone asks us once they find out we are Americans, "Who are you going to vote for and why?" They seem to really like Obama out here. It's pretty crazy that everyone who we've talked to for more than a minute has brought up the election.
The next morning, I went to church in a beautiful church just across from the hotel and got to experience it in German. That was pretty unique, but I kept up with everything except for the songs (that was a hopeless cause). Then we walked around a bit, went to Motzart's birthplace, and headed to our favorite place ever...the train station. We had found out earlier that Italy and Spain were playing soccer in Vienne that night we were going to be there, so we were really excited! Until we saw that our train was PACKED. Mary went down one car to try to find us seats, I went down another, and Rebecca watched our enormous pile of stuff. Mary found a nice gentleman who refused to move both his feet and hand (which were taking up 3 empty seats) because he was hot. I went through the Italy fan zone car, and there were a few people missing here and there, but everyone told me that the seats were taken by people who were temporarily in the dining car. I asked one guy, and he said, "No no, I'm married." So I laughed and said, "well dang, how about just a few seats then?" They were taken, so no dice. So we both return to the luggage (which is beweeen cars by the bathroom, awesome), discouraged. After a few minutes, the guy who told me he was married came to find us to tell us he had found us 3 seats together! He had rearranged his friends to make room for us. If he had not already been married, I would have proposed. His friends even put our luggage away for us. We sat by a guy a couple years older than us who was fun San Francisco. He was really nice and was kind of a free spirit. He said he and his friends had slept in a park one night in Switzerland because they couldn't find a hotel. I don't think I'd ever do that...hopefully. Another perk of this train was that they had turned the AC off and the windows did not open. It was literally a sauna! I fell asleep or passed out for a couple hours, and we were soon in Vienna.
We got a cab to our hotel, which was amazing (the Eurostar, since that's what we were), checked in and walked into our VIP suite! It was awesome. First, there was air conditioning, which was an luxury we hadn't enjoyed since Paris. Next, it had a normal size shower! Then, there were 2 couches, 2 tv's (one plasma...what what), and a fire escape that we called the balcony. We recovered from the train ride for a little while then got some food and found the soccer fan zone. This fan zone was bigger than any of the others we had seen. There were about 10 big screens on a long street, so bunches of people were at each one. We happened upon one where everyone was sitting, so we picked that one since we were pretty pooped. Sadly, Italy did not win in the shootout, but it was still a good game.
The next morning (yesterday June 23), Mary left us to head back home :( After we saw her off, I went back to sleep for a bit, then Reba and I caught a tram (thankfully not a deadly one like Prague) to meet up with Reba's friend from high school, Chris. He had been living in Vienna for a while and was an amazing tour guide. We had an excellent final schnitzle meal and an authentic Vienese cafe experience, along with seeing many of the beautiful palaces in the city. I plan to have a palace some day, just FYI. It has gotten quite hot here, so we took frequent breaks near fountains or sprinklers that would "accidentally" splash us.
Rebecca and I said bye to Chris around 7pm and headed to the train station (again)! We took our first overnight train in a sleeper car last night. The beds were quite similar to Mary's faux masseuse table bed in Prague, but were an enormous improvement to our last overnight train experience. We shared our cabin with an Austrain teacher who spoke English and a very nice man who spoke a little English. The teacher worked at a school for kids who want to work in/run wineries, which I thought was pretty neat.
The train ride was pretty good, a little warm with the window closing on its own (which we called the European semi-automatic AC), but still fun. We got to Venice around 10:00, took a water bus to Rialto Bridge, and found our hotel. The directions to the hotel were quite Italian. They said to go through 2 squares, and then 10 meters before the next square, look for the green door. Miraculously, we found it and were able to leave our luggage there while they got the room ready. We then got some wonderful Italian food and wandered around a bit. Now it's time to check in to the room and to wait for Angie to arrive in a couple hours!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Oh the irony...
So it turns out that the lobby of our hotel has free wireless internet. I'm not sure why the desk lady pointed to a plug in the wall when we asked if there was internet in the hotel, but whatever. It's just pretty hilarious that we trecked all over town on a wild goose chase for internet that was right under our noses. Score.
Next, our hotel room has turned into Underwear Town and I am the mayor. We have discovered the wonders of Tide sink packets and are doing laundry like mad women. We have a system of clothes lines set up that would qualify as a World Wonder. The first one was tied to the only decoration in our entirely white room, the half dead ficus tree. This reminded me of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the dorms sophomore year.
Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Prague with a great tour guide. She pointed out things we would not have normally noticed, such as the fact that McDonald's, a casino, and the Communist Museum are located in the same building. We then signed up to go on a ghost tour with the same lady, since we liked her so much. That was not scary at all since the sun was still setting (it doesn't get dark until like 10:00), and her kids would run out in costumes dressed as the people in the stories she was telling us. It was a good time though because we knew when something was coming and there were a lot of unsuspecting people on the tour with us.
Today, we checked out the churches in the Old Town Square, which were breathtaking. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter to check out some of the old synagogues and the cemetary. The cemetary has thousands of grave stones, but they are all right up on each other. This was done because they kept running out of room so they added dirt to make a new level. Each time a new level was made, the tombstones were brought up to the top. We then went to the Charles Bridge and rubbed a statue for good luck. Now, we are getting ready to go to the Black Light Theater to see an absurd mime show, which I'm sure will be good. Tomorrow night, we're going to a marianette show, so basically we're going all out in Prague.
Also, the elevator I mentioned has an added surprise. Apparently it is meant for only 2 people, so our lives were in danger during the filming of that video. There was a sign on our floor (the 2nd floor) with a big 2 on it and some Czech words, so we figured it was a wordy way of saying 2nd floor. Then I noticed that same sign on the first floor. Sooo yeah I guess that means only 2 people on the tiny elevator at a time. Nice.
While walking somewhere today, a guy passed me and said, "You dropped something." I turn around look, see nothing, look back at him, and he goes, "my heart". We were cracking up. Ten minutes later, we see the same guy, he says, "You dropped something." So I say, "your heart, right?" and give him the two gun point and his friends crack up. Apparently he'd been using that line all day.
Finally, we all bought shirts that say, "Prague Czech me out!"
Next, our hotel room has turned into Underwear Town and I am the mayor. We have discovered the wonders of Tide sink packets and are doing laundry like mad women. We have a system of clothes lines set up that would qualify as a World Wonder. The first one was tied to the only decoration in our entirely white room, the half dead ficus tree. This reminded me of our Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the dorms sophomore year.
Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of Prague with a great tour guide. She pointed out things we would not have normally noticed, such as the fact that McDonald's, a casino, and the Communist Museum are located in the same building. We then signed up to go on a ghost tour with the same lady, since we liked her so much. That was not scary at all since the sun was still setting (it doesn't get dark until like 10:00), and her kids would run out in costumes dressed as the people in the stories she was telling us. It was a good time though because we knew when something was coming and there were a lot of unsuspecting people on the tour with us.
Today, we checked out the churches in the Old Town Square, which were breathtaking. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter to check out some of the old synagogues and the cemetary. The cemetary has thousands of grave stones, but they are all right up on each other. This was done because they kept running out of room so they added dirt to make a new level. Each time a new level was made, the tombstones were brought up to the top. We then went to the Charles Bridge and rubbed a statue for good luck. Now, we are getting ready to go to the Black Light Theater to see an absurd mime show, which I'm sure will be good. Tomorrow night, we're going to a marianette show, so basically we're going all out in Prague.
Also, the elevator I mentioned has an added surprise. Apparently it is meant for only 2 people, so our lives were in danger during the filming of that video. There was a sign on our floor (the 2nd floor) with a big 2 on it and some Czech words, so we figured it was a wordy way of saying 2nd floor. Then I noticed that same sign on the first floor. Sooo yeah I guess that means only 2 people on the tiny elevator at a time. Nice.
While walking somewhere today, a guy passed me and said, "You dropped something." I turn around look, see nothing, look back at him, and he goes, "my heart". We were cracking up. Ten minutes later, we see the same guy, he says, "You dropped something." So I say, "your heart, right?" and give him the two gun point and his friends crack up. Apparently he'd been using that line all day.
Finally, we all bought shirts that say, "Prague Czech me out!"
Monday, June 16, 2008
Berlin to Prague, the miraculous journey
Friday June 13 (Friday the 13th, ahhh)
Well rained in the morning and was freezing in general, so that put a bit of a kink in our plans. But we solved that by getting on a tour bus that told us all about everything and let us hop on and off, but most importantly, allowed us to not freeze to death. The tour guide would say everything in German and then repeat it in English, which I imagine would be quite a task since he was also having to keep up with the bus' pace. We eventually hopped off and went to the Natural History Museum. P.S. People stare a lot here. I know they think I'm a famous super model and all, but geez. Anyway, the Nat Hist Museum had some pretty neat stuff including the largest fully assembled dinosaur skeleton. After that, we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a former access point between East and West Germany. That place had some pretty incredible stories about the lengths people would go to in their escape attempts to the West. They would build special compartments in cars, ride down ropes from windows, or just try to bust through in a big truck. After that, we found a restaurant run by Sicilians that was right across the street. The EuroCup is going on right now, so every night there is at least one soccer game on, and the Italians were no exception. Although it was run by Sicilians, this place had great weinerschnitzle (thin fried veal = good), so we were being semi-authentic German tourists!
