Prague Visitors

I have been fortunate enough to have some amazing friends that have come out to visit me. It was Ashley's first time in Europe and she was nervous (and paranoid) as hell about coming out here. I was so proud of her for doing it by herself. It really sucks being on a plane for 14 hours by yourself, but I think she took an ambien and found some peaceful sleep. I was shocked that she was ready to explore when she had just arrived. I was expecting a day of jet lag and laziness, but nope- not her! She was ready to see what Prague had to offer! The first day she had arrived, it was the 20 year anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Why "velvet" you ask.. because it was a peaceful, "soft" revolution- no bloodshed. Finally Czechoslovakia gained its' Independence, and then a few years later they split into the two republics. The 20 year anniversary re-enacted the peaceful student protest march that started in Albertov and ended at Narodni Trida. We did the whole march- which was quite tiring for me- and I didn't come off of a long flight- so kudos to Ash for making it through. Pretty great to be apart of history though!
Ashley is my going out buddy back in Tucson, and then she moved to Phoenix right as I was moving out. Bad timing. With her, it's always a good time going out and meeting new people. She spent 2 weeks here and I hope she had a great time.. we went to Munich to see Muse the first weekend and then just went out a lot around town during her stay. We saw the opera together the last weekend she was here. Good times with her!

Sarah and Dillon were next to visit. They spent almost 2 weeks here in December and were able to enjoy a Prague New Years! It was nothing too special, we just went to a friend's house party and then ended the night at the usual Acropolis which is very close to my house.. thank god! I used to work with Sarah at Pinnacle high school in Phoenix.. so we became close as the struggling new teachers. So glad she was able to come out and visit and Dillon is really fun too. His only request was to go skiing. So skiing we went.

It was my first time, and I had no idea where to go and what to take. I finally found a ski bus that took people from Prague to the Czech "Giant Mountains"- Herlikovice. That mountain kicked my ass! Literally. I didn't take any lessons, just had my friends show me what to do, but the first second I got on the skis, I went down a small hill so fast, I freaked out and didn't know how to stop- so I just fell and the skis popped off- which took me 10 minutes just to get on! Ughh.. rough start. Then we were taking the ski lift up- and those are tricky SOBs! Needless to say we all fell our first try onto it.. how embarrassing. I finally got the hang of skiing when were at the top. It was a bunny slope and really wide and I was finally not falling.

However, half way down the mountain the slope gets Intermediate and gets really steep and narrow. There is a ski lift right at this point, so every time I would try to get to that ski lift- I would fall. Every. Single. Time. Actually I made it once out of the 5 times without falling.. but still- it was rough. I had jeans on- needless to say they were soaked. It finally came time that we needed to get down the rest of the mountain. I was not excited. I really wanted to cry at this point. I have never been so scared to do something, because with this- I could really see myself breaking many things- including my skull! I tried to go down a bit, but it was just too steep. I could go down very fast without falling, but how the hell was I supposed to stop? It was very narrow and hardly any snow anymore, and at the bottom- there wasn't much room to slow down. I said screw it, and took off my skis and walked down the rest of the mountain- which still wasn't easy! I kept slipping and as I was walking down I could see the cement underneath the snow!! People were literally skiing on cement on most of that second half! That would have been my head cracked open on that cement if I actually tried to ski down it.

So screw you Herlikovice for making an easy slope at the TOP of the mountain but expecting people to become experts halfway down! What the hell.. doesn't it make sense to make a bunny hill at the BOTTOM of a mountain? Shit.. geniuses they are. Anyway.. I made it alive, and Sarah was burned out too.. so we headed back to the lodge while the boys when on for more. Good for them. haha
Anyway, we did a lot of stuff while Sarah and Dillon were here: skiing, Plzen- first brewery of Pilsner, New Years shindig, snow fights, drunken snow man/woman building (we thought it looked amazing at the time), playing in the park across from my flat in the snow. Fun times!

