Day 10- Today: Catch up time

Mom and Dad I am alive. I just haven't blogged because I've been lazy or busy, one of the two. Soooo time to catch you up if you haven't been following my instagraming. On May 29 it looked like there was definitely some rain potential as Valerie and I headed to the Louvre. Okay, that museum is ridiculous. We got these audio guides, which are Nintendo 3Ds, and they also have GPS so you can figure out where you are in the museum. Yeah, had no clue where I was in the museum. I ended up seeing more sculptures and more epic ceilings. Oh, I of course saw the Mona Lisa and all those other important pieces of art. Honestly, they are mostly overrated, because there were WAY better pieces in there I had never seen before. We hung out at the Louvre for about 5ish hours and then ran into a random church called St. Germains. It was a reallllyyy pretty church and someone from the choir was singing so it was really nice. Then we ran and got beverages for Matt's apartment as he was making a delicious meal that night. He made an honest to goodness delicious three course meal. Cockles for entrée, duck with some amazing sauce and mushrooms and bacon, and crepes with homemade caramel sauce and nutella (not homemade). So all six of us chowed down--Weston's dad flew in the night before--and had some fantastic conversation in-between dish shifts. Finally around 11pm we headed out to the Eiffel Tower  and at midnight watched it light up! It was soooo cool and probably one of my favorite days in my trip.

The next morning Valerie played housekeeper and cleaned almost all of Matt's apartment (I was asleep) before we headed out to Notre Dame yet again, as we wanted to view Paris from the towers. Ohmyheavens. It was AH-mazing. The view was absolutely stunning despite it being absolutely freezing. We also went to the crypt of Notre Dame and learned some history about 5th century France. (Spoiler alert: it wasn't super exciting) Then we came back to the apartment where we hung out for an hour before giving Matt his keys back. We then took the RER B to Charles de Gaulle, which I think is tied with Madrid as one of my least favorite airports, however their food is delicious so it makes up for something. After taking a bus for 10 minutes to get to our terminal and FINALLY figuring out where to get our tickets, we made it to our gate with an hour to spare. But AirFrance Flight 5182 was delayed. Hooray. I didn't care as long as I got back to Prague which is as close to home as it's gotten for me on this trip. Kaja and Alan picked us up and we headed out around 8:30a the next day to explore the city.

The day is May 31st on a day very much like today. (jk, this isn't the Twilight Zone, but it was seriously raining like today). I took Valerie to Vasclav Namesti (Wenceslas Square) , Republic Square, Old Town Prague, Lesser Prague, the Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. I took some illegal castle pictures, but oh well. It was mostly of stuff outside the castle, just saying. Did some souvenir shopping and saw the nighttime Prague. But I needed to sleep since our bus to Budapest left at 7a  the next morning.

June 1: Woke up at like 5:15a after not getting a lot of sleep. I was super paranoid I'd sleep through my alarm and miss the bus, because that would be just my luck. Luckily I slept on the bus, which was actually really nice. I had my own personal TV, so I watched The Big Bang Theory Season 3, New Year's Eve, and part of Catch Me If You Can. We found our apartment all right and it's actually quite nice considering we'll only be here for a little bit. I however was tired and hungry so I'm acting like Mr. Grumpy Gills and dragging poor Valerie around looking for the exchange place and a reasonably priced restaurant. I finallllyyy ate and was a little bit happier but then we had to find the market, which we walked by and luckily Val was paying attention. But now I'm tired so you get some pictures and I may or may not blog the rest of the trip... who knowwwwsss.. Love you!!!

The Mona Lisa is watching you.

Gargoyles. Ain't they cute?

Notre Dame and the little park after some rain.

Prague from the clock tower. (Oroloj)

Day 5- Kutná Hora

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was planning on it but I ended up Skyping with my brother so blame him. Yesterday, I went to Kutná Hora, about an hour and half drive from Prague. I was really excited
to see the bone church (The Sedlec Ossuary) but Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady ended up being
my favorite part of the three stop trip. I feel like no one wants to go there because everyone talks up the
Church of St. Barbora (Barbara) or The Sedlec Ossuary. No one was inside the cathedral and it was
pretty awesome climbing up into the attic and seeing the cathedral from a different vantage point. Parts
of it were original from the 14th century but a good chunk of it is original from the 1700s and then what
was redone again later in the mid 2000s. The Sedlec Ossuary is made of the bones from 40,000 people
that died during the plague. It's actually pretty cool and not really creepy. Other places were more eerie
than that.


The Sedlec Ossuary: Made with bones from about
40,000 people.



The ceiling at Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady.
Just wait until all of my photos of this place are up. It's
just stunning.

 

We then drove over to the Church of St. Barbara. This church was so beautiful. The architecture of the
building is phenomenal. There are painted windows, not actually pieces of colored glass glued together,
but are still just as beautiful. The pulpit is handcrafted out of wood and there is a beautiful altar as well.
There are several chapels within the church, devoted to various saints. This is yet again another 14th
century building. (Seriously, these buildings are amazing). We tried going to the Church of St. James
but it was closed. We did manage to visit the Stone Fountain as well as the Plague Column in the center
of the city. It was an amazing day and probably ties with Karljsten Castle as one of my favorite parts of
the trip.

Day 1- 19 Hours of Travel

Nineteen hours of travel later I'm in Prague, Czech Republic!! I woke up at 5a (PST) and took out of LAX by 9a. Flew to Miami (I got to see the Everglades for the first time!!!) and from Miami to Madrid. Now first off, to all those people on the transatlantic flight, if you didn't get up to stretch in those eight hours, I don't know how you do it. I got served breakfast twice within 18 hours and my body was very confused as to what  I should be enjoying. In Madrid I had an hour and a half to catch my LAST and final leg of my travel day. Now for you to truly feel my pain, google Madrid-Barajas airport layout and follow me. I had to take a five minute train ride from terminal 4S to 4. I had to get to gate K90. So after my little train ride I had to go through security...again. This is where my passport was stamped and thank GOD I understand Spanish because no one was helping me out in English. All the signs are in Spanish and NEVER have I had to say, "Tu hablas engles?" Yeah, no one in Spain does. I'm FINALLY at gate K52. Where on this planet is K90?! So one guy knew a little English and directed me towards the COMPLETE opposite end of the terminal. It was so far down the terminal there weren't even signs for it yet. I make it to K90 with 20 minutes to spare hop on Iberia Flight 3148 and land in Prague at 1:15pm (their time).

I was ready to seize the day. Kaja took me to get this photo:

I love how laid back this place is. I'm currently exhausted which is why this is not a very coherent blog post but tada!! You all got one and all the links are in Czech, so I'm feeling quite proud of myself :) Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!!!