Prague 12/7

Today was the last full day of our trip! We decided to start the day by heading up to the castle. 

Walking there was harder than it seemed because there weren't any roads straight there and lots of little ones that went every which way with quite a few dead ends. Along the way we saw some very pretty views and the town is precious. On the side of the river where we were staying it felt much more like a city, but on this side going up the hill it was much more of a cute little town.

We also found a jewelry store that we went in selling mostly garnet, the famous stone from here. After looking a while Laura picked out some pretty earrings for her mom. Farther along the hike up the hill we passed a little shop with polish pottery that was all hand painted and finished in a little town just outside of Prague. Then we got to the castle. It is always entertaining to see the outfits of the royal guards in different places because they are quite different than normal clothes in many countries.

Inside there was a giant gothic baroque cathedral and also an older romanesque style church. But were very impressive. Inside the cathedral there was a statue on top of a tomb that they say has a ton of silver in it. It was very large and long with a lot of stained glass. The older church was made of stone and most of the paintings on the curved ceilings had faded except for a small room off to the side.

Our tickets also got us into 2 of the palaces. The first one we went in had a very large hall with big windows looking out over the city. There used to be jousts in the hall, and it was where they elected the ruler up until recently. The doors to enter are also large enough for a man on horseback. The palace was an entire area enclosed by walls with castles, palaces and many other buildings for people to live and work in. My favorite part of the whole thing was the view from the part at the end. It took 3 pictures to get the main idea of the panorama, but the city is absolutely beautiful.

We took the tram back down the hill instead of taking our chances slipping on ice or getting lost on the way back. We were dropped off a ways from our hotel not knowing before where the tram would take us exactly so got to explore more of the city on our way back. It is a lot of fun and I always really enjoy exploring cities walking through the streets not knowing what I'll see. Midday called for another rest at the hotel. With it being so close, and so cold during the day with freezing feet, it made sense to go back and warm up.

Following that short break we headed back out before it started to get cold and dark again. We headed in the direction we hadn't gone before where we had seen a big building that was lit up as an advent calendar. They were big indoor shopping malls (and warm) so we wandered around and explored that for a while.

In the central market we had seen lots of little booths with different types of food that we hadn't seen before so we decided to head there for dinner. We shared a dish that had a combination of potatoes, their type of sausage, sauerkraut and some other things that I don't know to give it more flavor and substance along with a plate of little potato pancake type things that were cooked/fried in muffin tins. All very yummy.

Then Prague is also known for its beer so we had to try that before we left. Next to our hotel there was a pub called the Prague Beer Museum. On each table and the counters they had very thick books that had on each page a different type of beer and descriptions of it. I really know nothing about beer, so we decided to do a sampler to getter smaller amounts of different kinds. Lauren picked two flavors and then we let the waitress pick the other three getting a combination of dark and light beers with more light. I think I like the light beer more but after getting past the first few sips of each I enjoyed the rest of them.

That was a lot of fun just hanging out and enjoying our beers then we headed back out to one of the malls we went earlier for Laura to buy some fancy chocolates for one of her friends at home because it was the last chance for us to go out and buy things before we left. 

The next morning we just woke up, ate, got ready and headed to the airport to go back to Madrid! My last trip outside of Madrid and we have only a few days left there! I've enjoyed my time so much here in Europe but I'm also excited and looking forward to going home just in time for Christmas and the holidays to get to spend a lot of time with my family and then going out to see River in Fargo and New York after.

Prague 12/6

Today was our first of 2 full days in Prague! We started off with breakfast included with the room at the hotel and then headed into town. On the train over I had read through the Prague part of the guide book and we compared our recommendations from different people so we were able to plan what we wanted to do for the different days.

We first headed to the central square. It was a lot closer and a little smaller than I was expecting. But then again I have been traveling around to large cities throughout all of Europe. There we found... yet another Christmas market. We didn't stop there then, because we had read about a street with lots of crafts and shops that gets crowded later in the day so we headed in that direction. 

In the center square there is a famous astrological shop that tells different astrological things along with the time and there is a little march of apostles at the top of each hour. We saw it later in the day and it was very cute. Following the chimes of the hour there is also a trumpet player that plays a little song at the tower.

