Bohemian Rhapshody

It has been a while since my last entry. Since then, I went home for Christmas, which was wonderful and helped me sort out a few things. School began, full throttle. Classes are interesting, but also tough. I'm doing my best to stay on task.

Since school began, I have also had two amazing weekends. The first one was spent on a retreat with the group. It was nice to be away from the Center and learn a few things about myself and my colleagues that made me feel a little less alone. After the retreat, we returned to Salzburg and I went down to O'Malley's Pub with a group of Seahawks fans and watched Green Bay slaughter Seattle. It was a fun night.

This last weekend was spent in Prague. As soon as I lookoed out my train window and a small Czech town, I could see how different it is from Austria. It seemed more truely "old country" or something.

Allsion, Ashley, her cousing, Carly, Linda, and I got off the train, took 1000 Krowns from the ATM and found our hostel, where a cure Irishman worked. We put our stuff in the room and set out to explore the city. We wandered through the Jewish Quarter and peeked into the ancient cemetary. The buildings of Prague are unique and colorful. It was really neat. We also chilled with the Franz Kafka statue for a bit.

At twilight, we crossed St. Charles Bridge. The view is beautiful from the bridge. I could see the massive St. Vitus Cathedral, towering over the city. We then grabbed some dinner at a small cafe. Eager to try some genuine Czech beer, we ordered 4 Budvars. Well--Budvar is kind of available in America, too--under the name Budweiser. We were a little depressedappointed (Allison's new word).

After supper, we began walking back to the hostel, when I saw a sign for a Salvador Dali exhibit. We went in to check it out. The art was definitely weird--some even a little disturbing--but there were several different styles exhibited and it was really quite cool.

We went to bed a little early, since we were all exhausted. We vistited the palace the next morning. THe portrait gallery was a bit mundane until Allison, Ashley, and I began noticing small hillarities in the backgrounds of some paintings--like dogs pooping and humping off to the side. Call us immature, but it was pretty funny.

Things are fairly inexpensive in Prague, so we did a little shopping. I bought a stein--oh heck yes! We then saw a guy go a runnin' because he had robbed someone. Allison and Linda made up a very amusing little anecdote, involving a bayonett and a purse. Then we found the John Lennon wall, which is basically a memorial to him that is now covered with graffiti. We only had a ballpoint pen, but I decided to write, "As soon as you're born, they make you feel small" on the wall. I know--not the most original thing I could have done, but I felt a bit like I was immortalizing my trip. We watched the extra special Atomic Clock in the City Center chime. As the clock chimes, each apostale comes to the window of the church--like a giant coo coo clock. I also ate an amazing Hummus Platter at Bohemian Bagel before we caught the train home. The excitement never stops--they stopped our train to arrest someone and we saw it all from our window. It was a pretty successful trip.