This past week/weekend was constantly GO! GO! GO! haha this past Thursday night, we all got a free ticket to the Mozarteum to see the Brussels Philharmonic [I think that's who it was] lol I was somewhat not too thrilled about having to go just because I was in one of those complain about everything moods and it was ssssooooo hot!!! haha I had taken a shower like two hours before and made the mistake of putting on lotion afterwards because I forgot that Europe doesn't believe in air conditioning lol but forreal, who knew that an orchestra had an intermission lol
this is me and kerry entertaining ourselves during intermission lol
this is me and KC. For those of you who don't know, he's the other kid from OBU that came on the trip with me.
This is me and Julie during intermission...still entertaining ourselves lol
This is the BEAUTIFUL mozarteum where the orchestra wasAfter the orchestra, I went back to the house to pack and get a couple hours of sleep before I had to get on a train at 3:30AM to go to Prague. The train ride actually wasn't that bad. Me, Karley, and Kerry were the only ones in our cabin so we were able to lay down and actually get some sleep. We got to Prague around 11:30 in the morning and we ate lunch outside the train station in the grass with the other group that went to Prague [Laura, Sean, KC, and Carrie]. Then, Me, Karley and Kerry just kind of wandered around the city. Unfortunately, we were in a foreign city, where we didn't know one single word of the language and had a map that was completely in Czech so we had a little bit of trouble finding our way around lol Luckily, we somehow found our way to the different museums. We went in to the National Museum which was GORGEOUS! && quite the treck uphill in the beaming sun to the entrance but it was well worth it.
The museum exhibits were really cool! They had fish/sea animal exhibits, and dinosaurs and just about everything you could possibly imagine. It was really neat. However, since I had no concept of money since they took Kron and not Dollars or EURO, I didn't know how much it actually cost to take pictures so I didn't get to take any :(After the museum, we just kind of walked around some more and came across a casino lol Which we were just too tempted to go inside and gamble and we lost probably like $5 or so but it was fun while it lasted lol
Kerry is originally from New York [but now lives in Florida], so when we were walking to Old Town Square and saw this store, she had to stop and take a picture in front of it.
The walk to Old Town Square was interesting. Lots of small streets, interesting stores, and LOTS of people. But it was all very pretty! :) When we finally made it, it was just in time to see the clock tower show thing that happens every couple of hours when the bells ring. And me and Kerry were really excited! :)
After the show thing was over, we went and got tickets to go up to the top of the clock tower. The view was absolutely amazing! You could literally see for miles and you could see the whole entire city! This is Prague Castle in the distance...and when I say distance, I mean in the DISTANCE! lol
The elevator that took you part of the way up the tower was really neat and we loved the fact that you could take a picture because of the mirror at the top of the elevator lol
After the tower, we decided we'd start the long walk to the Prague Castle. On the way to the castle, we had to go over the famous Charles Bridge which was SO GORGEOUS!!!
It took us quite some time to actually get all the way up to the castle. There were literally about 25 sections of stairs to climb and we actually found a tunnel halfway up that we just laid down in because it was really cool and we felt like dying lol BUT we eventually got up and finished walking to the top. lol once we were inside it was just kind of like a big maze. We had no idea where we were going or how to get out or anything lol We did come across this bird exhibit things that was really neat. It was the Birds of Prey exhibit where they have all these different eagles, hawks, owls, etc. that they take care of and feed and everything and you can give a donation and take a picture with them or give 10Kron [4EURO] and hold whichever one you want. Well, when I heard that, of course I gave the 10Kron donation and had to hold the biggest bird lol I chose Angela, who was a young adult eagle. She actually hunts reindeer because her claws are so big and sharp that she can easily kill them....I didn't know this until after I was already holding her lol She was very gentle though so it was okay! :)
The thing I liked most about all of this is that the birds aren't caged up and kept there all the time. Everyday, they're allowed to fly free and hunt on their own and be wild birds but they always come back because they get such good care there and that's what the donations are for-to help care for them when they come back.
After the birds, we started to walk back down so that we could meet up with the others and grab some dinner. There were guards EVERYWHERE in the castle [of course], and we decided to take a picture with one. However, the guard wasn't really all that pleased about it. But the thing is, he isn't allowed to move so he didn't really have much of a choice lol
After dinner, Kerry really wanted to go on a boat tour so she bought me and Karley and ticket and we got to ride around on a boat for an hour and see Prague all lit up at night and it was SO GORGEOUS!
After the boat ride, we headed back to the train station where we had to sit for like an hour and a half. We actually made some friends! There were 3 kids who had just graduated from Boston College who were on our train and we hung out with them in the train station. When we got on the train, we were hoping to switch our tickets over for a sleeper car so we could lay down in beds and get some sleep since we were going through Budapest the next day. However, we got on the train and it was PACKED! like, all 6 seats in every freaking cabin was full and there were people sitting in the hallway. We lucked out because we had a bunch of drunk kids in ours and thankfully I wasn't in Kerry and Karley's cabin because one of the kids threw up in their cabin, and down the hallway, and in the bathroom :/ But despite all of that, we made it to Budapest!!! haha our hostel was really cute! && So very well-kept. I'm kind of sad we didn't get to stay in it for the night though because the beds were so comfortable! Lol
We got to the hostel and took showers and got somewhat clean and then we went to one of the famous bath houses. It was AMAZING! There were 15 pools inside and 6 outside. And it was absolutely gorgeous and we got massages and the pools for around $39 or something like that so it was a REALLY good deal!
