Day 15

This morning Justin and I woke up extra early and showered. It is our last day in Paris and we have a lot to see.

We head over to the Luxemborg metro station and figure out how to get to the Arc de Triumph. Once we arrive we take pictures and walk down the Champs Elysses. It is so cold and windy that we find the nearest metro station and figure out how to get to the Louvre. How convenient that they have a metro stop that is connected to the Louvre so we don’t have to go back outside. Since we got there at about 9:30am and it opens at 9, there weren’t any lines for tickets or audio headsets. We get into the museum and walk the first and second floors of the Italian sculptures and paintings. We saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. After we saw those two floors we stopped for lunch. We have both gotten used to having a big breakfast and we didn’t have one this morning.

In the museum we went to the “foods of the world” foodcourt. Justin was surprised to see the Apple store, also located in the Louvre. So we ate at the Asian restaurant called “Soy” and shared a chicken and vegetable wok, eggrolls, and teriyaki chicken and rice. Once we ate we went back into the museum and walked through the ancient Egyptian exhibits. We both started to get sort of “musem-ed” out, so we returned our headsets and headed outside to take pictures. In the main outside entrance of the Louvre we took pictures of the big glass triangle and the fountains. In the distance you could see the Eiffel tower, but it was a bit foggy so we decided not to go back and take the elevator to the top.

From the Louvre we decided to walk to Notre Dame. Our feet hurt a little bit from walking so we stopped at a café right next to the church so Justin could have a hot chocolate, and I had a glass of wine. After our break we took pictures outside of Notre Dame and decided to go inside and see the inside. We both agreed that the Basillica we saw in Budapest was a lot prettier and more ornate than the Notre Dame.

Then we looked at the map and decided we were so close to the Luxemborg garderns that we would just walk back to the hotel. However, when we got back to the hotel, we thought Mary, Euclid, Patrick, and Meredith would all be here. Justin and I wound up taking a two hour nap and watching a lot of TV, not in English.

Finally after 3 or 4 hours of sitting here they finally call and tell us that they are ready for dinner and they have scoped out a couple of places close to our hotel. My hair looks awful since I am using the one crappy brush that my mom bought at a chemist here to blow dry my hair. Sad.

Day 14

This morning Euclid wakes us up for breakfast. Apparently AirFrance covers our breakfast at this hotel too which is perfect! We decide since we have phones, but no chargers, not to split up. We all get our belongings together and head back to the airport. We call baggage claim and they STILL do not know where our bags are. So we say “screw it” and we catch a train to the city.

Once in the city we head to our hotel, des Jardines de Luxemburg. We booked this hotel because we thought that we had stayed here before, but once we get here my mom realized it was not the same place. But the rates were reasonable and it was close to the subway, and once we got to our rooms, a very quaint place.

After we check in and get ourselves pulled together we walk to a used electronics store just around the corner to get some adapters so we can charge our computers and cell phones. Meanwhile, Justin and I walked to the Chemist and buy razors, conditioner, lotion, brushes, toothbrushes, etc…which turned out to be around $150, that would never be the case at Walgreens!!

We drop all of our purchases back off at the hotel and get some of our stuff plugged in to charge and we go for lunch at Café de Gay Lucass – amazing! I had the best French Onion soup I’ve ever had before. After lunch we go back to the hotel to get redressed up and we had to the shopping mall to get clothes, coats, socks, underwear, etc… We went shopping at the Galleries de Lafayette. It was packed! I’ve honestly never seen a shopping mall so big before. The first floor is jewelry and parfume. The 1-4 floors are women’s designer clothes. Coats were all the way on the 4th floor. The boys and the girls split up since the men’s clothes were across the street in another mall.

After shopping we leave the mall and head back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. Then we get back on the subway and head to the Eiffel Tower. After we snap a couple of pictures we walk across the River Seine to watch the light show that begins at 10pm. Its so cold we are literally walking back across the river and walking away as we are still watching the light show it it that cold. The light show runs for about 30 minutes. Afterwards we are so hungry for dinner we stop at a place right next to the subway stop on our way home from the Eiffel tower. The place looked cool and was actually pretty good. I had French onion soup again and Justin had a pizza margherita.

After dinner we all got home and straight to bed, we have big plans tomorrow!

Day 13

Well our last day in Europe….or so we thought!!

Our flight out of Vienna was supposed to depart at 10:05am for Paris.

When we get out of the van, I decide I want to take a picture of us standing among our luggage when I notice that my camera is gone!! I knew this would happen. I was wearing a sweatshirt jacket and it must have fallen out of my pocket on the van. So we call the hotel and we call the company that organizes the rides. (Fill in story)

Our flight was delayed until 12:30pm. Needless to say we missed our flight from Paris to Detroit. Once we got to Paris we run run run to the AirFrance counter to see if our flight from Paris to Detroit is still delayed and if so, we can still board. Turns out boarding closed two hours before we got there and so we had to rebook a flight back to the U.S. Justin, Pat and I sit around and play on our iTouches. Meredith, Mary and Euclid stand at a customer service desk. After a couple of hours I went and got some soda and snacks because everyone was starting to feel the effect of no food since our breakfast at 7am, its now 3 or 4pm.

Now that we have the flight figured out we have to figure out where our luggage is. So WE go and stand in a line downstairs and it just isn’t moving. Euclid and I go upstairs and find a gentleman who takes us to baggage services. Once Euclid and I get in we cant get out. The people down there were very unhelpful and very unfriendly. We refused to leave the lady’s desk until we got some answers. Finally, another employee from the baggage services came over and told us that we wouldn’t get our baggage – they didn’t even know where it was!! So he suggested we “make a file”. We do and discover that we will be compensated 100 euros ($150) a person to buy clothes and toiletries. Now we have to wait for it to either show up at a hotel or back in Omaha.

The final word, we can’t get a flight out of Paris until Monday and AirFrance will only give us a voucher for one night at the hotel and we all got one food voucher. So we find a restaurant that accepts AirFrance food vouchers and have dinner.

After dinner we catch a shutte to an airport hotel called B&B.

The hotel was really crappy but it was a hotel. We all got back to the hotel and went straight to bed.

Day 12 - Last day

Courtney and John leave today. Sad. John thought we were all meeting for breakfast at 7am, but nobody was ready to go until 8am. So he went to the train station to book his ticket back to Prague because that is where he will fly out of. Courtney’s flight leaves at 1pm and John’s train leaves at 4:30pm.

We went down for breakfast at 8, Justin is loving the fact that they have USA Today here. We haven’t really had any tv or newspaper with US News and he is going stir crazy. At this last hotel in Vienna we don’t have free internet. We only get to use it an hour a day for free and Justin and I can’t find our access code so we don’t get internet. This is why my blog hasn’t been uploaded in a couple of days.

After breakfast Justin and I came back up to our room and are watching music television – which is awesome. They have three channels here dedicated to playing music videos. It is a random selection of US current popular music, popular music here in Europe, and old 90’s music. Right now Snoop Dogg’s video is on, Who I am (one of his first videos). While Mary and Euclid get Courtney all squared away I am catching up on the blog and finishing postcards.