Then we headed to the street right off of the main square. I was expecting more of hand made crafts and interesting traditional things like that, but it was mostly tourist stuff. The majority of the stores were cheesy tourist things. There were some crystal stores too that were very pretty but very expensive. Laura said that someone had told her that crystal is very famous from here too. Another Christmas market was along the side of there but was mostly touristy stuff. Laura did buy a typical Czech hat from the market there that she regretted later but hopefully with think of as a joke after a while.

From there we came to another street that was a lot larger and had a lot of the major clothing shops on it. We went in H&M for a while looking for a coat for Laura but ended up leaving without anything. At the end of the street there was a magnificent building that I later found out was a National Museum. 

We grabbed lunch of kielbasas off of a stand that felt like very typical food from there. Then they also had these dessert things everywhere. They were made of dough that was rolled out into a line, then wrapped into a cylinder around a think wood rod then cooked over coals and rolled in sugar after. They were okay, but the ones we had were a little over-cooked. 

Heading back we checked out the central square Christmas market which was very pretty and had lots of fun booths to look at. It has a very large decorated tree with lots of lights and a big stage next to it that we saw a children's show going on on it the following night. 

After that we headed back to the hotel and I got to skype with my grandma for her 90th birthday! I was really excited about it because it would be a surprise for her that she would really like. One of the last times we were visiting her, we told her about ipods and she was amazed by them and told her friends about the. So I thought it would be a great gift and surprise to get to talk to her from close to the other side of the world. 

After a break and relaxing we headed back out. Prague has a lot of synagogs and a famous Jewish cemetery. The cemetery is very full of tomb stones since there are layers and layers of tombs upon each other. There are about 12,000 tomb stones visible and possible 100,000 people buried there. The tomb stones aren't all straight and in rows either because the ground has settles and changed some over time. 

We also went and saw the Charles Bridge at night as we were advised by multiple people. It was magnificent and extremely beautiful. It had a big tower at the start of it, and then was a very grand stone bridge going across the river with lights and statues on both sides. It was absolutely beautiful with the lights and the snow and the city on each side. We could also see the palace on the hill next to there and that was quite a sight to see. 

After that we went out to find a typical Czech dinner. On the way we passed a store with hand made typical Czech crafts. It was a store for tourists but had a lot higher quality of good. Most of the other places had cheesy tourist trinkets but this actually had crafts. They had some hand painted eggs ornaments there that were really pretty and Laura and I each got a couple. 

We found a place for dinner that had a generally more expensive menu but they had a special on a board outside for borscht and dumplings for a discounted price so we went there. Luckily the nicer menu lead to very yummy food. My friend Katie studied abroad in Prague last semester, and she told me that pickled cheese was her favorite food from there. That was on the menu, so we tried that and it was really good! It didn't taste pickled like pickles but a yummy cheese. 

After that we headed back to the hotel after a very fun and full day. 

Vienna and Prague 12/5

After breakfast in the apartment we went took the ubon to the Shonbrunn Palace. This is a huge palace just a few stops outside of the city, and the guide book says that it rivals Versailles. We didn't go inside which would have been really nice but from the outside it was spectacular. Both in front of it and behind it it has very grand and beautiful gardens. However, they were both covered in snow and it was very very cold so we didn't go and explore them. 

In front of the palace there was another Christmas market that we explored. Except for being completely full of people, and hard to see a couple of the stands, this one was my favorite. There were many different themes and types of art in the stands. It was a good mix of hand made crafts and Christmas gifts, but not of a super high quality so that they were really expensive. There was one booth that was crowded the entire time we were there, but was full of very nice ornaments that were all hand made and seemed to be made only of natural materials and different spices. In comparison with the hand painted glass ornaments we had seen earlier these were a lot more reasonably prices and I bought a couple for gifts. 

There were also quite a few booths with really good looking food but alas none of us were hungry because we had eaten so recently. Below is a booth that has donuts that they cook right there for you and then you can pick the filling you want in it. 

After that our feet were completely freezing, so we took the train back to Sally's house, made some tea and relaxed until we had to head off to the train. I expected a larger train station because it was a train between two large cities in different countries, but it was just a platform with a vending machine. So because of that my lunch ended up consisting of a large snickers bar. We decided to go during the day so we could see some of the countryside. It was gorgeous. Not too far out of the city we were out in the countryside and everything was beautiful and pure and blanketed in white. 

It got dark while we were on our way there, but Prague was also covered in snow when we got there. I guess I get a lot more excited compared to other people in my program about the snow because for most of them from the north east they get a lot of it, but it is something very special for me. We changed our money in the station to crowns because we needed some to buy dinner and get to our hotel, but that probably wasn't the best place to do it. There they charged a 15% commission (that we found out about later) and Prague is covered with places to change money. 

