TWO DAYS until I leave this beautiful country. Sad, yes. I kind of wish I could have an extra day or two to hang out without the stress of exams. I've been so stressed out that I've had to go to the bars and discotecas the past four nights! (ha) Friday night my roomates and I stressfully tried on eighteen outfits each. Our house dynamic is so fun, it really has been excellent living with these four gals. Katie left early, so it was just us four friday night. Caryn left Sunday morning, and then there were three... We all are incredibly different, and would most likely never have met or been so close if we had gone to the same school. I love experiences like this, out of my comfort zone, meeting incredible people in the most incredible circumstances.
So Friday we all headed over to the wake boys' apartment for their last pre party bash. I brought my flip camera, and so there were pledge of allegiances, spontaneous guitar concerts, even more spontaneous dance moves, and "interviews" occurring. We traveled to Kapital that night, the door man gave me free drink vouchers por supuesto! I will truly miss this discoteca! Seven floors of fun, and they were PACKED. We all had a great time dancing on the main floor, and ended the night with the 24 hour pizza place that is only appealing at 6am. I made it home with someone else's jacket and will be giving it to Senora's African friend. I hope they aren't cold... Saturday Amylita and I walked to San Miguel market. We stopped for extra large pastries at the oldest pastry shop in Spain on the way to the market-my face, clothes, boots, and hands were covered in marshmellow cream. San Miguel market is fantastic and Amy and I had euro sushi, vino rosado, and cheese. There are food stands (sushi, croquetas, cheese, tacos,tapas, wine, desserts) and little shops. It is always crowded, and always a great time. People just float from stand to stand sampling food and wine and standing at these little tables enveloped in conversation. Lively atmosphere. Amy and I then ventured to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor. It was pretty cheesy to be honest, and a let-down after Prague's adorable Christmas markets, but one funny aspect about Madrid's market is they sell really bright wigs and outrageous hats. SO many people buy them and wear them. of ALL ages and nationalities-not just tourists. The past two weeks there have been hundreds of people walking around with large Christmas hats, pink curly wigs, mohawk wigs, large sunglasses. It is a SITE.
Dinner with Senora was quite charming, as both of her grandchildren came to visit and decorated the tree while we were eating dinner. We sang Christmas carols, played the piano, and told Christmas stories after we were finished eating. Senora told a story about the pine tree, the tree of amor, and a pajarito. Her grandchildren were absolutely precious.
That night Stephanie's family came into town, and I was so happy to meet them. They are AMAZING people. We went to a bar and decided to go to another one, but somehow only Spencer, Stephanie's brother, and I made it to this bar, becuase Stephanie's mom and sister Jill became MIA after an unfortunate laughing incident. And so Stephanie and her papa "Mr. Madrid" went to go look for them and Spencer and I visited with our dear old friend the bartender. He remembered Stephanie's dad, Stephanie, and I from when we did our own pub crawl the last time Mr. Clark came to visit in November. Generous man. After an hour or two Spencer and I met back up with Steph and Jill and headed to Joy. It was a short lived clubbing experience. I got lost from the group first, Spencer got lost second, and I ended up walking/taxi ing home. Still a fantastic evening, minus flying onto my roomates bed in the dark while running to the restroom in the middle of the night.
Sunday was my last rastro experience, and a successful one at that. Mom, I bought you five scarves. I found a fantastic leather black jacket that makes me look much cooler than I am.
