CZECH ME OUT= Prague

Heyooo. Prague was a blast! Absolutely loved how different it was than another place. The buildings seemed untouched, yet still extremely old. I guess the city of Prague is the only place in Europe that DID NOT get bombed or damaged by the war and that's why the buildings are in unbelievable condition.

So we got in late Friday night and checked in to our very first hostel!! It is surprising that ever other place we have gone, we have been able to stay either friends or managed to find a cheap hotel. We were still very excited slash nervous for the nights we were about to have in Prague's Square Hostel....

Anyway, we got in late and got to our room and learned that we had two other roommates in our room. It was a 5 person room with me, Meg, and our friend Bree from London... Lauren accidentally booked her flight for Thursday April 1st, instead of Friday the 2nd with the rest of us so she was not able to get out till Saturday early, early morning... but yah we had two other roommates in our room. Our hostel mates weren't in there when we got there so we were curious who we would be coming home to, once we back from getting food.

As we strolled through the city, we ran into a group of three American boys. They were trying to get information from us about where a good pub was located, but since we had just arrived, we were pretty worthless. We got to talking and learned that one of the boys was Ali Farokmanesh's younger brother, Charlie. [ A little tid bit- Ali Farokmanesh is a basketball player for Northern Iowa who dominated in the game against Kansas in the first round of March Madness] We got on this topic because Meg and mentioned that she was from Kansas and right away Charlie butted in by saying he was the famous Farokmanesh's younger broha. Quite an interesting run-in.

When we got back to our room, we were sad to see that our roomies had still not come back yet. We were quite nervous for them to come in at night, that we decided to put three mattresses in the loft located right above the two sets of bunk beds. Some one had already claimed the loft area, but we noticed that the clothes looked like a boy who went to St. Louis, so he couldn't be that mad if we moved his mattress to one of the bunks down below. Additionally, we wrote a sweet little note to him telling him how we were excited to be roommates and that we had three girls sleeping in the loft because we were scared and hoped he didnt mind.

FOUR HOURS LATER: we were woken by the note being crumpled up and thrown in the waste basket.  The boy was not as friendly as we had hoped and did not appreciate the sweet little note we had left him. He was also was not American. He was dutch.  Naturally, the three of us pretended to be sleeping when he climbed the ladder to the loft to yell at us and didn't move a muscle when we angrily got into his new bed located on the bottom bunk.

TWO HOURS LATER ( AKA 5am): We were woken again, but by the note being reopened from the waste basket and instead of the dutchman climbing the ladder, it was the hostel manager who had decided to get in on our little moving session. The manager was able to wake us up and forced us to move all three mattresses down to the spots we found them at and then move dutch boys back up. Not what we thought the first night in a hostel was going to be like.....

Our comfy beds... in the loft

Around in London

Sooo a couple weeks ago, a girl in our program was trying to study at Starbucks BUTTT it was way too crowded. She was wandering around aimlessly looking for a seat and who do you know got up and gave her his seat.... dun da da daaaa yup ROBERT PATTINSON!!!!! ahhh the vampire was out during the day and was kind enough to give his seat away. He also sat and chatted with her for a little and made fun of Americans for a little as well.

Also,
Kim Catrall  (Samantha from Sex in the City) has a house on the corner of the same street where my school is.... YUPPPP Im bound to run into her one of these days. I guess she is working on some play in London and is renting the house out while she works! do dod doooo

Pisaaa

So the last day in Italy we went to Pisaaaa to see the leaning Tower of Pisssssa.. There honestly is nothing else in the town besides the Leaning Tower. Dead town. But happy I still saw it because it was so entertaining making pictures with it...

Pretty canals in Pisa

Italia continued...

Later that night...

Another really cool thing about Erica's program is that instead of having a cafeteria like we do here in London, they get vouchers for certain restaurants in the area. Which is really nice because the restaurants are really really nice which means really really great food. Since the girls had been traveling a lot, they had a lot of leftover vouchers to use up.

