“Is this real life? Is this going to last forever?”--THE END

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

DAY 15. THE LAST DAY OF MY EUROPEAN ADVENTURE. The end of a chapter and what a great chapter it was. I was a little sad that it had finally come to an end but i was also excited to get back to my comfort zone: my bed, my shower, cereal for breakfast, and privacy. Some thing you just can’t get on a vacation.

While the parade to celebrate the 3 Kings was yesterday, today is the actual holiday and the day when the kids get all their presents. Some families will give out maybe one or two presents on Christmas but everything else is saved for today. Very different from America. The cake above is called a Rascos de Reyes cake and it is very similar to the King Cake of Mardi Gras. They also hide a baby in the cake as well as this bean thing. If you receive the bean it is your responsibility to buy the cake the next year. If you receive the baby it brings you good luck for the year. The cake is always in this oval, circle shape but you can buy mini or individual cakes as well. The stuffing in the middle can change to chocolate nata, vanilla nata, or something else entirely. I really wanted to try one but I wasn’t wiling to buy one because i didn’t want the fruit stuff on the top.

We checked out as late as possible and tried to pass the time by having a lond breakfast at a cafe but because of the holiday EVERYTHING was closed so we were running out of things to do. Finally I just said I would pay the extra money to go home now rather than waste time doing nothing here. At least back in Valverde i can unpack, do laundry. read in peace, sleep, ect. We got to the station at 1p and the bus left at 1:30p so we didn’t have to wait that long. To pass the time I told the girls about the CLIFF game but if just wasn’t as fun with them. They didn’t know as many celebrities as I did so it was kind of limiting. We got to Huelva at 2:30p and caught the 3pm bus to Valverde so again not that much standing around time so that was excellent. It started to rain on the bus but I didn’t really care I just wanted to get home.

At 4:10pm January 6, 2010 I officially came home to my freezing cold flat. That was a LONG 15 days. I am 100% happy with my decision to go on the Europe trip instead of going home. Yes I missed my family and little traditions but I gained so much more on this trip; two life long friends, a brain full of memories, and half a bag of candy. Don’t worry I graciously donated ALL of my candy to Pocho’s English class. I maybe had four pieces in total. It is now January 12, 2010 and Pocho still has candy left even though she gives a piece to ever student she has EVERY day hehe

Now its back to saving my money, creating activities for my tutor sessions, finding ways to exercise throughout the week, cooking every single meal, and my freezing cold flat accurately name “the ice cube”. Ah, the good life.

“Man that 8 year old had an ARM!”

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I was planning on waking up as late as possible but for some reason I was woken up at 9:40am by my roommates. I realized that I turned off my phone while sleeping so I turned it back on and realized i missed a text. It was Christina, she forgot her map at home and needed the address of the hostel. I texted it to her and then tried to get a few more minutes of precious sleep. Finally got up and made my way upstairs fro breakfast. I found Christina upstairs eating when i entered the room. We exchanged stories about our winter break over toast. She went to Murcia (East coast of Andalucia tat borders the next region, so about the direct opposite of Valverde) to stay with her roommate from Valverde’s family for a few days. After a week she decided to go to Madrid for New Years. She went by herself but she met some people while touring around Madrid.

I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping or walking, I just wanted to read my book and relax but I felt obligated to do things with her since she did just come to Seville to see the parade of the 3 Kings with me. We went into a few stores but nothing really caught my eye. After experiencing everyday of rain during her winter break, she really wanted to find a good pair of water boots. The problem she was encountering was that most stores were sold out of them or they only had one size left and it wasn’t her size. We tried our best to find some but we only found really ugly water boots or nothing at all. I told her that they would be more in season come March so I’m sure she could find some then.

After a few hours we decided to get lunch. Christina really wanted paella so we looked for a good place to get it and found one. The lady asked if we wanted to eat inside or outside and we said inside. Instead of just letting us pick a table she lead us to a locked door. We then proceeded to follow her up two sets of stairs to this private room. It was a little bizarre, I’m not going to lie. She seated us in an empty room and gave us menus. She was our personal waitress and they used a pulley system to relay the food up to our room from the kitchen. I felt like I was on a special date and I had paid extra to get a personal waitress and a room to ourselves. It was pretty funny. Unfortunately the lady wouldn’t let Christina order paella because a minimum of two people had to eat it and I didn’t want seafood paella. All that work and she had to get something else. Oh well. At lunch she told me that Kate was planning on coming with her to Seville for the day but then she wanted to get more sleep and told her she would take a later bus. can’t say I’m surprised. She did that to me once. She said she was going to take a 9am bus to Huelva to get her permiso and I offered to go with her and then when I was on the bus and she wasn’t I found out she decided to take a later bus. I was very aggravated.

I predicted that she wasn’t going to come at all but Christina still held hope. After our romantic lunch I wanted some relaxing time before the parade at 5pm. For an hour I read my book and took a nap. A little before 5pm we headed out in search of the parade. We didn’t really know where to go so I figured we should just follow a group of children because surely they were heading to it as well. Sure enough they lead us straight to the crowd of people lined up on both sides of the street waiting for the parade to start. Still no word from Kate, so we walked down the busy street to find a good stop to catch some candy (for me) and take some pictures (Christina). The parade didn’t start until a little after 5:30pm but it was well worth it.

The kids AND the parents went crazy for candy. I’ve never seen adults jump up and down screaming at the people on the floats for candy. A popular idea that caught on with the adults was to turn their umbrellas upside down and collect candy that way. At first I found that annoying because I was right next to this guy and his umbrellas was in my space, but then it was apparent that his constant screaming really got the float people’s attention so our area ended u getting more candy. My technique for capturing candy was to crouch down and wait for the candy to hit the ground and collect from there. It was a pretty successful operation until it caught on and I had more competition on the ground. I was picking up candy between people’s legs, under their shoes, inside empty strollers, you name it i found candy haha. I almost lost my hand as this one dad started jumping and almost landed on my hand. The fun didn’t really start for me until I got nailed with my first piece of candy in the head. That was just the beginning of the rain of candy that proceeded to hit my skull. Most people would have been annoyed, but i got a kick out of it every time. Occasionally i would catch a piece of candy in mid air and every time i did this i would look back and Christina, smile, and say “I got a live one!”. I gave myself the nickname “Bottom Feeder” due to my candy snatching tactics. my goal was to collect each type of candy. I didn’t care so much for the quantity verses the variety. The moms kept shouting “caramelos” so I figured they were throwing chocolate candies so I tried my best to get those but i never found any. Later on it hit me that caramelos is their generic name for candy, it didn’t mean chocolate at all. What a bummer.

In the midst of all the candy throwing and madness I was able to take pictures of most of the floats. All of the floats were really cool. The decorations, costumes, and makeup were really good. I couldn’t make out if anyone on top of the floats were famous or not but I’m sure they were. I kept wondering what you had to do to get your kid onto one of the floats. If I lived in Seville i would make it my mission to get my kid on a float at least for one year hehe. Each float had an endless supply of enormous bags of candy. I’ve never seen so much candy in my life. Granted I’ve never really been to a parade like this before but I was just shocked at the amount of sweets they came supplied with. I noticed that most of the candies were sponsored by different banks, the Junta, the metro, and other official organizations of the city. I kept my eyes open for Sergio Ramos but I didn’t see him. :( Some of the themes of the floats were Alice in Wonderland characters, Aladin, egyptian, cinderella, star wars, rocket scientists, Mozart’s, fairies, wizards, dice people, toy soldiers, roman warriors, the lion king, and much much more. It was so interesting seeing the different floats. This was the spanish version of the Macy’s Day Parade.

