SOOOOOOOO

again sorry about the lack of posting.

Final papers and projects and all that jazz are due this week, besides the fact that we're all cramming in time with each others and the adventures in the city :)

So CESKY KRUMLOV HIGHLIGHTS

we left early friday morning (6/11)

took a bus the way there

stopped by the Hluboka Castle, which was the Schwarzenbergs

Then stopped by the Budweiser Budvar Brewery (it can be found in the USA as Czechvar)

We made it to Cesky by early evening and settled in to the Krumlov House, which was absolutely precious.

We sat around, recooping for a while, while Jon and Cameron entertained us with their musical talents.

We went dinner at a medieval restaurant, which was really interesting and delicious.

The World Cup had just started so we headed to the Gorilla Bar to catch the Uruguay v. France game.

After hanging out by the river for a while and Molly's Cappy juice floating away, we called it a night.

We woke up pretty early the next morning to check out the rafting situation.

They told us to be ready in an hour, so we ate breakfast and hit the river. We rafted down the Vltava, which was pretty magical, considering we floated past castles.

We rafted for almost 7 hours, which was full of weird people talking to us, getting attack with water by old people, and the boys spinning in circles. We crashed for a little bit after getting back and then split up for din din.

Molly, Will, and I went to this vegetarian restaurant, which was top notch. We had a ballin' conversation about music for a good while before we headed to the local sports bar to catch up on the World Cup action.

After watching the England vs USA match, we headed to the castle to czech it out. It was a gorgeous night and we had a blast just wandering around the quaint town of Cesky Krumlov. We toured an awesome Baroque Theater on Sunday morning, got Italian for lunch (big surprise), and headed back to Praha.

Relatively normal school week...

Included more World Cup watching

We went to this thing called Svetluska, which is a coffee shop in complete darkness. It's supposed to demonstrate how it would feel to be blind. It's a little exhibition going on and it was awesome!

PRAGUE PURSUIT!!!

This past Wednesday I helped Sara and Molly with a scavenger hunt for their education class. We didnt win, but it was a blast. We wandered ALL around the city and saw SOOOOO much!

Favorite part was the gelato man at Angelato's :) We had to ask him for a secret envelope and he made us beg for it and then rewarded us with massive amounts of gelato.

FORREST GOT HERE ON THURSDAY!!! He surprised me at the pension! I didnt know when he would be available and he just showed up after my class! It was awesome!

FRIDAY=BERLINNNNNN!!!!!

Berlin was a blast! We left Friday at 8:30 and took our 5 hr train ride! I got a lot of work done, which was super exciting! We got a tour of Humboldt University from Dr. Patterson, who did his sabbatical there. Their library was ENORMOUS and beautiful! [and free to every "Berliner"]

We watched bits of the Deutschland game, which was awesome since we were there, even though they lost. On our way back to the S- Bahn from the university, we joined some people swing dancing by the river, which was an absolute blast and believe it or not, Koki was a baller dancer.

Before we called it a night, we saw the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby. Bee and I hung out with Jay, Justin, and Koki before hittin the sack.

We woke up relatively early and had an AMAZINGGGGG breakfast of scrambled eggs, coffee, and MYSLI and yogurt!!

We took a BIKE TOUR around the city!!!

It was a blast! I was so impressed that no one died, even though there were some close calls. We stopped at the Beer Garden for lunch and got to catch up on our World Cup addiction. We saw a lot of must see spots like Check Point Charlie, the Reichstag, the Jewish memorial, Bellevue, the rubble of the SS headquarters, and the spot where Hitler's underground bunker was.

It was kind of surreal. When learning about something as horrific as the Holocaust, it's somewhat difficult to imagine, first of all. But then it was weird being in the very spot where these things happened. Berlin is so modern (since a lot of it was destroyed in WWII) and it's so hard to picture everything happening there.

My favorite part of the tour though was biking through the Tiergarten. It was straight out of a movie. It's a gorgeous part of the city, a park that is green everywhere. It's a awesome change for the cement and steel of the city.

Jay, Amanda, Shelly, Molly and I grabbed some awesome buy 1 get 1 free (which we didnt know at the time, but it was happy hour) sushi for dinner!

Then we all went out for Danielle's 20th birthday!

Sunday, we went back to the Jewish memorial. The museum at this memorial was one of the most well done exhibits I have ever experienced.

Sometimes it's difficult to connect to the stories of these people, but there were excerpts of letters that were heartbreaking and so real.

I learned so much!

After the museum, we headed to the portion of the wall that still remains. It's awesome to see what people had written and what still exists. My favorite thing I saw on the wall was:" Dear Astrid, maybe someday we will be together." This kind of just made the wall more of a way to learn about the people who were there.

We also looked at the ruins of the SS headquarters.

Before heading back to the train, we picked up some Subway, which was on point.

Monday:Toured Communism Museum with Dr. G's class

Today: 2nd to last classes with Helga and Bob, ate too much gelato, went shopping with Forrest and Molly, watched World Cup in Old Town Square, cooked another successful family dinner...

WOW. so that was a lot :) and i left out a ton :/

the traveling adventure starts sunday

i'm sad to leave prague, but stoked for the adventure of a lifetime!!