back in prague!

Well, I'm finally back after all the traveling! I just went to 5 different countries- kinda crazy! I had a lot of fun traveling around with everybody. After Vienna, I went to Budapest, which was a really cool city.. actually Budapest is 2 cities - Buda and Pest and different sides of the river. Together they have a huge Parliament building, a royal palace, and a castle - interesting that they have all 3- and of course other things to see. We trekked around both the cities in one day in the hot, humid weather. It reminded me of Kansas. The hostel we stayed in was super hippy. They had a huge drawing of Bob Marley on our yellow walls in our room.. I forgot to take a picture. It was a pretty cool set up, but definitely different than all the other hostels we stayed in throughout the trip.

Anyhow, now I have these last few days to try to get the room all cleaned up and packed, as well as trying to see some last things we haven't done yet in Prague. There's always more to see, but there's just a couple things I feel I should see/do before I leave! Hopefully, I will come back to Prague sometime though.

Today I got a few things done, though. I mailed two packages full of all kinds of stuff back home. I also picked up a package that has been hanging out in different locations around Prague for over a month. My mom had sent it forever ago. They post our names on a list in the lobby of the dorm if we have a package, then they give us a slip of paper, then we head to the post office to pick up our package. Well, over a month ago, I had my name on the list, I got a slip of paper and I went to the post office, except all they gave me was a letter and a copy of the paper my mom had filled out to send - telling the contents of the package. They checked a box on that paper that said "returned to sender" and then there was a letter written in Czech. I figured they sent it home since that was what it said and I figured the letter explained why. I figured as long as it was going back home, then that's okay. Well, they never got it back at home. So before I left on this last trip, I got together with my Czech buddy to have him read the letter and help me figure stuff out. So he told me it was at this place because they had to check it - something about customs and we could go pick it up, but by this point I didn't want to pick it up anymore cuz it's just more stuff to take home. So he wrote an email saying we just wanted sent back to the sender because they do that after a certain amount of time, anyhow. I went on my trip. I came back and my name was back on the package list in the lobby! and it was on there twice - one time it was incredibly misspelled, but it was me. So I got another slip saying I had soemthing at the post office and another letter I couldn't read. I talked to my Czech buddy again and he said there was miscommunication and they had sent it back to the post office! It'd been there for almost 10 days and I thought there was a charge usually when your package sits there for days... so I was scared to pick it up, but worried they would never send it back home. It has my running in mp3 player among a couple other things, so I wanted it back. So I went to the post office when I mailed stuff and decided I'd ask about the package and if it cost too much, I just wouldn't pick it up.. I tried to ask the lady - who of course didn't speak English - I had handed her the letter that I had no idea what it said.. A lady behind me spoke really good english and heard me ask so she asked the lady in Czech and then told me there was no charge! Which was awesome.. So I got my package- which was adding a little bit of unneeded stress! Sorry, long story. Now I have poptarts and granola bars as well as face wash! fun stuff.

But, incredibly enough, we dealt with two post office workers that did speak english when we dropped off our packages and laura picked up an empty box. Then I got some laundry done - which was needed SOOO bad.. I was starting to smell. ha.
Then, (fortunately and unfortunately for my money) I found out there was a big sale going on at this store called promod - which is so so cute. So I HAD to go out there and ended up buying a skirt- I couldn't resist and I've been wanting to buy a dress all semester - so I guess that will do. I also heard tonight that some other stores are having big sales too.. yikes.. so tempting.

Laura and Chris leave tomorrow for Spain - where they fly out of to go home on the 3rd! So, the remaining people all went out to dinner at a new place, but it had the traditional Czech food, so I kinda got a meal I get alot... oh well.

Well, that's about it I think. I need to figure out what I need to pack up for Spain and if there's more to send home before I leave on Thursday for Spain.

Here's some pics of the trip.. but I posted them all on my photos page..