The parade lasted a good hour and half i think. I lost track of time because i was to busy fighting off 8 year olds from taking my candy. They don’t need any more sugar if you ask me. I left the parade with a headache, a camera full of photos, and a bag half way full of mad loot = SUCCESS. I felt like a little kid again and it was great. I really enjoyed myself. To know surprise Kate missed the entire parade and met us at a Starbucks after the parade was over. If it was me and I had realized that i had no shot of making the parade i wouldn’t of come at all. It is suck a waste of money for nothing. I just don’t understand her. After she checked into the hostel we got dinner. We asked the receptionist for a cheap tapas bar and she delivered. Bar Colonias was just around the corner from our hostel and we were lucky enough to get the last table. One thing I don’t like about tapas places is that you are supposed to stand the whole time. I’m not a fan of standing and eating or standing in one place at a time for a long time in general. So we got to the bar around 8ish and were ready to order. All of the food looked really good. The waiter came over and informed us that the kitchen was not going to open until 8:30p so we couldn’t under our food until then. Only in Spain is 8pm deemed to early for dinner. We passed the time by sharing more stories about our winter breaks. Kate went to Chester and stayed with Corrie for a few days but then flew back home to Milwaukee in time to have Christmas with her family. She stayed there threw New Years but then returned to Valverde on the 4th. I asked her if it was hard being home because it made you not want to come back but she said no. She missed Spain and found home boring.

8:30p on the dot we ordered our food. I ordered the stuffed eggplant tapa because Christina told me they stuff it with meat. We split a medio racion of potatas bravas (so good) and a tapa of cheese. When my eggplant came I actually wasn’t surprised that it was stuffed with shrimp instead of meat. It seems no matter how hard i try to avoid eating food with shrimp I ALWAYS end up with it. I picked them out and gave them to Kate. The rest of the dish was delightful. I plan on returning to the bar another time. I was in the mood for desert so we walked to an ice cream/pastry place. I would end up in a town where the one and only ice cream shop closes from October to April. Who does that???? People (mainly ME) do eat ice cream in the winter time. Well Sevilla had an Heladoria basically on every corner so i just had to help myself while i could. I got this chocolate fudge flavor and “After Eight”. Turns out after eight is mint chocolate chip. They were both very good but not as good as the gelato in Austria.

We walked back to the hostel and talked while we ate our ice cream i the common room. We discussed our plan of action for the next day. We could either leave any time of the day and take the buss to Huelva and then to Valverde OR we could wait until 5pm and take the direct and cheaper bus straight to Valverde. No one wanted to make the decision so we decided to sleep on it and go from there.

Every good trip has a day of travel hell...

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Once again I woke up when James got up at 7am to say goodbye and wish him a safe trip back to Glasgow. An hour later he returned to our room because he had left his glasses in the room. Poor guy. I assume he made his flight and all because we didn’t see him again. We were up and packed up in order to check out by 10:30am. We noticed that everyone else in the hostel was checking out as well. I guess the holiday season was officially coming to a close today and everyone was shipping off back to their home cities. The dust had lifted and all the was left was an empty, cold city.

We had to pass the time SOMEHOW but we were tired of being in the cold all day so we went were all girls end up going once during a holiday or vacation, the mall. None of us had the money to buy anything but we thought we would just browse to pass the time. It worked for the time being. Once we hit every good store we braced ourselves for the cold and decided to do one last loop around the Tin Church to get a day picture of the Astrological Clock. While we were standing in the square we heard this English tour guide. I decided to ease drop. I only caught the end of the story so I still don’t know the significance of that dang clock but i did he the guide say this was a free tour and anyone was welcome to join them to the next destination. I thought why not, he got nothing else to do. The enxt stop was the State Opera House of Prague. The guy told us that this was the last remaining building where Mozart played live. He also mentioned that Prague was Mozart’s favorite city in all the world because he believed the people of Prague understood and appreciated his music like nobody else. We then learned that the movie EuroTrip was filmed entirely in Prague even though Prague wan’t one of the 7 or so cities that the college students allegedly traveled to in the movie. Prague never gets the credit it deserves haha. The guide then told us an interesting factoid: the people of Prague consume 1 liter of beer EVERYDAY, this included women and children. It now makes sense why the national anthem of Czech Republic is “Where It My Home” he continued. When the people leave the bars at night they are always singing, “so whhhhhere is myy hooomee?!????” hehe

Well we wasted as much time as possible so we decided to just head back to the hostel for the last time. We hung out in the lounge for a little until we just didn’t feel like waiting any longer. At 3pm we packed up all of our stuff and made our way to the Prague airport for our 9:50pm flight. It took us 20 minutes by metro to get to the bus stop. As we waiting for the bus to come it started to snow. We arrive to Prague in a blizzard and it looked like we were going to leave it the same way. The bus finally came and we took it to the airport. Julia had on one of those traveling backpacks that is basically the size of a human body, so when the bus made a right hand turn the bags momentum just took he right out of the seat and into the people standing next to her. I tried to grab her bag before she fell completely but I couldn’t find anything to grab hold off. She went flying and it was hilarious. Everyone on the bus laughed.

We got to the airport but our gate wasn’t announced (no surprise there. we were 5 hours early). We all just really wanted to check our bags and be done with it but alas we had to wait. Turns out RyanAir doesn’t open their check-in counters until 2 hours before departure. Harumph. Well I bought a magazine with my remaining Kc and read that page by page, word for word to help pass the time. We then decided to get dinner here because we didn’t know what food places would be open on the other side of the security check. We got pizza. It was really good and not to heavy. The best part was that we had leftovers and the pizza box had a picture of a man flipping a pizza with George Clooney’s face. We couldn’t resist taking a picture of it and drawing hearts around his head.

Finally the check-in counter opened so we got in line. This was the only time throughout the entire trip that Megan was really anxious because she knew that her big black suitcase ALONE weighed 10 kilos and the weight limit for checked bags was 15 kilos. She had tried her best to dump as many heavy things in her carry on as she could and wore ten layers and three scarves, but she wasn’t sure if that was going to be enough. RyanAir were real sticklers I tell you. Her bag ended up being over the limit so the three of us had to get out of line to help her redistribute the weight. I added a few of her items to my bag, but then my bag was over the limit, so we had to get out of the line again. Hey-Zues! Finally we achieved the perfect balance in our checked bags were able to officially check-in. I could have lived out of my carry on bag for a week with no problem due to the shifting of things. I had a towel, shoes, jeans, two changes of clothes, a tooth brush and tooth paste, and some reading material haha.

We our plane ended up being delayed for an hour so we didn’t board the plane until 10:30pm. We had to take a freezing cold shuttle bus to the gate and then walk outside in the cold to the plane. There were no assigned seats so it was first come, first served. Naturally I got on the plane early but J-M ended up being the dead last people to board. I had to hoard off the entire plane of people in order to save a row of three seats for all of us. The plane btw was freezing. I had to wear my gloves and scarf during the flight. Also nothing is free, you had to pay if you wanted a drink. What gives? To make things better RyanAir is in process of making people pay to use the toilet on board the plane and they not offer smokeless cigarettes. What is wrong with this airline???

