Relaxation is much appreciated!

So this past weekend, was much needed. We had Fall Break and therefore didn't have school on Thursday and Friday (my two busiest days!!) So for the first time on a big holiday, I decided to stay in the country and take a little more of a relaxed feel of vacation... and also cheaper :) So, me and my friend Stephen, who lives south of Prague, went to visit some of his friends down in the city of Ceske Budejovice. This town is famous for their beer.... Budweiser. The Czech beer was actually the original Budsweiser until someone stole the name and put it on crappy American beer. So we relaxed with some friends there for two days and saw some sights and then me and Stephen travelled to Plzen (which is also where the famous name of Pilsner beer comes from). So maybe we saw some very historic and important places in Czech Republic. It was fun. The cities were very beautiful and there was so much to see. And there was a lot of relaxing to be had. We walked around the cities, saw some of the important sights of the town, went to a museum, participated in the holiday festivities of the town.

Here's a quick shot of the fountain in the center of the awesome square in ceske budejovice.

From the top of the grand tower overlooking Ceske Budejovice and all it's glory. That's the square. It's a lot prettier than my town. It's a college town and lots of college age students. It was way cool to see people that were around my age, but i liked it!! :)

That' Mira, Me and Stephen just before the square in Ceske Budejovice. It's at nighttime if you can tell. Mira was the dude that showed us aroud and showed us a good time. He really treated us like it was his home! It was awesome. It always is better if you have someone that knows the town to show you around :)

This is the restaurant that we went to in the evening. It's supposd to be one of the most happenin restaurant/pubs. We had to make reservations. Translation... "Crazy Goose".

We stayed in a hostel type place in Plzen, but unfortunately, they weren't English speaking at all :( So I was lucky enough to get us a room and understand when we were supposed to leave. But when we got to the room, there was a small problem. The fridge had leaked a large puddle of water on the ground. Stephen insisted that i tell the lady about it. Do i know the word for "puddle"? of course not. And at the time, I had forgotten the word for fridge. :) So it was fun, with me trying to explain to the lady that "there is water on the ground. It comes from the machine where you put food. The machine where you have cold drinks." Wow, it was horrible, but she finially understood and came upstairs. But perhaps that was worse. She brought wtih her some kind of rubber towel. :) And for 5 minutes was sloshing around the water on the wooden floor. We were just standing there watching and it was really awkward. And then she turns to me and says "I'll lock up. Leave." And so we returned later that night to see maybe half of the water soaked up, and to also see the used rubber town set on one of our drawers :) Ahh, the beauties of a Czech hostel. There are reasons when it only cost $7 a night. Aha, we see a shower. so i go and ask her if they have any towels. She responds very frankly "No, we're not a hotel!" AHa, ok, thanks. :) It was a fun time. Really super trip! I'm looking forward to my next holiday already :) Here's some pictures from Plzen :

This is us in the square in Plzen. There's a really cool church in the middle of it, but that's about it. Not as cool as in Budejovice.

Um... so we found this sign on our tour. Apparently at first glance, it's apparent that you can't have pipes or candles :) But when you get closer, the literal translation is a bit more clear... "Forbidden Smoking and Manipulation with Fire". That's good to know, huh? :)

This is me and Stephen just enjoying our free night relaxing in a local pub talkin it up and enjoying the fresh homegrown goods of Plzen

This is my pride and joy. The first place I have ever seen to have my name embroidered in the stars! :) wow!