Saturday June 14
The weather was slightly better this day, so we set out for our "outdoor adventures". This including FINALLY finding the Berlin wall. It is more difficult than you think. Yeah not really, we're just not too perceptive. The large part of the wall that we visited is called Eastside Gallery (because it's painted on the east side). At some point, people decided that if the wall was going to be there and they weren't going to be allowed to cross to the other side, they might as well decorate it and express themselves that way.
After the wall (which was across the street from the train station we had visited every day we'd been in Berlin), we went to the Zoo. Since we had gone to the Natural History Museum the day before and seen tons of stuffed animals, it made sense to go see the live ones. It was pretty cool...lions, tigers, bears, oh my. There were some cute monkeys and we got to see feeding time for all the big cats. There was also a panda and some polar bears, but there were also falsely advertised seals as we could NOT find them.
Mary and I then tricked Rebecca into letting us go to Dunkin Donuts (again) by telling her we wanted to go check out an area called Postdamer Platz, which had stores, the Sony Center (which really didn't have anything in it that we could tell), and Legoland (which I had to restrain myself from going into). While at Dunkin, with all the other Americans, we got some good people watching in while we defrosted.
We then did a little more wandering/shopping near the broken tooth church (from the first day) and then happened upon a pretty busy restaurant so we decided to have dinner. Again, a soccer game was on, so there were people all around carrying/wearing flags, hats, super hero spandex outfits...the works. I was able to get bratwurst, sourkraut, and great mashed potatoes for dinner, so I was in heaven. Rebecca thought I ordered potato soup with a wiener, so she just told the waitress that she just wanted the same thing. We realized this about 15 mins later when I said I was excited about the sourkraut. Hahaha tricks. After the soccer game, the best band in the world started playing. They were all middle aged men in matching white suits who would play a mix of oldies (mumbling much of the words which made it 5000 times better) and some German drinking songs. There were some boyfriend alerts dancing in the front, but we soon realized that they liked dancing with each other more than anyone else.
Friday June 15
We woke up bright and early to head to the train station to catch our 10:46 train to Prague. This was written at 10:54 AM that day:
By no small miracle, we are on the train to Prague. It was scheduled to leave at 10:46. So, we get to the train station at 10:15, get some sandwiches for the ride (which should last until about 3:15), and mosey toward the trains. We're looking and looking and not seeing anything about Prague or our train number. Hm... So we find someone and they tell us we are at the wrong train station. Awesome. Why wouldn't the lady who sold us the tickets from that train station mention that it left from a different one? Probably because she assumed we read German. Danke, train lady. So we hop (with our 50 lbs of luggage and backpacks and slightly panicking selves) on a train (without a ticket) and ride to the station that our train is leaving from...in 12 minutes. Four stops and 9 minutes later, we arrive at the station. We spread out to figure out the track number like a well oiled sorority machine. Rebecca finds the chart, I get the track number, we holler for Mary and take off. We're dragging our luggage down the stairs, dodging, ducking, dipping, diving, and dodging others, and 3 mins later we find what might be our train. Quick sign reading and a leap of faith later and we're flinging ourselves on the train just as they come on the loudspeaker saying to stand clear of the door. We are now sitting in some spacious seats, 2 to a person since the train isn't full, and we're treating ourselves to a much needed reward. Mary is playing solitaire on the computer, Rebecca is knee deep in the minute by minute train schedule, and I'm eating gummy bears and staring out the window. All is right with the world. We also realized that Czech is a very difficult language and they don't use Euros. If the train experience is any kind of sign of things to come, this should be good!
