Month of May(hem)

What a month!

Because it has been so long, I have two full trips to upload, plus the end of our semester here in Prague!

Yes, you read that correctly. School has officially ended, and I finally have the time to sit down and finish with some posts to update on the last month, and what a crazy month it has been! In the next few posts, I will update on: our trip to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges; our trip to Zagreb (Croatia), Plitvice Lakes (Croatia), and Ljubljana (Slovenia); my parents coming in to visit; packing; and finally, a glimpse to what this weekend has in store for us. Hope you enjoy reading, because there is sure to be a lot of material in these next few posts!

I tried to post these in order, so read the bottom (Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges) first. Then Zagreb, Plitvice, and Ljubljana. Finally, Family in Prague!

Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruges

Leaving Prague at 8:30 AM, our train headed north to Dresden. From Dresden, we headed southwest to Frankfurt airport. The airport may have been our favorite train station because we were able to get some dinner there. Hillary and I both grabbed some pasta and meatballs from a gourmet gas station, where we heated our meals and headed back to the platform for our connection. While there (about an hour and a half), we got wi-fi to Skype Hillary's mom, I got a Vanilla Coke (my first of the trip!), and Hillary got some Jelly Belly's (her favorite). Overall, this leg of the trip was fairly easy.

Next was the connection to Amsterdam. About an hour in to the trip, we got kicked off the train (with everyone else) to switch trains at Koln. We only had to wait about 10 minutes, but because we did not speak the language, we were VERY confused! Getting in around 10 PM, we walked the pretty short walk to our hostel.

Located very close to the red light district, our hostel was attached to a bar/club. Being a Thursday night, the place was packed and very very loud. After dropping our things, we took a quick 20 minute walk around the area. Our walk ended quickly as we could not stomach the sight of the prostitutes accompanied with the very strong scent of marijuana coming from just about every direction. Exhausted, we got ready for bed and passed out.

The next morning, I had registration for my SENIOR fall semester... Talk about time flying! Even though I was supposed to register at 5:45 AM (8:45 PM in California), I was not able to get wifi until close to 10 AM after an unsuccessful attempt at Starbucks. Luckily, I got into all the classes I needed, and decided to take an extra one to make the spring a little easier.

The Starbucks that we visited was the largest one in Europe and advertised their entirely green store, which really was very neat. We grabbed some breakfast and did some sightseeing. The oudekirke, neuekirke, red light district, opera house, and Margere Bruge (Skinny Bridge), Anne Frank House, and some other really neat sights. Hillary and I both decided that we enjoyed the city much better in the day time, but we could not find enough to do to keep us occupied. At around 1 PM we headed back to our hostel (to pick up our bags) and go to lunch. We found a cool Asian place called Wok to Walk, and tried some really funky combinations of noodles, meat, and sauce.

Our train to Brussels took about two hours and put us in around 4 PM. After getting lost and ending up in the main square, we found some wifi and got directions to our hostel. We managed to hike to the hostel (about 3.5 kilometers away) after making our way past the EU building (headquartered in Brussels), the Royal Palace, and some other cool monuments to important Belgians. Once at the hostel we laid down for a rest before trying to find dinner. Dinner was at a famous place called Maison Antoinette. Known for their French Fries (Pommes Frites), Hillary ordered some stew and frites, and I got a huge meatball with frites. We carried our food back to the hostel and devoured it before finding a recap of the NFL draft on ESPN and eventually calling it a night.

The next morning, we planned out a quick walking tour of the city. From our hostel, we walked to the Military History Museum, which had some beautiful gardens. From there, we wandered through the EU complex and headed to Mary's Chocolate. Mary's, known for being approved by Belgian royalty was a beautiful chocolate shop, and with our purchases, we got sample truffles. The big cathedral in Brussels was a nice sight, but nothing compares to St. Vitus in Prague.

Next on our list of sights was old town square, where we visited another chocolate shop (Neuhaus). Getting a bit lost, we eventually found the street leading to the famous Peeing Boy Statue (Manneken Pis). The Peeing Boy is a traditional site in Belgium, and is often dressed up in odd costumes. The day we visited, he was wearing a military outfit, and the statue was packed with tourists. Near the statue, we visited our last chocolate store (Leonidas) and got some Belgian waffles. Mine had nutella, banana, and whipped cream. Hillary's had fresh strawberries and whipped cream. The strawberries were super fresh and reminded me of going to the strawberry market in California with my mom.

