praha, czech it out

haha ok that was a bad joke, but im in prague, or as the townsmen call it praha. got here after a 6 hr train ride, which was nice because we followed a river in and out of the mountains of czech. when i got here i took a nap because the night before i got no sleep cuz this guy was snoring SO loud, it got to the point where i had to wake him up and say "u are snoring really loud" (HATE HOSTEL LIFE). for dinner i met up with a guy i had met in berlin and i had a real pilsner urquil (they brew it in czech). its much different than the one in the states. then i just walked around town and kinda got a feel for things. today i woke up pretty early and walked the entire town for 6 hrs! i went to the prague castle, which doesnt look like a typical castle but the view of the town was good. the cathedral inside the castle was amazing, the stainless glasses it had was breathtaking, so full of vibrant colors. after the castle i hiked up this mountain that had an eiffel tower on top. it wasnt the actualy eiffel tower obviously but they made a tower just like it on top of this mountain that made it 1 meter high then the one in france. but the view was gorgeous! i could see the entire city of prague..definately worth the 2 mile hike. i then walked in the direction of my hostel and saw what called the fred and ginger dancing building...shaun i think you would really like the architecture of this building it was crazy. cant really explain it but i have pics. tonight i am going into old town and taking some pics. everyone says they cant wait to see my pics...but i must warn everyone i have taken over 1000...haha so be prepared to sit for awhile :) and im only half way through my trip
tomorrow i am going to a town called kutna hora. its about 70 km away from prague, but there is a church that has over 40000 human bones built into it. i dont know about anyone else but i think thats interesting.
not much else to write, im gonna head out on the town and have a budvar, which is the original budweiser,brewed in czech, except some american came over and took it back to the states and called it budweiser, king of beers...that is probably why the czechs arent too fond of americans.
thanks for people that respond, and im glad everyone is enjoying the blog :)

Kelly

THE BERLIN WALL IS COMING DOWN!

