Czech Me Out- Prague rounds 1 and 2

I took my first full weekend international trip over this past weekend to Prague in the Czech Republic. I was really excited about Prague since so many people told me that I had to go there to see the architecture. It really is like walking through a fairy tale. It was so cool to see spires and gothic towers all the city. I felt really safe and welcome there and they even had starbucks! We flew in late Thursday and were able to take a cab to the hostel. The hostel was really clean, but the hallways were dark and the stairways sounded like they might cave in. Jenny and I has had an extra bed in our room that we let Christina use since hers was nicely located in a closet. On Friday morning we woke up early, well fairly early, and took a free walking tour of the old town. Our guide was a Scottish man who is married to a Czech girl. We met by the astrological clock, which is the only one in the world. The man who made it was later blinded by city officials so that he would never make another one. We got to hear all the stories and myths about the buildings. My personal favorite was of a theif who tried to steal from a church and a stature of Mary latched onto his arm until a priest chopped off. There is a real human arm hanging from the ceiling that is supposedly hundreds of years old. We also saw the oldest synagogue in Europe- home of the Gollum. The tour ended up near the Charles bridge which we walked across and took pictures on. There are some really cool statures and artists strung along the bridge. We then walked to the Prague castle and saw the cathredral. It was one of the prettiest churches I have even been in. We then got to see my favorite thing in Prague- The John Lennon wall. It started out as young people leaving messages of hope- often through beatles lyrics during times of oppression in Prague. It was continued to be written on and I even signed it myself. I am really happy to be going back to Prague because there is more I want to see in depth.
This week In Rome has been flying by. It also has been raining a lot sadly. Yesterday for Layers of Rome we went to the Roman Forum and Colisseum. I can not believe I have class in these locations. It really makes me miss history classes. We have an older British Professor who makes everything sound so interesting. I have most of my trips planned out- still working on booking everything. I’m listing them down here- please give suggestions on things to do or places to stay!
Feb 12- Venice
Feb 19- Florence
Feb 26- Prague (again)
March 5- roma (midterms)

March 12- roma (midterms)
March 19-28- Amsterdam, London, and Dublin
April 2- staying in Rome for Easter!
April 9- Scotland
April 16- Cilento
April 23- Greece
April 30- Munich
May 7- Cinque Terre
May 14th- Paris

Round Two

Prague round two did nothing to dispel the magic of the city for me. I truly love Prague and hope to someday spend an extended amount of time exploring even more. We took the walking tour with Colin again and this time opted to see the castle, which was really cool. I even got to see where Mozart lived in Prague. I also went to the bone church, which was really creepy. It is decorated with the bones of 40,000 plague victims and is located about an hour outside the city. We got there by train and it was interesting to see the Czech countryside. We found our way to an Irish pub with great live music.

Wine Class and the Vatican

So I missed out on writing about a lot of details in my first two weeks because of the lack of internet and the overwhelming amount of events that occured. So I've decided that I will try to focus one of those happenings in each of my next couple weeks of blogging.
There is a fruit market right outisde my apartment that is fun by two younger Italian men (both are in their twenties). They are always so friendly and helpful. I think they always try to practice their english with us because they ask us the same questions every day, but always end with "See you tomorrow". They say good morning to me even on the days I don't stop there to buy fruit-and ohhh the fruit. It really is amazing quality and I just can not figure out how fruit in the US can be so horrid compared to this stuff. The blood oranges and apples are to die for for! (Sorry Mom, haven't tried it with any blue moon)
Yesterday I had class from 9-4:30 with a short break. The day begin by making an early, cold, and rather long trek to the Piazza di Republica(not spelled correctly) to met for my Layers of Rome class. We went to Museo Nazionale Romano, a house for ancient Roman art. We looked at wall frescos (Empress Livia has a winter dinner room painted to look like a forest in full blood), mosaics (Romans love hippos, crocs, and pygmys), and sculputers (they made hermaphadite jokes). Then I had two house of Italian language, where I found out that I will have a test the day after the super bowl is on at 2am here- sigh the life of a student abroad. The day ended with a 2 hour info session on wine :-) Last night after skyping with some of my favorite people (My Mommy, Tylerphant. and Frank), I went out for a few drinks with some of the girls and def had a good night.
Today we went to the Vatican Musuem and saw the Sistine Chapel. It really is too much to take in all at once so I feel I will have to return to it in a few weeks to really get a grasp on the massive amazment that Mikey created. He always the coolest turtle. The museum has so many random things that the church has collected in the form of artwork over the past two thousand years- there is an entire egyptain wing I have yet to step foot in. The amount of beautiful paintins on a ceiling that runs for over 300 feet was so hard to comprehend. Who really spends that much effort ona ceiling? - The Catholic church. After the musuem I had a class on facism and promptly came home to spend three hours on skype with my wonderful mom as she called and tried to figure out all the crazyiness involved in changing my flight. I have two classes tomorrow and then I fly into Prague around 10 PM. So be looking out for info on castles and torture chambers in the next entry!