Sunday night I had dinner with Stephanie's family at a paella restaurant, La Barraca I believe was the name. The conversation was great, and the family is trying to marry me off to Spencer so I'll be a part of their family. Hilarious. We had a delicious "Baked Alaska" dessert which was like a meringue, ice cream, whipped cream combo. Apparently it was supposed to be like a melting glacier because they lit it on fire before they served it to us. Cool presentation. I like fire? After dinner Spencer, Jill, Steph and I walked to Sol, ran into Jonathon (our FANTASTIC Spanish friend) and went to a few bars. Jonathon is so stylish and wore his favorite red "trousers," a very sophisticated jacket and a scarf. European men can totally get away with wearing anything. Well, at least Jona can. Jill picked up five Colombians who came along with us. I told one of them Spencer is my future husband so he would stay more than four inches away from my face? It was a GREAT night full of dancing, stealing peoples' french fries, and jamming out to Bon Jovi, Backstreet Boys, and Spice Girls. There was a little bit of Flamenco music in there so Jona told me how to pretend like I'm picking an apple, eating it, then throwing it away! and that is the Flamenco dance. We didn't get in until about 6am again and so I just stayed in the hotel with them. Stephanie and I are quite used to sharing a tiny twin bed. Steph's mom and I grabbed coffee in the morning for everyone and today is devoted to studying for my last final. Stephanie's parents are trying to get me to go to Italy with them for Christmas! Stephanie's family are the most fantastic people, and I love seeing the sibling interaction, they all are so close, protective, and great friends. such caring, fun, and genuine people. I reallllly enjoy being around them! However, I believe my family would not be pleased if I ditched them Christmas day... I'll be back Europe!
I have my last abdominales class tonight, had my last kebab today, and will have my last cena with senora tonight as I will probably be out n about Tuesday night with Stephanie and my new family for the week. Then I leave Wednesday morning! I cannot believe this experience is coming to its end...
I do not like goodbyes. However, I do LOVE happy endings!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The week countdown begins...
SEVEN days until I return to the states. Funny enough my extremely long travel in the sense of time will only happen to take about four or five hours because I'm going back into time eight hours. So star trek.
I just took my first of four finals about half an hour ago; my last one is 24 hours before my flight home so the last week I get in Spain is devoted to studying and rekindling my passion for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I had two large final papers, one of which I presented to my political communications class yesterday and during my presentation said "yada, yada, yada." I've never said this phrase in my life, so why did I think it was appropriate for its premier to be in front of an audience? After my presentation my teacher stopped class and announced that my paper was "the most distinguished of the final papers" and well written. I was that student. Gold star. Little did anyone know I wrote that "churnalism" paper ten hours before it was due, which if you know what churnalism is, is quite ironic. Success. Sidenote: the I'm gay and republican asked to dim the lights for his presentation because he was having a bad hair day.
My other paper I procrastinated a bit harder for eight hours before deadline and only picked analyzying Hillary and Bill Clinton's marriage as my topic becuase a picture of him popped up on the internet? Studious intellectual?
The procrastination is because of this weekend. I went to a little bar with my roommates down the street one night, walked home after and the kebab man opened up his closed shop for my roommate and I after 2 am becuase I'm a regular. That may be embarrassing. I wandered the streets of Bilbao and Fuencarral in and out of shops one day becuase it's the easiest place perhaps in the entire world to lose yourself and get distracted. This was my first attempt though to walk to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor (there's apparently cute little booths in the middle of the square) but literally the streets had THOUSANDS of people in Sol and the surrounding area of Plaza Mayor, so while mosh pitting was fun for about an hour, reaching the market was unsuccessful. I've never seen so many people in my life. Neither have you, truly.
Sunday the addiction of traveling to Rastro market took over and I indulged on more scarves. My mom called and said to buy more so this Sunday will follow suit. Sunday night I met up with Stephanie, Steven, and Mike (who is a hilarious man that goes to Baylor). Stephanie finally got her belly button pierced, followed by a few Spanish curse words, and then we were all off to the Kesha concert that night. It was semi short, apparently she was so drunk she had to end the concert early? Rumor has it at least? She had a few "groupies" following her onstage like a fifteen year old entourage which was odd (I'm thinking they were either her back up dancers or current "BFFs"), but other than that I was dancing and singing like I was right onstage following her around too. The only things I lost at the concert was my stockings and socks? After the concert us four walked around and found a...surprise! an open kebab place. Seeing a trend? I'm glad I'm forced to take public transportation aka walk everywhere.
And so, this busy weekend forced me to stay awake for all but maybe nine hours of the past seventy-two.