ok ok so its already come down, but you can guess where i am, yup berlin germany. ive been here since friday night. the train ride in from amsterdam was interesting. so im on my merry little way hop on the train and head towards berlin, well i thought it was a direct connection boy was i wrong. we came to a stop and i went to the bathroom the intercom came on and said something in dutch. idont know any dutch so i payed no attention. we started moving again then stopped all of a sudden. well when i walked out of the bathroom everyone was gone and the train was in the middle of the tracks...I WAS STUCK ON THE TRAIN! i ran up and down and no one was there i yelled out the window for help and they had to get security to come and get me...so embarressing to be the white american girl stuck on the train because she didnt know dutch. well after that i got on another train and made it to berlin. my hostel it nice, its called baxpax. its a little out of the city, i think in the west part of berlin in kreuzberg. anywho on saturday i woke and went into town to take a tour of the city. the tour was amazing, now it was a free tour so the tour guide only worked for tips, so his enthusiasm was on point and made the 4 and a half hr long tour so worth it. anywho we started in pariser platz. this is where the brandenburg gate is. this is the last remaining gate in berlin. the tour guide said that when the french invaded germany they marched through the gate and napoleon stole the statue on top of the gate. well when the french went to war against the english i think the germans stole the statue back and called the women lady victoria (for victory) and the square around the gate pariser platz to kind of make fun of the french for the defeat. kinda interesting huh? well across from the gate is a hotel that is the most luxurious hotel in the world, hotel adlon. this hotel is where micheal jackson hung his baby outside the window...and you know i got pictures of that window haha. we proceeded to the holocaust memorial for the jews. this memorial is like no other. the designer wanted people to interpret their own way and not really have an explanation of it. its an area of different sized stone slabs going from small on the outside to tall in the middle. the ground itself gets deeper as you go in. some people think of the slabs as coffins, or graves or tombstones. my interpration came in the middle with the tall slabs, i felt very secluded and small standing there, and thats how i think the people in the concentration camps felt. its an intense feeling. we then walked to the only remaining nazi building in berlin. its actually interesting because after hitlers reign they pretty much destroyed all the buildings, well the ones that were left after the bombings in the war. but this one the communists kept around because inthis particular building their was a big conference room that hitler liked to have his meetings. well the communists needed a board room as well so thats why they kept it around. across the street is the remains of the berlin wall. its not wide at all but the tour guide said getting over it was not the problem. there was actaully 2 walls, the berlin wall and the inner wall. the space between the two was called dead mans land...if you were caught going from the east to the west in this area you were gunned down. next we walked by checkpoint charlie, which is where any american )journalist, soldier, etc) stayed/had to check in during the war. the actual checkpoint isnt there anymore but they have a fake one in its place. we then went to musuem island where we got to see the berlin dome. its a beautiful church inside and out. the tour was over after that, and like i said it didnt seem like 4 hrs. i learned a lot of the history behind the war and hitlers reign, and its a lot different than learning it from school because im actually in the city that it happened so it was a lot more interesting. anywho i went to dinner with a guy i had met on the tour and he knew of a good german place to go to. i had the traditional bratswarts and saurkraut with potatoes. and to my suprise i liked it! the saurkraut was not like anythin from the states, it was sweet so thats why i liked it. the sausage was also cooked and served in a beer sauce, so of course that was good! at night iwent on a pub crawl. it was only 9 euros and we got free beer for an hr and free vokda shots all night long. we went to 3 bars and then a club. the club was awesome. it had 5 different rooms all with different music. there were 3 dance floors and there were even dancers in cages. it was fun but i felt like i was back in freshman year, where everyone was 18 and really couldnt handle their alcohol. me and this one guy who was 29 and from london i think were the oldest ones there. but it was still fun.
yesterday i went to sachsenhausen concentration camp. this camp was the "model" camp for all the others. this is where they actually sat down and decided what to do with all the jews. it was an hr away from the city by train. when we got there there were a lot of soldiers with different uniforms on. it happened to be the anniversary of the camps liberation. so seeing the memorial (although in german) was amazing. there are actually 2 anniversarys of the camp, let me tell you a little history. the nazis heard that the soviets were coming into the camp so on april 21 they took over 33,000 people away from the camp and walked into the forest. now the soldiers themselves were afraid they were going to get caught so they left the people there in the forest. the next day, april 22nd the soviets came to the camp and found 3000 people left in the camp. these were the people that were too weak to walk, everyone pretty much in the infermaries. the people the forest were found between may 3rd and may 6th. but 7000 people had died in those 12 days, which is why its called the death march. so thats why there are 2 anniversaries. the desendants of the people who walked in the forest walk the same path that they did in remembrance of them. so theres a little information for you :) we walked through the camp and it was very intense, more intense than the holocaust musuem because we were stood on the ground where the people were murdered, starved, burned, beaten, everything horrible you can imagine. the tour lasted about about 3 hrs, it ended with us seeing the cell where they kept the dead bodies and we saw the actual wheelbarrel that carried the bodies to the fireplaces. i really had no feeling for awhile after the camp just because it was so intense and mind boggeling to hear the stories of the survivors. but i feel that everyone should go to alteast one concentration camp, just so we will never forget what happened. its like the saying goes, if we foget about our past it will come back and kick us in the ass. this is why i am glad people have these tours, so we will always remembe what people had to go through...ok enough preaching. after the camp i went back to the hostel and just hung out with people in the common room playing pool.
today i just went around town and took pics, berlin is a very big city a lot of ground to cover so i tried my best.
tomorrow im headed to prague, check republic. im really excited about it because there is a castle!! but hope things are going well back at home. i miss everyone but im having an amazing time :) ill write later.

