Part 2: Last European Vacation- Prague

Early in the morning on Friday, the 26th, my parents and I left to go to Prague. Prague was one of the places that I really wanted to visit while in Europe because I've heard a lot of great things about it and it is part of my family heritage. (I also wanted to go to Ireland to honor the Irish in me but was told by an Irish man at my hostel in Munich that this time of the year wasn't a good time to go up there.) My mom really wanted to go since her father is from there, and between the two of us, we were able to convince my dad that we should go.

On our first day in Prague we just simply walked around to see what was in the area, but first we stopped by a great Czech restaurant to eat lunch. For lunch I had a beef broth, chicken, potatoes, bread dumplings, and a Czech beer. SOO tasty! The bread dumplings tasted pretty similiar to my Baba's (grandma) dumplings so I was in heaven. My family and I enjoyed this restaurant so much that we went back for a second time the following day. Night quickly fell upon us as we were walking around the city and before we knew it we were ready to head back to the hotel due to the coldness. For dinner, we decided to eat at our hotel because they were offering a special at their French cuisine restaurant. We'd be able to order as many options as we wanted individually from a selected menu and have house drinks for 990 CZK, or about $50 for each person. At the time my parents and I did not fully understand the conversion rate (I understood more than them, of course). I was in heaven, and by the end, we got a good deal out of it. I think I went through 3 starters, 2 soups, 4 entrees, 1 dessert, and 4 glasses of various wine. Before you react, it is crucial to know that the portions were smaller than normal. I was able to order the food in any order that I wanted and as many times as I wanted. It may have been the best food I've had during my whole time in Europe. To top off our night, my parents got our room upgraded to a suite for free because they thought there wouldn't be enough room for all 3 of us to sleep comfortably in our smaller-than-normal double bed room. (All the beds in Europe are small so a double size bed is really just like a little wider than a twin). It was very helpful that my dad has special points with his frequent use of Sheraton hotels for business!

On Saturday we took a private tour to see the sights of Prague. We visited the Prague Castle (and other buildings within the complex like St. Vitus Catheral), Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, and Wenceslaus Square. The mosaic stained glass windows at St. Vitus are beautiful! They are the best that I've seen while over here. It was really cool to see where St. Wenceslaus is buried since that is the Catholic church I was brought up in throughout my childhood. On Sunday, my mom and I did what we know best; we shopped. We made a lot of souvenir purchases; it was a little hard to pack them all into our luggages. Possibly the most exiciting part about our Sunday was getting a white chocolate mocha at Starbucks. Rome doesn't seem to have any (not that I have found), and they were everywhere in Prague. I was overly excited to drink it and made me ache for America a little more.

Overall, Prague is a beautiful town. I'm curious to know if I would enjoy it more during nice weather. It was quite cold the whole time we were there. We even got to see their first snow fall of the season, which typically doesn't happen until January. I also think I would have enjoyed it more if I had gone at the beginning of my travels. At this point I am just simply burnt out. Everything looks the same and means the same thing. It is a place that I definitely want to visit again, though.

I'm counting down the days until I leave to go back to America. Only 19 to go! I'm excited and ready to be back. But at the exact same time I'm sad to be leaving such a great place. Wandering around in Omaha or Ames just isn't the same as wandering around in Rome. :-) This semester went by quickly, and I know that next semester, my last semester of college, will go by just as quickly. My plan for after college is to obtain an interior design related job. I'm open to moving anywhere at the moment, so you should talk to your friends and see if they'd be able to help me out! :-) Getting a "big girl job" will be an exciting chapter in my life, so needless to say, I'm really looking forward to it. Until then, I'll just continue to enjoy and embrace these last college moments that are flying before me.

Part 1: Parents in Rome

First off, I would like to apologize for the lack of blogging that I've been doing. I've had a busy past few weeks, but now it should be smooth coasting until the end of my time here in Rome. All I have left is to complete 2 projects for my mixed media studio and one last step to my semester long retail design studio project.

On the 20th my parents arrived in Rome. It was nice to see some new faces that I could actually communicate with here in Rome! While they were here, I gave them a basic tour of the city and showed them the tourist spots. The plan for the week was for them to tour the city on their own during the day while I attended class; at night time we would meet up for dinner. It worked out well for them to basically discover Rome on their own since I had my art history final to study for and a critique for my studio project in the middle of the week.

On Tuesday night, I surprised my dad by taking him and my mom to a soccer game (AS Roma vs. Munich Bayern)! The process to obtain these tickets wasn't like in the US. I had to go to a small office a week before to purchase them and convince them to sell me them even though my whole party wasn't present. Then, on each ticket they write down the ticketholder's birthday and male tickets cost more than female tickets. We ended up getting seats in the AS Roma fan section. My friend, who also went with her boyfriend, and I thought that the office had given us bad seats because they were higher up in the bowl of the stadium, but little did we know, they were actually fantastic seats!

It was relativaly easy to make our way to our section and seats. Once we were in our seats, there was no room to move because of the amount of people packed into the area. The AS Roma's fan section is unlike any other that I have seen before. They consistently cheered loudly throughout the whole match, jumping from one chant to the next with AS Roma scarves and flags swaying in the air. I was a little worried about how my mom would react to the crazy European scene, but she handled it quite well. Her one question she had for me was "Kelly, is marijuana legal here?" Yep, it sure is, and you could smell it everywhere. We were lucky enough to see AS Roma score a goal and the crowd's reaction to it. They go ballistic-- everyone screams and jumps on top of each other for an extended amount of time. Some people in the stands like of fireworks and different flares; there are also some smokebombs with the AS Roma colors. After being down 2-0 at halftime, AS Roma came back to win the game 3-2 with a penalty kick in the last 5 minutes. It was a fantastic atmosphere to be a part of and is unparallel to any sporting event in the United States. (Thanks Katie for the photos!)

