Sorry for the lapse in updates, I promised myself I would post on here for the devoted followers, Brett, My Mom, and perhaps a few others so here goes nothing! As you all would expect I have been spending all my time going to class and doing homework so I haven't been able to update for a bit, but I hope you forgive me and enjoy this anyways...







So after the Super bowl I needed to take it easy before I headed out to Vienna, we left last Friday and returned home Sunday night late. I honestly went not knowing much, but thanks to Joey, a dorm neighbor-turned-Vienna guide, we got a lot of sight seeing done nonetheless. We set out from Hostel Ruthensteiner at about 9ish am and hit the city all day long. I have several pictures of St. Stephens Cathedral in the center of town, but I was a bit disappointed with them because it is in the process of being restored so there is quite a bit of construction going on. During the tour perhaps one of the best photos I have ever been a part of was taken. Zach, trying to avoid an awkward pose because his arm wasn't around the person to his right, decided he could switch positions in time for the picture to be taken. His attempt was either brave or horribly stupid, but the picture will always give me a good laugh; it is known only as the "awkward arm". In the background is the Pestsaule Statue in Graben Square.

After seriously the longest day of walking around in bitter cold, windy weather we ventured in to Cafe Central, a bit of a touristy cafe but definitely the "Vienna Cafe/Pastry" experience. It wasn't too expensive and everyone got a coffee to wake up a bit and fight off the freezing arctic climate that I have become so accustomed to here. These cafes were home to many of the intellectuals of past times, in Jan. of 1913 the cafe was host to such names as Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Lenin (the last two being regulars). So after warming up and touring the city for a few more hours we finally metro'd back to the hostel to get ready for a taste of the nightlife.

But before going out we had to get some famous Austrian food, and a professor had recommended a certain Shnitzel restaurant that specialized in waiters who are rude, loud, and cause an overall atmosphere of anarchy. As we walked in and sat down our waiter walked up and looked at me and said "Beer?!?!" I looked up a bit suprised and nodded, and he looks around at our group of 5 and simply yells "Okay five beer!" and proceeded to walk back to the bar. Everyone kind of looked around at each other and began to laugh, but little did we know things would get more interesting. After delivering the drinks our boisterous waiter returned and a similar process was used to order the food; "Shnitzel?! ok five Shnitzel!!" But hey for 6 Euros it was a hefty meal not to mention the cheapest thing on the menu, a huge plate with two huuuuuge pieces of fried meat (it remains a mystery what exactly it was). I know my plate isn't quite empty, but I will tell you that only one of us succeeded in conquering the Shnitzel feast, and all five of the group proceeded to go straight to the hostel and fall into a 1 and 1/2 hour food coma before awakening to go out that night. We hit the town and went to a pub and club etc. and the next day we again woke before 9 to get out of the hostel at the ungodly check out time of 10am. We checked out Museum Hundertwasser, a sort of tribute to the philosophy and artwork as well as architecture of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, I recommend checking him out a little bit. He was really into bringing natural elements back into urban cities, if your a hippie, peace-lover, or even an architect looking at some new ideas, this guy is legit.

Afterward we walked over to the summer palace, yes ironically it is the middle of winter here, but there are some awesome views of the city and we tried to sneak in the tour of the building with a big group of German speaking tourists (whether they were Austrian or German, I'm not quite sure), only to be caught and turned around. We made due and headed back outside around the gardens in the back and got some good pictures of snow-covered Vienna.
After this we headed back to our bus stop to get ready for the ride home, exhausted but we all had a great trip that I doubt I will ever forget. Back in Prague this week I have just been doing school and hanging out, yesterday I checked out Petrin Hill on the west side of town. An awesome park and obviously a hill, on top there are some fortifications and also a tower that Czech architects designed after the Eiffel Tower in Paris. For a mere 50 czk you can grab one of the best views of the city around, and you also get a nice workout on your way up the hill and up the tower stairs as well.

As I'm sure you can tell, I'm gradually working on my photo-blog feng shui, but bear with me because I am no designer, let alone on an internet blog...


Before I head out tonite I want to give a few shout outs for some people who I know would appreciate these pictures.
First off, Mom, in Vienna you will be delighted to know that next to a sort of kids/teens rope course/playground there is a special playground just for dogs! Yes I know you will most likely be switching your visit from Prague to Vienna, and ditching Jessie to bring your beloved Annie and Zoe...


