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! ;)
