So I learned a few Czech words to add to my vocabulary (one of our tour guides said that it is VERY hard to learn the language, so I'm proud of myself!): Dekuji(thank you) and Cecetjke (or something similar= wait... or something similar). Praha was a wonderful city-
I liked it a lot more than Vienna, but it was really hard because they don't speak a language that I do (luckily, in the touristy parts, they speak English and German). The Czech Republic does have a very central European feel 
to it, unlike Austria... (go figure).Driving up to Praha, we started joking around, saying that it looked a lot like Rhode Island (it really didn't...) and then one of the guys joked that it actually kinda looked like Iraq... So we decided that it must have been a mixture of the two... an illegitimate love-child of them... that was later adopted by the EU. ;-) Also, as we were driving along the countryside, the boys in the back started singing Bohemian Rhapsody (since we were driving through BOHEMIA). It was rather amusing...
On Friday, we had the usual walking city tour, and then we had the afternoon to ourselves. We actually just went back to relax in the hotel
until dinner because it was REALLY cold out... and we weren't quite properly dressed... But we had dinner at the hotel, which was pretty good. A lot of people decided to go on a pub crawl, but I stayed behind with some of the girls and we went out in search of a cafe where we could just hang out and have a fun time. We found this really wonderful little cafe right on the old town square that had a really fun athmosphere.On Saturday, we got to explore the town by ourselves, so we wandered around & shopped along the main streets for most of the morning and then after grabbing a quick wurst off the street (they were HUGE... and CHEAP), we headed up the hill to the castle. We decided to go into the Cathedral, mostly because it was free... and then we went to the edge of the top of the hill & had a gorgeous view of Praha. On our way down from the castle, we stopped in some more shops & tried to go in a different church, but it cost money, so we just sat on the steps outside in a smaller square. It was really pretty. We met up with some other friends for a little
while, and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. We went to dinner at Cafe Louvre, which had traditional Czech food. I had the pork tenderloin marinated in rosemary and garlic with dumplings (stuffed with cubed ham) and boiled cabbage (guess what I didn't eat...???). After that, we headed back to the cafe that we went to on Friday night, except we had heard that there was a rooftop terrace... so we climbed up to the 4th floor (5th floor by American counting...) and had a WONDERFUL view of the main town square as well as of the castle!On the way back to Salzburg, we stopped in a little town called Cesky Krumlov, where we took a city tour through part of the castle & all around their old town. The coolest part was probably when we walked past the area where they have pet... BEARS. Yes. Pet Bears. But they weren't out... probably because it is winter. But they have pet bears. It was really awesome. We got a long time after the tour to wander around the city on our own, so Katherine, Ja, and I walked along, checking out random little shops.
The weekend was quite a blast, but now I have 3 tests this week that I need to study for... :-p
:)
Pictures:
1- Main shopping street leading to the main square
2- The castle from the opposite side of the river
3- Drinks from Friday night
4- View from my hotel room
5- The main side of the river from the bridge while the sun was setting
6- Me in the old town square at Cesky Krumlov
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