Also at the neighborhood grocery store, similar to super target or wal-mart I suppose, Miles Berry will be glad to hear that the 1.5L format of Pepsi is fully stocked on "Action Alley" so don't worry Miles, the Czechs have Pepsi readily available to consume in massive quantities, as long as they choose it over the beer...



Until next time! Let me know if you want me to keep lookout for something and I will take a pic and post it in here along with me making fun of you...Na Shledanou!

Charles Bridge, Lennon Wall, Wenceslas square

Yo so I planned on settling in for a nice Sunday evening, posting a bit about what's been goin down during the week but I had forgotten that Sunday meant one thing: The Super Bowl. Of course like any good American I couldn't have possible missed this awesome event so I took a nap and headed out to our 10pm reservation at "Beer Factory" to go watch the game (which started at 12:30ish?). I am going to have to start stealing pictures from people, not because I haven't been taking my own but because I can always find myself scattered through other peoples albums. Anyways the "Beer Factory" is a sort of pub/music bar where each table has it's own personal 4 tap device in the middle, and as you enjoy a few drinks there is a wall that shows how many liters of beer each table has consumed. A horrible idea for college kids to be able to go to a place like this, but ingenious marketing in my opinion: people drink more because of the competition, and you sell more beer because it is so easily accessible. So I will admit, tired and needing to rest for my class on Monday, I only made it til like 3:30am. Lame, I know, most people were sleeping at their tables or in the middle of the room screaming and cheering.
Backtracking a little bit, last week we went out to a few different places including a huge club that one of our Czech buddies happened to be playing a "punk rock" show at with his band. For the record this consists of a bunch of bands that sound like Blink-182 from years ago, but it was fun nonetheless. By "I had fun" I mean that I was on the stage and crowd surfing during the final act. Sorry the picture is a bit dark, but I think it really captures the true essence of the night...

So back to the more "touristy" things, and conveniently located right next to Beer Factory, the National Museum which is at the top of Wenceslas Square is free the first Monday of each month so we checked it out last week. In all honesty the museum wasn't incredibly impressive, however the architecture and the old statues inside and out are something to marvel at. Also as I have mentioned this building sits right at the top of Wenceslas Square, and is quite a sight especially during the night time...



Wenceslas Square might be one of my most favorite places of all time despite being a bit touristy and quite expensive in general. There is an assortment of crazy bars and clubs, good eats (including Smažený sýr: seriously google this amazing fried sandwich), and it is simply beautiful both in the day and at night time.
Onto some new stuff, if you haven't heard of Charles IV yet, pay attention cuz this dude was seriously the man. Karel IV in Czech, he was King of Bohemia, Count of Luxembourg, and not to mention the Holy Roman Emperor, not bad. He also founded the famous Charles University in Prague where I am studying, but if you have any interest in this sort of history just wikipedia this dude and you will see what I'm talking about.

Right to the right is a nice picture of the man himself, this is right at the beginning of the east side of Charles Bridge.

I attempted to get pictures of each and every statue on Charles Bridge but this proved to be quite impossible due to two major factors: 1. the group of 10 girls I was with wanted to hurry to a bagel shop on the other side of the river due to the freezing weather, 2. unfortunately there is some major construction on the south side of the bridge that is actually blocking a few of the statues. Regardless of this inconvenience, I still snapped a few pics and I must say it is one of the coolest bridges because like many of the other historical buildings it has a ton of sweet and epic statues.

After crossing over the bridge and grabbing a quick bite at Bohemia Bagel (Bagels aren't from the Czech Rep. but this place is quite popular with several locations), we headed right down the street to the famous John Lennon peace wall. Once again I'm stealing pictures from my friends, but I must say I'm a fan of candid shots especially when I'm paying attention to something else...

This shot is the main "Imagine Peace" part of the wall, which apparently is the one part that won't ever get written over etc. There is plenty of cool graffiti all over the city, but this wall is mainly for the more positive messages if you catch my drift. From left to right is Zach, Joey, and myself, I was actually rescued by them when we got to Bohemia Bagel because they were splitting with their group and I gladly invited them to my group which consisted of about 10 girls and me. Hey I'm all for hangin out with the ladies, but 10:1 is a bit of a staggering ratio for a whole afternoon.


