Hello Hello. I am in Prague right now and it is our last day before we leave for Interlacken, Switzerland. Prague is beautiful mainly because the town is very old and most of it wasn't touched by World War 2 so it's structures are original and from wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy long time ago.
We left Berlin on a train and it was awesome because we basically had our own little room on the train. Where we stayed in was pretty similar to what the Harry Potter trains looked like inside. We enjoyed the spaciousness and our ability to be loud Americans without getting weird looks. Leigh had the idea of making up a rap about our trip so far and we were really entertaining ourselves. Maybe I'll share it with you when and if we ever complete it. 5 hours later we got into Prague and it was quite a shock especially since basically NO ONE spoke english! They don't use Euros here so we had to take out chech money. Apparently it is a BIG deal to break large bills and since we all had nothing but 1000's and 500's it took us a while to find a place that would break down our cash so we could pay for our train pass. Good old McDonalds came through for us though and it was actually normal tasting!
We got to our hostel and we are staying in a 7 person dorm. When we first came in there was a 40 year old Brazilian man sleeping with minimal clothing on. Lets just say we were not certain about our feelings of Prague so far...have no fear though, he is actually normal and the other people in our room are cool. One guy is from Colorado but has some extreme ADD and like paces around the room when he talks to us..hes really nice though. The other 2 girls are from Sweden and are very friendly.
Our first night we walked around our area and saw the Old Town Square which was really pretty lit up at night. We went to bed early though since we were exhausted and not really sure of where to go. Our next day was fabulous because we went on the free tour and our guide was hilarious. He reminded us of a mixture between Grant Damas and Dane Cook. Anyway we saw some great sites and laughed A LOT. We went on the pub crawl last night and it was crazy. Prague is definitely known for its night life and I see why so many people study abroad here now! We met some great people and chatted with some new friends. Also, it was Leigh's birthday at midnight so we had fun celebrating.
It is reallly rainy today and was yesterday too so we are just chillin in the hostel today. Lots of young people and Family Guy playing so we are enjoying ourselves! Hope everything is well. Miss and love you!
Melissa
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Greetings from Berlin
Hello all, I am writing to you from my hostel boat in Berlin. I payed 2 Euro for an hour of internet so I can actually write a detailed post. YAY get excited....
Our boat is pretty neat except for the fact that almost everyone staying here is an old couple. Good thing us three girls are a good time because we can make our own fun at all times. I will touch on the highlights from our time in Berlin so far..
Meeting a really nice German man on the train who spoke perfect English. He showed us which train to get on, what pass we needed to buy, and how to get where we were staying. Our trip was so smooth and I think we found our hostel in like 20 minutes from the time we got of the train. (Much better than the 2.5 hours that we spent trying to get out of the Paris airport haha) It was weird because his wife is an American and her family lives in Olathe..talk about small world!!
Enoying a German beer on the boat while watching the sunset and then going out. Apparently Sunday is the recovery day in Berlin because people party every other day and night. Sometimes I wonder if that is all people do here. It is definately funny to see people carrying open beers or bottles of wine everywhere in the city...even on the train. We have had lots of wine and bottles are only like 3 or 4 dollars. Our food has been pretty cheap too...actually I took out 400 euros and still have over 100 left and I,ve been here a week. Despite what you may think mom and dad, I am actually doing a good job with staying under the budget.
We took a free 4 hour walking tour around the city of Berlin and saw all of the main buildings such as the Nazi buildings, the Berlin wall and the Brandburgh gate. We even saw where Hitler's bunker was. It was weird to be walking the same streets that the Nazis did. There was a really cool Holocaust memorial in the city too.
Oh and for all the wiedemans out there...there was this cafe named after you in Berlin. I got a picture with it so be looking for that soon.
Last night we hung out with our Australian hostel mates and stayed out until 5 a.m. We saw the sun set and rise...it was awesome except for the fact that one of the Aussies, Jared, was a stalker and stage five clinger. We have established the code word 'pesos' into our converstaion when we think someone is sketchy. I definately used the pesos last night and Amy came to my rescue! haha now its funny to laugh about, but this guy was so annoying and he kept saying 'youre really hot' in his australian accent. I mean I always thought I would love the australians, but this guy was so forward and clingy. Don't worry..I have pictures. Oh yea and last night we signed the berlin wall!! We learned on our tour that it is illegal to do that now so we felt like pretty big rebels. Our names are all on there in black permanent marker so if anyone ever goes there let me know so I can tell you where our names are.
