Dresden, Germany

"Sprechen Sie Englisch?"

So Kelly and I left last Saturday morning for Dresden. Our train left Holešovice nádraží at 10:40 but the engine had mechanical problems so we didn't arrive in Dresden until 3pm or so. We sat in a compartment with a nice German man named Stefan who was very talkative the whole way there. We stayed at the Kangaroo hostel, an Australian themed place right near the train station which was very funky. Kelly and I were really hungry so after check in, we walked to a restaurant recommended by her Let's Go guidebook called Planwirtschaff, which specializes in locally grown foods. It was all very delicious, especially the potatoes au gratin. After dinner, we walked around Neustadt (New Town) which has a very young, alternative atmosphere. Unfortunately, many people were out of town for Carnival so the streets were pretty empty. But we had fun walking around the shops, discovering Leibniz cookies (yummy cookies dipped in chocolate), checking out all the crazy graffiti in New Town. I don't think it's illegal there. We actually saw some people with paint and spray cans decorating a wall. We also got some delicious apples at a local market. Kelly took German in high school, so that was very helpful in getting around and reading signs and things.

After walking around a bit, we went back to the hostel. We were both very tired and almost fell asleep! But we said, "No! We must go out!" and picked ourselves back up. First we went to the chocolate bar and had delicious chocolate cake and coffee. Then we wandered a bit and found a jazz club that had been recommended to us called the Blue Note. I ordered a hefeweizen, and thought of Grandma! We listened to a guy with a guitar called evilmrsod, and he was pretty good. The crowd was very quiet, which was probably frustrating for him. On the way home, we got french fries to go (we called them "pommes frittes go home") and made it a fairly early night, especially for Europe, which was around 1am.

We woke up on Sunday, checked out of our hostel, stored our luggage, and made our way to Old Town (Auldstadt). We crossed a beautiful bridge (though not as beautiful as Charles) and we greeted with large looming churches and old baroque buildings. There is a lot of interesting historical architecture in Dresden. A lot of the churches are black in color because of the WWII bombing that occurred. I really loved one wall, covered in a mosaic, called Fürstenzug or the Procession of the Dukes. We also saw the Frauenkirche, a beautiful church that kind of looks like a cake that has been very recently restored. We ate lunch at Cafe Aha, which specializes in organic and vegetarian food. Kelly has been very sweet about finding vegetarian places for me to eat. We both ordered potato soup. which came in two massive bowls that we didn't think we would finish, but we did because it was so delicious.

We hiked back to the hostel, got our bags, and headed for the train station. The train ride home was pretty uneventful. It was fairly foggy so it was harder to see the sandstone mountains or the Santa's Village-like German towns that line the river that we saw on our way.

Yay Dresden! More pictures to come soon...

It's Sunday in Prague! Time has flown by quickly, I didn't realize it's been over a week since my last real blog. I'm sitting on my bed listening to music and eating my new favorite treat, nutella and pretzels. I've been lazy today because I went to my first discoteque last night and came home at 5am! The dancing at clubs doesn't get going until 2am or so. The place we went is called Termix and me and my neighbor danced all night long to Abba, Justin, and the Grease medley.

So last week I began class at the Anglo-American University, which everyone has deemed to be Prague's community college. My schedule is as follows:

Tuesday
9:30-11:15am Czech 101
2:45-6:00pm European Film Seminar
Wednesday
9:30-11:15am Czech 101
11:30am-2:15pm Gender Equality in Europe
Thursday
11:30am-2:15pm Prague Art and Architecture

I'll write more about my classes once we get deeper into the subjects. The first week was mostly intro info.

Tuesday, Feb. 10 was a very rainy day but I still wanted to walk home from school. I walked across Charles Bridge, along the Valta River, and I stopped at an English bookstore called The Globe to get some tea for the chilly walk home. Wednesday was a snowy day. All most all of the kids are from Wisconsin or other snow cities so I was made fun of a bit for my fascination with the snow. It's just so pretty! I thought that a cold snowy day would be good for a look at the Old Jewish Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter, which is north of Old Town Square. As about.com states, "The Old Jewish Cemetery was created in the 15th century when Jews were forbidden to bury their dead outside their own district. Space was scarce, so bodies were buried on top of each other in an estimated 12 layers. Over the centuries, lopsided tombstones formed unruly, poetic groupings." and Rick Steves says that there are over 9,000 gravestones there. It was very serene inside the cemetery. I took this picture real quick, because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to or not.

