Quiet Easter and Karlovy Vary

Let me take this moment to say, today is SO beautiful. I have my window open at work, and the sun is shining through and the birds are singing...

Yesterday, Kendra and I took a day tour to Karlovy Vary -- the city of peace and calm, the spa town, the glass factory-- also known as Karlsbad. Only 2 hours from Prague, and 15 km from the German border, Karlovy Vary ("Charles' Spa") is a beautiful little luxury location literally built on the river and amongst rolling hills. Kendra and I tried the famous healing mineral water (which tasted like salt and sulphur) straight from the springs, and then again in the form of "Becherovka"-- mixed with a sweet alchohol (which altogether tasted like sugared Listerine), and then immediately bought some "platky" (flavoured spa wafers they eat to get rid of the taste of the water). They gather and drink this water (which doctors here prescribe) out of these special porcelain cups whose handle acts as a straw, which we of course had to get as souveniers. We walked through the springs, geysers and collonades, snapping away at the beautiful architecture with all our might (pictures coming soon!). We visited the Moser Glass factory, where they showed the process of making the handmade "symbols of wealth, propriety, class, etc" (blech). We went swimming in Elizabeth spa, and relaxed in the sauna before running back to town to get more souveniers. Our guide was a nice old man, who spoke fluent English and Russian, but decided I was "fluent in Czech" (cough, choke) and so spoke to me in Czech for the rest of the tour...He gave me his card and I think he offered me free tickets...or maybe he just told me not to lose mine...I really don't know:)

Anyway, Kendra leaves tomorrow and is taking Raph and I out to my favourite restaurant tonight before our flamenco class. I hope she had a good time! And while I have a feeling I am going to be addicted to Karlovy Vary, I have the same feeling she will be addicted to Budapest;)

Birthday, Brno & Budapest

Right, well-- a lot to catch up on! My birthday party went really well: Claire arrived early to help decorate, and Kendra and I watched "50 First Dates" while we hung up streamers, balloons, lit candles, and filled plates and bowls. Adam said no one had ever made Andel Apartments look so nice. Kendra had me unwrap my presents before guests arrived, which included a clock modelled after Prague's astronomical clock, a stained glass fairy figurine, a Johnny Depp poster, the "Rent" DVD, and Reeses Peanut Buttercups...as a result, I am still on chocolate overload, with more waiting in the cupboard...

The next morning Raph, Jenny, Erik, Kendra and I went to Brno, dropped off our bags at a friend of a friend's (very nice people), and visited the Mendel museum with Aruna (from Canada) and company. Mendel is credited as being the father of genetics, messing with cross-strains of peas and bees in his monastary in Brno. Then we walked up to the castle, met up with Gaby and Efrain (still has stitches, but is healing well), and had some Czech cuisine (well, Kendra had Weiner Schnitzel, but she tried a smazeny syr earlier!). Kendra, Raph and I passed out after that while the others went on drinking until 5am the next day!!

So now we're on Sunday, and we took a trip to the nearby university town of Olomouc, which also boasts an astronomical clock, but this time, the prolitariats hammer their horshoes or whatever on the hour. Ice cream and broccoli rounded out this quick trip, before we headed back to Brno (this was a much more complicated procedure than I'll go into here, but the others very kindly let Kendra and I have the last 2 seats on the bus back so we could make it back to catch our train to Budapest on time).

We made the train to Budapest, but with only one ticket (the new girl at the counter was incredibly slow and had to keep asking others what to do...). While I was told that buying your ticket on the train meant you would pay 20 czk extra, and could not get the youth discount, at least we were on the train. It turns out, I had to buy a new ticket in each country we entered (Brno to the end of the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, beginning of Hungary to Budapest) in different currencies!! The Czech conductor took my payment in Czech crowns, the Slovak conducter told me the cost in Slovak and then Czech crowns (590 czk), and then said (a bit drunkedly, with the other conductor staring at him), "Just give me 200 czk---shhhhhh. You'll be fine until the Hungarian border, but shhhh." I assume he pocketed it because I got no ticket. Heck, fine with me. In Hungary, the conductor told me the price in Forints, but I had luckily switched some crowns into Euro before we went to Olomouc. He told me it was 16 Euro something, and I gave him two tens. He looked at it a minute, took one ten, and walked away with a wave of his hand. I also got no ticket from him. All in all, my lack of a ticket cost much less than Kendra's ticket.

