Bill and Ted EscarGOt to Paris!

Not sure if we're headed the right direction...

Our own row!

Title Credit: Molli Carlson

So, finally Coll and I met up for a weekend and had a very classy time in Paris. Pretty much our entire program was on the flight there (well, a couple people, but still...we had no idea they were coming), but split up to get to the place we were staying. No, Bill and Ted did not go to some overly priced hostel, thanks to Maria Bea Travis and her France-living friend, Noah Lee.

Ahoj there, Sam!

Love locks part II

Noah proved to be a very obliging and eccentric host (thanks Noah). He is invited to stay with us in LA any time, as is Maria.

So warm in here!

Bite of the baguety!

Friday consisted of a free tour from my favorite of my tour guides, and the only one whose name I actually remember, Sam. He was awesome and told us a secret entrance into the Louvre. Even though Sam was super awesome and we loved his tour, Paris was freezing compared to the type of clothing that we had brought (thanks a lot weather.com). We took our dresses and hardly effective leggings/jackets into the first restaurant that we could afford.

Batter up!

So pensive...

We took some sweet pictures of food and then headed to the Louvre and didn't make fun of any of the artwork. But we did. Whoops! We couldn't feel too bad though, because the entrance fee was free (Thanks a lot Charles University Card (But really this time)!)

Pretty sure there's a thumbs up there somewhere

No, no drinks for me thanks!

A classy dinner was had with enough wine for the road...







Before we knew it, it was time to wake up and be super touristy again. Next on the agenda (and my favorite touristy part of the trip)? Versailles. Free admission and audio guides made me want to re-watch Marie Antoinette. Well, maybe just listen to the soundtrack...

Nothing witty to say...kind of adorable...

Tried to get that whole thing in there!

There was a welcome trip to Starbucks justified by all the money we saved, a stop at Liz Clark's favorite sorbet place (delicious, thanks for the recommendation!), a preview of the Christmas markets to come and Coll's first ever trip to the Eiffel Tower!










After all the excitedment of the day, we spend some Euros on some gyros and made our way back to Noahs!
Our only goals on Sunday? Baguetys and the Arc de Triumph. Although the baguettes proved to be easily procured, there is something called the Grand Arch that is NOT the same as the Arc de Triumph. What should have tipped us off was the fact that they had two different names!

Not the right Arch!

My camera washed her out, but check out that arch!

We joined some more people to fly back home and grabbed some snack for the road.









Oh Paris, an excellent adventure to be sure!

BratislavAwesome

I'm sick of watching this owl war. Get me out of here...

What do you do when you have a mandatory trip only on Sunday, all your roommates are out of town and you've been in Prague for the past two weekends?
Molli, Sami and I went to Slovakia. Despite some negative words about the Bratislava bus station and the movie Hostel, we had a great time. Starting with the bus ride, where we had some good snacks and terrible movies (Owls of Gahoole twice? Really?)




First stop from the bus station? Our hostel, which was awesome. The people at this hostel were almost too nice. We even made a temporary friend in our room who was visiting from Brno for the night. He liked to sleep. After some time in our room...

Nzdravy!

So glad i took this :)

Same with this gem...

....Molli also got tired, so we bundled her up and went downstairs.

Sami about to lose...but actually.

Turns out, Bratislava was kind of lame with the nightlife, but we played some foosball and met some sweet European pals out by the front desk. We didn't meet anyone from Slovakia, which was a bit of a shame. Our European friends liked to dance. Unfortunately for them, Sami and I like foosball.

Oh hey (the go-to caption)!

MMMMM.

The next day was by far the greatest. Even though Slovakia is on the Euro, it was really cheap to get breakfast and some beers on our free tour. We had a photo shoot, and Molli took some sweet back-of-the-head-and-sweater pictures. Sami and I were matchy and Christmasy.

We made more friends! Although you can't tell from this picture...

Great glasses.

Great Backdrop

Molli and Sami both tried out some cool poses to make them seem more badass. I'll let you all choose who wins...

Meme-worthy

 Molli gets a big thanks for planning our grand trip to Bratislava. Such a wonderful trip and definitely the best part of the weekend. Here's the only picture of my mandatory Sunday trip to Terezin/Ledice. ---------->


Photo credit: Adi Putra


Good times. Next up, Bill and Ted reunite for a trip to Paris!

