[pictures: 1. Sean; 2. Caitlin; 3. Alex, Coozy, Me, Katie, Caitlin at one of the bars; 4. hanging out up at Vysehrad; 5. sunset at Vysehrad]

So, tonight at midnight Andy, Pat, Beeler and I leave for our Slovakian National Park adventure and the beginning of our Fall Break. It should be pretty spectacular. Before taking off I wanted to give you a final update of the normal days in Prague. When I return I am sure there will be stories enough to satiate even the most avid of my blog followers.

We celebrated Sean's birthday on Saturday night. It was really fun! A big group of us went out and met up with some others. My friend Caitlin McDermott also came along for the wild ride which was really great! She is studying in Prague too and that was the first time we got together. Weird, but we are going to remedy that after my Fall Break. Anyway, we went out to a couple different bars, each slightly overwhelmed, I'm sure, by our numbers and volume. Theres just too much to relay so I'll just tell you about the parts I thought were funny. Halfway through the night I went up to the bar and told some of the guys we were with that I had never had a shot of tequila, so they proceeded to buy me some. I only took two, but it was their numbers 11 and 12. I really can't believe they are still alive! Insane. Another note worthy story is when we were in transit from one bar to the next. We were walking down the street and there was a pile of shoes so Donnie went over and grabbed a pair, asked me if I needed shoes, and when I answered no he preceded to say that it was okay because they were for his future Czech girlfriend. Pretty hilarious. And the best part of that story is that he carried them everywhere for the rest of the night. And then when I woke up in the morning and went upstairs they were in front of the girls' room. HAHA. I almost peed my pants, it was hilarious. The whole night was full of ridiculous stuff like that but it was awesome. We had a lot of fun!

The weather here has been superb lately. Its been pants and shirt weather so we have taken advantage of it because we've been assured it will end soon. We have gone up to Vysehrad a couple times to relax and read. One night we took some vino and pivo up there again. It doesn't get much better than that.

We had some of our midterms this week. Nothing too hard or special. I rocked both of them I am sure. Haha. But seriously, I am pretty confident.

I went to Sunday Night Football with the guys again this week. It was alright, the Chargers lost so Donnie and I were bent out of shape. But its still pretty fun. I also went to watch the Champions League games with Andrew and Elinor. Its really great to watch the games with some real fans. They get really intense and make the game that much better!

Now I am just super psyched for our Fall Break. And then shortly after that my darling family gets to come and be in the blog firsthand!

Little Snipits of my life in Prague

Just some more tidbits to announce/relay:
[these are going to be more in the form of stories]

So one night when Cody's friends were here, [the night we went to the club with the K building] Erinn and I were nice enough to escort his friends to the tram stop they needed because we were leaving at the same time. They needed to go to I. P. Pavlova, and for some strange reason Erinn and I didn't realize that we were needing to go the same way. So we took them and watched them get on that tram and then, after about 46 seconds realized thats the tram we needed too. So we took off running to try and catch it. Mind you it had rained and was still drizzling. So we're running the 200 yards to the right stop, over wet, slick, cobblestones praying that we wouldn't fall. Well, naturally, I fell. I fell to my knees, slid for about 6 feet, hand outstretched and popped up just in time to jump on the tram. It was a slide that any of my former softball coaches would be glad to take credit for; Erinn was rightly impressed. So we jump on the tram and then Erinn says, "Oh crap, Bonnie this is a bus, get off, get off!!" So we are laughing hysterically and make it off just in time. So when we finally get on the right tram and get off at Vaclavske Namesti Erinn hops off and her legs slide out from under her. So I start cracking up because now we have both made ourselves look like idiots. I cock my head back to let out a huge laugh and a raindrop from the roof lands on my tongue. I could have thrown up right there. It was a major issue, and totally gross. Then we went into the pizza place there and got scammed on; annoying to say the least, we just wanted to get some pizza.
So that was a silly little story.

