Beautiful Barcelona

Thanks to some great Czech Holiday, we had this past Monday and Tuesday off and seeing as how I already only go to class from Monday-Wednesday this left a large amount of time to travel over the past weekend.  My friend Cort and Andrew and I decided to go to Barcelona for a majority of it and I truly believe that it is one of the best decisions that I have made recently!  Barcelona was truly such an amazing and spectacular city that was filled with so many different amazing buildings and parks and of course, the beautiful Mediteranian!  

We left Prague around noon last Thursday and got to Barcelona around 3 or so.  After finding our hostel we began to walk around and venture out around the city.  It was kind of overcast and there was a bit of rain the first night we were there but nothing that held us back too much.  We walked down Las Ramblas which is the kind of main street tourist area of Barcelona and saw all the different venders that were there.  At the end of it you end up at a huge statue or Christopher Columbus and a huge dock.  We hung out around here and just took it easy the first day.  The night ended and I was starting to worry that maybe Barcelona wasn't going to be as great as I had built it up to be.  Oh boy was I wrong!

The next day we woke up and decided to go and visit "La Sagrada Familia" which is the huge cathedral that is still in the process of being built.  It was started for Gaudi over a hundred years ago.  It was so amazing and had such interesting and beautiful architecture that I had never seen before!  I was amazed as to how much construction was still left.   There was only a small area that we could walk through and there was scalfolding in the entire center area and we could even look out to the sky through open areas in the ceiling.  It was as if none of that mattered at all though because it was all truly amazing!  Of all the different cathedrals and churches that I have seen, this was by far one of the most amazing, and there is still so much left!  My goal is to be able to come back and see it when it is complete.

We then made our way over to Park Guell.  I had no idea what I was in store for but ended up being so pleasently surprised!  It was a beautiful and amazing park that was filled with more Gaudi architecture.  For those of you that may watch America's Next Top Model, the season where Caridee wins and they have their last runway walk as the scary brides, the runway show took place in Park Guell.  I recommend that you do a google picture search right now and look at how amazing this Park is!

We then decided to venture down to the beach and we walked probably a good 8-10 miles along the coast.  It was so amazing!  We then went and had some authentic Spanish food of a Paella and Andrew got some Tapas.  

Ok, this is starting to get rather long so I must speed up this summary.  The next day we took a free boat ride along the coast of Barcelona which I ended up feeling kind of sea sick from...so much of it was spent with me sitting downstairs at a table with my head on it.  We had heard that when in Barcelona it was a necesity to take the cable car up to the top of the Mountain there and look around.  So we walked a good mile or two around the harbor to the base of the cable car, paid a large chunk of money, went on it, and then found out it was the wrong cable car.  We were all able to laugh pretty hard at this though and became more funny then anything.

We walked up to the top of the Mountain and had a great view of Barcelona from an old sort of fortress that was there.  We were there right as the sun was setting.  We then went to where this Palace was and had amazing fountains infront of it that had amazing colors on it and one large fountain that shot up water in the air to music.  It was so beautiful from there!  

The next day we spent hanging out at the beach.  It was beautiful!  Not a cloud in the sky!  We then went to another Park that was there and then found a really pretty Arc as well.

To wrap it all up, Barcelona is by far my FAVORITE European city, and quite possibly my favorite city that I have ever been to!  Oh, and we also stopped over in Milan for a night on the way back, but really, it's not worth mentioning.  There is pretty much nothing there and became more of a joke to us then anything.

I would tell anyone though to go and visit Barcelona!  It was  so beautiful and amazing and you will not be disapointed!  I will for sure be returning there one day...not sure when, but I will make it happen!

Trip to Dresden

After quite some time of trying to upload pictures from this weekend the most that I could get to work are the two below...so I really hope that you enjoy them!

This past week was quite fun.  I have actually come down with a cold (again) so did not do too much but what I did do was all such a great experience.  Last thursday some people in my program and I went to the high school which is located by our dorm and sat in on classes and sort of taught english.  Well, at least that is what they wanted us to do but for the most part we are there to just give an american perspective and for them to practice their english with us.