Still keeping up my fitnesssss. I will truly miss my little gym down the street once this week commences. I ran out of membership and so the lady gave me my last two n a half weeks for free. WHAT a gem. My abdominales has kept me consistently sore, and our last class we had to do "couples' exercises." All the hombres usually have their "spot" on one side of the room and the mujeres have their place on the other. Creatures of habit. Unofficially assigned mat placements. However, our trainer man told us we had to match up with a boy, wrap our legs together and do this awkard sit up thing while looking at them. A little intimate? My chosen exercise partner was like a Ricky Martin with shaved legs. Not a terrible experience. I was a social butterfly at the gym that day. Met someone from the states after the line, "I was like wow when I saw your thighs" was presented as an opening line. Not a particularly good choice for him. Another seventy year old asked me if all Americans are as beautiful as me and he would love to go to the states. I'm not quite sure if I should be flattered or mortified from these experiences.
I was walking home the other day and the drunk guys that always hang out in our plaza kicked their soccer ball my way. Well I have skills from back in the day so I stopped it and kicked it back pretty adequately in my high heels (AND in cobblestone, mind you). I decided to take a break and played futbol with them for a bit and then they started making fun of my American accent so I left. They said (through their vodka laden breath) that I sounded like a duck who swallows my words. I said I play better futbol in high heels than they do.
What's funny is my senora was making fun of American accents maybe a month ago (the same night she trolled on Asians for like TWENTY uncomfortable minutes) and she said American's talk out of the side of their mouth and swallow their words too. I'm just fitting the mold i guess.
Senora has categorized us. Linsdey is Dona Perfecta. She is beautiful, intelligent, organized, and clean. She is so multi-faceted that she will be able to marry someday, unlike the rest of us. Every day Senora walks into our apartment, "Lindsey?" Everyday. It is true though (the multi-faceted, not the marriage situation). Lindsey is a gem. Caryn is the lucky one with red hair, like a leprechaun. We all think Senora didn't know Caryn's name until about a month and a half into the semester. Amy is the funny one and most improved player when it comes to this learning Spanish kind of thing. I LOVE Amy's sarcasm. It's one of the only things we have in common, but we get along because of it quite nicely. Katie is unclassified? I'm the guapa one that doesn't sleep and goes to the gym too much. I will never get married becuase I don't make my bed in the morning and will occassionally leave an article of clothing on the ground. Failure.
It still is hard to take in that I have been living in a foreign country for four months. The amount I have grown as an individual from exposure to cultures and different situations, people, and countries is invaluable and unattainable from any other experience. And next semester I'll be spending weekends partying in friends basements, or studying of course, instead of traveling to Prague, Amsterdam, England, Ireland, Portugal, or France?
I just took my first of four finals about half an hour ago; my last one is 24 hours before my flight home so the last week I get in Spain is devoted to studying and rekindling my passion for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I had two large final papers, one of which I presented to my political communications class yesterday and during my presentation said "yada, yada, yada." I've never said this phrase in my life, so why did I think it was appropriate for its premier to be in front of an audience? After my presentation my teacher stopped class and announced that my paper was "the most distinguished of the final papers" and well written. I was that student. Gold star. Little did anyone know I wrote that "churnalism" paper ten hours before it was due, which if you know what churnalism is, is quite ironic. Success. Sidenote: the I'm gay and republican asked to dim the lights for his presentation because he was having a bad hair day.
My other paper I procrastinated a bit harder for eight hours before deadline and only picked analyzying Hillary and Bill Clinton's marriage as my topic becuase a picture of him popped up on the internet? Studious intellectual?
The procrastination is because of this weekend. I went to a little bar with my roommates down the street one night, walked home after and the kebab man opened up his closed shop for my roommate and I after 2 am becuase I'm a regular. That may be embarrassing. I wandered the streets of Bilbao and Fuencarral in and out of shops one day becuase it's the easiest place perhaps in the entire world to lose yourself and get distracted. This was my first attempt though to walk to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor (there's apparently cute little booths in the middle of the square) but literally the streets had THOUSANDS of people in Sol and the surrounding area of Plaza Mayor, so while mosh pitting was fun for about an hour, reaching the market was unsuccessful. I've never seen so many people in my life. Neither have you, truly.