That night, they took us a really fancy restaurant. Right when we walked in the door, the bus boy gave us a  glass of champagne as we waited for a our table to be ready. The restaurant was right on the river and there was a band playing right in the center of where we were eating.... so romantic... haha. Included with the vouchers were two main courses. It was the best meal I have had since being aboard!

It was pretty late once we finished dinner that we just went back to Erica's and hung out before we went to bed.  This trip was really great having people show us around. For once too, I didn't feel rushed. We had three entire days to conquer Florence and it was nice to be able to sleep in a little bit and take our time going from place to place.

We decided to see more of the Italian lands Saturday. The plan was to go to Rome for the day, but everyone was telling us that there was no possible way we could see everything in just one day. Plus it cost a ton of money to get there from Florence so we figured we needed a new plan. Siena was the next best thing.... it was 1/8 the price and took half the time to get there.

We took the train to the beautiful lands of Siena on yet again another beautiful day. On the train, it was really cool to be able to see all the country on the way there. I hadn't seen any open land in a really long time  Siena was different than any other place I have ever been.  It was fairly small but pretty neat.
El Campo is the main deal, where the Tower is located and many cute little restaurants overlooking the square. Gelato stands also surround El Campo and most of the people around had a cone in hand. We walked around the area for a couple hours, searching for this mysterious playground, with a supposedly amazing view that Erica and Alli had been to before. Before going to Florence, Erica and Alli spent two weeks in Siena taking Italian lessons so they knew what they were doing.

I just can not get over the streets... they were so narrow and antique looking that I felt like I was in Harry Potter and about to enter some secret passage somewhere in the city. I loved it! There were also kids playing soccer, running throughout the city.

We literally spent all day, wondering the streets. This trip also consisted of a lot a lot of walking. I am not complaining at all, but I was always sore at the end of the day! ha.

Italia!!!

Sooo I know I am a couple weeks behind but I am going to make up for lost time!

March 25th thru the 28th I went to visit my friend from Boulder, Erica Fabrizio in Florence. Ironically, two of my guy friends here in London had a friend studying in Florence too. What is even more ironic is that their friend was friends with my friend, Erica in Florence... what are the odds.

So together the three of us travelled yander to the beautiful country of Italy. It was so nice being able to go see Erica with other people. I always planned on going to see her, but it made me nervous going to Italy not knowing the language and by myself so this trip made itself made me very happy!!

We arrived in Florence late Thursday night... it was wonderful outside. Like t-shirt, pants weather.  It hadn't really gotten warm in London yet so it was nice not having to worry about wearing a jacket. The two girls met us at the train station and all of us walked back to their apartment. Through their program, they lived in apartments with other civilians in Florence. Luckily, Erica lived right across the street from their friend, Alli. They literally open their windows and yell out to each other when they need something. It is pretty cool. The apartments are super super nice to and super super big. Each girl has their own room to themselves then there is a big living room with a TV (in Italian ha) and an enormous kitchen and a cute little balcony in the back. They literally live on their own.

Anywho, after we settled in, we walked to a local pub, Red Garden in hopes of catching some of the March Madness games. Surprisingly, the games were on!! We were able to watch Syracuse lose to Butler in the sweet 16 round. On our way to the pub, we met up with one of my sorority sisters form Boulder who was studying in Florence too! It was so nice seeing her too. ALSOOOOO at the pub, I ran into two of my friends who I went to high school with who were studying through the same program as Erica in Florence and they were all friends!! Connor Thacker and Sarah Sigfussion... literally it has been so weird meeting people and finding such random connections with people... IN EUROPE!!! I feel like I more weird connections with people in Europe then I did the states.

After the games Erica and Alli wanted to take Billy, Tyler and I to the "secret bakery". We had no idea what they were talking about and kind of just went along with it laughing... when we arrived at our destination, which was an alley with no one in sight and with no stores open whatsoever, we were so confused. A little after standing around for awhile, in this alley ft, a man popped out of a window door and whispered to Alli, in Italian what she wanted. hahaha. It was honestly the most bizarre thing. This place was literally a secret bakery. It is the only place "open" late late at night, which it is not supposed to be but anyways it makes a lot of busy at night when kids come home at night and want something to eat. Apparently, if this man got caught, he could get into a lot of trouble... thus why its a ssseeecccrrreeettt.

