Jessica in Prague

Oy... I'm exhausted! Just got back from my five day trip. It was a blast, but I'm whupped. Okay, here's a very brief synopsis, and I won't have any pics up for awhile. I promise that they will all be up on snapfish by say June.

An old castle at the end of the hike from hell, sooo worth it.

The Imperial Palace grounds

Pretty Rathaus(?) at night

Budapest: MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE EVER! especially at night, everyone got sick on the spicy food, went to the hot spas... nice, and took a boat tour down the Danube for my dad, learned some Magyar along the way, on to Bratislava

The beautiful, beautiful castle in Budapest

View down the Danube from Margaret Island

Bratislava: here for a total of four hours of which two and a half spent looking for a place to go potty, super cheap, they speak czech, lost two people and would have left them had we not spoken up on their behalf, on to home

The only neat thing I saw in Bratislava

Literally just got home about half an hour ago and leave again in 23 hours for Venice on a 12 hour long bus ride... UGH! My tummy is kind of mad at me with all this new food and moving around, so I'm off to Bohemia Bagel, baby! Then gonna go home and pass out for awhile... miss you all! BTW, I took about 325 pics and 3 videos, no joke, so the trip is well documented.

Welcome back to the program, the second half is just below, enjoy the show!

The gang got a late start on Saturday... but we headed out to Vysehrad. This time we actually went in the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. It was really pretty. We walked along the Vltava river to the Dancing Building, went across the river to Andel where there's a mall, and ate pizza for lunch. Next we mosied on over to the Lennon Wall (I think I've spelled moseyed 3 different ways since I started this thing, sorry). It was neat, but I again forgot to bring my permanent marker with me, so I'll have to make a third trip. We went back to their hotel and rested a bit before Meems and I went to a store called Lush. They sell all sorts of scented soaps that are supposed to be all natural or something. Smells yummy. Meems has this ingenious way of buying souveniers that are scented so that whenever she uses it, she remembers the trip. Neat, huh? Afterwards, we all met up with Mandy, Jamie, and Wendy at the Louvre for the HOT CHOCOLATE... we also had some penne pasta for dinner.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday: We had tix to see the opera The Devil and Kate (Cert a Kaca). We met up at the National Theater, and I guess it was okay. I think I'm just getting sick of operas. It had a weird ending... kinda un-opera-y. They decided they were going to go to lunch and do all this other stuff. It made me tired just talking about it, so Meems and Brian gave me the day off. I went home and went to bed. They apparently had lunch at Cafe Slavia across from the theater. Then they got caught having student transportation passes, but not being students (see blog from last Sunday). Bad day... very bad. I made it sound way worse than it was, but I was just down the whole day.

Monday was better. After classes (exam in history, yikes, and went over exam in Czech class B+), they trekked over, with new and improved passes, and we downloaded pics again. Then we went to the T.V. Tower. It is considered the ugliest building in the city skyline because it sticks out like a sore thumb. The guy who designed it was kinda weird and put a bunch of crawling babies with bar codes for faces all over it. It was rather creepy. They planned to go to a concert at the Rudolfinium and then go to the Communist Museum later. So we all booked it to Old Town, smazed it (had a smazeny syr sandwich: fried cheese patty with tartar sauce in a roll, can't you just hear the arteries clogging?), and got them off to the concert while I went grocery stopping at Tesco. Turns out I was way off on the concert date, so they went to the Communist Museum instead. After Tesco, had a potluck at my professor for my Marriages and Culture class's apartment. She's Chinese and she made a lot of Chinese food: rice, noodles, seaweed (eww), and raw fish (bleeech). Her apartment is really nice, I'll have pics on snapfish when I get back home or something.

Tuesday: Had my midterm for M & C class. I didn't actually get to spend much time with them that day because there was massive miscommunication involved. They went to a Prague Orchestra concert at the Municipal House.. and they paid for me and Heather to see it the next day, it was really good, the soloist was phenomenal! Anyway, while they were there, I went to an orientation for my Venice and Krakow trips, had crappy Chinese food and good dessert with Heather. After that, Heather and I went to Meems' hotel to drop off stuff I wanted them to take home for me. Got home about midnite, took a shower, went to bed, woke up Wednesday morning at 6a.m., and "took" them to the airport. I'm just happy we didn't get lost on the way there, let's just leave it at that. BTW, Prague airport is freakin' awesome! So open, colorful, and friendly!