The first class that we went to they were giving presentations on the difference between Czech Republic and US summer camps.  It was quite the experience.  The group had pictures from both of the different summer camps.  The Czech summer camps showed pictures of kids in their tents, eating meals on the ground and having a beat up basketball court.  The pictures that they showed of the "US" summer camp were pictures of the very nice Hyatt hotel, a very beautiful and exquisite dinning hall (which looked to have candles on the tables) and a water slide park.  While there may be camps in the US that do look like this, it is by no means the average kind of summer camp experience that many of us have had.  We tried to explain this to the group that was presenting but usually got some sort of fire-y response back.  The rest of the class agreed that it was not an accurate representation but the group was set into believing that it was right.  It was very interesting to see their perspective of American's and the way in which we apparently live.

The next class I went to we just sat around with a small group and talked and they asked us many different questions.  My group had a lot of small talk at first but then were very quick at firing out political questions.  It is so interesting to see how much interest everyone seems to have here in the US election, even high school students.  

On Saturday my program took us to the city of Dresden, Germany for the day.  All of us had no idea what to expect but were pleasently surprised to find such a beautiful city when we arrived.  It was sad to find out that during WWII the entire city was bombed and 30,000 people were killed and the entire city was destroyed.  They have rebuilt the city however and it is truly beautiful there.

We spent a majority of the day just walking around and seeing what all that there was to see.  One of the most interesting parts of the day was our lunch.  We went to a very german restaurant.  I would say that I am very far from being a picky eater so my friend Cort and I decided to be adventerous and decided to try a meat dish that we were exactly sure what it was but we were ready to try it.  When it came it was to our very surprise as to what the meat consisted of.  The best way to explain it is that it seems as though they took all of the left over meat scraps that they had in the kitchen along with some vegetables as well, put it in a bowl and then added some gelatin sort of substance, put it in a pan, let it turn into a jelly substance and then serve it onto our plates cold.  The first bite of this meat was interesting, the second a little too strong, and by the third I had lost my appetite.  I would say that there are very few things that I dislike, but this truly may be the most disgusting thing which I have ever tasted in my entire life.
As we kept walking around the city we stumbled across a fair and decided that we had to go and look at it.  This is a picture of Kayla, Cort, Chelsea, and I at the fair.  We walked around and came across a ferris wheel and were debating as to weather or not we should ride.  We then saw that the ride had various different flags that were hanging up from different countries and then all of a sudden to my surprise, there was the Montana flag, flying in the breeze!  It was beyond random to see it flying there so we all took it as a sign that we had to ride it!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing homework and trying to get over this sickness (which I don't think is happening any time soon).  It is a Czech holiday next week so we have Monday and Tuesday off, then I go to class on Wednesday, and then my weekend starts Thursday until Monday, such a beautiful schedule.  Two of my friends and I leave for Barcelona and Milan on Thursday so I will update again after I get back.    I didn't realize that I had so much to say in this blog, hope you enjoyed all of it and are still reading!  Much love!

Weekend in Ireland

Kelly, Cort, Andrew and I on the coast of Ireland.

At Malahide Castle, aka my new house =)

Mommy and I at Kutna Hora
I really have not been that great and keeping this thing updated but life has been kind of crazy the past week or so.  So I will try to do a quick update which hopefully won't bore you too much and I'm going to try and put pictures into this one as well.  So here it goes....

So the picture above is of my mom and I when we went to Kutna Hora and it is taken in the St. Barbara's Cathedral.  It truly is a beautiful city and the Cathedral was amazing as well.  The beginning of last week was spent in classes and hanging out with my mom and Auntie Debbie some more.  We went to the Opera on Monday night where they played a few songs from "Carmen" with an orchestra and there were ballet dancers as well.  This is when I started to realize that I don't think that I am cultured enough for the opera and do not have a great enough appreciation.  So my goal is to work on that while I am here.