On Friday there was a trip to Kutna Hora. Katie spent the night Thursday night in my extra bed. It was really fun! We had some good girl talk and Orange spent a lot of the night with us too. It was fun but we stayed up pretty late talking and everything. So we had to get to the main train station at 8 to leave for the trip. I set my alarm for 715 so we would have plenty of time. Well my alarm didn't go off, so we woke up when Heather called at 8 asking where we were. So we hopped out of bed and told her we were on our way. We climbed up the dreaded metro steps so fast. I was amazed at how we basically bounded up them like mountain goats. Once we got to the stop we ran through the station and up more stairs in hopes of making it to the bus. Bad news, we missed and we were pissed. But then we decided to let it go and have a great day in Prague, and have a great day we did. It was a really nice, relaxing day of exploration. It was the first day that I actually felt like I was living in Prague and not just visiting. We first went and got some breakfast at Cheers, but when we got there it wasn't open yet. After our delicious breakfast we went and got a Prague Post, which is the English newspaper to see what was going on. Nothing was going on. So we decided to just hop on a tram and explore. We crossed the river and got of at a main stop under the castle. We wanted to just walk around so we ended up down by the river where there were lots of really pretty swans and geese. We sat there enjoying the sun and each others company before we continued on and found the infamous "peeing statues." Katie and I were cracking up. They're pretty weird but funny to see. Next we found ourselves in front of the Lennon Wall. It was really cool and we read a lot of the quotes and added two of our own. We kept walking and saw a cool island in the middle of the Vltava that we decided was worth our effort. So we made our way there and sat and listened to music until we both decided our bones were chilled. We had a delicious lunch at Wigwam cafe before we made our way over to the American Embassy. On our walk there, a girl in front of us collapsed and started convulsing. It was actually very frightening but the ambulance was on its way so hopefully she is okay. When we finally got to the Embassy we were pretty sure they suspected us to be terrorists. They wouldn't take their eyes off of us when we crossed the street. It was pretty funny. All in all it was a great day! We had a lot of fun! Loved it! And everyone said it wasn't such a great trip to Kutna Hora so we were very pleased.

One night we went out and watched Monday Night Football with the guys. It was pretty fun. We met them there and watched a good two sets of games. It was at the same place that Andrew and I watched soccer at so there were many screens and many games. Lots of good fun.

Last night was really fun but really long for me. We all went out to meet up with Andy's Czech contacts. It was lots of fun but Beeler and I left early because we were tired. So we got back and I forgot my keys so I was locked out. I told Beeler that I was going to try and get into my room by knocking but that I might need to sleep in their room. I knocked on my door for about 10 minutes before giving up. I went up to her room and knocked but she was already asleep or something. So I went upstairs to the Unger's room because Alex had jokingly said that I could sleep in Sean's bed since he wasn't there. I figured that Max would be asleep anyway. When I got up the 94 stairs their door was open. So I had a choice to make: be creepy and sneak into Sean's bed without waking Max up or hang out in the hallway until someone came home. So I decided to take the creepy route in hopes that Alex would wake me up when he got home with all the others. Well after about 2 hours of sleep Alex came in, super drunk and jumped on me. It was pretty funny but he didn't come right up so by the time I left their room and came down all the knocked on doors didn't answer. It was dumb. I knocked on every USAC door and even tried to pick the lock on my door with my bobbypin. HAHA. So lame. Finally, I decided to just knock on my door until someone answered, so annoying. I felt so bad, but I wasn't about to spend the night in the hallway. So Yuri finally answered the door at about 6am. Pretty lame end to a fun night. And I am pretty sure Max thinks I am super weird because he didn't know I was there until Alex jumped on the bed. Oh well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Tonight we are going out for Sean's birthday. Caitlin McDermott is coming over so that should be really fun. I can't believe we haven't met up yet. She is studying in Prague this semester too. Tonight should be really fun!

Oh, and last night Katie helped me dye my hair. It was pretty hilarious and I am really glad it turned out good! Haha, could have been a disaster.

And because there are no pictures I will quote a John Mayer song brought to me from Katie:
"Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
just no more 3x5's Guess you had to be there
Guess you had to be with me Today I finally overcame
tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame"

- 3x5

Quick Update

Not a lot to report.

Here's just some tid-bits:

Andy's mom, aunt and girlfriend were in town so we did a lot with them. They are all really great. And, super weird, turns out Andy's girlfriend, Jenny, is from Rancho Bernardo, and is one of Todd's really good friends from middle school and high school. [For those, non family subscribers, Todd's mom and my darling mother have been best friends for a long while, so they're basically family.] So that was cool. Can't believe we figured that out here in Prague.
Anyway, we had some good dinners with them before Jenny went back to Spain and his family went back to the States.

