Prague: Second Weekend

We're back from Prague, the most beautiful city yet! We arrived around 9 am, well rested for once...this time we coughed up the extra euros and got couchettes for our 10 hour train. It was a little room with two sets of bunk beds three high. A little tylonel PM an hour before and you would have thought I was sleeping at a hilton. Our first impression of the city was a little distorted by the off the map journey to our hostel (which apparently was only 100 meters from the train station), except we ended up wandering though a park littered with alcohol swabs, syringes, and little bottles, and a passed out man. Not a place I would like to be after dark...but it was 9:30 a.m., so it was fine.

We took a guided tour of the city through New Towne, the gardens, Old Towne Square, Jewish Quarter, then ended at the Charles Bridge. About now one of my comments managed to attain "facebook album name status": As we began the tour, a foreign man in his mid-twenties was walking with us. He didn't speak great english, but he was asking me about school and if i liked george bush, then he asked for my email address and tried to enter it in his phone. I was really confused and started to give it to him to be polite when i noticed i had an audience of my friends laughing and staring behind me. I then began to realize that maybe this situation was a little sketchy and asked the man "Wait...are you on our tour?" It turns out he wasn't, although he had definitely been on the tour with us for maybe 10 minutes stalking. I believe Cody has a picture of that captures my awkwardness first hand. Ok back to Praha--The weather was really nice, but it was extremely hott! Beneath Charles Bridge was a little paddle boat rental place, so we rented paddle boats for an hour for 50 czech crowns, which is about $2.50. I was a paddler on our boat, and quickly learned that I am no longer in high school shape. So i sandbaged while Cody did most of the work. I still ended up sweating profusely, but it was determined I was "just glowing." After a long day in the sun, Alison and I went back to the hostel to shower and get ready for a fun night. We had two australian girls staying with us in our hostel and we invited them to come out with us for the night. We all ended up going to Monique, Dylan, Cody, and Mike's place before to hang out. The club we went to that night is called Karlovy Lanze, it is 5 floors with different types of music on each floor, the biggest in middle europe. It was a lot of fun, and there were a lot of Miami students there, Allie and I ended up taking a cab home early.

Saturday morning Allie, Alison, Jessica and I found a little cafe and stopped for brunch and coffee. Everyone basically had different goals for the day, so we ended up splitting up to explore the city. While we were in Old Towne Square I found a little Salvador Dali exhibition, which was the best thing of my life! I got a book of prints and some cards. Alison, Holly, and I shopped for souveners and czech amber in the Jewish Quarter for most of the afternoon. We decided to try dad's restaurant recommendation, Metamorphosis, and wandered Old Towne square for quite a while before finding it. We made reservations for 9 for that night...

We thought it would be fun to get a little dressed up for dinner! We ended running into half of our miami group in the middle of Wencelas square, and had fun taking pictures...it basically looked like prom.

Dinner at Metamorphis was wonderful, the cellar of the restaurant was very classic with stone walls and was very elegantly decorated. The food was equally great, and with the czech conversion rate, it was unbelievable! I mean, i'm not gonna say we didn't have our moments where certain people would put hat shaped napkins on their heads, or try to stack the fancy wine glasses, but it was quite classy as far as our group is concerned. When we left the restaurant it was dark outside, and Old Towne Square was so beautiful! We hung out in the square, and took our time on the walk home...Prague is beautiful!

We went to a club only 50 steps from the door of our hostel and had a blast. It was kind of interesting though...at the front of the line to get into the place there was this girl dancing by herself on a block, i felt really bad for her. When you get in, you take an elevator up to the club...and as soon as you get off they hand you a "welcome drink." A policy that deserves consideration from the bars in the U.S. I spent most the night outside on the balcony overlooking Wencelas Square :)

Currently Listening To: Your Own Disaster- Taking Back Sunday

xoxo jess

I made it through yesterday, well for the most part, if you don¨t count the 200 dollars worth of cell phone calls to the US. We went to the ridiculous 5 level club last night, which was not ideal in context of the day. We´re in Prague...and the journey here was nothing short of fabulous compared to the Munich train situation. We had a 9 hour night train from Frankfurt to Prague and bought couchettes -little rooms with 2 sets of 3 high bunk beds- for 16 euro more, best investment of my life. We took a walking tour through new town to old town to the jewish quarter and ended at the charles bridge. It was literally 90 degrees outside. We rented paddle boats for 50 czech k an hour--which is about 2 US dollars. ok, well we are leaving for the sex machine museum, ill write more later!