Budapest was amazing. We arrived at midnight and took a taxi to our youth hostile (which I had made reservations at from an internet cafe in Olomouc), Marco Polo. We got a double room, breakfast included, and it was the nicest hostile I've ever stayed in (bathroom IN the room!).
Monday turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we went on a City Circle (hop on, hop off) bus tour of "Buda" and "Pest." We got off at Heroes' Square, walked through the park, past the famous Gundel restuarant, a castle, zoo and theme park, to the famous Szechenyi baths, where we bathing costumed it up in both the outdoor (very much like 28-55 degree swimming pools-- in a castle courtyard) and indoor medicinal (smelly) baths. Then we had lunch on the lake at a restuarant called "Robinson"-- best food I've had (salmon and veggies), but Kendra was not so impressed with hers (Steak, mushrooms, and giant croques). We then got back on the tour bus, and got off at the Castle district. We mostly only saw the walls surrounding the castle because there were political rallies going on, but we visited the underground labrynth caves underneath the castle-- SCAARY. Each section had a different theme: one had a coffin with wine ("blood") pouring out of it, another had "fossils" of tennis shoe prints, cel phones, lap tops and Coke bottles found in the cave from "millions of years ago." The final one, called "The labrynth of courage" was in complete darkness, and you could only hold onto a rope to get through it-- as it did not advise this labrynth for claustrophobics and pregnant women, and as I live by the "if pregnant women can't do it, it's bad for you" rule, I did not want to go. Plus, I was already freaked out by the Steven Spielberg/John Williams type scary music, and the fact I had gotten lost in the lit caves, but Kendra didn't want to go alone, so, by the time I came out, my hands were red from clutching the rope so hard...

Back on the bus, quick stop at the Citadella viewpoint and Hungary's statue of Liberty, and then walked to the foot of the Elizabeth ("Sissi" from Vienna) bridge to catch our evening boat tour. The "narrator" of the tour spoke as though he were the Danube, which irked me a bit, but Kendra liked it. She sipped champagne (free), while I had to tell them I was 26 when they offere me apple juice, and then asked for apple juice anyway. The boat attendents spoke an impressive number of languages, and while you saw a building by night, a screen in front of you showed you the inside rooms of the building, etc. Very cool. Utilising my new map, walked home, tried Gulash (well, K had Wiener Schnitzel...well, I had half...), went to sleep.

Tuesday: checked out, walked to the train station (which had been on our tour the previous day), got tickets for the 1430 train back to Prague, took the metro to "The House of Terror," a museum that was once the very building of both Nazi and Communist torture, interrogation, prison, etc. (Then called "house of loyalty," 1944-1956). Well, as Hungary sent off (killed) 500,000 of its 600,000 Jews, as well as thousands of revolutionists, you can imagine how depressing this museum was, but very interesting to hear about communism from the POV of a former communist country...We stopped by "Sir Lancelot" for drinks, a medieval themed restaurant that I (of course) LOVED, and ran and got souveniers and postcards before running back to the train station. 7 hours later, we arrived in Prague, exhausted, but we watched "Rent" and ate the rest of my cake anyway. The roses Raph gave me were still alive and the streamers and balloons still up (and Raph and Erik had done all the dishes:):)!

Budapest is as grand as Vienna, but still riddled with bullet holes, and needs reconstruction and cleaning-- after which it may become my favourite city in Europe...On that note, welcome to Club Andel's newest member, Veronika, from Hungary.

Ebb-Flow

It's move-out day for Gianni, Christian and Will, who have opted to leave club Andel for an apartment down the street. Meanwhie, preparations for my party continue, as two other AIESECers who have their birthdays around the same time, Claire (England) and Ozgur (Turkey), have decided to combine their celebrations with mine:-)

We apparently had a burglar in the house on Monday, as Jenny's Laptop, Camera and i-pod were gone (while everyone else's things went untouched!). We think someone must have come through her window, but the police seem to think that would be "too hard" (see Andel blog). I hear a rumour that Raph's done it when they locked themselves out of the house once, but maybe Raph's just a superior athlete next to your average burglar...at any rate windows are now tied down and all extra locks locked.

Kendra arrived safe and sound, and is even out roaming Prague by herself today! She dropped by my work and we had lunch, and we'll hopefully get to do some touristy stuff together tomorrow. Friday I'm working at a Tour Agency and the evening brings my PAR-TAY...so much to prepare still!!

Then Saturday we go to Brno and then on to Budapest!