Sunday the addiction of traveling to Rastro market took over and I indulged on more scarves. My mom called and said to buy more so this Sunday will follow suit. Sunday night I met up with Stephanie, Steven, and Mike (who is a hilarious man that goes to Baylor). Stephanie finally got her belly button pierced, followed by a few Spanish curse words, and then we were all off to the Kesha concert that night. It was semi short, apparently she was so drunk she had to end the concert early? Rumor has it at least? She had a few "groupies" following her onstage like a fifteen year old entourage which was odd (I'm thinking they were either her back up dancers or current "BFFs"), but other than that I was dancing and singing like I was right onstage following her around too. The only things I lost at the concert was my stockings and socks? After the concert us four walked around and found a...surprise! an open kebab place. Seeing a trend? I'm glad I'm forced to take public transportation aka walk everywhere.
And so, this busy weekend forced me to stay awake for all but maybe nine hours of the past seventy-two.
Still keeping up my fitnesssss. I will truly miss my little gym down the street once this week commences. I ran out of membership and so the lady gave me my last two n a half weeks for free. WHAT a gem. My abdominales has kept me consistently sore, and our last class we had to do "couples' exercises." All the hombres usually have their "spot" on one side of the room and the mujeres have their place on the other. Creatures of habit. Unofficially assigned mat placements. However, our trainer man told us we had to match up with a boy, wrap our legs together and do this awkard sit up thing while looking at them. A little intimate? My chosen exercise partner was like a Ricky Martin with shaved legs. Not a terrible experience. I was a social butterfly at the gym that day. Met someone from the states after the line, "I was like wow when I saw your thighs" was presented as an opening line. Not a particularly good choice for him. Another seventy year old asked me if all Americans are as beautiful as me and he would love to go to the states. I'm not quite sure if I should be flattered or mortified from these experiences.
I was walking home the other day and the drunk guys that always hang out in our plaza kicked their soccer ball my way. Well I have skills from back in the day so I stopped it and kicked it back pretty adequately in my high heels (AND in cobblestone, mind you). I decided to take a break and played futbol with them for a bit and then they started making fun of my American accent so I left. They said (through their vodka laden breath) that I sounded like a duck who swallows my words. I said I play better futbol in high heels than they do.
What's funny is my senora was making fun of American accents maybe a month ago (the same night she trolled on Asians for like TWENTY uncomfortable minutes) and she said American's talk out of the side of their mouth and swallow their words too. I'm just fitting the mold i guess.
Senora has categorized us. Linsdey is Dona Perfecta. She is beautiful, intelligent, organized, and clean. She is so multi-faceted that she will be able to marry someday, unlike the rest of us. Every day Senora walks into our apartment, "Lindsey?" Everyday. It is true though (the multi-faceted, not the marriage situation). Lindsey is a gem. Caryn is the lucky one with red hair, like a leprechaun. We all think Senora didn't know Caryn's name until about a month and a half into the semester. Amy is the funny one and most improved player when it comes to this learning Spanish kind of thing. I LOVE Amy's sarcasm. It's one of the only things we have in common, but we get along because of it quite nicely. Katie is unclassified? I'm the guapa one that doesn't sleep and goes to the gym too much. I will never get married becuase I don't make my bed in the morning and will occassionally leave an article of clothing on the ground. Failure.
It still is hard to take in that I have been living in a foreign country for four months. The amount I have grown as an individual from exposure to cultures and different situations, people, and countries is invaluable and unattainable from any other experience. And next semester I'll be spending weekends partying in friends basements, or studying of course, instead of traveling to Prague, Amsterdam, England, Ireland, Portugal, or France?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
From Christmas lights to red lights...Prague and Amsterdam.
Welllll my life has been a blur the past week. give or take four months.
Thursday night was my dance performance for salsa. I bought special black heels to go with the shiny plastic gold dress (which I actually thought was kind of cute, but I think my style is way off of average perspective). It was my roomate Caryn's birthday, so we had a party in the locker room (complete with bags of chips and drinks) before the performance to get our salsa mentality into full swing. The actual performance was a lot of fun. I started out doing the bachata with four other gals...we were front, center, and unfortunately the main event of that song. Then I danced the salsa with Chris. He's very nice and doesn't suck, have sweaty hands, or step on my feet so he's above par for my class. Of course I messed up a few moves, and of course that mess up was the only clip from our performance that made it into the "Salsa 2010" video. Really? But I definately had the biggest smile onstage...pulling out new moves, people just couldn't keep up.
