New Years in...Prague

And, finally, here it is. Happy New Year, everyone.
Now that I am pretty much caught up, I can return to my usual babbling for miles (or kilometers over here) about everything I am seeing and doing. And I am extremely pleased to say that it's a lot. These past two weeks have made me think of what it might have been like to be one of those kids who could afford to just take a year off and travel around Europe. It's also made me realize that I'm not that far off from that dream... I sometimes complain about the job, but since it's so minimal, I am learning to enjoy my free time.
So as Sarah announced back in November that she would be coming for two weeks, I decided that we ought to do something fabulous for New Years. You know, so we wouldn't be missing out friends and family members not celebrating with us.
So I picked Prague! Praha! Prag! And the result was a spectacular adventure...

Vltava River...beautiful views, bridges, memories...

Our "map" to the hostel. Conveniently right by out hostel.

 We left Thursday morning as dawn was peaking from beneath our permanently grayed sky. And I ought to add, the crack of dawn in my mind is 6 am. I really always find it hard to believe that life happens that early. But it did! and we took a train to Stuttgart where we would meet our Mitfahrgelegenheit. Mitfahrgelegenheit is the ride service I have been using. We traveled with a young couple who were doing nearly the same thing we were: escaping to a new city for the new year. We arranged to travel to and from Prague with them, and I have to say that we were extremely lucky to have found such a great ride. They were friendly, accommodating, full of conversation and questions, and even brought us directly to our hostel (und picked us up there on Sunday). Although I have not yet had a bad experience with this ride service, this was by far the best and most enjoyable. Unfortunately for poor Sarah (as had been the problem for the past few weeks) they did not speak English. For two weeks I had had to try and convince my friends to either speak English, or allow for pauses as I did a horrible summary/translation for Sarah and attempted to relay the humor of a joke or a conversation to her. In the process, though, my friends and I had a great time translating common phrases ("he who sits and a glass house..."), especially the ones that make no sense in a literal translation.
Anyway, to sum up my tangent, we were lucky to have had such nice people for the ride to and from Prague, though (like many Germans) they were either too self-conscious to speak English with native speakers or didn't speak very much English.
We got to Prague at noon on Thursday, and stayed until about 4pm on Sunday. We had three adventuresome nights and four exhausting, exciting days.

Last stop of the tour in Old Town Square.

We took a tour, did some exploring, went to the castle, dined in the restaurants, and climbed to the top of Prague's berg! However...we nearly froze to death in the process. It turns out that I am quite good at choosing the coldest weekend to visit absolutely anywhere I want to go. Thursday after we arrived, we put down our things, took a tour...and then allowed ourselves approximately 2 hours to de-thaw afterwards before deciding it was just too cold to party our first night. (Am I getting old?...sorry readers older than me...even young people have these thoughts)
Anyway, as per usual, I loved the tour. I learned a lot about Prague, and I was reminded of the rich history and different aspects of another amazing city. When asked by friends about Prague, I tell everyone how amazing it was...but a lot of people were clearly in Prague to party. Don't get me wrong. I like a good party, too, but I really learned a lot and had a great time doing it.

Castle...and really...the castle is a small city of amazing buildings...

Friday, though, was already New Years Eve. We got up, put on a hundred and three layers, and headed out for a really busy day/night/morning! We walked over to the vegetarian restaurant we had heard about to make reservations for our posh dinner for two on the way to the Prague Castle. As luck would have it, the restaurant was not yet open, but the friendly store next to our restaurant brought us inside anyway. Not only did they make a reservation for us, but the owner just happened to have a family pass to all of the castle exhibits (worth about 70 Euro, mind you) which she gave to us to use! We walked (about an hour) to the castle (it's up quite a hill, people) and did the usual castle exploring business that happens in these parts. I wish I could say that it blew my mind, but it was probably one of the least exciting things I saw in Prague. The ticket did, however, include the art galleries, there! Which, of course, I loved. I realize this is hard to explain for those of you not living within an hour of several castles...but after a while....a castle is just another castle...and the Disney dream of living there with my knight in shining armor has long faded. The art, however, was spectacular. Mucha Mucha Mucha. sigh... I think one of my favorite things in most fantastic cities is usually the art housed there. I had no idea that there were so many interesting Czech artists!

Old Town Sqaure lit up with fireworks and festivities!

