blog. (by vanessa)

Brighton. On December 19th we said goodbye to Prague and went to stay with Dave’s cousins in Brighton, England (about 1 hour south of London). Brighton was a really neat city, a very young town with a lot going on. We ate a lot of asian food because you can’t really trust it in Prague. Also, we had a few home cooked meals which was quite a treat. Oh, and the fish & chips were amazing.

Brighton Shopping

Brighton Pier

Dave & Cousins on the Beach

London. On Monday we took a train into London and spent the whole day walking around. Cars driving on the opposite side of the road made crossing the street a rather difficult task. Luckily there were some helpful signs:

Helpful Street Signs

Westminster Abbey

Parliament

Dave & The London Eye

London Skyline

Cool Streets

Cool Buildings

London was a very interesting mix of old and new architecture, but I think it worked and didn’t seem out of place.

Modern

Tower Bridge

Double-Decker Bus

Red Phone Booth

Driving on the wrong side of the street!

Big Ben at Night

Overall I thought London was a pretty neat city. Obviously, I wish I had more time to explore it, but I am glad I was able to visit at all.

Before leaving Prague, NYU held a formal goodbye ball, here are a couple pictures:

With our favorite professor

Friends from my Dorm

The journey home was really long. We left Brighton at 6am (Brighton time) then flew 1.5 hrs to Dublin, then 9 hrs to Chicago where we enjoyed lovely Aer Lingus cuisine:

Yum.

and then we arrived in Chicago to a snow storm. I ended up being in stuck in Chicago for 6 hours and Dave had to stay overnight.

Chicago Snow

Now I am back home in Palos Verdes and celebrating my 22nd birthday. I am sad that my adventures in Europe are over, but somewhat relieved to be stationery for a bit. Also, it is nice to not be living in an apartment with 10 girls anymore. I am looking forward to going back to NY and living in the West Village for my final semester of college (Yikes!).

Weekend Trips. It is strange to be able to hop over to another country just for a weekend getaway. But that luxury comes with our “Central European” location (Side note: we learned in one of my classes that it is actually really offensive to the Czech people to say that the Czech Republic is in Eastern Europe. They would much prefer to be called Central Europeans). This past weekend found Dave and me in Venice, Italy. I have been waiting to visit the city of canals since The Venetian Hotel opened in Las Vegas and our family trip 4 years ago brought me as close as Florence… what a tease! We took a budget airline from Prague to Venice-Treviso (only a 70 minute flight) early Friday morning and hopped on a bus straight onto the island where we were promptly greeted by the glorious Grand Canal.

We immediately started exploring- hoping to eventually end up at our hotel. Of course, we headed in exactly the wrong direction. Every corner we turned took us to a dead end or water.

We eventually made it to our little hotel, which happened to be only steps from where we got off the bus. After dropping off our stuff, we sat down for a Cappuccino … the best in the world (but almost as good as my dad’s).

We eventually found our way to San Marco Square and to the southern side of the island

Apparently, Venice is sinking, so all of structures with any height are leaning as you can see in this next picture.

We decided to pick up a litre of wine from one of the many wine shops, where they serve the wine from big jugs into a bottle of your choice.

Our self-portrait:

Pretty sunset over the canal:

Venice at night, still gorgeous:

Self-portrait #2:

We then had an amazing pasta dinner and got brutally destroyed by the euro-us dollar exchange rate (about $1.50 = 1 EURO), it was still delicious regardless.

After dinner we were faced with the task of again finding our way to our hotel. A lot easier said than done. 40 minutes later we found ourselves at the complete opposite side of the island. This next picture sums up our evening experience: lost with a litre of wine and a map.

Day two we decided to explore the farther reaches of Venice. We happened upon the more residential areas which was really neat. The streets (or canals) were lined with clothing lines and the boats were of a more useful type than the gondola.

We happened upon a really neat architecture exhibit. I would tell you more about it, but the sign was in Italian.

We made it all the way to the eastern-most tip of the island where there was another leaning tower.

We flew home Sunday morning over the Alps and they were spectacular! I am so excited to be visiting the Swiss Alps in November. Someone told me a while ago that Venice was overrated and I entirely disagree! This is a city that everyone should visit at least once- there is no other place like it. It is so amazing to me that all of these amazing places are so close to me, here in Prague. As far as travel is concerned, the sky is the limit… or maybe my bank account is.