My last visitor was Brianna. It was her first time in Europe too! She was only able to stay for 1 week, so we packed as much as we could into it. She really appreciated the architecture which I was excited about. I love the city because of its details.
She came in January and was really excited about the snow. I, on the other hand, was royally sick of it-- and I still am right now- Go away snow! Go away! But anyway.. we did all the natural touristy things, went to U Fleku- a beer hall, met some guys that told us that Pivovarsky Dum had a beer jam on a crepe that we have to try. That was one of Brianna's goals- to have a crepe.. so we of course went. Good stuff! I took her to my favorite wine bar.. although she was still recovering from our escapades the night before to take part in the festivities. ooops.. oh well :)

Best moments: Truth or Dare in a bar= Brianna doing a hand stand for 10 seconds, Philippe laying on the floor, and me doing a cartwheel in the bathroom hallway. Fantastic game on the ipod.. download it! Truth or Dare with everyone in wine bar was great too = Brianna getting a mustache haha. Then of course we had to go to the Sex Museum.. which was... interesting to say the least- unfortunately can't post any of those naughty pics up. haha



So thanks to all my visitors for coming out. I'm not gonna lie, it is tiring hosting you folk, but still really great to see all of you. Hope some more of my friends/family are able to come out. You can ask these guys if it's worth it! ;)

Opera and Ballet

(I took a long break from this because it is very difficult uploading videos on here. Sorry for the delay.)

One of my goals before coming out here was to make sure that I would partake in the cultural life. Part of that culture includes being able to attend ballets, operas, and symphonies on a regular basis. Well I'm happy to say that I've at least attended one of each of these so far, and there will be plenty more to see!

First I went to the Czech Orchestra at the Rudolfinum with Philippe. One of my co-workers had season tickets, but was feeling ill so he wasn't able to attend. I was really excited to go inside of the building and just feel like a grown up.. sipping champagne during the intermission, getting all dressed up, having a date to chat with.

It was a really lovely time. It's pretty comical, though, how the conductor goes in and out of the back doors just to receive more of an applause! Ridiculous! Seriously, after one song he would leave, and then come back and more clapping. Then at the very end jesus.. I thought it would never end! My hands started hurting!

Ashley came out to visit me in November. We went to Muse which was amazing- not exactly in the same realm as the Opera/Theatre events that I'm dedicating this page to, but still noteworthy to talk about. We went to Munich to see them in the Olympic stadium, and I have never seen so many people at a concert before. It was the largest one I have ever seen, and it was packed for good reason. Muse is amazing! Loved their performance and love all their songs!


My school tries to hold staff events and that's how I was able to go to the Opera and Ballet for so cheap. The last Sunday that Ashley was here, just the night before she was leaving, we went to the opera and saw Carmen. This is a story of a gypsy named Carmen who pretty much everyone in the town loves. A military man tries not to fall in love with her.. but of course he falls victim to her. She gets put in jail and he gets her out and they run away together. Then they start getting sick of each other and she starts falling in love with a matador. The military guy get jealous of course, and kills her in the end and then the police kill him. So a typical opera of love, betrayal, and murder. haha of course the opera was in French, but they had a screen above the stage with Czech and English subtitles. It's just freakin hilarious to see the translation of some of the things that they say. One simple sentence takes 5 minutes to sing. Gets kinda ridiculous at times.. but I loved the actual musical numbers.



In December, I finally got to see a ballet and what better to see than The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol. It was kind of strange that they mixed the two ballets together.. but it actually did make sense the way they did it. I have never actually seen The Nutcracker so I didn't have much to compare it with. I've only seen movies of A Christmas Carol... so all in all I was able to see two stories at once. Beautiful dances and costumes.. and I freakin loved the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies but the video didn't turn out so great.. oh well. Here's a different clip:


In March I went to Paris with Philippe to watch his brother's girlfriend perform at the National Opera House. She is a professional pianist, and I was blown away by her performance. This theatre kinda puts the Prague theatre to shame.. sorry Prague, but Paris definitely beat you on this one (among other things). The theatre was huge, and the fact that she was performing with only 4 other people- violinists- it was just amazing! Great job Ruta! You can see her in the back- behind the piano- obviously.

October's Adventures

I went to Bratislava, Slovakia at the beginning of October and completely forgot to post about it. I had to go to apply for my visas. It was a last minute trip, since we (Stephanie and I) found out that we were only able to go to the office on a weekday and since our tourist visa was going to expire in only one more week we had to go quickly.

We went on Wednesday night- had a problem with the bus/train system.. but ended up taking the overnight train at midnight and got into Bratislava at 6 in the morning. Wheew.. long trip! I didn't know much about the city.. so I didn't really have any expectations. I just imagined it to be boring buildings from the communist era. We arrived and were immediately lost because we took the bus in the wrong direction.. we got off and looked around and just thought that the city looked soo ugly! It was boring and drab and just plain depressing! But just like Prague, it has a beautiful old town center which is the main part of the city.. so that completely changed our views.