Friday morning Stephanie and I got on our 6:30am flight to Eindhoven for a layover. We landed and had no idea what country we were in, but for future reference, Eindhoven is located in the south of the Netherlands. We flew to Prague and very conveniently met up with Ari, Micheal, and Nick in the airport who we were staying with in the same hostel room. Our hostel was FANTASTIC. Legitimately felt luxurious compared to what I'm used to. Private bathroom, hot shower, down comforter. Bliss. Our first night in Prague we had a delicious Czech dinner. I had goulash, like beef stew, dumplings, and good ole czech beer. Our table had a picture of our waiter framed in the middle, it was odd but makes sense? Otakar the waiter. We wandered around the numerous Christmas markets and tried hot wine and honey almonds. That night we went out to a few bars and ended at a club where our guy friends got in a fight <<onstage>> (for emphasis) for legitimately fifteen minutes becuase some guy chatted up Stephanie. Boys are oh so strong and protective. I fled the scene after the entertainment of it died down. The next morning we went on a fantastic tour led by our pothead tour guide. He was HILARIOUS and every other word was a curse word, but really, I learned a lot. We saw Prague's pride and joy, the famous midieval astronomical clock in the main square that was built in 1410 and has an hourly show with figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. The main square had an unbelieveably beautiful Christmas tree that had lights that looked like gleaming icicles surrounded by an adorable Christmas market with hot food (brats, hot wine, goulash, roasted chestnuts, rolled cinnamin bread) and hand made Prague souveniers. We toured Prague's Jewish quarter (called Josefov) which dates back to the 13th century when Jews were forced to vacate their homes and settle in one area. There was a phenomenal musuem that Stephanie and I went in later (Pinkas Synagogue built in 1535) which houses the exhibit, "Children's drawings from Terezin 1942-44). This emotionally wrenching exhibit houses 4,000 original drawings of the 10,000 prisoners under the age of 15 in Terezin (they weren't all on exhibit). Only 242 kids survived. Mind blowing. It was so sad to see despair in many pictures. But it was incredible to see such joy and hope in others. There was a teacher that gathered the resources for children in Terezin to be able to draw pictures becuase she wanted to take away some of the pain and bring happiness through art. (This would be Mrs. Hardy, a teacher of mine from high school, back in the day!!) It was incredibly moving, especially when I read a poem from an eleven year old boy, near death, yet still praising God and the strength of his Jewish people. How lucky I am living in today. We saw a beautfiul Spanish synagogue built in Moorish style which is the oldest Prague Jewish house of Prayer. We got kicked out for taking pictures. Stupid tourists.
After our tour on Saturday we signed up for a pub crawl and got a free beer n t-shirt that says "crawl with me" haha. hmmm. We met some guy that works for Lego and travels the world for his job. He lost my jacket at one of the bars. Swell guy. The first bar we went to had a man who screamed and called it music who was the entertainment. I politely asked him if I could karaoke Britney Spears but apparently he owned the place and had an agenda. We mistaked one bar for a strip club, walk in, walk out, terrifying. I had to buy a hot dog off the street vendor the forget about that place. Our group got seperated from "the group" and we asked a variety of taxi drivers before we found "Northern Europe's Largest Club!" The club is five stories with different music on each floor, smoke doors, spotlights to stand and dance on, dance floors made of colorful lights, and a light show in a seperate balcony type room. There were balconies to dance on lining each dance floor and cages that I was not a part of. Definately competitive with Madrid clubs. One floor literally was labeled, "Black Music." Why does America get singled out for being racist and intolerant?
The next day the boys left and Steph and I wandered around shops and Christmas markets. Largest success of the day: fur hat purchase. That night was St. Nicholas Eve and there were holiday events going on in Old Town Square that Steph and I watched from a great restaurant. On St. Nicholas Eve people dress up as Mikulas (St. Nicholas), angels, and devils. While the angel is a creature of good, the devil acts as a reminder for children to behave throughout the year to ensure that they will be given treats on St. Nicholas Eve and not stuffed in his sack and sent to Hell. What a holiday to bring in the Christmas cheer. Terrifying. Apparently I've been great this year becuase I made it out alive. Besides binge eating on market food and faceplanting in the snow while simultaneously losing my camera, the night was simply fantastic.
