All Souls Day

Well, we have made it to the final place on the crazy 10 days 5 countries excursion. I never thought I would make it! (Writing of course, the trip itself was a blast). Our final place was Krakow, Poland and you bet your bottom dollar that we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our bus. We ended up making it to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare. Little did we know that this was about to be the longest bus ride of all of our lives.

We hopped on board and got going. Literally 30 minutes later, the bus driver took a 15 minute break. We got back on the bus. An hour later, we took another 20 minute break. A little while later we took another break. We were all pretty frustrated at this point. Personally, I am the kind of driver where I don’t care how bad you have to go, if it is like a 5-6 hour trip, you hold it. This bus driver obviously didn’t have the same mindset. Our last driving disturbance was by the border police getting in to Poland. They told us that they were doing a “random check."  Even though all us girls weren't sitting together, they took all 6 of our passports off the bus and they didn't take anyone else’s. You don’t fool me Poland. That was NOT very random. After a few minutes of our passports being gone, the bus started driving away. None of us had our passports back. I started running towards the driver in a panic. Finally, the bus worker gave them all back to me and everyone on the bus could stop staring at me the crazy American. (I was just concerned people. passports=identity)

When we finally got to the Krakow bus station, we found the first English speaking taxi and hired him to drive us to the hostel. We ended up loving him so much that we hired him to be our driver for the next day. (He would be the lucky fellow that would drive us to Auschwitz and the salt mines). He dropped us off and we bid our nice Lukas taxi driver adieu. Until tomorrow nice taxi man, now is the time for food.

All of us girls (excluding Paige) have this really bad habit of practically starving ourselves while we are on vacation. We are such cheapos and we would much rather spend our limited money on an activity than food.  This was my day I was NOT going to cheap out. I was starving. We settled on this adorable little restaurant that was very close to our hostel. I loved the interior. If I owned a restaurant, that is exactly how I would want it to look. There were paper cranes floating on the ceiling and each table had fresh flowers and a candle. It was an atmosphere that could be used for diverse occasions. It could be fancy for a date, or fun for a friendly get-together. I just loved it. I finally settled on getting chicken stuffed with sun dried tomatoes. (To be honest, at this point I wasn't expecting anything amazing.) Although Europe is the land of food, nothing I had ever got in a restaurant rocked my socks off. This saddened me. Well, this chicken was the first WOW food moment I have had in Europe. Boy was it good. I would eat it every day if I could.  Thanks Krakow.

Following dinner we had something special on the itinerary. Although most of Europe doesn’t celebrate Halloween, they do celebrate a different Holiday called All Souls Day. I would compare it to most to Memorial Day, but it is 1000x better. All of the action of All Souls Day takes place in the graveyard, so we were on the hunt to find one.

When we finally got to a graveyard, we knew that we had made the best decision ever. The whole entire graveyard was lit in candles. There were hundreds of them all around. We bought some candles and joined in on the fun. It was such a serene feeling walking around the graveyard. Even though there were hundreds of people inside, everyone was chillingly reverent. Faintly chiming through the silence were the quiet bells of the church that was in the center of the graveyard. It was beautiful. While we were walking around, we ended up running into some LDS missionaries. It was their ward activity to go to the graveyard together in remembrance of the dead. (P. S. We have ran into LDS missionaries in almost every country. How cool is that?!) We spent some time just chatting with them and remembering our love for the motherland (America, we all love you).  Suddenly, we realized that Hannah and Rosie were no-where to be found. We sadly said goodbye to the missionaries and went into defense mode trying to find our girls. This was not a good situation folks. Rosie and Hannah cannot speak a word of polish. They have no working cell phone, and they didn't even know where the hostel was. To say the least, we all started saying our prayers that we would find them and FAST.

We went back to the last place where we saw them last and waited a good 10 minutes. No sign of them. Then, we started walking the main alley yelling their names. No sign of them. Finally we decided to try and go back to the entrance. Low and behold we finally spotted them. Phew. They were safe and sound and back with the group. That sure was an answer to prayer. When we were all back together, we took one last look at the only All Souls day we might ever see, and made the trek back to the hostel where we put our pretty little heads to sleep.

Check the graveyard out.

Goodnight Krakow. See you in the morning.

XO Mikele

A Labyrinth, on Halloween, in Budapest.

Not many people can say they have spent Halloween in Budapest, but I can. It is crazy to me that one year ago I was doing the exact same thing teaching in China. Now, I am here teaching in Lithuania traveling Europe. It is crazy how time flies and how many things in your life can change. Holidays are always a good marker and time indicator for me.  Usually I can think back to exactly where I was at that time and compare.  I am so happy with my progression in life in the past year. Even though I think my life is going in a good direction, it is completely crazy to think about where I will be a year from now and what will have changed. Who knows! Anyways, back to Budapest.