This compass thing in the middle of the street was awesome. It showed many major cities and how far they were and what direction it was. Pretty nifty




















They have a castle.. but we didn't have much time to explore it so we didn't make our way up it. But it looks beautiful. Maybe when I have to go back to pick up my visa I'll explore it a little more.



They're this random building that looks like a UFO. There's a restaurant at the top and apparently nice views of the whole city.














Lots of allies.. just walking around was really nice. There's not that many tourists so it feels like a smaller city which is nice.















There are a ton of these statues all over of regular working type people. There a man popping out of the sewer. A tour group was walking by and the guide said that many people rub the hat for good luck!

























We walked around to a less populated area and found ourselves back in world war 2 era.. the buildings were crumbling, the streets were a disaster zone, and the graffiti was crawling all over the sides. It really felt like we just got put onto a movie set for world war 2! Wondering why they haven't reconstructed this part of the town.. or maybe they are keeping it to remind themselves of their past? I don't know.

Nice town.. many people from Prague think that it is a shit place to go.. but I enjoyed it. Wouldn't want to live there.. but it's worth a visit! A week later we were supposed to go back and pick up our short term visas.. but luckily another coworker had to go down to apply for his.. so he was able to pick it up for us! I do still have to go back to pick up my long term visa which will be ready in December.

The rest of October went by way too fast! I'm getting closer with my coworkers. My friend Kristin threw a payday soiree and it was a great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and of course drink lots and lots of wine! Went to a Halloween party at another coworkers house, Troy, and won the pumpkin carving contest with my team, and won the mummy wrapping contest! This is our winning pumpkin and this is my admirabel partner Philippe-the mummy! I've never done that before playing games like that for Halloween so that was great! I dressed up as a pirate again.. I actually brought the costume from the states! haha pretty ridiculous but it came in handy since I didn't have to buy one here! Didn't win the costume contest though- can't take em all!




















I finally went to the Rudolfinum which is this beautiful building right along the river (it doesn't have this awful scaffolding anymore). I saw the Czech Orchestra play. One of my coworkers, Paul, had season tickets but was feeling ill and was not able to go, so he asked me if I'd be interested.. which I jumped at the opportunity! It was really last minute.. and I wasn't sure of the dress code. I didn't know if people got really dressed up, and my student said that it would be ok with dark jeans or slacks even- especially cuz I was a foreigner.. but that's no excuse! If people dress up.. then I want to too! But I wore slacks.. and went I got there I felt a little sad that I hadn't dressed up more! Girls were in skirts and dresses..dang.. next time though I'll know. We had some sparkling wine in between sets.. ahh what a wonderful time! It was really funny though, watching the conductor. They get so into it.. it looks so ridiculous like this big show! He kept going in and out of the back doors between numbers and every time we'd have to clap for like 5 minutes for his entrance! At the very end I was clapping for a good 15 minutes! Very glad I went though.. and in November I'm going to the National Theater- Narodni Divadlo to see the opera Carmen and then in December I will be watching the ballet The Nutcracker! So exciting!

Oktoberfest

It's October 15th and the first snow just fell in Prague. I'm not prepared! Just a few weeks ago on September 26th my friends and I were in Munich for Oktoberfest and it was MUCH better weather!




This was a last minute trip.. the planning was half assed and up til the last minute. It ended up just being Fran, Stephanie, and I- the original CELTA girls.. the first ones to hang out with each other in Prague before the course started. Oktoberfest lasts for 3 weeks.. ending the first week of October. We decided to go for the second week, as there was a Czech holiday on Monday the 28th of Sept which allowed us to have a recovery day from the mayhem to be expected. We had no place to stay, as all of the hostels were either booked or ridiculously expensive, so we decided to just plan a saturday-sunday trip that wouldn't require us to plan for a place to stay. We would party all day and all night if we had to. Plus.. we're 3 girls-- therefore, really easy to find a place to crash if necessary.

We arrived in Munich Saturday afternoon-- unfortunately all the earlier buses were full by the time we officially decided to go. It was a 5 hour ride on student agency.. which was only about 29 euros where we got comfortable seats with a movie to watch and free hot drinks! yumm we watched Lord of War which was really uncomfortable to watch on a bus.. not exactly the type of movie I was expecting. I've seen it before and warned Fran that is was quite disturbing.. but I actually enjoyed it the second time watching it. I drank hot cocoa too.. delicious!