Justin and I got so bored that we went down to the lobby to figure out where to buy stamps and mail my postcards. We got all bundled up and went down to the front desk. I could buy stamps and mail my postcards there for 1,40 euros. That is like $2.10 a postcard. Sorry mom and dad, I just charged it to my room. Since that was so easy Justin and I decided to just walk around the neighborhood since Mary and Euclid wouldn’t be back to the hotel until 1pm. We found this cute little park only a block away from the hotel. So we walked through and on our way back out of the park and we realized that this was the park with the gold statue of Strauss playing the violin. Since we didn’t have long we headed back to the hotel. Just on the other side of the InterContinental hotel there was an ice skating rink. There had to be at least 100 kids skating. There was music and a little café on the ice.

When we got back to the hotel, Mary and Euclid were back and we were all ready to go do something, but of course, Meredith had just got out of the shower, so we have to wait for her. Now she is ready and we are waiting on Euclid to figure out what we are going to do today. John leaves at 4:30 for Prague so we may need to stick around the hotel for him. We should have just all left today.

We wind up going for lunch around 2:30 at this Viennese restaurant a block away from our apartment. We had walked by it before, but we went back and found out they had English menus and accepted credit cards. I ordered French onion soup as a starter, (I’m sorry I say this all the time) but it was sooo good! Best I’ve ever had. I then ordered a dish that I cannot pronounce but it was supposed to be authentic Viennese food – pasta and ham baked au gratin style. Justin had grilled chicken wings and potato wedges. It was all really good.

John peaced from lunch and headed back to the hotel to get showered before leaving for the train station. Mary and Patrick went back to the hotel to see John off. Euclid, Meredith, Justin and I went to the museum, which was soo stupid. I wish we would have saved our money. Now we were back outside with nothing to do and it was too cold to just walk around. Nobody wanted to go for dinner because we literally just finished lunch. So we all walked back through the market that we found the first day we were here. I wanted to go for the wildberry punsch. We walked around for a little bit and finally found our way to an indoor mall. All we wanted to do was go indoors and warm up. I think Pat was trying to find some theatre but we never made it. After walking around the mall and warming up we decided to go back to the hotel for a bit before dinner. Justin and I stopped at a grocery store to see if they had these Milky Way wafer rolls that I am obsessed with but can only find in Europe. They didn’t have them so we bought some diet cokes for the morning.

Back at the hotel we got all packed up. Euclid and Mary must have gone out and found an Italian restaurant just a few blocks away. Oh my God, why don’t we have Italian restaurants like this at home!! Justin had an amazing penne with creamy tomato sauce, I had spaghetti carbonara, Pat had pesto tortellini, and Meredith and Mary had Bolognese.

We were all so tired we paid (in credit card!! – although we couldn’t tip on the credit card) and got back to the hotel and set all sorts of alarms to wake up in the morning. Sad, we have to leave tomorrow.

Day 11

Our day started early as I gave Mary and Euclid a 7 o’clock wakeup call. We all met for breakfast around 8:00. It was the same buffet-style set up as we’ve had the entire trip. I made a baguette sandwich with cheese and turkey to take on our city tour. We’ve had some issues with people not eating enough breakfast and then are surely until they eat.

Our guide arrived at 9:00. We we’re scheduled to tour the town for the entire day. To our surprise, the guide showed up in a huge fancy tour bus and we we’re the only passengers!

Our first stop was Belvedere Palace (belvedere means “beautiful view”). It began to snow just as we pulled up. It was really pretty – but still freezing! It was -1° C. The palace was amazing. The gardens were gorgeous and the house looked out over all of Vienna. One interesting fact is that Hitler built an underground bunker underneath an enormous pond in the gardens when the Nazis occupied Austria.

Our second stop was the royal palace known as Schonbrunn Palace. The palace was originally built by the Habsbergs. The Habsbergs ruled Austria for hundreds of years (until the early 20th century). The palace was absolutely beautiful. Each room was intricately decorated and contained much of the original furnishings. I was most impressed with the artwork. The paintings primarily depicted the royal family, but also included the world famous Lipizzaner Stallions, weddings, markets, and even a young Amadeus Mozart (he was only four when the events took place, but when the paintings were finished he was six and well known by then so the artist added him to the paintings). The grand ballroom once contained over 1,000 candles and once hosted royalty from across the world. A smaller room was still covered in the original rice paper painted in China over 200 years ago! The most memorable painting to me will be the one with a monkey standing on a stage in a street fair picking at the hair of a human. Our tour guide explained that monkeys were brought to street fairs and would pick the fleas out of hair – which is where we get the term “flea market”.

Following our tour, we headed to the Christmas market held just outside the palace. It was pretty cold and windy, but everyone was in good spirits. Mary and I shared wild berry punsch (filled with rum) and homemade potato chips. Pat, John and Euclid had the hot wine (its disgusting). What was interesting is that the punsch and wine are served in coffee mugs, and you are charged 2 extra euros for the cup, when you return it your 2 euros are refunded. It eliminate the waste – and I kept the mug. There were also a number of artisans selling homemade Christmas ornaments, jewelry and other goods. We all shared one of the largest pretzels I had ever seen, but we got some random pizza flavor so I let Pat have at it.

Next, we jumped back on the bus to tour the city. We went over the Danub river – which is no longer blue – to see the “new” side of town. The guide was explaining how the “new” side is where all of the younger people want to live because there is more room and is greener. Then we went back to the city center and she pointed out the biggest Christmas market in Vienna, cathedrals, and other buildings in the city center. She said that during WWII approximately 33% of the buildings were destroyed due to bombings which is why you will see a mix of old buildings and new buildings.

Most people on the bus fell asleep during this drive, but the bus was so big and we were all so spread out that nobody seemed to notice, but I got a great picture of some boots hanging out into the aisle of the bus of two girls laying down and sleeping and Euclid fast asleep :)

Our next stop was at Kalke Village. There was an apartment building that was painting very abstractly and in different colors. Weird, we were back in the gift shop. But it was cool. The floors were cobblestone but it was all uneven and the steps were all different levels and sizes. We walked through to see some of Kalke’s work. We wanted to get a cool poster, but they were soo expensive. Patrick and I wound up getting beer mugs from a store. Justin thought that the coffee stand/bar in the middle of this shopping center was really cool because there was a stream of water that went all the way around the bar and trickled down to a waterfall.

Finally we stopped for lunch. The tour guide suggested we go to this one café that was a chain within Austria and made all of their own chocolates and deserts. She dropped us off and said she would be back in 30 minutes. When we walked in there was nowhere to sit, let alone enough room for 8 people (that is the hardest part about traveling in Europe with a big group). So we left and were headed towards McDonalds. Thank god someone found a little café that had seating upstairs. We all got a sandwich and headed upstairs. The food turned out to be really good! Surprise surprise. Even their soup was good – a pureed vegetable soup that Courtney got.

We finished so quickly that Mary and John ran over to H&M to get John some warmer clothes. He didn’t realize that it was going to be so cold here, and all he had was a little fleece coat and a hat. I don’t think Meredith had a warm enough coat either, but she is so stubborn that you don’t argue with her. After lunch we went back to the restaurant that our guide originally dropped us off at to meet up with her since the bus wouldn’t fit through the narrow streets.

Then the guide had asked if we wanted to go to another Christmas Market on the University campus, she said it was smaller and more intimate and would have more hand made goods. It was nice, but there were tons of kids from a school group there running around and eating a lot of candy. Still any kids that speak another language are much cuter. Euclid was excited because he found a food vendor there that had samosas, I don’t think he got one though. I had what I thought would be like a cannoli, but it was just some puff pastry with a sweet meringue like filling. It was actually kind of gross.