We spent our morning exploring the beautiful sights of Budapest. It was our last day in our favorite place so we had to go out with a bang .We decided to go out and see what Budapest is famous for… caves! Apparently, there are hundreds of caves all around Budapest, and we had to explore one. We took a bus up to a cave on a hill and went inside.

               

The cave was really cool, but it wasn’t the coolest cave I have ever seen. I did enjoy myself though. How many times can you say that you explored a cave in Budapest? Not many. I think I would have enjoyed the cave tour more if our tour guide was happy to see us. She was bilingual and did speak English, but I am sure it was frustrating to repeat everything she already said in her native tongue again to us after. It is her job though, so she could have at least faked a smile. Oh well.

When we were done at the caves, we went to go see the parliament. The parliament in Budapest is breathtaking! I could stare at it all day long. It is the massive cream building with tons of spires all around. It has a giant dome right in the middle, and it sits right on the river. I am in love with it. It is an architectural masterpiece. After we were done at the parliament, we kept on exploring the beautiful Budapest.

 While we were exploring, I had my major face palm moment of the day. Jessica and I got tired from walking around so much so we decided to sit down. When I looked at the ground, I saw a memory card for a camera on the floor. I picked it up and started wondering whose it was. I know how devastated I would be if I lost my memory card, so despite my huge language barrier, I walked around the whole place asking people if it was their memory card. I even creepily hunted down the Asian mother and daughter who were sitting on the bench before me. All of my trying was to no avail. Finally, I decided to pull the ultimate creep and put the memory card in my camera and hunt down the people in the pictures. When I put the card in the camera, to my surprise, it belonged to Paige my roommate. I felt so dumb. I was the one using her camera earlier, and it must have fallen out when I sat down on the bench. Face Palm. Good one Mikele.

The next highlight of my Budapest day was when I asked a street performer if I could borrow his violin. He happily obliged me. When I got the violin in my hands and everyone was watching me I completely froze up. All those years of violin lessons didn’t do me a dang thing because all I did was play an open A string. This moment really inspired me to pick up a violin and get my violin skills up to par again. I have always wanted to be a part of a city orchestra or something, and this experience showed me that I need to practice up.

Unfortunately, this is the point in the day where Rosie becomes extremely ill. It was heartbreaking. As much as she wanted to explore the city and as much as we wanted her to stay, she had to go back to the hostel and sleep off her massive headache. Rachel kindly volunteered to go with her. The rest of us ladies decided to go up in the steeple of a cathedral and see the city from above. We were really happy with this choice. When we got up to the top, I spent half the time admiring the view, and I spent the other half taking pictures and laughing at Paige for being afraid of heights.  The girl could hardly even walk around. Silly Paigey. After seeing an aerial view of the beautiful Budapest, it was time to go and get ready for our Halloween fiasco.

Of all the things I have done on Halloween, this has got to be one of the coolest things. We decided to channel our inner Sherlock Holmes and go to a labyrinth. In this labyrinth, we had to use teamwork, our brains, and clues to get the keys to the locks and get out in less than an hour. It was freaking hysterical.  If you know our group at all, you know that we all love each other like family, but we bicker like family as well. I knew going in to this little labyrinth I knew It was going to be one interesting night. We got our black stealth giddups on, the staff gave us a walkie talkie, and we made the plunge to inside the labyrinth. Dun Dun Dunnnnnn.

Once we were inside, we were in a black room full of tunnels. On the walls of the tunnels were numbers. There was also a big wall that was made of wood. In the middle of it was a bag that went back into the wall and below it was a wooden door with a lock. Once we had observed the premises, we all went crazy running around yelling numbers at each other that we thought would open the lock. The only good thing that happened was we did find a secret hidden hallway that led us to the next room. Unfortunately, that door was locked too. After like fifteen minutes of compete mayhem, we finally realized that we should pay more attention to the wooden wall instead of the numbers that were doing absolutely nothing for us in the lock department. Rosie was the brave soul that would put her hand in the nasty bag on the wall. Once she had, she realized there were numbers inside the bag that could be the lock combination. We all got giddy with excitement. We put the numbers in the lock and chink. The lock didn’t open. WHAT? We were so confused. We had already wasted about 20 minutes inside of the stupid tunnels and we only had an hour in the dang thing. Good thing we had the walkie talkie. We rogered in to the friendly desk staff and they told us that the number we thought was a seven was actually a 1. Apparently, the Hungarians write their ones all fancy and their fanciness cost us 20 minutes of game time. We finally got the lock open and we grabbed the pole that was in the secret wooden door and ran to the trap door. Us Lithuania girls were back in action.

The next thing that transpired was most likely the epitome of my happiness. Inside the next room was a stuffed guard. Inside his pocket were keys, I had to use the pole to pull the keys out of the “sleeping guards” pocket. IT WAS AWESOME. Once we got the keys, we were in. We spent the rest of the time figuring out how to get all the keys that unlocked the exit. It was a blast and we escaped just in time without dying. GO TEAM. I think that Rexburg needs to make one of these for FHE or date night. They would make bank because I would go every day. Better yet, I should buy a space and make one of these myself. Dream job.

