Sorry for the Silence!

I have been really terrible at updating my blog lately. Here is a highlight from last month:

On April 5th, I saw Obama speak at Prague Castle. Now, most of you know that I'm not very interested in politics (nor am I very knowledgeable on the subject), but I have to say it was pretty cool. I have never seen a president speak, much less in another country! The speech started at 10 a.m., but people were there much earlier to try to get a good view. I, on the other hand, rolled out of bed around 8:30 and slowly made my way to the castle. When I got there, one of the volunteers who was working at the entrance gave me his last "special invitation" which allowed me to go to the front of the line and stand in the section closest to the podium (I still wasn't very close, though). I don't think this is the way it was supposed to happen, because I have friends who got to the castle at 5 a.m. and they didn't get anything. They ended up in the back section. So it really wasn't fair. There were around 20,000 people there I think. You can read the text of Obama's speech here, and below is a video I took.

Barcelona

After 3 amazing days in Rome, Emily and I flew to Barcelona for the remainder of our spring break. There are sometimes really cheap flights within Europe, which is what made all of this possible. One of the flights we got cost nothing; we only had to pay the tax (I think it was around 20 Euros).

Rome was definitely my favorite, but there were some nice things about Barcelona too, like the beach! We rented bicycles and rode along the beach one day- that was probably my favorite part. And the last day we were there it was warm enough for me to wear my flip-flops!

More pictures can be found HERE.






This is one of the buildings by architect Antoni Gaudi.


There was a lot of live music by the beach. Here's a clip from a band called Made In Barcelona:

ROME!!!

So, I got home from Austria late Sunday night, and had just enough time to unpack, repack, sleep a little, return my snowboarding boots, and hop on a plane to meet my friend Emily in Rome on Monday. I could spend hours talking about Rome. I loved it so much!! It was beautiful- everywhere you looked. It was so green! The food was delicious!! Lasagna, spaghetti, pizza... And the wine was delicious too. We went to a lot of the main tourist attractions: the Vatican, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon...and we spent the rest of the time just wandering- until we found a nice shop or a good place to eat or, of course, some gelato :) I loved every minute. Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures that I took- and you can see more HERE.

The Alps

At the end of February I was able to go the Austrian Alps with Young Life- the organization that I volunteer with. What an awesome time! The snow was great, the weather was great, I got to snowboard for 5 days, need I say more??

I really didn't know how good the conditions would be- being from Colorado, I have high expectations :) - but I should have known the Alps would be GREAT. And I've been told that they're even better in Italy and France.

There were a couple of "perks" that I have not seen at the resorts in Colorado: First, the main chair lift had a big plastic (or maybe glass) cover that came down to keep you warm. Very nice! Second, I never had to take my pass out of my pocket to have someone scan it- I just went right up to the turnstile and it would detect it and let me through (kind of like the Express Toll).

While on the trip I tried snow-shoeing for the first time. It was cool, but much more work than snowboarding. I must admit that at one point I said, "Where's the chair lift?" I also learned an important lesson: When asked whether you want to go in the 1st snow-shoeing group or the 2nd, always choose the 2nd. Let the 1st group make the path!! ;)

Here are some pictures- and you can see more by clicking HERE.

More Prague Pics

I'm sleeping in a real bed now!!

That's right, my days on the couch are over. For those of you who don't know, I've been sleeping on a couch since I got here in September. Now, don't start feeling sorry for me, because it unfolds into a bed, and was perfectly fine to sleep on, really. But let me tell you how this all came to be in the first place. When I moved here in September, I had no idea where I would live. When I got to Prague, my boss picked me up from the airport, and said that I would be staying with a girl named Kara (from California) for a few days until we figured something else out. He explained that there were actually two Karas, but one was in the States for a few weeks. Come to find out, the Kara that was back in the States actually went to CSU also, but we didn't know eachother. What are the odds that I would end up on her couch in Prague?? Anyway, what started out as me staying with them for just a few days turned into me never leaving. And I'm so glad, because we've had a lot of fun. Last Sunday, Kara from California went back to the States. She'll be there for 6 months or so, and then she'll probably be back here. So now I have a bed, but honestly I'd rather Kara was still here and I was still sleeping on the couch. I miss her!

Budapest!

In January my friend/roommate and I took a trip to Budapest, Hungary. The bus ride was about 7 hours (nothing compared to Paris), and less than $40 round trip. We stayed in a hostel for 2 nights- about $30 per person. And I spent less than $30 while I was there, which means I went to Hungary and back for less than 100 bucks. It doesn't get much better than that! I wish I could host a television show where I would just travel around and see how little I could spend. That would be a fun job! I must confess, however, that I probably would have spent more in Hungary had I realized that 10,000 Forint was only like $24...

Anyway, we had a great time. We got there late Friday night and left pretty early on Sunday, so we really only had one day there, but we packed in as much as we could. We spent Saturday outside just exploring the city and taking lots of pictures. Budapest is known for it's thermal baths, so at the end of the day we went to the Gellert Baths for a few hours, which was awesome. I didn't get any pictures from inside, but you can see some at this website: http://www.gellertbath.com/