Kelly

ohhhh amsterdam

greetings from amsterdam! sorry its been so long since ive written but its hard to find a good internet cafe that doesnt charge you an arm and a leg for one hr of service. but anywho...where did i leave off?? ahh yes brussels. i arrived in brussels and walked around the city, theres not much to see, and plus it was a sunday so a lot of things were closed. but i saw the manneken pis, which is the famous statue of a little boy peeing, but yea thats about it for hte city, and plus i was so tired from traveling i wasnt really in the mood for exploring. but i met these 2 people from cali who were traveling together for 2 weeks. we decided to go to a bar that had 2004 beers. the book to list all them was huge. i tried 21 of them, didnt even put a dent in the thing! but for dinner i had mussels, because apparently thats what ur supposed to do in brussels...well belgium in general. but at the bar i met these 2 brothers from canada and they said they were leaving for amsterdam in the morning so i decided to go with them. the train ride was 3 hrs long. i was tired from the night before and the train ride but when i get to amsterdami got my second wind. i searched for about and hr for my hostel but i eventually found it and went walking around the city. as i was walking i saw 2 people that i had met in brugges so i hung out with them for the day, then when we were walking together in the redlight disrict we ran into the 2 brothers from canada...it was reeeaaally weird seeing 4 people that ihad met before in a differnet city.
the next day i went to the amsterdam beach but it was a litttle cloudy so the water wasnt warm at all, but the sand was nice, hardly any rocks. at night i just walked around amsterdam. the architecture here is awesome, the buildings actually lean in on you, its like a harry potter movie...i took plenty of pics so you guys dont think im on crack or anything.
yesterday i met up with more people who i have met along the way and we went to see the infamous amsterdam live sex show...yes mom and mrs. lyn i went to a sex show. ..its one of those things that you can say "yea i went to one of those in amsterdam" kinda stories. but it was interesting but more funny.
theres food everywhere here, obvious for one reason, but i tired a goner sandwhich which is lambmeat shaved up...its good esp with this garlic sauce they have.
today im headed to the tulip fields with over 8000 bulbs, i should get some really good pics from those! and tomorrow i am headed to berlin germany and staying there 3 nights. from there its uncertain, but ill write more later. i miss everyone.

Kelly

In Brugges

Hello from Brugges!

Well i find myself in Brugges Belguim, and loving it. i got here yesterday around 7, and immediately fell in love with the town. all the roads are stone paved and every building is touching so the only space in between the buildings are the streets dividing them. i did laundry for the first time, and trying to do laundry when its written in dutch is like rocket science, luckily there were 2 americans doing it as well and they should be how. while doing laundry i met these 2 girls from california, they have been traveling since the beginning of march. they were only in town for the night and headed to amsterdam today. we traded information and im going to meet up with them when i get there on monday. in my room there were 3 sisters, one 18, one 22 and one 25. they have been traveling for 4 months, they only have 2 weeks left. they were telling me about all their travels and what i should look out for. the hostel, named snuffel youth hostel, is a pretty cool place. there is a bar downstairs which has happy hour from 9-10 and they have a band come in every other week, which luckily is tomorrow. the only downfall about this place is you have to go through the bar then the kitchen just to get to the showers. but eh, nothing like walking through a bar in my pj's, not like i havent done that before.
anyways today i rented a bike and was riding around, i saw a sign that said OoStende 22. i thought oh 22 miles isnt that far well almost 2 hrs later i made it. about an hr into the ride i saw another sign that said oostende 15 miles....so needless to say the signs were wrong. when i was tempted to turn around i thought of finding nemo and what dory said, just keeping going just keep going, so i did. i finally made it in to town and it is a lot different than brugges. its next to the north sea so there is a big shipping yard and there are a bunch of boats. it was a cool city i walked down the shopping street, they had a bunch of cool little shops. i actually bought something, a hair wrap thing. they are really big in europe, almost every girl has one in their head, so i said sure why not jump on the band wagon, plus the humidity from the sea was doing nothing for my hair. anyways i went to the beach and dipped my toes in the north sea...and thats all that went in cuz it was sooooo cold. i spent the afternoon there and needless to say i took the train back to brugges. back in brugges i went to the market and just walked around, it was late so most of the stores were closed, so im pretty excited about tomorrow. im just gonna get lost in the town and just walk around. brugges is known for a few things, their lace, their chocolate and their french fries. so needless to say i tried their french fries and im not gonna lie, next to checkers (which are only good because of the seasoning, plus accomanied by a strawberry milkshake umm basically nothing is better. lexie and contest to this as well) anywho fries were good and yes i did have them with mayonaise, but it was like a garlic mayo so it wasnt that bad, and i coughed up with 50 cent euro for ketchup of course. tonight im just gonna hang out meet people in the bar. hope things are well in the ''states'', thats what the europeans call america. i miss everyone.

Kel

Things i wont forget about london and paris

So the past week and a half has left my memories, both good and bad of London and Paris that i would like to share with you....

