Cool pic eh?

Kasia, me, and Cass. behind us is St. Wenceslas sq.

Me, Alisha, guard, Annalise, and Anna

Ok there are seven people squishing in, but the shortest girl, Camille is in the back.

Alisha, me and Cass at the pub/cafe.

Prague was a fun experience. We stayed in a hotel and hostel, lots of school groups use these, because the leader can have a hotel room and the kids get cheap really disgusting hostel rooms that have a few bathrooms per floor and two shower rooms per floor.

We took a tour every day of the city except Saturday. The first day after our tour I went to lunch at a Czech cafeteria with Bruce’s parents and Kasia and Cassandra. Basically they eat a lot of fat. Every day they had street performers on Charles bridge, the really famous bridge of Prague. So I listened to a lot of bands perform there. We also found the first non-smoking café which was really cool because you could play checkers and chess while you drank your hot chocolate. I spent a total of about 3 hours in that café during the entire trip. One of the nights Cassandra, Alisha, and I went to a café/pub and watched live jazz. The band consisted of a piano, bass, and the drums. Maybe Spence could be in a jazz band and just play at restaurants whenever he wants. I’m pretty sure they made a lot of money, because it cost some money just to get in and see them. One day we went and climbed up to the top of a tower. It was an amazing view of the entire city.

I hung out a lot with Cassandra and Kasia on this trip. I also figured out a lot of Czech while I was there. The first night I had to figure out what peanuts was by going to the grocery store and looking at a lot of labels. By then I had figured out a bunch of other words too. So now Kasia and Cassandra think I am a genius because I can figure a language out without ever taking any classes or anything. So I am pretty proud of that, because I didn’t think it was really that cool, but I could read a lot more than anyone else in our group. Although when we got back to Vienna I felt like an idiot again. The dialect here is so strange and thick.

Scenes from mission impossible and the bourne identity were filmed here so I guess that makes me almost famous. right? ok not really, but it is cool.

Czech it out!

Just outside the grocery store was this awesome sock kiosk. Cass and I bought some dang awesome socks, as you can see.

This is just one of the awesome street bands that we listened to on Charles Bridge. The guy in the middle is playing a washboard with thimbles. That is what I call a true percussionist.

Kasia and Andy ( he would never look for a pic) sitting on the bridge.

me and Cass sitting next to them.

Prague

New Shoes

So I bought new shoes the other day, and I thought they were totally awesome. The next day it rained (again) super hard and I was completely soaked. now the shoelaces are blue from the dye in my pants, and they are already breaking. No worries though they still look pretty nice. Good thing they were half price.

Kreuzenstein Castle

me wielding a something or other that is really heavy

So yesterday our group went and took a tour of Kreuzenstein Castle. It was pretty sweet. Some dude bought some castle ruins long ago and totally renovated it and built another castle there with parts of castles from all over Europe that he bought. Lots of movies have been filmed here. In fact Nicholas Cage is coming in two weeks to film something.

Venice Italy

Cassandra and me

an escaped crab in the market

Cassandra, Claire, Kasia, and me on a boat

filming of a bollywood movie

Kasia, Claire, Cassandra, and Me at dinner

Florence Italy

Me and Marinda

Salzburg pictues

Do Ray Me Fa So La Te Do

Ok this is actually in Halstadt, but it was still really cool.

The oldest restaurant in the World. Yeah I ate there.

Rachel, Ruth, me, Joseph, and Niki inside the oldest restaurant in the world.

I'm in the back with my hand on the ground.

Halstadt and Salzburg

Me

Annalise, Me, and Rachel . . . yeah

beautiful

Halstadt. Exceptionaly Beautiful. In the morning we toured the oldest salt mine in the world. Pretty fun we got to slide down the longest mine slide in the world. Fun! Then we went on a hike up in the mountains. I loved it. Painters traveled from all over in the 17th century just to see these mountains. Then we went to St. Wolfgang's Church and saw the most valuable alter in the world. It is ridiculously old. Our "tour guide" (I think he was a priest.) spoke only German and was pretty funny when I could understand him. Friday we spent in Salzburg. (Sound of Music) wasn't my favorite city. I drank hot chocolate in the oldest restaraunt in the world. It has been there since 803 (not a typo) and it was ridiculously expensive. hence only hot chocolate. I got to be in a lot of the same places that Julie Andrews was when she was filming The Sound of Music. Other than that it was kind of a boring city. We also went to some priest guy's palace. The guy had a funny sense of humor. As we went on the tour water would come out of the most random places. I got pretty well soaked.

Dorfgastein

The first day there we went on a hike in the Snow capped mountains. This amazing guy named Fritz was our guide. We rode the gondola up and walked down to a small church (really random, but they have them on all of the large mountains here) and then to a small mountain farm. They fed us some homemade bread and cheese which I thought was really good even though it was super strong. Although I found out not many people in the group liked it. Then we walked back to a gondola station, where most people got on and rode the rest of the way back down. Some of us hiked down the rest of the mountain. We didn’t really follow at trail – just walked down the face. It was super muddy and fun. Then I went to my first soccer match since I have been here. It was lots of fun even though Dorfgastein lost. The next day was Sunday and also the day they celebrate Thanksgiving. So I already celebrated Thanksgiving. We attended their mass. Very interesting. Lots of praying and standing. Then they put on a parade. Almost everyone in the town was in the parade and about ten people watched and our BYU group. It took them about 15 min. to walk around the block and put on a little gun display. They all wore traditional military uniforms from different time periods. Then we had lunch and played soccer with Fritz (he was amazing even though I think he is 60) I was the goalie and I stopped a few of his almost goals. So I felt pretty good, considering I haven’t played for a long time. Monday morning we hiked up the other mountain (steep hike and before breakfast) to another farm, and had an amazing breakfast. The first time I have had scrambled eggs since I have been here. It was so delicious.

Halstadt, Salzburg, and Dorfgastein

So in Dorfgastein we rode the dki lift up the mountain and climbed back down. By the way it was below freezing and there was snow at the top. Half way down most of the group got back on the gondola and rode the rest of the way down, but we (in pic below) hiked the rest of the way down. and there was no trail after that. This is a giant fireplace in a monastary we went to. In Halstadt we rode up this tram to the top of a mountain to go to the oldest salt mine in the world. quite fun. That is almost the entire town of Halstadt below.

At the salt mine they made us wear these scrub type clothing for some reason that may or may not be important. I never found out why, but we looked pretty funny. Alisha, me, Dani Dani, me, and our tour guide