Our last stop on the tour was to a palace, but she was so quiet we couldn’t understand who it was that built it or who lived there. All I do remember is that she said it was one of the most profane palaces in all of Europe with 2,600 rooms!!

Then at 4:30 our guide had walked us to a restaurant that she was suggesting we have dinner at. Well since we didn’t have lunch until 2:30pm nobody was ready to have dinner yet. So we said goodbye to our guide and stayed at the restaurant to figure out whether or not we wanted to stay and eat or make reservations. Everyone was cranky and cold. Some wanted to shop, some wanted to eat, some wanted a drink, and some just wanted to warm up inside. So we were walking and talking and finally Euclid said, lets eat here and we all quick went into this place called Chattanooga. Once everyone was inside Meredith turned to me and asked where Patrick was – I pointed to a table and said with the boys. Nope. Patrick must not had seen us walk into the restaurant. So Meredith and Courtney went back out and looked for him, then came back in and Mary and Euclid went back outside to look for him. We had all ordered a drink so my dad gave me some Euros and he and mary went back to the hotel to rendevouz with Patrick. Courtney, Meredith, Justin, John and I stayed and finished our drink and ordered a basket of chicken fingers. The sauce they used for the chicken fingers was a spicy but sweet/sour sauce that was really good! Then John went to go listen to the music they were playing in the city square and Justin, Meredith, Courtney and I went shopping. First we went to H&M then to Mango.

We finally all were at the hotel together at 7:30 and were ready for dinner then. Mary and Euclid found a place not too far from our hotel that accepted credit cards and was authentic Viennese food. It was again, delicious. I ordered deep fried goat cheese for an appetizer which was the best I’ve ever had, and Justin had his beef broth with noodles and vegetables. He wants to learn how they make their beef broth here. They had English menus here, but Pat decided he wanted to choose something random off of the German menu – he wound up with Calf liver ahahahahahahahahaha. Thank god it was deep fried or he probably would have vomited. I had my usual “Squeenie” (Wienerschnitzel) and Justin had Chicken cordon bleu which was amazing. By the time we left we were all sooo full. We got home and I crawled into bed and fell asleep right away.

Day 10

This morning Mary told us that we all had to be downstairs and ready to go at 7:15am to catch our ride to the train station. Funny how we actually didn’t have to be ready until 7:45, but you almost have to give everyone in our family that half hour to make sure that everyone is on time!

We got our suitcases packed and downstairs and had our last breakfast at the hotel. We were advised to eat as much as possible because we wouldn’t be eating for the next 6 hours. After breakfast we get into the van and head to the train station. We figured it was better to get to the train station early and be prepared for the train (as we didn’t know how much time we would have to get all of our luggage on the train). However, the train station was not “indoor”. It was freezing, but all we could do was sit and wait. I’m pretty sure I got ripped off by a gyro stand for a Coca-Cola Light. He probably looked at me and was like, stupid American, I’ll overcharge her. Sweet.

Finally our train was assigned a platform and we head that direction. We’ve learned from other experiences that we had assigned seats so we headed down to car 256. John did not have an assigned seat so he did not sit with us. Once we get all of our luggage on and find our seats we discover that they are all facing backwards :( That makes me sick. So I stood on my knees and looked over the chair for a majority of that trip. It went by pretty fast, mainly because Justin and I played scrabble on an iTouch the entire trip (I won again). Also, since we were in a first class car we had menus and could order food. I ordered a Pepsi Light, which tasted like flat watered down soda, which sucks since it cost $4. Pat, Mary, and Courtney had coffee. Meredith had beer and spaghetti. Euclid had soup, quite possibly one of the most difficult things to eat on a train. Justin and I were so thirsty since our Pepsi light was so terrible that we went to the “bistro car” to buy two bottles of water (we had asked for 2 Pepsi Lights but they said they only had one left). About an hour later the waiters came around with a bucket of bottled water and juices for free, great I had to pay for mine.

When we saw our stop Westbahnhof and we were all up getting our luggage parked next to a door so that we could quickly throw our luggage off since we only have a matter of minutes. Once we got off the train we saw two gentlemen holding signs for “Euclid de Souza” and “Patrick de Souza”. Justin, Mary and I went in one van with a majority of the luggage and everyone else went in another car.

We are staying at Hotel Am Konzerthaus. When we got up to our rooms John discovered that his room didn’t have two beds but a queen bed, oh John totally freaked out. Luckily Courtney and Meredith wanted to share the Queen bed so they gladly switched. Now Courtney and Meredith, the two smallest people in our group, have the biggest room. They have a huge couch that Pat may be crashing on since John is always in and out doing his own thing at all hours of the day/night.

Once everyone was in their room (and very hungry) Justin and I sat in our room and watched CNBC on the announcements for the debut of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. It is supposed to make its first flight from Seattle, WA.

Everyone is starting to get cranky so we leave the hotel in search of some restaurant that Mary and Patrick have red reviews on. It is some sort of pool hall. So we find our way there and they can’t seat us. So we walk around and walk around until we see this awesome little street market. We find this restaurant and everyone sits down, but they don’t take credit card! Mary leaves and walks around trying to find an ATM but her card won’t work anywhere because they will only dispense cash to their bank customers. So we leave the restaurant in search of another restaurant. Now everyone is really starting to get cranky. Mary and Euclid go looking for an ATM and of course, John takes off and we loose him. Courtney, Meredith, Patrick, Justin and I walk through the market and buy a cup of hot apple cider. They also had wildberry and cherry. I don’t think the apple or cherry had any alcohol in them, but the guy gave me a sample of the wildberry cider and he was telling me it was only fruit and alcohol….it was soooo good. But we didn’t have any more money :(

Finally we get everyone rounded up and we head back towards the hotel. We see a restaurant across the street and go in, they can seat us, and they have menus in English. Jackpot. I had wienerschnitzel, Justin had what looked like chicken strips salad and we both had different versions of cold potato salad. It was really good. Just what I wanted.

We stopped by a grocery store to pick up some wine and chocolate snacks so that once we got back to the hotel we could play Phase 10 – nobody in my family likes playing it, but they said they would if I bought them a bottle of wine. So Mary, Euclid, and Pat went to an internet cafe while Justin, Meredith, Courtney and I stayed back in the hotel to play a game of Phase 10. Courtney won.

Day 9

Woke up and Justin and I went to the bath house. Nobody else was awake and we had massage appointments at 12:15 so we left just the two of us. We figured out how to take the subway to our stop and found the bath house just fine. Once we got there and figured out how to buy a ticket, we tried to go into the locker rooms but the man at the gate said that the ladies locker room was full and we would have to buy a “cabin” for 400 FUH which is like $2.50. So Justin and I got a tiny little closet to change into our swimsuits in. Then we have to borrow towels because the guy at the front desk said we didn’t need to take our own. So we had to pay a deposit of 1000 FUH which is like $6.00. Finally we get in and all we see are two hot tubs. We were like, this sucks. We sat there for a little bit and then we went home. When we get back I tell Courtney and Meredith not to waste their time and Courtney shows me pictures of what we should have been looking for. Uh, we totally missed it. There were awesome hot springs outside!! Unfortunately Justin and I had massages at the hotel, so we couldn’t go back.