Waking up with Bohemian Bagel in the morning was blissful. Steph and I then went up to Prague castle and wandered around the grounds, briefly being attacked my Asian tourists. We asked them to take a picture of us, and then one popped in our picture from the group whilst relaying their camera to another person. By the time the photo shoot ended we had taken about twenty or so different pictures complete with thumb ups and peace signs. Hilarious. The castle grounds overlooked all of Prague so that was very pretty, especially becuase the town was covered in a pretty blanket of white and it began to snow yet again. To get to the castle we had walked over Charles Bridge and stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This wall was graffiti'd by Lennon in the 1980's with lyrics of Beatles songs and since has been painted over and over again with pictures and saying symbolizing peace and hippy loveeeee.
Tuesday our flight was delayed to Amsterdam for hoursss. and so Stephanie and I hung out in the airport with some people going to Amsterdam as well and had a few drinks. When we arrived three hours behind schedule we went to a coffee shop on the way to our hostel. People were using plastic bags aka vaporizers to smoke weed and the place was run by a long haired man who had not been sober in years. We ordered a latte (really Mom, it was a latte) off of the "Less Interesting Menu: We used to sell coffee, but now we only sell drugs." A 60 year old Californian business man dressed in a very expensive suit with the biggest smile and smallest eyes I've ever seen was chatting us up at the "420 Cafe." Small world story, I ran into Alex, Stephanie's cousin that we stayed with in Barcelona in our hostel. He had gone there for a vacay of relaxation and happened to be there the same dates, in the same hostel. We met up with the Wake Forest boys and walked around Red Light District complete with lingerie clad women in windows lit up with red lights knocking on the windows and "Sex Shows, Come on In!" places in between those. Oh, and coffee shops. The sex show signs were in the shape of a banana. I'm really upset someone told me why that is. Amsterdam is an interesting place. What was really strange was the whole town was barren at about 1am. Our hostel was the hopping place to be, "The Flying Pig." It had a smoking lounge with a giant bed, a dance floor/bar, and a pool table surrounded by couches. And all the people that I feel like would appreciate the John Lennon wall even more than I did.
Wednesday morning may have been the greatest morning ever. We ate at this breakfast cafe that had trees and vines and purple lights surrounding the interior. It was like a Rainforest Cafe without the wierd robotic animals. Pancakes are officially the greatest thing.
The rest of the day consisted of us walking to the main sights we wanted to see, but getting cold so we'd stop in a coffee shop and eat food. We had about eight meals in total that day. When it's cold, what are ya gonna do. Cheesecake muffins, Thai pan beef, pancakes, french fries with garlic and ketchup (but really its great), donuts, kebabs, lots and lots of coffee. Solution.
Alex, Steph, and I toured the Anne Frank House which was a really well put together musuem that her father, Otto Frank created as he was the only surviving one of the hidden group. Anne's diary quotes on the walls, all of the rooms were furnished, the secret bookcase was open, and it was well worth seeing, but very sad, of course. I just need to read the book now! Later we went to the amazing Van Gogh musuem. I absolutely loved seeing his paintings that he accomplished in the ten years before his suicide. Fabulous style. He created over 2000 artworks in ten years! There were also Monet paintings among other well-known artists. So amazing to see the originals.
Of course our flight was delayed to Madrid. I fell asleep on the plane, woke up two and a half hours later excited that we were on the ground, I had slept the whole time! False, we hadn't even left yet. Something about snow and crashing kept us grounded. Amateurs.
Excellent trip to end my European tour on... now finals, would love to just skip them and fly home?