Well the rest of the train ride was relaxing. We got off the train and had to make our way to the hotel, which sounds simple since we had already found the hotel on the map. Once we got off the train, we found an ATM. The Czech Republic doesn't use Euros, they use the crown. 15 crowns is about 1 US dollar. So that's fun math. Also, the ATM only spits out 1000's, and people don't like to make change for you, but we'll get to that soon. we headed for the taxi stand, only to find about 7 sketchy old men sitting around in lawn chairs smoking cigarettes without a care in the world. The tour books warned us about taxi drivers trying to cheat you, so we let an American couple approach them before we did to see how it went. They turned town the taxi driver's offer and headed back our way. We asked what went down and they said they'd been to Prague before and that the guy wanted twice what they usually pay so they were just gonna take the Metro. That worked for us, since we're Metro masters, so we go downstairs to the metro station. The most useless map ever is located in that metro stop. It just has the metro stops on the map, no other streets. So we had to use the curve in the river and the location of a bridge to figure out the best stop for us. Then we go to buy tickets in cryptic machines that only take change. We see a drink/newspaper stand so Mary tries to buy a coke to get change. The lady hates Mary's life and refuses by simply repeating "No no no no no". We then remember we saw the happiest place on earth upstairs, McDonalds. Mary soon returns with a coke, apple pie, and 4 crowns short of enough change for 3 one way metro tickets. Rebecca then tries her luck with the evil troll and wins the battle buy buying some "slightly carbonated" water for me. She likes to play tricks, because that was the WORST water in the history of the world. But it got us change, so we get on the metro and off at our stop.
We then begin our hike to the hotel. It looks like only a hop, skip, and a jump from the metro stop, but it was more like a lunge, trip, and a crawl. The cobblestone streets made pulling the rolling suitcases like dragging a kicking and screaming child. We soon lost our will to live, but after going around a few wrong turns (Prague streets are a bit confusing and we have yet to master their coordination with maps), we make it to the hotel. The place is cute and cosy and the home of the smallest elevator ever. Seriously it's only big enough for one person and a suitcase.
Our place has 2 rooms and a bathroom. Rebecca and I share a room that has the same double bed as in Paris, and Mary got the VIP suites with the couch and single "bed". I say "bed" because we think it is a retired masseuse table on wooden pegs that fall off occasionally. So at about 5:30 this morning, Mary switched to the couch and never looked back. The bathroom door makes a horrendous sound when you close it, so we have to warn each other when it's about to happen. This is usually done by screaming.
After a little recovery time from the hike from hell, we hit the town. We head towards Old Town and the river to look around and find food. We happen upon the biggest party of the evening in the Old Town Square...EuroFest. Czech is playing Turkey at 8:45 and there is a huge screen, a band stand, kebabs/hot dog and beer stands everywhere, and pretty much the whole town. So after watching the astronomical clock strike 6:00 (at each hour, the rooster crows on this big clock, then some windows open and the 12 apostles pass by to scare the devil away), we get some food and settle into our spot on the ground with the the rest of the people. We happen to sit next to a Canadian family with 2 cute little boys, one of whom must have been teething or already in the wrong crowd because the mom gave him a sip of beer (should out to Steph and the Canadians everywhere haha). The band soon started and sang mostly songs we couldn't understand but sounded fun, and then some ones we knew (YMCA, yes Rebecca and I stood up and did it). Then there were some really funny people by us who brought masks like Nacho Libre wore in the move, put them on, fake wrestled, danced around, and took pictures of each other. The game started and then everyone was on their feet. We looked around when we did this and realized that the number of people had quadrupled since we had gotten there. It was crazy! Unfortunately, the Czechs didn't win (they were up 2-0 and then lost 3-2 with 2 last minute goals). We got slightly lost (again) on our way home, but made it back just fine.
Today, June 16, we got moving around 9:50 (breakfast ended at 10...yikes!) and enjoyed a slightly less extensive breakfast spread, but still good (fruit, cereal, bread, jellies, cheese, coffee, mysterious beverage we termed yellow water). We then went to Prague Castle. We hiked up quite a few steps to get to it, but luckily we arrived at the front gate just in time for the 12:00 changing of the guard, which we heard was the most impressive one. It consisted of 2 groups of soldiers marching around, some trumpet and drum playing, and a lot of precise movements. Quite impressive. They also have the guys who can't smile or whatever when you stand next to them so I got a picture, of course. We toured the Castle until 5:30. There is an amazing cathedral, a convent, an old palace where there used to be indoor jousting matches, a basilica, a cute little street with shops, and some intense gardens.
The whole castle doesn't look like the traditional castle as it was added onto as time went on and they weren't too concerned with everything matching. While there we had a traditional Czech meal, goulash, which is like a beef stew. I had the goulash menu (aka combo) which came with cabbage soup (amazing) and cheesecake. Mary and Rebecca then had to roll me out of the place.
So now we've finally found an internet cafe, after walking around in the rain asking people, so we have quite a sense of accomplishment and now that I look back on it, we have an internet addiction. Anyway, we're planning some of our future outings. We're looking into a ghost tour, a marionette show, some sort of funny mime show in a blacklight theater, and more goulash.
Some fun signs along the way. This one says that basically you can not do anything.
This one tells us to fall down the stairs in our hotel.
How Rebecca gets around Prague...
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