A SENSATIONAL Time in Prague

Bear hat and onesie, classic combo

As Colleen left for Copenhagen to visit Hsuehsy and go to sensation white, a small but adorable group of us stayed in Prague. Since this was a Halloweekend, the fun of course started on Thursday, although the costumes were not broken out until Friday.








On Thursday, Sami, Kylie, Clark and I went to the last night that Pink Floyd bar  was ever open. We did not know it would be closing that night forever, but I'm glad we got to go there before its demise...

Not sure if my costume, Chelsea's or Sami's is the worst...

60s housewives always have wine bottles!

Some of us sported terrible, makeshift costumes...must be Friday night in Prague on Halloween weekend. Apparently the rest of Prague did not get the memo...













We looked a bit ridiculous at the wine bar, even more ridiculous on the tram, and we even looked crazy at Lucerna, which we for some reason returned to that night!






 

:)

Saturday morning meant pancakes again and then a very disappointing trip to one of my favorite American establishments. Luckily, Sami took a little Souvenir from Hooters to make it worth our while. A door handle! We decided against costumes that night and the next. We waited for the Monday return of the weary travelers to put them on again, some of us vowing to do a bit of a better job this time, no matter how ridiculous we looked.







Monday night=Halloween= everyone once again looked awesome while the rest of Prague chose to ignore the great American Holiday. We had two people dressed up as fruit for God's sake! haha. Though I've got to admit that the blood orange and watermelon were pretty awesome. Carly was so incognito as Minnie Mouse that she even escaped Facebook's face recognition. She had to be tagged independently.

Ninja, Blood Orange and Gangster? Watermelon

Ninja swoops into another picture...

Anyway, overall a very fun and very Czech Halloween. That's my last post for tonight, but luckily we are officially to November, even though December is fast-approaching. Yikes! I'm hoping to get all the posts done while I'm here, but I'll at least have them done before break ends...

The Visit of HippoSCOTTamus

Scott eats ice cream in the pool!

So, I didn't have enough pictures to write about Katyy's visit. Wait, actually i might do a post about her as a backtracking special...But that's what happens when you don't come on a weekend. This post is all about the weekend that BiSCOTTi came to visit.

There's the fellow. All right, so Scott was welcomed to Praha with open arms (two sets, thanks to Sami) and a bottle of wine. First stop for this magical weekend was Lucerna.
Disclaimer: alcohol plus 80s/90s dance clubs minus food equals DISASTER. But that's all I will say about that. Oh, and on one of Scott's first tram rides, the door was pulled off by some crazy girls (not Sami, Rachel and I). But seriously, it was ripped off of the tram. We found our way back home, despite Scott's lack of tram pass and a visit from the Prague Policie (not because of the tram pass, but so they could kick everyone off the tram and get everyone on a new one in "hot second." ("Hot Second" Phrase Credit: Ryan Edward)

My famous chocolate banana placinkys (pancakes) were served the next morning and Scott and I did some touristy stuff including a far-away viewing of Prague Castle, some cheap czech cuisine and a trip to an architecture museum.
A much more low-key night was planned for Saturday, which turned into us meeting up with some people going to the mysterious K4 bar. This was right after the horror tour, so no one really knew what to expect of this bar, but...


<------- Yep. That ended up being K4.




 Although Gwenllian and I thought that K4 was pretty hilarious with its small hand-drawn sign, some people were not the happiest that this was where our 20 minute walk led us...




 

like this girl (and pretty much everyone else) -------->







Luckily, the inside wasn't as bad as the outside, and the menu was actually quite funny. Gwenllian chose to order chipsy instead of get tipsy. Grand choice, Gwenllian, good choice.









Anyway, the next day was quiet and touristy. Scott bought wine and lunch and cooked dinner. What a great quest. Thanks Scott! You were a grand guest. And so was Katyy, but more on that later I guess!

I think I've got one more post in me for tonight!

Litomysl (I can't think of anything funny about this name)

Unused chateau liquor cabinet

This is the view from my future home.