London:
1) the wounded soldiers, never ask for a regular beer you must clarify you want a COLD beer.
2) looking left instead of right, and vise versa, even being there 4 days i never got used to it.
3) obviously the sites, favorite was the tower of london at night
4) i met all different kinds of people, from all over. someone from australia, someone from ireland, someone from north korea. the diversity is something that was very unexpected.
5) the pound, ohhh the pound. when you want to get a burger fries and a beer it ends up being 20 pounds, not that bad huh, well when you convert that to us dollars, its like a 40 dollar meal! the good thing in paris is that they have to show their prices in the window or outside, that way you know what ur getting urself into.

Paris:
1) the metro they have is unbelieveable. over 200 stops in the city. i mean almost every other corner there is a metro stop. parisons are lazy!
2) paris at night is much better than paris at day, mainly because there are no people to bother you asking you if you want to buy a flashing neon eiffel tower, or someone coming up to you asking if you speak english, and when you say yes they show you this post card of how their mom abonded them and they are living with 10 people, seriously that is what the first post card i read said, from then on whenever someone asked if i speak english i shake my head no.
3) the taxi drivers here drive mercedes and jettas. i mean i wouldnt mind moving to paris to be a driver is i get to drive one of those, it sure beats the neon :)
4) i now know why they call this the city of love, every where i turn theres a couple making out, or gazing into eachothers eyes...blah blah blah...gross gross gross. if i knew enough french i would say get a room!
5) the mcdonalds here, i walked into one just to see if it was any different, and to my suprise it was! they have the usual big mac, chicken nuggets (which lexie by the way after you told me what they are made of, i have looked at them so differently) and burgers, but what they do have that is different are steak fries and they have this oriental burger. they also serve tarter sauce and mayo with everything instead of ketchup...a true dissapointment to me.
6) crepes seem to be the food of paris. if you ever come here get a natella chocolate crepe, they are to die for. also tried a croque monsiuer.keri recommended i try this. it was very good, its like a grilled chees and ham except the cheese is on the top of the sandwich and the ham is in the middle.
7) one would get lost if they ever ventured off. there are so many roads in paris, i.e. small alley ways. and its not like nice alley ways either! they each have their own name, if you were to take one wrong turn it would take 20 minutes just to get back to where you started.

im sure i will think of more but all in all so far its been a good trip. met many people and discovered and seen a lot of things, cant wait for my next destination. au revoir!

Last night in Paris

Well my Paris adventure is slowly coming to an end. yesterday i went to the chateau of versilles (a palace for those french impaired) its in a small town of versailles and it is where marie antoniette lived, as well as the other queens and kings of that time. but it was gorgeous, especially the gardens outside. the town is really nice too. i picture that to be more of what i imagined...well wanted....paris to be, instead of the tourist capital of the world! i guess thats what i get for coming over easter weekend. at night i took pictures of the lourve. i moved into another hostel because the other was really shady. this one was nice, but i was sharing it with a guy who came in drunk and snored SO LOUD the whole night i barely got any sleep. i guess that the life of living in hostels. this morning i moved into another hostel, this one is a little more away from the city so its quiet, so hopefully i can get a good nights sleep for once. today i went to sacre coeur in montmarte. its a beautiful white church on top of the hill. this was probably my favorite part of paris. it was so lively with artists. in the town/market next to the church there were artists all over the place. if their paintings werent so much i would have bought one. but this town reminded me of a historical town with white cottages and stone paved roads. tonight i am going to take night pics of notre dame and sacre coeur. i leave to go to bruges belguim tomorrow. im not sure when i will be able to write again, but i will as soon as i can. hope all is well in the states. miss everyone.

Kel

Sites, Sites and more sites

Bonjour!