I forget if there is an actual name for this next attraction, only a few steps from the Lennon wall it is a bridge with hundreds of locks all along the fence which you might be able to see in the background of this shot of part of the crew. It also has some smaller graffiti mainly consisting of relationship-type writing (ie. Jack + Jill with a heart around it, if you will). This is located over a think a small offshoot of the Vlatava river, but don't quote me because I'm not totally positive on that one.


So what about school you ask? Well I arrived just on time to my first class this morning at 10:30am (amazing I know), and I have to say I know nothing about the history of the Czech Republic but I'm sure that will change. After my only class of the day I had signed up to volunteer at a local middle school having conversations in English with 14/15 year olds and I will tell you it was quite amusing. For the Dunlap girls, Claire specifically, I think this is your friend's sister JoLynn who is co-teacher with myself. Basically we just switched off talking to the two different groups of Czech students in English talking about basic things (name, age, what do you like to do etc.) and some of the students actually spoke fairly well. One group, the first one I had of course, was made of of 5 15 year old girls who spent most of the conversation giggling at me and telling me their favorite movie was the new twilight series...so not too far off what Kellie would be like I'm sure! The other group was mainly guys with a few girls, but 3 out of 5 guys had ponytails and loved rock and metal music, seriously awesome. All in all its a funny group but I hope they are enjoying it like I am, and it should be interesting considering me and JoLynn have to come up with our own lesson plans...Mom, Laurie, and Meg, shoot me some ideas if you are reading this!

Overall I'm settling in nicely, I am going to a Beatles Revival band concert on Wednesday, and I'm heading to Austria this weekend to chill in Vienna for a few days. Sorry I feel like I am writing a book here, but I figure if you're feelin lazy you can just scope the pictures or look at my facebook I suppose. Anyways I'm gonna go grab some dinner but I will try to hit up a post next week.
Na Schledanou! (Goodbye!)

This shot is Charles Bridge on the right heading up to Prague Castle, seriously this view never gets old. I would say that Prague Castle in the Czech Republic is like the equivalent of the Mountains for CO, no lie.