Cody also has some friends here, so we took them out. It was fun. They are studying in Copenhagen so we discussed the differences in the programs and the locations. They [there were three boys] were all very nice and we actually met a young Czech student through them, so hopefully we can hang out with her again.
That night was my first night out with a different group. We went out with a lot of the people from the K building. I was reminded why I don't always hang out with them. Haha. They are all really nice people and I really do like hanging out with them, but I don't really like going out with them. They all get trashed every time, and to each his own, but thats not my style.

I have been hanging out with Katie and Skylar more though. They are both really great. Like I said before, Katie is hilarious. She is just so ridiculously funny, I don't think I need to do any belly workouts because she works it out enough. Its a good system. Skylar is really great too. She is much more subdued than Katie and I but its great. She is really smart. She is in my gender class too, so that has been fun.

Last night, Chesky, Beeler and I watched Homeward Bound, that dog movie from the early 1990s. Haha. It was pretty silly to watch it again and we kind of wondered why we loved it so much as kids. Oh well, it was enjoyable.

So I've basically just been taking it easy. Its been nice to stay in Prague for a while, but that is going to change soon. We are having our Fall Break soon, and then its off to Slovakian National Parks, Kosice, and Budapest for me [or at least thats the plan right now, but it keeps changing].

Just wanted to give you all an update, let you know I haven't forgotten about you! Miss you all!

TV tower

[pictures: 1. the freaky church; 2. the TV tower with the freaky babies; 3. view from the hill at the park; 4. view of other side from park; 5. chesky and kate walking up the hill]



Yesterday, Chesky, Kate and I decided to explore parts of the city we hadn't seen before. So we set off to the Zizkov area which is where the TV tower is. Its kind of strange because we have all been here for about a month and a half-ish so we are all settled and we forget that there is still so much we haven't seen. So we took a tram that I didn't even know existed and got off right by this really freaky looking church. At first we couldn't tell what the building was, but then we noticed there were crosses all over it. Freaky, it looks pretty modern, not like any church I have ever seen. Then we made our way over to the TV tower. Its pretty funky looking and shortly after it was made, an artist crafted some huge babies to have crawling up the sides. Its weird, and they're pretty big. We then walked around the streets making our way to the big park in the middle, right by Karlin. The map we have is good but obviously doesn't tell you about hills or valleys. So we thought we were super close to the park, but we weren't. We ended up having to walk all the way around to the front but it was a beautiful day so not too bad. We also came across a really pretty church so that was alright. Once we got to the park, there was a huge hill to climb. So we walked up slowly turning around to take in the views every once in a while. We also discovered the Museum of Military History. It has a big tank out in front of it. Might be worth going to. After that we walked up a little farther to see the biggest equestrian statue in the world, supposedly. But we went the wrong way so we only saw it from afar. Still looked huge.
Then we walked down and past the K building where we ran into Carmen and Channing, two girls from our program. So we went up and chatted for a little while before returning home to Slavojova.
Shortly after, we went to dinner with Andy's mom, aunt and girlfriend and then some other students [the usual]. We went to a delicious Afgani resturaunt. It was really good but I didn't have much, just some rice. I've come to the realization that I am poor. Haha. So I ate at home and just went out for the social aspect. After that, we went to another place because they all wanted to smoke Hookah. It was really fun. Then we walked around for a while trying to find another place to go and ended up at this really cool bar/club called Double Trouble. We got a few pivos/drinks there and danced a little. We came back, and started to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, but I was too tired so I just went to bed.
The weather is gorgeous again today so I think I might go to the park to do my reading and other homework. Then I can maybe get some sprints in again, who knows...

post tour

[pictures: 1. max on a break 2. the castle; 3. max and alex on our hike; 4. the sign for our hike, we passed through the bottom one; 5. max, geiger and alex on our hike; 6. alex, max, and giegier post hike, waiting for the train; 7. me blowing some glass]


