From Milan and on!

I know, I know...I haven't updated my blog since the beginning of the month! And I'm soo sorry for that, but who reads this anyways? Besides Claudia, of course.

I don't exactly remember perfectly what I've done since Milan, but I'll try my best.

The following weekend I stayed in Rome and explored for a few days! The first day Claudia, Catherine, and I went to the Roman Forums, Imperial Forums, and the Wedding Cake. Claudia gave us lots of historical facts and silly little tidbits of information. Catherine and I then went to the Vatican Museums to see the Sistine Chapel. I had already been once before, but I knew I needed to go again because after learning some artistic knowledge from my Renaissance class, I thought maybe I could appreciate it a little better. :] After the Sistine Chapel (it was our first stop, just so we knew we didn't miss it) we accidently went down the wrong pathway and ended up completely skipping half of the exhibits because we went out an exit and ended up at St. Peter's. Oops? Guess I'll have to go back again for a third time.
The following day Claudia, Savannah, and I went on a "walk" that one of the travel books told us to do because we wanted to see some new sights. Welllll, the map was a little sketchy, and we ended up lost, so we gave up after a while. But! We saw the pyramid, the Caracalla Baths, some random churches, a protestant cemetery, cat sanctuary, anddd I'm fairly positive that's it. So, all in all, we had a pretty productive day nonetheless.

The next week was a veryyy busy week for me. I had registration to worry about, a cooking class, and then traveling to pack for! Luckily registration went very smoothly, and I have my recipes for the cooking class. Can't wait to use them again :]
Friday, I went to Assisi with Catherine on a paid JCU trip. We had a tour guide show us around the Basilica of San Francesco, Basilica of Santa Chiara, and the main center square. After the tour we got a free yummy lunch with the group, and we were off to shop and explore the city :] I managed to get 3 of my friends gifts in Assisi, which was a major relief for me. On a side note: it was FREEZING in Assisi, not prepared for that. It was an adorable small town though, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back because they had beautifulllllllllllllll ceramics there. Unfortunately they didn't take my discover card, or else momma would've gotten some ceramics for christmas! hahaha.
After a day in Assisi, it was time to get ready for Brussels, Belgium in the morning! Claudia, Catherine and I were up and ready to go around.....8? I think. I don't remember. We were in Brussels by noon, and were exploring the city by around 4. Thanks to a very long bus ride from the airport to the city, then finding out hostel. Where we got extremely side tracked due to a packed metro, and I unfortunately got separated from them....it was horrible. I watched the doors close with them on the platform side, and me on the inside...so I went to Saint Catherine, the final stop for us to get to our hostel, but they didn't think I knew to go there...so I waited for about an hour. hahah. We finally found each other...
Brussels was such a quirky city! We stayed in the city center, and explored the square the first night just because we were sooo exhausted from the traveling. But there was enough to see in that area that it didn't even matter. We also saw Mannequin Pis! A famous LITTLE statue of a boy peeing. Cute. The following morning we went to a comic book museum, saw some famous churches, and other sights, which I can't name off the top of my head because they are either French or Flemish, and I don't particularly speak either of those languages very well.. More so flemish than french lol.
But I fell in love with Brussels very quickly. Just the Architecture, the people, and of course the WAFFLES. and fries...we had waffles everyday, as well as fries. I didn't complain. Especially since it was raining (of course) and freezing the whole time we were there. I could justify a nice warm waffle from belgium. mmmm <3


Now that I covered that weekend, time to move on to the next...I had a relaxing school week in Rome. I got familiar with the studio for pictures in photography class, and I picked my topic for the final project. Cemeteries! Which I really don't like at all, and would rather stay away from them. But my professor enjoyed my pictures taken from the cemetery here in Rome, so I decided to continue on with that.


