Na zdravi Prague, Prost to Vienna and Cheese to Zurich

So I left off tales of my adventure for a mid-break nap in Prague!

The rest of our time in Prague was wonderful. With a light snowfall and hardly any tourists getting in our way (cause we definitely werent tourists) it was so nice to wander around the city without any game plan or necessities.  I made friends with these 3 girls who were sharing our room with us and turns out they were from france!! they were soooooo nice and it was so funny to swap stories and opinions of each other's cultures and such! They ended up coming out with us to the bars that night and we really had a great time.  The people of Czech are very friendly and very helpful- we met so many nice and wonderful people and our hostel .. was absolutely perfect. I recommend this place to absolutely ANYONE going to Prague.

Downside to Prague .. actually the biggest raindrop of the whole trip .. was leaving.  We took a tram, a pretty popular mode of transportation, and one that we had taken in Milan and Prague and Nice previously .. and no one ever swiped a ticket.. there were no booths from which to buy tickets.. so we jsut thought we could get by without one .. FALSE. we're almost to the train station and this lady, out of nowhere, in plain clothes, comes and demands to see our tickets for the tram. she spoke hardly any english and started threatening to take us to jail. 700 korunas. thats 30 euros .. which is $45 for each of us. Absolutely ridiculous.  I had no instinct but to cry and more than anything I wished my dad was there. it was so unnecessary. but it has to be the way they fund their public transportation system, because they know tourists dont understand the simple nuances of every day life in prague. I wish it hadn't happened .. but after a long pouty train ride.. i realized there was nothing i could do about it. so i should probs just accept it and move on.

VIENNA

train ride to vienna was quite beautiful.  I loved looking out the window at the czech countryside.  seeing little people walking their dogs through their farmlands and seeing what life is like in provencial towns was beautiful.  when we got to vienna, my friend from USC, Ryan, met us! It was so great to see someone from the south .. someone who knows why sweet tea and sweet tea vodka are so special .. and what shagging is .. and how to make grits.. it was great! he took us and showed us his apartment that literally could be a showroom in IKEA. it was so simplistic and so cool! we actually spent 2 nights making dinner at his place which was such a burst of fresh air.. it felt like i was right back in columbia making dinner with some friends on a school night.. it was so wonderful.  he took us out and showed us the sights of Vienna the next 2 days and was a wonderful tour guide.  We went and visited the Hapsburg Summer Palace which was beautiful even in the winter so I can only imagine what it is like with all of the flowers in bloom and IF THE ZOO WAS OPEN. oh man was i bummed the zoo wasnt open! we also took some time to visit MozartHaus .. one of the apartments in Vienna where Mozart and his family lived. It was a great way to spend a chilly afternoon and it was really really well done.  They dont actually know what his apartment would have looked like but they did some fancy recreations based on styles of the time, etc..
We spent the last night in Vienna with Ryans school for their 'Welcome to Vienna' Party.  I absolutely love my program and I love Aix .. but his school has students from all over the world which was really neat to see and to meet so many people from ALL over who were the same age and similar interests.  They took us to this awesome boat on the Danube river for a party that rocked all night long.  We really just had a great chance to let loose and have fun with so many new people!  Unfortunately we had to catch a 7 am flight. Yeah, ill reconsider booking flights and such on my next trip.  So without much sleep but lots of good memories .. we departed Vienna and flew to Zurich, Switzerland

All I wanted to do on the plane was sleep- but unfortunately/fortunately this kid sat next to me- who turns out is one of the best salsa dancers in all of austria and he was one of the funniest people I have ever met. we just laughed and laughed the whole plane ride.

i really seriously love meeting people. no matter where i am, i just find such pleasure in conversation. learning where others are from and what has brought them to where they are.  and then in turn getting to share my little story as well. i feel such immense pride when i tell them that i am studying in France .. or that Im from the great United States of America and especially when i say South Carolina.  no matter where i go, i meet someone cool, or have an interesting conversation and i get the opportunity to learn something new about the world and its people and especially about myself. its hard for people to understand but i just have this insatiable need to talk to people. quirky quirk.

ZURICH
i wish someone had videotaped our first few hours in zurich.  i would characterize it as a cross between a zombie walk and a grumpy teenager.  we were so past exhaustion at that point.. running on zero hours of sleep and just finally started to get fatigued and frustrated with each other a little bit. we finally made it to the street we needed to be on .. thank God for our friend Molly.. she's a girl in our program who has a family friend who had a friend who wasnt going to be home this weekend and let us stay in her so adorable and totally Swiss apartment.  it was so crucial. as soon as we got there, we all passed out and took such a great nap and then after a shower i felt like a totally new person. we all went on a nice little stroll through Zurich which is SUCH a beautiful city. but my God, it is so expensive. that night we all made cheese fondue, the swiss specialty, and spaghetti because we were so hungry and we celebrated alex's 21st birthday! we all chipped in and got her a handle of tequila and we played a fun game that i taught them back in prague and just had a great time.  then we decided to hit the town and get the birthday girl some shots. its hard because in europe..the drinking age is.. well if you can see over the bar, then you can come have a drink.. so they dont really understand 21st birthdays. on the walk to find the exciting downtown scene- we ran into these 2 flamboyant swiss guys who were so friendly and so funny. they walked with us and joked with us and one of them tried to hit on, scratch that, did hit on the sole boy with us- marc adam.  i dont think ive ever laughed that hard in so long. it was great. the next day, we were all so dead and tired that we spent most of our last day napping .. a little sightseeing but by then .. we were so tired .. and SO BROKE .. and we had an early morning train .. so we spent the last night watching old mary kate and ashley movies in the hotel room. and it was PERFECT.

I had the most amazing trip. but i was so so so so so so happy when that train started rolling down through the south of france. it felt like coming home. and i was so happy to know what was waiting for me back in aix. traveling is great and it is absolutely the best experience i could ever imagine and i learned so much. but it was so nice to come back to my quaint and precious and wonderful little home of aix-en-provence.