This is quite a blog so I'll wrap it up. Just getting ready for my 5 day trip to Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava (capital of Slovakia). Had a great Italian dinner tonite at a place Meems and Brian had recommended. Pasta with chicken in a white sauce, onions, cheese, and lemon. Yum! I won't get to a computer for awhile, so don't look for any updates any time soon. At the earliest, in a week, at the latest, two. Take a look at my schedule for more info! Wish me happy travels!

Post from Jess's TA: I snapped a photo of Jess's upcoming very busy itinerary as she travels all about Europe. Take a look so you can know what she's up to at every moment...

$0.64 beer on the left, $1.00 beer on the right

So Mimi and Brian arrive and I meet them in their hotel's bar, 'twill be a recurring theme throughout the week, bars. Anywho, I decide to take it relatively easy on them and just take the tram back to my dorm (where I quickly hid my homemade cookies, Italian dressing, and real, actual Coke). Met my roomies, showed them the hot plate (UPDATE: We got a new one today!!!). Then I decided I'd take them to a restaurant by their hotel, but first we meandered our way back. We went through Prague Castle grounds, which is really pretty at night, and free. Then we walked semi-along the Vltava river, up and across the Charles Bridge, down Tourist Row (no it's not actually called that, just looks like it), and to the restaurant U Vejvodu. Introduced them to good Czech food, and beer. It was about 9 p.m. and Brian was falling asleep at the table. Took them back to their hotel and went home myself. End of day one...

Day dva: BIG DAY. Started off with my little field trip to Kutna Hora that I signed them up for. It was a lovely little trip, only went until about 3 in the afternoon, not an all dayer. Saw a walkway where they filmed parts of The Three Musketeers... pretty neat, made to look like France. Best of all? NO HIKING! When we got back, I took them to the famed Bohemia Bagel to show them what all the fuss was about. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Tomato soup with a huge cheese bagel: $2, Coke w/ FREE refills: little under $2, spending time with the family 5,000 miles away from home: priceless. Across the street is a Communist Memorial. Looked at that for awhile and decided to go up to Petrin Hill to look out the Eiffel Tower. However, apparently the funicular train was under construction the whole week they were here. No worries, we just walked (hiked) our way up. Problem: Eiffel Tower thingy is only open on Saturdays and Sundays... d'oh. Walked around a little up there and moseyied our way over to Strahov Monastery where I attempted to show them a wooden nativity scene (gone) and the cute little doorway with a tree growing over it (closed off). FINE! At this point we are all by my dorm again so we decide to upload some pics and doodle on the computer (Shelly is definitely on my list of people to buy cars for one day). After THAT we took the metro over to Old Town, by this time it was dark out and all was purty. Walked through the drug and cabaret scene, forgot it was St. Patty's Day, to Wencenslas Square. We ate a crap-ton of Chinese food at my fave place, we were miserably stuffed. Walked up and down the square, back to Old Town for some not-so-much-needed gelato, went to an Irish pub for Patty's sake, then booked it to Malostranska in order to catch the last available tram before the night ones kicked on. Whew, I was worn out. Got home about 12:30 a.m.

Leaning against the grain at the Communist Memorial

There's my beloved Bohemia Bagel

I'll continue the rest tomorrow... some further updates. Got Venice and Krakow paid off and just booked my trip to Karlovy Vary, which is the Czech spa town. Gonna get me some RE-LAX-A-TION! Like I need it. Anyway, just been told that Daylight Savings Time over here is this Sunday whereas back home it's the following week, weird. But that means there will be a seven hour difference for a week... I think. I'm getting a headache. It's like trying to contemplate the scope of the universe, DST + different time zones = oww oww oww. I leave Friday for Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava. Hopefully Brian will be putting up a helpful little calender once he recoups from jet lag (feel free to put up any pics you want regarding today's blog, you have the better pics anyway). Talk to y'all tomorrow... bye!

The whole gang at Wencenslas Square

Just so you all know when you read this.