Thursday night was my dance performance for salsa. I bought special black heels to go with the shiny plastic gold dress (which I actually thought was kind of cute, but I think my style is way off of average perspective). It was my roomate Caryn's birthday, so we had a party in the locker room (complete with bags of chips and drinks) before the performance to get our salsa mentality into full swing. The actual performance was a lot of fun. I started out doing the bachata with four other gals...we were front, center, and unfortunately the main event of that song. Then I danced the salsa with Chris. He's very nice and doesn't suck, have sweaty hands, or step on my feet so he's above par for my class. Of course I messed up a few moves, and of course that mess up was the only clip from our performance that made it into the "Salsa 2010" video. Really? But I definately had the biggest smile onstage...pulling out new moves, people just couldn't keep up.
Friday morning Stephanie and I got on our 6:30am flight to Eindhoven for a layover. We landed and had no idea what country we were in, but for future reference, Eindhoven is located in the south of the Netherlands. We flew to Prague and very conveniently met up with Ari, Micheal, and Nick in the airport who we were staying with in the same hostel room. Our hostel was FANTASTIC. Legitimately felt luxurious compared to what I'm used to. Private bathroom, hot shower, down comforter. Bliss. Our first night in Prague we had a delicious Czech dinner. I had goulash, like beef stew, dumplings, and good ole czech beer. Our table had a picture of our waiter framed in the middle, it was odd but makes sense? Otakar the waiter. We wandered around the numerous Christmas markets and tried hot wine and honey almonds. That night we went out to a few bars and ended at a club where our guy friends got in a fight <<onstage>> (for emphasis) for legitimately fifteen minutes becuase some guy chatted up Stephanie. Boys are oh so strong and protective. I fled the scene after the entertainment of it died down. The next morning we went on a fantastic tour led by our pothead tour guide. He was HILARIOUS and every other word was a curse word, but really, I learned a lot. We saw Prague's pride and joy, the famous midieval astronomical clock in the main square that was built in 1410 and has an hourly show with figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures. The main square had an unbelieveably beautiful Christmas tree that had lights that looked like gleaming icicles surrounded by an adorable Christmas market with hot food (brats, hot wine, goulash, roasted chestnuts, rolled cinnamin bread) and hand made Prague souveniers. We toured Prague's Jewish quarter (called Josefov) which dates back to the 13th century when Jews were forced to vacate their homes and settle in one area. There was a phenomenal musuem that Stephanie and I went in later (Pinkas Synagogue built in 1535) which houses the exhibit, "Children's drawings from Terezin 1942-44). This emotionally wrenching exhibit houses 4,000 original drawings of the 10,000 prisoners under the age of 15 in Terezin (they weren't all on exhibit). Only 242 kids survived. Mind blowing. It was so sad to see despair in many pictures. But it was incredible to see such joy and hope in others. There was a teacher that gathered the resources for children in Terezin to be able to draw pictures becuase she wanted to take away some of the pain and bring happiness through art. (This would be Mrs. Hardy, a teacher of mine from high school, back in the day!!) It was incredibly moving, especially when I read a poem from an eleven year old boy, near death, yet still praising God and the strength of his Jewish people. How lucky I am living in today. We saw a beautfiul Spanish synagogue built in Moorish style which is the oldest Prague Jewish house of Prayer. We got kicked out for taking pictures. Stupid tourists.
After our tour on Saturday we signed up for a pub crawl and got a free beer n t-shirt that says "crawl with me" haha. hmmm. We met some guy that works for Lego and travels the world for his job. He lost my jacket at one of the bars. Swell guy. The first bar we went to had a man who screamed and called it music who was the entertainment. I politely asked him if I could karaoke Britney Spears but apparently he owned the place and had an agenda. We mistaked one bar for a strip club, walk in, walk out, terrifying. I had to buy a hot dog off the street vendor the forget about that place. Our group got seperated from "the group" and we asked a variety of taxi drivers before we found "Northern Europe's Largest Club!" The club is five stories with different music on each floor, smoke doors, spotlights to stand and dance on, dance floors made of colorful lights, and a light show in a seperate balcony type room. There were balconies to dance on lining each dance floor and cages that I was not a part of. Definately competitive with Madrid clubs. One floor literally was labeled, "Black Music." Why does America get singled out for being racist and intolerant?
