Prague!

Prague. What a magical city. I loved every second of our time there, and I would gladly go back! We went to Prague over the three day weekend and spent about two days there. We arrived Saturday afternoon, spent all day Sunday, and then returned Monday afternoon. We spent our time walking around the city and seeing the sights. We saw the Old Town Square, Good King Wenceslas Square, the Astronomical Clock, the little Eiffel Tower, the Castle and Cathedral, the Charles Bridge, and everything in-between. We also stayed in the nicest hostel ever with the cutest hostel owner ever, Adam! If you ever go to Prague and need a great hostel, Adam and Eva is the place! We ate some good Czech food and drank some good Czech beer and had a great time in the greatest city on the planet!

Day one looked something like this: Took a train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt, took another train from Frankfurt to Nurnberg, and then took a bus from Nurnberg to Prague! The whole thing took about seven hours. When we got to Prague we exchanged money from Euro to Crown and it looked like Monopoly money! The smallest bill was a 100 and we even got a 1,000 crown bill! It was totally crazy, like handling play money. The conversion was about 20 crown for every 1 euro. After we exchanged money we just started walking. We ended up at the top of Good King Wenceslas Square, except we didn't realize that that's what it was at the time. We were all staring at a map trying to gain some sense of direction when this guy came up and explained where we were and where we needed to go. It was really nice! Once we kind of figured things out we just started meandering through Prague, and over the river, and through more Prague until we reached our hostel. To cross the river, though, we went over the famous Charles Bridge and saw all of the statues. It was really neat! They were doing some renovations, but it only affected one statue.Once we got to the hostel we were all DYING from the weight of our backpacks, so it was such a relief to finally put them down! We all hung out for a while and then went and got some awesome Czech food! I got pork and dumplings with some sauerkraut, and of course beer! I'm not really a beer drinker, but I've heard so much about Czech beer that how could I not? I've found that there's just something better about European beer, and that I like it much better than any American beer I've ever tried. We then got some good sleep to get ready for the next day!

Sunday we began our day with a quick jaunt up to the little Eiffel Tower. And by quick jaunt I mean insanely steep climb of doom up the hill to the tower... Yeah, Czechs must be in shape! The climb was well worth it though, and the misting rain helped keep us cool. When we got to the tower we paid to climb up the stairs to the top. I was SO scared because I HATE heights, but the views we really pretty through the fog and mist, and I was really glad I did it. After the tower we found a park, and we climbed on this rope spiderweb looking jungle gym and swung on this awesome swing that was like the pirate ship swinging ride at amusement parks! We had a blast! And then we walked the rest of the way into town! We arrived first at the Monastery and walked around, and then exchanged for more crown, and then went to the castle! We posed with the Palace guards and saw the HUGE gorgeous Cathedral! It was SO cool! The architecture of it reminded me of the castle in Beauty and the Beast. We then went down some back stairs and ate some street food before continuing on. We went back across the river and headed to the Jewish Quarter. We paid to see five Synagogues and the cemetery. We had enough time to see four of the five and the cemetery, and they were all so cool! One detailed Jewish holidays, one detailed Jewish history in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and another had the history of the Jewish Burial Society. The most touching Synagogue was the one where they've written all of the names of all 80,000 Czech Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. They're written on the walls with when they were born and when they died, and it's broken into the regions they were from. As you walk through you can hear all of the names being read aloud. Upstairs is artwork from the children of the Therezin Ghetto, most of who died a few months after the drawings were made. They detail everything from normal life to life in the Ghetto to their hopes for the future. It was so incredibly moving and heartbreaking, and I think all of us cried. The most amazing part of the Jewish Quarter is probably the cemetery. It was the only place in Prague where the Jews were allowed to bury their dead. They quickly ran out of room and just began stacking the bodies. Over time the land has shifted so the 12,000 tombstones in the cemetery are all crooked and leaning on one another. There's also this sort of mesa in the middle of just body on top of body under the earth. You, dear reader, should google Prague Jewish cemetery because you have to pay to take pictures in the cemetery, and we got there too late to be able to do that. It was a wonder to see all of those tombstones and to think about all of the bodies that are buried there under the earth. After the Jewish Quarter we headed back to the hostel to take a break before dinner, and then we at more amazing food and walked around downtown back across the river from our hostel.

Monday, our last day, was spent walking around the city upriver from what we'd seen so far and shopping for me! I got a Czech garnet ring, some Czech crystal glasses, a beer stein for my grandpa, a spoon for my cousin, and a present for Colin. It was actually pretty fun, and I learned quite a bit about Czech crystal from the guy I bought it from. And then we headed back to the train station to go home! Overall, it was an absolutely incredible experience, and I would LOVE to go back to Prague again and again! My ancestors really knew what they were doing!