Here are some pictures of the ever so lovely Budapest. 

Now for my dream come true.

I just had the best time in Budapest ever and I even found my dream occupation of labyrinth owner. Score.

I will miss you Budapest.

XO Mikele

A Bath fit for a Queen.

Holla if you have been to Budapest because Budapest is the best. Let's just recap this wonderful place.  The bus ride from Vienna to Budapest felt like an eternity. The bus was running late, and when we finally got there, half our day was gone. When we finally arrived, we hurried as fast as we could to check in to our hostel and get our Budapest fun on. 

We made it with just enough time to go to the Szechenyi baths. Budapest is famous for having these grand spas. We had been feeling the wear and tear on our bodies from the Lithuanian children as well as hauling all of our stuff from country to country, so we were all really excited to say the least! We rode on the subway with our towels and arrived at the beautiful Szechenyi.

After you pay for your ticket, they give you this sweet wristband that serves as your ticket and your locker key (technology these days is amazing). We hurried and changed in to whatever we had,( I wore a yoga tank and some Nike shorts and because I desperately need a swim suit), and went out to the spa. Essentially the spa is the biggest hot tub you have ever seen surrounded by the most beautiful gold building. Other than Paige jokingly trying to drown me, we had an extremely peaceful time just floating around in the steaming water. While we were just floating around we observed all of the Europeans and their amazing zest for PDA. There were people left and right just macking on each other and we literally thought it was the funniest thing ever (mature I know).  Right after we had witnessed about the 7^th intimate couple, we realized that the fancy building was more than just a building. There were hot tubs inside too! We skedaddled right on out of there and went inside.

When I walked inside I felt like I walked right back to the olden times where the people of high status would hang out in their noble spas all day. All I needed was a person to feed me grapes and fan me with leaves to straight up feel like royalty in this place. Everywhere was just so fancy. We spent a lot of time just tub hopping, but we also went in the sauna. I just love saunas and I hadn't been in one for months so this was pretty exciting business.

When we were done inside, we couldn't quite say goodbye to the grand Szechenyi until we went outside and floated around again. For the rest of the time Rosie, Hannah, Paige and I just floated around bonding over typical girl stuff like food and boys… ect. It was such a fun night. When we were all done we kissed Szechenyi goodbye, went home to the hostel, and slept like a rock.

(Sorry for the poor quality photos.... but it was a high quality night so eh.)

Boy do I love Budapest already. Like I said before, Budapest is best.

XO Mikele

Dried Fruit and Womanhood.

So when we all woke up on Vienna day two we weren't all that excited to go out. Paige, Hannah, Jessica and I felt like we had pretty much accomplished everything we really wanted to see in day one. Rosie and Rachel wanted to go back to the palace, but we weren't really in the mood to pay like 30 Euros to go inside (We had heard that most of the rooms were empty anyways). So what to do…. What to do… Our original plan was to take a day trip to Hallstatt (or pronounced Haghllschtatt in a German spitty voice), but our hostel people said that it wasn’t plausible at all. I was soooooooooo sad. This is one of the #1 places I wanted to visit in Europe, and now I might never get to go. This made me even a little bit more mad at Vienna even though I know it didn’t do anything to me.

Finally, we settled on going to the Naschmarkt and then going to hang out at the Danube River. The Naschmarkt is sweet. I have always loved places where you can barter for goods. I think that this roots all the way back to my childhood when my parents brought me to Hawaii and I got a small budget to walk around the International Market Place and barter my little heart away. I also feel like I have a pretty good talent at it, and my talent was refined all my months of bartering in China. The Naschmarkt market was obsessed with selling dried fruit. I swear every other stand was a dried fruit stand. I didn’t mind because they were all willing to give you samples. Our new favorite dried fruit is dried watermelon. I didn’t even know that that was a real thing, and I have no idea how you can dry a fruit that is like 90% water, but that stuff is dang good. We also tried hummus and falafel. I was in heaven. We spent most of our time eating pita bread and hummus while Paige fed the nasty pigeons(I am not a pigeon fan. Those things freak me out!). I also bought myself a fake Burberry scarf, and I was pretty thrilled about it because those scarves are all the rage in Europe. Everyone has one I swear.

After the market we found our way over to the Danube River. It is the second longest river in Europe. I have always remembered this river because all the way back when I went to American Heritage of South Jordan and I was in the Geography Bee, I lost on a question about the Danube. Well, who would have thought all these years later I would actually visit it! It was really pretty. Hannah, Jessica and I spent our time taking a ton of fun pics. Paige stayed up on the bridge because she wasn’t feeling well. To be honest, we all got sick at least once on the long 10 day trip and today was the day the sickness picked Paige. We decided to bring her back to the hostel and find something else to do.