I hate this place. It's really starting to get to me, here. I know I shouldn't be broadcasting this world-wide, but everyone understands foreign students have their bad days too. Meems and Brian are in the city somewhere, trying to get ahold of me, not knowing I'm here in my room. Apparently, they got caught having student passes. Silly me, I bought month long passes for them using my student discount because it was cheaper than buying a seven day pass. Why would I put them in such risk, you ask? BECAUSE I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN CHECKED FOR BEING A STUDENT AND NO ONE I KNOW HAS BEEN EITHER! They are so freakin' lacksadaisical about it every other day, why now? Why have me look like the cheap sister who doesn't care? Can't make a local call to their hotel, because I can't figure out how. I'm so tired and sick from two and a half days of extra long walks outside. It's flippin beautiful out now and I can't enjoy it. And my sister can't get ahold of me so that she can find out how to spend another ten dollars on a "legit" pass. This is on top of the $40 they already charged them for not being students. I really hate this place. That and every time I try to take them some place, it's either closed or not working, or I don't know crap about it. I am the worst tour guide ever. If I ever go some where else... never here again, I can tell you that now... don't ever visit me because you'll just do a lot of walking with no point, see stupid 3 hour long operas, and pay way too much money for nothing. I suck at life. Too tired to explain what I've been doing these past few days, but needed to vent. Update everyone later.... If I don't ship myself home with my sister first.

This is gonna be a short one. But to all who wondered... Mandy and Brian have arrived, safe and sound, and are already enjoying the scenes of Prague. They said they feel like they are in a fairy tale, but that they have actually stepped into it. It kind of freaked them out to walk in to my room and see that it looked exactly like the pictures on the blog! As we walked around they pointed out other things they remembered me taking pictures of... it was kind of neat, being the little tour guide! Well, they are tucked into their beds (big, fluffy, non-hard-as-a-rock, beds), tired from the flight, the walking, the heavy food, and the beers (yeah, plural, Brian has already had more beers in seven hours than I had in two months...).


Anyway, I myself am recuperating from the Chocolate Tasting Party my roomie and I had last night. It sounded like a fantastic idea at the time, but some of us are regretting it a little today! We had a bigger turn out, we added Elise and Shelly to the mix. We later took the left overs (blasphemous as that may sound, there WERE left overs) around the rest of the dorm and tried to get rid of it all. We ended up throwing some away (shhh don't let that spread around, we may be barred from cukranas, or Czech candy shops).

Found the John Lennon Wall (bout freakin time, the thing is on an island and it took me three tries to find it!!!). Kind of a disappointment, but maybe to those who actually find it the first time around, it would be interesting. Now, just preparing for the fast-paced week ahead... because my TA is over here, I don't know when photos will be up! Going to Kutna Hora tomorrow, fill you in on that later!!

The rising Euro-Movie Star shines again! First one is a little dark and the second a little windy, but Jess says we'll just have to cope. --TA (BT)

Cuz we sure have! Hey all, welcome to the weekly Prague Report (sorry it's been awhile!)

Just another case of not having done enough to warrant a blog, I lead such an exciting life. Let's see, what'd I do this week? I bought a ticket to see Carmen on May 2nd... ha ha! So at least I'LL get to see it. Did laundry, all's well. Went shopping for some socks, you wouldn't believe how many pairs I've had to throw away already! Went to Heather's weekly Gin Bucket for the first time. For those of you who don't know... it's basically gin, lemons, limes, and Sprite... in a bucket. I had half of a very watered down glass, wasn't too bad.

On Friday, Amaanda's friends, Sunny and Corrine from Idaho, arrived and we had french toast for breakfast. Good stuff! Later on, Mandy and I walked around Vysehrad. There used to be a castle here and was considered the southern fortress of Prague. However, Prague Castle became more "important", and the castle kind of fell to ruin, I think. Now there's the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul and a cemetary where a lot of famous Czech folk are buried. There's also St. Martin's rotunda. It'll be very pretty when/if spring comes along.



Yesterday, Mandy and I decided to buckle down and get massive amounts of homework done. Our other two roomies are gone for the weekend, but Shelly let us have the key to her room so we could use her computer (BTW she's from Ohio... she's the best roomie ever, other than Mandy of course). I tried to go out and buy tix for a black light theater production, but the place I wanted to go to doesn't exist anymore, apparently. So I walked around finding info on other theaters. We'll see when Meems and Brian get here what we end up seeing (4 more days!).

