LondresPrahaWien 1

Dear avid blog readers,

I apologize for my absence from cyber space for this extended period of time. I was, however, on a great adventure. The tale begins in London, the great city of everyman who has ever fallen in love with a porteguese woman and learned her language and ran to her door on christmas day to ask for her hand in marriage only to learn that she has also learned HIS language.

My plane descends on a clear morning. My friend Mally and I wearily get off the plane and rush to where we think will be a short time in customs. NOT. once we wait in line for awhile we get up to the front and go to a desk of an angry indian woman. She obviously hated americans and just wanted to make our lives more difficult. First she asked us all kinds of weird questions, i guess just to make sure that we werent imposters. Why anyone would want to steal the identity of a 20year old poor student traveler, I dont know. These questions included what we were studying, how many years we have left of school, our shoe size, how we were paying for our trip, how long we were staying, if we were only friends, what kind of shampoo we used, how many times did we sneeze onthe plane, where we were staying and when neither of us had a concrete address to where we were living for the next few days she became infuriated. Then she asked if we had our return tickets on us. And we didnt. She then berrated us and told us that girls who are studying at university and are educated should know better than to travel without their return ticket (even though the airlines TELL you that all you need is your confirmation number). She also said that had this been america and she was as ill prepared as us, she would have been denied entry. WHATEVER.

I run into the arms of my dear dear natalie at the train station and we walk around a cool part of town for a bit. I knocked over a few bikes with my large backpack I had on, but we made it back to her cute cute apartment alive. Later that evening I saw Mama Mia with Beth. It was only ALITTLE cheesy....but at least the actors werent taking it too seriously. It was a fun show.

The next day, which was a beautiful fall day with crisp leaves covering the ground and a brisk smell in the air that said "enjoy this sunshine and warmth while you can, for soon I will cover the world with a blanket of frost and sadness", we went to Hyde Park and almost got killed by a flock of ducks flying very close to the ground. Then we went to the tate modern where there was alot of art and an installation that was these huge clear plastic slides that you could go down. We didnt however, becasue we were tired and didnt feel like getting tickets.

Sunday we slept in and then walked around camden market which was so crowded, and definitly not as cool as it was when I was 13years old and really liked shirts with witty stupid sayings on them. Then we all had a lovely italian dinner that evening and the next morning I left London.

Onto the Czech Republic where I had no idea what anything was or meant or what that country had in store for me. First of all it was COLD. I had to buy gloves cold. I easily found thr bus from this town Brno to Prague and easily found my way to katies dorm where we were reunited for the first time in months. I met all her cool NYU friends and laughed laughed laughed. The next day I explored while katie was in class. I walked around and just knd of took it all in. The whole place was really kafka-esq. Jsut kind of dark and sad. Not really dark, it was sunny and beautiful, but you could tell there was a dark past. I went to the kafka museum after going over charles bridge and it was a little bit unsettling. It was set up so its more like walking through his mind as he wrote than a little museum. There was this scary cabinet hallway you walked through for a long time that felt like it was going to end and the whole time throughout the museum there were speakers in every room that played these weird noises that were supposed to lead you through.

later I went to the Old Jewish Cemetery which was a little eerie. The light was really great and there was almost a mist right above all the graves. Later that evening katie and I went out to dinner with her czech friend Honza and had a nice traditional meal and then hit some hip czech bars. The next day i wandered around prague castle for a bit and then discovered this little wooded path to the side of it and followed it. It ran parrellel to a dry, stone creek bed that was from like 1300 and had a few stone bridges over it here and there. I walked all the way down towards this stone statue that looked like a woman in a dress from far away and there was this tunnel. I was pretty sure that when i walked through it I would be transported back to 1498 or something. But unfortunatly, no time travel stories, just a big pretty green field on the other side. I would have liked to gone through a time portal though.

On the way home, after not being properly explained the rules of the metro, i was fined 500crowns (about 25$) becasue my ticket had more than one stamp on it, or something. But it was all very confusing because I dont know czech, but seriously, who does? Then, blast from the past number 1, I had dinner with Ellen brooks!!! It was really good to see her and talk about things that no one else I know knows about, like challenge nights and "the guys". and to remember that im so happy im not 13 anymore.

Im afraid a really really long post will be too daunting to my readers so this trip will continue in a second installment.