Cologne

This past Saturday we took our first USO trip to Cologne, Germany. The weather was sunny and FREEZING, but the city was really cool! There's this GIANT Gothic Cathedral that's like 600 years old and still being completed. It's the largest Gothic Cathedral in Europe. That statement meant more to me when the tour guide said it was bigger than Notre Dame because I really had no idea what any of the other Gothic Cathedral were... Anyway, we started our day with an hour tour of the city. We learned about the Cathedral, saw an ancient Roman floor, saw this giant clock tower that has a face that sticks out it's tongue like a cuckoo clock to chime the hour, went into the Cologne shop where cologne was invented, and that was about it! We then proceeded to shop, get lunch, and eat delicious pastry! We also checked out the Cathedral and went to their Treasury Museum. The museum was really cool! It's all fancy scepters and bishop's rings, and all kinds of other pure gold and gem stone Catholic things. The only downside was that we couldn't take any pictures of all of the precious artifacts.

OH! And the important thing about Cologne is that in German it is Koln with the two little dots above the o. If you say 'cologne' instead of 'koln' to a German you're not talking about the city, you're talking about the fragrance. It's an important distinction. We learned on our tour that Cologne used to be the capital of Germany, so it was large and crowded and the people liked to party. The city was therefore very dirty and smelly, thus the need for a fragrance to help cover the smell - cologne! It actually smells quite nice, though it is VERY strong. The cologne shop has just straight perfume so it's not eau du toilette or anything "watered down" it's just pure perfume. The attendants said it takes about a 1/2 hour for it to mellow out to it's premium scent... Yeah, we all smelled ALL day.

On the shopping end I got a sweatshirt, a pair of knee high khaki colored suede boots, and super cute coral tennis shoes! The shoes were only 10 euro each, AND I got a pair of thermal leggings! They're lined so they're like sweatshirts for your legs! SO warm and cozy in this FREEZING weather.

It was a really fun trip, and I'm looking forward to taking more trips through the USO. Up next, Prague, for the three day weekend!

Sidenote about this chocolate shop! We went in just to buy some chocolate and ended up with a whole story! So, we go in and we're trying samples and it turns out the owner is working there. He decided that one of the girls looked like Monica Lewinski and gave us free samples! It was DELICIOUS chocolate! He then told us it was his birthday and we sang to him, and then he gave us champagne! So we toasted and he told us all about his business. He owns 95 of these shops in Holland and 4 in Germany and is looking to keep expanding. All of the chocolate is organic and free trade and just incredible! It was such an awesome experience! We had so much fun, and it was a totally random but unforgettable experience!

Heidelberg and Heidelberg Castle

Yesterday we went to downtown Heidelberg and to Heidelberg Castle! It was absolutely freezing cold, but it was a ton of fun and so pretty! The main street of downtown Heidelberg is a narrow strip of cobblestone street that's lined with shops and restaurants. It's about 2 miles long and ends by a gorgeous gigantic church! Looking up the hill from the end of the street you can see Heidelberg Castle looking down over the town. The castle is amazingly gorgeous, and the town is so cute. It's all red-roofed buildings packed closely together with narrow windy streets, just like any good old European downtown.

Our day started with a trek to the bus stop, and when we got there we discovered that we had missed the last bus for the next hour, so we waited in the freezing cold trying to stay warm until the bus got there. We ended up calling a cab, though, because it was so cold. The cab took us downtown, and our first stop was a little cafe to get some coffee and pastry so we could warm up. I got a latte macchiato (or something like that), and chocolate filled croissant! It was delicious. We then walked around downtown, went into a few shops (where I painted each of my nails a different color at H&M), and made our way up to the castle! The castle is just gorgeous, and the view of the town from the balcony is absolutely breathtaking! We didn't see all there was to see with the castle, but we just figured we could come back a different day. After the castle we tried to find a candy shop, but it was closed so we just went to dinner. We went to a little brew house by the old bridge and got bratwurst and schnitzel and beer. My beer was mixed with sparkling strawberry wine and strawberries. The Germans really seem to like mixing things with their beer! But it was pretty good! After dinner we went back to the apartment and did a beer tasting. We had grapefruit beer, cactus fruit beer, pear and ginger beer, the bottled version of beer and sprite, and green lemon beer. They were all low alcohol content and pretty sweet so I liked it much better than regular beer. It seems really strange to me to mix all of that kind of stuff with beer, but to each his own I suppose! Here are some pictures!

Pictures from Dilsberg!

These are pictures of the Dislberg Castle and the surrounding area! It was just breathtakingly beautiful! I would love to go back to explore it more.