First Two Weeks in Rome

So I realize this post a little overdue, but I finally have internet in my apartment. I will be updating this at least a few times a week, if all goes well. The plane ride here went well, no problems. A nice Swiss guy sat next to Jessica and me, but was promptly moved to the front isle due to his long legs. Getting to Rome was much easier then getting to our apartment. After the bus dropped us off we had a nice walk uphill on two streets with all our luggage in tow. I really thought I might pass out on the stop. Our apartment is pretty far from our school, train stop, and other people on our program but it will just have to do. We have a really nice balcony that wraps around our apartment, so that makes me happy. The freezing tempurates and lack of enough hot water is another story.
Getting to school on the first day was interesting and involved getting lost a few times, but we made it eventually. I am taking five classes at Scuola Leonardo da Vinci- 1) Italian Language 2) Layers of Rome ( an on site class) 3) Italian Society and Culture 4) Food and Culture and 5) Food and Media. So far I have enjoyed layers of Rome the most because we get to explore the city while being guided by a British Proffessor, makes everything sound more sophicated! I keep getting Italian and French words confused, but I will straighten it all out in the end.
The first weekend I went to Naples, Pompei, and the island of Capri. We took a train at entirely too early in the morning (to get the best price of course!). The hostel we stayed at was really beautiful and I definetly felt safe, which is important in a city like Naples. I had some of the world famous pizza- a little rich for me. The first day we took a bus to the ruins of Pompei and explored the city. It was so much larger than I expected. The bodies encasted in Ash and later plaster were erie and vivid. The teeth were still white on one man. The ruins are also used as a dog sanctuary and adoption center-which made me like it even more. We were unable to hike the volcano because of ice and I was not too upset due swelling in my ankle from a nasty fall the previous Thursday night. We were walking home from a bar, and in the middle of a busy road they left a giant wooden grate that was used to repaint the crosswalk-it happened to look just like a crosswalk. One thing led to another and BAM down I go. My legs were pretty buised up. Sunday we took a boat to the island of Capri and later took a smaller boat around the island. The grotto was amazing. We then hiked up a cliff, on a path, and walked down to the other side of the port. We took some amazing pictures on the rocks and the beach.
The second weekend was spent here in Rome. I had a good time going out Saturday night with a lot of the girls :-) Sunday we went an AS Roma match against Sienna. It was a pretty intense atmosphere, but a good time. It was tied until Roma score in the 88th minute and the place went nuts.
I'm headed to Prague this weekend, so I am pretty excited about that venture. My amazing mother is sending me a package this week, so I am very excited to be recieving that :-) We are going out on a pub crawl tomorrow, so that should be fun. I miss all you from back home a lot. Send me an IM on AIM- Ktblondle13 talk to me on skype- krista.turey if you want to call me for some reason, or just to chat my number is 39 339 718 3047