Currently Listening to: Trouble Breathing-Alkaline Trio

two more pictures that i couldn't possibly leave out!













I think you caught me on the downslide, downturn
I was busy writing with a pen and paper thin dream
And all your plastic people with plastic hearts and smiles
They had the worst intentions all along after all...
The royal castle holds the mellow drama kings and queens
And all their dazzling children; they're so regal (clean)
With pristine fingertips they wash behind their ears
And let their hair down 'til the audiences leave
I'm definitely shaking
The silence isn't breaking
Backwashed and stranded memories
Of something i thought could be

Class at the Chateau d'Differdange

So its mid-week! Classes have been going well. Professor Herron has been keeping law class interesting with his story telling renditions about the history of law. Our accounting class however, is the longest most painful hour and a half of my day. Yesterday was the first day that luxembourg has seen sun since we've been here, so 9 of us went to the grocery store and made ourselves a little picnic to eat in the park. We waited around in the chateau and watched the oh-so-appropriate Eurotrip until our 4:00 lecture, which was cancelled. Last night, the 4 of us caught the train to Betenberg to visit Mike, Cody, and Dylans host family house to meet their little kids. We hung out for a little and then stopped by the local gay bar for a drink before catching the train back to Diff. It seems like all we do here is travel or plan our travels...which i'm fine with.
We are in the process of planning the itenerary for Prague this weekend. We are leaving tommorow, Thursday, at 7:15 p.m. and will arrive around 9 a.m. on the 25th. My sole intention for the 25th is to keep as occupied physically/mentally as possible. On the agenda for the weekend: Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Towne Square, Astronomical Clock, and the Jewish Quarter, Karlovy Lazne Discotheque, Friends GLBT bar, Museum of Communism, Metamorphisis Restaurant, Bily Konicek Restaurant. The hostel situation should at least be a little more comfortable, we have a 6 person room with Allie, Jessica, Allison, and I. Only 14 euro a night...i love eastern europe already.

Currently Listening to: A Decade Under the Influence-Taking Back Sunday

xoxo jessica

Munich: First Weekend

<--Allie, Hofbrauhaus waiter, me We're back from Munich, Germany!! Ate a lot, drank a lot, and slept very little.... We finished class and lecture at the Chateau around 3 on Wednesday, went back to the house to finish packing, then caught the 6:32 train into Lux city to begin the journey to Munich. Little did we know it, but about 40 other students from the Lux program had the same travel plans as us, which made for a some very interesting train rides. On the second train we claimed a car on the train for our excessively large group and proceeded to have ridiculous party complete with a mini keg and ipod speakers. However, the third and last train was much less of a party...first of all the train was gross, and secondly they triple booked out seats, so randomly through the night people would force you to get up and move and find another seat. This went on from about 3-7 a.m...when we finally got to our hostel we passed out on the bean bags in the lobby for a two hour nap. Great start to a sleep deprived weekend.
We finally got ourselves together and decided to take a day trip to Dachau to see the concentration camp...which was awesome. We rented the self-guided tour audio guides and spent about 3 hours looking through the museum and buildings. We lost Allie for about an hour, but finally found her outside thanks to her bright orange coat. We stood in the gas chambers, walked through the housing barraks, and watched old footage from the camp. It was extremely intense... and quite the somber start to the weekend in Munich.