We finally arrived in Frankfurt at around midnight or so. Another great feature about RyanAir is that they make you re-check your bags for every flight. So our next flight wasn’t until 6:40am so we tried our best to find a place to sit for the night but the airport was tiny and all of the chairs were already occupied. The good thing was that we weren’t the only people in need of chairs so it wasn’t a big deal finding a random place to sleep against the wall since everyone else was doing it. However, the spot Julia chose was near a door so we would get a chill breeze every so ofter. I couldn’t take it any longer so I moved around the corner. It took me forever to find a semi-comfortable position to sleep in but I finally managed to get a good hour and a half of sleep. The tricky part was positioning yourself so that your still holding onto your carry on bags while shielding your luggage at the same time. Its not an easy thing to manage i tell you. I also put my passport down my shirt so I knew that was good and safe.

At 4am on the dot I woke up and rallied the troops. Again we checked our bags for our flight to Girona, Barcelona. We got a decent breakfast at a cafe and then headed to our gate. This flight was on time but once again they made us walk in the cold to the plane and was again the plane was freezing. I tried to get some sleep on the plane so I shut the blind to my window in order to keep out the cold but the flight attendant tapped me and said open it. WHY?!?!? I mean come on, what is the point of keeping the shade up? As soon as we were in the air I put the shade down again (Harumph!) and got some sleep. Well I was rudely woken up by the same flight attendant who told me again to put the shade up. There was about to be a girl-fight on the flight. I had HAD IT with RyanAir. Never again!!!

We landed on time in Girona and for the second time retrieved our bags only to recheck them a few minutes later. Tedious is the word that come to mind. To be honest I have no recollection of the Girona airport, all I know is that we got boarded our plane on time for once. This was our last plane of the day and it was headed for HOME. We were never happier to be in Seville then that day (2pm). This time when we got off the plane and had to walk outside to the terminal it was breezy, not cold. It was an AMAZING feeling. At this point I took off my gloves and scarf. For the very last time we retrieved our bags, opened them up, and gave Megan back all of her stuff. We then waited for the bus to take us to Prado bus Station. We all got off at Prado and that’s where we parted ways. :(

J-M were headed back to Ecija and I was headed for my hostel because I was remaining in Sevilla for another 2 days in order to experience the 3 Kings holiday. I told them how amazing a trip I had and thanked them profusely for letting me accompany them. It was really sad. I didn’t want to leave them and that’s not a normal reaction for me. You would think that after 12 days of 24/7 hours together I would sprint away, rejoicing in my freedom, but this was different. I wasn’t sick of them and I wasn’t DYING for my space. I’m not use to this feeling at all.

I made it to my hostel without a problem and settled my things. There was a bathroom connected to my room so I jumped at the opportunity to shower. I thought that I would just want to collapse and sleep but surprisingly I wanted to shop a little and potentially see a movie. I asked the receptionist to fin on the map the location of the English playing movie theatre for me. When I opened the doors of the hostel it was pouring out. Oh Spain, how I’ve missed you so. I stopped into a few clothing stores just to browse but nothing looked as good as the clothes in the Prague mall did. After I left the last store the rain had stopped. I got a little snack and then decided to find the movie theatre. Since I didn’t know the movie times I figured the earlier I got to the theatre the better. Well I found this large mall that had a theatre in it but I didn’t see anything about the movies being in English. I scouted out the rest of the mall but still found nothing. Did the receptionist lie to me?? I waited until there was no one in line for movie tickets before i approached the ticket guy and asked if they had English movies. He told me that the theatre i needed was on the other side of the hotel that was next to the mall.

I did a small circle but finally found the much smaller (this is what I was expecting) theatre. However, the doors don’t open until 15 minutes before a show starts so it was currently closed. I was really hoping that NINE would be playing but unfortunately it wasn’t. My choices were Planet 51, the movie with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, or Avatar. For once in my life I didn’t know much about ANY of the movies presented in front of me so I decided to try out Avatar. I heard it took like 2 years to complete and people reported that it was worth the wait so I gave it a shot. I had to wait an hour before the theatre would open so to pass the time I got a sandwich at the mall and cracked open THe Lovely Bones. Big mistake. It sucked me in instantly and I didn’t want to stop reading. This book was supposed to last me until February and I knew that I would finish it within the week no doubt.

Reluctantly it was time for me to go to the theatre so I had to put the book away. I got to the theatre, bought my ticket, and ordered popcorn because I was really in the mood for movie theatre popcorn. Unfortunately the popcorn they had was only salted, yuck! I settled for a mini bag of M&M’s instead and headed to my theatre. I wasn’t surprised to be the only one there but within 5 minutes a few other English speaking people arrived as well. To pass the time I continued to read until the lights went down. When the lights started to dim I closed my book and just as I looked up I caught the silhouette of a girl sitting a few rows in front of me and she looked strangely familiar. She got up one more time to rearrange her seat and I got a glimpse of her face and I couldn’t believe it but it was Sam! Sam was the ONLY person in Spain I knew before I arrived here because she went to my high school. I never really knew her until this summer because I found out she was doing the same thing as me but in Seville and she was my best friends friend so we started to hang out a few times before I left. I couldn’t believe the extreme coincidence of this moment. However the previews were starting so I couldn’t say hi until after the movie.

The movie wasn’t bad at all. It was long but entertaining. The best part was when the natives were speaking their native language the translation was still in Spanish so I missed a word here and there. I didn’t cry but at times the movie moved me a little. Once the lights came up I gathered my things and looked for Sam but she was already gone. I looked around the rest of the theatre but I guess she just left as soon as the movie was over instead of listening to the music and reading the credits. OH well. I’ll send her a fb message about it later. It was dark by the time I got out of the theatre so I just headed home. I wanted to find a good place to read but there really wasn’t a warm cozy spot anywhere in the hostel so I settled for the uninhabited top bunk above me. I read for a few hours until I got really sleepy and called it a night.

The day of James

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The day everyone left. It was so sad. I woke up extra early so that I could say goodbye to everyone and exchange names and emails. I wasn’t about to let them leave without having a contact in NZ or Barcelona for pete’s sake. It was really cute, the Barcelona boys each wrote me a little note next to their emails. Awww we really bonded over NY hehe. When J-M finally woke up we showered and left the hostel by 11:15am. Our destination: Bohemian Bagel baby! Again, I haven’t had a bagel since Bethesda Bagels in September. W got there at the perfect time because only moments after our orders were up did a bombardment of tourist groups come in. The line was out the door. Good timing. I was wonderful to eat a whole wheat bagel again, oh how I’ve missed you. After Boho Bagel we decided to explore the areas of Prague we really hadn’t explored yet, New Town and Vinohrady. ON the way I found the best book store: Big Ben’s Books. All the books were in ENGLISH. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was over stimulated with the amazing section of books. The store had new releases as well as the classics. I didn’t know where to start. When i found the Lovely Bones I just couldn’t resist buying it. I know I told my sister that she should get it for me to read in February but I just couldn’t wait. Megan was telling what a great book it was and it was relatively small so I could afford to put it in my backpack. Looking back now I should have taken more advantage of the book store and bough two books because its January 10th and I already finished The Lovely Bones. I never use to read books this fast. That tells you how much free time I have on my hands in Spain. We each left the store with a new purchase. YEAH!!! :) :) :)

So New Town and Vinohrady were major let downs. I wasn’t quite sure what we were suppose to se in these areas so we just kind of wondering the streets. Nothing really peaked our interest so after a while we just decided to head back to the hostel because we were cold. We got back to the hostel and recuperated at around 3pm. I napped for a little and when I woke up James was in the room. We all thought that he left this morning but apparently he just left early in order to go to the castle wit Stephen who did leave. We talked with him for awhile and invited him to join us as we tried to find a internet cafe to print out our boarding passes and then hit up this amazing vegetarian restaurant. Well we didn’t see ANY internet cafes so we went to one place we knew had a printing station, Boho Bagel. Round 2. We spent a good 45 minutes there talking and printing our boarding passes.

