"This is going to be a long night"

So the title is a quote from my Prague experience, which let me just tell you was one of the most interesting travel experiences of my life. So we had to rough it because our plane left from a town called Bergamo at 7:55am on Friday. However, there are no trains to Bergamo before that. So we had to leave Thursday night. Around 8pm 10 of us hopped on a train and made our way to the town, about an hour outside Milan. Of course we almost missed our one connecting train but miraculously this time we didn't. So we get into Bergamo around 10pm. We try to explore the airport a bit but to no avail. Everything is locked until 5am with the exception of this tiny, freezing cold waiting area. So we suck it up and settle in for the night. Not 10 minutes after we post up agains a wall (of course I'm on the end right next to the door people keep going in and out of) a break dance crew starts setting up on the wall opposite us. So natually we think this is hilarious and completely surreal as it obvious they too will be here all night long. But hey we welcomed the distraction. The break dancers starting having a competition right in front of us, our guess is that they were practicing for some competition. Even though we pulled this theory out of thin air, we stuck to in. After they do a few tricks I convinced Lauren to do a dance off with them. I knew she was the only one who would agree and I was hard up for something to keep my mind of the cold and pressing sleepiness. So she walks up to them and starts to dance then falls to the ground to do the worm. We got it on video so it should be floating around the internet very soon. After that the break dancers were only entertaining every now and then. Sometimes they would put on shows for us and other times they would just talk technical stuff amongst themselves. But here's where my night got really interesting. The creepiest looking guy in the place comes to sit down uncomfortably close to me. So my natural reaction of course is to laugh like any American girl would. I inch away a little and start talking with my friends about how weird he is. Because we ignorantly think he can't understand us. After a little while I am halfway laying down on my bag and so then he follows suit and lays down next to me. Dangerously close next to me. More laughter ensues. At this point Cheryl tries to capture him on camera but I can't contain my laughter and he keeps opening his eyes to stare at us. So this is all we got:
But it gets worse. A little after this blurry picture is taken. He keeps his eyes open one always on me. Then he goes above and beyond our wildest expectations and turns on his side--one arm stretched out to me. And gets EVEN CLOSER. At this point the man is basically trying to spoon me. I burst out laughing soo hard and so does everyone else, at this point I am literally losing it. So I sit up and am basically sitting on top of Lauren sleeping next to me. I start talking to my friends about how I can't do this and he says to me in his broken accent "Dis is going to be a long night." That was the last straw for me and so I walked outside in the freezing cold with Lisa and Cheryl around the entire airport to get away from this cuddle-loving man. However, we got lucky and went through a closed off construction zone to find that there is a cafe opening at 2am. At this point it was 1:30 so we just had to endure 30 more minutes on the ground before we could sit and eat. We ended up staying in that cafe until 5am when checkin opened. He came and sat directly behind me and watched me the whole time. We also got whistles for an hour straight from 50 year old men across the room. Like I said this was my most interesting travelling experience. We waiting at check in for an hour before we could check in for our flight. Then headed to the actual nice part of the airporot they had been hiding from us. There was a kids play room and because we were delirious from exhaustion we decided to play to kill time before our flight. I beat Lauren in the obstacle course, which for me is very excitng because I never win anything. Then we rudely took up three seats each to try to rest a little before our flight at 8. But no such luck because our flight keeps getting pushed back and we don't end up leaving until after 10am. So we don't end up getting to Prague until after 11am. All in all our trip took us about 15 hours.

After being awake for 24 hours straight and suffering from a mild stalking experience we knew we weren't in any mindset to accomplish much that day. We just walked around the snowy city (aka I forgot it was still winter until I saw snow again...sucks for you America its almost in the 50s today in Verona). We had authentic czech lunch though and I had rump steak and the other girls got a meat platter. Everything was delicious!! I miss eating meat all the time! We also stopped in a Starbucks (aka Fourbucks) for coffee and to give our friend Clair her birthday cake! Then we FINALLY napped and got ready for our evening. We went to dinner, oh in case you didn't know Prague is known for having REALLY cheap beer, so obviously we had different kinds of beer with every meal.