Today all we have done is sleep in (waiting for the Aussies to leave), ate lunch at a really cute Italian cafe, and figured out our train for Prague. We leave tomorrow at 1 for Prague and will be there for 3 nights. We are hoping our next hostel is full of crazy fun people unlike the boring marriage life here...understand that as I am saying this I am laughing because we have been laughing about all of this stuff the whole time.
Tonight we are going on the pub crawl like the one in Paris so hopefully we get to hang out with a bunch of young, fun americans. Welp, the bar on the boat just opened so I think its calling our name. Miss and love you all!
Auf wiedersien
P.S. This computer is like bolted down and I can't get to the USB so I can not post my pictures. I know you are all anxiour to see them, but I promise that I will post pictures soon because I have such good ones. I will let you know on the blog when I post them. Hopefully in Prague.
Our boat is pretty neat except for the fact that almost everyone staying here is an old couple. Good thing us three girls are a good time because we can make our own fun at all times. I will touch on the highlights from our time in Berlin so far..
Meeting a really nice German man on the train who spoke perfect English. He showed us which train to get on, what pass we needed to buy, and how to get where we were staying. Our trip was so smooth and I think we found our hostel in like 20 minutes from the time we got of the train. (Much better than the 2.5 hours that we spent trying to get out of the Paris airport haha) It was weird because his wife is an American and her family lives in Olathe..talk about small world!!
Enoying a German beer on the boat while watching the sunset and then going out. Apparently Sunday is the recovery day in Berlin because people party every other day and night. Sometimes I wonder if that is all people do here. It is definately funny to see people carrying open beers or bottles of wine everywhere in the city...even on the train. We have had lots of wine and bottles are only like 3 or 4 dollars. Our food has been pretty cheap too...actually I took out 400 euros and still have over 100 left and I,ve been here a week. Despite what you may think mom and dad, I am actually doing a good job with staying under the budget.
We took a free 4 hour walking tour around the city of Berlin and saw all of the main buildings such as the Nazi buildings, the Berlin wall and the Brandburgh gate. We even saw where Hitler's bunker was. It was weird to be walking the same streets that the Nazis did. There was a really cool Holocaust memorial in the city too.
Oh and for all the wiedemans out there...there was this cafe named after you in Berlin. I got a picture with it so be looking for that soon.
Last night we hung out with our Australian hostel mates and stayed out until 5 a.m. We saw the sun set and rise...it was awesome except for the fact that one of the Aussies, Jared, was a stalker and stage five clinger. We have established the code word 'pesos' into our converstaion when we think someone is sketchy. I definately used the pesos last night and Amy came to my rescue! haha now its funny to laugh about, but this guy was so annoying and he kept saying 'youre really hot' in his australian accent. I mean I always thought I would love the australians, but this guy was so forward and clingy. Don't worry..I have pictures. Oh yea and last night we signed the berlin wall!! We learned on our tour that it is illegal to do that now so we felt like pretty big rebels. Our names are all on there in black permanent marker so if anyone ever goes there let me know so I can tell you where our names are.
Today all we have done is sleep in (waiting for the Aussies to leave), ate lunch at a really cute Italian cafe, and figured out our train for Prague. We leave tomorrow at 1 for Prague and will be there for 3 nights. We are hoping our next hostel is full of crazy fun people unlike the boring marriage life here...understand that as I am saying this I am laughing because we have been laughing about all of this stuff the whole time.
Tonight we are going on the pub crawl like the one in Paris so hopefully we get to hang out with a bunch of young, fun americans. Welp, the bar on the boat just opened so I think its calling our name. Miss and love you all!
Auf wiedersien
P.S. This computer is like bolted down and I can't get to the USB so I can not post my pictures. I know you are all anxiour to see them, but I promise that I will post pictures soon because I have such good ones. I will let you know on the blog when I post them. Hopefully in Prague.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Blog wasn't working last before so here is the old post..
Hey everyone! So I am excited I can finally post in some detail since we are getting ready to head to bed and no one is on this computer! So here are some updates that im sure you have wanted to hear...Our first day we arrived and spent 2.5 hours trying to get out of the airport...we went with the >lets just laugh it off< mood however and it was fine. Once we found our way we went to Disney paris. It was cool, but no where near the coolness of Disney world in the states...not to mention we were dead. We stayed in a crappy little hotel if you want to call it that and it was basically just a place for us to catch up on our sleep. The next day we headed to Paris and took the metro to our next hotel...didnt run as smoothly as planned and we walked around for over 30 minutes on the streets outisde of Paris looking for our hotel..keep in mind we had our backpacks on..once again we laughed it off, especially when we got to our hotel and its amazing. We went to the market and bought bread, cheese, and wine! We ate it on our balcony overlooking a noisy street in true French fashion! That night we went into Paris and saw the Notre Dame cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome b/c church was going on and we actually got blessed in the Notre Dame cathedral!! We then walked..yes walked, a good hour to the Eiffel Tower, but it was so worth it! We bougth some wine and drank it in front of the Towel until 11 at night while the light show was going on!!! It was incredible.