So this week has been full of great things. Wednesday was pretty uneventful but I had class and caught up on some sleep.
Thursday morning, Alex, Max, and I went to meet Geiger for a hike in the countryside. We got to the bus station about 2 minutes before departure and couldn't find Geiger. We missed the bus but Geiger found us later so we decided to take the next bus in 45 minutes. So we bought a bus ticket for about 1.50 dollars and rode it out west for about 50 minutes. We got off in a little town and started walking to the next town. But, we got picked up so I had my first hitchhiking experience. It was really nice of the girl. She just pulled up next to us and asked if we wanted a ride. After we got to the next town, Geiger took us to a little cafe/bar place that he knew of. It was closed but the woman who owns it threw down the key and let us make some tea. It was really nice. The cafe was super cool and we hung out outside in the sunshine, great weather again. We sat around and had some tea, chatted and played with their dog before starting our hike. The first part was pretty intense with a hike up to a castle again. The castle was pretty cool and had an old wooden crane on the side that was pretty awesome. Then we hiked along the top ride on the edge of a forest. It was spectacular. We couldn't have picked a better day and all the fall colors were breathtaking. It was really great. We hiked through two towns and lots of country side. We were trying to catch a 18.00 train so we were kind of on a schedule but we were cruising, chatting and having a great time. It was awesome. When we were still about 3 miles away from our destination, we only had about 30 minutes, or so we thought. So Max and Alex said half serious, half joking, "Wanna run?" Geiger literally took off with the idea. He tightened his backpack and said yes and then started running. We all looked at each other, cracked up, and then took off after him. So basically after hiking 8 miles we ran the last 3 making our hike almost 11.5 miles. It was really great! Once we got to the train station Geiger read the schedule and realized that the train didn't come until 18.36 so we sat around and laughed about how we definitely didn't need to run. But all in all it was a great day, one of my favorites so far!
Then today we went on a little day trip to a glass blowing factory. It was pretty awesome. We got to blow glass and after it cools, this weekend they are going to send it to Prague for us to have. I was pretty good too, not going to lie. I'm sure you will all see it eventually. Haha. After the glass blowing we went to another town called Turnov where we had some lunch and then went to a Garnet factory. That was pretty cool but small so a lot of us went outside and played hacky sack or football. Then we came back to Prague. It was a really fun trip.
Tonight, in Prague they were having a sort of "club crawl." It is sort of like that Lange Nacht thing I did in Vienna but this time it was with live music in Cafes and bars. It was really cool. It was a fund raiser for a senior living home for seniors with disabilities. Pretty cool idea.
And now I am all caught up! Woho!
LOVE

Budapest, Bratislava, Devin

[pictures: 1. the pink bridge and the buda side; 2. on the way up to the citadel, looking at the castle; 3. heather and max hanging out at the top, overlooking the city; 4. the group enjoying vino at the castle; 5. the ruins at Devin]

