"Everywhere you look, a story can be told"

I spent all of today walking around the city, and it was the perfect way to spend the day. My roommate, Jenny, and I woke up early, grabbed some breakfast at the pension, and headed out at 10:30am to start our productive exploration day. We really lucked out with the weather today- 37 degrees and not a cloud in the sky!

We started off by taking the tram to Ujezd Street, to make our way towards Petřín Hill. On our way over, we came across this sculpture:

"The Disappearer"

These statues are of a man walking down a set of stairs, and are supposed to represent the negative effects of Communism on the people of the Czech Republic. This was one of the things that I was looking to check off of my "czech list" so I'm really glad that I got to see it. From there, we took another tram up to the top of Petřín Hill to visit the observation tower, which is just like a mini version of the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top of the tower was breathtaking- you get a 360° view of the entire city, and it's definitely worth the 50 kronas it cost to see it. The city is so colorful from a sky view, and I didn't realize until then how much more of it I have to see!

Jenny and Me, on the observation tower

For lunch, we were lucky enough to come across a small Czech BBQ-type festival happening on Petřín Hill, complete with whole roasting pigs and Czech sausages sizzling on the grill. So, of course, I had to get a sausage, and it was SO GOOD! After that, we walked all the way down the hill to check out Cafe Savoy to try some of their famous (and expensive) hot chocolate. It tasted just like a melted candy bar, and it was so delicious! We then ended our day walking over to the Charles Bridge to watch the sun begin to set. I'm going to have to make that part of my weekly routine, because seeing the sun set on the river is just too gorgeous to pass up.

An even better part of my day was getting to Skype with a lot of my family back home tonight! I'm sad that I'm missing out on Momu's birthday celebration with everyone, but I'm so happy that I got the chance to talk to everybody and catch up :)

Friday, already?

This week has flown by so quickly, and I can't believe it's already the weekend. Some people went to Krakow this weekend, last minute trip, but I decided to hang back in Prague and do a little more exploring. I've still got a whole "czech list" of places that I want to visit and restaurants I want to eat at! Plus, I figured that I should save my cash for when I go to Paris next weekend with the program. I'm so excited to be going, and I might even get the chance to see my friend, Christine, who is studying abroad there right now. I've already started scoping out some little crepe stands and coffee shops that I want to check out while I'm there.

As far as this week goes, not a whole lot happened. Tuesday was National Margarita Day back in the US, so I went out after dinner with some people to grab a few drinks, of course getting one margarita. Wednesday, I went to go see The Magic Flute at the Estates Theater with some people from my studio and I really enjoyed it! This opera was much better, in my opinion, than Cosi Fan Tutte. It was really funny, the music was incredible, and the costumes and set design were so great! Thursday, I was in class all day and then I ended the day going out to dinner with a bunch of people from the program. One of the landscape architecture professors and one of the grad students are returning to the US today, so we all decided to go out and have one last celebration with them. We ate at this little Czech restaurant, U medvídků, which had some of the best goulash and beer cheese that I have ever tasted. I was stuffed to the point that my pants unzipped themselves when I sat down- I was practically busting out of my jeans because of all the food and beer I consumed. I guess it's time to go shop for some bigger pants!

My plan for the day is to go walk around a little bit, and maybe check out the Communism Museum. It's a gorgeous day here- FINALLY a temperature above 32 degrees, and lots of sunshine! And from the forecast this morning, it looks like the weather is only going to get better, with temperatures going up to almost 40 degrees and sunshine everyday :)

Oh, and I finally finished my beret, so now I'm fully ready to go to Paris.

Is it glamorous enough for me to blend in with the Parisians?

"Miluji Praha!"

(that means "I love Prague!" Just trying to practice...)

This weekend was really nice! It was weird having half the group gone, but at the same time it was great having a lot of space and quiet time. Friday night, I went out with some of the people that didn't go to Vienna to a bar down the street from the pension and hung out for a little bit- overall, a pretty easy-going night. Saturday, I planned on walking around the city a lot, just to explore, but I ended up not being able to tolerate the 30 degree temp outside. So, I only made it to the Charles Bridge and then headed back to the pension to finish my book and snack all day long.
Sunday, however, was a much more productive day! It was still pretty chilly out (about 32 degrees), but I decided to tough it out and go walking anyways. I walked over to Mala Strana, on the other side of the Charles Bridge, and just explored the shops and sights. I ended up walking down towards the shore of the Vltava River and found my new favorite spot in the city.