Well im on my 3rd day in paris and so far everything has been good. other than the first 4 hrs of being here the weather as been AMAZING! clear skies and sunny, lets just hope it stays like that. lets see on saturday i just walked around the city trying to get a feel for where things are. at night i walked along the seine (river) to the eiffel tower. every hour at night the tower would sparkle with light. just absolutely beautiful. i got some pretty good shots. yesterday i woke up at 830 to get to louvre since it opened at 9, i didnt want to wait in line or be in the museum when there were a lot of tourists, just searching for the mona lisa. but in the louvre there are 3 different pavilions, richelieu, sully and denon. i started in the richelieu this mainly had roman and greek statues. nice but i saw a lot of statues when i went to the british museum, i then walked into pavilion sully, where Venus de milo was. now there was a statue of her in the british museum but she was crouching, this time she was standing and "posing". just beautiful from every angle. obviously this is where the museum began to get crowded so it kidna sucked having to walk through people to get to her. after that i walked down napoleans hall. the artwork on the wall and ceilings are breath-taking. someones neck probably needed a message after that. i then proceeded to the "painting gallery" of the louvre. many interpretations of christs birth, crucification and resurrection, also a lot with the virgin mary. there were 100's of paintings, but my favorite one was the wedding at cana. the size of the painting nearly took up an entire wall. i bought headphones so i had an explanation and interpretation of it. then across the room was the ever so important the mona lisa. important it was, so important there was a huge glass frame around the painting, made it seem very small. i wanted to pass most of the italian and spanish paintings because i knew i would see plenty of them when i got to italy and spain so i went into the french paitnings....mostly of the french revolution. the museum was coming to an end and the last peice i saw was a statue of psyche revived by cupids kiss, very beautiful. i could have stayed all day in the museum but i thought 3 hrs were enough and by that time it was getting crowded. i then walked down the champs elysees to the arc de triomphe. very long walk, but worth it. after that i kinda just puttered around the city taking random pictures of everything. i went back to the hostel and met a girl named emilie. she is from denmark and is in paris for a job interview. she speaks english, danish and french. fluent in all 3, so it was nice having someone to walk with who spoke french. we went for a nights walk and we ended up at the sacre coure in montmarte. this is a very beautiful white church on top of a hill, and at night is gorgeous, i didnt have my camera at the time so i am going back tomorrow night.
today i went notre dame cathedral. there was a funeral going on so i thought it was rude to walk around while people were saying their goodbyes so i stayed in the back of the cathedral till it was over. a catholic funeral is a very prolong but beautiful process. i keep saying the world beautiful, but thats really how you have to describe the sites of this city. anywho after the funeral i walked around the church, and the statues and stainless glass were like nothing i have seen before. there were many people taking pics but i think its wrong to take pictures inside of a church, its a santuary not a souviner. anyways enough of the preaching. i walked around outside into the gardens and along the seine. there were many artists out. i think im going to go back on thursday and buy a picture from them. the rest of the day is not yet planned i think i am going to go find a park and just rest, i have been walking for miles the past 3 days. but tonight i am going up the eiffel tower to get pics. there will be a 3 hr wait but i think its worth it.
i havent had much french food except a "chocolat crepe avec banane". other than that just having fruit and pain (bread), trying to save the money i have. hope everyone had a good easter, thanks again to people who write back, makes me miss home even more. hope all is well.

Kel

p.s. i cant attach photos because i am at an internet cafe and the computers here dont allow that. so ur gonna have to wait till i get home :)

Arrived in Paris

Bonjour!

I arrived in Paris this moring at 8 am...so far its been a long day! but let me tell ya'll about the rest of london. on thursday i met john and nancy (scotts uncle and aunt) they are the cutest couple, very kind and welcoming! john and I met in the city and he took me to the Chelsea football club (a big soccer club in london). he has been a season ticket holder for 44 yrs! so i got to see and take pics of the pitch (the field for those football impaired) at the club i had my first fish and chips (a big meal over in london) it was bad. after that we went back to his house where i met his wife nancy. they live greenford london which is about a 40 minute train ride from the city. we ate dinner then chatted for a good 4 hrs, drinking 2 bottles of wine. the next day the 3 of us went into the city and visited buckingham palace, where i saw the changing of the gaurds, a process in itself! it takes 4 gaurds to change one position. anywho, then we walked around trafalger square looking for something to eat. found a nice place in a market, there was live opera music right outside so it was nice having that in the background. the food in london is not much different from that in america. they are big on smoked salmon so i had that for dinner. i said goodbye to nancy and john then hopped on the train and headed to luton, london....where my flight left at 6 am this morning.
i arrived in paris and its such a different world. if i didnt take french in college i think i would have gotten so lost! luckily i knew the important phrases. well i got the tain into the city and found my hostel. its not as nice as my other one. name is friends hostel. its right across the street from a metro stop so thats good for night. ill let u know how i like it, but from the looks of it i wont...but i have 3 nights there so i gotta force myself to. anyway i took a short nap and now i am just walking around the city. i walked into a cafe and ordered a sandwich, that was interesting. its like im talking to a brick wall sometimes (which is understandable but still)..all i wanna say is do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth!! :)
tomorrow i am going to the louvre and walking around the city some more. happy easter to everyone!