Our third stop on the tour was in lovely Budapest. It was amazing, one of my favorite cities. On the bus ride to Budapest Sean, Erinn, Andy, Orange, Donnie, Chesky and some others played some cherades in the aisle. We only did movies, but it was really fun. It made the bus ride fly by. Once we got to Budapest we checked into our hotel which was super nice. We had huge rooms and balconies, awesome. After that we did a little city walk to our resturant, but we got stopped midway through trying to cross the main bridge. We didn't know what was going on but the bride was lit up pink and there were some famous people. Andy, Donnie and I went into the parade and got right behind the famous people, who we didn't know, but we got in every picture. Pretty funny. We ate dinner at a really nice place and we got to sample some delicious Hungarian red wine. We got served some liver ball soup that I actually ate this time, and a traditional goulash that was amazing. We also had another birthday celebration so we had some delicious cake as well. After dinner, while we were lingering, Sean challenged me to an arm wrestle, and I redefined myself as a "bad ass." I do my best. After that we walked up to the castle. It was really cool because everything was lit up and it looked very fairy tale-ish. After the walk, most of us were going to go to a club but after finding out that it was pretty far away we decided to take some pivos down to the Danube, which was right next to our hotel. It was really fun. We just sat on some steps and overlooked the river and talked. Very enjoyable. The next morning we woke up and took a tram to Hero's square. It was pretty cool. Jan, our director was crazy and climbed up the statues during the changing of the guard. He started climbing on everything in Budapest, pretty freaky. After Hero's square we went to the baths. They were really cool. I didn't have my bathing suit though so Heather and I just put our feet in. The water was really warm and I wished that I had brought my suit. We could have rented them but I'm not sure how that would have been. I left the baths with Max, Alex, Nick, and Coozy. We stopped for lunch and then went back to the hotel with a plan to meet down in the lobby at 13.45 to go up to the citadel. So we met and Max, Alex, Nick, Orange, Erinn, Heather and I set off for the hill. It was a pretty steep hill but it was totally worth it. As we said at the top "The hike up is always worth the view." It was a gorgeous day too, so that made it exponentially better. We hung out at the top taking in the view for a while and ate some ice cream and reflected on our exceptionally blessed lives. It was really fun. On the way down we ran into this guy doing some slight of hand stuff and the boys were dumb and bet money and lost of course. Nick was super dumb and lost over 200 euros. What a dummy. Alex and I were just watching the whole time trying to figure it out. Lame. After that we walked along the river to get even with Parliment so we could get some good pictures. It was such a nice day. I also really like hanging out with those guys, they're pretty great! After that we crossed back over to the Pest side and walked to the huge church. I can't remember the name but I think Max said it was the biggest in Budapest. It was really gorgeous. We spent a while there and then decided to go to the Market. Unfortunately, by the time we walked there it was already closed but we got to look inside. It looks pretty spectacular. After the market, Erinn and Heather went shopping and Max, Alex and I walked back to our hotel along the river. It was sunset so that was gorgeous. Right when we got back to the hotel, Andy, Pat, Andrew, Adnan, Beeler, and Chesky were going to meet Jenny, Sean, Cody and Elinor to go to the Labyrinths under the castle. I decided, "what the heck?" and joined them. We booked it over to the castle and made it just in time. They started out really cool but got progressively more corny and less appealing. But just the fact that we were in prehistoric caves was pretty superb. Also, there was one room with a wine fountain. Pretty freaky. After the Labyrinths we split up for a little. Some people went to get some chess sets, others went back to the hotel and Chesky, Adnan, Beeler and I went to dinner. It was a delicious restaurant along the Danube, and was very cheap considering the quality of the food. I stuffed myself, of course, before we met back at the bridge to take some Vino up to the castle. We walked up to the "eagle" where we spent some time looking over the city. We eventually made it to what we call Aladdin's hideout. It was really fun. We just hung out and took it all in. It was great!
The next morning we left for Prague but stopped in Bratislava first. We stopped at the castle and got a brief history. Its really weird to look at the skyline of Bratislava because of all the Communist housing and factories that dot the city. It was weird. They have that in Prague too but its pretty far outside of the city. Then we walked to the main square where we had some free time before lunch. The usual group of us went to a chocolate cafe. It was really delicious. We got hot chocolate which was more like melted chocolate that you ate with a spoon. It was awesome! Then we went to lunch and got a typical Slovakian meal. I'm not sure what it was but it tasted delicious! Then we boarded the bus and headed to the ruins at Devin.
The ruins were pretty cool. Again, it was gorgeous weather so you could see forever. I climbed on them again, but this time others joined me. It was great. There was also a wishing well which we got the whole history on. It was really interesting.
All in all it was a fantastic trip. I just wish we had more time in all the places!

