i'm really sad to have to admit this, but this entry is about my last trip while abroad. This past weekend, collin and i traversed to the Czech Republic where we met two of my best friends from college, Jessie and Marissa. Prague was pretty much amazing. Here's the first picture of Collin and me. unfortunately, we didn't fly out of ciampino, but rather out of fiumicino which was sad in itself. fiumicino is rome's real airport and is much much bigger and it was really sad not flying out of our usual little airport. so here we are waiting for our flight. it looks like i have no hair but in reality, my hair just merged with hers.


so we got to prague at like...6 or so and checked into our hostel and got korean food for dinner. the food itself wasnt too authentic but it was so good considering i havent had real asian food in forever. after, we were on a mission to find a cafe and recreate our wondrous night in sweden but of course didnt find one we liked. we stumbled upon a mall instead and met a russian girl selling all kinds of russian chocolates and sweets and things. of course, we werent in russia but i got some anyway and tried talking to her. it wasnt bad i guess. so then we went back to the hostel (which was absolutely beautiful) and had tea and waited for jess to get in from madrid. when we picked up jess, we, once again headed back to the hostel and got jess into her room after many attempts. we headed to bed fairly early so that we could get up early the next morning to do all kinds of touristy stuff.

the first thing we did was hit up a church and small square near our hostel in the new town. there's me and collin with the church.


we then walked in the general direction of the old town. here's the beginning of wenceslas square.


so we stopped on wenceslas square to get some czech food which was fab and then continued walking to the old town with no agenda. we found like 100 different christmas markets and turned on streets that we just generally thought could have some pretty stuff on it. this is jess and me on one of those random streets with a random church in the background.


so we kept walking and shopping and hit this cute little street that had a slice of pizza handing out flyers. of course collin was ridiculously amused and made us take pictures of her.


and after a short walk we hit the old town square. i have to say it was so so cute with all the christmas trees and christmas markets and things. they sold pretty much everything christmas as well as everything prague and a ridiculous amount of sausage, mulled wine, and ham. there's me and jess in the square.


thats more of the old town square.


and those are the christmas markets in the square.


more of the square.


so after walking around the square for a while we found a petting zoo! it was kind of ridiculius. there was a donkey, 2 sheep, a goat, and a shetland. there are the sheep.


and there's jess with the pony.


and so we kept walking towards the water to get a view of the prague castle and the lesser town. there's a view of the other side of the river.


and this is the beginning of the charles bridge.


so we went back towards the old town square and found the astronomical clock.


that night we went to the symphony which was absolutely beautiful though for some reason i have no pictures. we headed back to the old town square that night to see if we could get some gingerbread (which didnt end up being gingerbread nor did we get it that night). the square was so so pretty when it was lit up, but all the stands were closed.


we stumbled upon bohemia bagel as we were walking home and stopped to have bagels even though we werent hungry or anything of that nature. it was pretty delicious esp since weve been so far removed from bagels for 4 full months. after eating and chillin and running into random people we headed back to our hostel to call it a night.

the next morning we got up early to meet marissa since she arrived in town pretty late the night before. we met her at her friend's metro stop and then we started on our way for the day. the first thing we did was the charles' bridge. we wanted to see the prague castle and wanted to just walk all day so we started by crossing the river on the charles' bridge. there's a view of the lesser town and prague castle from the charles' bridge (with marissa of course).


so we climbed up the hill (which was a little ridiculous but it felt good to conquer) and hit the castle. there's the prague castle.


and there's st. vitus' cathedral.


and that's the inside.


there's one of the amazingly beautiful stained glass windows.


and that's one of the small chapels on the side.


so we found the entrance to the cathedral's tower. it was 248 steps to the top and it was all in one small spiral staircase. of course, the entrance and the exit were the same so going through the staircase was pretty intense. and of course one of the lights wasnt working so there was a whole segment of the staircase where we couldnt see ANYTHING. regardless, here is the view of prague from the top of the tower.


and here's a view of the palaces.


this is a picture of me, marissa, and jess with the spires.


so we headed back down the stairs which was quite interesting and dangerous and then went for a stroll through the complex. here's the straw nativity set that was set up next to the cathedral.


and this is the back of the cathedral.


we also were able to catch the changing of the guards.


so after that we were done with prague castle and ventured down into the new town to find a different bohemia bagel to have lunch at. which was delicious by the way. and then we headed back into the old town via the charles bridge. there's collin and me on the charles bridge with a view of the old town.


so then we headed into the old town square for just a little while before heading up to the jewish quarter. here's a picture of me, jess, and marissa outside of it.


we didn't go in because it was about to close so we went for another stroll along the river to find frank gehry's dancing building, also known as fred and ginger. here's me and collin without the building in the background but in that area.


so there's jess, me, and marissa with the building.


and so shortly after, we headed back to the hostel to chill for a while before going to meet marissa's friend caroline for dinner. here's E&Y prague...which made me really really happy.


and so we met Caroline to have some Czech beer and then Czech food. Goulash was ok, it was just not something i particulary would eat very often. after dinner we wanted to do something involving absinthe so we went to a bar to do B-52s which is layers of kahlua, baileys, and absinthe. there's my shot.


of course i managed to mess it up. i put my straw in too early and it melted (since you light the top of the shot before you take it) anyhow, this is a picture of the 4 of us at the bar.


and there are the remnants of my straw/straws.


here are some random pictures jess took and posted and thought id add here just so everyone can see.










so we returned to rome on saturday afternoon which was perfect cause jessie had finals on monday. i'm in rome for the homestretch now. sorry it took so long to post this but i had all my finals and presentations in two days so i finally now just had time to write this. i'll post our rome activities soon.