My friend Lissa from Phoenix moved out to Germany a couple of months ago. She is half German and half Brazilian. We used to work at the dubliner together in phoenix.. and she was the one who really convinced me that I should move out here.. thank god I listened to her! She lives an hour outside of Munich so we met up with her for lunch as soon as we arrived. Her friends are not really into Oktoberfest-- it seems the locals don't care for it as much. The whole city just seemed soo alive. I loved it!

After lunch we decided we waited long enough to head to the fairgrounds.. we didn't know the way.. but everyone assured us to just follow the crowds of people- mostly the traditionally dressed up folk and we would find the way. And that's exactly what we did! A pretty long walk later and there we were.. in front of the biggest "fair" I had ever seen! It looked like a carnival on crack! Huge rides, lots of lights, massive slides.. that's where we got stuck watching first. This huge slide had this conveyor belt that allowed thrill takers to get to the top of the slide. That was the most entertaining thing about it.. because people really needed help maintaining balance on the belt since it went so fast! People were falling and stumbling trying to surf up the belt.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the great free entertainment and managed to roam around the park and get our bearings. OUR GOAL: Obtain Beer. This mission should seem to be really easy, considring Oktoberfest which has almost 7 million liters of beer on hand! However, we quickly learned that the main places to get the beer were inside of the tents which was impossible to get into since we didn't have reservations nor did we get there early enough to wait in line.

We remembered seeing a bar at the entrance of the park next to the slide area and decided to set up tent in there. The place was packed, but we finally got our first toast- Na zdravi as they say in Czech! But Prost in German! Ahh it was delicious- GERMAN EFFICIENCY! We stayed in that "bar" all day pretty much and met tons of ridiculously drunk men! Fran accomplished her goal of the evening and received a hat from one of the guys she was talking to. (Unfortunatley she lost it later in the evening) I received a burger king crown hahaha.. I have no idea why this guy gave it to me.. or why he had it in the first place but, hell I was queen for a while.

Fran was not about to be torn away from these guys and the massive amounts of beer they were supplying her with. They even offered their hotel room to us to crash if we needed-- surprise surprise there. Stephanie and I were getting more and more excited about the rides since there were some "german efficient" ones all around the park. We tried to convince Fran to come with us but she was adamant on staying off the rides, since she was so drunk and afraid she was going to get sick. So we made her promise not to leave the bar and we would be right back after a few rides. Boy.. that didn't happen!

Steph and I rode some awesome twisty turny, high upside rides. I had a missed call from Fran, so we decided to go back. She wasn't there of course! We wandered around and ran into the guys that we left in charge of her and they said that they had to leave and Fran just started walking off anyway. So we continued to try and call and wandered about until miraculously we ran into again with the massive hoards of people! Thank god! Let's continue drinking!

We finally were able to get Fran to do the swing ride which actually goes quite high. Beautiful views of the park though!






There was a carousel bar! Genius! As you can tell from the video.. my voice was shot!

Met some grabby Italians they were nice at first.. but.. gosh grabby and Italian just go hand-in-hand. You can see Fran clinging to Stephanie for dear life! And this is the A-hole that stole Fran's hat! Awww.. she was soo sad!

We met this great guy Jani who let us stay at his place. Our original plan was to just keep partying all night and just try to make it through the weekend by maybe sleeping at the train station. Which we did pass by to get some beer and we saw MANY people share this idea- there were people camped out on the stairs and in the hallways. Crazy.. but Jani saved us and refused to let us be one of those people. He was from Finland and he just moved out to Munich that weekend actually. He let Spanish guys sleep at his place the night before.. so we knew that he was no a creepo. So out of the 3 nights he was in Munich- 2 of them he slept on his couch... aww poor thing! But again.. we thank him for his hospitality. His roommates must've thought he was a pimp since they found 3 girls in his room the next day! haha