Two weeks in. After 14 days of living in the Czech Republic, there are some things that I love and some things that have proven to be quite frustrating. For one, the Česky (Czech people) have been anything but welcoming. NYU warned us that they would be a bit more reserved than we are used to back home (example: no one speaks on the metro here), but it turns out that “reserved” was quite the understatement. The citizens of Prague have turned out to be flat out rude. I have been shoved out of the way when waiting for a tram, hissed at when I occupy one of the seats on the tram, and completely ignored when waiting in line to check out at the grocery store… to name a few instances. Now I understand that all of Europe looks down on us loud, annoying Americans, but I have never experienced anything like this before.

Here is a photo of the main transportation system here in Prague, they are above ground trams and they run all over the city.

The trams we use to get around everyday.

Classes started on Monday. It was actually quite comforting to get into a routine again. It made Prague start to feel more like home rather than a four month vacation. Classes I am taking here: Economic Principles, Czech Advertising & Society, Intro to Marketing, and Czech Art & Architecture.  The last one is the class I am most excited about: 50% of class time is spent actually touring the city. Hopefully by the time that everyone comes to visit in November, I will know ALL there is to know about this beautiful city. NYU held a really nice welcome dinner for us on Monday night. They served us a really great dinner and they had an open bar with all the Pilsner Urquel and Wine you could drink. Here is the first and only picture so far of Dave and me in Prague (I guess that’s what we get for being the photographers of the group) we are standing on NYU’s balcony that looks out onto Old Town Square (the heart of Prague).

Dave & Me at NYU Welcome Dinner

Here is my main group of friends here in Prague and one of our RA’s, Lenka (All of the resident assistants for our program are actually Czech students who go to school at the Charles University here in Prague)

My main group of friends

Food. Figuring out what to eat is maybe the most difficult thing to do here in Prague. This is definitely not a good city for a vegetarian– the Czechs are all about their meats and they are delicious. A typical meal you might find for about 50 Kc (~$3 USD) is Klobása which consists of a tasty sausage, some mustard and two slices of mediocre bread:

Klobasa Meal

But the other day we stumbled into a restaurant in Staré Město (Old Town) with a cheap Daily Special Menu. The only problem is that it was entirely in Czech. I decided to just go for it and I ordered Veprove Platek… lucky for me it turned out to be a slice of Pork and it was delicious and only 75Kc (~$5 USD)

Veprove Platek

Tourists. Dave and I did a walking tour from Old Town down along the Vltava river to Vyšehrad (the first castle and establishment in Prague) Here are some photos:

Prague Castle and the Vltava River

Dave and the Dancing Building

Street Market in Old Town

Really Neat Statue

Tourist

I added a bunch of stuff to my Calendar. Dave and I are hopping over to Venice for the weekend in two weeks! We actually got a decently priced hotel in Santa Croce on the Grand Canal. Anyways, I hope all is well back in the states! Ciao!

Today. Just found out today that my boss has resigned. How this affects me: I now report directly into the Vice President of Innovation who is based in New York City and I am now the one and only person working on this web project, which makes things infinitely more difficult regarding my international transition. I am still not quite sure what to do or how to go about dealing with it and I have one week to figure it out.

In Discussion. Dave and I are trying to figure out our plans for Fall Break before we leave for Prague. Just so we have at least that one trip booked. The cities we are thinking about are: Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan. Milan was just thrown in because you have to fly through there to get back to Prague from Spain. We can fly to all 3 of these places for $380 USD!! Not bad right? Any suggestions as to other cities we should try to visit? Also, does anyone know about power converters and plugs in Prague?

Upcoming. My last day of work here in El Segundo is next Wednesday, August 20th and then it is off to Canada!

Last Weekend. Family trip to Mexico was a success. There was lots of taco eating, Olympic watching and beach going. (Remember you can click on the pictures to view a bigger size and for the grandparents: click here to leave a comment!)

Rosarito Beach, Baja California, MEXICO

Puerto Nuevo

Churros

Licores, Don Pisto

The New PORTABLE Hot Tub

The manufacturer said that it fits 4 ADULTS... boy did we prove them wrong!

Family Christmas Card perhaps?

Patty & Dave eating peaches on the drive down

Lobster Dinner

Mmmmmmmmm!!!

Second option for family xmas card