Sooooo remember how I said the whole journaling thing isn't really my thing? Well it's coming back to bite me. While some days I am very lazy and can barley make it to class, most days are extremely busy and I can't even remember what I had for breakfast, so bare with me here as I try to dig through my brain to pull out the memories and adventures I can share with you all.
Here's a quick low down on what's about to come in this post. Since I last blogged I have been to Napoli (Naples), Pompeii, some stinky sulphur place, Roman thermal baths and Prague. Napoli, Pompeii, Capri, and the stinky sulphur place (seriously, sorry I cannot even remember the name) were all visited in the same weekend with the rest of my program. We visited the ruins of Pompeii and we were able to enjoy wonderful views of Mt. Vesuvius, unfortunately due to snow, we were not allowed to hike to the top. We visited a museum in Napoli which was mostly devoted to, and pardon the language, penises. I learned that in Napoli and especially Pompeii, sculptures and other erotic artworks were very common even in households. So in short, we ate pizza and saw some erotic penis artwork. Capri was absolutely gorgeous. We took a boat around the island and were able to explore some of the caves within the island. It was beautiful.
The next week I attended school as usual and this past weekend was the start of my Spring Break. I headed to Prague on Thursday evening. We arrived in the very chilly city that night and were ripped of by our cab driver as we headed to our hostel. The Czech Republic uses the Koruna (crown) for currency. So, one US dollar is equal to about 21 Crowns, it's crazy. We ended up paying about 700 crown for our cab ride, and according to the nice kid who worked at our hostel, we really should have only payed about 500, oh well. We arrived at our hostel less than impressed. It was definitely not the nicest hostel I have stayed in, and none of us were too thrilled about sharing a slightly dirty room with 19 other roommates. With optimistic thoughts, we headed out for some traditional Czech dinner, beef, gravy, and dumplings, and of course Pilsner. I enjoyed it very much, but I'm finding that I enjoy all foods a bit to much, well at least that is what my jeans are telling me. My friends and I headed back to the hostel, counting down the hours till when we got to leave Prague, none of us were very happy at this point.
We headed to Old Town the next day, which is mostly where the sights of Prague are. It was a half hour walk from our hostel, so that added to our annoyances even more, but a quick turn of events happened, we arrived at Old Town Square and all was well. There was a gigantic open market offering all kinds of tasty Czech treats that we of course had to Czech (get it?) out. We hopped on a free walking tour of the city and explored the Jewish Ghetto, New Town, etc. I also learned some rather interesting, slightly disturbing history of Prague's famous Astronomical Clock. It was built over 800 years ago (don't quote me on that) and it was unlike any other clock in the world. It was the pride of Prague, and thus the people of Prague wanted no one else to have a clock as great as this one. So one night the people of Prague kidnapped the clockmaker, gauged out his eyes and chopped off his tongue so he was a blind mute, thus not being able to build another clock anywhere. Seriously, that was how the city repaid him for his masterpiece?! The story gets better though. In order to get back at the people of Prague, the clockmaker had his servant take him to the top of the clock tower, and told his servant to push him, and there he fell into the clock fixtures killing himself, but also damaging and breaking the clock. The clock was so complicated, and he knew it. For over 600 years, the clock went unfixed, no one could figure out how to get it working again. After a long day of touring, we did some more eating and called it a night.
The next day we visited the Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall, and the Dancing House. We "petted" the famous statue on the bridge (I'm not too sure what it is) and according to the locals, if you touch it, you'll find yourself back in Prague. I can't wait! Then I headed to the John Lennon Wall. It's a masterpiece of graffiti. It is a wall dedicated to Lennon, Beatles lyrics, peace, and any other nice, cute, funny, funky things you can think of.
While the trip to Prague started off as a bit rough, each day was better and better, I cannot wait to find myself back in Prague one day. Below are some pics of my most recent adventures. Hope all is well America, I'll be home in about a month (I hate saying that).
Ciao.