Today I went to church with Mandy, she's a Mormon (not that there's anything WRONG with that). It was neat listening to the sermon(?) in Czech and having a doo dad where the missionaries translate it for you into English. Everyone was really friendly. Unfortunately, we got about 6-8" of snow dumped on us overnight that we had to wade through in dress attire and high-heeled boots. That was fun! We're going to look up where the LDS church is in Paris b/c we'll be there on Easter and she wants to definetly go then.

All in all, just getting ready for Meems and Brian to get here, getting some homework done ahead of time b/c I won't be here to do it later!! My blogs will be even further and far between then... sorry! Bye!

My legs are tired... here's why:

This last weekend we had two field trips outside of Prague. Me being the inattentive college student that I am, I do not know the names of all the little towns we went to, so don't expect too much detail in that department!


Saturday we all went to Cesky Raj... Czech Paradise. I always thought paradise would be warmer, but what do I know? Anyway, there was a castle involved, up a hill of course (more like a small mountain), but the main attraction is the surrounding forests, rocks, landscape-age, trails, etc. Our first bus was late due to icy road conditions, that should have been a sign. We finally get there and we hiked up and around this "hill" for a good two hours. It wasn't too cold out, so that was nice. Great views of the surrounding lands, very pretty. Had to use my inhaler. The best part were the icy hills. We had to slide down them on our butts, including this really skinny crevice area... it was a blast! Never had more fun acting like a 12 year old!

We get back to the bus to go to lunch and find out it's stuck. Some cars are blocking it in and it can't manuever well on the ice. Well, our muscle-men move the cars out of the way, and we all start pushing the bus and putting twigs under the tires. All to no avail. We finally just walk down the hill to a restaurant to wait out the tow-truck. 35 hungry people descended onto this tiny little restaurant, and it took us over three hours to get everyone fed and back on the bus... we went home and laughed about it all, knowing it was probably going to be worse the next day.

It wasn't too bad Sunday. We set out to a historical settlement somewhere, and then on to Krivoklat Castle. First we made a few pit stops to small villages with pretty architecture like this one haunted church with no ceiling. We arrive at the bottom (of course, the buses can't go up the steep hills, but we can!) of the historical settlement and start climbing. And I mean climbing... up at least a 60-70 degree incline with no railings or path, or good shoes (I asked the guide ahead of time if there was going to be any hiking, he said not too much... they have a lovely sense of humor here, have I mentioned that?). We get to the top, and there is nothing there, but a rather lousy view of some hops fields (do they come in fields?). The guide mentioned something about having seen Rambo and knows that Americans can do anything. We're all standing at the top of the hill taking pictures of the stupid view simply to get something out of that ridiculous climb... cursing under our out-of-breath, and dreaming of warm, dry socks. It only hurt for a minute, really! Less hiking than the day before, but worse because of the steeper incline, and anti-climatic summit.

Haunted old abandoned church in some town	The stupid view at the top of the Mt. Everest that we climbed
Krivoklat Castle	My new Czech boyfriend. Now, he's got some machismo.

Again the best part was going back down... the greatest looking sledding hill ever! Of course, there was too much snow to actually slide down on our butts, so instead we all did the kamikaze run down it... good times! Had lunch at a decent hour (grilled chicken with ham and cheese on top of it, in gravy, with bread, coleslaw, and croquettes... little potato balls... YUMMY!). Got to Krivoklat Castle late, thus could not actually go in. The castle itself was not that exhilirating (to such an avid traveler as myself! seen one, seen 'em all! no, just compared to others, it wasn't in my top five, let's say). The city surrounding it was marvelous, though. Right out of a fairy-tale. I must commend the bus driver for manuevering around all the turns... that takes talent. Finished off the tour with a look at some frozen river where I got some good sunset shots. BTW, all my photos can be seen on snapfish.com. I don't know how you would view my pics... but some have been able to figure it out, others are having trouble.

Now I'm waiting to go have some hot chocoalte, after polishing off half a chocolate bar with strawberry yogurt filling already. Had one of those off days... miss the tram, really cold out, got to sleep late, bad lunch, bad reading/emails... but I digress. Mandy has been cheering me up like the fantastically wonderful roommate that she is, she is slowly converting me into an Idahoan, maybe even a Mormon. I'm going to come home saying "squoze", and calling movies "shows". Bye all! Sorry so long!