Later Wednesday night, I went back to The Globe with some of my roommates for snacks and drinks and I had delicious spinach artichoke dip. Then me and my room roommate Kelly went to a bar called U Sudo, which looks like a normal bar from the outside, but actually is made up of descending cavern-like rooms that go underground. We drank pivos and discussed travel plans, and we were surrounded by young Czechs who kept breaking into song. The whole bar seemed to be singing at one point. I can't wait to learn the words! On the way home, we got fried cheese sandwiches, called smažený sýr, which tasted absolutely delicious after a few Pilsners.

Yesterday I made a successful trek to LaundryLand to do a couple loads of laundry. I was nervous because I had read online that the people that work there can be mean to Americans, but the lady that worked at the one I went to was perfectly nice. She was even kind enough to tell me that my Czech bottle of soap was in fact not soap, but fabric softener.

I'm off to a show! I'll write more soon. <3

Prague Pictures!

Finally!

First Week in Prague

Skype World rocks my socks

I signed up for a Skype World account, which gives me 3 months of voicemail service and an online number that you can call from any phone for local rates (as long as you're in southern california). My skype account number is (714) 881-3383. From what I understand, it's local rates for all you 714's and 949's or it probably just uses your minutes. Even if I'm not online, leave me a message!

Another handy tip for calling internationally is callingcard.com. All you do is call an 800 # from your cell phone and from there it connects you to international calls but you only use domestic minutes.

So call me! I would love to hear from you! and I'm only 9 hours ahead :)

the communist elevator

I forgot to talk about the crazy elevator we saw in a nearby apartment! I did a little research and found out it's called a paternoster. I won't even describe it, just check out this video of one I found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXR0_mJnO-U

Tours and such...

So the first blog is actually from Thursday, but I forgot to publish it. This is a the real Friday post...

Today we went on a walking tour of Prague, led by a really nice woman named Dagmar. We spent most of the day in the Mala Strana (Little Quarter) neighborhood, where the AAU is. We walked up a beautiful little street called Nerudova to Prague castle, which is huge. From the front of the castle you can see all of Prague, which is absolutely picturesque, even with the cold and foggy day we had today. We witnessed the changing of the guards and people took pictures with them as they stood stock still. Inside the castle is the gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, which took 1,000 years to build. It was one of the most awesome structures I've ever seen. The ceiling is incredibly high and the stained glass is so intricate and beautiful. I also loved the gargoyles hanging off the outside.

We walked across Charles Bridge to Old Town Square. The famous astronomical is here, and every hour little doors open on the side of the tower and you can see the 12 apostles float by. There is a skeleton (that I love) near the clock that holds a bell and an hour glass to remind us of how valuable our time on earth is. Or time in Prague, in my case :)

I was by myself after the tour so I just wandered the streets. I actually feel very safe being alone in the city, even at night. The language barrier makes it difficult to get around sometimes, so I'm looking forward to beginning Czech class on Tuesday. Apparently Czech is the 3rd hardest language to learn? Anyway, I wandered to the Palladium mall, which is very fancy. It's like an American mall, but newer and nicer. They have some American stores. I only stayed long enough to buy a new scarf and get warm, because it was very cold today and then I got on the metro, which is very fast and efficient. You have to be careful of the escalators though because they move really quickly! Once I was back in my neighborhood, I braved Tesco again to buy toilet paper and a big fluffy towel because the towels provided are pretty small and scratchy.

There's a grad student named Matt who lives down the hall from us who has been living in Prague since September. He's been very helpful teaching us Czech words and giving us advice. He took me and my roommate Kelly to a delicious dessert restaurant called Mus... something. Amanda, you will love it. And then he introduced us to Billa, a great little market that is much more manageable than Tesco.

We're getting ready to go to a book bar!! I'll write more soon :)

In Prague!

So I made it to Prague, after a 10 1/2 hour flight from LA to Heathrow and a mad dash to the next gate to go to Prague. The Brits saw a very sweaty Sammi...

The city is gorgeous. I walked around for the first time this afternoon. First was the orientation at school (Anglo-American University) which was good. For some reason I was the only one to think to bring paper and pens... We learned a little about Czech culture and took a tour of the school. It's very old, everything's very old. The school is located in Mala Strana very close to the east side of Charles Bridge. The streets are all cobblestoned and twisty. I walked across the bridge today, and it was beautiful. If you stand on the bridge and look north, you can see Prague Castle, which is supposedly one, if not the, biggest castles in Europe. It is very beautiful, especially when it is lit up at night.

The food is really cheap! I haven't had much traditional cuisine yet, but I have had the beer and it's great. They don't serve it quite as cold in the states, so I'm getting used to that. I bought some groceries today at the Prague supermarket, called Tesco. That was quite an experience. Tesco is a huge store that is kind of like a super Target. It was very crowded when I went and all the signs are in Czech of course so I had a time maneuvering around.

I'll write more soon!