Since we didn't get to go into the tents the night before, we decided that we had to go back to the fairgrounds and get into a tent just for the mere sake of taking pictures. You can't go to Oktoberfest and NOT get into a tent! That's just ridiculous. Our original plan was to go to the tent.. take pictures.. have A beer.. and then go out and see the rest of Munich before we had to be back at the train station around 4. yea.. once we entered the beer tent.. it was all over. Amazing to think that these tents are temporary and they take so long to build for just 3 weeks and then its gone!
We went to Hofbrau House and the mayhem began. It was 11 am and I had my first beer of the day and I wasn't about to stop right there. People were just sooo happy!! Singing songs.. drinking beer.. chanting different German sayings! I really should've looked up the words the day before we left.. cuz it would've been nice to chant along with all of them.. but we did pick up.. kinda. Heyy Baby! Oooh! Ahhh! I want to knooow.. if you'll be my girl! Ohh Ahh! hahaha

They play this other specific song about every 10 minutes.. and that's everyone's cue to cheers each other.. gosh I have never Cheered that many people before.. dang and those beer steins are freakin heavy!! I was holding it up with 2 hands by the end of the night! I've truly never had that much fun in my life and I soo wish I could've been there all day! I'm sad we didn't go there Saturday- that would have been crazy... but we were at least able to get in Sunday! That was the greatest! I will definitely go again.. and next time.. I hope to bring my bestest friends ever-- Seth, Ash, Tyson, B-yann, Bex!

September's Adventures

Sorry- this was supposed to be posted on Sept 25:
I've had a busy few weeks so here are the major highlights: Karlstejn, Telc, Serbian concert, Slumdog, Karlovo Lazne, and then Melnik.

I went to Karlstejn (pronounced Karlstein) a few weekends ago with my friend Maria from the Celta course. Karlstejn is only about 30 minutes away from Prague. Since I had the Prague metro pass, it came out to only 56 crowns which is about 3 dollars- woo hoo! Really cheap! Karlstejn is a very small tourist town. The main streets or I should say street has many houses and tourist shops to filter though. The main attraction is the big castle at the top of the hill overlooking the whole town-- which as you can see is quite small.
Karlstejn was nice.. it was really beautiful, and just a nice relaxing day out of the city. It's worth taking a day trip too since its so cheap, but unfortunately to go inside the castle its 200 crowns which was not worth it for us.. we just decided to admire the outside. I got a little crazy and trespassed to take a picture so here's a picture of me running pass the trespass sign.. hahah oops



















We then decided to go to a city called Telc (pronounced Telch) the next night with Joanna my new roommate. Telc is a charming little town about 3-4 hours south of Prague. Telc is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it really has become a tourist town. Telc is in Moravia and Prague is in Bohemia. It is actually really close to Austria and you can see the German-Austrian influence in the city and the people. We got there when it was dark and hadn't booked a place to stay yet. We were informed that all the places were booked except the Pension Patricia. There was no front desk to walk into, instead there was a buzzer and an intercom. We rang, and did not hear much. We waited and waited, and then out of nowhere a woman popped outside her second door window to look down on us to see what we wanted. It was like out of a movie set in medieval times haha.. classic. She showed us an apartment which was fantastic: living room, bedroom, 2 big beds and a couch, kitchen, and bathroom! AND it was cheaper than one of the hotels down the street that only had one bed! So we brought down the price just a bit anyways.. and booked it. Patricia is such a nice old woman. Very sweet and told us all the things to do and for us to take our time when we wanted to leave. Aww really nice!

Telc has a gorgeous town square and a river all around it, almost making it into an island somewhat. Walking along the small bridge across the river was so nice. The streets were very small and just charming. The main square looks like a cutout from an old western. All of the facades of the buildings are so decorative with different bright colors and wonderful artwork. It just looked like if you touched it, then the whole set would fall over. Really amazing though! Inside the church a group of young men were playing brass instruments so that was really nice, and then we went inside the castle walls into the mosseleum and were greeted with more music this time- air instruments including the recorder! I haven't see one of those since elementary school! They were all dressed up in medieval costumes. The mosseleum was gorgeous and the cage around the bodies was very ornate. The ceiling was 3D, where the cherubs were playing horns, the horns actually came out of the ceiling.. as well as this cross with Jesus held out by I'm assuming God.















