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Last weekend was pretty awesome! We went on our trip to Prague! It all started last Friday night when we took a night bus! The bus was so cramped and small and it was packed! We were one of the last people to get on the bus so our posse had to be broken up. Mary Elizabeth and Rachel were bus buddies which in hindsight was a bad idea, only because they had the longest legs. They had the pleasure of sitting behind a couple who seemed more like mother and son. Mhairi and Katie were bus buddies and they had to sit in front of the most annoying guys ever! They didn't sleep the whole trip, they read comic books, played cards, talked and oh yeah, kicked Katie's seat all night! So annoying! But one positive thing came from the bus trip! We met
Hamish, a fellow English assistant from New Zealand. He was a pretty funny guy, and he's not too fond of the French especially after he was hit by a car in Marseilles and the driver didn't even get out of his car to apologize! Hamish was lucky to have met us because not only are we the funnest people in Europe but also he had to be told where the trip was to... he thought he was on his way to Poland! We arrived in Prague around 9:30 am and had to leave our things on the bus because we couldn't check into the hotel until that evening. So the four of us girls took the metro to the center and went to the tourist office. We figured out the money exchange... kinda... well we took out 2000 CZ and hoped it wasn't like 1000 euros! Afterward we took some pictures of the Astronomical Clock and went looking for the medieval torture museum. It was pretty much the coolest yet disturbing museum we've ever been too. Every exhibit made us cringe a little inside. We aren't too sure how reliable the information was at the museum because we spotted a few things cited by Wikipedia and Britannica! Afterward we just took in the sights and went looking for a place to get some food! We ended up being persuaded to go to an Irish pub by a random guy who was adve
rtising the pub. It was nice to speak English with people and to feel closer to home. Once we were fed we went on a Nuclear Bunker Tour. We were all really excited and we thought we would learn a lot of history. Except unfortunately it was extremely hard to understand our tour guide, Ivan. His accent was REALLY thick and could barely understand anything he was saying! It seemed like he was in a huge rush and he didn't leave much time for picture taking... he actually said we were like the Chinese and we had no idea what he meant. We thought he was calling Rachel Chinese because the same thing happened to her in Morocco! Turns out the Chinese take a lot of pictures when they go away and that's what he meant... weirdo! He did try to be funny by calling one of the guys in our group a loser because he didn't "pick-up" the night before! The Nuclear bunker was pretty cool, it had a lot of graffiti, a spin table and bar inside. At the end of the tour Ivan gave us all a beer while he showed us pictures and let us try on a gas mask!
We had to walk back to our hotel to get checked in and all that jazz! The hotel was amazing... such a nice change from those dingy hostels! The hotel room was clean, the beds were comfortable, there were complimentary toiletries, oh and the end of the toilet paper was folded into a triangle. We were living the life. We all got ready in our rooms and we met up with Hamish to experience the night life in Prague. We had a few drinks before heading out to a light show called "Aspects of Alice". It was a pretty good show. At intermission Hamish went to the bar to get us a few glasses for the bottle of wine we brought with us. The bartender gave them to him no questions asked but as soon as we poured the wine in the theatre the usher came and told us no glasses allowed in the theatre... What was the point of giving us the glasses then? So we smoothed things over with the usher and got to drink our wine! After the show we went to the bar next door. The bar looked pretty cl
assy but it was also a strip club!!!!!!!!! There was one tiny room with a bar and stripper poles. It was pretty interesting. It was a lot of fun until some dude mistook the two of us for Americans and tried to convince us to give him a dance! Once we got sick of that club we went to a five floor club, the biggest club in central Europe. It was pretty amazing! They had all kinds of dance floors and it felt almost like a warehouse because the stairs were like concrete. We had a lot of fun and learned some new European pick up lines. For example, all a guy has to do is look at you and give you the peace sign... that means "lets dance". Katie and Rachel were ready to get back to our hotel before Mhairi, Mary E, and Hamish so they went on the look out for a cab. They were pretty paranoid about taking a cab because apparently the cabs are run by the mob, according to the internet! The cab driver was a bit sketch because he drove like a maniac and took them to all of these side streets... but no fear... they made it back safe.
