Czech Nature

The amazing astronomical clock on the city's
town hall building.

So here we are completing our tour of Prague, Czech Republic. Loving the land, art, history, and architecture. The people, though... We're not too pleased. Maybe it's because we're in what we've come to call tourist-land? Maybe it's the language barrier? But, really, the people aren't very nice. When we first came into town they didn't stamp our passports so we tried asking around about where we could get that done. Turns out it's not really necessary in the EU. However, whenever we asked someone they would send us to a different person who would send us to a different person and so on. Finally we asked the receptionist at our hotel. Again, he tried sending us somewhere else. We explained to him that whoever we ask, we get sent somewhere else. At that he laughed and said, "That is just Czech nature." I see. I don't think I like Czech nature.

Brandon's disappointed face
that came with each beer he
ordered here in a town known
for amazing beer.

The restaurants have horrid service. This may go along with "Czech nature" but I feel like I'm causing my server a huge hassle just by asking for some more water. And, along with the bill, they always give a little piece of paper with the math and expected tip scribbled on it. Our first thought? "Don't tell me what to tip! You didn't even check on us once. We had to flag you down. And you want 20%? Yeah, right."

Today we were partially scolded by our waiter because we wanted to share a meal. He said that's just not the Czech way. If we want something small, we should go to McDonald's. We go to a restaurant to eat a full meal.

These were everything I wanted them
to be.

That's alright. The food isn't super exciting anyway. Except for the desserts. There is delicious ice cream everywhere and today I had some sort of sweet pastry baked in a tubular shape (see picture). It was wonderful.

St. Vitus Cathedral. I'm sorry,
the picture does it no justice.

On a lighter note, this city is absolutely rich with history. There's no way I could list it here but I can say some of these buildings date back to the tenth century and was the home of the Good King Wenceslas (you know, that guy in the song). We went and saw the castle and the castle's church and surrounding town. It was all amazing. Like a fairy tale. The castle church - St. Vitus Cathedral - is probably the most massive, most immaculate church I have ever seen. It has so much detail with spires, stained glass, gargoyles, and everything. We can see the church from everywhere we go in town, it is so big.

Prague is a town filled with towers. There are clock towers, guard towers, gate towers, and viewing towers. We bought a pass to gain access to all of them, plus a couple of other sites. All that to say: we have done a lot of climbing in our stay here. I am so ready for our train ride tomorrow to give my legs and feet a bit of a rest. But all of the towers were awesome. It was neat to climb them and learn about what they were used for and why they are there.

There was one tower that gave a lot of history to the bells of the city. I didn't realize how much respect went to the bells but they have a history, a purpose, and some stories to go with them. It's said that every year on the Thursday before Easter all of the bells will make a trip to Rome to receive a blessing from the Pope. Even objects that are made from melted down bells remember their history and make the trip as well. It is said that, because of this, soldiers couldn't find their guns before a battle in World War 1.

A spy setup in the top of a
bell tower.

Another tower is an old bell tower in a church and was used by the communist secret service agents to spy from. They used many towers around town because they provided a good view of the land so they could watch out for "people of interest." Most of these "people of interest" were from the foreign embassies. The tower we went up had a view of about ten different embassies, including the American one.

The carving of 1678 was in a statue at
the top of a gate tower.

Something that I have found incredibly interesting in these towers is all of the graffiti and carvings in the walls. These towers are so incredibly old and people have been carving their names in them since their foundation. The oldest I found was from 1678. We also did an underground tour and a couple of the rooms we went into were used as dungeons. The prisoners carved their names and messages into the walls of their rooms. It was amazing to see and to be able to touch something with such a story.

So that was Prague! There really is a lot more, but too much to be able to write in a blog. We're still having a fantastic time. My gut is healing pretty well. I've taken off two of my bandages. One of the incisions is being slow to heal and my belly button is pretty ugly and bruised. But I'm on my way back to being normal again! I totally climbed all of those towers at what I think was a pretty decent pace.

We carved our initials in a lock to put on one of
the statues on Charles Bridge. It's supposed to
be good luck or something like that.

So until next time my friends! Next stop: Munich, Germany.

¿Estámos en Querétaro, si?

The view of Mexico City from our plane. It was immense. One of the
biggest cities in the world.

We made it! Today is our last day at the amazingly awesome Casa San Gallito in Querétaro, México. I sit here at the dining room table listening to the sounds of church bells and music, birds, and the surprisingly loud ticking of the clock and enjoying the lovely morning breeze. Brandon is still sleeping. I wanted to get up early and get this done before we go meet our señora.

Getting here was most certainly worthy of a story. None of our other group members seem to have had the trouble that we did, but I suppose we should appreciate the adventure to tell!

Randy and Cindy were so excited
to be dropping us off at the hotel.
Thanks guys!!

Our trip started with Brandon's dad, Randy, and step-mom, Cindy, picking us up around six. When we put our stuff in the trunk, I neglected to remove my water bottle from the side pocket of my backpack. Upon arrival at the hotel we discovered my mistake, the evidence being that Brandon's entire bag was wet. He was a little upset about that one. It's still a little damp, but once we get to our final destination, he can pull everything out and let it air.

Waiting for security to open in PDX

We spent a very short night at a Shilo Inn hotel (five hours, in fact) and got up at two in the morning to get to the airport at three. Our flight was at six, but the ticket told us to get there three hours early. When we went to check out, the front desk lady nicely informed us that the airport doesn't actually open until four. Cool. We were already up, so we took off anyway. Since the airport wasn't open yet we had to hang around for a while until we could finally get through security, get some breakfast, and then board our flight.