View of the Charles Bridge

I found this little park right down the street from the Kafka Museum in Mala Strana that sits right next to the river. It was so peaceful, and I know it's going to be even more beautiful during the spring time with the great view of the Charles Bridge and the city. I can't wait to go back there when it's a little warmer!
Later that night, I went to go see Swan Lake with some of the people in the other fashion studio and I loved it. I enjoyed every single part of the ballet- the dancing, music, costumes, set design. I actually got goosebumps watching the dancing. I'm just blown away by how graceful ballerinas can be while dancing on their toes, because I would be tripping and falling on my face all over the stage.

The more things I experience with this program, the more I realize how fortunate I am to be getting this opportunity. And everyday I grow fonder of this city, even if it is freezing outside. Now I realize why it has picked up the nickname of the "Golden City"- I LOVE PRAGUE!

Studio time

I'm on a roll with this beret project!

I haven't showered yet and i've been up since 7am, so don't judge my looks...

Hopefully I'll be done with it this weekend :)

Last night, we all went out to the opera at the Estates Theater and it was pretty fun. The opera itself, I have to say, was not so great. But, according to a random woman I spoke to during intermission, this one was really "flat and bland." So, I'm not going to judge all operas from this one... we went and saw Cosi Fan Tutte. The music was beautiful, and I really enjoyed the orchestra- the story was very slow-moving and boring, though. Oh well! But, it was made a lot more fun by all of the people there, and the drinks served to us during intermission...

Part of the group and me (middle) during intermission

Tonight, I went with some of the girls from the other fashion studio to go see Jesus Christ Superstar. It was all in Czech so it was definitely interesting to try and keep up with what was going on. I've never seen the play the before, so I didn't quite understand what was going on in certain parts... for example, there was this guy dancing around in a glittery robe with a horribly orange tan and a blonde afro and a little leaf crown on his head, and I'm not sure what his role was because they never said his name. I think he might've been the king? I don't know, it might just remain a mystery. But it was A LOT of fun, and a lot different from the other plays that I usually see!
This weekend, about half of the group here is going to Vienna. And since I've already been, I'll be hanging out here in the city this weekend, relaxing. I'm planning on sleeping in, wandering around, and getting in a little more studio time- sounds like a good weekend to me!

First Day of Classes

I can already tell that this is going to be a great semester, just after two classes today!
I started off with my Intro to Czech Language class at 9:30am, and my professor seems really amazing. She's a very happy and outgoing person, and understands that because Czech is a REALLY difficult language to learn, not all of us are going to pick it up right away. I was kind of just expecting that we would just do the usual "Tell me your name and three things about you" deal that usually happens on the first day of classes. But, I was pleasantly surprised when she started right off with a pronunciation and vocabulary lesson! I already feel like I'm more comfortable now to go places and order food or try to communicate with the locals :)
My next class was my fashion studio, and I love it already. They assigned us our play today that we'll be designing costumes for this semester: The Insect Play by Josef + Karel Čapek. I had never heard about it before, but we read a little about it, and it seems really interesting. I'm most excited to begin the process of picking the characters we'll be designing for- I'm hoping to get the ant or cricket costumes, but we'll see what happens!
We were also given our first project of the semester today- we get to embroider and embellish a beret given to us in any way we want. That way, when we all go to Paris in two weeks, we'll all be stylin'! I've already started sketching out some ideas and messing around with some fabric to see what I'm gonna do. I'm so glad to be getting back into sewing again!
Oh, and to make our Valentine's Day complete, one of our studio professors brought us to a local chocolate museum for a tour, some free samples, and they even bought us some little chocolate treats afterwards. It was such a sweet surprise!
Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