Making our way up the main street, we were accosted by the sounds of a motorcycle parade with more motorcycles than I have seen in my life. Obnoxiously loud, and disobeying every traffic law, the parade passed us as we passed the Bourse and the Opera House. Across the street, we found another famous church and a portion of the medieval wall that had protected Belgium. Walking back toward the city center, we decided we had seen the city, stopping at a McDonald's for my mom's placemat.

Being fairly early in the afternoon, Hillary and I decided we had nothing to lose by trying to travel toward the coast and to Bruges. The hour train ride passed quickly, but the rain put a little damper on our adventurous spirits. Once off the train in Bruges, it began pouring, so we donned rain jackets and began our quick tour of the city... without a map.

A glance at the map, I noticed some windmills on the outskirts that I thought would be fun to see. Before I knew it, we were distracted by the quaint ivy covered brick walls. Just like an ivy league school, the architecture distracted us, carrying us away from things we may have wanted to see toward some gorgeous buildings. We eventually found an amazing store: To Be in Brugge. Here, they sell every Belgian beer imaginable, which fills more shelves than I knew possible. I carefully selected one with a re-sealable lid, and Hillary found some really neat cups.

Making our way to the edge of the city to try and find the windmills, it became a torrential downpour. Walking under the cover of some trees in a little park, we looked for the windmills, finding none. Feeling a bit lost, we spotted a huge ferris wheel near the train station. Making our way between the buildings, we finally made it back. Feeling demoralized by the rain and our utter confusion at the lay out of the city, we hopped on a train back to Brussels. Bruges was hands-down my favorite surprise of the trip. I had expected very little, but was blown away by how beautiful and quiet the city was.

That night, battling the imminent downpour in Brussels, we headed back to the same restaurant for more pommes frites.

Sunday morning, we packed up, and hiked back to the train station for our long return journey. With the tightest train connection of the trip (3 minutes) we managed to make it back to Frankfurt, then to Dresden, then Prague by 11.23 PM.

The next day at 6 PM, we had to do a presentation. We hadn't started. After a grueling six hours straight of work, we finished, presented, and did a great job! The teacher (a university of Michigan graduate) stopped us after class and thanked us for taking on the project with a different mindset than most students. If only he knew that we had done the project that day...

Zagreb, Croatia, the Plitvice Lakes, and Ljubljana, Slovenia

The last trip of the semester, but what a trip it was.

Tuesday, May 8 is a national holiday in the Czech Republic. This means no school. Taking advantage of our extra two days of weekend (we had one day of classes that week), we decided to head out on an extended trip to the South.

Heading from Prague via Vienna, our 12 hour train ride brought us into Zagreb around 10.30 PM. Our hostel was quite a walk from the city center (and train station), but we managed to find it fairly easily. Checking in, we put away our bags and fell asleep on the very used, but comfortable mattresses.

Wednesday morning, the heat was apparent before we even left the hostel. Finally wearing shorts and t-shirts, before noon, the temperature was over 90 degrees, and we were dying. Our tour of the city led us back to the city center. Walking past the botanical gardens, we used a handy tourism book to guide us through the city. We visited the Opera House which was oddly surrounded by groups of teenagers at 10 AM. Our next stop was the main square of Zagreb, which led us up a hill toward their big Cathedral. Full of history, we walked around the church before heading further north, up hills, toward a big park. The park led us to a main street with a lot of little shops and outdoor restaurants. Heading inside a small monastery, we observed some beautiful architecture with royal blue ceilings with gold decoration. Up some more hills, we passed through the Stone Gate, which is actually a chapel inside of a tunnel. At the top of a hill overlooking the city, we found the Priest's Tower and a gorgeous view of the city. Hot and tired, we headed down the hill and got lunch: the biggest and best slices of pizza ever. For 10 Kuna each, I had to have two slices as we wandered through more green space in the middle of the city. Taking a break on a park bench, we just watched people and enjoyed the shade (some brief respite from the extreme heat). Taking pictures along the way, rain started to fall, so we ducked inside a sweets store and bought some gelato. As the rain passed, we walked back to the hostel to relax.

By dinner time, were ready to go again, heading back to old town square for dinner. Finding nothing very appealing, I found a McDonald's to get my mom a placemat, and we went back to the pizza place for more slices. That night was uneventful as we packed up to head to the lakes the next morning.

Making our way to the main bus terminal, we bought our tickets to the lakes and hopped on our bus. A two and a half hour ride on the bus was highlighted by beautiful green country side and lots and lots of trees. We departed the bus at our stop (Mukinje) and walked up some deserted streets (like Abilene) to our hostel- inside a random apartment complex in the middle of the national forest.