We read somewhere online that it's really common for old men to go to the bath houses and play checkers outside in the pool...which we actually saw and it was really funny lol
This is the outside pool area:
Kerry is originally from New York [but now lives in Florida], so when we were walking to Old Town Square and saw this store, she had to stop and take a picture in front of it.
The walk to Old Town Square was interesting. Lots of small streets, interesting stores, and LOTS of people. But it was all very pretty! :) When we finally made it, it was just in time to see the clock tower show thing that happens every couple of hours when the bells ring. And me and Kerry were really excited! :)
After the show thing was over, we went and got tickets to go up to the top of the clock tower. The view was absolutely amazing! You could literally see for miles and you could see the whole entire city! This is Prague Castle in the distance...and when I say distance, I mean in the DISTANCE! lol
The elevator that took you part of the way up the tower was really neat and we loved the fact that you could take a picture because of the mirror at the top of the elevator lol
After the tower, we decided we'd start the long walk to the Prague Castle. On the way to the castle, we had to go over the famous Charles Bridge which was SO GORGEOUS!!!
It took us quite some time to actually get all the way up to the castle. There were literally about 25 sections of stairs to climb and we actually found a tunnel halfway up that we just laid down in because it was really cool and we felt like dying lol BUT we eventually got up and finished walking to the top. lol once we were inside it was just kind of like a big maze. We had no idea where we were going or how to get out or anything lol We did come across this bird exhibit things that was really neat. It was the Birds of Prey exhibit where they have all these different eagles, hawks, owls, etc. that they take care of and feed and everything and you can give a donation and take a picture with them or give 10Kron [4EURO] and hold whichever one you want. Well, when I heard that, of course I gave the 10Kron donation and had to hold the biggest bird lol I chose Angela, who was a young adult eagle. She actually hunts reindeer because her claws are so big and sharp that she can easily kill them....I didn't know this until after I was already holding her lol She was very gentle though so it was okay! :)
The thing I liked most about all of this is that the birds aren't caged up and kept there all the time. Everyday, they're allowed to fly free and hunt on their own and be wild birds but they always come back because they get such good care there and that's what the donations are for-to help care for them when they come back.
After the birds, we started to walk back down so that we could meet up with the others and grab some dinner. There were guards EVERYWHERE in the castle [of course], and we decided to take a picture with one. However, the guard wasn't really all that pleased about it. But the thing is, he isn't allowed to move so he didn't really have much of a choice lol
After dinner, Kerry really wanted to go on a boat tour so she bought me and Karley and ticket and we got to ride around on a boat for an hour and see Prague all lit up at night and it was SO GORGEOUS!
After the boat ride, we headed back to the train station where we had to sit for like an hour and a half. We actually made some friends! There were 3 kids who had just graduated from Boston College who were on our train and we hung out with them in the train station. When we got on the train, we were hoping to switch our tickets over for a sleeper car so we could lay down in beds and get some sleep since we were going through Budapest the next day. However, we got on the train and it was PACKED! like, all 6 seats in every freaking cabin was full and there were people sitting in the hallway. We lucked out because we had a bunch of drunk kids in ours and thankfully I wasn't in Kerry and Karley's cabin because one of the kids threw up in their cabin, and down the hallway, and in the bathroom :/ But despite all of that, we made it to Budapest!!! haha our hostel was really cute! && So very well-kept. I'm kind of sad we didn't get to stay in it for the night though because the beds were so comfortable! Lol
We got to the hostel and took showers and got somewhat clean and then we went to one of the famous bath houses. It was AMAZING! There were 15 pools inside and 6 outside. And it was absolutely gorgeous and we got massages and the pools for around $39 or something like that so it was a REALLY good deal!
We read somewhere online that it's really common for old men to go to the bath houses and play checkers outside in the pool...which we actually saw and it was really funny lol
This is the outside pool area:
After the bath houses, we went back to the hostel, packed up our things, and headed out to do a little sight seeing before our train left in 2 hours or so. We wanted to go to Buda Castle but it took too long and we probably wouldn't have made it there without having to stay on the bus and just turn around and go back to the train station so we just stopped at some random stop and got some really pretty views of Budapest lol
Overall, the weekend was a success! :) We had a lot of fun and we got a TON of things done in such a short amount of time. But, I'm extremely tired and now have to write a research paper that's due in 12 hours because I chose to travel and sight see rather than writing my papers lol
Overall, the weekend was a success! :) We had a lot of fun and we got a TON of things done in such a short amount of time. But, I'm extremely tired and now have to write a research paper that's due in 12 hours because I chose to travel and sight see rather than writing my papers lol
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