It was officially dinner time and we were so excited to try this vegetarian place. The review we read made it sound scrumptious. It also happened to be really close to Boho Bagel so that was a plus. Well we found and restaurant and the CLOSE sign on its door. WHY?!?! Ugh, we were all defeated. We then tried this Austrian place right across the street but unfortunately it was also closed. Well I wasn’t about to wonder around all night like we had previous nights so I just suggested going back to Boho Bagel for dinner. While we were talking I noticed their dinner food looked really good. So yes, we returned to Boho Bagel for the third time in one day. We assumed the cashiers recognized our faces by this time haha. I ordered this vegetarian sandwich that was massive but really good. Everyone else ordered something different and we each tried each others food once again. One big happy family. After our dinner we got a drink at a pub but then decided to turn in. We got back to the hostel and just stayed up for hours talking. It was actually a lot of fun. James was really a good sport, hanging out with three girls. It felt like classic pillow talk and I loved it! I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. James began to confine in us about relationship advice and we all couldn’t get enough of it. He then proceeded to tell us how he believes the 40 Year-Old Virgin was inspired by his brother, the 32 Year-old Virgin. He made a pretty convincing case if you ask me haha

This was the kind of hanging out I like to do and I hadn’t gotten a chance to do it since arriving in Spain. We all really bonded and got to know each other on another level. Well it was starting to get late and James really did have to leave bright and early in the morning.

Those aren’t real bats. Shit! They are, run!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Hello 2010, it’s nice to meet you at last. I woke up exactly at 10:10am. Huh, that’s kind of coincidental don’t you think? I woke up and was wide awake despite having got only 5ish hours of sleep. The night before I had laid a bottle of water and two advil tablets next to my bed in preparation for this morning. I also had my tooth brush, toothpaste, and makeup remover outside of my suitcase as well so that I wouldn’t have to unzip anything in the morning. After I freshened up s bit I had a few apricots and then went back to sleep. I woke up when I heard some people getting up. Dave was the first up and he tried his hardest to relay the troops, aka Stephen and James. He really wanted to go to the Zoo today. Finally after a lot of coercion he got Stephen and James conscious. He went out for kebobs and told them that by the time he got back they should be showered and ready to go.

J-M started to wake up as well so I asked them what happened lat night. Apparently I was oblivious to the fact that right after midnight Julia started throwing up into the river. Yup, definitely missed that. She really didn’t feel good so the two of them headed straight home. Kind of a bummer New Years if you ask me. We had hyped up that night so much and Julia in particular couldn’t wait to drink so it was a real shame that her night came to an end so abruptly. I figured J-M would have a hangover but I still figured they would get up and move around, I was very wrong. J-M weren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. Hmmm, well having no idea what to do now I asked Dave when he returned if he wouldn’t mind if I joined them to the Zoo. He handed me my kebob and said it would be no problem at all. I learned that Dave and Stephen had somehow lost James towards the end of the night and got back to the hostel at around 7:30am. James didn’t get home until 10am. WHAT?!?!?! That’s crazy. He said he spent a good two hours of that trying to find his way home haha.

It was around 1pm when we finally left for the zoo. The Zoo wasn’t to far but we had to take the metro and then a bus. When we got to Zoo it started to flurry. Finally some snow! We weaved our way through the different animal exhibits. What I found interesting is that most of the animals here actually came straight up to the glass. I had never really encountered that before. This allowed me to get a close up of some turtles, fish, and random nocturnal animals. I could actually each line on the turtles fish and visibly see the gills of the fish swish in and out. I really liked that. When we walked into this nocturnal cave I noticed this screeching sound. I didn’t think much of it but then i noticed this flutter on the ceiling. At first i figured it was an affect to make it seem like bats were flying above but then one came straight at me and I had to duck. HOLY MOTHER THEY WERE REAL. It freaked me out and I started ducking and heading for the exit. Stephen just laughed at me but then one flew right past his ear and screeched real loud so he dashed for the exit as well. All I could think of was Dracula haha (because I had just read the book two months before). James said when he went up to the bat window he put his hand up to touch the glass and almost fell in because there was no glass, the bats were just allowed to roam free. How absurd is that? That would NOT fly in America.

Another animal I enjoyed was the giraffes. this baby giraffe faced the audience and got really close to the glass and just started playing/cleaning off his nose with his tongue. It was so cute. He must of played with his tongue for a good five minutes. It was like we were at the circus and he was performing for us. I guess the other cool thing about this Zoo visit was that we came right at feeding time. Now this also kind of grossed me out, but you could see the different animals tearing apart mice or chomping on vegetables. Again the animals would do it right in front of the glass so you could see EVERYTHING. I didn’t watch the carnivorous animals, only the herbivores. The only sad animal was the leopard. All he would do was run in a circle. He didn’t go anywhere else in the yard, just this constant circle. It made me so sad and reminded me of Happy Feet when the penguin is put in a Zoo and becomes a drone who just waits for feeding time. So i left the zoo with mixed feelings. Another funny thing was they made an announcement that the Zoo was going to close but they spoke in Czech (we just figured that was what they were announcing) and it seemed like it was a five minute warning before they were going to let the animals lose. Every man for yourself! We all started speed walking to the exit, I was not going to be that leopards dinner/desert.