Kel

So much to see such little time

Hello!

Sorry I couldnt get to everyone yesterday (no worries Jenny, you dont need to come fly here and find me...although that would be nice). But apparently I could not get to my blog at my hostel because the computers there think that it is a high public porn site, so i had no access; interesting huh?? anywho, yesterday was amazing. the weather was cloudy in the morning which kinda sucked because i went to st pauls cathedrals walked up 520 steps to get to the top where i could see the entire city and it was cloudy, but still got some good pics :) after that i hopped on the bus to take me around the city so I could see where all the places to go were, the bus was a double layer bus so i could sit on the top and take pics (very touristy huh?) Sat on the bus for a little while then i go off in westminster where i got to see big ben, the london eye, wisminster alley, and the parliment. ALL very beautiful buildings, got plenty of pictures. the weather was clearing up and the sun finally came out! i tried to go inside the parliment but when i asked the gaurd apparently you had to sign up like 2 days in advance, so I guess another time. obviously everything here is expensive. the most bizarre thing, on the tube (which is like the metro in d.c.) a one way ticket is 4 pounds but a ticket all day is 5.10 pounds...does that not seem strange to anyone else??
after walking around for about another hr i headed back to my hostel, which rudy by the way is named Astor Museum Inn. I took a short nap then got up around 8 pm to go take night pictures of the london bridge, big ben and the london eye. let me tell you i think i should be a professional photographer, because night pictures are very hard to take because you need to keep a steady hand in order not to blur the lights and i got some pretty amazing pics. the london bridge and the tower of london at night are breathe taking at night. it took me 4 hrs total to take pictures because i wanted to get the "right" one. so needless to say when i got home at 1 am i was exhausted.
its now 1030 on thursday and i am meeting up with Scott's (the fire biker) uncle, him and his wife live in the subburbs of london. he is meeting me in the city and taking me around town. it will be nice to hear and see the city from a townsmen. I am staying at their house tonight, so Im not sure when I will be able to write again. perhaps tomorrow. I am headed back into town because I would like to see the changing of the gaurds. i have a train out to luton tomorrow evening. Im staying in a hostel about 3 minutes away from the airport, which will be nice since i have a flight into paris at 6 am on saturday. Hope everyone is doing well, thanks to everyone who responds. miss ya'll :)

Kel

day of arrival

Hey everyone

So i made it safely into London, walked off the plane and the weather was awful, cloudy and windy...not something you expect for your first day. I took about an hr train ride into central london and walked from there 5 minutes to my hostel (mom no worries, its a nice one) At the reception desk i met a guy named John who was also checking in. Unfortunately we couldnt check in tilll 3 and at that time it was 1 so me and john went to the british museum which was right next door to our hostel. we walked around there for about 2 hrs. all that was there was artifacts from rome, greece, africa, egypt. best parts of the museum were egypt because of the mummies (actually saw cleopatra's mummy) and the rome and greece ancient statues (saw spartans fighting, made me miss 300 :) after the museum we checked in then went walking around trying to find a place to eat. Keri you would be happy to know we found the place with the chicken pot pie, it was called the green man. but unfortunately there was no chicken pot pie there was beef and onion pie...tried it and it was ok....but wow let me tell you. the beer i had tasted like the wounded soldiers left over from a beer pong game, thats how warm it was. i only drank half...think im gonna stick with wine from now on. anywho im exhausted gonna call it a night, and yes it is only 7 pm but i got a lot to do tomorrow. hope all is well. talk to ya'll soon :)

Kel