The next morning we all ate our complimentary breakfast which was more than just bread and jam! We had bacon, fruit, cereal, juice, everything you can imagine even fried mushrooms! Then we met up with Hamish once again and his roommate Kyle from New York. We took our bags to th
e bus and claimed out seats for the trip home. For the rest of the day we relied on the guys to get us around... we took advantage of not needing a map! We went to the Jewish Quarter, and we took a visit to the Kafka museum, then we went to the Prague castle, took a gander at the tiny Eiffel tower, and checked out the sights on Charles Bridge. Prague is really a beautiful city, there is so much to see! At the end of the day we made our way back to the bus and were shocked to see that someone had the gull to move Mhairi and Katie's bags! They totally stole their seats. They were not impressed... not one bit! So Katie and Mhairi went looking for their bags... and guess where they were... behind the annoying comic book boys from the bus ride there! So every time 
the bus stopped we made a point to go to the back of the bus to give the seat stealers an evil look. The bus ride home was long and interesting. At one of the stops Mary Elizabeth and Hamish thought they would get a bottle of beer for the bus ride home and the bus driver saw them and said it was fine with her because she was buying a six pack! OUR BUS DRIVER WAS DRINKING! So we wore our seat belts the rest of the ride home! After a long drive with 100 000 000 unnecessary stops we finally got home around 5:30 am! It was a great trip!
We've had a pretty eventful couple of weeks since out last entry. Our roommate Anant is missing a lot of celebrations in India and is getting homesick. So last week she decided to re-create "Holi" (pronounced "holy") day in our flat with us. It's a special day where basically everyone where Anant lives has a huge water fight with colours. She was really eager to play it with us but at the time the weather was too cold to be outside throwing water... sooooooooo.... we played inside! I guess we didn't really think it through because the aftermath was a huge clean up. But i
t was worth it, we all had a lot of fun. We used anything and everything to put water in and throw it at each other! Mary Elizabeth, of course, had to take it one step further and throw flour at Mhairi! We did this twice in one day! At night time Mary Elizabeth, Mhairi and Anant went outside (saoking wet) while Katie threw poured water on them from the window... that didn't last long though because the girls got yelled at by a neighbor. The story behind Holi day was that there was once this little boy who was to become prince. His Aunt (also a witch) was very jealous and she wanted to become Queen instead. So she had planned to burn the boy. The aunt had a shawl that could protect her from harm and i believe it was the king who wanted to stop the Aunt from performing her wicked plan but couldn't because of the shawl. The there was a gust of wind which knocked off the shawl and it landed on the little boy, so he was then protected. So on Holi day, everyone has a huge water fight to pay homage to the story and the boy.
hings to see were st. Marks square a
nd basilica. There was a disgusting amount of birds in the square though! and people thought it was so cute to have them all over you! revolt! Everything was so cute, like people had clotheslines out of their windows over the water and all the gondola drivers were dressed up in stripped shirts and straw hats. We heard that gondolas were really expensive so we weren't sure if we'd get to go on one, but luckily we did for 15 euro! And it was pimp. when we met our driver he was drinking from a champagne flute! so the boat was trimmed in black fur and golden seahorses! it was pretty beautiful. we took a drive in the canals and into the grand canal. it gave us a different point of view. it was weird to see steps and doors just opening into the water. It was pretty exciting for us. We were pretty tired by the end of the day so we found a park where some kids were playing football (ahh i mean soccer, those british girls are getting to me...) so i guess it's all of europe that doesn't pick up dog poop. we found some ways to pass the time like having a model walkoff and Mhairi even got one badass cornrow down her head. we took the boat back to the mainland and then had to drive for an hour and a half to our hotel. there was absolutely nothing around...well other than prostitutes... so we called it a night. We left early the next morning and had a bit of a repeat day. more pasta, pizza and gelato and lots of shopping (kaite got some pasta in interesting shapes...). Venice was actually much more touristy than we had imagined. There were also a ton of shops selling Carnivale masks and costumes! like an unbelievable amount. some of them were pretty creepy. one shop even had pastries in the shape of faces...yum. 