On Thursday, for Thanksgiving, we went to see the necropolis underneath St. Peter's Basilica. I had booked tickets for us a few months ago to give us something special to do on Thanksgiving. Only about 200 people can go through the necropolis a day and is very hard to book during high tourist season. Down there we were able to see the excavations done below the church. Before St. Peter's existed the area was a giant cementary. We could see the different family tombs enriched with decorations of carvings, frescos, and mosaics. At the end of the tour, we were shown where St. Peter was buried, which is directly 3 layers below the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica. His bones have been moved throughout time and are currently placed in the same spot where the were found in the excavations, in a wall. Overall, it was a cool experience, but at this point, seeing one saint's bones seems just about the same as the next and crypts are all about the same, too. Don't get me wrong; it is very honorable and humbling seeing the bodies of various saints but to me, they are all equal and one isn't any more significant than the next.

Instead of participating in Black Friday shopping (since it doesn't exist in Europe, obviously), my mother and I went shopping after seeing the necropolis. I found 2 dresses and a skirt. It was the one time I've splurged this whole time in Europe, and I plan to do it again before I leave! :-) We ended our Thanksgiving day with a homecooked meal that I prepared. I made Italian chicken and dumplings. Sounds close to a typical Thanksgiving meal, right? Okay, so maybe it wasn't a normal Thanksgiving meal but it was very good! My parents were quite shocked to see me cooking and cleaning up after myself. I guess I'm not a kid anymore. Ha.

Italian Traveller

This past week I went to Milan, Venice, and Verona, Italy for a school field trip. It was six fun packed days of travel! But before I left for the field trip I got to celebrate Halloween here in Rome!

I've been known to come up with some pretty clever costumes for my sorority's house parties, but being in Rome threw quite the spin into my costume creativity. Halloween is only celebrated a little in Rome. I'd say it's currently at 1/3 of the American celebration. I saw kids dressed up as witches and devils but nothing too extensive. On Halloween defeat set in with no Hobby Lobby to run to to create a costume; I opted to go out that night as a cowgirl to the American bars. A mere 3 hours before the time we were going to head out an idea popped into my head to be pasta for Halloween! A hot glue gun was immediately pulled out and I grabbed noodles from the kitchen to create my costume. I stringed pasta noodles together to create a belt, bracelets, and a necklace. Additionally, I sewed tomatoes, onions, and garlic onto my necklace. For my headpiece, I cooked some spaghetti noodles. As those were cooking, I glued some noncooked spaghetti noodles onto a base. After the ball of noodles I cooked were cool and dry, I was able to glue them onto the base. My headpiece didn't last all night, but it was cute when it did!

Our first stop on the North Field Trip was to Milan. There I had the chance to see an opera, see showrooms, window shop, tour the Triennale, and tour some famous designers' studios! I loved seeing Castiglioni's studio. His daughter gave us a tour of it, and it seemed like he fun light hearted guy. I would have loved to meet him. Another highlight of my time in Milan was finding FALL! I've missed seeing the trees turn into their pretty fall colors; I don't see that in Rome because there aren't many trees near where I live, nor parks. Plus there is a lot of pollution in Rome. Blah. I managed to not buy anything in Milan. I figured it'd be best to return one day when I'd really be able to take advantage of the shopping around. :-)

The next stop was Venice. It didn't take long before I was in love with this town. Everything is so quiant, and it was nice to not see one car or bus. Sure, there are boats but it's easy to find yourself in an area without any. Here we learned the process of glass blowing and visited the Biennale. I also took a gondola ride with 5 other gals. It was SO peaceful! On the last night in town our class had a group dinner filled with Venitian food. That means I ate crawfish, squid, snails, scallops, and shrimp among many others. I've been working on my transition into liking seafood, and I think this dinner really helped! Infact, tonight I was craving some seafood. Here are two fansinating facts about Venice:

1. There are 495 gondolas in Venice. And I rode on one of them!
2. About 90% of the jobs in Venice are tourist related.

Our field trip officially ended in Venice, but Katie and I went continued our travels in Verona for another day. I was already quite tired from our adventures and could have easily been done without seeing Verona. My excitement for Verona stemmed from wanting to see Juliet's balcony. Katie and I recently watched Letters to Juliet prepare ourselves. Watching the movie before going led to disappoint, though, because they've recently renovated the brick walls where letters were once placed. Now, if they catch you trying to leave a letter you're fined 1,000 Euro! In a mere 10 minutes, my purpose for my visit in Verona was over. We spent the rest of the day touring the city-- churches, bridges, towers, etc. At this point in my European journey, a lot of these things look the same. We did manage to spend a lot of time in Castelvecchio. It's pretty nifty to say that I've toured a castle! All in all, after some hotel and transportation problems (to our hotel and to Rome), I was happy to return to Rome.

Now, I'm trying to focus on completing a lot of projects before Thanksgiving rolls around. My parents are coming to visit on the 20th. We're going to Prague on the 25th! I'm very excited to see them and for that trip, too!