After the Zoo Dave wanted to take us to this world famous bar but it wasn’t open when we got there. We would have had to wait another half and hour and I was to cold to do that and the other boys just wanted to get a drink and relax. we ended up just getting a drink at the bar next to our hostel. I decided to see if J-M wanted to join. When I got to the room I expected them to be up, fully clothed, and responsive. Nope, they were still in bed (this was 6pm). I asked Megan how she felt. She said every time she got up she had to throw up and had just been sleeping the whole time. Julia wasn’t any better. I gave them each my last remaining advil and promised to bring them back some crackers. I had never witnessed someone with a hangover that bad before. Maybe I’m naive but I didn’t think they had that much to drink, and they were way more experienced drinkers then myself. J-M were just amazed that I felt fine and wasn’t sick at all. I tried to warn them, I don’t really get hungover. Really i think it was because I rubbed that extra statue for a safe return home. Dave’s theory was they would be up and functioning if they had had a kebob like we did haha. Kebob’s make everything better :)

By the time we returned home J-M had made an effort to look presentable and accompany us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We left around 8pm for dinner. I was craving Chinese food ever since the first night in Berlin. I haven’t had anything but Spanish cuisine and the occasional kebob since arriving in Spain so I was really excited for Chinese food. the restaurant was kind of hidden and we were the only people i the restaurant but the food looked good so we went for it. We all ordered a main dish and a few appetizers. Evidently the place was a little short of staff and had only one woman working because she would bring one dish at a time. By the time someone finished their appetizer, the next one would be brought. It wasn’t a huge problem because the conversation helped pass the time. I was lucky to be the first one to get their dish. Out of politeness I waited to start eating but then Stephen said if I didn’t start eating he would. Also Julia commented that at the rate this lady was going it was going to be awhile before another dish would be coming. I started to eat but slowly and surely everyone got their dish. The general consensus around the table was that their dish was really good. Now everyone was trying each other’s dishes and sharing sauces or rice. It reminded me of my family dinners at P.F Changs or City Lights of China. Our meal ended up lasting 3 hours. At the end instead of fortune cookies (boo hoo) the lady brought us rice wine. Great, alcohol, just what J-M needed hehe. We all cheers-ed each other to a great meal and meeting new people.

It wasn’t until after the meal that it dawned on us that we still needed to figure out how we were going to get from Prague to Frankfurt tomorrow. We had tried to book a train before hadn but the website said that in Prague you can’t book things ahead of time so we just figured we’d find a way once we got to Prague. Yeah, well it was the first and we were suppose to leave the next day. We separated from the boys and headed to the train station. The lady told us that everything was booked until Tuesday. Then we went to the bus station, we got the same news. Hmmm, what to do. Well instead of hitting the panic button we decided to look into flights from Prague to Seville. While researching we found a flight that left from Prague and got us to Frankfurt in time for our Frankfurt to Gerona, Gerona to Sevilla flights. This was perfect. We wouldn’t have to cancel any of our flights and instead we would just stay an extra night in Prague and cancel our hostel reservation in Frankfurt. It’s not like we were dying to see Frankfurt in the first place.

So I sent an email to the hostel to cancel our reservation and I talked to the receptionist at our current hostel to see if it was possible to stay an extra night while J-M booked flights. It all worked out in the end I think the cost of the Frankfurt hostel and the would be transportation to Frankfurt would have evened out for the cost of this additional flight. I was really impressed with the way we all handled the situation. This was probably the worst case scenario and instead of freaking out we exhausted all of our options and found a solution. If I had traveled with the girls from Valverde I’m fairly certain shit would have hit the fan real fast.

When we returned to the room all of the boys were tucked in bed and sleeping. No raging tonight for them.

Happy Sylvester, here’s a pig.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

First off I would like to explain what Sylvester is. In Germany, Austria, and apparently Czech Republic, New Years is referred to as Sylvester. Not sure what the significance of that is but I do know that on New Years instead of kissing loved ones or strangers, well actually they do that too, you’re supposed to give people a pig. A pig represents good luck in the coming year. Everywhere we walked we would see pig stuff: clocks, cookies, candies, hats, figurines, toys, you name it they had it in the shape of a pig. So yeah, in this part of Europe that is the tradition on New Years just in case you were interested.

THE LAST DAY OF 2009! Wow, this year flew. For me it had a lot of ups and a few downs. 2009 marked the end of organized soccer for me, the end of my undergraduate career, the start of my adventures abroad, the beginning of uncertainty that is still my future, the extinguish of some friendships and the rekindling of others, the expansion of family, and lastly the uncovering of who i am . That’s a lot to take in. When you’re on vacation with other people it’s hard to get a minute to reflect, so I’m taking that time now, even though it’s January 10th.

I woke up at 9am when our last roommate came in. Finally someone claimed the couch-bed. I didn’t get out of bed until 10 and we didn’t end up leaving the hostel until 11am. We decided to explore the castle with the Barcelona boys. They were both different from the stereotypes of Spanish men. There were genuinely friendly , quite funny, and good spirited. Before we headed to the castle we joined up with two Chilean friends of Saul. Jorge and Francesca were cousins from Santiago who have been traveling around Europe and came into Prague just for New Years. They didn’t have a hostel to stay at so they were going to get ready at our hostel and just stay out the whole night until there train at 8am. Ha Ha, good luck with that!

We ended up speaking English the whole day, mainly because I don’t think anybody realized that we knew Spanish. Francesca was talking to the boys about going to the Bridge in Spanish and Julia answered her question in English and she was shocked that she understood her. Yeah, at that moment we told them that we understood Spanish better than we could speak it, so the English continued. As we crossed Charles Bridge we got stuck in a traffic jam of people. We literally couldn’t move. I think the funneling of people due to the construction caused the jam. It took us half and hour to cross the Bridge. To help pas the time I started the Cliff game and introduced it to our new friends. Jorge got a real kick out of it. Sure enough as soon as we started the game we finally started moving. Before we left the Bridge we had to touch the Golden statue for good luck. I was also told to touch the other golden part of the statue to ensure a safe voyage home and it wasn’t until the next day to I realize how luck y it was that I touched that statue. Out of the three of us, I was the only one who touched both statues. Just remember that for later......

We spent the whole day touring the Prague Castle, which included the golden lane , numerous Cathedral’s, and St. Mikulous’ Church. Julia mentioned to Jorge that I was a soccer person so we talked soccer the rest of the day. he told me how he works for the best soccer team in Chile, I forget the name now, but he was really impressed that I knew all about the Argentine and Brazilian leagues as well as La Liga and Premiere League. I never get tired of the look of shock/amusement i get from guys when I start talking soccer. Well by the end of the day I was starved and Churched out for the day. We headed back toward the Christmas market for round two of lunch/dinner there. We parted ways with our friends but told the Barcelona boys that we would see them back at the hostel and told the Chileans to meet us in front of the Astrological Clock in Staromestske Namesti Square at 10pm tonight. As much as we hoped we would see them again, the three of us all kind of figured that the odds of finding them tonight were going to be slim. At the market Megan and I got white sausage and the Trdlo pastry thing as our lunch/dinner. It was incredibly filling but oh so good. Julia got the latkas. After a fulfilling meal we figured we should head home and either nap or just hang out until it was time to get ready, aka beautify. Plus it started to rain and we wanted to stay as dry as possible.

On the way home we found a market with mini champagne bottles so we each bought one to open and cheers with at midnight. We also decided, in order to save money tonight, that we would pre-game at the hostel so that we wouldn’t really need to buy any drinks at the bars. This seemed like a good idea at the time, so we bought a bottle of cheap vodka and sprite and were good for the night. At least that’s what i thought... We returned home and mingled, relaxed with our roommates until 8p. At 8pm the party started.

The newest addition to our room was James, another New Zealander who currently works in Glasgow with Stephen. Very international room if you ask me. The NZ boys were heading out early to hit up a bar but we told them that we were going to meet at the Astrological clock at 10pm and then head to the bridge to see the fireworks and they should meet us there. Once again we told all of these people to meet us there but we never thought we’d actually find everyone. We were happy if it was just the three of us.