We were wondering if they always have music playing in these places, and then we went into the courtyard and discovered many people dressed up in old clothes and different activities for tourists to be entertained with. We asked if it is always like this, but they said it was UNESCO heritage day, so it was a special day to visit.. Lucky us!
The castle is not really amazing to look at from the outside.. but the tour inside was only about 100 crowns so we decided to go. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the rooms, but of course.. I'm a sneaky little gal and took the flash off the camera and when the guide wasn't looking I would try to snap away. Unfortunately she was always in the room and wouldn't let us just roam around for a bit so all my pics were taken quickly so ended up blurry. grr

The one room, actually two rooms that really struck me were the African room and the Blue room. The old inhabitants there were great lovers of hunting, so the African room was this long hallway type room, that was just covered (every inch) with animal heads, and skins, and had this crocodile sprawled against the walls. It had a giant elephant tusk displayed on one end as well as the an elephant ear!! wtf! It was insane walking through that room.. just glancing at it.. I was speechless by the intensity of all those animals!

The other room was this beautiful blue room that was soo rich in this intense blue color. It had a waffle ceiling with pictures portraying poseidon, zeus, and hercules was in almost every room because of his adventures killing different beasts.

This one room with the knight armor had a waffle ceiling as well and each square displayed Hercules killing a different beast during his adventures.

Then we went up the bell tower after lunch, which had the smallest doorway and the tiniest winding stairway.. it was intense how cramped it was walking up the steps. Half of my foot barely fit on each step. But we made it to the top and saw a great view of the city! What a charming place. Definitely a good day trip.. since it takes so long to get there just spending one night is sufficient to take in the beauty of the town. There's not much else to do.



When we were back in Prague, my roommate's boyfriend told us about a concert that was being held in old town square that was free. It was Serbian music. I had no idea what the meant, or what to expect, but a concert that was free.. I was down to go! It was awesome! The music was really fun and lively (even though we learned that all the songs are either funeral songs or wedding songs.. weird) The crowd knew the words and were singing along. It was just awesome to see this huge concert set built in the middle of the square: Old with the New.. Amazing!


The next night was Friday night and I was meeting some friends at a bar. Long story short, weirdest night of my life: Got propositioned by a 50 year old man, got very lewd comments thrown at me by an asshole walking towards me, but then RAN INTO SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ACTORS! It was nuts.. I was walking along one of the small alleys to get to the astrological clock, and I was walking past them and all I thought was "Oh look, some indians" but then this other guy stopped them and said something about slumdog.. and i turned around and I was like ohhh shit! I was up next to them and wait my turn to speak with them.. but this guy was taking such a damn long time! He took a picture with them but made them move into a place that had better light. They took his picture and then started walking away.. aww I was too chickenshit to stop them again! uggh just sucks.. I tried to be paparazzi cuz they were smooching under the clock and he twirled her.. but all my pics came out black. gosh there goes my career as a paparazzi!

Oh well.. we ended up going to Karlovo Lazne that night which is the largest club in Europe. It is 5 stories with each one with a completely different theme and music. That was good fun going out with Fran (my old roommate) and her friends from her school. She has all these fun young people to go out with.. while my coworkers are all older and married.. grr! But we had a great time.. and didn't get home until 530 in the morning. So worth the 170 crown-- I just need to try to pre party at home cuz I can't seem to get drunk at these clubs!

Then last saturday we decided to go to Melnik which is a small town just 30 km north of Prague. They had their annual wine festival that weekend- Sept 18-20. The wine that is famous here is called Burcak (pronounced Burchak). This wine is not really wine like you would see anywhere else. Burcak means young wine-- so basically this stuff is half fermented, and when you drink it, it continues to ferment in your stomach! Sick right? This stuff may sound disgusting, and it even doesn't look that appetizing because it's so cloudy, but drinking it is just like juice. It's sweet and tangy. They have a red version too, which I find to be tastier. I could've drunken this stuff all day, and I would have if I hadn't felt so terrible from going out to the club the night before. haha The whole town was just like this big carnival that costs 200 crown just to get in. There are rides and games and activities, and lots of weird things to buy including: candy penis-- which later on we saw someone actually sucking on it.. icck!





Melnik also has a castle, and we took a tour inside of it for like 100 crowns or something like that. The nice thing about this tour was that it wasn't guided, so we could roam about in each room and take our sweet ass time. Of course you couldn't take pictures inside, and there were actually cameras mounted up to catch people who did take pics.. but of course.. that didn't stop me! Best part was being in the church.. Oz- Stephanie's Turkish boyfriend looked at this painting of Jesus and exclaimed: "Look, it's Chinese Jesus!" hahahah oh man.. see for yourself, I do think he looks quite Chinese in this haha

That was my exciting 2-3 weeks. Now this weekend I'm going to Munich for Oktoberfest so that should prove to be great fun as well!