The next day the boys left and Steph and I wandered around shops and Christmas markets. Largest success of the day: fur hat purchase. That night was St. Nicholas Eve and there were holiday events going on in Old Town Square that Steph and I watched from a great restaurant. On St. Nicholas Eve people dress up as Mikulas (St. Nicholas), angels, and devils. While the angel is a creature of good, the devil acts as a reminder for children to behave throughout the year to ensure that they will be given treats on St. Nicholas Eve and not stuffed in his sack and sent to Hell. What a holiday to bring in the Christmas cheer. Terrifying. Apparently I've been great this year becuase I made it out alive. Besides binge eating on market food and faceplanting in the snow while simultaneously losing my camera, the night was simply fantastic.
Waking up with Bohemian Bagel in the morning was blissful. Steph and I then went up to Prague castle and wandered around the grounds, briefly being attacked my Asian tourists. We asked them to take a picture of us, and then one popped in our picture from the group whilst relaying their camera to another person. By the time the photo shoot ended we had taken about twenty or so different pictures complete with thumb ups and peace signs. Hilarious. The castle grounds overlooked all of Prague so that was very pretty, especially becuase the town was covered in a pretty blanket of white and it began to snow yet again. To get to the castle we had walked over Charles Bridge and stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This wall was graffiti'd by Lennon in the 1980's with lyrics of Beatles songs and since has been painted over and over again with pictures and saying symbolizing peace and hippy loveeeee.
Tuesday our flight was delayed to Amsterdam for hoursss. and so Stephanie and I hung out in the airport with some people going to Amsterdam as well and had a few drinks. When we arrived three hours behind schedule we went to a coffee shop on the way to our hostel. People were using plastic bags aka vaporizers to smoke weed and the place was run by a long haired man who had not been sober in years. We ordered a latte (really Mom, it was a latte) off of the "Less Interesting Menu: We used to sell coffee, but now we only sell drugs." A 60 year old Californian business man dressed in a very expensive suit with the biggest smile and smallest eyes I've ever seen was chatting us up at the "420 Cafe." Small world story, I ran into Alex, Stephanie's cousin that we stayed with in Barcelona in our hostel. He had gone there for a vacay of relaxation and happened to be there the same dates, in the same hostel. We met up with the Wake Forest boys and walked around Red Light District complete with lingerie clad women in windows lit up with red lights knocking on the windows and "Sex Shows, Come on In!" places in between those. Oh, and coffee shops. The sex show signs were in the shape of a banana. I'm really upset someone told me why that is. Amsterdam is an interesting place. What was really strange was the whole town was barren at about 1am. Our hostel was the hopping place to be, "The Flying Pig." It had a smoking lounge with a giant bed, a dance floor/bar, and a pool table surrounded by couches. And all the people that I feel like would appreciate the John Lennon wall even more than I did.
Wednesday morning may have been the greatest morning ever. We ate at this breakfast cafe that had trees and vines and purple lights surrounding the interior. It was like a Rainforest Cafe without the wierd robotic animals. Pancakes are officially the greatest thing.
The rest of the day consisted of us walking to the main sights we wanted to see, but getting cold so we'd stop in a coffee shop and eat food. We had about eight meals in total that day. When it's cold, what are ya gonna do. Cheesecake muffins, Thai pan beef, pancakes, french fries with garlic and ketchup (but really its great), donuts, kebabs, lots and lots of coffee. Solution.
Alex, Steph, and I toured the Anne Frank House which was a really well put together musuem that her father, Otto Frank created as he was the only surviving one of the hidden group. Anne's diary quotes on the walls, all of the rooms were furnished, the secret bookcase was open, and it was well worth seeing, but very sad, of course. I just need to read the book now! Later we went to the amazing Van Gogh musuem. I absolutely loved seeing his paintings that he accomplished in the ten years before his suicide. Fabulous style. He created over 2000 artworks in ten years! There were also Monet paintings among other well-known artists. So amazing to see the originals.
Of course our flight was delayed to Madrid. I fell asleep on the plane, woke up two and a half hours later excited that we were on the ground, I had slept the whole time! False, we hadn't even left yet. Something about snow and crashing kept us grounded. Amateurs.
Excellent trip to end my European tour on... now finals, would love to just skip them and fly home?
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