In the few months that I have lived with Rosie, Rachel and Hannah, I have discovered a few things… They are afraid of big girl things! Hah. Things like boys, bras, makeup and periods are like a foreign language to these cutie pies. I am not saying I am the master of all things girly, but I do know a thing or two. Earlier in the vacation, Hannah disclosed to us that she had never EVER had a real bra. She had been wearing a sports bra her whole life. Face Palm. It was time to help a sister out. We knew exactly how to spend the rest of our day in Vienna…  Hannah would probably kill me for telling everyone this, but we went out and got that cute girl a big girl bra! Yay! Womanhood!

Jessica and I had a blast bringing Hannah into the big girl world. When we were done, we explored the Vienna streets for about another hour and decided to go on home. When we went under ground to go find the tube (subway), we were a little lost. All of a sudden a cute little grandpa man came up to us and in poor English offered his assistance. It was so sweet. As we were leaving, he walked up to another group of foreigners and did the same thing. The sweet little man literally just walked around the subway entrance trying to help foreigners. That is so inspiring to me. More people should be like that man including me.

When we finally made it home, we spent the rest of the night girl bonding, doing my math HW and playing phase 10 (It made me miss my Becca Boo). It felt good to just chill for a few hours and then get a really good night’s sleep.

Goodbye Vienna. You were fun I guess. Next stop? Budapest

XO Mikele

P.S.

Also, just in case you needed your daily dose of babushka, here is Paige sick and cold and telling me not to laugh at her babushka head. Haha Paige....

Pause.

I announce a break from my usual travel excursion updates to show you some recent pictures of our last service project. We painted again and I just had the time of my life.

I may or may not have originally painted one of the train cars to look like a Christmas present.... I guess that is what happens when you are trying to use up all the extra red and green paint and you decide it is an okay idea to put them on the same train car. Whoops. You win some and you lose some. The best part is the kids adore all the paintings regardless of my poor color combo choice. They would walk by and Oooohhh and Ahhhh as they passed. Occasionally I would even recognize a Russian or Lithuanian praise like "gerai" or "harasho." It made me happy to see that our little gift brightened their day.

That folks, is why I am here. To see the smile on all the cute kid's faces.

XO Mikele

Mozart Balls.

So here we go. Here is the tale of Vienna the third country on our insane traveling extravaganza. Vienna, to be honest, you aren't my favorite place, but you have some lovely features and dang good falafel I’ll give you that.

When we arrived to Vienna it was crucial that we got all checked in and ready to go in a timely manner. The reason why this was so important was because one of Hannah’s friends from high school lives in Vienna, and she told us she would show us around. This was very exciting because it was like we had our own private little tour guide.

We met up with Hannah’s friend Nicole at a restaurant called Vapiano. Even though we were in Austria, they have this restaurant in Lithuania too and we had been dying to go try it out. I had heard great things about it, and it truly lived up to its good name. I almost felt like I had been transported back to America. The restaurant was clean, the food was good, and the ambiance was so modern and open. Then, we would remember that no one speaks English very well and they use the dang euro (I am not a fan. Mostly I don’t like it just because the exchange rate is so bad for the dollar!).  This restaurant was up to par.  The coolest feature about it was how you paid.

When you walked in the door they would hand each person a card. Then, you walk back to where they were cooking the food and stand in line. You choose your noodle and sauce and a dashing bow-tied man would personally make it for you while you watched (kinda like café rio but with pasta.) Then when he hands the pasta to you and asks for your card. He then loads on the price of the pasta, breads and drinks that you ordered. After you go and eat your amazing meal, you go to check out and hand them your card. Once you have paid, you can leave the building. I know what you are thinking, I thought it too. What if someone loses their card? Or tries to leave without paying? Well, really you can’t. There is a guard at the door. He will stop you from leaving. If you lose your card, it costs you like 50 euros. That isn’t a fun option. It is just better to pay for your food and leave peaceably. It was so good. We even got to wear really fancy bibs. We will definitely be going again when we are home in Lithuania.

After we were nice and full, Nicole took us all around the town. Our first stop was a traditional Austrian candy store. I am pretty sure candy, chocolate, and food is my love language, so I was more than thrilled to try this Austrian candy. Guess what Nicole told us that we absolutely had to try? You guessed it. Mozart balls. (The more I think about it the funnier it is.) We got some and tried them. They were pretty nasty. Sorry Mozart nobody likes your balls... Candy balls that is.   

After, we wondered around and saw a bunch of grandiose white buildings that all pretty much looked the same to me.  What I probably enjoyed most was seeing Nicole’s university. It was beautiful. Also, she gets to attend for free.  FOR FREE PEOPLE. FREE COLLEGE. I could hardly believe it. Apparently many countries in Europe offer students free tuition. Here I am busting my butt to try and get a bigger scholarship and I still feel like I pay an arm and a leg. I just hope these university students know how good they have it.