For dinner, we visited the local (and only) tiny grocery store to get some pasta, sauce and meat for spaghetti. We passed the time by streaming the San Francisco Giants game, and some TV shows on the computer as we cooked.

I had hardly read about the lakes, but was trusting Hillary and her mom's judgement, I was pretty excited for the next day's adventure. Another classmate had been to the lakes and said he needed about 5 hours to see everything. While the idea of hiking for 5 hours did not excite me, Hillary and I carefully measured back 6 hours (to be on the safe side) from when the last bus left the lakes back to Zagreb so we could catch our train to Ljubljana.

Words cannot describe the beauty of the lakes. I constantly make fun of my dad for how he says "Man, isn't this beautiful" at anything in nature. At the lakes, I felt like my dad, as every other word out of my mouth was "wow" or "amazing." I think UNESCO finally got one right by making this one of their national heritage sights. Hillary and I got up early and hit the lakes, traveling to the upper lakes first.

The lakes, the waterfalls, the forests, even the rock formations were all just gorgeous. Time passed quickly as we made our way up and around the big lakes and down toward the lower lakes. On the way, we got some of the most amazing pictures and views I have ever seen. We even managed to photograph a lizard and lots of fish in the incredibly clear water.

The lower lakes were even more gorgeous than the upper ones, with more greenery, cooler rock formations (lots of caves), and really fun wooden walkways. Unfortunately, at this point, we got stuck behind a huge tour group of very old people, who did not handle the stairs very well. After what felt like a lifetime of being stuck behind them, we managed to get around and made our way to the ferry that crosses the biggest lake. Once on the other side, we hiked to the biggest waterfall in the park, which offered some amazing views over the whole area, which was like the Grand Canyon. Not quite as big, the scenery was incredibly green, and simply breathtaking. Our hike from there led us to a really cool cave-like structure. Inside the cave was another cave. This smaller cave was dark and scary, so I tried to head inside. Without a flashlight, it was not easy to find my way. Guided by the flash from Hillary's camera, I made it about 15 feet in before deciding that it was not worth it to push any further.

The walk back was almost bittersweet. Munching on ham and cheese sandwiches, we took a bus back to the Entrance 2 (where we had entered the park) and grabbed our belongings. About 30 minutes early to the bus stop, we sat and waited. Within a few minutes, a taxi driver had gathered a group of 8-primarily english speaking tourists all heading to Zagreb. Offering to get us back in an hour and a half (instead of two and a half hours) at the same price as the bus, we all piled in to his bus and headed out.

I fell asleep in the back seat next to a couple from Switzerland, originally from Poland. Hillary occupied her time in the front seat talking to a really nice couple from Australia, who asked our guidance on how/what to see in Vienna and discussed the odd selection of American songs playing on the cab driver's CD.

Back about two hours before we had anticipated, Hillary and I bought some cheap and quick dinner to take on the train with us (using the last of our Croatian money). We bought 3 calzones. A coke, a fanta, a water, and a powerade, and two ice cream bars...

Well fed, and hydrated, our train got to Ljubljana around 9 PM and we found our hostel with ease. An original villa with over 140 years of history. That night was a total crash. The second I laid down, I was out.

Friday morning, Hillary and I took a unique approach to the city. Armed with our maps, we decided that we would only pull them out if absolutely necessary, opting to take an aimless stroll through the streets of the city, we found Ljubljana's castle and the funicular to the top of the hill. For only 5 euros, the trip to the castle was well worth it. We spent a good number of hours exploring each exhibit, though my favorite was a virtual history of the castle, from nearly prehistoric times to its current use as the city's way to bring culture together. The remodeling inside the castle was a really interesting fusion of modern and industrial architecture with the medieval appearance of a castle. Heading to the top of the tower, we got a 360 degree glimpse of the city, which helped us plan our trip around the city.

Descending the hill, we entered the big basilica. The most notable feature of the church were the metal doors with scenes inscribed on them. From here, we wandered a Farmer's market to the main square and to lunch: McDonald's. From McDonald's we finally pulled out a map. After lunch, we walked up a street known for its Art Nouveau architecture, followed by a misguided trip to the dragon bridge, which we finally found. Feeling the afternoon heat, we bought some ice cream and sat inside the publicly provided covered benches overlooking the river running through the center of the city.

Having seen everything there was to see by about 2 PM, Hillary and I headed back to the hostel to work on our next presentation. For a few hours, we worked hard, and took a dinner break at Da Bu Da for some asian fusion- I got Pad Thai (my new favorite). After dinner, was time for some more project research and packing.

