BERLIN AND DRESDEN, GERMANY

GERMANY! This weekend, I went to Berlin!  We left on Friday morning, and for some reason it took us about 7 hours to rive there...which for me was miserable.  Not only was I completely drugged out on Bonine (I mean the alternative was puking), but I think I broke my neck with the way I fell asleep...I am still in pain!

Once we finally got there we went on a tour of the city.  But, the problem was that there were demonstrations going on all over the city because of unemployment I guess, so what was supposed to be a lovely walking tour on a sunny day, ended up being a bus tour...another 3 hours on a bus. KILL ME!  But, we did get off at the building/site where Hitler's assasination was planed (Think the movie Valkyrie).  So, we went inside and got some great/gross visuals of some other deaths.  

That night, we went out to a club called White Trash!  Basically, it was just like the name.  It was very European, and there was this band playing that was like the worst headache music ever.  But, we ended our night with a really long walk to this famous falafel place...delicious!!!!!!  

The following day, we had to wake up really early (not a pretty sight).  We spent the first 4 hours of hte morning on a bike tour of the city, which was amazingggg!  One of my professors, Jiri Holub (the most adorable man ever) led the tour.  He is probably like 65, and he speaks 7 or 8 languages, and is a genius, and wore a suit on the bike ride...so cute!  We rode all around the city and saw a ton of monuments on the go.  It was really a great way to see everything because Berlin is a huge city!


This is the brand new train station, it was actually a really neat place, and extremely high tech.
Here is the Presidential Palace (white house).  It was literally just surrounded by this little wall and one guard (what a concept), and there were little local children playing on the lawn, so we wanted to go on to take pictures, and we got yelled at...apparently only "little" kids can play on the grass, strange!
During our ride, we rode through this beautiful park with an amazing flower garden!
After the bike ride was over, we went to see Checkpoint charlie.  It is really strange, but Berlin still feels a little divided, because they want to keep the historical things in tact, so you can really get a sense of how it once was.  I mean I'm sure the guard once upon a time was not a rent-a-guard with a 1 euro photo sign on her waist...  
then, we continued on to a part of the Berlin Wall. Since we just wandered, we didn't realize that we saw the most boring part of it until we were driving out of the city the last day.  So, we saw the plain part as opposed to the cool painted part, o well...

That night, we went to the place where Hitler committed suicide.  Yes, it is a parking lot today.  But, below it is where his bunker was, and it is no longer there because they bombed the entire thing.  So, now people just park there...that's weird
After that, we went to the nearby, new, holocaust memorial.  It is really interesting.  Basically it is a huge plot of land, like a block by a block, that has about 2,000 big cement blocks of all different sizes, that are slightly tilted and on uneven ground.  The meaning is up for each person's own symbolism.  You could very easily get lost in there, the blocks are double our heights.  
Then we went to the Brandenburg Gate which was a lot bigger than I pictured. And, while we were there, we ran into some new friends!

Our next stop was the Reichstag Parliament building to get a night time view from the dome.  On the way there we passed a small section of where the wall once was that is now shown with stones.  
We climbed to the top of the dome for an amazing view of the city!

The following morning, bright and early, we went back to the Reichstag for a guided tour of the inside.  It was really neat because it is the first governmental building in Europe that I have actually been able to see pretty much the entire thing.  they took us into the main room and we sat down for a while getting a small lecture, and then we went to their other meeting rooms, their lunch room, the church that is inside there, and a room that held "boxes" for everyone who has been in the parliament in the past...and eerily Hitler had a box.   


That afternoon, we took a boat tour (well kind of a nap too) along the river to see the city even more.  It was a beautiful day, and so we even got a little bit of a tan too!
Then, on our way home we stopped in Dresden, a city about 2 hours outside Berlin in Germany.  It was completely destroyed in the war, but it was actually an absolutely beautiful city.  Since we were only there for a short time, we only saw the preserved Old Town, which is why I only think that it was pretty.  So, we walked around, ate some sausages (I mean when in Germany...) and then got back on the bus...  



Our ride home was awful.  It was supposed to be 2 hours.  But, we were on this random, middle of nowhere highway, and we came to a complete stop like 3 cars behind an accident.  So, the Americans that we are, were like oh ok, it will be cleared to the side in no time, and the traffic will be directed away.  But, no, in the Czech Republic, there are no traffic control people and no sense of blocking off an accident.  So, for the next two hours we sat on the road (well we got out of the bus to stretch) and waited for them to do the entire investigation (some guy got hit..don't ask what he was doing on a street in the middle of nowhere), and then once it was alllll cleared, we got to go.  Even stranger, they were letting the people get out of their cars and watch the entire thing unfold, like the body and the investigation, and ya, it was nothing we would ever get that close to EVER at home.  Sorry for the gore, just had to get out my frustration of our longgggg travels home.  

So, that is Germany.  I hope I can go back sometime, because I definitely needed more time there!  This next weekend is Vienna with Dad, wooo hooo!  It is also my last and tenth trip...woah this has gone by fast!

Love and miss everyone

xox

BARELONA, SPAIN!

I spent my "Spring Break" last weekend in Barcelona!  My program decided it was a good idea to just skip out of giving us a Spring Break, which obviously was a terrible idea!  We only got this past Monday off for Easter...woo one extra day off school.  So, we decided to go to our furthest destination so far, Spain!  But, we also chose Spain because we wanted to go somewhere warm and on the beach so we could relax and tan.  Just our luck though, it was terrible weather and raining our entire time there.  Ever better, the weather in Prague all weekend was amazing and sunny and everyone was outside.  Oh well, I decided to take two days off when I got back from Barcelona to make up for it!

