PRAGUE!

Ok so here we are two weeks later. lol

well in the last blog I failed to mention that I had also had an excursion with my program to an asparagus farm (here it's called spargel). We went an hour on the train outside the city and were treated to an amazing lunch with lots and lots of spargel. The farm was cool, and reminded me alot of a place you would take the family for a sunday outing. They had a petting zoo and bounce house, a few big buildings that looked like barns and some other activities you could also take part in, like zip lining in the woods (which i really wanted to do but we didn't have enough time, nor did i have the money to do so). They also had little booth like shops where you could buy all different varieties of spargel as well as other homemade keepsakes.

For lunch we had all you can eat spargel with potatoes and an optional schnitzel (which yes, I opted for). You had the choice of one of 3 sauces: butter, butter with bread crumbs or hollandaise. On the plate you got like 8 spears of spargel, that were quite big, and I didn't think there was a need for all the extra plates of spargel they kept bringing, because the amount we started with was quite enough. The spargel is different than what we think of asparagus in America, its not those tiny green stalks. these are big white stalks, all about 8-10 inches long with bases about the size of a quarter. They are also sweeter than the green asparagus. Anyways the meal was absolutely delicious, I definitely stuffed myself to the max.

Ok well then that takes us to

PRAGUE!!!!

So last Thursday was a holiday so my friends and I decided to go to Prague for a long weekend. After a 5 hour bus ride we arrived in Prague and headed over to our hostel. The hostel was really nice, and since there were 10 of us we got our own dorm to ourselves, which was great so we didn't have to worry about locking up our things. After dinner at a little pizza and pasta place on the corner, we headed to downtown prague for some drinks. Danny had heard about this place called "The PUB" which stands for Pilsner Unique Bar, so we found our way there. However we ended up at the wrong place first, a similar venue known as the Beer Factory. After some savvy iphone-ing we figured out where The PUB was and headed in that direction. However, my friend Ted was on crutches so we decided to try and get him a cab. i told the cabby's the address and no one seemed to know it, and then even with my iphone map they still didn't understand where it was. We finally found a guy but then he wanted to us 8 euro (200 krowns) to go around the block. So instead Ted hobbled along with us down to the bar. The place was pretty cool. It had big tables and at each table there was a tap with 3 heads, so all you had to do was get glasses and then you could drink however much you pleased. They had a little meter that kept count of your table. They also had this big screen wehre they showed what tables at each of the four places like this around prague had drank the most. It was pretty cool.

On friday we did walking tours of the city which were really great. We did a free tour (I highly recommend doing these, because the people are always enthusiastic because they were solely off tips) first of the actual city of prague. We went around the old square, new square and jewish quarters. Old and new town are relative terms because the old town dates to 13th century while the new town is 14th century. The guide we had was named Keith and he was american. he moved to prague to be with a woman he fell for while on vacation, and they now have a baby. Anyway he was really great and gave us alot of fun history that you don't always read in books. On the clock tower in old town square they have a dial with names and each day has 4 names. If you child is born in prague, they have to have one of the names on that dial, you're not allowed to name them anything else, but you don't have to name them with a name that is featured on their birthdate. Instead those names represent whose Name Day it is, which is celebrated like a birthday in Prague. There are also alot of astrological clocks and such around Prague, which I found really interesting. They had rulers during the middle ages that were far less concerned with religion and more so with astronomy and sciences, which was something i didn't expect.

On this tour we also visited st. James Church which houses a mummified thief's arm. Legend has it that they used to store lots of gold in the church and one day a thief came and hid in the church til the priests left and then began to gather lots of gold artifacts. He went up to the virgin mary and as he lifted her gold medallion over her head the statue came to life and grabbed him by the neck and then turned back to stone. The thief remained there until the priests returned in the morning. When they found him they decided to cut off his arm as punishment for his crime. When the saw had cut through the last bit of skin the statue released him and went back to her original form. It is said they mummified this thief's arm and hung it near the altar as a warning to all other criminals not to steal from the church.

After the tour of the city we decided to do a second tour of the castle with the same guide. The castle in prague is not your traditional idea of a castle. It was built for function and not grandeur. However it was very intersting tour. they have a monastery on the grounds that brews its own beer and the palace today is home to the czech government and president. When the czech flag flies above the castle that means the president is in the country, and if there is no flag then he is abroad. The church on the grounds was built over the years between 871 and 1927, and one of the steeples is in the baroque rather than gothic style, because by the time construction reached this point, gothic was out of style. Famous middle ages astronomer Tycho Brahe also lived on the grounds and apparently kept a pet dwarf (yes a little person) under his dining table as well as a pet elk, which died one night from a fatal fall down the stairs after having drunk too much beer. Brahe himself died of mercury poisoning which they believe could have entered his system in one of 3 ways: he ingested it himself as medicine; it entered his system slowly via his scientific work; or that he was murdered by his apprentice Kepler, who later claimed fame with his law of planetary motion, but the world will never know.

On these tours we met some really cool girls from Washington state that are here for 13 weeks just travelling throughout europe. They were both really cool and i really enjoyed talking to hilary about all her adventures in travelling as well as her experience with couch surfing.

Friday night we stayed near the hostel for dinner and drinks because ted was not very mobile. We ended the night at a bar just up the street from us called "As soon as possible". Danny fell in love with the waitress and we all danced the night away to euro oldies music. Best song of the night: Disco song with the lyrics "I'm crucified, crucified like my savior." Never thought i'd see the day that i would be getting down to jesus music. Enjoy the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYT2aWavXlc

Saturday we headed out to a town outside of prague called Kutna Hora, which has the Bone Church and Silver Mines as its claim to fame. The Bone Church featured bones of over 40,000 people, included in six large mountains of bones, two of which were used for the church's artwork. The bones were the remains of people who died in the plague in the 15th century and were made into the current church in the 1870s. The artist felt that the use of the bones was a good metaphor for the eternity of the sole that extends beyond this world.

Saturday night we went on a pub crawl throughout prague. it was pretty cool, but a normal pub crawl. the last bar we went to was a 5 story club, that had different music on every floor and was really cool. On Sunday morning we headed back to Berlin. Overall the weekend was a great success.

As for this week, classes are becoming a little more difficult as I have work that I need to turn in. I've been feeling a little under the weather this week, but after a trip to the doctor today, i'm hoping to recover quickly. On wednesday I went rollerblading with my roommates Juale and Celine. I can't remember the last time i was on rollerblades. it was fun and i got the hang of it after a little while and only fell once. Last night (thursday) I took the girls that we met in prague out to a favorite bar of mine, madam claud, cuz they are here visiting berlin for the week.

Well this weekend is another holiday and the cultural carnival in berlin, so i'm hoping it will be a good weekend. I think that's it for now. Until next time, Aufwiedersehen!