Once we were done we had to say goodbye to Nicole. She had to attend an evening class at her university. She was such a sweetheart. I feel privileged I got to spend the day with such a sweet, beautiful and intelligent Austrian. Once Nicole was gone, we had to find something to do. We decided on the palace. We have a shortage of palaces in America, and I didn't want to pass up my chance here.

The palace was very classy (as a palace should be). We spent a good while taking pictures and just staring at it. Since it was too expensive for us to go inside, we decided to venture to the back where the gardens were. They were magnificent. I wish I could have been wearing a powdered wig, fancy dress and played croquet out behind the place. It was massive and had the nicest shrubs. At the very back was a beautiful fountain. We made the long trek back to see it and it was lovely. What is a palace without a good fountain anyways?

Finally, when we were done at the palace it was time to go back to the hostel. After we had eaten yummy pasta, tried Mozart balls, and seen a palace it was finally alright to call it a night.

Goodnight Vienna. See you again in the morning.

XO Mikele

The power of zero and other Prague happenings.

So because Prague was so impressive on day one, on day two, we wanted to be as impressive as the city. This meant a cute outfit, makeup, hair- the works. I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but when the showers are nasty and cold your desire to groom yourself well goes straight down the toilet. Or, you are just lazy and using dry shampoo becomes your go to (and blaming it on the showers conditions makes you feel better about practically being a hobo). Well, either way, I have fallen as a victim of this rut many a times. Not on Prague day two. I was just a beaming little beauty and I got to finally use the cute hat I lugged here all the way from America (hats are NOT travel/suitcase friendly people).

After we were all feeling pretty and were ready for the day, we decided to head up to the Prague castle and Cathedral. This is the place I had been dying to go. I couldn’t be more excited. When I saw it, it didn’t disappoint. It was stunning. I could just stare at it all day. The cathedral is at the top of a big hill so we spent a ton of time just admiring the view of the city of steeples. We also took plenty of Prague selfies because we were in Prague duh.

On the way back down the hill, we got traditional Czech trdelnik (that is not a typo). Trdelnik is incredibly delicious. It is kinda like a cinnamon roll but it is in the shape of a tube. The make it by putting a slab of dough on a metal tube and smoothing the dough around the tube into a cylinder. We had seen people eating them all day, and we were so excited to try one. When we did, we were hooked! When I get home, I need to find out where I can get myself a trdelnik. This just made us even more hungry. We decided to go out to eat.

As we were on our restaurant search, we happened upon the most adorable little outdoor café you have ever seen. It was complete with fresh flowers on the tables, a cute bow-tied waiter, and blankets to wrap yourself in if you were cold. I would say we picked a winner of a restaurant. Good job team.

After our fun café experience, we decided to go to the Old Jewish district. We had gone there yesterday, and we wanted to go in the museum and explore it more fully. We walked all the way to the ticket office, and then we realized that none of us had enough money. Luckily, Paige offered to spot us, and we would pay her back in the next country. Since I don’t like any of the girls to be in the city alone, I went with her. It was a good thing too because crap was about to go down in the lives of Paige and Mikele.

We got to the ATM, and I told Paige to take out about 2,000 CZK’s which is about 90 USD. This would be enough for all six of us girls to enter the museum and eat dinner to finish off the time in Prague. Well, Paige didn’t take out 2,000 CZK’s… She took out 20,000! That is about 1,000$ USD! Let me replay the scene for you. I was literally freaking out.

 M- “Paige did you get the money?”

P- “Ya I got it… Mikele? There is something wrong here.”

M- “What Paige? Let me see…. OH MY GOSH PAIGE YOU HAVE 20,000 czechies!!!!! What are we going to do? Ah! Paige OMG we have to go back to the ATM.”

 I seriously thought the ATM broke and we won the lottery. I told her we had to find the ATM people and tell them that the ATM was broken and we would give the money back. At this point, we walked back to the ATM and luckily there were three very kind American women there. We explained to them what had happened. Then they told us the saddening news. Paige didn’t win the ATM lottery. She accidentally pushed the wrong button on the ATM and every single cent she took out was hers. We were stuck with it. All 20,000 Czechies of it.

Paige pretty much started sweating to death at this point. We were two young girls with the equivalent of 1000 American dollars on our hands in one of the most renown pick-pocketers locations in the world. Crap.  We started shoving money in our bras, in the obscure pockets of our purse, anywhere so that it could be split up. The three nice American ladies even bought 200$ off us. Bless their souls. Now we only had an 800$ problem left. We probably looked so suspicious walking back to the ticket office. We seriously couldn’t wait to split the money up and get it on as many bodies as possible.

When we told the other girls they tried their best not to laugh. It was a serious situation, but it was a tad funny. Who knew one zero could do so much damage? Our plan of attack was to find out where a real bank was a switch it back. We found the least sketchy bank/ exchange shop we could and went inside. We got the whole situation under control and could finally walk the streets without feeling like we were going to get jumped.