Well, after we saw what we could before the castle closed, we moseyed on home to get ready for a Sylvester celebration! First was dinner at Cafe Radost! And what a fanastic dinner it was! This cafe was all vegetarian or vegan dishes not only with a fantastic variety, but with fantastic flavor as well. Delicious! Plus it's located on top of it's club (also really cool) and the cafe serves until 4am! Finally an alternative to Dennys and McDonalds! Anyway, it was great. We then headed to our Prague Pub Crawl. I know this sounds cheesy, and it was a bit cheesy by design, but! we had admission to the best clubs that night and quite a few drinks for much less (and without the waiting) than we would have paid trying to get tickets and get into clubs that night. As it turns out...Prague is crazy on New Years. Big surprise, right? On the walk over, we passed a temporary hospital/police station near Old Town Square and hundreds! of police officers. There were also already fireworks and performers in the squares...the celebration had begun by 7pm in Prague!
Well, we enjoyed the pub crawl, met some fantastic new people (and also some less than fantastic drunk people), and ended up at the biggest club in Europe just before midnight. We got in, checked out coats, and headed outside (yes, the order was less than logical) to the famous Karl's Bridge to watch the fireworks.

Karlsbridge after midnight: my attempt to capture fireworks on camera

As midnight struck, I was outside on the bridge surrounded by fireworks (in the air and in the crowd), champagne spraying, an uncountable number of languages and cultures, and the feeling of revelry. A perfect way to begin 2011: overwhelmed by the amazing opportunities, people, and places that I am able to experience during my time here.

I could not imagine a more exciting New Years, unless it included my friends and family, of course (sorry for the cheese). My intention was to be somewhere fantastic so that I wouldn't be missing all of you people, and it was most definitely successful.

We returned home circa 6:30am...and spend most of our first day of the new year enjoying our capacities to sleep most of the day away. When we got up eventually, we took a walk around Prague, grabbed some dinner, and spent the night reading, relaxing, and planning out our last day in Prague.

Sarah and I at the top!

Since we were leaving so late on Sunday, we were able to spend the entire day out and about. We did a little shopping ( I browsed and dreamt of all the fantastic things I would buy if I were rich and not exactly the opposite, thank you LU) and then we ventured up the Prague Berg! It was a bit of a walk, but well worth it! Mounted at the top of Prague's southern region was a beautiful church/gallery/other holy-type stuff (there was only information in Czech due to the fact that it's not the most common tourist destination sans castle, and everything) and the most amazing view of the city from all sides! From there we could see all the famous buildings, all of the most famous bridges, and a spectacular view of the city.

By the best views were these stone maps that pointed out all of the biggest sights...really cool.

And a view of the bridges of Prague...again mapped out for us in stone!

We headed home on Sunday satisfied and exhausted...and for me with an even more noticeable itch to continue traveling. I cannot wait to travel eastward again. Prague, though very touristy and international, was extremely different than Germany. Five hours seemed to make a world of difference... the dress was more eastern, the buildings all that grey dream-like glow with rounded turquoise tops, and the language was undecipherable (due to an excess of consonants in every words). And I loved it. A few more pictures for you all...

Karl's Bridge with castle in the background

Kafka statue! Can anyone name the story?

Beautiful Prague sunset...

The dancing houses

New Years stroll down the river...

Since I blew all my money in Prague (hehe) I will be hanging around these parts for a bit. I have been spending a lot of time with Meli, Florian, David, and Steffan...as they have all been extremely welcoming of me into their group of friends. I finally saw the infamous "handball" that they play...and I have to say it wasn't thrilling. To be fair, though, this is coming from a girl who is bored by basketball...and this was like basketball with a soccer goal...and a lot more pushing and shoving. Oh, and the ball it sticky! (Found that out the hard way...) Wednesday night is American Night at my place! David is going to be studying in Maine next year...and everyone will be visiting him (and tentatively me, too...yippie!) so I have decided to force them all to speak English with me once a week. Plus it gives me an excuse to keep practicing my cooking skills (last week was Mexican food...the enchilladas and Spanish rice were to die for!) and have people over.

In other news...I have begun thinking about my future. First choice: stay here and travel around Europe for a few more years (problem: funding). Second choice: grad school. Yes, that's right. I have just received some GRE prep material and I am going to start studying in case I don't find a way to stay here. Still thinking about speech pathology...and starting to snoop around and programs, etc. Mind you, though, I am doing this very slowly! Don't expect me to come back all motivated. I will surely come back all mopey and sad (at least for a while) and not ready to immediately begin another round of schooling. But, just so you don't think it's all fun and games (just almost), I am at least considering the fact that I will eventually need to return home. Sigh...

Thanks for all the holiday thoughts, wishes and gifts! I am thinking of you all.

Much love, everyone.