[Forgive me parents and family]---I normally don’t like to share the details of what little drinking I do but for this night it serves a purpose. In the room getting ready the three of us each helped ourselves to the equivalent of 2 vodka and sprite’s. However, Julia had 2 beers before these drinks and we all know the saying, “beer before liquor, makes you sicker.” Anyways, that was enough for me. I was feeling good and didn’t want to go overboard before midnight. Once J-M were ready we asked someone from another room to take a picture of us. We wanted a picture before we went outside in the cold, probably still rainy night. I asked the girl who took the picture when she was heading out and she said that she was having a hard to motivating her group to get up. Me with my new found confidence, aka alcohol, I marched into their room and told them to get up and come with us to the clock because we were leaving now. Surprisingly they listened and got ready. With nothing but my tank top, leather jacket, scarf, mini purse with my camera, my umbrella, and my mini bottle of champagne I was ready for NYE in Prague. WAhoooooo! It was getting close to 9:45p when we realized we had to leave in order to meet everyone at 10p. We left the hostel with our new German friends but then someone from there group forgot something but we couldn’t afford to wait because we were already running late so once again we told them to meet us at the clock. When we got off at our stop I spotted P-S and shouted at them. The five of us ended up walking together to the clock. Well, at least we found 2 people, 2 more than I anticipated.

We made our way to the clock and miraculously found not only the NZ boys but also the Chileans. To add to the mix, Julia texted her friend Maria to join us at the clock as well. A few minutes after arriving at the clock we found Maria (from Scotland) and her boyfriend. With some kind of luck we managed to find EVERYONE we told to meet up with us. In total we were 3 Spaniards, 2 Chileans, 2 Kiwi’s, 1 Scott, and 3 Americans. This was by far the most international New Years I have EVER had and probably will ever have. Where we were in front of the clock were thousands of other people. Only a few feet from us people were shooting off fireworks. I mean they literally flew over our heads and would occasionally hit people. Here we were in front of this 100’s of years old cultural landmark and people were shooting off crazy fireworks right next to it. What made it better was there were four policemen standing next to the clock with their hands folded just watching. What were they going to do if the clock caught on fire? Blow it out??? Ridiculous. At the clock I had a swig of Jager (disgusting btw) because that’s all Jorge was drinking for the night. Yuck. J-M each had a few sips of that and then they also got Gluihwein because they were cold. I would like to think that my leather jacket alone was what kept me quite warm all night, but I guess you could say the alcohol might of helped a bit in that department.

So far Julia had mixed beer, vodka, Jager, and wine while Megan had only mixed vodka, Jager, and wine. Not a good idea. We still had our champagne to drink at midnight. Midnight? Crap, it was almost midnight and we had to make our way to the river. We frantically, with everyone in tow, jogged to the river in order to see the spectacular fireworks. This was the one night I refused to wear my watch so I had no idea when midnight occurred but at some point the fireworks started, someone else checked their cell phone and announced it was 2010. Cheers to all!!!! I had James open my bottle for me and I toasted with the girls. To be honest I don’t recall drinking that much of my champagne. I think I offered it to everyone from the group and someone eventually finished it for me. Eh, I didn’t really care. I attempted to take pictures of the fireworks but that was a complete bust so I gave up and focused on people pictures. We got this random girl to take a group picture of all of us but of course mine came out blurry. And that was also the moment when my batteries decided to die. Never fear, I came prepared with an extra set. However they were not working. I got mildly upset but then said f-it its New Years, just enjoy it.

It was at this point, a little after midnight, that I noticed Julia and Megan getting into a cab. I asked where they were going and I only remember Megan telling me that they were heading home. I was confused at this point as to why they were leaving and not taking me with them. I needed to use the bathroom so Maria and I found one in a bar. When we returned the NZ boys had taken off and I didn’t know where they went. I found out later that they told Megan to tell me but she never gave me the message. They were actually just down the street from us. My one regret of the night was not finding them. Well Maria, her bf, P-S, and I headed off to find a bar. I have no idea where we went or what the name of the bar was, but it was packed. Somehow we managed to find a table and we spent the rest of the night there. The bar had neon lights and a screen playing music videos. It was a pretty cool place. I’m not sure how I ordered my drink, i think i just pointed to my hand like I had planned, but somehow I got that Korse*%#&#Y$) drink. It was delicious. I remember paying for the drink and I think that was the only thing i paid for the entire night. The rest of the night we just talked and laughed the night away. I had a really good time. We ended up being the last people in the bar and the bar people had to kick us out because they were closing. It was at this moment that Maria and her bf decided to head home. I had no map and no idea where we were so Maria gave me her map, circled our bar, and pointed us in the right direction. I was intoxicated in an unfamiliar city, with no bearing of where I was, which is unusual for me because I normally have a very good sense of direction. even though I had P-S with me I didn’t trust myself to find my way home. Finally Pau hailed a taxi and said we would pay for it because he just wanted to get out of the cold. I wasn’t about to protest. We made it safe and sound to the hostel at 5:30am. Unbelievably I didn’t lose my purse, camera, or umbrella like I figured I would. I did remember my umbrella was on the ground for awhile and I randomly saw it on the ground and thought, “that was a close one”, and snatched it back up.

I spent my entire New Years with practically strangers, but that didn’t stop me from having an incredible time. Thank you Prague.

Two minutes into Prague and I’ve been nailed with a snowball. Excellent.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Woke up for the last time in Vienna at 9:15am. Packed up all of our stuff and headed out the door to explore one last part of Wein. First we wanted to make sure we knew exactly where to go to catch out Student Agency bus so we headed there. We found a group of people with luggage in front of a sign for Student Agency in this empty parking lot. Okay, now we know EXACTLY where to go by 6:30pm. Next it was off to the Belvedere Museum to see one of Megan’s favorite artists, Gustav Klimt. Before the museum, we got breakfast at an Anker chain, the equivalent of Panera. We ended up only having to pay 6 Euros for the museum because we were students so that was a nice surprise. To be frank, I’m not a huge museum person unless there is something very specific that I want to see. I found most of the paintings rather similar to one another and not very stimulating. My goal was to find a comfy chair in each room i went into and from that chair take in the art. I did enjoy the works of Gustav Klimt but he only had a small exhibit in the entire museum. The most interesting part of the museum, was this large room that had a sign in the middle of the room that said, “ NOW YOU CAN SCREAM AS LOUD AS YOU WANT” in four different languages. Hmmm, this was intriguing. I wasn’t about to be the scapegoat so I hung around the room long enough for some kids to wonder in and test the limits. They screamed loudly but nothing happened. Some adults gave it a whirl but again nothing happened. I was determined to figure out what was suppose to happen or learn whether or not the sign was some sort of social experiment. Sure enough my patience rewarded me and a group of kids finally broke “the barrier” and after they screamed the rooms lights flicked as it “breathed” heavily in unison with the lights. acting like it was alive. Okay, not worth the wait, but it kept me occupied for a little while.

I found a really comfy chair and just about fell asleep. Art museums make me sleepy. Some time passed and J-M were done with the museum so it was time to make our way back to the hostel. We stopped into an internet cafe to confirm our seats on the bus. Next we stocked up on some groceries because this was going to be our dinner. We picked up our bags from the hostel and made our way to the bus stop. To pass the time we played the game Cliff. You pick three people, if you know each other well it can be your friends, but if you don’t than you use celebrities. From the list of three people you have to pick the one that you would marry, the one that you would have a one night stand with, and the one you would push off a cliff. This game helped us pass the time throughout our trip whenever we had a long wait somewhere.