So Justin and I laid around and waited for our massages. They were amazing! Justin refused to be massaged by a guy so I got the guy and he got the girl. They gave us these tiny little underwear to wear during the massage which were pretty funny. When we got back Justin and I showered to get the oil off and then went for lunch with Euclid at the hotel’s Bock Bistro. We all had soup and then Justin and I split the burger. Dad and Pat left before the burger king to get the market before it closed. The burger was sooooooooo good. It was on some kind of rye/wheat toasted bread with a 1000 island type dressing, but more mayo-ie and it had little chopped up pickles. Oh I almost forgot, before we got our soup we were given a bread basket with a cup of home made pig fat with bacon to spread on the bread. It wasn’t that bad!

Pat and Euclid went to some market, the rest of us joined them after Justin and I finished lunch and Courtney and Meredith got ready (they take forever!!!). This market was amazing. Courtney found a Czech outfit – when she gets back to Denver they have a party where everyone who studied abroad will dress in their country’s native dress.

We walked around for a little bit taking pictures of the bridges and shopping in some of the side shops. Some of the group was just gung ho on finding somewhere to sit and have a beer or get food because it was dinner time. Justin and I weren’t hungry and neither was Courtney so we stalled. Courtney and Meredith found a fantastic little 80’s shop and bought a ton of stuff. Justin found a poster. We found Justin’s Adidas shoes that we saw in Karlovy Vary – now he knows what they are called and what size to order.

Before we went down to the train station to catch a train home we found a Trodlo (pronounced Trollo) sound. Here in Budapest their Trodlo’s are twice the size of those in Prague, and Courtney claims they taste better. This stand had a whole bunch of different flavors – cinnamon sugar, vanilla, nuts, classic, cinnamon, and chocolate. Courtney suggested vanilla. She was right, it was delicious!

Once back on the train we went the wrong way and got off at the wrong stop. Its fine we just got back on the train and made an additional transfer. When we got back to our neighborhood, we walked around looking for a place for dinner. The one grill restaurant that Justin and I had found on the first day was our destination and right as we approached the corner, my mom saw a Hungarian/Thai restaurant in a side alley and we immediately went there. John was upset because he didn’t wait Thai food, but there was something here for everybody. It turned out to be a great find! Justin and I split spring rolls (the best I’ve ever had) and chicken fried rice, Meredith had the best goulash and potatoes I’ve ever had, Mary had Pork that was so tender with fried eggs and the same potatoes as Mere, Pat had sweet and sour soup which was torture because he has a bunch of canker sores, Courtney had red curry chicken, and dad had green curry chicken. Pat, Courtney, and dad all found scotch bonnet peppers (the hottest peppers) in their meals – Pat found his the hard way.

On our walk back from the restaurant we stopped at a 0-24 grocery store and bought some beers to have while we packed at the hotel. Justin and I watched some more flight of the Concords dvds and packed. Tonight was the earliest that we had had dinner and been back at the hotel. I would have totally gone and sat in the hot tubs but I didn’t want to have to shower again and be up really early.

Day 8

Justin woke up at 3am this morning and checked the results of the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Bummer!! Our internet hasn’t been working in our hotel room until about 5 minutes ago so Justin was taking the iTouch out into the hallway trying to get a wireless signal. This morning Justin and I were up and showered by 8am and in the lobby having breakfast. I wouldn’t have believed it but the breakfast set up here was even bigger!! Waffles, pancakes (the American way), sausage, an omlette bar, a huge selection of breads and pastries, olives, meats, cheeses, juices, oh my gosh and so much more!!

Pat was the last one down for breakfast and was complaining of a stiff neck, that’s the worst!! The tour guide was coming to pick us up today at the hotel at 9am. When we finished breakfast we looked outside, it was snowing. So we made sure to pack as much warm stuff as we could.

The first stop on our trip was Hero Square and we got out of the bus. Here there was a burial memorial to the unknown soldier. Also there were two semi circles that depicted the first 100 years of Hungary’s history. The 10 most famous kings were on it with a relief below them showing what had made them so great. Then we walked across a bridge (there were man made lakes on both sides that they fill in the summer time)

On the other side of the bridge we stopped to look at buildings that were constructed for an 18th century fair. Each building in the complex represented a different time period in Hungary’s history. It included everything from a gothic castle to an early 17th century seminary.

Good thing Justin was paying attention because Pat, Courtney, Meredith and I were trying to take pictures and catch the enormous snowflakes on our tongue we had missed the entire explanation of what this castle was all about.

Then we headed towards a “bath” house. The lobby walls and ceiling were very ornate. Again the four of us were too busy goofing off and taking pictures to hear what our tour guide had to say about this bath. According to Justin the bath house was built over 100 years ago. Kids would come and use it as a recreational pool but then older people would come and use it for therapy. Some of the treatments that are in the bath you actually have to have a prescription for – but their insurance will cover it. Courtney said that tomorrow we may try to go to a bath house (even though I am very content with the one we have at our hotel).

Then we quick stopped at a food cart and grabbed a soda and we were back on the bus. It was freezing out today so its nice we had the bus.

Our second stop was the Parliament building. Budapest has the third largest Parliament building after Argentina and Romania. There was also a small Christmas market that we walked through. I wish I would have been hungrier, the food looked soooo good. Across the street there were Soviet soldiers standing on the roofs behind statues and started shooting at a peaceful demonstration. It was this that initiated the 1955 Revolution – an attempt to remove the Communists from their Country after WWII. As a tribute memorial some bullets were left attached to the pillar of a building that they had struck as a reminder of that incident.

Then we walked through the financial district of Pest. In the center of the financial district there is a monument to commemorate those who died in WW2, but it is Russian. Many of the citizens here want it removed, but there is a tomb of an unknown soldier buried there and therefore it belongs to Russia and Hungary cannot tear it down. (Euclid asked why they don’t just build a big wall around it so you don’t have to see it).

Then we went to the St. Stephens Basilica. Again it was nice to get out of the cold. We went in and took more pictures. The inside was so ornate and pretty. Then our tour guide took us towards the back to show us a painting on the wall that depicted a King who had lost his son and had no one to give the crown to. So of all of his options, he decided to give it to the Virgin Mary. The town is dedicated spiritually to the Virgin Mary, but he would up giving the crown to his nephew. He also pointed out all of the paintings and how on the inner pillars of the basilica there were paintings of Hungarian/local saints and then on the outer glass windows there were universal saints to symbolize that the Hungarian churches were part of the universal church.

At this point everyone was in need of a coffee break! (Except Justin who does not drink coffee – but we split the most delicious hot chocolate) We sat at the California Coffee Company and had coffee and muffins. Then it was back on the bus.

Our last stop was over the river in Buda. The first building we stopped at used to be the Ministry of Defense and at one time was five stories tall. Now it is only one, and is currently unused. This building also shows the damage caused by the Soviet occupation of the town. Then he showed us the Italian street, the French street and the German street. They were all built starting in the 13th century. Each level of the buildings represented a century as it went up. Below the streets of Buda there are many caves that are all connected and were used as hospitals during WWII.

Oh gosh, next our tour guide took us to a statue of a famous general on his horse. This monument used to be located across the street from a school, but the school is no longer there. When it was a school the students would rub the horse’s testicles before tests for good luck. You can actually see how shiny they are compared to the rest of the statue. So of course Pat, Courtney and Meredith had to climb the statue and take pictures.