Our lovely seating
arrangement on the way
to Mexico City

We flew from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco, California, to Mexico City, Mexico. The flight to San Francisco wasn't anything interesting. But on our flight to Mexico City, Brandon and I didn't get seats together. We were on either end of the rows with me one row ahead of him. As the plane boarded we waited for our neighbors to see if we could trade. It turned out a couple of ladies with three small children were taking up the whole row next to Brandon. They didn't want to do any trading because they needed to stay within sight of the kids. And the people next to me were together as well. It took a little bit of discussion, but, in the end, it was agreed that Brandon could switch places with the kid sitting behind me, so we were at least within talking and snack sharing range. This actually turned out for the better because we both had a kid sitting behind us kicking our seats.

There is so much desert between
the USA and Mexico. Amazing.

When we landed in Mexico City we had several steps to follow before arrival at our hostel here in Querétaro. First, we had to make it through immigration. After carefully filling out our forms, hoping we didn't make any mistakes, we stood in line. For an hour and a half. It was warm, humid, and crowded. There were two line sections; one for Mexicans, one for non-Mexicans. While we stood in line an immigration officer came through and collected people with small children so they could go through faster. I thought that was awesome. When we got close to the front, the same guy came and opened up the line behind us to go on the other side because it was empty. We didn't realize what was happening until we noticed a flood of people rushing in the opposite direction. By that time it was too late. Then a group of Arabs tried cutting in front of us. Brandon said, "Hey, uh... Is there a reason you're moving ahead of everyone?" "I don't understand," said one of the dudes. "Well," said Brandon, "this is a line.... and we're supposed to be going..in line." The guys all sort of mumbled at each other and backed off. Nice try, my friends.

Sopa Azteca at the airport. I ate the
avocados off the top already.  

Immigration and customs worked out just fine. All of my fears of being imprisoned in a foreign country for some unknown reason were vanquished. We traversed the airport via signs and asking directions and found an ATM for some money, a place to buy our bus tickets to Querétaro, and some delicious tortilla soup. The bus was "super posh," using Brandon's words. We got free snacks to take with us, watched Across the Universe, and the seats were muy comfortable. The security to get on the bus was incredible. Almost as much as, if not more than, getting on the plane. The ride itself was 3 hours. Then came the time to grab a taxi and get to the hostel. By this point it was around one or two in the morning and we were so so so tired.

Then we have our taxi driver. Again, none of the other group members had these issues. They all describe their trips as uneventful or easy. We were told that when we got to our taxi, all we had to do was tell him the address and the name of the hostel and he would know where to go. So that's what we did. However, the guy kept on asking us questions like he didn't know where to go. He already started driving and was heading in some sort of direction. He kept on asking us something but we couldn't recognize what he was saying. At one point Brandon asked, "¿Estámos en Querétaro, si?" ("We are in Querétaro, yes?") Because the driver's behavior indicated the possibility of not even being in the right place. Eventually, Brandon sacrificed airplane mode on his phone to call the hostel to ask for directions. Once he started asking, the driver told us we were already on the street and we pulled up right next to the hostel. We think that maybe he was asking us for a cross street. However, I'm pretty sure it was obvious that we're not from around here, so I don't know why the heck we would know any cross streets. The whole thing was illogical.

BUT, we finally got our room, which is so cute in a Mamma Mia! sort of style, found our bed and were able to go to sleep.

Our lovely room at Casa San Gallito

The entrance to our room.

A band playing in the common area

Tortilla with beans, chili
 sauce, and cheese

Here we are! We spent all yesterday exploring the area and waiting for more of our group to arrive. We've eaten so much delicious food and have yet to become ill. We're making sure to keep our water bottles full of good, clean water, and we're using that water for brushing our teeth. There seems to be an amazingly beautiful church on every corner here. Yesterday was confirmation day at one of them. We walked by and saw little girls in bridal-like gowns all over the place, having their pictures taken with family or on the fountains. We saw a monk. He was all dressed in the brown robes and everything.

There is a fountain series of geocaches
that we have been finding. It's great to be
able to log our visit in such a way.
We've already found two. Here is our first

We made a short visit to a pharmacy to track down some cough medicine for Brandon and a razor for me (I forgot mine). That was certainly interesting. There was an old man pharmacist standing on our side of the counter and then a couple ladies on the inside. We tried telling them that all Brandon has is a cough. He's not actually sick, he just needs something the calm his cough. After a bit of back and forth, they finally gave him some sort of syrup. The old man kept joking around about it, saying it wasn't going to kill him or anything and actually opened up the bottle and gave him some right then and there. That was a little scary since we didn't know exactly what it was. When we got back to our hostel we looked up the name of the medication and shot an email to Amber (my little sister's mom who is a pharmacist) asking what it was. It's all good, though. It just cuts through mucus. Brandon seems to be doing well, but it hasn't helped his cough.

A lovely church. One of many

So today our group is mostly here and we're going to head out to find our señoras (the ladies who will be our mothers for the duration of our stay) around noon or one. We start school tomorrow. I have to say, I'm a bit nervous. But our Spanish seems to be picking up and the people we've met so far have been really nice.

Keep track of our Twitter accounts for periodic updates or pictures. Brandon's is @the_ferg_says and mine is @JessicaPestika. A new update will be coming next week. So until then, my friends!