They are the biggest pain in the butt.

Anyway, the potluck was a smashing success! So much good food: I made deviled eggs, Mandy made her potatoes with universal seasoning, we also brought ice cream and sausage (no not mixed together). Believe me, I have pix, just having trouble with the computer I'm on... so it may be awhile. Jaime made potatoes with corn and cheese, Wendy made a great apple dessert, Laura made a pretty fruit/pie thing that had "pudding" (turned into milk, but still really good) with it, Mary brought this yummy pasta with bread (of course, can't have a meal w/o bread around here), and Amaanda made a fruit salad with sprinkled coconut and yogurt on it! We were sooo stuffed. It was great!


Mandy and I booked our flights and hostel stay for Paris last night as well! Four nights in lovely Paris over Easter break... I hope everything's not closed! The flight was about $155 and the hostel stay is roughly $100 each. However, our room gets its own toilet, shower, breakfast is included, as are linens and towels. This all may sound weird to us Americans, but that's a sweet deal to get all that in Paris for just $25 a night. It looks like Amaanda may join us as well.

Just came back from seeing Memoirs of a Geisha (Gejsa). Really beautiful movie. Today we all walked off the food by going to the Communist Museum (140kc w/ student id). It was a really informative museum, kinda small, but very to-the-point... I liked it, but don't know if it was completely worth the price.

The gelato here is great... and you can find it pretty cheap so long as you remember that everything comes in European portions: small. Also, to clear things up... I realize that paying $16 for an opera ticket may not seem like much... and it isn't when compared to prices in the states, but you'd be suprised how quickly we all adapted to all these cheap prices. For example, we consider paying more than 200kc way too much for food. A good deal can be gotten at 125-150kc, roughly $5-$7. Same thing with theater tickets. If we see a ballet performance for only 50kc, or $2, when we're not real big fans of ballet to begin with, why pay more? Plus, I go grocery shopping about once a week, and get really ticked off if I spend more than 200kc for all my stuff. I'm talking bread, milk, cheese, chocolate, snack bars, juice, more chocolate, bananas, oranges, yogurt all for less than $10.... sweet huh? I spent more on my Communist Museum ticket than I did on groceries yesterday. It's insane how cheap some things are... but that'll probably change once the euro hits, sigh...

That's about it from this end... I'll get the pix out as soon as possible! Bye!

Ahh the sun is out! The tourists are in full bloom... the trams are crowded, the salesclerks are rude, but patient, and the drunks are staying out longer.

It will probably snow tomorrow (said in Eeyore voice).

There's a lot of traffic in town lately b/c the Russian President is here. His motorcade has actually messed with my tram schedule, etc. about three times now. I've seen it go by twice, some of the girls have actually seen the President talking with the Czech President at Prague Castle. All the media was there, big puffy-hat band/soldier people, lots of police. BTW, the Czech word for police is policie. If you just say police, that means shelf, go figure.

I tried to get tix to Carmen for my sis, b-i-l, and I, but they were already sold out of the cheap-o seats, the next cheapest ones were like $16-$20. Instead, we're going to see the opera, The Devil and Kate! Just as interesting I'm sure. All for just $5, including my ticket, using the lovely student discount. I realize Meems and Brian are probably shaking their heads at me, wondering why I didn't splurge just a little in order to get better seats or something, but they need to see the opera from a college-student's point of view: 500 feet above everybody else.

Everyone's getting kinda sick here, so a lot of people are staying in and being anti-social. The girls and I are having a potluck dinner tonight! I just finished my deviled eggs, unfortunately, w/o relish b/c I couldn't find any. I added the ol' universal seasoning instead, and there's a nice kick to it. Mandy's making potatoes, and we're also bringing ice cream! There's going to be about 10 of us, so... good times! See, good food can be had here w/o ever leaving the dorms. It's amazing what can be accomplished on two measely hot plates!

I've got two field trips this weekend, which I'm sure I'll fill you in on when I get back. Mandy and I are also going to book our flights to Paris w/in the next day or so. It's semi-expensive at $163 round-trip, but it's over Easter weekend and we're spending four nights there! We're going to see the real Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Arc de Triumph, the Moulin Rouge, and I'm sure eat roughly 20lbs of pastries. I swear this trip is just one big smorgasboard for me...I love it! Au Revoir, sp?