Czech Czech Czech, Czech it out!

WOW.... so you wanna know what happened 2 months ago in Prague eh? Let me look at the pictures to refresh my memory...actually.

Ah yes... So we hear that if you hop on a certain city "tram", which we can catch right outside our door step, that you can see the sites of Prague without paying for a tour. Get on said bus, tour around, arrive at castle. So we tour around this castle, seeing all the sites and then Steph decides she wants to see the bone church. Well, there is nothing ANYWHERE about this church, but we see a wall off in the distance that appears to be made out of human skulls (thanks to an amazing view from the castle) and we head in that direction. After finding said wall, which is encased in a courtyard at the old Riding Academy, (which doesn't open until April- this is February remember) and unsuccessfully trying to talk the guard lady into letting us in, we head back to the apartment to find food.

Side note: the bone castle is actually outside of Prague..but what fun would it be to look up that information BEFORE your trip?

I've learned it's better not to ask

After lunch, we head out to see a famous bridge with a name I don't remember...which like everything else in Europe, is under construction in preparation for Tourist season (Another side note: doesn't this sound like a type of hunting season, similar to fishing or deer season, where you catch a tourist? I think so). Next is some souvenir shopping, a stop at Starbucks, and a clock. A clock that everyone is standing in front of in anticipation of the coming hour marker. The hour arrives and- there is absolutely nothing I can say here that will describe what we saw. It literally left us all going "What was that? Was that all? Can I have those 3 minutes of my life back?" Oh well, we had Starbucks, so off we go to explore some more. We head down a fancy shopping street, with stores that I will NEVER be able to afford, that eventually leads us to the Old Jewish Quarter (I'm going to pause here, and allow YOU to come up with the jokes). Anyways, once here we realize that they try and charge you an arm and a leg to see the sites (again, pause)...including the cemetery. So instead, we walk around the outer wall of the cemetery, poke the camera thru the tiny window, take some pictures, and voila it's almost like you're inside. Some other funny things also happened on this little journey around the cemetery...like me falling off the curb, and walking in a particular way....but again, I probably shouldn't mention it for sensitivities sake, altho I apparently wasn't being too sensitive at the time I did it. OOPS. Confused yet? I know I am. But if you were there, those last sentences will make you chuckle.

Moving on.

Off to Wenceslas Square we go. Take some pictures, do a little shopping in stores we can actually afford, and then head back to the apartment to make dinner and get some shut eye before our flight back to England the next day.

Where shopping takes place in Prague!

And that ladies and gents is Prague, Czech Republic...only 2 months late!

MIA - Paper planes

Look Look Look who it is?

I know I know, I've been MIA for awhile, but I just haven't been in the mood to sit and type on a computer when the weather is so nice. This mood has apparently rubbed off on Julie as well/her computer just plan sucks these days.

Piece de merde

As some of you may know, we've been to Italy recently and seen/done some really exciting things. We've also been designing a website for a local restaurant here in Nice, and sitting on the beach during our spare time. Unfortunately right now, this website and two others that are in the works take precedence over blogging, but have no fear, if Julie's computer decides to start cooperating (or if anyone has keycodes for Mac Adobe CS4 programs) this should be done in no time- bah hahaha. Until then, look forward to hearing about the rest of our stay in Prague, Portugal, Italy and about the other random things we've been up to for the last 8 weeks (oops- has it really been that long?).

In other news, I have a REALLY sore throat. I think I'm dying because of it. It sucks. The end.

Waiter? Czech please!

So hopefully you got the joke from my last two posts - you didn't actually think I was going to leave you hanging and not knowing what we actually did on our travels!! So anyways, I left off at us leaving to go to Prague after spending a night in the London Gatwick airport - here we goooooo!!

Arriving around 10am, we were a little exhausted - you can imagine how comfortable a row of airport benches can be as a bed. So our immediate task was to meet up with our "hostel" manager and get the keys. I say "hostel" in quotes because it was more like an apartment - that we ended up getting to ourselves... in the middle of downtown.... above a bar... YAY! Hahaha. Needless to say, we were tired, so the first thing we did when we got there was take a huge nap until the middle of the afternoon.

Tram line running past a mall in downtown Prague, Czech Republic

Walking around Prague was interesting because it wasn't like any of the other major cities that we had visited thus far. The streets had fewer people (which was a nice change), and the building had a completely different look to them - the infamous Bohemian style - maybe because it's located in central Bohemia? But you know, just assuming here hahaha.

Planning to do most of our sight seeing on day 2, we spent most of the afternoon shopping (we thought Prague was going to be cheaper than the rest of Europe but we were sadly incorrect). This would be a good time to point out that in the CR they use a different currency than the rest of Europe - they use the Czech Koruna - where about 26Kr is the equivalent of 1€. The fun part about that was spending 105Kr on a drink from Starbucks (you knew we were going to, so stop pretending like we didn't)!

