Prague, Czech Republic

(Whatever the word for Hello is in Czech!)

Hello from Praha!...This is what Czech people call Prague. This is going to be a long blog....so brace yourself. You might want to bring some snacks to the computer, water to stay hydrated...maybe a pillow, some music.This trip started off very interesting! I have wanted to visit Prague ever since I saw the movie Last Holiday...with Queen Latifa...inspiring. I knew that when I came here, that would be one of my top priority trips that I wanted to take and I did!! This was one of the most European cities that I have been to, like the old traditional European cities. It is one of the most historical cities in Europe and known for its ancient European 'feeling'. The oldest European medieval castle is here...it was built in 850A.D...woah!! I came with my roomate and now best friend Cassie and our friend Kerry. Our apartments (there are 2 different ones) that we rented for the 5 days were incredible!! We got to Prague on Wednesday March 31 and left Sunday April 4...EASTER! We were very lucky because Easter is one of the most important and highly celebrated European holidays...especially in Prague. There are so many old traditions that are still practiced and there are TONS of markets and celebrations all throughout the week and weekend leading up to Easter Monday. They make hand painted easter eggs in markets in the town squares and have traditional easter delicacy food only served this time of year. There is so much history and tradition involving this holiday...its so amazing to get to experience it. Little boys made whips out of braided sticks on one of the days before easter and they go around Prague whipping girls calves...I forgot the significance. And they also dunk them in tubs of cold water to purify them. Hmmmm...

Tuesday -- we took a train to London Stansted airport and got there around 9pm. NOTE: We flew out on Wednesday. Yes I know what you are thinking...what is Ali doing at the airport a day early. Well people, I slept in an airport. Yes I did...I spooned two other girls on a freezing airport tile floor  next to 3 British soldiers for a flight at 6am the next morning. It was interesting to say the least. The airport looked like Teague Park fountain and surrounding area around 2am in the morning or the creepy bus stop by Moms office and the car wash on a hot summer night. There were people laying on the ground everywhere...many on sheets of news paper (how more homeless can you get than that!...although at the time I was desparately wishing I had some sheets of news paper....a whole new low for me I'd say). After about a total of 30 minutes of sleep we got up and walked like zombies to security. I was searched and frisked for the first time ever...wonderful experience. Cant say that I enjoyed it. (Oh and we are on to Wednesday now...even though we are in the Tuesday paragraph...I'm just trying to spare yall some confusion). Then it was time to wait for our gate to come up on the large flight screen. We slept in the upright sitting position for about 30 minutes...frequently jumping at the sound of anything startling because you automatically think that anyone and everyone wants to steel your stuff in that situation...so many people in that airport got severely cold looks from me (their lives most likely flashed before their eyes at that moment) and maybe a little growl here and there (just a scare tactic...these are the kinds of things I'm learning over here. Ill be ready to enlist in the army when I come back because I'll be such a hard ass). We finally(!) got our gate and boarded the plane, and the flight lasted about 2 minutes...or at least thats all I was awake for. ARRIVED in PRAGUE! Safe and sound..no terrorist attacks. The only thing that those people had to be afraid of was me. We got some Czech money, which was alot of fun! 1000 Czech Crown = 100 US dollars! Haha! so everything appears to be super expensive...like 49 crown or 79 crown but that is less than 5 dollars. Cool. We hopped on the bus and then metro and got to our apartment very smoothly. I actually dont really remember anything because I think I was sleep walking the whole time. We couldnt Czech (pun intended) into our apartment yet so we went to find a place to grab lunch and found a cafe a block away from the apartment. It was really cute and small and not like normal cafes at all..it was more like a pub. We ordered pancakes with bacon and maple syrup...OH MY GOSH...one of the top 3 meals that I have had in Europe!!!! It was Heaven in my mouth! The bacon was actually like American bacon and not this sick nasty, what Brits call bacon, but it is really just a huge slab of pig fat, bacon. It was sooo soo soo yummy. However, not as yummy as Turkey bacon and mommy's homemade pancakes (not buckwheat, clarification) while sitting in our kitchen nook and watching a history special of daddy's choice. Now that is heaven! Anyways...more about Prague! We then went to the supermarket to buy a few groceries for dinner and breakfast..because our apartment has a kitchen! and we got Spaghetti, broccoli, tomato sauce, bananas, candy, sangria (yum), and baguettes, and croisants. Tasty Tasty Tasty! We came back to the apartment and crashed and burned...and by crash and burn I mean we took a 6 HOUR NAP! We then woke up and started cooking dinner and put on some provided MP3 mixes that came with our room that is also equipped with a a 6000 inch television and satallite with channels for every country in the world except America...Nepal, Dubai, Lisbon, Niger, Asia, Bangladesh, so that was interesting. So back to our sweet "Lounge tunes" (that was what the cd was called). We turned them on while we cooked dinner and it was the funniest music ever!! nothing you would expect to find in the apartment that you rented in prague! We are putting it on Cassie computer and I will bring it home so all of you can here this cd!! Dinner was finished and we dug in...it was soooo yummy. The huge pack of noodles we got were only 6 Czech Crown...which is less than 50 US cents haha! We washed our dishes and then indulged in some candie...I had some Czech Haribo...delish. And then we all sat in bed and watch a few episodes of The Office. Top Night....Top Night!! (movie reference to The Wedding Date...crazy British cousin...anyone??) And now I am going to bed. Yes I am writing this in present tense because it is Wednesday night right now and I have decided to take advantage of this computer and get most of my blog done on the trip so I dont have a ton to do when I get back and I can also remember every single detail so yall dont miss out on anything!! get ready for a looonnnnggg blog people!! I hope you enjoy though :) I cant wait for my next adventure and to tell you all about it!

