Sledding in Town

Back in Sverige! After many weeks travelling from place to place I have finally returned to where I'm 'studying'. This was actually one of the first times I saw snow in Lund and I decided to go sledding with two of my friends, Mel and Dorina (in the picture with me). It was quite a nice afternoon and I was surprised to find these hills in Lund! There were quite a lot of people out this afternoon but we only stayed for about two hours because it was cold. On one of the last sled runs Mel took some video footage on my camera and as luck would have it, I took quite a gracefull fall out of my sled and down the hill....ask me if you want to see the video!

Hamburg

So the final part of my January journey back to Lund took me through Hamburg. In Hamburg I met up with my friend Heidi who I knew from Longhorn Band back at the University of Texas. We had a wonderful weekend together visiting the Grosse Alster, the big lake seen in the picture above, as well as the Hamburger Hafen (harbor area). It was really nice to meet up with a friend from uni as it was the first person I have seen from Texas since coming to study in Sweden. The second night I was there, Heidi and I went out to the harbor and had a nice dinner at a restaurant that was floating on the water.....good that we didnt have any alchoholic beverages until later as it was strange enough to be constantly moving up and down on the water :-) That evening was a fantastic party at her apartment that lasted until 5 in the morning but due to my travel exhaustion I actually took a nice nap between 2 and 4 so I missed some of the action....oh well. The last day we took it easy. I went shopping for alcohol (significantly cheaper than in Sweden) and chocolate while Heidi actually bought groceries. We cleaned up the apartment and if I remember right just chilled and watched a film. Monday morning was the end of my winter travels as I got on the train back to Lund. The journey altogether was incredible but at the same time I was really happy to get back home to the comfortable surroundings of Lund :-)

Berlin

Gruesse aus Berlin! After arriving at Berlin Ostbahnhof I managed to easily find my way to the Odyssee Hostel I had booked for three nights. When I first checked in I was in a room with 7 other people and the only empty security locker was broken, so it was back to checkin and room change! That night I stayed in a room with 2 girls and 3 smelly boys....not so much fun. Fortunately at breakfast I met a nice Australian girl, Edwina and we hit it off well from the start and I ended up spending the rest of my Berlin stay travelling with her. I changed rooms again that night and this was one excellent! During the day we did this Free-Tour Berlin but I was quite disappointed at the very American oriented tour. We ditched as soon as they tried to take us to Schlotsky's for lunch....that just wasn't going to happen. Instead we enjoyed a nice Currywurst and Jever beer at a kiosk...much better choice I must say. I saw many things that day including the German Reichstag seen in the two pictures, Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish Museum, Brandenburger Tor and Alexander Platz. I was amazed to find that the majority of these touristy places were actually in the former East Berlin. It is a unique city with essentially two city centers so much new architecture. Its amazing to see how much development has taken place in this city in the last decade. To the right is me at the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Its even possible to see the TV tower at Alexander Platz in the background. Amazingly enough the weather was quite nice and it was only January!

Dresden

On my way from Prague to Berlin, I made a stop in Dresden since the trains connecting these two cities go every two hours. I arrived around noon and put my luggage in one of those lockers at the train station before heading out into the city. While putting up my luggage I managed to find some Americans from Dallas...they were nice and I walked around with them for a little while but soon managed to wander off on my own again. For some reason so many of the Americans I have met while here in Europe exactly match the somewhat negative stereotype Europeans have of Americans, which is sad because I seldom find those types in the US. At any rate the day was beautiful and I was happy to find out that the newly restored Frauen Kirche was open for viewing. I paid my 5 Euro student discout price and walked all the way to the top and had the beautiful outlook over Dresden seen in the picture. I wandered around the old town some, though sadly there isn't so much left of it due to the terrible bombings in World War II, and sat down at a nice little cafe for a latte macchiato :-) Since I still wanted to make it to Berlin that evening I caught the early evening train and headed to Berlin Ostbahnhof.

Lovely Day in Eastern Europe

I really love these photos! Gleb took this one on the left after we had just left the castle and were headed off to explore more of Prague. On the right is a photo I took just as the sun was setting over the Vlatava River running right through the town center. After all those days of looking at some of Europe's oldest buildings, we came across the 'dancing house' below. It's supposed to be symbolic of Fred Estaire and Ginger Rogers. I must say, its a very nice blend of old and modern in Prague and definately would like to come back and visit in the summer!

Happy 21st in Prague :-)

I don't think I could have asked for anything better on my 21st birthday. Unlike many people back at home, I did not spend it on 6th Street going from bar to bar and taking 21 shots. My day was spent wandering around Prague and taking the occasional break at a bar or cafe to enjoy a nice Czech Budvar or Pilsner :-) Above I am on the famous Carlsbridge where there are many artists and vendors selling their artwork or other crafts. It's one of Europe's oldest stone bridges as stated in my tourist guide.
From the bridge my friend Gleb and I continued to the Prague castle which is where this photo of me with the Czech guard was taken :-) It was funny actually because there were two guards standing at the entrance but this was the only one that people were taking pictures with...poor less good looking other guard.
After a long day of walking around we went to this excellent Czech restaurant called Pivoarský Dům, where the wait staff also spoke Russian. This ended up being entirely practical as Gleb is fluent in Russian....he was also there the night before and had left one of the waitresses a good tip which might have had something to do with the fact that on this very busy Saturday night we were still able to get a table and be served food (these people that came in right after us were told that they are no longer serving food...most likely just an excuse for having been way backed up on food orders). After nearly an hour we got our food and it was sooo good! The beer is brewed right at the restaurant and I by the end of the evening I had sampled the lager and the mixed lager/dunkel. In the picture you can see my mixed lager/dunkel and Gleb had the dunkel.
To finish off the evening we caught the metro to the State Opera House which had the most beautiful interiors I had ever seen. In fact I spent most of my time looking aroud the theatre and spent less time actually watching the performance of Carmen...granted I have seen that Opera before so it was okay. It was sung in French and subtiled in Czech so was a bit hard to follow! The evening ended with a visit to this cozy bar off the beaten track somewhere between the town center and our hostel where we each had a shot of Sambuca and 1 Litre of Pilsner which is definately one of the best beers I have had. All in all it was a fantastic day and many thanks to Gleb for having been there to celebrate it with me, because wandering around Prague alone would not have been half the fun!

Praha, Česká Republika

THE GOLDEN CITY OF EUROPE

These are two of my favorite picture I took in Prague. The top photo is overlooking the old town and Jewish quarter as well as the Prague Castle where the twin spires of the goregeous Dom St. Veit cathedral can be seen. Below is a photo of the charming cobblestone street leading up to the Dom.