Sure enough the bus showed up on time, 6:35pm and a mob of people attacked this short girl in order to get onto the bus. My ticket didn’t have a seat assignment on it so I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t get a seat so I slithered my way through the crowd in order to get on the bus earlier rather than later. Luckily the girl had my reservation so i was all set. the bus was actually really nice. It was big comfy leather seat with a pull down table like in airplanes and an individual jack for your headphones in order to listen to the movie they played. On the bus they offered free magazines and newspapers from a variety of countries, your choice of coffee, hot chocolate, or tea, and a complimentary set of headphones. The channel that was suppose to have the movie in English didn’t work in my seat but the movie was Mr. Bean’s Holiday so I wasn’t to interested in it to begin with.

After two hours we had to change buses in Brun, a smaller city in Czech Republic. Again I slithered my way through the crowd and got my seat on the bus. I lucked out and didn’t have someone next to me so I could spread out a little. Even better, we caught the end of Dirty Dancing, the best part of the whole movie in my opinion, and my headphone jack worked so it made my bus experience that much more enjoyable. After Dirty Dancing they played Monster-In-Law and then some hilarious older episodes of FRIENDS that I had not seen, or at least didn’t remember. FRIENDS ALWAYS put me in a good mood. It was a good thing I didn’t have a neighbor because I was laughing out loud the whole time. Once the episodes stopped, I noticed out my window that it was a frickin blizzard outside. We passed a really bad accident where this car was flipped over in an embankment and we even had to stop once for the driver to chisel off some ice and snow from the window. The lady announced that we were going to arrive in Prague at least a half an hour late because of the snow. The normal response would be irritation but I was ECSTATIC. My first encounter with snow of the season!!!! Was there really a difference between arriving at 1:30am or 2am???

I had checked the weather report in all the cities we were going to and each city it had said rain/snow or snow for almost every day. Well as usual weather.com lied to me. We hadn’t encountered any snow thus far. The only reason I wasn’t upset about hearing that back home my family was experiencing a record blizzard was the prospect that I would get my own piece of snow this winter. I couldn’t wait to get off the bus and catch snowflakes on my tongue. I also knew that our hostel was very close to the train station so we wouldn’t have to lug our stuff in the blizzard for that long. Get me off the bus PRONTO!

We finally arrived to Prague at around 1:30-2am. We only had to walk maybe 3 minutes until we reached our hostel. Along the way we past a few people having a lovely snowball fight. As I lead the way through the fight I was hit smack in the back with a snowball. Oh how I wanted to throw one back, but I didn’t. I wanted to put my bags down before I got in the middle of anything. I also figured that I’d have tomorrow to engage in a proper snowball fight. We checked into the hostel and got our room. The receptionist told us that two boys were already in our room but we could choose from the 7 beds where to sleep. There were 4 sets of bunk beds and one solo bed that looked more like a couch rather than a bed, at least that’s kind of how we used it until it became occupied. We were told about a free tour of Prague that started at 9:30a so despite the late arrival, we had intended to make that tour the next day.

I woke up around 8am and noticed that the two guys had returned sometime after we had fallen asleep. I had a feeling we weren’t going to make the tour when J-M weren’t moving to fast in the morning but it didn’t really matter, we had a good four days in Prague to catch a tour. Our first stop was to take our Kc from the ATM in order to pay our hostel and pay for anything in Prague. After we paid for our rooms we had less than ten minutes to get to the meeting point for the tour. Yeah that wasn’t going to happen. No worries, we improvised. After some breakfast we explored all over Old Town (Stare Mesto). We focused on the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) as well. We found the Maisel Synagogue and bought tickets to visit the most impressive and supposedly the most beautiful synagogue in all of Europe, the Spanish Synagogue. I looked different during the day then it did all lit up for an evening performance, but it was still incredible. We were not allow to take any pictures but everywhere you looked you could find Jewish Stars woven into the architecture, the chandeliers, the paint of the wall, the backs of the chairs, everywhere. The synagogue also had a museum so we read all about the history of Prague and the Jews of Prague. It was really interesting and I got to share what knowledge I had about all things Jewish with J-M. All those years of Sunday school paid off I guess.

After Josefov we meandered around the Prague’s Christmas markets. They had beautiful watercolor pictures of different areas of Prague. I almost bought one because it was very cheap but I decided to wait until the end of the trip to buy my souvenirs. Julia was the first to try the food at the market. She got this apparently traditional sweet/breakfast pastry called TRDLO: it was this gooey dough wrapped around a rotating pole under a fire. Once the outsides got crisp the person would the dough off the rod and roll it in cinnamon, sugar, and almond flakes and then serve it hot and gooey on the inside. OMG it looked so good. I didn’t have my own until the next day but it looked scrumptious. After getting lost around Old Town we thought we’d check out Charles Bridge. Half of the bridge was blocked off because of scaffolding so it was very crowded and not full of artisans like it normally would be. We walked around the area where the famous Prague Castle was but decided to hold off and visit the castle tomorrow. After finally finding our way back across the water we hit up the Christmas market for lunch. I got POTATO LATKES!!! I couldn’t believe they had them, so i just had to try them. For 50 Kc I got 5 or 6 latkes and a handful of cold sauerkraut. It would have been perfect if the sauerkraut was hot but none-the-less the little dish was quite tasty and very filling. J-M decided to test out the sausage in the form of a hot dog in a baguette. It looked very good and they said it was equally filling. My feet were starting to bother me since we had spent almost the entire day walking so I asked if we could head back a little early so I could rest and then we could do our laundry.

We took the metro a few stops away to Andy’s Laundromat. For a very good price we got a washer (w/ detergent supplied to us no extra cost), a dryer, access to tea, hot chocolate, and coffee, and free access to the internet. I was fully willing to pay for the internet so that was a nice bonus. The guy who helped us was really nice and it was great to just relax and respond to a few urgent emails. We all tried to look up ideas for new years. We didn’t quite have a plan yet but we knew we couldn’t afford one of those dinner, drinks, and a show deals. We figured we’d find a area of popular bars near the water so we could see the fireworks and just work our way around the bar scene. Once our laundry finished we folded our clean smelling and warm clothes and headed back home.

Once back home we all showered and talked with our roommates while we relaxed. We met the two boys from the night before, Pau and Saul from Barcelona. They were not expecting people to be in the room when they returned last night so they turned on the light and then saw us sleeping and were like “oh - my - god!” I can’t really explain how Saul said it in words but the way he said it was really funny. We also met the two newest members to the room, Dave and Stephen from New Zealand. Actually Dave was now working in London and Stephen in Glasgow. They were all incredibly nice and friendly. It was nice to finally converse with our roommates. We ended up taking the metro with Saul and Pau to Old Town and we departed ways as we searched for a good pub to grab a small bite to eat while the boys were off to meet a friend. After searching in the rain for a while we finally decided upon a place. Megan and I tried this cheese soup but it wasn’t very good. Megan and Julia ordered some beers and we just hung out there for awhile. We asked our friendly waiter if he had any recommendations for a good local, chill pub. He told us about the pub he frequents and said that once his shift ended he would meet us there.

