Vienna was the most beautiful European city Ive yet been to and I felt like a princess. That is all--check out the pictures :) [View Full Entry]

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For Spring Break my travels took me to exotic Turkey. We flew in to Istanbul and checked into a hostel called Chambers of the Boheme, where the beds felt like sleeping on a flying carpet in a night sky full of clouds. We were right off the famous Istikal street, which is bustling with people day and night, looking for treasures in the many retail stores or bookshops or grabbing a bite to eat at a kebab restaurant or one of the street vendors selling roasted corn and chestnuts. At night the place lights up like a festival and music can [View Full Entry]

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3/6/08 Ahoj kamaradkas! It has been a long time since I checked in with you all. This is partly due to an increased workload in my academic studies with CIEE and FAMU, although they are hardly rigorous in the traditional sense. This week I was required to attend an Open Mike Concert featuring my professor. It was a strange evening of performances by people who were once highly subversive in the Czech Underground scene of the Communist Era (ala Plastic People of the Universe, Egon Bondy, Vaclav Havel, etc) and can’t seem to get over being strange for strangeness’ sake. For [View Full Entry]

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2/10/08 Dobry den! I left you all having just discovered the wonders of Prague, but a whole new array of delights awaits the one who ventures out of the city into the colorful and quaint countryside. Last Sunday was Masopust, which is the Czech version of Carnival before lent. We arrived Sunday at a little village square to an onslaught of colorful tents, smoking stands with toasted nuts, and bright pagan costumes: paper mach storks, cherubs guzzling sausages, and every other beast you could think of. Whole families got into the spirit by dressing alike. I adored the little fox family [View Full Entry]

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Prague emails 1/25/08 Dobry den! Prague is like sleeping a butterfly, only showing her true radiance once you have weathered the long wait while she stirred in her cocoon and you thought you would never understand the difference between Stary Mesto and Nove Mesto. Then, one miraculous moment, you look up and Prague sparkles like a laughing star, glowing in the pride of what she has achieved. I think it is the spirits of this town that guard it so well from passerby who would presume to spend less than a week running from one end of Mala Strana to the [View Full Entry]

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