The most random part to last week came on Tuesday night when I went to my friends room just to pick up a notebook and then ended up booking a flight to Dublin which left early Thursday morning (I think that is what I am going to miss the most about being here, is being able to book a ticket to another country with that short of notice and that fast).  So I said my goodbyes to my mom and auntie Debbie on Wednesday and then jetted off to Dublin on Thursday morning.

The first day in Dublin was spent walking around the city center, O'connell square and beautiful St. Stephens Greens which is a truly beautiful park.  We called it an early night that night and got up early the next day.  We then hopped on a hop-on-hop-off tour bus and went all around the city!  We stopped at Dublin Castle and got a tour there.  After the Castle we found ourselves at beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedral and were able to walk around there.  I think my favorite part about the entire cathedral was the floor.  It has such beautiful designs and patterns and used such beautiful colors in the entire floor.  I found this to be very interesting because in quite a few older cathedrals and churches the floor is usually just a cement or grayish color so it was beautiful to see such beautiful designs on the floor.

After that we found ourselves at none other then the Guinness Storehouse where we learned more about beer then I ever cared to know!  I had no idea that the Irish were truly that excited about their beer.  We went through the seven floors of the tour (yeah, way too long) and then it ended at the top of the building at the gravity bar where we got to look out all around the city and enjoy (or at least try to enjoy) a glass of Guinness (I am really not that big of a fan of it).

We then walked around and found a little restaurant place to eat some fish and chips.  Then we made our way to a irish pub which was quite an enjoyable experience.  We found ourselves a table and were just hanging out playing cards and talking and then around 10 a true Irish band came and they played some great Irish tunes!  That may have been one of my favorite parts about the entire trip was to hear some true Irish music at the pub.

The next day we decided to venture out to Malahide Castle on the coast.  We got a tour of the castle there and it was quite beautiful.  We then made our way to the irish coast where it was truly beautiful!  It was so great to just walk around on the sand and look out over the ocean.  Really, you can just never go wrong with being on the beach no matter where it may be.  That night we went back into town and found some more fun Irish pubs and then left at 4 in the morning to catch our plane.  While Dublin may have emptied my wallets quite a bit (it was a VERY expensive city) it was truly worth it to go and see everything that is there.  

Ok, so there is a kind of long updated on my life.  Sorry the pictures didn't work out so well but my computer is having a hard time uploading them and then they are formating weird, but I will figure that out soon.  Much love and more updates soon!

Mám Råda Praha!

I have not been very good with keeping this updated but this past week has been jam packed!  Last Saturday three friends and I went to a very well known cafe here called "Louvre" which is after the Louvre in Paris but it is pronounced here with the 'r' here.  They have some of the most amazing desserts though!  So we had a nice evening with desserts, tea, and coffee and then just walked around the town.

I finally started my real classes on Monday and so far they are interesting.  I am taking Psychology of Nutrition which may be my hardest and possibly most frustrating class.  My professor is Czech and I understand her english and everything but I, along with the rest of the class, have no idea what she is talking about half the time.  She is very hard to follow which makes the class fairly difficult.  My next class is Art and Architecture which I think will be amazing.  We went on a field trip to an old nunnery and church and saw how it was built and then looked at the art inside.  After that I have Globilization which I think will be very interesting to take from a Czech perspective.  My last class is the psychology of partnership in the time of transition, quite the name right?  It is all about what people and couples go through in break ups and other various times in their lives.  Our teacher is supposedly very famous too.  I guess that he is quite often on the Czech version of CNN or one of those big news corporations giving his insight on various things in the news.

I have also been busy with two very wonderful women to entertain.  My mom flew in on Monday and my Auntie Debbie flew in on Tuesday and we have been having a great time so far.  We have been exploring the city and I have been showing them different areas and have of course been enjoying the food here.  Yesterday we took a bus to a small town called Kutna Hora where we saw a beautiful church with amazing Gothic architecture.  There was also this small church which used bones from Plague victims hundreds of years ago and did some interesting, I don't know if the right word is artwork, with it.  It was quite a wonderful after that we had.  More updates soon!