Then the surprise began. We said we should go back to the hostel for our free welcome drink and to get other drinks because none of the clubs would be busy yet. So we go back and get drinks and shots. We all tried a shot of absinthe (don't worry the whole hallucinogen thing is a myth...unless maybe you get some from a drug dealer, i don't know) but I thoght it tasted good it was like sugar, because you melt sugar in it before you take it, and licorice. No one seemed to agree. Anyways then we tell Clair that we are taking the tram to the clubs...buuut. WE HAD LIMOS PICK US UP AND DRIVE US AROUND PRAGUE FOR FREEEE!!!!! It was AWESOME! AND SOO SURREAL! I mean seriously who are we to get a limo to drive us around a foreign country?? And for free! Needless to say Rod at Hostelone is the best hostel owner in the world. So it took us to really cool clubs and we made sure Clair had a blast celebrating her birthday. As did we. Here is me and Elangie getting into the limo!

So the next day we got up and did our real sightseeing. We went to Old Town Square and saw the Clock Tower strike 1. There were also little markets there where we had crepes made right in front of us! We also tried food from a stand I got a friend cheese sandwhich aka a giant mozzerella stick flattened on bread. Let me tell you I would eat them everyday if we had them in Verona. So its probably very good that we don't. So then we walked down to the river and explored over there. We got really pretty pictures in front of the castle and everything across Charles Bridge. See the new pictures I uploaded for those!
Then we ventured out to find the John Lennon wall and we got so many cool pictures there too!! Here I am in front of the wall:

We finally ventured home to get ready for our RIVER DINNER CRUISE! It took us all around the city to see the beautiful sights from the river. We also got to feast on fine Czech cuisine--buffet style of course. We had czech sausages, goulash, chicken, dumplings, and soo many other things. It was the perfect way to end our trip! It was a three hour cruise and there was also a jazz band that played music for us the entire time. It was also the perfect setting for me to get closer with more people on my trip. I hadn't travelled with teh five girls I went with before so we all had so much fun getting to know each other even better.

I forgot to mention there was alot of excitement getting to the boat because we almost missed it! I had to run about a mile I would guess in heels. By the end I gave up and ran sock-footed through the snow and cobblestone. But it was definitely worth it. We got home a while after 10 and had to leave the hostel at 3:30am to get to the airport. We always travel at awful hours because its cheaper. So we planned to watch movies in the lounge and relax. But unfortunately Lisa lost her passport and we all felt soo bad for her that we spent the entire time tearing the hostel apart looking for it. We never found it but luckily they let her on the plane anyways because she had copies of her passport and visa. She got a temporary one yesterday that lasts her 6 months so she's good to travel for the rest of the trip. But still we were worried for a while that she wouldn't be able to come home with us.

Finally we made our long journey home to spend the entirety of Valentines Day in bed dead to the world catching up on an entire weekends worth of sleep. All in all it was one of the most surreal and memorable vacations of a lifetime. I still can't believe I get to take a new vacation and see a new country every weekend!!

Next weekend I am heading to BARCELONA SPAIN! So if you've got any advice for me let me know!

One last thing I HAVE to tell you about is that I finally started my photography class yesterday!! I keep liking every class the best and now I love this one too. My teacher is awesome (because everyone here is haha). His name is Mauro and he is a professional photographer. He was born in Verona but lived and studied in NYC for 10 years so his english is excellent. Since the class is very technical it is my only one not in italian. For our first class he taught us about the history of photography and the first camera and alot of other really interesting stuff. Then we watched a few clips from the movie Smoke with Harvey Kitel. It looks really good now I want to watch the whole thing. Then we set off for our first fieldtrip! On our way to the gallery we stopped in Piazza Erbe for coffee, he treated. Is this seriously class??? We sat and talked with him for about half an hour. I love my life. Then we went to the amatuer photographers gallery, which happens to be underground completely within the Roman ruins that lie under the city. It was like entering another world entirely. It was a very cool experience. He critiqued all of the photography, so I'm pretty nervous as to what he will have to say about ours. But I can't wait for the experience of this class, he told us that we will spend an hour or two of each class in the classroom and the rest take trips around the city to either take pictures or see galleries! I still can't believe I'm getting 15 GPA hours for these classes. Life could not be better than this.

And last but most certainly not least...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERUFL DAY (I MEAN WEEK) CELEBRATING WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! I'm sorry I can't be there to go to Outback (in the Outlook) tonight but I will be thinking of you guys!! I miss you & I love you! Have a Margarita for me :)

<3 Kalyn