Lange Nacht

So next on the great 5 day tour was Vienna. Shortly after crossing the Austrian border Chesky and I listened to the Sound of Music soundtrack. It's almost impossible not to right, especially me being my mothers daughter. It was great fun. Then we went through our extensive musical libraries and played all the songs we had that made any reference to Vienna. Before actually entering the city part of Vienna we went to the largest hill that lends a stunning view of the entire city. The name is eluding me a the moment but it was fantastic. The only bummer was that it wasn't as clear as it could have been, but impressive nonetheless. We then proceeded to walk down the hill into Vienna. It was a really nice walk through a lot of vineyards. Naturally we picked grapes and then had seed spitting competitions, which I won of course. All my years of softball and sunflower seeds really paid off. Haha. The bus met us down at the bottom.
Next we all piled off the bus for a lunch of Schnitzel. Boy, do I love my German food. I also introduced the entire table to Radler, a type of beer that is mixed with a lemon drink. It's fantastic. After lunch we checked into the hostel which was really great. This time I shared a room with Chesky, Erinn, Beeler, Heather and Kaite. It was really fun. Shortly after checking in there was an optional city walk that was offered. "Why not?" was our approach, so we joined and it ended up being the best thing we could have done. We walked to the Museumquartier which houses many of the museums in Vienna. We saw the Maria Teresea statue [for those of you who don't know because I didn't, she is the only woman ruler from the Hapsburg dynasty] and we went to a really cool church that I can't remember the name of. It was really cool though because they were having mass. It was interesting to see. And now the reason it was great to go on the walk was because of this activity in the city called Lange Nacht. What it was is all the museums of Vienna are open for the night, until 2 am. You pay one fee of about 15 dollars and then you get free entry to any museum you want to go to. It was amazing! And because we went on the walk they bought it for us. AWESOME. So we went back to our hostel for dinner, there was a doner place right next to it, great location! Then Cheksy and I went to the Lange Nacht. She is a great museum partner, let me just say that. Our first stop was a really freaky modern art museum that used clothes to[Chesky and me in front of the Albertina] create things like trees and flowers. It was really cool. They also had a cool slide show of people holding up magazines that had prints of torsos on them so it looked like the paper was their torso [hope that makes sense]. Then we went to the Leopold which houses many of the German impressionists like Schiele and Klimt. It was really interesting because I really didn't know anything about them. There were also some cool art nouveau exhibits. After the Leopold we went to Albertina. This was my choice because I wanted to see the VanGogh exhibition. On the way in we saw some other students on the way out and they warned us that it was a zoo. Once we got inside we realized they were underestimating the craziness in the rooms. It was insane, I have never seen so many people in one exhibit. Out of control. It was really awesome though to see the self portrait and also to see some of his sketches and drawings. I had never seen any of them before. But we got out of there because it was so crazy. On the way out we saw a sign for an exhibit called Monet bis Picasso. We were intrigued so we descended the escalator, by far the best choice we could ever have made. Downstairs was a private collection of the greatest magnitude I could imagine. It was insane. Each room you walked in there was a painting you had seen in a picture or a name you heard. I saw Monet, Picasso, Chagall, Degas, Matisse, Klee, and many others. It was amazing, and I know I am not doing it justice in this blog. Bottom line: if you go to Vienna, go to the exhibit. As we were walking out we ran into the Ungers, Coozy and Nick. They only had three tickets and we were ready for a coffee break so I lent Coozy my ticket and then Chesky and I went to a cafe to wait and eat. We got some Viennese coffee and Kaiserschmarrn. Sooo good. It felt really good to sit down too. We were exhausted but like we originally thought, when would we ever get the chance to do something like this again, for free. So we met back up with them and then ran into Cody, Heather and Erinn too. Our next stop was the butterfly house. It wasn't nearly was cool as it seemed. There were cool butterflies but not as many as I had imagined and there were lots of roaches because it was so warm and tropical in there. But it was cool. After that we stumbled home, all of us sleep deprived beyond belief. We were probably delirious but it was a great walk home. In the morning we had to check out of the hostel at 10 but we then had some free time. Andy, Chesky, Beeler, Adnan, Pat, Nathan and I went to the Freud museum, which was really interesting. None of us realized that it was going to be all his old stuff, so that was really neat. We then wandered down to the river and stumbled upon the "fairness zone". It is an area down by the river where people can graffiti and write anything and everything. It was really neat so we spent some time there. After that we slowly made our way back to the meeting point and stopped for a doner on the way. On the way out of Vienna, we stopped for a while at the Hundertwasser village. It was pretty freaky but really cool. The architecture was really weird and modern. A great way to end a great stay in Vienna.

"When in Krumlov"

[from right to left: Beeler, Erinn, Alex the birthday boy, me and Max]

So before I get started on my trip to Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava, and relay all the details of serenades, castles, drunken river nights, and speedo clad geriatric patients let me first being with the night before.

So Thursday night was our beloved slavobro, Alex Ungers' birthday. So naturally we celebrated. Before actually joining the boys for a night of "Steak and Titties" [their words] Andy, Beeler, Sarah Jo, Erinn, Kate, Pat, Adnan, Nate, Andrew, Chesky, and I went to a little [though not too little to accommodate us] bar down the street from the K apartments. There we consumed a very impressive 32 pivos. Then we ventured over to Popsicle Square where we met the Ungers [Max and Alex], Orange, Nick, Sean, and Coozy at the Beer Factory. At every table in the factory there is are four taps where you just get glasses and pour your own beers. Its [Andy, me, Beeler] really fun, and they put up the "high scores" on a screen so you can race if you want. Well there was really no shot for anyone else in the place because before the large group of us even got there, the boys had consumed about 8 liters themeselves. We raised it to an impressive +16.4. [I say plus because that was the last time we documented the actual amount.
Shortly after we re-emerged from the factory to begin the "titties" part of the night [don't be too appalled yet, just hear me out]. We were waiting on the corner for a while because some of the others, I guess, weren't quite ready to leave. So I started talking to a really nice Australian boy, his name is Nick, but we will call him Random Aussie #1 [you'll understand later]. After that we ventured down the street to the strip clubs. I, and some others opted out of that escapade and went to a sportsbar down the street, hoping for soccer but settling for baseball. Not much transpired there until we left to go to a bar called The Globe to watch the VP debates that were being aired at 3 in the morning. It turned out to be a bad life choice but we wanted to do our civic duty and be as in the know as possible when November 4th rolls around.