It was a bit difficult for us to find the hotel. The directions were really good. Tram from next to the train station 3 stops and then take a left and on the left. Except for the fact that we walked by it twice because we were looking for a sign sticking out but it was just a labeled door. When we got in it was a very nice hotel. Our room was huge with a little kitchen area with a microwave and mini-fridge too. 3 star hotel, close to the middle of the city, and only 51 euros each for 3 nights there. Definitely a win. 

Vienna 12/4

Today was our big day in Vienna. When we got up in the morning, Sally went out to the grocery store and the bakery and came back with breakfast. She prepared for us a very typical breakfast with an egg eaten out of the shell with a little spoon, cut up veggies, multigrain rolls, thinly sliced meats, nutella, and then croissants and an apple filled pastry. 

From there we headed out to explore the city. The first place we went was to Flohmarkt which is a little flea market on Saturday mornings near her house. It had  bunch of old and antique type things that people were selling or just second hand stuff. They had a quite a few of those really old watches on chains too. From there we went to the Naschmarkt right next to his which has a lot of exotic foods and spices. Usually they give out a lot of samples to people going by, but it was crowded so they weren't doing it. 

After that we went to the main shopping street we went in a little jewelry store, and a bunch of cool clothing stores too. Some of the stores are the same as what they have in Madrid, but a lot were really different. I didn't buy anything there, but it was still fun to go and look at the clothes and styles there, which I do like a lot. 

Following that we went to St. Stevens cathedral which is the really famous church in the middle of the city. Some of the outside was covered because they were fixing it, but it was huge, amazing, and beautiful. It was really crowded and difficult to get in but worth it. It was very baroque with lots of decorations, and inside it had many paintings and large stained glass windows. It was a very long church but we could only get into the very front part of it, also adding to how tightly packed all of the people were. 

Near there we stopped into a little tea shop where one of Sally's friends works and she had worked for a bit once during the holiday season. There were many many different kinds of green, black, and fruit teas in large containers on the walls. The people working there could let you smell them or decide which kind you wanted, and then they would pour them into big fancy gold scales to weigh out a certain amount, and then they packaged them up into little cute bags. They had some christmas teas and I really liked the smell of the Wintertraum one.

After that we headed to Demel which is a famous pastry shop and chocolatier. We probably wouldn't have gone there, since Sally didn't know much about it before, but I received a mandate from my grandmother that I had to make sure to go there while I was in Vienna and have their hot chocolate with whipped cream. So we went there, got a spot at the cafe, and my grandmother treated the three of us to this treat. It was absolutely delicious. Sally hadn't heard much about the place before so was very surprised, and the three of us agreed that it was the best hot chocolate we had ever had in our lives.

After that we wandered around the city a bit more and then headed back to Sally's apartment to relax. I was going to have a surprise skype date with my grandma via my dad who was there visiting her, but we changed it to Monday, her 90th birthday, instead. The city, in all the beautiful snow, is one of the prettiest things I have seen in my entire life. Even without the snow, many of the buildings are grand and magnificent on their own. Here are a couple pictures of walk around town:

                                              

After relaxing for a while, Laura and I headed out to the opera. Vienna is famous for classical music and they have a famous and very nice opera house. All of the normal tickets we sold out both nights we were there and very expensive. However, if you go 1-2 hours before the show, the night of the show (there is a different show every night) you can buy standing room tickets for 3.50 euros- very cheap. We got, got our tickets, and then went and claimed our spot by tying our scarves to the pole. Not knowing what opera we were going to see, Laura recognized it as the Barber of Seville from the opening music, which is I guess a famous opera. It was really good and a lot of fun, even though we had to stand the whole time. Oh and one thing that was really cool was that in front of each seat (or standing spot) they had little screens where you could pick the language and it would tell you what the people were singing in your own language) 

In our free time before the opera we wandered around the different floors and explored. In my jeans and black sweater (the nicest clothes I had) I felt extremely underdressed walking around with all the rich people in their very nice clothes for going to the opera in Vienna. Everything was exquisitely decorated and felt very rich. We even walked through a ballroom and I just had to stop and picture a ball going on in the olden days and all the pretty ladies in their beautiful music dancing to a live orchestra. 