Julia really wanted to meet some locals and have a good night out but I wasn’t feeling it. I wanted to save all of my strength for New Years, the following night. For me I’ll take one night of heavy drinking and going crazy verses a few nights in a row of medium drinking and staying out late. I’m such a grandma, I know. We couldn’t find the place the waiter told us about so we started to turn around but then we ran into him and he walked us to the bar. It wasn’t very crowded so we weren’t planning on staying long but the rain made us change our minds. J-M ordered this really sweet drink, koskenkorva vodka, peach, and sprite. I tried a bit of it and decided that i really liked it and would try and order it on New Years. Anyone who knows me well knows how the back of my left hand doubles as a notepad, so in true tradition I wrote the drink on my hand in hopes that I could just point to my hand tomorrow night and somehow get that same drink. Our waiter friend invited us to play against him in foosball but Megan and I were ready to call it a night so we politely declined and called it a night. I just wanted to get as much rest as possible leading up to New Years. We were all VERY EXCITED for it. Just in case you didn’t know, Prague is THE #1 Spot for New Years in the WORLD....New Orleans is the #2 (i did that last year). For someone who isn’t a partier I sure have hit the best spots for New Years (London the year before that).

The leather jacket takes Wein by storm

Monday, December 28, 2009

We had another late start to the day (11am) but we weren’t really on a time schedule so it wasn’t a big deal. However yet again, the Asians were up at 7:30am and out the door before we woke up. This time our first stop was an outdoor food market. It was really cool. The place had all kinds of good smelling food like different kinds of stuffed olives, multiple types of homemade humus, exotic fruits like strawberries (haha), dried fruits and nuts, sweets, gingerbread cookies, kebobs, falafel, different kinds of pastries like baklava, fresh bread, chinese food, and much much more. We walked up and down the market a few times, having a hard time deciding what to try. Today was round two of the leather jacket. I discovered in Berlin that it is actually really warm, warmer than my fleece, and would allow me to wear fewer layers so I decided to give it ago. Plus I knew we were going to the Nut Cracker tonight so I wanted to look “nicer” and i thought it would go over better than a fleece jacket.

Well, I discovered in Vienna that you get treated differently when you wear a leather jacket. I think people assume certain things about a person in a leather jacket and therefore treat them differently. To be honest, I kind of bought the jacket for that reason. I like how clothes can give off a different perception and since I’ll never be a fashion diva or a trend setter, a leather jacket is as close to a different perception as i can give off. Back to Vienna,well in the open air market we met some friendly venders that offered us free falafel in exchange for our names. We obliged. The three of us decided to give pseudo names instead: I was Lara, from Tomb Raider, Julia was Heidi, and Megan was Leisel. For some reason my pseudo name was the only one that stuck and they kept calling after me as i walked by. Within a five minute period of eating our free falafel my name had spread and random venders would call it out to offer me free samples. I contribute the celebrity status to the jacket.

The rest of the day we spent wondering around Wein. We didn’t really have a plan in mind, just that we wanted to be back to the Opera House by 5pm. We ended up walking past the Austrian Parliament, Museum Quarter, old Christmas Markets that had closed down, and some outdoor parks. We would have gone into a museum except each one had a entry fee of 8 Euros and we were going to go see a museum that Megan really wanted to visit the next day, so we decided to save our 8 Euro for that museum. We pretty much covered all of the heart of Vienna that day. the last place we walked to before heading back towards the Opera House was this really cool place called Hunderwasser Village. This place had the coolest architecture and designs. It wasn’t just for show, actual people lived in these apartments. The painter that designed the place didn’t like straight lines and that’s why the buildings look like waves rather than blocks. Inside was this fairy tale like shopping center with a really cool bar in the center of the establishment. It was a breathe of fresh air compared to the other buildings that surrounded it.

After a short drink break we found ourselves in front of the gelato place again and just couldn’t help ourselves. The second time around wasn’t as good, the new guy didn’t give us as many swirls and chunks of nutella. We made our way to the Opera House at 5pm on the dot. We were closer to the front than the night before so we knew for sure that we would get the best seats since we were now experts and knew exactly where to go. We couldn’t find Alana in line but we did meet this guy from New Orleans. he never told us his name but he was a few years older than us. He told us that he had been traveling around the world for two years now. He told us stories about Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Slovakia, and other interesting and less touristy spots. He did warn us not to go to Moldova. He said the McDonalds outside the theatre was nicer than any building in all of Moldova. You’ve been warned. He said he would just wake up one day and decide it was time to leave. He said some of his jobs were teaching English in a school, working as a bar maid, helping people on their farm, and other various, random jobs like that. He told us this one story about how he met this guy one day who HAD to leave Australia that night and needed to give his van to someone, so the random guy handed him the keys and said “enjoy”. The NOLA boy spent the next two months just cruising around Australia, living out of the van. Can you imagine living like that? I can’t, but it sounds exotic doesn’t it?

Well we took him under our wings and showed him what to do in order to get the best seats. He was completely unaware that tonight was the Nut Cracker. He had never seen it (WhAT????) but heard that you could get standing room seats in the Opera House for very cheap and decided to give it a whirl. He told us that he was down to his last 100 Euro so he was thinking this might be the last stop on his journey because his mother had finally contacted him and offered to pay for his ticket home just as long as he would come back. If you ask me, the Nut Cracker is a good way to go out. We ended up standing in just about the same spots except this time we could see the whole stage. No sugar plum fairy would be missed by my eyes. The ballet was only 2 hours long with a 15 minute intermission so i was more optimistic that my legs would make it this time.

Here are a few differences I noticed between this Nut Cracker and the Nut Cracker I am accustomed to:

the “mice” people looked more like ninjas. They didn’t even really move like mice.

instead of the adults, the kids played the roles of the mice and soldiers. It made the affect slightly different. They even had a trampoline.

the 3 special dolls that the magical grandfather brings weren’t dolls, just people dressed up in different costumes who danced with the adults at the party. I was disappointed because I like the dolls.

the kids played video games with a screen at one point(??!!)---this must be the modern version of the nut cracker

the adults at the party played with scarfs at one point

there was no lady with a giant skirt that little children poured out of

These weren’t HUGE differences that ruined the experience by any means, just things i noticed. After the ballet finished we were all really happy we got to see it. It made us all think about our families back home and the traditions of Christmas. It was a definite highlight of the entire trip thus far.

While waking through the underground metro this guy just came right to me with his arms open for a hug. I couldn’t escape it but i didn’t hug back. I tried to maneuver myself out of his grasp as i grabbed my bag to make sure he didn’t try to open it. All i remember was Megan’s face of horror as the guy hugged me. She motioned for me to grab my bag just to be safe. I knew i didn’t have anything in my pockets so i wasn’t to worried. He finally let go and i just took off with J-M. It was so strange. Again, I blame the jacket.

He were all in the mood for some pizza so we some a slice close to our hostel. Afterwards J-M really wanted to try baklava before we left Vienna so we hit up the same Med restaurant again. This time there were more people but we had the same waiter. We got two orders of the mixed desert plate. We tried baklava, this donut ball, a cornmeal ball, and churros surrounded by dollops of whipped cream. All the deserts had a rich taste of honey to them. They were all very good. When we asked for the check the waiter brought us a complimentary round of sweet liquor shots to cleanse our pallets. How thoughtful. You know what’s coming, I contributed the generosity to the jacket for the last time that day.