After we could breathe easy, we went back to our hostel, dropped off our stuff, and went to the grocery store. It was getting dark at this point, so it was fun to walk the charming streets while all the nightlife was coming out. My two favorite things were a hippy dread locked man creating giant bubbles, and a highly talented Asian man who was playing songs with cups. It was so fun to watch. At the grocery store we picked up a few cheap snacks for the bus ride the next day. Then we went back to the hostel and just did what traveling girls do best…. sleep.

I love you Prague. 

XO Mikele

So this is why people love Europe.

Ok so I don’t know how many of you have been to Prague, but it is seriously like the kingdom straight out of Beauty and the Beast or something. It is so beautiful. Let’s just recap this wonderful place.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus. We were fretting for a bit because we almost missed it even though we left like an hour early. Sometimes in these cities the subways run less frequently in the wee hours of the morning. We found that out the hard way. Luckily we made it, and we made the beautiful drive through the beautiful German countryside and through Dresden to Prague.

When we got there we found our way to the hostel in record time. This was a good thing to because there was so much Prague waiting for us to explore. The only hoop we had to jump through was the check in time. We arrived to the hostel 30 minutes before check in. I used my mad powers of persuasion (I begged the receptionist), to let us check in early, and finally he obliged.

Once we were all checked in, we found out that we were just in time to go on a free walking tour. We grabbed a sandwich to go and met in the town square. When we found our tour guide, he told us to go watch the town square’s clock. He said it would probably change our life. We waited until the hour struck and the clock did it’s little performance. It was probably the dumbest thing I have ever waited for. It hardly did anything, but the whole square was full of tourists waiting for the clock. When we got back to the tour guide, he sarcastically said, “I knew it would change your life!” What a funny dude. Later in the tour he told us that the Prague clock is voted every year as one of the most overrated tourist sights to see in Europe. When he actually told us the history behind the clock, it became a lot cooler.

Apparently, the Prague clock was the first of its kind. It had the time, but also the date. The coolest thing I think it did was show where the earth is in relation to the sun and the moon. Well when it was built, the king at the time didn’t want the inventor to sell his secrets to any other kingdoms. So what did he do?.... Take a wild guess….. You were wrong! He didn’t die. They just cut out his tongue and blinded him.  That is a way worse punishment and was very brutal in my opinion. If my life ever comes to that, I think I would rather just go peacefully that have anyone ever take away some of my vital senses.

My other favorite part of the tour was when we went to the old Jewish district. The only things that were original were the old cemetery and the synagogue. The cemetery blew my mind. This was the only place the Jews were allowed to bury their dead. They don’t believe in cremation, so they had to have every single body in this extremely small area. The guide told us that there are about 8-10 bodies stacked on top of each other, and that they estimate 100,000 bodies are buried there. I have no idea if that is true, but it blew my mind. Apparently, back in the day, the ghettos were so bad that they had to tear them all up because the disease was so spreading so rampantly. Now that it has been rebuilt, it is full of some of the most expensive shops in all of Prague. Ironic huh?

For the rest of the tour I was so freezing that I couldn’t concentrate super well. It was a four hour long tour, so all the girls started feeling the same way as me. We tipped our tour guide generously, and went on our way. Our next destination was food of course.

In the spirit of being in the Czech Republic, we decided to try and find some traditional Czech cuisine. Rosie and I decided to share once again. This time, we decided to get Pork knee and Goolash.  It was interesting… The pork knee would have been good but it tasted so slimy. The goolash was actually pretty good. Well done Czech Republic.

 After we ate, we went back to the hostel because we were exhausted. We were all so excited about the next day because it was so beautiful and we had just barely dipped our toes in all that Prague had to offer.  I had a really great first day in Prague. I can really understand now why people drool over Europe. Prague gave that to me and it only got better on Prague day two.

XO Mikele

That Berlin Wall

For most of the time I have been in Europe I have been in places I have never thought about going. It isn’t that I didn’t think they were cool countries, they are, I just never really thought about them. If I had never thought about them, how would I know I wanted to visit? Berlin, on the other hand, is a place I have always wanted to go, but never thought I would reach. Well, It was the first stop on our crazy ten days five countries vacation and I couldn’t have been more excited about it.

After our  whooping 16 hour long bus ride from Vilnius to Berlin, we had finally arrived at our destination. We gladly hopped off the bus and began the journey to the hostel. Of course knowing us, we got lost. While we were trying to find the right tube (subway, but I prefer tube like them local folks say), a sweet little woman stopped and tried to help us. When we showed her our map, she literally pulled out a magnifying glass to see it. It was the most precious thing. We got on the right tube, and hurriedly found our way to the hostel. Thanks magnifying glassed grandma. You were the cutest.

After we checked in, we really had to hurry to get to the Berlin wall. We only had a few more hours of daylight, and we really wanted to get a good daylight view of one of the most famous walls in the history of walls. We decided to go to Charlie’s Checkpoint first. When we got there, there was this booth where fake American soldiers were posing. Obviously we had to get some pics. After paying a stinking 5$, we took a bunch of pictures with these dudes. They were sooo funny. One of them grabbed my arm and the other one started taking selfies on Jessica’s cell phone. After this little adventure, we realized how pressed for time we really were. It would be dark very soon. So, we left, hopped back on the tube and rode to the wall.

