Day after Christmas

So, yesterday was officially dubbed Christmas in July, and there was a party thrown in Jessica's room to celebrate. We scrapped together some makeshift Christmas decorations, invited our friends, got some gifts, and TADA!! it was just like Christmas in December. Everybody pitched in with some food and helped make snowflakes, and it really turned out to be one of the best parties to which we've ever gone. We went out shopping a few hours before, and here's what we got...


(Zach with supplies - a bag of wafers, wrapping paper, and Santa decorations)


(Wrapping paper monster Zach)


(We hung it up andand BAM Christmas in July)


(Our friend Nate took some "mistletoe" out of a tree)


(And also got us a Christmas tree, also notice the nicely wrapped gifts on the right-hand side)


(Ken ended up with a funny magazine)


(Jenny got beans)


(Zach got a sweet 'beater)


(Nate got a bottle of Champagne - the coveted prize)


(Jess got fake dog poopie and some soccer-guy trading cards)


(We met Marius and Ula from Poland, who joined us as well - they got a Penguin DVD and a beer, respectively)


(Our teacher Melissa even stopped by - she got a toy scuba diver!)

Though it's not pictured, Lizzie got a creepy baby doll and Rachelle got some min handcuffs. It was a blast!

Today, we had class in the morning, as usual, then did some preparing for our weekend in Cesky Krumlov. We will be going with a few people from our class and staying in a hotel with Ken and our teacher Melissa. Zach has been doing much of the organizing for this, having gotten the hotel reservation and also figured out our bus ticket situation. He is kind of nervous that it's not going to go over smoothly, but we're crossing our fingers. We went to the Florenc bus station and picked up our tickets - we leave at 7:55 tomorrow morning and arrive in Cesky Krumlov at 10:40 am. We will be spending Friday and Saturday night and then return to Prague on Sunday, leaving CK at around 12:00 noon and pulling into Prague at 3:00 pm, to finish up our last week in the Czech Republic (tearing up).

After getting the tickets, we took the Metro to get lunch at Grand Cafe Orient, the "Cubist Cafe" located inside of the House at the Black Madonna, also the location of the Cubist Museum. Built around 1910, the house is amazing, aburnt brown color that seems to flex out at the midsection. Everything in the cafe is beautiful,

from the menus:


to the wrought iron at funky angles throughout:



(Staircase)

We ate on the second floor balcony, one of the most perfect spots we've been to yet in the city.


(Zach, happy even though he looks a little sad)

We had tasty baguette sandwiches for lunch, then desert-ed on palcinky, the Czech equivalent of a crepe. So tasty! Ours has vanilla ice cream, caramel syrup, whipped creme, and cinnamon.


(Divine)

After lunch, we walked to the Museum of Decorative Arts, a place housing all sorts of very masterfully done everyday objects, such as furniture, glassware, clocks, and clothing.


(Outside of MDA)

The first exhibit was a collection of many different drawings, paintings, sculptures, etc. of animals. They were all super-cute!


(Animal exhibit banner)


(Plastic hedgehog)

After that, the museum got a bit more serious, with a wedding fashion of the 20th century exhibition, which we LOVED, followed by an entire room full of clocks of all shapes and sizes. Our favorite "clocks" were two sundials, one a travel sundial built into a cup and one a sundial built onto a ring - super neat. Next was an exhibit on glasswares, featuring a good deal of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Cubist glass pieces, all very striking. There was a bit of Cubist furniture, all created by Czech artists. All in all, an extremely interesting museum.

After leaving, we walked toward Old Town Square and our next stop. On the way, we walked past the death mask of Jan Palach, a student who self-immolated in protest of the Red Army's invasion following the Prague Spring of 1968.



Finally, we made it to our last stop, the House at the Golden Ring. This house near Tyn Square has been converted into a museum containing 20th century Czech art. We walked through it all, and like some of the work, but were all in all unimpressed. Maybe we've done too much art in the past few days. Nonetheless, we're happy that we checked it off our list.


(House at the Golden Ring)


(Same)

Tonight we are packing for our trip, and will likely take it easy as we prepare for a fun weekend. We're contemplating some canoeing or rafting while we're there, if we can make reservations. It may be next week before we post again, but we'll do our bst to update you this weekend. Wish us luck!

Love,

Jess and Zach