So it was only a bad life choice because it meant that I got home at about 4.15 am and had to be at a bus station at 7.30am. Not much time for shut eye. But we made it and I passed out on the way to Cesky Krumlov, which was the first stop on our 5 day tour of four countries. We just wanted to start the marathon off with a sprint as they say. Before getting to Cesky Krumlov, we stopped at ancient ruins that are from B.C. Pretty awesome. They were a Celtic settlement that was inhabited before the Slavs even came to that area. It was pretty inaccessable so we had to hike to get there and we acutally got to see some lumberjacks felling trees. First time for everything I guess. Once we got to the ruins it was pretty spectacular. Andy and I decided to do some exploring and climbed into one of the windows of the ruins. I then decided, after being assured it was kosher, to climb up to the top. It was really amazing and I earned a reputaion of not being a dainty girl. Not sure why they ever thought I was, seeing as how I am probably the least girly girl here. But anyway, we then continued on to Cesky Krumlov which is a small and beautiful town south of Prague. We got dropped off at our hostel and then we picked up a very hurried lunch before we went to the castle for a tour. As a side note, our hostel room was called Show White and the Seven Dwarfs. And that is not a typo, it actually said show. This will come into play later which is why I took the time to write it now.
So we made it to the tour just barely and got a complete history. It was a really great tour. The man's name is Bryce and he is really great. He is actually from Florida and moved to Prague and then Cesky Krumlov where he is now some sort of castle official. Anyway, the tour was one of the best I have been on. The castle is also really cool because the last family who owned it was really rich and had to leave abruptly, during Hitler's regime, and they were very meticulous about their inventories so the castle looks almost exactly as it did when they lived there. It is not "museumed" out, but very historically accurate.
After the tour Chesky and I returned to the hostel for a quick nap and were later joined by the others in our room, being Erinn, Beeler, Sarah Jo, Heather, Alyssa and Katie. During our nap these two guys poked their heads in looking for a guy but got an invitation from Erinn to come in. They declined and left. Soon after we left for dinner at the local brewery. Unfortunately, I caught a cold, probably from the lack of sleep and pivo consumption, so I didn't really drink any of the beer, just a taste. It was good. Bryce showed up at the end of dinner with his guitar and he began playing songs that we know. Needless to say, it turned into a full fledged concert for the other guests, who surprisingly liked drunken serenades. Who would have thought?
After dinner, well actually when the restaurant stopped selling them all beer we left. Thankfully we split into groups, well two groups. The ones who like to party went to the only club in town, and the rest of us went to Cafe VanGogh with Petr, Geiger, and Bryce. The others included: me, Chesky, Andrew, Andy, Nate, Pat, Skylar, Alyssa and Eli. It was really fun. We just sang and talked and had a great time.
So when we returned to Show White we swapped stories with Heather and Erinn and found out we missed Sean pole dancing, but not much more. So now it is about 1.45 am and we are all sound asleep. Around 2.30am a bulky man enters our room, half naked, and crawls into bed with Erinn. I'm not sure why Erinn didn't castrate him, knock him out, scream, or do anything to deter him, because if he had tried to climb into my bed, he would have been terribly sorry when he woke up. But she let him in and it turned out to be the guy from earlier, who "we invited to come back later." HAHA. His name is Dean but we will call him Random Aussie #2. Our group attracts Aussies like moth to a flame apparently. But anyway, so we were chatting with him and then in a moment of silence he assures us he isn't fat, therefore winning the nickname Walrus for the rest of the night. When Katie and Alyssa arrived back to the hostel, Katie marches in and says, "if there is a boy in this room, I'm gonna be PISSED." She had been blown off by some German guy on her birthday and was none to pleased by it. She went out to smoke a cigarette and said "When I come back Aussie, if your not in my bed, I'm gonna bust this place up." Dean was legitimately terrified of her. It was probably one of the funniest things EVER. And this isn't one of my exaggeration evers, but I mean really, ever. Hilarious. The next morning we woke up with about two hours of sleep behind us again. Nice. And that concludes the Cesky Krumlov part of the tour. It was pretty fabulous.