On our way back to the van we stopped in a linen/lace tourist store and bought some gifts. I got a doily for myself that has beige flowers in the middle. My mom also bought each of us kids an painted egg Christmas ornament. Again it was a fun place to warm up from standing outside. Last stop was an old royal castle’s walls that overlooked the river Danube and Pest. There were two medieval guards that had two birds and for a little bit of money you could hold your choice of a Hawk or an Eagle. I pretty much ran over and asked for the Eagle. Dumb of me to let him put it on my left arm because when the bird stepped up I about dropped it. The Eagle weighed about 15 pounds. Yikes. I should have used my right arm. Pat and Justin got some pretty great pictures. Then Meredith did it. We wanted new facebook pictures.

The tour guide hurried us to our van and informed us that we were past 1pm and the van was charging us extra. Courtney was upset that we didn’t make it to the Christmas market so we asked the driver to drop us off there and we would walk back to our hotel from there. Of course for lunch everyone was hungry so we wound up going to Burger King. Booo. But, there was a Zara right next to it which was perfect because we didn’t get to go to the one in Prague!! After lunch Courtney, Meredith and I went to Zara, Mary and Euclid walked around, Justin and Pat went walking around outside (not the shopping type). An hour later we met up outside of BK and walked back to the hotel.

We were so cold all day that Justin and I decided to go down to the spa again. We made the rounds from swimming in the pool, sitting in the hot tubs, and finished in the steam bath. Now we are sitting in our room waiting for somebody to tell us what we are doing for dinner. There is an awesome Asian place in our lobby downstairs and Justin wants to go there, but he is napping, so maybe not that badly :) Mary and Patrick are now walking around the vicinity of the hotel to find somewhere that is open because on Sundays, EVERYTHING is closed. So Justin, Meredith, Courtney and I are going to go to the lobby to get a drink and await dinner plans.

Day 7 - Hello Budapest!

This morning was an early one. We were to be showered, dressed, and packed by 6:30am. Justin and I were the first ones downstairs, and the very first ones to breakfast that morning. Thank god for their strong coffee here. Courtney was arrived at the hotel about 6:45 and had breakfast. We loaded up the van and we were off to the airport.

Once we were at the airport we were unsure as to which gate our flight was departing from as the monitor read gates C12 to C21, so we just had to walk towards those gates and wait. While we waited we shopped around a gift shop that had larges bags of candy, soda, beer, and pre-packaged shots. I think Pat was the only one to have a beer before our 10am takeoff. Once we showed our passports and tickets we walked out onto a bus. It was cold and snowing so my feet were freezing. It was the one day that I decided to wear flats instead of my insulated boots.

The plane was an unusual one, it had propellers on each side of the plane. In the cabin it was two seats on each side, A and C on one and D and F on the other. How did they even come up with those letters, why not ABCD?

We landed safely in Budapest and found our tour guide and driver. You could not fit the luggage carts into the elevator so Justin and dad were unloading the suitcases into the elevator and met us all on the level above where we scrambled to get the suitcases out of the elevator before the door would close on us.

Once in the van the driver gave us a brief history of Budapest (pronounced Boo-da-pesht). There is the Danube river that divides the the area into two cities, Buda and Pest. Courtney was telling us that way back when royalty lived on the Buda side and the peasants or city folk lived on the Pest side. The city has a center with four rings (of roads) that radiate out. Our hotel is on the second ring, which is also known as the Great Ring. Our tour guide was also telling us that Hungary is known for three things: Wine, Culture, and the baths/spas. He said that there are 30 regions of wine country here which competes closely with Australia, California and Italy. Who knew??

Right before we got to our hotel our guide was telling us that the hotel we are staying at is one of the most luxurious hotels in Hungry. Sweet. I believe it now that I have seen it (although Justin and my room smells like Sauerkraut. Once we dropped off our bags at the hotel and quick freshened up we went out in need of lunch. We found a gyro/pizza place not to far from our hotel and we figured that it was a crowd-pleasing combination. The gyros were different, finally here they had beef gyros, with cabbage, spicy sauce, onions, tomatoes, and tzatiki sauce. Justin had some sort of hamburger pizza which he said “tasted like two day old pizza that they just threw in the microwave”.

After that everyone wanted to go back and nap (because we have had a really long stressful day). Justin and I decided that we would rather walk around and see a little bit before getting cooped up for the day. So we walked away from our hotel. Near us is a KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. Our first stop was in a 24-hour supermarket. We found the most interesting flavors of cheetos, one was hot dog flavored and had two different types of puffed crisps. One looked like a hot dog bun and the other looked like a hot dog. I came back and stacked them for everyone to see. The second bag were “Safari” cheetos. They were puffs shaped as elephants, giraffes, rinos, and crocs. My dad loved the hot dog chips and my mom loved the cream cheese safari cheetos so it all worked out.

Then Justin and I walked into this t-shirt store that was seriously 5 feet by 5 feet. I bought myself a t-shirt with a cartoon character and Justin bought Ryan a shirt, finally!! We have looked at like a million shirts for Ryan and we finally found one. Afterwards we were so cold we just walked back to the hotel. Justin and I were still a little hungry so we stopped by Pizza Hut which had a walk up window and we ordered a pizza half cheese, half pepperoni. We had to wait about 7 minutes for a fresh pizza, but totally worth it. We brought it back to our hotel and inhaled it. After that it was game over and we took a short nap.

I only fell asleep for 30 minutes when I had realized that we had fallen asleep during the day…in Budapest!! So I woke Justin up and we decided to go down to the Spa (pool). Um the pool here, never seen anything quite as fancy. When we got to the spa we were given a towel, a bathrobe, and a locker key. Justin and I were both wearing our swimsuits already. So I went into the locker room, put on my bathrobe and walked out the other side. I stood there and waited and waited for Justin. I even knocked on the mens locker room door and some big bald guy walked out giving me funny looks. Then I look over the balcony and Justin was walking around on the pool level. We were both waiting for each other on opposite sides of the locker room.

The way the spa is set up, on the top floor there are different service rooms for facials, massages, or any other spa services. They are shaped around a rectangle balcony that over look the pool below. Next to the pool are two Jacuzzis of different temperatures. Justin and I first got in the pool which I thought was cold, and while we were in the pool Pat and Meredith came and saw us when they were looking over the pool from the balcony above. They said they would get swimsuits on and be down. Justin wouldn’t sit with me in one hot tup because it weirds him out that I was sitting with 9 other strangers. PS, Europeans aren’t afraid to sit close to you, and they are all wearing Speedos or just their underwear. Justin was the only one in board shorts haha.

Then we discovered that just on the other side of the pool there was a “relaxation area” with 15 pool chairs where cell phones are not allowed. Beyond the relaxation area there are 2 Saunas, a Steam room and an excitement shower (Justin said it was just cold mist). We sat in the steam room which had fiber optic looking lights in the ceiling that would change colors. Cool. Nobody ever came down to join us so we went back up to the room. Just as we got upstairs, Pat, Meredith, and Courtney walked out in their swimsuits. So Justin and I turned around and the five of us went back down to the spa. Only this time the spa elevator wasn’t working!! So we were walking all over the hotel (we even wound up in the kitchen of all places) in our swimsuits looking for an alternate route to the spa. Once we got down there we all got into the hot tub. By now the spa had cleared out somewhat and the five of us shared a hot tub with Mary and Euclid as well as some stranger. Afterwards we all shuffled between the sauna and the steam room.