What would a trip to Munich be without a little visit to a place we call Hofbrauhaus...
We got ourselves a huge table and motioned to our waiter for HUGE steins all around! Our waiter was this cute little asian man pictured above. For round two, we ordered the "Radler" which is light beer with lemonade...a popular German favorite for the ladies. Allie got the traditional huge pretzel with her stein. We also decided that we are going to dress as German pretzel girls for halloween next year. We met a cute Canadian couple that offered to share their food with Allie and I. Allie also got a drunk man kicked out of the Hofbrauhaus because he wouldn't leave us alone. Basically we had bodyguards by the end of the night, it was wonderful. After we got tired of paying 7 euros for a beer we left to find a discotheque. It happened to be Germany's fathers day, so unfortunately many clubs were closed and the night scene was a little low key for a thursday night. Our method of communication with the Germans slowly declined to the point where we made techno beat noises and motioned for them to point us in the right direction. They played mostly 90's jock jams...but whatever!
Friday I explored downtown Munich with Allie and Cody. We wandered around through the churches, shopped, and stopped for a little afternoon wine.
We finally got into contact with our friend's on the other Europe trip and planned on meeting everyone at Hofbrauhaus at night. "Thursday night we went to Hofbrauhaus...Friday night we went to Steinkellers." (Steinkellers is a bar in Oxford, Ohio). So little did we know, but every Miami student currently in Munich decided to meet at Hofbrauhaus that night. No joke, we took the place over, it was ridiculous. We fully occupied the entire outdoor beer garden from about 9 until the place closed. I think there might be a secret service of some kind working for Hofbrauhas. A man accidentally knocked a glass stein off of a table, which shattered on the ground, then he tried to creep off. Literally 7 men in black suits with ear pieces tackled him in 10 seconds flat. These men jumped out from behind trees, ran on top of tables, dove across servers...it was completely bizarre.
So Allie and I rolled into our hostel around 1 ... Oh, let me first explain our hostel situation: Allie and I were nervous that we weren't going to get a hostel on such short notice so we went ahead and booked ourselves in a 6 person mixed room. The accommodations were fairly nice, typical bunk beds with clean sheets and a seperate locker for each person. So...clearly the only gender that would logically request a "mixed gender" room would be males. Which brings me to my next topic, co-habitating with random european men is not a good idea. So night two, Allie and I roll in around 1 from the Hofbrauhaus and fall asleep immediately. Shortly thereafter our newest roomate enters, presumably intoxicated, and enters the bathroom. Allie called the next 5 minutes an "explosion." Ok, so our little friend goes to bed. Around 3 a.m. our entire room is awakened by what would seem to be a semi truck roaring in our room. By 4, it was absolutely unbearable, nobody was alseep except for the snoorer. At 5 a.m. Allie and I went to the front desk and asked to be moved rooms for the next night and sat around in the lobby until 7:30 breakfast. I mean obviously we were going to be exhausted the entire day...so what else were we supposed to do but pregame with some momossas before our bike tour at 11.
I'm gonna say it was the sleep deprevation that made us think it was okay for Allie and I to wear our matching J-Lo jump suits on the bike tour. Allie and I were the haus-baubes (pronounced ass babes) in charge of making sure no one got left behind. We stopped at the Chinese beer gardens for a pint...then hopped back on our bikes, i guess liability just isn't an issue in Germany. We saw some incredible buildings, gardens, and even a naked park...which we rode our bikes through. Basically everyone taking part in the "ambience" of the park was someone who you would not like to see in a dark room. After the bike tour Allie and I died from 5-7p.m. A group of 10 of us found a cute off-the-beaten path restaurant called Augustina. Munich just so happened to have won the championship futbol game that day, and the entire city was in absolute mayhem. A big German family had a table next to us, and after a couple beers they began belting out some German yodelling songs. A couple beers later, one of the men randomly busts out the accordion and German songbooks. We were more than excited to join in, and spent the next hour being serenaded by an authentic German yodeller...i don't think there is anything i can say to do justice to the events of this evening. All i can do is post this final picture of Allie and I kissing the German nugget and hope that you all understand just how wonderful Munich, Germany really is!

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
"People who snore always fall asleep first"

Currently Reading: The Speluncheon Explorer
Currently Listening to: Existentialism on Prom Night- Straylight Run

xoxo jessica

Orientation to Luxembourg

You see before you the newest pledge class of EuroFrat 2007. Our names just happen to be Jessica, Allison, Alison, Jessica...and yes, we realize how particularly obnoxious this is. Within the first 7 minutes of our orientation we fell in love and have not separated since.