 When we got to the wall, I was so amazed. I have always been one that loves graffiti. I think it has a time and place and obviously I don’t like it everywhere, but I loved the art/ graffiti on this wall. We spent probably the next hour taking tons of pictures next to all of the cool graffiti we could find. To be honest, I felt like I could stay for even longer than we did. We ended up leaving because it was getting dark, cold, and we were all experiencing mild starvation since we hadn’t eaten in hours. (We are pretty big cheap-o’s so it is our own fault. Don't worry mom.)

On the way to get dinner, we decided to go see a building that had some sort of significant meaning. I will admit, it was really beautiful building but I had absolutely no idea what sort of special meaning it had. I did like looking at it though. After we saw the building, we decided to try and find some traditional German cuisine. We got tips from a tourist shop about a cool strip of traditional restaurants that were pretty close by. Unfortunately, on the way there, everybody got mad and cranky. The group was all complaining and we couldn't quite agree on a restaurant to eat at. Finally, after a whole lot of wasted time, we finally agreed upon a restaurant that seemed reasonably priced and very traditional.

The ambiance of the restaurant was wonderful. Rosie and I decided to buy two dishes, split the price, and try as much German stuff as possible. We decided on schnitzel and a bratwurst. I don’t know about you, but I always imagined that schnitzel was like a fancy pancake or bread. Bratwurst on the other hand I thought was the most delicious savory sausage in the world. Rosie and I were both saddened that the schnitzel was just fancy country fried steak and the bratwurst was just a plain old hotdog. Come on Germany! I expected more from you. Maybe I just went to a bad restaurant… Who knows.

Thanks for the great time Berlin! 

XO Mikele

Happy (very late) Halloween Lithuania!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

AFAP

The title of this post is AFAP. What does that mean you might ask? Well, it is an acronym I invented myself. It means As Fast As Possible or in acronym terms AFAP. It has a nice ring to it eh? Well, everything I did to lead up to this vacation was very AFAP. Vacations are a time when most people take a minute to relax and just go with the flow, or at least that is what my mom always taught me. Well, never in my whole life has a vacation been more of a stressor to me than this one. While I was preparing for it, and while I was on it, I didn’t feel that relaxation factor. I guess that is what happens when you are in charge of five girls, have a to-do list a mile long and no time to do anything. Here’s the story:

The Friday we were leaving, I woke up with a time blocked schedule of things I had to get done.  The schedule went as follows- Wake up at seven, take a shower and get Halloweenafied, start packing, study for my test for one hour, take my math test for one hour and then help with the Halloween party for about three hours and get everything all ready before class starts at 3:30. I even told Josh all about it so he could double check my planning. I woke up with plenty of time to get everything going and completed… Well at least that is what I thought. Of course something had to go wrong.

Right after I woke up, I get a call from Dima urgently saying that we needed to go to the embassy and get our visa’s right away. We had been approaching our 90 day mark, and that is when you need to get a visa. If you don’t, you have to pay extra fees or you could get deported. Apparently, our official 90 day mark fell on a day where we would be on our trip, so we had to go get our visa right then. The main issue with this was that not everyone lives in the apartment. Rosie, Rachel and Hannah all live in host families, and it is quite a challenge to round them all up on such short notice. I jump out of bed and call all the girls telling them to come over AFAP ( so catchy, am I right?) to bring me their passports and fill out the visa application. I didn’t really have much luck with them though. They both told me the soonest they could get over would be in about an hour give or take. So, I hurried and jumped in the shower to try and get ready. While I am in the shower, Dima (local coordinator) skyped me again. I get out and while I am in a towel talk to him. (No fear, it was only on voice and he couldn’t see me thank heavens.) He told me he was on the way to come pick me up to get my picture taken since I was a big dummy and lost my visa pictures I had taken in America. I got ready ASAF (there it is again), and went to the bus stop to meet Dima.

For those of you that know Dima, you know that his heart is in ILP, his family, and his Mercedes. It was so interesting to me that he pulled up in a Toyota. Apparently, his car was in the shop and he was pretty sad about it. I just laughed the whole drive because he kept on telling me all the reasons why the Toyota was not on the same level as his Mercedes. What a cute and funny man. To get my pictures done, we went to the local grocery store named Norfa. We got my pictures lickety split and even got some snacks for the trip. Then we took the short little drive back to the apartment, Dima loving his Mercedes the whole ride and feeling sad his beloved automobile was in the shop.

