"The Czech cuisine is heavy, fat, unhealthy but very nice"

1. pictures are up!
2. the above is a very true statement. lol

K, so I need to back up and update about Prague... also known as Praha.

Last week wasn't that exciting, I basically unpacked from Spain and repacked for Prague.

Caitlin, Rebecca and I left from Strasbourg airport on Thursday, basically right after class; our flight left at 7 and got in at 8:40 to Prague, and we met up with Connor, Rebecca's boyfriend there. When we were there talking to a cab driver, a lovely 40 something looking man came up and tried to kidnap Caitlin: welcome to Prague! haha, but seriously, it was creepy and made us a little wary about this Czech town. So we got to the hotel (got completely ripped off by the cab driver, but didn't figure that out till later... oh well, lesson learned) and it was so nice! We stayed at the Plaza Alta Hotel for a ridiculously cheap price - $45 a night (so, $22 each since Caitlin and I were sharing the room) AND we got a free buffet breakfast - I'll get there in a sec - AND they had apples all over the place, so we would take those too (not sure if we were supposed to or if they were supposed to be decorative but oh well! lol). So we all got there, got our rooms, sat down for a bit and unpacked sort of (however much you can unpack when you packed for a weekend in a backpack) and then went down to the hotel bar/mexican restaurant for our complimentary drink and a basket of chips and salsa (so Czech, I know lol). Then we all decided to try a shot of absinthe, because, well, we couldn't try it any other place, so might as well. So the waitress brought us 4 shots of absinthe and while we looked apprehensively at the green liquid in the huge shot glasses, she asked, "Um, would like a glass of water or something...?" to which we replied, "YES, water please." She brought the water, we took the shots, downed the water and then waited for a green fairy to appear. No such luck. Not even weird dreams at night. Very disappointed in the absinthe (although that's probably a good thing, I might've freaked out if I started hallucinating). After that, we went to bed in the comfy hotel :)

Friday we planned to meet in the lobby at 11 to start our day of adventuring. So, we got up and went to breakfast a little before that. The breakfast was heaven. It was a full American style hot buffet featuring scrambled eggs, fried eggs, sauteed tomatoes, bacon, sausage, pastries, different kinds of cereal, different kinds of bread, fruit, yogurt, cold cuts, cheese, coffee and juice. as I said, HEAVEN. And since it was free, we stuffed ourselves to bursting, that way we wouldn't have to buy lunch. From there we went to the "Eiffel Tower of Prague" which was really just a lookout post that was about 1/10 the size of the real Eiffel Tower. So we climbed all the way up - I must've burned off at least one pastry that way - and could see all of Prague (see pics!) And then we went to the "Castle" of Prague (it was actually more like a series of buildings built around the cathedral) and tried to get in, but then we found out that it would've been like 500 koruny (I don't actually know the plural or spelling of the Czech currency, we called it all kinds of names - koruner, koruny, koruna, korunas, etc lol) which would've been around $25-30, so we were like uh, no thanks. So we walked around and went in the Cathedral, which was free. I am such a church nerd, I love snapping pics of cathedrals and churches and trying to see if I can find where they renovated or added on to the original structure. After the cathedral, we were all freezing, so we went to find a cafe and sit inside somewhere. We found one and Caitlin and I tried the hot wine - it was really good! It tasted kind of like a cross of wine and hot cider. Plus, it was warm. That was necessary. Ok, anyways, after the hot wine, we decided to head back to the hotel to chill for a bit, then head out for a Czech meal for dinner. The receptionist told us about this restaurant in Old Town (there's Old Town and New Town. Old Town was built in the 11th century and New Town was built in the 14th. It's really new, as you can tell lol) so we found it and all ordered. First Rebecca got beer sausages in beer, which (be proud of me!) I tried - and hated - but still tried. The sauce was really good though. I got the "meat roll" which was basically beef in a spicy sauce wrapped in a butter pastry bread. It was delicious. Connor got a meat plate that came with 2 types of neck, 1/4 of a duck and some sausage. Rebecca got smoked meat in potato dumplings and Caitlin was healthy and got a salad (but with a side of baked potatoes... except the potatoes were baked in bacon grease... the Czech love their fats and carbs...) Then we went and wandered around, found an Irish pub and went inside and had a drink, that was fun, there was a guy playing American and Irish songs. We left from there and went to this place called the Beer Factory, where there's a tap on the table! lol it was funny. It started as a pretty chill place and we all got free drinks with the cover charge, so we sat and chilled and drank our beer. Then the DJ started playing American dance songs so it started getting more fun. Connor bought us a round of drinks and he got a B-52, which is a shot of half kahlua and half Baileys with a bit of Absinthe on top. The Berliners at the table next to us showed us how its done. I'll try to explain as best I can: you light the Absinthe on fire and then lick the palm of your hand. Then you quickly cover the shot glass with the wet part of your palm to put out the fire. The fire uses up the oxygen in the glass, so it creates a vacuum so the glass sticks to your hand, allowing you to shake the glass and mix the Baileys and kahlua and then after all that, you actually take the shot. So we had some fun at the Beer Factory haha... the Berliners were fun too!

Ok, I still have to write up about saturday and sunday, but I really need to do some homework (I know, homework? while studying abroad? what???) so I will post about that soon. I hope.

adios!