Yesterday Benwah, Amys uncle Johns best friend picked us up and showed us around the city of Paris! It was so nice to be with a local who spoke English! We saw the top of the city and where famous artists like VanGogh lived! That night we went on this New Europe Pub Crawl and had the time of our lives! There were over 50 people our age on it who are also backpacking! They recommended some hostels for us and we partied till the wee hours of the morning ending up at the Arc de Triumph!! Its kind of like this is all a dream and I have to keep pinching myself to wake up, but its real!! The adventure has only begun! We leave early early early in the AM for berlin. Our train is over 9 hours long so we plan on sleeping during it! I tried to upload pics but am having a hard time because it takes so long, so i promise i will have them soon! Hope you enjoyed this update and know that we are fine...actually more than fine. We are amazing and having the time of our lives!!! More updates soon, but our next hostel in Berlin is a hostel boat so i dunno if they have internet! Love and miss you all...you must come to Europe and witness this because its greatt!!!!
Yesterday Benwah, Amys uncle Johns best friend picked us up and showed us around the city of Paris! It was so nice to be with a local who spoke English! We saw the top of the city and where famous artists like VanGogh lived! That night we went on this New Europe Pub Crawl and had the time of our lives! There were over 50 people our age on it who are also backpacking! They recommended some hostels for us and we partied till the wee hours of the morning ending up at the Arc de Triumph!! Its kind of like this is all a dream and I have to keep pinching myself to wake up, but its real!! The adventure has only begun! We leave early early early in the AM for berlin. Our train is over 9 hours long so we plan on sleeping during it! I tried to upload pics but am having a hard time because it takes so long, so i promise i will have them soon! Hope you enjoyed this update and know that we are fine...actually more than fine. We are amazing and having the time of our lives!!! More updates soon, but our next hostel in Berlin is a hostel boat so i dunno if they have internet! Love and miss you all...you must come to Europe and witness this because its greatt!!!!
Friday, May 22, 2009
We made it!
Bonjour! We are in Paris and are about to go on a tour with Amys uncles best friend who lives in Paris! We have overcome some interesting difficulties like not knowing where we are and how to communicate with the french people, but we are getting much better. This keyboard is all different so it is taking me forever to type! We are leaving for the tour now so i will write more soon. But Paris is xonderful..we saw the Eiffel Tower last night and the light show was amazing! Love you all and will add pictures soon! Au revor§
We made it!
Bonjour! We are in Paris and are about to go on a tour with Amys uncles best friend who lives in Paris! We have overcome some interesting difficulties like not knowing where we are and how to communicate with the french people, but we are getting much better. This keyboard is all different so it is taking me forever to type! We are leaving for the tour now so i will write more soon. But Paris is xonderful..we saw the Eiffel Tower last night and the light show was amazing! Love you all and will add pictures soon! Au revor§
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tomorrow, Tomorrow!
The day has finally come...I am leaving tomorrow for Europe and I am soooo excited! I am a little nervous since I don't really know what to expect, but more anxious just to get over there. I packed my backpack yesterday and it is quite large. I have some pictures here of the stuff I am bringing and what the backpack looks like...
Our flight leaves at 7:30 am and when we get to Europe it will be about 7 am the next morning. We lose a day! Once we get there we are going to Disney World Paris..thanks to my good friend Leigh who has all the hookups. It should be interesting to see the different Disney Castle and how everything is set up. Then, we are headed into Paris to hit up the classic stuff like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and all that Jazz...we don't have a set plan, but that's the point of all this.
Well, there is a little update before I leave, but I will post on here once I get over there and start adding photos. I also have a Flickr account created where I will upload all my pictures. If you want to be added to my list of people that can see the pictures, let me know! I would love to share them with you.
Well, I'm gonna go finish packing and go meet my cooperating Kindergarten teacher for next semester's student teaching! I'll keep you updated.
Goodbye, Adio, au revoir, Einen schönen Tag noch, Arrivederci, Adios, (just practicing all the languages I will be using over there :)
Melissa
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