Back in the Czech REPUBLIC

Wow! It's been quite some time since our last real post. Because a lot has happened between then and now, please forgive us for writing such a long post...

Last Thursday, Zach talked to our Prague-native program director, who informed him that there was a blind school in Mala Strana. Jane being here, it was decided that we would go to it...


(Jane looking at the school information)

We found out that this particular school is one of several in the area, and that this one in particular is a musical conservatory for the blind. We also discovered that there was a pub next door that donates all of its profits to the school! YAY! Beers for the blind!



It was called Pivnice Cerneho Vola and we had cheap beers before going back to the hostel. For dinner we ate at our favorite local hangout, Fraktal Pub (best veggie burgers in Prague). We went to sleep relatively early, as we were waking up the next morning for a day of traveling.

We hopped our train to Munich early Friday morning. Shortly after finding our reserved seats, two young people came into our booth and asked in English if they could sit. One was a quiet Czech girl. The other was a loud American dressed in black running tights, a tight black spandex shirt with red and blue mesh ribs, and a huge pair of workmen's boots. He was surely starved for English interaction, as he talked to us the entire way from Prague to his stop at Plzen. After he left we took to calling him "Spidey" - derived from his red/blue/black tight shirt. Unfortunately, we have no pictures to show you.

The train was oppressingly hot. With the air conditioning in our booth not working, we opened the window and our door to get some wind flowing through.


(Yay for wind)

This helped quite a bit, until two German girls entered our booth and shut the door, simply refusing to open it the rest of the way while they talked to each other - one in an oddly low (read: manly) voice.


(Jess thinks: "Too hot!!! Open the door!!!")

Finally, we reached the Munich train station. Jodi was awesome and got everyone the right tickets and to the right platform. We boarded the train on time and before we knew it, we were in Lenggreis, a small Alpine skiing town. In the summer it is a nice outdoorsy/hiking area. And, BONUS: thanks to Jodi's hotel points and Jane's hospitality we were able to stay in a Sheraton, a nice change from our no-hot-water hostel.


(View from hotel)

When we decided to go to dinner it started pouring down rain outside. We ran down the street to the nearest restaurant, a nice little German place. The food was delicious, especially Jessica's dish which was nothing more than a skillet of Fried dough with apples and sugar (but hey, it was vegetarian!). Outside there was a gigantic strawberry:


(sorry it's so dark)

After dinner the rain had stopped, so we walked around a bit. In the window of one shop, we saw a bunch of little woodwork animals. The best were the owls:



Saturday morning, we (just Jess and Zach, though) got up early and walked to a local cafe for breakfast. They had the real German version of Zach's favorite type of doughnut. But, after Friday's meal neither of us felt up to eating a whole pastry, so we shared it.


(HUGE!)

After breakfast, we met back up with Jane and Jodi and walked about the town, Zach in his hott outfit:


(Short shorts and white tennies)

Lenggries is very cute, very quaint - exactly like you'd imagine an alpine village. All of the houses looked like this:




(Jessica really likes the solar panels)

Then we decided to ascend to the peak of the nearest mountain, Brauneck (by skilift of course). It was incredibly scary. But the view was gorgeous.


(Just barely off the ground)


(A little higher)


(A bit more)


(See the cows below)


(Even higher)

After this picture, Jessica had to close her eyes until we reached the top, so no more pictures were taken.


(View from the top - the Alps surrounding us)


(The girls looking great!)

At the top, we walked to a restaurant, just a short way away. On the way we saw...


A cute little house built into the hill and


some cows that


we posed with!


(The sun was so intense at the top that this is was we felt like doing)


(Great little Alpine restaurant)


(View from our table)

Mrs. Bartley had Something-wurst with Sauerkraut and Jodi had a pickled meat salad. Zach and Jess were less adventurous, having spaghetti and chicken nuggets, respectively. After lunch we descended the mountain by ski lift. After showers and some chill-time, we had pizza at a local Italian restaurant. Later, we packed and readied ourselves to leave.

We boarded the train from Lenggries to Munich at around 9:15 on Sunday morning. Arriving in Munich, we sent Jodi and Jane on their way to Mainz. Apart from the sickness experienced by the three Bartleys (a wicked cold with horrible coughs and tons of sniffles) the weekend was great, and we were sad to see Jane and Jodi go. Because Jessica was feeling rather ill, we decided to just hang out at the Munich train station (despite a bit of walking, we couldn't find anything within blocks of it that didn't look scary and shady). Our train left from Munich at 4:45, and we got into Prague at about 11:00 last night. On the way, we sat with a nice German lady who had her dog, named either Peppy or Cinderella (perhaps both?). Again, no pictures.

This morning, we took a tour of Josefov with our class. We saw the Old Jewish Cemetery and several synagogues, an impressive group of what are now museums.


(Outside of the first Jewish Museum)


(There was a lot of beautiful stained glass)

No pictures were allowed inside, but ouside we got this one:


(The yarmulke kept falling off, due to Zach's unruly hair)

After the tour we ate lunch at a very nice Asian restaraunt called Orange Moon where they charged Jessica for the napkins she used to wipe her nose (the sickness is still here, but on its way out). Then we walked around, looking into shops for gifts to buy all of you!

This week is going to be another busy one, with a test on Wednesday and a trip to Terezin (a former concentration camp) tomorrow. On Wednesday night we are planning on throwing a Christmas in July party, complete with gift exchange, for all of our friends in the hostel. This weekend we will be traveling back to southern Bohemia with our friend Ken, and perhaps a few other classmates. Our time has gone so quickly, and it seems that we are nearing the end of our trip. We miss the all of you so much, and can't wait to see you, but we are sad to see the end so close. We will be living up the rest of our time here!

Love you lots,

Jess + Zach

p.s.

What does Michael Jordan get when he eats beans?