When we got back to the apartment, I thought the plan was that I would go with Dima and take all the passports to the embassy to get our visa’s. I was a bit off base with this assumption. Dima wanted all of us to go to the embassy to get our visa’s. I hurried to find all the girls because none of them had any idea that they needed to come with us. Probably the best part of this whole thing was the fact that Rosie was wearing her Halloween costume. Her Halloween costume was pretty special. She was going to be a moth, so she had put a ponytail in the middle of her head and was wearing quite the eye make-up. She had to wear it the whole time we were at the embassy, and I am sure they thought we were complete wierdos. Oh well.

After we were done at the Embassy, we only had about an 45 minutes until school started. This was an issue for me because I hadn’t even done any of the things I was supposed to do. We all hurried AFAP back to the school/ the apartment to start getting the Halloween party into action. My sweet girls knew that I would fail my math class if I missed a test, so they said they would be able to do the set up while I took my test. Bless them.

When I finally got to the school it looked really darling. Even though my morning was crazy, the Halloween party made me so happy. It brought me all the way back to my China days where we did our haunted house and parties and all of my cute china babies were dressed up. I just think that Halloween is such a fun holiday for children. Even though everything was done AFAP, it was worth it to make our little Lithuania Babies happy.

Happy Halloween Lithuania!

XO Mikele

The Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum is absolutely incredible. If you are in Stockholm, YOU HAVE TO SEE IT. It was easily my favorite part of the trip. This ship is the only 17th century ship that we still have preserved. It is still 98% original and it was as amazing as the story behind it.  Here's  the story.

The Vasa was a Swedish warship built all the way back in 1626. The King commissioned the ship to be built during a war with the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania.The commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania had captured their flagship and the Swedish King was not going to let that embarrassment go unnoticed. Obviously, he had to build something bigger and better to remind them who was boss.  You see,  back in those days, Sweden was known as a great naval power and the King wanted to keep it that way. The Vasa was meant to be a symbol of the Swedes power and wealth as well as a reminder they were a force to be reckoned with.

It took 1,000 oak tress to build this bad boy. It was 55 meters tall (180 ft.) and 63 meters (207 ft.) long.  It was painted in the most vibrant reds, yellows, greens, blues and golds. There were hundreds of carvings all around the boat. Not only was the boat beautiful, but it was made to frighten the enemy. At this point there were only about three other ships in existence that had two cannon decks. Of course this ship had to have the best of the best so, two cannon decks were created with 32 cannons each. Twice the firepower meant twice the threat... Or at least that is what the Swedish King thought. Turns out that the most intimidating feature about the Vasa was also what caused it's downfall.

I don't know much about building boats, but I do know one thing. It is harder than it looks. Just like with constructing a house, specific weights and dimensions need to be followed or the boat will sink. That is what happened to the Vasa. The architects kept the same dimensions for the boat even though they added another whole firing deck. This made the boat very top heavy. The architects figured it out fairly early in the construction of the Ship, but they were on such a time crunch from the king that they couldn't go back and fix the ship. The King had been pretty impatient on the construction of the ship. Ships like the Vasa normally took about four years to construct. The King gave them two.  He simply couldn't wait for the reveal of his great ship. Well I guess the jokes on him, because like I said before, this ship went down.

On the day of the ships launch, the King invited everyone to come. Nobles and ambassadors from all around were invited to see the launch of the great Vasa. When the Ship left the shore the 350 guests cheered and the 250 forced ship laborers went to work manning the boat. It was traditional back in those days to shoot off a canon as you left the harbor. This one cannoned salute wasn't good enough for our Swedish king. The king needed something bigger and better. He told them he wanted all 64 cannons to salute them as they left the harbor. The cannons were shot as the ship was leaving the harbor. Once the ship was outside of the bay, the wind started picking up. This is very bad news for a top heavy ship with all 64 cannon flaps open. 

Water started coming into the ship once a big gust of wind started tipping it over. Within 45 minutes the lower gun ports were below water and water began rushing into the ship. The cannons were too heavy to move quickly enough, so within 20 minutes, the ship was completely underwater. Most of the crew survived about 30 people died. 

The ship remained preserved so well because it was underwater and oxygen couldn't deteriorate it. It sat underneath the water until they finally had the technology to pull it up so many years later. I can't believe that the mistake of a pompous king hundreds of years ago allowed us to preserve such an amazing piece of history. It also makes me wonder about all the other artifacts under the sea that are just waiting for us to discover and preserve. You literally could be swimming in the bay and a giant old ship could be right underneath you. Think about that next time you swim in the ocean. I just had the most wonderful experience at the Vasa Museum. Go if you can. I know this turned into a whole history lesson on an old boat you never signed up for... but... oh well. This is my blog not yours. 

This is what the ship would have looked like back in it's glory days. They were able to see what colors each carving was painting by the faint flecks of paint still on the wood. 

I love you Vasa Ship. When I go to heaven, I am requesting one of my own. 

XO Mikele

(Disclaimer: I got my information from a tour guide. He could have been pulling my tail the whole time and I wouldn't know the difference. He wore a fancy badge though... So I trust him)