The Bone Church in Kutná Hora

Today was AWESOME. A bunch of us decided to go to Kutná Hora, a really small town about an hour outside of Prague, where the famous Bone Church is located. There was about 20 of us that went this morning, and it was definitely interesting trying to catch the transportation over there...
Since we were out of internet for the past day or two, we only had one person who knew the directions of getting over there and what train to catch. Needless to say, it was a challenge. We had some people purchase the wrong tickets, myself included, about 15 minutes before the train left, so we had to quickly exchange them and then sprint for the train right before it departed. And we made it just in time- definitely an experience!
Once we got there, we went to visit our first destination: the very morbid Bone Church, also known as the Sedlec Ossuary. It is ridiculous how many skeletons are packed into this one little church in a town stuck in the middle of nowhere- around 40,000 skeletons, all belonging to people who died of the bubonic plague. It was really overwhelming to enter the church and immediately see thousands of skulls greeting you as you walk in! I put up some more pictures of it all on my online photo album, I definitely recommend checking them out.
After that, we all split up for lunch and some of the group took the next train back to Prague. I decided to hang back with some of the other people to check out the rest of the town since we had the rest of the day left. We basically just wandered around, walked up to the St. Barbara Church, ventured down some roads where we didn't know where they went... it was a really nice way to spend the day. There was a lot more to the town than I expected, so I'm really glad that I stuck around for the rest of the day to check it out.

Very picturesque, right?

Motor Cafe

My new favorite place- an internet cafe right up the street from the pension. Free internet with the purchase of a beverage, I can handle that!

The writing is backwards on the cup?

Tonight we've got a group dinner with everyone in the program and some of the program directors out at a traditional Czech restaurant. And tomorrow, the plan is to go to the Bone Church in Kutna Hora with some people. I'm really excited about it, it'll definitely be an interesting day trip! I'll post some pics when I'm able to :)

FINALLY getting started!

We had orientation yesterday and it's making me even more antsy to get this semester started! Yesterday, we took a small walking tour around the area right by the institute, so we know where the cheap markets are, and more good stuff like that. We also stopped by the local public library to check it out and found this, as we walked through the front door:

A giant tunnel/tower of books!! SO COOL!

We just got done with our studio orientations, and I can't wait to start the projects that we'll be working on. My professors are really nice, and they are hilarious, so it's definitely going to be a lot of fun. Our studio space is really nice- very spacious and we've all got our own designated tables and working space, which makes things so much easier! So, that's all I really have to update on so far- basically I'm just getting prepped for classes.
The internet here is not so great, but I'll still try to keep posting pictures on my online albums (you can get to them by looking the right side bar of this blog and clicking on "Photo Albums").

I moved into the pension today, and I am so excited about this semester! Nicole and I are rooming together,  and also with her friend, Jenny, who she knows from working at the school radio station. Our room is HUGE, and I feel really lucky that we have so much space- there are some other girls who have three to a room with much smaller rooms. We've got lots of space and even an extra bed, I guess just in case someone comes and visits. It's finally sinking in that I'm here for school, and not just on a really long vacation. I've met some really cool students so far and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them better as the semester goes on. I haven't really done too much today, basically just moved in and then went out to dinner with some girls I met in the pension.
We all have orientation at 9:30 am tomorrow, so I'm going to have an early night and try to go to bed at a decent hour. I'm really excited to get school started, as surprising as that may sound. But, after having 2.5 months off from any routine at all, I'm really glad to finally be getting back into the swing of things :)
I'll post some pictures up of our room in the pension soon, once we get situated here. "Dobrou noc!" (goodnight!)

Wall of locks, right down the street from the Lennon Wall.

Not too much happened today- did a little bit of walking around and bought my first Prague souvenir- a small painting of the city, and I love it! It was perfect weather today (sunny and 50 degrees), so Nicole and I decided to stroll across the Charles Bridge and soak up some vitamin D. We also checked out the famous "Lennon Wall" and it reminded me a lot of the Free Expression Tunnel on NCSU's campus. It was pretty cool, but I personally thought that the wall of locks we stumbled upon right down the road was much cooler. Lots of random bike locks, key locks, and combination locks all piled up on this one wall... really cool! If you're interested, check out the pics I posted on my online album (the link is on the side bar of this blog: "Photo Albums")
We also decided to try fried cheese sandwiches today. As horrible as they might sound, they were really pretty tasty, especially with some good beer to go along with it :)
We move into the pension tomorrow, and I can't wait to get there. Unfortunately, that means that I have to repack all of the clothes that I have thrown out of my suitcase while staying here the past week... I probably should have tried to be a little bit neater.