I left for Prague on Thursday with Liat :] and luckily Prague is fresh in my mind since it's only Monday morning...so I think I'll have a lot to say about it.
We took a bus to another bus, and then we arrived at the airport. Witnessed a very unhappy family get denied onto another flight. At that point I really wished I was bilingual and could understand what that poor girl was crying about...security got involved. and that's that.
We arrived in prague around...6:30ish? Jonathan picked us up from the airport, and took us through the wholeee route on getting from the airport to our hostel, which of course included: a bus, the metro, then a tram. mmm wonderful :] He then took us out to dinner at a restaurant he enjoyed, and I triedddddd some Czech beer, really I did. I just didn't enjoy it that much....I need to get a taste for beer I guess. So I had some wine instead at another little pub he took us too, which has a block of wood in it that serves for some very silly, and dangerous game? Basically, once you get drunk you can ask for some hammer and nails, and hammer the nails into the block of wood for fun. odd. No one did it that night, so we didn't get to witness it lol.
The following morning Liat and I were up and ready to CONQUER Prague. Which we did. We took the tram to a cute church (nameste miru? i can't spell) but our hostel, then walked from there. Our first stop was the national museum and the wenceslas square. The museum architecture was pretty gotchic, which I loved! All of Prague felt very gothic, and dark...it was beautiful. I need to go back and experience it some more.
Breakfast was at the Bohemia Bagel in prague :] I neeeeded that bagel, it was wonderful. We then jumped onto the free tour with New Europe and saw all the major sights: Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, Old New Synagogue, Jewish Cemetery, Spanish Synagogue, New Town (Wenceslas Square again), the Metronome, some hotel were communist officials used to stay (brothel included), an opera house where Mozart played!, the Black Madonna house, Powder tower, Municipal Court, anddd possibly something else. I'm not sure lol.
After the tour, Liat and I continued on our sights and went back to the Prague Castle, and Carles bridge! We stopped and got some hot chocolate with cake as a little snack :] then to the John Lennon wall...basically a wall of graffiti with John Lennon on it. haha. Then we went up to the castle, which really isn't even a castle. It's just a cathedral with a wall around it...which constitutes for a castle...so I hear. By that point, we were ready to just relax because it was dark outside, so we unsuccesfully went souvenir shopping. We just kinda walked around an area we really liked by the Black Madonna House, and window shopped. We then met up with Jonathan for dinner, and he took us to his favorite restaurant :]! (On a side note: Jonathan was extremely accommodating all weekend, if he comes to Rome I owe him, or even whenever he returns to Texas...) Liat managed to get her flavored beer at some other pub afterwards, which she continued to rave about allllllllllll weekend haha ( Love you, lee lee).
We went home fairly early because the next day was going to be another long one.
We woke up and were out of the hostel by 8 o'clock to get to our bus to Terezin that left at 9:30. Terezin was a concentration camp, so it proved to be a trying morning for the both of us. I was aware of the Holocaust and what happened then, but I wasn't really ready for what I was going to see at Terezin. It was an experienced I felt I needed to have though... Terezin has an interesting story behind it though. They referred to the camp as a "work camp", and used the sight for a propaganda video that Hitler used to show how "well" the prisoners were treated on these camps. Yet, thousands of people were actualy executed or died on the site. hmmm. I won't get into detail about Terezin just because it was a really personal experience for Liat and I, and I'd rather just leave it off of this blog.
After Terezin, we went back needed some bohemia bagel in hopes of lifting our spirits a little bit. We then went to the TV Tower (another famous sight in Prague). I loveddd the TV tower...it has babies crawling all over it! Not real ones of course, just silly little fake ones. It's very odd, but Prague. We also saw a church by the TV Tower that Jonathan was raving about the night before because it has pretty cool architecture to it. It seemed like it should've been built in the 70's but was actually built in the...30's? I think.
After those few sights, we went to the mall for a bit just to warm up, and wander for about an hour...hot chocolate included.
thennnn we were back outside to souvenir shop. I got those little russian dolls (I don't remember the correct name for them) but you put the smaller one in the bigger one, etc...I had been eyeing them all weekend. and yes I know...they are Russian! But goodness, the Czechs have such a messy culture. It's not just one... I figured I could get away with it.
andd finally Jonathan made us dinner at his apartment. Tex Mex...such a thoughtful boy. salsa and guac included.
Liat and I were not ready to leave prague yesterday, but we had to...and the flight home was very bumpy...which I feel I should tell you about...I was a nervous wreck the entire flight back...making liat hold my hand, and I was physically shaking because there was so much turbulence...I'm such a silly girl. but flying makes me nervous, beyond nervous....I was miserable and ready to get home.


I made it though. Yup.


and I came home to such a busy apartment!! Savannah's boyfriend is visiting and he stopped by to say hello and was going to get dinner with Savannah, and Catherine's friend Emily (she calls her Burg) also came around dinner time to pick Liat and I up. We grabbed dinner at one of our favorite restaurants...Called Nico...or PizzaSteak, or something along that line.
and not to forget (although I haven't met them yet) Claudia's whole family is in town, Uncles included. It must be Thanksgiving :]