Ok, enough of that. Day one of our orientation took us through a tour of the Chateau and details about classes, travel, etc. We took a quick walking tour of Differdage, Luxembourg then hopped on a train to Lux city to explore. We got general history on the bus tour, then we were let loose on the city. Me and my lady-friends shopped and the boys enjoyed their new beverage privledges (however, i think we both spent around the same amounts of $). We got back around 8 and decided that everyone needed to join us at the Halfway house (which is evidentally always the pub of choice among Miami students). Halfway house is about a block away from Allie and I. We hung out, met some new people, made some travel plans, and enjoyed being euro.


This is at a castle somewhere in Luxembourg ->

I know my sister is wondering about my host family!! Well...there is Mmde. Stumpf who is 36 and is single or widowed, Michelle her daughter is 12, and Lyon her son is 8. They are incredibly sweet, however, they speak absolutely no english. We communicate mostly in the french that i happened to retain from my fenwick educational experience...which is not a pleasant thought. Allie talks to them in "allie-french" which isn't french at all, its just english with a frenchlike accent. Their house is decorated in a industrial modern style, its very new and clean. It is small, but has three floors. My room is on the third, and i will probably fall down the steep marble stairs anyday now. I have a double bed, desk, and dresser, and plenty of space. They provide us with continental breakfast in the mornings; coffee, cereal, bread, nutella, weird fruit juices.

<- Allie and I doing wall sits for our EuroFrat pledge ed, Cody at Halfway House.

On Sunday for orientation we went to the German and American cemetaries from WWII. We then went on a boat cruise on a river between Germany and Lux, which was awesome...amazing food, new friends. And Monday we went to Trier, the former Capital of the Roman Empire. We saw some Roman ruins, however the Rome clearly puts Trier to shame. We had an authentic German dinner complete with Sun, a light german beer. I don't think im a big fan of german food.

"I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad." ~George Bernard Shaw


So here is the plan starting with the first weekend:
Munich, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Interlauken, Switzerland
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Barcelona Spain

Currently Listening to: Different Names for the Same Thing- Death Cab (cliche i know)
The Future-Motion City Soundtrack
xoxo Jessica

Transatlanticism

Finally i've gotten to a place with working internet! It's been a week since I have been here, so I have lots to write...so i'll have to spare some details! I arrived at Charles DeGaulle a little after 8 and was greeted with pain du chocolat and Nick :)
We caught the train into Paris and locked up my ridiculously large suitcase in the Gare D'Nord and hit the town. We basically did a worldwind tour of Paris...hit the Louve, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre-Coure, and walked along the Seine until I was about ready to fall over. Oh, and it was Armistence Day, randomly, which meant that there was a parade of the Frence Armed Forces down the Chance de Lese (sp). Outfits were ridiculous, stolling down the street conspicuous.

After 5 intense hours in Paris we caught the train back to Nick's humble abode in Rouen, France. And although i was a little skeptical about attending his "international students dorm party," it was a great time and i met some very interesting personalities...

Day two in France we went euro shopping at CarreFore, which was incredible! Heinekin 12-pack is literally about $6US, and is NOT considered a luxury item, as in Oxford. However, that is not all i learned. Europeans do not provide shopping bags, as it is wasteful...oh and milk is not refridgerated which is disgusting. We got back to his dorm and played a little futbol with some internationals, my favorite of which, happens to be the italian. That night we went to dinner in downtown Rouen, and then stopped by their favorite bar for 1 euro shots.

Day three Nick took me shopping in downtown Rouen where I experienced an anti-Sarkozy demonstration by some crazy french teenagers. I felt a little like I was in Beruit. We bought tickets to the party that night...little did i know what that entailed, but it was great fun.

The next day I travelled all day to arrive in Luxembourg around 8p.m....

"You can't escape the past in Paris, and yet what's so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn't seem to burden."-Allen Ginsberg "In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language."-Mark Twain Currently Listening to: Living Life-Ben Kweller xoxo jessica