So, Bill and Ted once again parted ways for this weekend in October (Yes, there were tears cried by all, and yes, that's how many posts I have to catch up on, we're at the middle of October). I went on the art and architecture trip to see some sweet Rococo chateaus, a cubist house and some awkward modern art. I also went to a very interesting museum where everyone just ended up trying their hand at calligraphy (haha, their hand...), drawing terrible pictures and even dressing up in armor. Seriously, I think they love us on these trips, because Americans don't care at all about looking stupid.

Sami sleeps on the servant sleigh

Oh hey there, Sami

Oh wait! So, you know how I mentioned the gnocchi puns in the last post? (I'm sure you do, since you all are loyal followers) Anyway, this was the trip with all the gnocchi puns and tiramisu. It also consisted of me taking ridiculous picture of Sami (see above), and I even got my lovely roommate Chelsea to sneak into some of them. Sami and I ordered two litres (oh hey, metric system) of beer each, since we were subsidized by the program. When they came to give us the beers, they kept trying to give them to the guys because they didn't think we had ordered that much beer. Over here, buddy! We will be taking those.
Here are some pictures of Sami and Chelsea:

Part of the wedding reception?

Actually attractive picture

On this trip, we were introduced to the most boring Czech students in existence, who took us to a bar and then complained about how lame it was and went home. There was only one club in this whole town, so I'm pretty sure that was a s good as things were going to get. We had to listen to music gathered around someone's iTouch...








Anyway, fun weekend. I accidentally packed for three nights instead of one, and Sami passed out on the floor next to her phone as she got updates about the Wisconsin game. Well done, Litomysl, well done.
(Colleen spent this weekend in Prague/Trebic, so I'm sure you will read about this soon). Meanwhile, I have a lot more posts to write. Hopefully I make it so you have to you guys have to catch up on your reading, rather than the other way around!

Hesky Time in Cesky Krumlov!

So, here I go again with the blogging. I know that you all are probably sick of my posts and want to hear from Colleen, but I'm sure she will get to typing in due time! Especially since, I know she will have a lot to say about Cesky Krumlov. This place was seriously awesome, and it was like a two-day stay at a spa...not that I've ever done that. But anyway, it was restful and beautiful. See for yourself!

A fairy tale

And here's Coll and I at the top of the castle tower blocking this lovely view!

Yeah, we like our pictures real close up...

 

We had no Bagster to save us!

The Grim Reaper was after us! (haha, sorry Rachel)

It was really windy. Oh also, I don't know if you can tell this, but we are also very matchy. Check out that coordination. White scarves and classy North Faces. Nope, we didn't even have to plan it. Anyway, Cesky Krumlov was a bit chilly and we thought the end was near when we saw these two things:

Wish we could have joined 'em

So, yeah. There was a bear and our friend Rachel who was so bundled up that she looked like the Grim Reaper. And this wasn't even the best photo of her looking like him. Colleen had taken that picture, so I thought I would let her do the honors. Especially because she spent the entire trip laughing at the picture (which was hilarious, so I can see why). Anyway, I don't want to take that away from her. I'm sure it will have an epic caption.





More pictures? Hmm...well, there were some sweet people paddleboarding and kayaking down the river, which was really cool. Apparently you can raft from Prague to Cesky Krumlov in about five days...Let's hope people packed some road beers and fruit.

Oh hey, Ollie!

On the last day of our trip, we were treated to a brewery tour and got to taste Regent beer that was unfiltered. This place was awesome, and fun times were had by all on this tour. We may or may not have had way too much beer considering we hadn't eaten, but after that we got a three course meal that lasted us for days...No one could move after all that gnocchi and tiramisu. Don't even get me started on the gnocchi puns.

Trying not to smile

Oh, also, we went to a photography museum and everyone on our program dressed up in ridiculous clothes and had our photos taken. The person giving the tour of the photography museum definitely didn't have to ask us to dress up twice. Here was the outcome of that:

Sorry about the terrible formatting and lack of sass in this post. Next up: either Colleen's take on some of these trips or...Bill and Ted part ways for the weekend! I went on an art and architecture trip, and I'm not so sure about Coll. I forget...too many trips. Hope this can hold you off for a while!