Thursday! Woke up at 10:30...16 hours of sleep out of a 24 hour day =  success! Right now it is the end of the day and we are listening to songs that make us feel good. Current choice is Say a little Prayer for You...classic. We woke up and showered and got ready to explore Prague! We left and walked all through Prague to get to the part of Prague called Mala Strana. This is where the castle and famous church are and also another church that houses a famous wax figure of Jesulus Bambino...also know as The Wax Infant Jesus. HA! This little wax Bambino was everywhere in shops. This was also where Petrin hill and tower are...which was modeled after the Eiffel tower..its a mini Eiffel tower. We walked all the way over here (it was a bit of a trek...but we saw so many amazing things) We ran into on of the square markets...a smaller one...that had all the easter traditional foods and gifts. One of the traditional foods only served at easter time is called "Trdelnik", which is this delightful pastry that looks like a large hollow pipe and it is dough that is baked with sugar on it and then spread with butter and rolled in cinnamon and almond slices...it was heavenly! More of those to come! We kept walking because we knew that we would be back and we went to the church and castle and explored the streets and many souvenir shops of Prague. We didnt realize that we had been constantly walking up hill and when we rounded the corner of the church we approached a breathtaking view of the whole city of Prague. It was amazing....such a beautiful city. We then made our way to Old Town Prague (there is a new town as well...located south of New Town) which is where the huge Old Town Square easter market is. We crossed over the river that runs through Prague and approach Old Town sq. As we walked up a large group of guys dressed in shirts made for little boys (aka. they were extremely tight) and very weird mustaches and probablly tattoos of their girlfriends names across their chests, approached us and asked if we wanted them to take our picture because i had my camera out taking pictures. I said "umm no thanks" and we kind of walked away from each other and then I was taking a picture and one guy and his friend jumped into my picture and I said "okay you can be in my picture" and then they grabbed Kerry and one of the guys scooped her up in his arms and started yelling "Jiggy Jiggy! Jiggy Jiggy!" hahahaha!!! We were all dying laughing. Mind you....I got all of this on camera. And then they walked away and I was getting Cassie to take a picture of me in front of this huge easter egg and the guy ran up to my to get in my picture and scooped me up in his arms and started yelling "Jiggy Jiggy! Jiggy Jiggy!" BAHAHA!!!! It was halarious! So Kerry and I had to look up what Jiggy Jiggy meant..even though we had a pretty good idea. But we had to see it officially. We googled it and the "Urban Dictionary" came up...HA! Urban...that is so funny. It meant: "Having sex!" Ahhhh!!!! Haha it is what we thought it meant but we died laughing...funniest thing ever...but creepiest thing at the same time. So back to our day....we continued to walk around the market after the Jiggy Jiggy guys left and we saw blacksmiths making tools and traditionally dressed Czech women painting real eggs and performers...it was just like a fair! Cassie and Kerry got sausage on a baguette and I got a homemade Pretzel and we shopped for traditional Czech easter things! It was a great day. We came back and went to the super market to get a few groceries to cook dinner and we came back to the apartment and cooked and listened to music..which we are doing now and it is now 930pm. We are changing locations to a different apartment tomorow that is very central town (our current location is kind of out of the way from most things) so it will be alot easier to get to things that restaurants and things like that. They have Tapas alot of places here (Get On Tapas! ...Mom is the only person who will get that joke :) Seattle...I Hate Valentines. Just a little hint)Anyways...having a blast, but missing home more! Cant wait to tell you about tomrows adventures! 
---- Later in the night (11pm) ---- we were all sitting in bed watching Pretty Women on youtube and we decided that we were hungry so we 'lived our lives' and went to a 24 hour Pizzeria down the street and got a yummy pizza! Now bed time.