Now we were ready for dinner. Pat googled a bunch of places (what would we have done without the internet) and found one close by. However, once we got there they wouldn’t seat us because we didn’t have a reservation. They had plenty of tables, but since they aren’t as concerned with turnover, they didn’t try to seat us. So we walked back towards the hotel and found some other Italian/Hungarian restaurant. It was good, so I’m glad we wound up going there. I had cream of potato soup and a chicken risotto dish (that had too many red peppers and ruined it), Justin had a chicken caeser salad, Courtney had goulash (delicious!!), Meredith had spaghetti Bolognese and I’m not sure what the rest of the table had. Justin, Courtney and I split a bottle of white Hungarian wine and was pleasantly tasty. At the dinner table we had a sign that we would flip to either signal the waiter to stop at our table, or to continue and pass by our table.

After we finished dinner there were people definitely ready to go home (Pat). So we all walked back to the hotel. Once we were back John took off and Pat went to bed. The rest of us went to the hotel lobby where we had a drink. On the second floor we could hear opera music and could see belly dancers. Right outside of the bar there was a string quartet that would walk around and play music at tables. I had my French martini and came back up to the room to blog, but our internet isn’t working, so it may not get posted until tomorrow.

I believe in 2 hours they will be announcing the winner of the Heisman – go Suh!!

Day 6 - Last day in Prague

Today we were supposed to be up and ready to go at 10am. Shocking, we didn’t leave the hotel until 11am.

This morning the “sin of the morning” was fried bananas in caramel sauce. Since I had already ordered Eggs benedict off the menu, I felt guilty ordering something else so I made Mary order it for me. They were DELICIOUS! It was very similar to bananas foster.

Once we all finally left the hotel we headed towards the Jewish cemetery. We were allowed to walk through the synagogue, but pictures were not allowed. On the walls of the synagogue were the names of Jews who died of persecution. The Old Jewish Cemetery lies in the Josefov, the Jewish Quarter of Prague in the Czech Republic. It was in use from the early 15th century (the oldest preserved tombstone, the one of Avigdor Kara, dates back to 1439) until 1787. Its ancestor was a cemetery called "The Jewish Garden", which was found in archaeological excavations under the Vladislavova street, New Town. The numbers of grave stones and numbers of people buried there are uncertain, because there are layers of tombs. However, it has been estimated that there are approximately 12,000 tombstones presently visible and there may be as many as 100,000 burials in all.

Afterwards we all wanted to stop and shop around at some of the touristy shops. However, Meredith only wore moccasins and it was raining so she was complaining about having cold wet feet so we all had to go back to the hotel. Once we were back at the hotel we all laid around for a little bit before deciding that we wanted to find a Laundromat before we left for Budapest. The only one we could find online was literally a couple of blocks from Courtney’s place. We got our laundry packed up and found our way to the Mustek subway station. When we got there it wound up being super expensive. It cost me and Justin almost $20 to do two loads of laundry plus the cost of soap. After everyone got their stuff in the washers everyone left to walk around and Justin and I stayed and played Scrabble on an iTouch and worked on postcards. Once the wash cycle was finished we put everything in the dryers and Euclid, John, Justin and I went a found a Chinese restaurant across the street to get something to eat since nobody had had lunch and we were all starting to get “surly” (as Justin would say).

On our way back John had walked so far ahead of us that my mom and dad continued to follow him and Justin, Pat and I wandered into a bunch of stores. Many of the clothing stores here seem to be just behind the curve in fashion and seem to be relatively cheap trendy – but not anything that has appealed to us yet. Then Justin mentioned the fact that my mom needed some Imodium (from all the sauerkraut – she just can’t stop ordering it). So we walked all over looking for a Chemist (pharmacy). Finally we found one on the very bottom level of the Palladium. We were all really nervous to have to ask for “poop medicine”. Luckily when I got to the counter the pharmacist knew what I meant and we went back to the hotel.

Once we got back, Meredith and Mary had gone out in search of Garnet. So Justin and I crawled into bed to continue working on postcards and blogging. Nobody seems to be able to agree on where we want to go for dinner. Patrick wants to go out for a “nice” dinner, and my dad wants French food, and my mom wants to go somewhere cheap because she’s heard Austria is very expensive. So we ha to sit here and watch the new Indiana Jones movie and wait for everyone to get back. I wish you could stream TV shows from home over the internet because there are a couple I want to catch up on. Apparently you can only do that in the U.S., you cannot watch shows abroad.

Day 5

Today we got a late start….a really late start.

Mary, Euclid, John and I went down for breakfast around 10am. I had the “sin of the morning” for breakfast which today was two mini croissants doused in a vanilla crème sauce (less sweet and thin vanilla pudding). I just wasn’t as hungry for breakfast this morning because I feel like all we’ve done is eat on this trip that I haven’t had time to become really hungry!

After we finished breakfast we came upstairs to wake up the rest of the crew. Finally around noon everyone was ready. We went to the Alphonse Mucha museum. It wasn’t very big, but very interesting. Justin, Meredith and Patrick went into the gift shop and immediately picked out the posters they wanted to buy. Then we had to wait for Mary to pick our her posters.

By the time we left the museum half of the group was starving since they decided to sleep rather than eat. So we went to McDonalds. Interesting fact, they say “non-stop” rather than “open 24 hours” here. Pat and Justin had Big Macs (Justin is now obsessed and has probably had at least four Big Macs in the past coupe of weeks), Meredith had a cheeseburger (she at here again – so unlikely), and Mary and Euclid had a filet of fish. I ordered Los Bomberderos – which were potato wedges. Its so interesting that they had potato wedges. They had most of the same menu items that we do at home but they also had some pork sandwich called a McCountry and had different McFlurry flavors such as KitKat.

After lunch we all went back to the hotel. It was raining pretty heavy at this point and all of our umbrellas were at the hotel. Justin has been looking for these adidas shoes that we saw in Karlovy Vary so we shopped around a little before heading back to the hotel.

Since it was raining we decided to go to the Jewish graveyard another day. Patrick, Meredith and Justin napped. Mary and Euclid went to the hotel’s fitness center. I went shopping! I went to two different malls. The first one I went to was the Kotva (http://www.od-kotva.cz/). It was strange, it felt like a department store, but was sectioned off like a mall, just without walls. I bought a necklace from one of the stores on the main floor.

Then I went across the street to the Palladium, which is huge and really nice. (http://new.palladiumpraha.cz/) I liked just walking around and just sort of people watching and the different clothing/fashion styles.

After I left the mall I was hungry for a hot dog from a street vendor. So I went to one and asked for a hot dog, what I got was a sausage with two slices of rye bread…not exactly what I wanted but it was tasty. When I arrived back at the hotel I worked with the concierge to get tickets for the Black Light theatre. I was still hungry for a hot dog so Justin and I walked back to find one in the Old Town square Christmas market. When I got there I decided I wanted a Langos – which is a deep fried dough with garlic, ketchup and cheese. I figured that when it said ketchup that it was a tomato sauce but when I took a bite, it was ketchup. It was actually pretty gross.

By the time we got back with the Langos it was time to leave for the black light theatre (http://www.imagetheatre.cz/english/en-index.asp). Just as we got there I turned and asked Mary and Euclid if they brought the voucher that the conceriege gave me because we paid a deposit at the hotel. So Euclid and John had to go back to the hotel and grab it. Actually it worked out because Pat and Meredith went to the Old Town square market to grab a bite to eat and Justin and I stayed at the black light theatre’s bar and had a Gambrinos (which I like better than Pilsner – Justin disagrees).