I lied

Sorry, I lied, but I didn't think we were going to do anything worth noting today. But this is too good to tack on to the Vienna/Budapest trip.
Today Chesky, Beeler, Andy, Nate and I went up to Petrin hill and then we went to the mini Eiffel Tower. When we got off the tram we walked up this little hill and found a really cool Communism memorial. At first one part of the body is missing, than another and another until the body seems to totally disappear. Its actually quite bizarre. There was actually another one but it got destroyed in some bombing in 2003 I guess. Pretty weird.
Then we headed up to the tower. You have to take a freaky little thing that takes you up the hill. Its kind of scary but lends some great views. Once we got to the tower we became hesistant because of all the stairs we saw. It ended up being only 303 but it looks like way more because you see the stairs going up and the stairs coming down. The top of the tower was awesome! Its definitely something anyone who comes here should do. It was also really pretty because of all the trees starting to change color. Beautiful! Its fun because we are finally able to see things and know what they are and then we can find other parts of the city, so we were doing that for a while. After coming down we went over to a mirror maze but didn't want to pay for it so we started exploring instead. Andy and I found a little staircase off the main way so we went down it and then Nate explored it more. This big group of German students was walking by and they saw us down there and stopped to look at us. Then Andy started nodding so they all filed down the steps and kept going. It was pretty funny. They thought it was going to be something great i guess, which it was cool, but nothing special. Haha. We also found this really big sandstone boulder that tons of people have carved things into, so naturally we did the same thing. It was fun to climb on as well. Anyway, that is a place I definitely want to revisit.

[Andy carving his initials into the boulder]

hold please

Hello all.
I just wanted to let you know that I won't be posting for about a week. Instead I will be out exploring and adventuring in Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava. But I am certain I will have plenty to report upon my return so just sit back and relax your eyes because the next one is sure to be epic. Miss you all!
LOVE

gambrinus

So not a lot to report.
Monday was a pretty lazy day. I didn't have class so I slept in and relaxed until lunch time. I had some lunch and then a bunch of us went to the park right by our apartment. I didn't even know it existed but it is a great little park, and when I say little I don't actually mean little. It has a lot of cool stuff including a great court for soccer and basketball and a really cool play area for kids with a zip line that I am sure will be frequented in the subsequent months. So we [Chesky, Beeler, Andrew, Sean M, Adnan, Donnie, Coozy, Nick, Jenny, and Andy went to the park. We kicked the ball around for a little while until the guys started playing basketball, not really my thing. So I watched until it was over and then convinced everyone to play soccer too. There were these two Czech boys there who were passing in the court too so I invited them to play. They were really funny. We played a scrimmage, my team won of course. And then we decided to play World Cup which is a really fun game, but not worth the trouble to describe to those who don't know it. Anyway, after World Cup, I decided to do some sprints but couldn't get anyone to do them with me so I did them alone until people decided I was tired enough and not a threat anymore. Then it turned into races. It was pretty funny. At one time there was about eight of us racing, pretty silly to see I'm sure. After that we went home and nothing exciting.
This morning I had Art and Architecture. We had lecture and then we went to Old Town Square to see first hand the architecture. Its pretty fun to go on field trips all the time and see first hand examples. Life's tough, huh? Then I had Gender Studies. I love that class.
Tonight was really fun. Andrew and I went to a sports bar and watched the Champions League games. Basically we were watching the Arsenal game but the Man U game was on and so was the Kiev game. So we got to the bar about one minute before kickoff and it was packed. So we asked these two British guys if we could sit with them and they said yes, luckily. So we got some pivos, and it became apparent why people like Monday night football so much, though I can't say much for the sport itself...haha. So the British guys were pretty amiable, or as amiable as two ManU fans can be to an Arsenal fan. And then these two Czech guys sitting next to us started talking to me and it was pretty hilarious. They were telling me all these Czech sentences and they thought it was hilarious that I am not at all a fan of Ronaldo. Yes, he did afflict me constantly from the screen. So after getting my e-mail address, at the end of the game, the two Czech guys left and then Andrew and I followed shortly after. I then met up with Chesky, Andy, Cody, Pat, Beeler, Nate, and Geishol. It was pretty great cause they were showing the Champions League highlights at the bar they were at. It was like deja vu. Haha. Thats about it for now. LOVE.