So, we got to Barcelona on Thursday night and checked into our hostel, Hostal Fina.  In the cab from the airport to the hotel we had a CRAZY driver who would make sound effects with the movement and speed of the car..it was hilarious, scary, and very strange all at the same time.  His favorite was saying "Ting Tong" over every speed bump.  Then as we were approaching the destination, on La Rambla, we decided that since we have heard it is dangerous, that we should take some things out of our purses, god forbid those got taken.  So, here we are , three girls, sitting in the back of a cab stuffing out shirts and pants with our passports, cameras, money, etc.  It was ridiculous...and very unnecessary we realized!

Right after checking into our hostel, we went to a bar called Dow Jones.  It was a really neat concept, in that the prices of the drinks fluctuated just as the stock market does.  So, at different times in the night, the prices would be either really high or really low.  At the bar, we met these three local Spanish guys who invited us to go to this club with them, and since we didn't really have any idea where to go that night, we went.  Little did we know, it was going to be a gay club!

Here is our entry ticket to DMIX, the gay club.  Note how it says "Boys Gays."  It was actually really fun though, although it was majority men and a very local crowd, we made the most of it and danced for a long time...before we knew it it was very early in the morning. But, in Spain, people don't end their nights until about 7AM, which is crazy!
When we woke up the next day, we wandered around Las Ramblas area near our hotel and then went to Plaza Real, which is a cute little square that is surrounded by outdoor restaurant (which would have been a lot nicer if it weren't raining).  But we took advantage of the sea food and ate a delicious lunch!
Then, we went to the Park Guell, which is a Park of all Gaudi architecture.  He has a ton of architecture throughout Barcelona, but this is the main spot!  It was very cool, crazy buildings and benches and outdoor parks.  


We did some other sight seeing that afternoon, including La Sagrada Familia.  It has two sides to it which were very different and apparently symbolic  (without a tour guide, not sure what they symbolize!)

For our afternoon snack we ate Churros con Chocolate!  They were absolutely delicious, I don't know why we don't have things like this is the US!  
Since it was Easter weekend, there were a ton of parades going on that we were not aware of until we came across them.  This is a parade going down Las Ramblas.  There were all these candle being lit and processions of very religiously dressed looking people...unlike any parade I have ever seen!
That night, we went to the Obama Bar before dinner at a Tapas Restaurant.  This bar was apparently named something else a few months ago, and just got changed to Obama.  It's kind of strange because it is an AFrican themed bar...not sure if that is politically correct.  But oh well, it was fun nonetheless.  

After dinner we went to another bar called Chupitos which is "shots" in Spanish and is known for having a menu of a TON of different types of shots, things and combinations you have never heard of.  For example, we had a "Boyscout" shot that consisted of roasting a marshmallow on the fire they made on the bar, and then putting it out in the sugar/alcohol before taking it.  It was so good, I wanted to keep taking it just for the marshmallow!  After that we headed to a place called Opium Mar, which was a club on the beach!  you could go outside and sit on the patio looking over the water, so pretty!
The next day, we woke up and had Mexican food for lunch.  I was missing it so much, and it just made all of us so happy! haha!
Then, we went to the Picasso Museum, and illegally took some photos, and then kept getting yelled at, woops!  Even though I have been there before, I think I appreciated it much more this time because I actually looked at the pictures instead of begging to leave!
After the museum we went to the Boqueria (Market) on Las Ramblas.  WE spent so long there snapping pictures (I'm quite the photographer now) and looking at all the pretty fruits and veggies (and fish!), wishing we could take it home.


Then, we did one of the most fun things I think I have done since being abroad!  We went to an FC Barcelona soccer game!  It was the greatest sporting event I have ever been to; the fans are insane and the stadium was so cool!  We bought jerseys, chanted in Spanish, and became fans for the night!

After the game, we were craving sushi after being land locked for so long, so we went to a place called Japonese for delicious sushi before hitting the club scene yet again.  Since the weather was not so good while we were there, we were in no rush to wake up in the mornings to do site seeing, so staying out late was a great option instead.
On our way out, we saw yet another Gaudi Building!
We went to a very Spanish beer hall that served two things, a pitcher of beer or a pitcher of Sangria.  Four total pitchers later, we were off to a club (at 2:30 AM)!
We went to a club called Razz Mataz.  The best way to describe it is, RAVE! It was so overwhelming and crowded, and the people there were very aggressive.  To say the least, after dancing for a little, we spent most of the night on the top level just observing and taking pictures of this insane place!  But, apparently we had fun, since we realized the sun was rising and we were still there...
Point proven!
On Sunday, we decided that even though it was raining, we had to see the beach while we were there.  unfortunately, we couldn't put the bathing suits we brought to use.  But we went and walked along the beach and just looked out for a while, and pictured how pretty it might be on another day haha. 

From there, we were being lazy and went and lounged in an underground Indian themed place.  We were there for like three hours just relaxing on these very comfortable couches!
That night, I met up with Alex for dinner!  She had just gotten back from her Spring Break, in time for dinner.  I got to see her new apartment and meet some of her roommates.  We had a great dinner and then met my friends and come of her friends out at an Irish Pub for a little while. It was nice that we could at least see each other for one night while abroad...my plans to stay in Barcelona for longer last minute didn't work out unfortunately, or it would have been for longer.  
Monday morning, we flew back here to Prague and are now enjoying the sun, tanning, and taking advantage of Prague for our last month here!  I come home in exactly a month...so weird! So, see you all soon, and keep checking my blog up until I come home! 

Xoxox