We all went and right before the show started John said that he needed to use the restroom. Shortly after he left they shut the doors. I think he may have missed the entire show, but no big deal because it was pretty much terrible. Pat, Meredith, Justin and I were just waiting for it to be over. Mary and Euclid liked it. Anywho, afterwards we just walked around because nobody was quite ready to go back to the hotel. For some reason it seems to be warmer at night here than it is during the day. We wound up in Wenceslas square. Since we were there Euclid and I got a gyro from a street vendor. I had mine in a gyro and dad had his in a baguette. It was okay, not great, I’m just not a fan of chicken gyros. They don’t have lamb anywhere here, which is weird.

Then there was a consensus that we should stop somewhere to get a drink and my dad and Justin hadn’t had dinner so we stopped at a pizza restaurant, Pizza Ambiente. We all shared three pizzas, two margherita and one Quattro formaggi. The pizza was, like everything else we’ve had here, ah-maze-ing! The coolest part about this restaurant is right when you walk in there is a table map that has green lights for the tables that are available. That way you can see if there are any available tables before going upstairs.

After dinner we were all exhausted and ready for bed. Patrick and Meredith came up to my and Justin’s room to watch movies before bed. Since we had been talking about the movie Grandma’s Boy all night I said that we could download it if it were less than $10, what are the odds that it would be $9.99 :)

I am taking an advil PM because I need to get a good nights sleep for our busy day tomorrow. Good night!

Day 4

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Day 4

This morning we had to wake up and be ready in the lobby by 9am. Since mom and dad overslept the day before, they set a 7am wakeup call for all of our rooms. Amazingly, we were all showered, dressed, and ready to go at 9 (doesn’t usually happen). On the way out to Karlovy Vary (our day trip destination) Patrick and Meredith played UNO and listened to a standup comedian on their iTouch. Justin was also listening to his iPod, what did we do before iPods??

We stopped about 30 minutes outside the town for a toilet and coffee break. Even in truck stops they still allow smoking!! It was about a two hour bus ride out to Karlovy Vary. The city was very picturesque. In a way it reminded me of a small ski town in Colorado minus the mountains. Also the apartments complexes looked very much like a movie set. It was almost spooky. Karlovy Vary is known for its mineral springs. We went through the town building where they had five spigots for you to fill your glass with, three different temperatures. Pat and Justin emptied out a nalgene bottle and filled it with the coolest water. It was a consensus that it tasted like blud due to the amount of sulfur and iron.

We had a tour guide that walked us through the city . She walked us to all 12 spigots. She also gave us the history of the city and some of the famous people who had frequented the city.

There was a story about J.W. Goethe (statue in pictures) who had visited the spa city many of times and when he was 60 he fell in love with a 16 year old. They fought for the love, but the mother of the 16 year old just wouldn’t have it so J.W. finally left her. She never married, and remained single for the rest of her life.

Karlovy Vary is also known as a spa city. As our tour guide was telling us, people here can go to their doctor and their doctor will write them a prescription for a length of stay at a spa and their insurance has to cover it. The only time that a spa stay is mandatory is when a girl between the ages of 14 and 18 have their appendix removed to ensure that they are still able to have children.

Eventually we made it to Grandhotel Pupp (Pat laughed because they pronounced it poop), but it was where they filmed parts of Casino Royale and apparently some Queen Latifa movie.

We also heard about the towns history and how the Russians took over all of the housing both in Karlovy Vary and in Prague’s Wenceslas square and made it property of the state. When the country became democratic in 1993 the housing was turned back over to the families – who now live there for free. If you were to buy a flat in either location it would cost millions.

We were given an hour and a half for lunch and we found the big sign that said Pilsner above the door and figured that was a good sign. I had chicken schnitzel and French fries, Justin had goulash that came in a HUGE potato pancake (Pat had the same and literally everything on his plate), Mary and Meredith had roast duck, sour kraut, and dumplings, and John and Euclid had sausage and cheese. We also ordered potato croquettes for the table – which may be the best things I’ve had here yet. On our way back to meet our tour guide I saw a girl eating a cherry pie from McDonalds, which are MY FAVORITE!! So I grabbed some change and ran to a McDonalds and got myself one. Mary and Patrick bought wafers (smelled like homemade ice cream cones).

Back on the truck and we were headed home. It took about 2.5 hours to get home. Pat, Justin, Mere and I were all playing a riveting game of Scrabble on an iTouch, but Meredith and Patrick quickly fell asleep so Justin and I played until the battery ran out. Thank goodness it wasn’t long after the battery died and we were back at the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel Pat decided to take a nap and so Justin, Meredith and I went to the Palladium Mall. Mary and Euclid walked right by us when we got there but they didn’t want to stay at the mall so we agreed to meet at the hotel for dinner.

For dinner John directed us to a Thai restaurant. I’m not particularly a fan of Thai but the chicken fried rice was delicious. Justin and I have agreed that we haven’t had a meal here that we haven’t enjoyed. Everything is sooo good here.

Tonight Courtney, Meredith and Patrick are going out. I’m so exhausted that I decided to stay in and watch movies. Tomorrow we have big plans for shopping, both for ourselves, souvenirs for you all, and hopefully some museums.

On and one last thing. Our tour guide said that she was about 30 years old and when she was growing up, they did not have oranges. They were only eaten around Christmas time. Now oranges are everywhere since they have become a free nation.

Day 3

This morning we didn’t have as great of luck with the weather as we have the past two days. It was 40 and rainy. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be up at a decent time this morning because I couldn’t fall asleep last night. However, Justin and I were up at 7:45am. So we got ready and Justin couldn’t have hurried me more to get to breakfast (its that good!). This morning Justin had the “sin of the morning” breakfast which was a crepe in cinnamon sugar which means sprinkled with cinnamon and sprinkled with powdered sugar. We both indulged in the fruit and pastries and I had my usual ham and cheese omlette (they forgot the cheese ☹ – it’s the best part).

Since we didn’t see anybody at breakfast we walked down to the room that Mary, Euclid, and Meredith were sharing. They had all over slept!! Pat couldn’t believe it. On our way down to breakfast we bumped into him going to the gym to squeeze in a quick workout (also unbelievable). While the three got ready and had breakfast Justin and I went out walking (not yet raining) and found Zara (our favorite overseas clothing store). They only have Zara in New York and LA I believe, and they do not have a website so when we find one its game over.

We both walked around Zara to see what they had so that when we went back we could shop smarter than grabbing everything we see. When we got back to the hotel room people were still running around and getting ready. Mary and Euclid went down to the front desk to arrange a tour for today since the weather was so crappy (this way we could see the city from inside of a bus).

We had about 30 minutes before the bus was going to pick us up so we went to this bagel place called Bohemian Bagel – everyone that we have talked to who has been here just raves about this place and its only a block from our hotel. We all went in and ordered bagel sandwiches but before they brought us our bagels Mary was already back out the door to meet shuttle bus. So when the waiter brought us our sandwiches we had to ask to have the wrapped up to go. Which stinks because this was the first place we’ve been to that had ice for fountain sodas…and they were FREE REFILLS!!! Sad.