Vienna 12/3

Vienna was amazing! We couldn't see much most of the flight there, but when we broke through the clouds just before we landed the entire countryside was completely covered in snow. It was incredibly beautiful and I got very excited. 

Sally, the girl I met in Sevilla who lives in Vienna, had sent me directions on how to meet up with her at the metro near her house. It wasn't a problem at all taking the train then the ubon and then we met her and Will at the station. Will was heading up to Munich to record a CD with his band so there was space for us to stay with Sally. Everything was covered in about 4 inches of fresh snow and it was gorgeous. We headed back to her apartment, which is adorable, and then made tea and figured out what we wanted to do in our 2 days there (2 half days on each end and 1 full day). The Christmas markets there were at the top of our list. It isn't just one Christmas market, but a bunch of little ones all over the city that are each a little bit different.

Sally took us to her favorite ones our first night there. The first place we went we were able to walk to, and it was very cute. In the winter wonderland of the city, it was a circle of little booths in a plaza in front of a giant church. This was the artsiest and craftiest of all the markets we went to. It has very nice and high quality hand made gifts ranging from wood carvings, to hand painted ornaments to many other things. 

One of the things they have at all the markets is "punsch". It is a type of hot punch that comes in many different flavors and has alcohol in it. I think the majority of the flavors were different kinds or combinations of fruit. We went to three Christmas markets, and at each one got a mug of punsch. It not only warms you up being a hot liquid in your hands and while drinking it, but the bit of alcohol it has in it helps keep people warm there too because it is really cold. The first type of punsch I got was apple-pear (Sally had to translate everything for us) which was really good like hot apple cider, then at the next Christmas market we all tried hot coco punsch which was also incredibly delicious and tasted like Christmas, and then the last one I got was eggnog punsch which had a very strong flavor of grenadine with a little eggnog flavoring on top of the whipped cream. Another cool thing about the punsch was that it came in cute little christmas mugs. You had to pay a deposit on the mugs that you got back when you returned the mug but it made it so you could walk around the market with it. There can also be good cheap souvenirs for some people too. 

The next Christmas Market that we went to was the one in front of the Town Hall. The town hall building is huge and magnificent. The market there is probably also one of the larger and more popular ones. There were a couple tour busses there even. Sally told us that people who live outside of the city will take busses in to go to the markets too. These weren't the high levels of individual craftsmanship booths like we had seen before, but each one had its own little theme or type of goods it had there. It was so incredible to be walking around in such a beautiful place filled with so much Christmas spirit. 

One of the things that was absolutely adorable there was what they had inside the City Hall. In there there were many different areas for kids to make their own Christmas presents. There were different little enclosures for painting a cover for a photo album, or making cookies, or different types of arts and crafts things. It was very much something where the kids went in (after their parents paid a little bit of money) and they got to make something completely on their own having everything they need all around them. It seemed like such a great thing and the kids all looked like they were having tons of fun.

We went and explored yet another Christmas market after that and then went out to dinner. Sally took us to a brewery where they make all their own beers and have really good and authentic Viennese food. I got a small mug of their light beer and it was quite good, along with Viennese schnitzel that came with potato salad. Both were delicious. Two of Sally's friends met up with us there and then after that all of us headed back to Sally's apartment. 

Sally made a round of her special cocktail for all of us and we all just hung out there and it was a lot of fun. Another one of her friends came later to hang out too. Around midnight Sally and her three friends all went out to a club to go dancing, but Laura and I just went to bed since we were so exhausted from such a long day having to get up at about 5:30 am this morning to catch our flight.  

Upcoming Events

We only have one more day of classes here. It is amazing how quickly the time has flown by. Starting tomorrow (Friday) we have a 6 day break because we don't have classes on Fridays, and Monday and Wednesday are holidays so everyone just takes Tuesday off too. For this break I'm going to Vienna and Prague with Laura who I went to Paris with. I'm so excited!

However, one more day of classes also means that finals are coming up. I have a lot to do here too. In total I have 3 finals, 3 final projects, 2 presentations and one dance show. The dance show was last night (I'll write more about it later and post pictures) and we already turned in the anthropology paper, but the rest are coming up after the break. It would be really nice to have it a bit calmer at the end of the semester to be able to enjoy the last of my time here and get to do everything I've wanted to do but haven't had time for, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. At the same time I'm excited to go home and spend lots of time with my family, especially getting there just in time for the holiday season.