The next morning, we woke up, went to get some delicious bagels for one euro and made our way to the Duormo. It is a huge hugeee church and you can climb the top and literally see the entire city of Florence. There were 300 steps to the top and we had to climb through the thinest hallways EVER. In addition, it was a spiral staircase kind of deal so we were dizzy in this process AND as we were going up, people were coming down so it was quite the adventure trying to get to the top.

When we did make it to the top though, it was such a site to see. Florence is a lot bigger than I imagined.   The weather was yet again perfect and we didn't have to wear jackets.

We walked around Florence a little bit afterwards and decided to go to Galleria dell' Accaemia to see Michelangelo's famous DAVID!  It is HUGE by the way, and really the only exciting exhibit in the entire museum. Well, the museum is not that big to begin with, exactly why there were so many people crowded around the Daivd. There are strict rules against taking pictures for the sculpture, but rebel me wanted a picture. I had Alli and Billy guard me while I sneakily tried to take out my camera. When the guard got distracted talking to a tourist, I snapped a quick shot.  The minor detail I forgot to check before I took the picture was  the flash. The David light up when I took the picture so every tourist gave me the stare down after I had taken the picture. Unfortunately the guard saw the flash too and started running at me, screaming in Italian. I decided to book it out of their after this and waited for the rest of the group to finish going through the museum in fear I would be departed out of the country.

 

 Our group!                                                                             The little halls we had to through to get to the top of the Duromo

Pretty Florence at the top of the Duromo!

                                                            THE DAVID!! Im good




Billy, me, Erica, Alli, and Tyler!

Five floors of fun! haha

Temple Bar is the most famous pub in Dublin

                                                 Look who we ran into....

                        The streets were so crowded!

some more...

Just in idea of the parade atmosphere..

DuBlin

So back to Alex and Amanda's visit....

Tuesday, day before St. Patty's day, we departed for Ireland.
Our hotel was a little outside of a city, but it was fine because we got some walking in and got a chance to see the area around Dublin.

St. Patrick's day we woke up early to get the Guiness Museum in before the St. Patrick's day parade.
Like the Heinken Museum, it was AWESOME! Much bigger than Heinken and there was a lot more to do. The museum had a infinity bar at on the 7th floor where we received our free beer.... at 11am ha. It was also cool being up that high because we could see all of Dublin! It is not very big I noticed from being this high and water is not too far away. It was really funny because we pre-ordered our Guiness tickets online and they had a special on this day for anyone named Patrick, or anything similar to it like Pat, Patty, Patricia.... these people were VIP... Very Impotant Patricks who got access to certain rooms and a free entrance fee. haa

After the museum we were on our way to the parade. Let me tell you... it was the geratest, most entertaining, exotic, lively parade I have ever been too. They really go all outttt. The theme this year was "Around the World" so there were themes fro different countries. People went all out on their costumes and really went above and beyond on the floats. Seriously, I can't even describe what I saw, you just gotta see the pictures.. The streets were packed with people in green, that one could hardly move to walk anywhere. Also, many of the shops were closed, due tot he holiday.

Meg and I were a little nervous about going to Ireland for St. Patty's because soo soooo sooo many people told us that in Dublin they consider St. Patrick's Day a "religious holiday" and no one really does anything... these people were quickly proved wrong.

Like I said, streets= mass chaos. For blocks and blocks there were people everywhere!! We tried so many places to go in to get some food and have a drink after the parade but everywhere was swarmed with people! It was awesome though because we met so many people, who were beyond friendly. The first pub we went to, we met these three guys from Ireland who informed us a lot about Ireland. We learned that "craic" (yes pronounced like "crack") means to have fun and one of the guys went to the states fro business and asked his co-worker where the good places to have craic were.... long story short, he almost got fired because of it. hahaha

Anywho, people were dancing all over the tables and chairs  and literally anywhere there was room... which there was not a lot of because it was so crowded so it was quite entertaining.