Friday!! We woke up and got ready and Czech'd (pun intended) out of our apartment and met some of our other friends for lunch at a Czech restaurant. I got spaghetti and a Strawberry Margarita...yum...and ice cream! And then we came to our new accomodations, which was really exciting because the descirption and pictures looked really awsome. The women took us up to our apartment flat and to our surprise....This place is JANK! (slang word from Indiana people at Harlaxton...so naturally it has become apart of my vocabulary). But we only have 2 days here so we can deal and we are in the city center so we dont have to walk a long way from anything...its right next door! So that is an upside. I cant wait to get back to school...it has become such a comfort zone for me. It is only 3pm so we have alot of time to have fun today and I cant wait to tell you all about it. I hope how I'm writing this blog isnt confusing to yall because I know there is alot of shifting in past and present tenses. Well I am going to go to market square and get a Trdelnik! Wish you guys could have one...but instead you get the opportunity to go see Miley's new movie, 'The Last Song'....so suck it! ...I want to see it so dearly dearly bad. I know you wont be taking advantage of that opporuntity Dad :) haha. Love you!
---Later that day--- I got a Langose instead of a Trdelnik! It just like a funnel cake but it is not stringy or twist and they serve it with garlic, cheese, and ketchup....yeah, I didn't get that. I got nutella! Nutella...if you dont know...is just like a chocolate sauce or icing. I dont like it that much so I got it on the side to dip in :) SO healthy...fried dough and chocolate icing. We went back to our Jank apartment and then went and got dinner down an alley by our place and got great Pizza and then some yummy soft serve ice cream and then we went back to the Apartment and watched Angels and Demons...Great night! This whole trip was so relaxing...but WAY too long.

Saturday...last day yay!!! We woke up and went and got breakfast at Bohemia Bagel...which is just like Einstein Bros Bagels....if you know what that is. Yum! And then we went in search for the Communist Baby Tower!! This tower is so creepy..its a modern radio tower that was built by communists and it has larger than life size (the size of a car) metal babies crawling up this tower! There were pictures of it everywhere in our first awsome party pad apartment so we wanted to see it. We walked around for about an hour and FINALLY saw it in the distance and decided that if we went to much farther than we would probablly get mugged so we turned around and went to the market to get a snack and look at more Easter eggs. We also saw the Astronomical Clock...which chimes every hour and the 12 apostles come come out just like a koo koo clock. It was very cool...and then a man is at the top of the tower and plays the trumpet. We were then approached...not by creeping guys yelling Jiggy Jiggy...but even better, a group of American guys wanting us to come to this huge party with 2 hours of free drinks and blah blah blah blah....I DONT WANT TO COME TO A PARTY WITH YOU! Get the Picture? He told us that this party would "Change our lives and our underwear"...classy guy! I hope my blog is boring you...I know its long. We went back to the apartment and had about a 3 hour nap and then went to get dinner...at McDonalds! Haha! Then Kerry and I went back and laid in bed and watched Czech tv and Cassie went to get on the computer down stairs. To entertain ourselves...Kerry and I watched a movie with Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood (I know the name now dad and mom) -- "A Perfect World" in Czech but we made our own dialogue...it was SO funny!!! We watched an episode of the office and then went to sleep.

SUNDAY! Happy Easter Everybody! We went to Bohemia Bagel again and then hit the airport...we got there 4 hours early because we were so excited to get back to Our Party in the UK! Got back safely and all is well...except for the fact that I am so extremely homesick that I dont know if I can make it the next 3 1/2 weeks!!

I know this was a long post... but it is because I miss you guys so much...and I had a lot of spare time this weekend...so deal with it! I love yall so much and I cannot wait to see yall! 26 MORE DAYS!!!!!! And the Count Down Begins!! This was my last trip until 8 days in Italy... aka. bliss. I cant wait to show everyone all of my pictures because this isnt even a 1/64 of the pictures I have! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter...I would have given anything to be there. I really wanted to go to church but it would have been in Czech language....and that is much harder to listen to than you think...I have had alot of practice with the time that me and the television spent with each other this weekend.

Remember to click on the pictures for a better/clearer viewing!

Me eating a Trdelnik in market square

Me in front of the river and Charles Bridge

Beautiful view over Prague

Me and Cassie over looking Prague

Again

Party Pad -- Awsome

Me and a Guard protecting the castle...you cant tell but he want grunting at me

Me and Cassie....Communist Baby tower is right above my head...the very tallest one in the sky

The beginning of Jiggy Jiggy -- Take a gander at this mans beard "Hey come get in picture!"

Jiggy Jiggy!! (Kerry bouncing up and down)

Next Victim -- Blind sided by Jiggy Jiggy

Terrified!

Him: "Kiss Kiss?" Me: "NO!"

The Hulk...wannabe

Picture in front of Egg without any violation...success!

Me in front of River and Charles Bridge

Me and Cass in front of Charles Bridge

me by a tower of keys (like a house key)...it made a Czech word

Me in front of the Astronomical Clock waiting for the Apostles to go by

View of Prague

Me and Prague

Me and Prague

THE END!

Love you!