Weekend getaway

Just got back from a quick weekend trip to Vienna about 2 hours ago, and I am exhausted. It was such a fun and busy trip! We left for Vienna on Saturday morning at about 6:30 am, and arrived there at about 11:30 am. Nicole's friend, Claudia, was nice enough to let us stay with her for the weekend at her apartment, which was only a few blocks away from the city center. It was perfect!
We spent all Saturday sightseeing, using our handy Rick Steves' travel book. Although it was extremely windy (I was almost blown over a few times), it was the perfect day for being out-and-about all day, with a temp of about 50 and lots of sunshine! We started off walking towards the city center, making a stop at the Belvedere Palace to snap a few pics. From there, we went to the Opera house and into Kärntner Strasse, which is basically a big shopping square- a very busy area that definitely gave off the "big city" vibe. Right at the end of Kärntner Strasse is Stephenplatz, where St. Stephen's Cathedral is located. It's impossible to miss this massive cathedral...

It definitely stands out, right?

Discovering that it was free entry (a very rare thing to find here), we went in only to be put in more awe of this church. You walk in and immediately look down the nave, said to be more than a football field long and nine stories tall. It's lined with pillars covered in statues and decorated with paintings all over. I was blown away by how ornate the structure of this cathedral is.
After the cathedral, we went down Graben, another big shopping area in the city. Fun fact: Graben means ditch, which this street used to be- it was originally a moat for the Roman military camp back in the day! Around the corner is Hofburg Palace, where the Habsburg emperors lived most of the year. And that's where our tour ended on Saturday. After seeing all the tourist sights, we went out to dinner and a party with Claudia and some of her friends who live in the city. It was tons of fun, but I definitely wore myself out after such a long day!
After sleeping in a little bit this morning, we saw our last sight of the city at Schönbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Habsburgs. Not only is the palace itself massive, but it is on an immense amount of land! The gardens were very impressive, and I can't imagine how beautiful they must be when everything is in bloom during the spring and summer. I might have to make another visit just to see that again later on in the year...

View of the gardens from the back of the palace.

Fun fact: Schönbrunn's park has been open to the public since 1779, while the monarchy was still going strong- pretty cool of Maria Theresa to allow that! At the top of the hill at the end of the gardens is the Gloriette, supposedly a monument to the idea of "just war." The most amazing part about the Gloriette, though, is the view overlooking the palace grounds from its balcony.

Ahhhhhmazing.

Okay, I think I've said enough about Vienna for the night. I just realized that it's 1 am here, so it's definitely time for bed. But, if you're interested in seeing some more photos from this trip, go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50374522@N02/
The album is on the right side of the page, along with my Prague album I started.

Free tour- OK!

Today was amazing. Nicole found out about some free tours around the city on Facebook, so we decided to check it out. The tour was great, I think we definitely had the best tour guide around. Basically how the tour works is that it's completely free, but the guides work on a tip-paid basis. I can honestly say that our guide, Michael, definitely earned a good tip- he taught us a lot about the city.
We started off at the Astronomical Clock at 2pm for "the show." I never really realized why the clock was such a big deal until now! At the hour, it chimes, and then two little doors open above the clock where the 12 apostles rotate. On the sides of the clock, there are four wooden figurines, the most important being Death, who shakes his time teller indicating "It's time to die!" Pretty creepy if I do say so myself. Then at the end of all of that, a trumpet player begins playing a little tune to indicate the change of the hour. It was pretty cool.

Can you see the apostles in the windows above the clock?
And if you look hard, you can see the little figurines
to the left and right of the clock...

Oh, and one more thing we learned about the history behind the clock: the man who made the clock had both of his eyes speared by a hot iron rod to blind him, and his tongue cut off so he couldn't share his secrets of making this unique clock for any other cities. So to get his revenge, he went up into the clock tower, reached his hand into the clock, and pulled out a tiny coil that broke it. And it's said that right as he did this, he passed away, leaving the clock broken and no one knowing how to fix it for the next 100 years. Fun fact!
After the clock, we strolled through Old Town Square, and from there went to New Town, then Wenceslas Square (located in New Town, and the main shopping area of the city), the Jewish Quarter, and ended the tour right on the other side of the Vltava river from the Prague Castle. The tour ended  perfectly with a view of the Prague Castle lit up as the sun went down.

It was a great day, and I must say I am exhausted from the 4.5 hours of walking we did around the city. But it was amazing to learn so many things about this magnificent city I'm in, FOR FREE! I won't include all of the stuff I learned today in here, because it would go on for about another three pages. But if you're interested in getting a brief history on Prague, send me an email and I'll be willing to share.