Life, Language, Prague Castle, Kutna Hora

Hello, been a bit since I've had some time to post but I have a ton of stuff that's been going on. So I've been attempting to settle in a bit, which has been a bit of give and take. Last week was in the teens and single digits, and even below zero a few times, which of course was wonderful weather to go and walk around the city all day and night. Besides the cobblestone roads being tricky to navigate and slippery, you also have to watch out for insane drivers and dog poop because most people find that picking it up is a bit too much of a hassle. Also living in the dorms has brought back memories of freshman year, and I have to say its going to be an interesting semester with the motley crew of guys on my floor.
Tomorrow will start the second week of my language class, which hasn't been horrible but I have a feeling that I am going to start forgetting things rather quickly once the intensive class is over. Vowels are seemingly optional, and most words are impossible to pronounce including my favorite, "čtyři" (four). Also I have gone up to a few girls in pubs/clubs and tried to impress them with my Czech language skills, only to be informed that they were either from Brazil, Germany, or America, which immediately made me look like a kook.
So last week we checked out Old Town Square, of course during our adventure we encountered the "EuroKarnival" which was awesomely crazy. Here's a shot of some of the crown and the Astronomical clock tower that sits in the square.
We did a cool tour of Prague Castle on Wednesday, but I will not lie it was so freezing most of us wanted to just snap a few photos and bail. The castle is massive and the cathedral is probably the coolest part of the whole thing, here's a few shots of it from different angles but the building is absolutely massive. Like I said the tour was absolutely freezing so we bailed pretty fast after it was over, but I will definitely revisit in the spring when its nicer. Also I haven't made it to Charles bridge yet so I'll get some pics of that when I get a chance.
On a minor sidenote, I agreed to play some pickup basketball with one of the student homestay dads. In short I got dominated because I had gone to a club the night before, and also some of the guys were quite good. There was a czech kid, a slovak kid, and a russian dude who were just as good as me, and a little better considering I wasn't feeling too hot that morning, but I drained a few buckets regardless.
So back to the adventures, yesterday we had a day trip to Kutna Hora which we had to navigate to the bus station by 9am on a saturday...not a good combination I think you'll agree. So after waking up at 8:15 and half the so-called dorm crew leaving without us, me and 3 other guys set out to find the station. In the end we took an incredibly out of the way and horrible route, and we were running half the city, we made it to the station at 8:58 and all was well. There were quite a few no-shows but I'm proud to say the dorm guys were on time and ready to go. About an hour out of Prague, Kutna Hora was once the second biggest city in Czech Republic and was home of the Royal Mint (called the Italian Court, they were the best coinmakers). Here's the St. Barbara Cathedral, not quite as big as the one in Prague castle but awesome nonetheless.
There was a ton of cool paintings on the inside of the cathedral including this one which was my favorite, its Moses with a child on his shoulders. It reminds me of a giant because he's holding a tree, but it was a huge painting going up the entire wall. It's kinda hard to see, but it was a sweet painting and it was quite epic.
Like I said we visited the mint after this and saw some coins that dated back to the 12th century and all the way to the 17th century. When the Austrian empire took over they changed the name of the currency, and for the second half of the Mints existence the money was called the "Tolar" (I'm doing this by memory so if I'm a bit off don't kill me). Interestingly enough, this word somehow or another was the basis for the American "Dollar", you learn something new everyday.
Finally we went to the bone church, which was funny because half the people were disgusted and thought it was grotesque, half thought it was cool and interesting, and then there were some who were keen on touching everything, a bit gross but its only bones right? There is said to be the bones of over 40,000 people in this church, its a few hundred years old I believe but the bones were all dug up from graves that had been reused, there was a ton of cool things they made out of the bones for decoration, including this huge chandelier which supposedly has every bone in the body in it.
After this we headed back home to nap and then go out on the town once again. Prague is seriously a great city to do it all, there is a ton of nightlife and restaurants and theater and music and historical sights and tourist things to do...It seriously has it all. I will say that I was not very into "going to clubs" and so called "dancing" and singing "karaoke" before I came here, but I made my new motto "I'm not Not gonna do it" so here's a photo someone snapped of me when I was just about to slay my solo in a Backstreet Boys song... At request of my dear mother, who is always asking who I'm spending all my time with, here's a pic with about half the "dorm crew", this is in old town square and you can probably pick me out, or at least I hope you can.
Alright well I have wasted plenty of time on the computer today, and I have a ton of stuff I still need to do, so I will update a bit later when I get a chance. Wish me luck for my next week of "intensive Czech language" which will be interesting as usual. I'll leave you with a shot of Kutna Hora and one of the other churches, this is taken just a few steps away from the big Cathedral in town. Also can someone please go right now and eat a Chipotle for me? Seriously I should have brought one with me...

Alive in Prague!

So as I was leaving dear old Colorado, I had a few requests and I told some of you guys I would do a blog so you can check out whats going on while I'm abroad. I also told some of you I would have a ton of pictures and I'll try to avoid any huge essay-like posts that I'm sure you wouldn't read anyways.
So yes, I am alive here and in Prague, it's already Tuesday and I have done a week of orientation and started some intensive language classes (I'm probably going to die...). It took awhile to get the internet, but finally here I am with the first post.
Alright, home sweet home, this is the dorm building which has some other use but I have no idea what all the other Czech people in the building are doing there...Its not a bad place but the breakfast is not something to be hyped on.
Pilsner Urquell, the beer of choice for locals and students, its much better that its main competition "Budvar" (The original Budweiser you may have heard of).

Here's a quick shot of the Basilica in Vysehrad, my neighborhood and just a few minutes walk, the area is essentially what could have been the site for Prague Castle. Despite being built on a nice sized hill complete with a massive castle wall, Prague castle was built north of this area on an even bigger hill. It has some great views and statues in the parks, and it is also the home of many famous Czech graves and tombs in the Basilica courtyard.

Finally here is a shot of the Vltava River that runs through Prague along with Prague Castle in the background, the west side of town. This shot was taken on top of the castle wall that faces the river, we should be doing a tour of Prague Castle tomorrow so I'm sure I will get some great photos etc. If you go on Google Maps, you can find my address in the city: Vratislavova 10, Prague 2, if you search something like that you will be able to find it fairly quickly. Anyways I already have a Czech language quiz tomorrow and of course might be stepping out to go to the pub for a drink, but I will update when I can and I hope you enjoy! WOOoooooooo!