Ciao From Rome...

Week 3 and Prague: January 31- February 6

School for this week was pretty cool because we had our classes on wine and we had a guided tour of the Vatican Museum.  We had the wine class on Tuesday and we learned a lot about the basics of wine like how it is made and the differences in production of different types of wine.  On Thursday, we had a wine tasting at GLUB.  We learned a lot about the proper way to evaluate wine and attempted to evaluate it.  I am really bad at picking out distinct smells and tastes though when evaluating.  On Wednesday we ha a tour of the Vatican Museum which was sweet because we were able to see the Sistine Chapel and learn about all the different paintings that were in there and the stories they were telling.  My favorite painting in there was probably The Last Judgement because there was a lot to look at in the picture, we heard several stories about numerous religious figures respresented in the picture, and I liked the colors that were used.  On Thursday night a group of us left for Prague and I roomed with Krista, Jess, and Christina.  We got up early on Friday and went to Starbucks (O how I had missed my flavored lattes) and then we joined one of the free walking tours being offered.  It was interesting to hear the stories behind the astrological clock and Prague’s history in general but after about 45 minutes  Jess, Christina, and I were too cold and decided to stop at Subway to get food and warm up.  Since we couldn’t find the tour to get back on it we decided to go shopping. Shopping was a success I found 2 hats I liked that actually looked good on me, 2 cute tops, and 2 scarves.  After we shopped we wondered over to the Charles Bridge where we ran into the people that had stayed on the walking tour.  We chatted and tooks pictures on the bridge for awhile and then Jess, Christina, and I headed back towards our hostel but on the way we stopped at a Belgium chocolate shop and each bought a small box to fill with assorted flavors of our liking.  Then we headed back to the hostel to wait for Krista to go grab dinner but while we waited we each devoured our box of chocolate.  My favorite of the ones I picked was defiently the Cleopatra.  It was milk chocolate filled with carmel which I have had before but this one was AMAZING! Krista came back and we headed over the the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  After we headed to a pub called Fat Boyz to just hangout and grab a drink.  While we were there I tried a sparkeling berry cider and it was delicious.  Then we just hung out and listened to this musician performing who was actually really good.  He was performing all American songs so we were framiliar with them and a bunch of people in the bar would randomly join in and sing with him during the chorus which was fun.  On Saturday, I got up early and went with the Claires and Sarah to Kunta Hora which is a church outside of Prague decorated with the bones of over 40,000 Plague victims.  It was interesting to see yet kind of creepy.  Then I met up wiht Jess, Christina, and Krista  went to the Lenin Wall which was started by a group of teenagers to spread messages of hope and peace, typically through Beatles lyrics, during times of communism and oppression.  The wall continues to be written on today and all four of us added our names to it.  This was probably the coolest thing I saw in Prague because it is awesome to think that people our age started something that conveys such a powerful message and that it is still being continued today.  It did however disappointment when I was reading the wall to see kids using it to display grafetti or write unnecessary mesages that had nothing to do with the walls meaning.  After the wall we grabbed a traditional Czech dish of beef goulash which to my suprise I found to be delicious.  We then all split a traditional Czech dessert that was some type of honey cake but I can’t remember what it was called.  After that we sat at Starbuck’s for awhile and had coffee and talked. Then Krista, Jess, and I went to visit the sex toy museum.  Afterwards we headed back to the hostel and met up with everyone that was flying home that Saturday night and took a cab to the airport.