Back home and happy

After 12 hours on a plane from Frankfurt and a couple more stamps in my passport, I finally made it back to San Francisco where my parents and my boyfriend were waiting for me.

It was sad to say goodbye to all the people I met there, but I think we will see each other again. Now all that is left is getting over jet lag and the reverse culture shock to come.

California was much like I remembered it, but some things still surprised me. Here's some of the more entertaining observations:

-In Millbrae, where our hotel was near the aiport in SF, we were driving around and I look out the window astonished. "All the buildings are so short!"

-Not having language as a barrier means you can hear everyone's asinine conversations in restaurants because people here are loud.

-Free water and refillable soda in restaurants! Yay! Although now I don't drink nearly as much soda with dinner ... where's my cheap Czech beer? :(

-Wal-Mart. Maybe you hate it, but I missed it. Sure, it's like Tesco in Prague, but here I can read all the labels and I actually recognize some of the products.

-Grocery stores where I can find the ingredients I need without consulting a dictionary!

-Lack of transportation: I was thinking this morning about taking a bus to see my brother. I don't think there is a bus that goes to Anderson. With gas at $4 a gallon I'll wait until he comes to Chico soon, but I will definitely miss the thorough public transportation system of Europe.

-Along the same line, I miss the trams. How am I supposed to get around? DRIVE? No wonder we produce so much pollution and use up so many resources. It's hard to not drive places.

Having a blast in Torino

Gionni, Sam and I at a statue in Torino.

Aside from brining back a cold, I had a great time in Torino. I met a friend of mine there from The Orion named Maegan Martins and she showed me around and let me crash at her place (even though I accidentally stole all the bed the first night). Here are the pictures from the trip, and also my YouTube video of London is up.

Torino isn't touristy at all (except for other Italians) and lacked all the touristy crap that you can find in Prague. It was nice to be in a place where no one spoke English because even I now know some Italian. The architecture was beautiful there and the piazzas were nice. There is always a market on the weekend with clothes, food and all sorts of stuff. Walking through it was enough for me: the people were loud and joking around, calling out to each other and to potential buyers. Very different from Prague. (Picture: The last standing Roman wall in Italy.)

It seemed like everyone had a little balcony to look out of and they always had lots of plants.
Flowers, bushes, leafy ones, it was very nice to see. Most people live in apartments and hang their clothes out to dry on their porches too, so out of Maegan's window I saw lots of green and lots of underwear.

There was also an International Food Festival going on the weekend I was there (a chocolate festival happened a few weeks before I came, sad I missed it). There were stands with food from many countries in Europe, the Czech Republic being one of them. There were some U.S. booths too but they sold tacky stuff and hamburgers. Go figure, eh? It was a lot of fun! Until lots of babies started crying, then we left.

I met Maegan's Italian boyfriend, Gionni (spelling? pronounced like Johnny), as well as three other Italian friends of hers. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant and I got "Fritto Misto" which was a plate of fried fish of all types. Filipo ate my fried sardines for me, because I just couldn't do it, heh.

I ate gelato and pizza, too. It's what you do in Italy, right? I also went to a club and danced with Maegan and her roommate Samantha.
The club was crowded and hot, but even Italian men dance in groups, so it was much different than Prague or the U.S. They dance without women, although they'd like to dance with women. Maegan told me that when they dance, the men try to kiss your neck. Creepy! That was way too far outside my comfort zone (and I'm sure Robert wouldn't appreciate it), so I decided to just dance with my friends. (Picture: Maegan and Gionni with Sam in back at the International Food Market)

Loving London and missing my folks

Mom and Dad are now safe and sound in the States again. They were here for a total of about 10 days but they saw nearly everything there is to see in Prague! They didn't do many museums or anything, but they saw the city and also Český Krumlov. (Just noticed the similarity the first photo with the picture hanging above us ... weird)

They wore me out but I'm really happy they came. I sometimes feel kind of alone here because there really isn't one I relate to in a strong way. No one to get my jokes or my sense of humour, except when Robert and my parents were here. Seeing them made me miss home and it made me realize how much we care about each other. I cried when they left but I'm sure I'll cry when I get back, too.

However, this last weekend after they left I took a solo trip to London. It was so nice to be in an English-speaking country again! I understood all the signs, most of what other people were saying and people were very nice when I asked for directions. I saw all the big sites: Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Big Ben/Parliament, Speaker's Corner. Also had a beer and ate fish and chips.

I went by myself, which made some of my family nervous, but it turned out fine. I did a lot of walking and wore myself out. If I could've afforded to drink, I might have. The exchange rate killed me; I spent a lot of money without even trying.

The highlight of the weekend was probably seeing Avenue Q. It's a Broadway play that started in the States. It's supposed to be like "Sesame Street grown up" and I've seen clips of it online. It's hilarious! Even better live! My only qualm with it was the actress who played Kate/Lucy wasn't as good as others I've seen online. She didn't use the puppet to show emotion, she used her face. Bad form.

I have a video coming soon, just need to edit it and what not. Look for it!

Parents in Prague having a great time

Mom and Dad made it to European soil safely! We've had an already very exciting time here, and their week is only half over.

They've taken a tour of the town and seen the Astronomical Clock, Old Town Square and the surrounding area, Charles Bridge, Fred and Ginger buildings, the Infant Child of Prague church, a quick look at the castle and more. I also had them trek up to Vyšehrad with me to get a good view of the city. I meant to take Robert there, but we ran out of time.