Sunday morning, we headed out. Just as the rain started to fall, we made our way to the train station. Our train to Salzburg was a bit late, and an hour in to the ride, everyone was removed and put on a single bus to another no-name Slovenian train station. Scared that we would not make our tight connection at Salzburg, Hillary and I were a little worried. At one point, we were thirty minutes behind schedule.

Arriving at Salzburg, we were about one minute ahead of schedule and made our connection to Linz easily. At Linz, we found our train to Prague and were home by 8.40 PM!

At night, we did massive loads of laundry and prepared for our next week of school.

Family in Prague!

Thursday, May 17th was jointly one of the saddest and one of the happiest days of my life. It was sad because it marked the end of our three month period of being able to use our unlimited Eurail passes. It was incredibly happy because my parents were finally here to see MY city!

After a pretty tough week of school, capped of with a final in my class on investments and finance, I was ready for a relaxed weekend in the city. Around 5 on Thursday, Hillary and I headed to my parent's hotel near the castle. After retrieving them, exchanging important presents (all of the placemats (more than 15!)), and having them finally meet Hillary in person, we decided on a quick walk.

That night we spent up near the castle, vowing to return as we strolled down through Mala Strana past our school and across the Charles Bridge. By 8, we were ready for dinner and sat down at a place near Malostranske Namesti for goulash and beer.

We parted ways around 10 and Hillary and I headed back to her place to watch the Giants game.

Friday, we met in Old Town, walked around a bit before trying to go the castle. Unfortunately, it closed at 4, and we got there at 3.45. So we made our way to the Old Jewish Cemetery. From the cemetery, we headed to Karlovo Namesti (Charles Square) to see Frank Gehry's The Dancing House (Fred and Ginger). To kill more time, we caught the tram to my apartment. My parents were somewhat impressed before dinner at Las Adelitas, an amazing Mexican food restaurant a short walk from my place. After dinner, we said our goodbyes and I headed to Hillary's to bake some cookies and watch another Giants game.

Saturday, may parents visited Dresden, so Hillary and I spent all day working on a presentation and paper. The paper ended up being 61 pages! The project was supposed to be a 5 member presentation. Our group failed to contribute in a helpful manner, so Hillary and I put the entire thing together with a lot of stress along the way.

Sunday was a sad day because it was my parents last night in Prague. We started at the castle, spending time seeing the inside of St. Vitus, the Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, and the Golden Lane. From the castle, we went to our favorite grocery store for my parents to stock up on snacks and ended up at Modry Zub, my favorite restaurant in the city (Thai food). Taking my parents to the train station was sad, but I know that they had a lot of really cool things to see in Krakow (their next destination).

Monday, we spent all day studying for our Operations Management final at 6.30.

Tuesday, we finished our presentation, gave our presentation, and began packing to leave. It is scary how quickly time flies.

Wednesday, I spent all day at Hillary's house trying to even out the weight of our bags (23 kgs max) so we could take them home. At 5 PM, we had to leave the premises. Carrying my camping backpack with 40 lbs on my back, Hillary's school backpack with 20 lbs on my chest, and my protective bag with odds and ends (60 lbs) on two trams, Hillary and I struggled to make our way to our hostel. Hillary was stuck with her camping backpack, while wheeling two huge suitcases full of stuff and extra bags of food we plan to eat before leaving.

After some confusion with finding the hostel, we checked in, relaxed, and headed back to Los Adelitas for Mexican food. (try the nachos).

Today, Thursday, May 24, we headed out early in the morning on some errands.

WOW! What a relief it is to actually be able to be like a tourist in such an amazing city. With no stress to worry about, Hillary and I went about our errands while being able to really enjoy the city and a leisurely pace. Having lived somewhere for four months with your nose to the grindstone, you rarely get time to really notice all of the little things. Souvenir shopping for Hillary's siblings and our old roommate, we visited the big touristy areas, but were able to see them as tourists, which is an amazing feeling. Forced inside by 2 because of the heat, I am excited to finally have the time to catch up on my blog, and start reading a book my mom brought to me.

Tonight, we are walking to Modry Zub for a Thai dinner, and have no plans. Such a relief.

Before we leave, we hope to get to the church at Vysehrad, the Zoo, and Letna Park. Saturday, we arranged a taxi trip to our last hostel (at the airport) so we won't have to worry about hassling with our bags on public transportation anymore.

More updates to come, with a reflection on the semester once I am home on Sunday, May 27!