Tomorrow, Nicole and I are heading to Vienna very early in the morning. We're staying with her friend who lives in the city, and plan on sight-seeing all day tomorrow, and make our return on Sunday evening. I will take plenty of pictures to share, and I will be sure to make a post on here once I'm back!
If you want to see more pictures of my trip so far, check out the album I put up online:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50374522@N02/
If that doesn't work, comment on this post and let me know! I've got lots of pics on there that I want to share!

Snow in the city!

Dancing in the snow!

We got some snow today! And it made the city look even prettier, if that's possible.
Our friends Ella and Brittany came in this morning so we met up with them and got on the metro to head out towards the Prague Castle. We skipped the tour through the castle and opted to walk through the St. Vitus Cathedral instead, which was unbelievable. It was huge, and the stained glass windows were gorgeous.

Entrance to the cathedral

Inside of the cathderal

We were left in awe by the beautiful view of the entire city from the outside of the castle.

After that, we decided to walk over to a monastery only a few blocks down the road and grab some lunch. At this monastery, they have their own brewery and restaurant, where they brew all of their own beer. We tried the house brew and it was SO GOOD. If I get the chance, I definitely think I'll be returning for some more. Following that, we headed back into the main part of town to check out some shopping sites and walked into a thrift store where we served some free wine while shopping. What a nice surprise! Needless to say, I was feeling pretty well by the end of that shopping trip. Overall, this was a pretty perfect day! Eventful, but still kind of relaxing.

So, at the moment, I'm back at the apartment relaxing on the couch and enjoying being inside. I'm really starting to notice how all of the walking I've been doing catches up to me by the end of the day!

Lazy day

Not a whole lot happened today. We decided to take a day off from walking around since we were so exhausted from the past two busy days!
We met up with Nicole's cousin for lunch out by her office and ate some delicious sushi. And I realized as I paid the bill that water and soda cost the same here. I had been ordering water this whole time thinking it was completely free! Now that I know that's not the case, I'm definitely going to go back to feeding my soda addiction and not feel guilty about it at all. After lunch, we checked out the mall, Pankrác, that was right across the street. Pretty typical, except for the giant supermarket on the bottom floor! So we ventured in and had our first grocery shopping experience in the Czech Republic.
It was pretty interesting trying to pick out cheeses and snack foods, considering that we had no idea what flavors we were getting. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with any cheese, and we found that out to be true with dinner tonight. But snack foods, that's another story. I bought these cookies that looked scrumptious and chocolately, and turned out to be bran cookies. Not my favorite. And what appeared to be cheese puffs, turned out to be very bland corn puffs with a strange aftertaste. We tried! I guess we'll have to keep guessing on what junk food to buy!

Nicole and Me (with Kinder, a tasty chocolate treat
that we were able to find in the supermarket)

Tomorrow, our two friends Ella and Brittany arrive in the morning so we're probably going to try and meet up with them for dinner or something. We also plan on visiting the Prague Castle at some point, which I'm really excited about :)

Oooooh what a day!
I slept for about 10.5 hours last night, which was amazing since I had gone about 30 hours without sleep. We woke up, went and got breakfast at this great little coffee shop out in the Jewish Quarter of the city, and then did a little exploring! We took a couple of tours through some of the synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, in addition to touring through The Old Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery was really overwhelming, there were tombstones literally piled on top of each other and we also learned that it's one of the oldest jewish cemeteries, if not the oldest, in Europe.

A (not so great) picture of The Maisel Synagogue

After that, we took the metro down towards Old Town and came across the ultimate shopping location in Prague, with a seven-story shoe store and everything else you could possibly think of. I invested in a pair of boots for 139 kronas, so around $8, which I felt was a wise decision considering the weather conditions.
We ended the night with a concert in the outskirts of Prague. It was definitely an adventure trying to get out there, but we made it!  On our way over there, we actually ran into 5 girls from the US who were trying to get to the same concert, so it was nice to know that we weren't the only ones who were completely lost! And the concert was AMAZING. It was basically one big dance party, and I think I fit in pretty well with my new boots and orange lipstick! Yes, I wore orange lipstick.
Oh, and good news- my lost luggage arrived today! And, I also discovered that my camera is still functioning, so I'll definitely be taking and posting up more pictures now.
Goodnight!!