I've worn both of my parents out. It's 11:30 a.m. and Mom is still sleeping. Dad's had to take a few naps and has sore feet from all the walking (especially up to Vysehrad). We plan on going to Český Krumlov tomorrow, where I've been but is worth going again for just a day.

Dad also had his wallet stolen on the metro. The car was packed and we kept falling over so Dad took his hand from his front pocket to hold on. We stepped out of the metro and he realized it was gone. We looked at the open door of the metro with people still packed inside but we knew trying to get it back would cause more trouble. So we spent an hour canceling credit cards and then we went to the police station to file a report.

The biggest loss out of this is he will have to get a new driver's license (which means a trip to the DMV, boo), lost about $200 and his Mark Martin wallet. However, he still has his passport, $200 in Czech korun and no one was hurt. He also can't get his credit cards mailed here so he won't have them.

He put it in his front pocket (after I told him to not keep his passport or wallet in his back pocket) with rubber bands around it to make it harder to get out. You can't prevent everything, I guess.

Be back soon

I'm going on a five day trip today to Budapest and Vienna among other places, so I won't be updating for a few days. I will have my phone, so if you need to call me you can do so (like if Mom needs to discuss travel plans ...).

Also, I'm very excited that my parents are coming to visit next week! It's going to be so much fun!

Have a great weekend!

Prague is better than Berlin

Update: I have posted the photos of us here.

Robert and I have been having a blast together in Prague. For a day and a half, however, we took a trip to Berlin and I have to say that I must have fallen in love with Prague more than I had imagined because as nice as Berlin was, I definitely prefer the look and feel of Prague.

It also seemed as if fate tried to tell us not to take the trip at all. We missed the first two trains to Berlin - the first we were exactly a minute late for and the second we were at the wrong train station. However, determined as we are, we hopped on the third train to Berlin and were exhausted by the time we go there. We still had more trouble coming after that, because we got off at the wrong train station in Berlin and it took us about an hour and a half to find the hostel from there.

But we made it! We stayed at the Heart of Gold hostel, which to my delight is themed off the Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. We didn't end up in one of the themed rooms but it looked spacey enough. There were jokes and puns on all reading material from the hostel. The biggest downfall is that the beds were cheap Ikea bunkbeds and sagged in the middle, making for a less-than-comfortable night's sleep. No one stayed in our six-bed room so we got it to ourselves.

The coolest part about it was the different covers of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books that were framed on the wall in different languages and from different decades. They also served Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters but we didn't have time for one. Also, Robert bought me a "DON'T PANIC" towel.

We went sight seeing the next morning after we arrived. Now, we didn't actually plan anything. We just decided to take the map the hostel gave us and go with it. We saw huge buildings that were government owned, such as Berlin's town hall and the Reichstag (pictured below), which holds their version of parliament. I mostly wanted to see the Berlin Wall, but was almost disappointed. From what I'd seen in the videos, it was the big gray wall that was broken up. Now it is covered in layers and layers of colorful graffiti, originally commissioned but now also vandalized. The power of the wall really only struck me when I got back to Prague.

By the way, Germany may be the original beer brewers but the Czechs do it better. We went to a 5-story club, Karlovy Lazne, near Charles Bridge where every floor had different kinds of music. Robert even liked the DJs that were mixing on most of the floors and he's quite the music snob. After a few drinks, we both got on the dance floor and shook what we had, which was probably amusing to those sober enough to notice :)

We made it to the top floor but not in the greatest of shape. We ended up walking all the way home because he didn't have a tram ticket, but we did get to stop by McDonald's at 4 a.m. to get burgers.

Last night we went to a drum and bass concert in Prague 8. We didn't stay for the whole show (it went on until 4 a.m. or so) but there was one very good mixer on the second floor.

To keep ourselves well-rounded, we are going to see the opera Carmen tonight. Yes, I'll even wear a dress. With heels. Brace yourself.

Green beer in Prague is delicious

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I did two things.

First, I went to a free concert in Old Town Square that had Irish dancing and also Poitin playing some Irish jigs. The weather was cold, cloudy and occasionally rainy but we made the best of it.

Lucy and I were in search of some cornbeef and cabbage, but to no avail. No one had even heard of it. Makes me wonder if it's really Irish. We went to Caffrey's Irish bar next to Old Town Square and it was too packed to even sit in, much less get food and beer.

The five of us then walked to Wenceslas Square (after I broke a painted egg at a stand and had to pay for it) to Rocky O'Reilly's bar. Everything was extraordinarily over priced and they didn't have cornbeef either. So we walked down the street to a non-Irish pub serving green beer.

Now the beer I saw at O'Reilly's had a little bit of green in the foam on top, but this bar, called Jama, had green beer. The entire thing was a dark green, perfect for St. Patty's Day. The advert promised "super prizes" for "participants" but our server had no idea what that meant. They may not have had cornbeef either, but at least we fulfilled our holiday obligation in drinking green beer (even if it wasn't Guinness).

Other than that, it is midterms week, and so I'm writing an essay and studying. Robert will be here in about a day and a half. Yay! Expect cute photos and other such things.

And I already called him, but once again: Happy Birthday Troy! You're my favorite big bro ;)