They still had the Christmas cups in March! Merry Christmas!

A quick stop at the grocery store to get some eats, and we were back in the apartment hungry and ready to cook a feast! And by feast, I mean some pasta and veggies - close enough right? Our evening was quiet and relaxing, with some braids, a small workout demonstration by yours truly and Steph, and tales read aloud from "Talk to the Snail: Ten Commandment for Understanding the French" by Stephen Clarke. See?

Commandment #1 - Thou shalt be wrong (if you’re not French)

Yes, we spend our evenings in interesting ways. So, we hit the hay early ready to get going for day numéro deux. This post seems long enough as it is, I will continue at another date.

Just a small note - we have been even more busy lately - planning our trip to Italy (we leave in 2 days) and designing yet another web site for a local business owner here - we'll post the link once it's done. All that in addition to our normal daily activities. I'll try to see what I can do about updating at least until the end of Portugal by the time we leave on Friday! Wish me luck!

Pore choo gal

Hey remember that time we went to Portugal?

I don't remember much, so I can't write any details.

We went to Portugal on Thursday. Apes and Steph returned on Sunday. I returned on Tuesday.

I am Portuguese.

Czech us out!

Hey, we went to Prague and then we left and went to Portugal.

That is all.

Long overdue... or just due?

LONDON TOWN! Continued from before....

Where are we? I don't know - I guess it's been so long since I have written that I can't remember. Easy fix - just have to look at the blog, don't I?

So, double decker bus tour eh? Bet you thought it was fun, well, you're dead wrong! It was awful! Yes, I am kidding once again. Got ya! Anywho, by this time, we are le tired and waiting for my sisters (+Abe - Deni's bf) to meet us in Central London! Yes that's right, my crazy sisters were visiting! Oolala! So after a few phone calls, we finally met up with them at Victoria Station Mall, where low and behold, Deni was getting her hair straightened - leave it to her to be doing that to pass the time!

Ju, Apes, Deni, Abe, & Kiki

To join in, Steph decides to get a strand or two of her hair curled - oh so lovely! Now if only this lady wasn't so persistent in trying to sell us her hair tools, we could have gone on our way a lot faster. "Hey lady! Did we mention that the outlets in Canada are a little different than the ones here??" Aka we're not buying one. Why do I always sidetrack like this? I'm so awful. I'm sorry if you're reading this.

Gotta look the other way, remember?

So my sistas, the sistas, Abe (lucky Abe with 5 women) and myself walked down past all the fun scenery (you remember what I said - Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc.) to the River Thames to hop on a boat for a cruise. A beautiful cruise on a brown river - my favourite pasttime! Oh you didn't know that? Well then, you didn't know me! The non-tour guide tour guide was hilarious, and the boat was basically empty. We had a marvelous time along the Thames with beautiful evening photos. Voila!

The boat had SO MANY PEOPLE!

Tower Bridge at night - oooh aaahh

I literally just took a 7 hour break from writing... so I've lost my train of thought. Ahh... so I will continue... but we're just going to zoom through the rest of London.

• Finished the boat cruise - back to hostel then dinner at a gourmet burger restaurant
• Met random guy from Canada at the hostel's pub and turns out he went to high school with Steph's boyfriend (obviously)
• Ventured out and about the next day and then took the train north to Sheffield (and Chesterfield for Apes & Steph)
• Steph and Apes were visiting their cousins
• Abe, Ju, Nicki, & Deni went to Sheffield to see Abe's old stomping ground
• Back to London on Monday afternoon - I did the double decker tour with my sisters while Steph and April went shopping
• Parted ways at the end of the day, grabbed some fish & chips and headed for the airport to spend the night for our 7am flight to PRAGUE!!

Yoga at Trafalgar Square! ROOOOOOOOAR!

Sleeping at the airport is not something that I recommend doing... but we're cheap and didn't want to bother paying for a room when we would just have to leave at 4:30am. So we slept on the seats in the waiting area - as did a bunch of other travelers. I guess it's a good option haha. Anyways, needless to say when we arrived in Prague the next day, we were quite tired.

This means that the story of London is done!! YAY! So I shall explain Praha in the next post. Adieu! Ciao! Adios!

so slow......

ACK! I suck at this.

Summary as what's happening right now (AKA why I don't have time to write):

• I just got a job teaching English to kids aged 7-11, so I've been busy dealing with that.
• My friend Lisa is visiting for the week (from London, UK) so that's keeping me busy too.
• My other job (posting stuff on a family web site) needs attention as well - more posts = more money for me.

I will update more about our travels as soon as I can. For now, I love you and miss you all.