So we get on the bus and there were already two people on the bus so we filled in. We only had to stop one other time in Wenceslas Square to pick up like 10 more people. After that we were on our way. We drove through lower town and over the Prague Castle. At the castle we all go out and walked to see the three entrances and the church (which still holds Catholic service on Sundays at 9am and 11am). We got a bunch of sweet pictures here but it was frustrating because from the Castle you get great views overlooking Prague but it was so cloudy and rainy that our pictures wont capture the view as well.

Then we stopped in a little café and got coffee and snacks, as well as a chance to use the toilets (WC) before getting back on the bus. On our way to the café we saw a boy walking towards us in a Nebraska sweatshirt. Mary started chanting “go huskers”. Poor kid didn’t speak English and had no idea what was going on and said he had never been to Nebraska. But still, what a small world!!

Later we were all shuffled back on the bus and they drove us through Jewish town. We drove down Paris street (has all of the fancy designer stores) and before you drive down Paris street there is the oldest synagogue in Central Europe (built in the 13th century). There was also a graveyard that is a very popular destination for tourists because in some areas there are up to 12 burials deep stacked on top of each other to fit them all in to the small site.

Once we reached the Old Town square we watched the changing of apostles at the atomic clock. I didn’t realize that the Old Town square is set up with all of the booths only for Christmas and again at Easter. I thought it was year round, so we are sort of lucky for coming during the Christmas season.

Since we were so close to the hotel we decided not to go on the rest of the tour back to Wenceslas square (it was a 10 minute walk and we were already soaking). So we all headed back to the hotel to figure out what to do until dinner. Since nobody in our family is decisive yet argumentative, we sat at the hotel for 2.5 hours.

We all left the hotel at 7:15pm and headed towards Mustek to catch the underground subway. We only needed to go two stops to get to Courtney’s apartment. Once we figured out how to get there it was actually pretty quick. We all crammed into Courtney’s apartment and met her three roommates. Two of them go to DU and one of them goes to the University of Washington. Oh I almost forgot, in Courtney’s complex the elevator buttons are heat activated, they aren’t buttons. So you can’t keep your gloves on when working the elevator, or lift I should say.

We went to an Italian restaurant called Pizza Grossetto…yum. The wait for a table for 12 was about a 20 minute wait which was fine, so we all had a drink. Dinner was super good! I sat at a table with Courtney, Meredith, Patrick, Justin and one of Courtney’s roommates who is a DG at DU so Meredith, Courtney and Kaleigh had a lot to talk about. We had a gnocchi in a spinach sauce, spaghetti alla millanese, pizza margherita, and another pizza with ham, mozzarella, prosciutto, and basil.

After dinner we all went back to Courtney’s flat to open gifts. She gave mom a wallet for her birthday, she gave me a garnet necklace and a sweet blue and ivory scarf, Meredith received a ginormous Toblerone bar and a hoodie and Pat also got a hoodie as well as a shirt from Oktoberfest.

We scooted out of the apartment as quickly as possible since the girls are all getting ready for finals, they will all be officially finished on Thursday. Pat, Meredith, Justin and I were all still anxious to go out so we went to this bar next to our hotel called El Mojito. We could only afford one drink so we all had a beer, I had a Bamba (strawberry vodka and fanta lemon), and we came back to the hotel to watch Flight of the Concords and Casino Royale in preparation for tomorrow. Good night!

Day 2

Well Monday, started off with an amazing breakfast. The hotel includes breakfast and I’m pretty sure Mary sat downstairs and ate for about two hours. You could order eggs prepared any way you wanted, eggs benedict, sin of the morning (toast with chocolate and bananas – Meredith go it). There were also pastries of all different sorts, cereals, fruits – amazing fruit, yogurts, hot items such as bacon and sausage, beans, and some other weird stuff.

Since Justin and I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night Euclid wound up waking us up around 9am for breakfast. After we finished eating, Justin, Euclid, Pat and I walked to a grocery store, not too far from the hotel. The store keeps fish in a fish tank next to the seafood counter for fresh fish. Patrick also filled us in on the Budwiser – they had it first and the Americans copied it. That is why you will never find an Anheiser Busch product in the Czech Republic. Then we discovered that the security guard for the grocery store was following us around the store. It had two stories and you could take a form of an escalator that was flat so you could put your grocery cart on it.

After we left we found a shopping mall – how cool. It was five or six stories and looked way more modern than any shopping mall in the States. What threw me is that smoking is still allowed so people who were eating up on the top level were smoking, inside of the mall!! There were all sorts of restaurants, but it wasn’t like a traditional mall food court, there were actually sit down restaurants with waiters. After we checked out the mall we headed back to the hotel only to stop in this little pastry shop. There we bought Mary a chocolate birthday cake called “chocolate supreme”. There were all sorts of nudie and inappropriate candies and I believe cake toppers. We left the cake at the front desk and they put it in their refrigerator so that Mary wouldn’t see it.

Then once everyone was rounded up we all walked to the St. Charles bridge. It was built in medevil times. On our way to the bridge we stopped in Old Town Square for Justin and Meredith to get Trollo. Its a dough baked over coals and then covered in cinnamon sugar.

After we walked to and over the bridge and took like a hundred pictures we went looking for a restaurant to grab a beer in. But on our way we found about the funniest fountain ever. It was two men peeing – but their hips were mechanical so they moved side to side and their “thing” moved up and down. Come to find out that it symbolizes a man from Germany and a man from Russia peeing on the Czech Republic – the shape of the fountain.

Then we stopped for a quick drink where everyone had a mug of beer, and I had a bottled mojito. Yuck. Then I tried the Pepermintska – which was basically green peppermint schnapps. I was too nervous to try anything else. On every table there were giant pretzels for the table – which apparently you get charged for eating even though they were stale and left on your table. Mary ordered some appetizer that had sausage, chicken, veal, and pork on a skewer with red, green, and yellow peppers grilled with a spicy tomato dipping sauce and a mayonnaise type sauce.

After we ate, Meredith Justin and I went back to the fountain to take a picture since the first round of pictures were not actually pictures but Mary taking a video. Now it was freezing because the sun had gone down and none of us were wearing the proper coats so we walked home quickly.

Then we were all going to go to Zara – the clothing store, but found out we were meeting Courtney at the Old Town square for dinner. We met her in the Square and then we all walked to dinner. On our way my mom found the Rezny sign that we had been looking for so of course we stopped to take a picture.

For dinner we just walked by this place and because it said “coffee and warm apple strudel”, Mary was like, lets go!! Um it was delicious. I had beef tenderloin stuffed with Roquefort cheese and fried potato dumplings, Justin had some version of chicken cordon bleu with cheesy scalloped potatoes, Meredith and Mary had roast duck and sour kraut, Pat and Euclid had duck, and Courtney had veal with the most amazing fried potatoes. Oh I almost forgot, as an aperitif Mary and Patrick ordered some svletkla – that burned all the way down, and Mary actually took the rest of her drink as a shot whereas Pat almost couldn’t take it.

When we got back to the hotel we got the cake and had cake and coffee. The cake was amazing. It was so chocolaty and rich, but so light at the same time. Justin inhaled his cake even though he “wasn’t hungry”.

Instead of going out tonight we all decided to just stay in and agreed we would all go out tomorrow night. So Meredith Justin and I watched a couple of episodes from flight of the concords. Its now about midnight so I’d better get to sleep. Goodnight.