Past Weekends

Sorry that there haven't been many posts recently- I've just been in Madrid this whole time! The weekend after Paris I devoted to working on a project for Anthropology. It is a project with a partner and I was worried at first because my partner is a lot better at Spanish than me, but I definitely made up for it and a lot more with working really hard and doing a lot more than I needed to. That project is worth 40% of our grade in that class, the final is worth 25% and then there is also a midterm and participation but I'm not sure how heavily those weigh. 

Then this past weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) River came to visit! His birthday present (in October) from his parents was a trip out to see me and he took the red eye flight after his classes on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. Unfortunately he was feeling sick for a lot of his time here but it was still really nice to get to see him and spend time with him. We do talk on skype a lot doing video chats but it just isn't the same as in person.

Alas I still had classes while he was here and being the good student I am I went to them. We usually don't have classes on Fridays, but I had 2 different teachers who had make up classes on that day. I was thinking of not going, but River wanted to see me dance flamenco while he was here so we got up early and went to my flamenco and then art history class. Well I went to the second and he did his homework.
The class was only one class before our final performance so it was a great time for River to get to see it since it was like a dress rehearsal and he got to see all but one of the dances. And we got there early so I got him to take pictures of me spinning around in my pretty skirt.

Our big events for the long weekend were going to explore the Parque del Buen Retiro, going to the museum el Reina Sofia, and going to a soccer game.

El Parque del Buen Retiro (a giant park) is my favorite place in Madrid where I've gone running a lot and walk back through there on my way home from my internship. We stopped by the Museo de Jamon and picked up a traditional Spanish food: a bocadillo. These are sandwiches where the bread is a baguette and they can have different combinations of meats and cheeses or there are some with tortillas españolas, calamari or other types of food on them. The ones we got had ham. Then we walked to and through the park until we got to the lake where we rented a row boat and rowed around which was a lot of fun. We also had our picnic on the boat and River got to feed ducks for the first time. It was a really cold day but at least the sun was out.

While he was here we also went to the Reina Sofia which is one of the three big museums in Madrid. Well there are a lot of museums here, but one of the top three. It is the modern art museum near the park and I've walked by it many many times wanting to go in, so having River here was an excuse as good as any to go. We didn't spend a ton of time there, but it was still really interesting. The most famous piece of art there is Guernica by Picasso and there was also a bunch of other Picasso and Dali along with many other famous painters. The temporary exhibit was also quite random but a lot of fun.

Then our other big event was going to a soccer game for the Atletica de Madrid which is one of the three teams in Madrid. The most famous is Real Madrid and I don't know much about the other one. Atletica de Madrid usually looses, but their stadium is really close to where I live and they are the team my host family roots for. It is really cool when there is a game going on because all the streets are lined with parked cars (lines of cars parked in the middle of the street too) and the bars of full of people there to watch the game and running by the stadium during a game is always really cool too.

I'm really glad that I finally got to go to a soccer game here- it feels very European and is a lot different than in the States because people care a lot more about it here and get a lot more into it. The stadiums are also a lot larger with a lot more people. In the entire section behind the goal at the other end from where we were sitting, everyone there was standing for the entire game singing songs and doing cheers. A few had giant flags and hearing them the whole time was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the game itself too. I think having played soccer a lot in the past helped too with understanding everything that was going on and what they were doing.

The crowd was quite enjoyable to watch too. I've never heard so much swearing, in English or Spanish, in my life. Whenever the ref made a call or if someone was pretending to be hurt, which happened a lot, people would be yelling. There was a little tiny group of about 15 people there rooting for the other team located in a section completely empty except for them in the middle. Whenever the other team scored, which happened three times, everyone would be sitting except for them who were yelling, jumping, and waving flags.

Then one more big difference- the food. In the US they check your bags to make sure that you don't bring any food in, but here, at halftime, pretty much everyone in the stadium pulled out their bocadillo wrapped in aluminum foil and started eating it. It was very comical for us and I think we might have been some of the only people there without a shiny sandwich, since we went out for tapas right before.

They ended up loosing 3-2, but each time they scored the entire stadium would be up on their feet yelling and cheering. One of the goals took 3 tries with the goalie or someone else blocking it twice and them finally getting it in. It was such a fun and good experience to get to do while I was here. Oh and one thing that I'm extremely thankful for in the US is that people aren't allowed to smoke in stadiums, it really makes the experience so much better.

Having River come to visit was so wonderful and I'm so glad that he was able to be here.