you have to know...

this is why i'll be missing BCN:

C/Asturias9 =)

CZECH it out!

Prague!

they say that it is..
one of the most visited cities in Europe
one of the most beautiful cities in Europe
¿Que piensas?

We arrived and it was gloomy outside, so then we left our hostel and started walking around. We made it 15 minutes down the road before it started POURING sheets and sheets of rain on us, without umbrellas, and wearing sandals. Barcelona would've been jealous because of the drought and all. So, the rain forced us into this cute little restaurant/cafe where we all warmed up with some soup (CHEAP goulash!) and waited it out. It rained the majority of the time, except for a few solid hours of sunshine, you'll see the fotos.

There was a huge language barrier here as well, I've never really heard anything like Czech, and we surprisingly found a few people who spoke zero english, so that was difficult for us. Czech cuisine isn't super distinct, but mostly just MEAT MEAT MEAT.. lamb and pork and the knees of certain animals, I don't know really, I mostly just stuck to pizza, sandwhiches, soup.

On our last day, we were so exhausted from climbing castles and circling the city, we found a mexican restaurant with 2 for 1 cocktails and AWESOME food. REAL salsa and refried beans and oh my it was so delicious. We entered at 5pm still light outside, and didn't realized how long we'd been in there until we left at 10pm and it was night! Either way, it was a nice warm environement filled with english speakers....and for 5 hrs of drinks and food... it was SO INEXPENSIVE! and for the most part, the city was very inexpensive compared to Munich, Barcelona and Paris anyways.

1 thing to note:
We were walking through a really touristy area and this woman jumped in between all of us and asked if we were American. And then she just started asking us how to change her flight because she needed to get to London and get out of Prague because she can't handle all the commies... she said she came from Russia and she hated it and now the Czech is just full of these damn commies and they are giving her the "heebie jeebies." We didn't really know what to say to her I mean, it isn't communist, and we didn't get the feeling of a commie country at all. So then we just sort of laughed to ourselves because she just didn't stop even after we told her we were visiters and she's like well where do you think the Delta Airlines office is, how can I call them. We gave her pretty good advice to go to the airport or use her hotel phone, but forgetting she so kindly reminded us, COMMIES. hahaha. it was pretty entertaining. I wish we would've directed her to the Communism Museum or at least mentioned it. Anyways...I'm sure she is safely back in her middle america commie-free home now. So now...

Here are some fotos and commentary, in no particular order...

streets of Praha

Surprisingly, the streets here were more cobble-stoney then Rome. Adam had bruised feet at the end of the trip and converse weren't an awesome decision on my part. It's nice to be back in my flip flops in BCN now...

Franz Kafka Museum. There is also a slightly more vulgar picture, but this will suffice...just use your imagination.

On the sunny day, we walked up a huge hill and found this secluded beer garden overlooking the city and the river.. There was a fun playground for kids. I'm telling you, Europe knows how to make 'em!

John Lennon graffiti wall devoted to peace. There are some pretty amazing stuff, mostly just people writing "peace and love" and "johnny and kayla were here." Either way it was this secret little wall hidden under some trees in a cool part of town under the Charles bridge. My favorite personal message was: "i love birds and trees and wales and my family."

Walking down the Charles bridge during "magic hour" and beautiful Praha in the back

So we did get some sunshine. And we needed an excuse to stop walking and rest our swollen feet. SO we rented a paddle boat! we got to tool around the Danube for an hourish. It was really awesome and we played chicken with other boats and freaked people out.

YA!

Pretty Pretty, Charles bridge and a little put put boat passin by

Adam and I on the paddle boat

On our walk up to the Prague castle, a lot of the building had plants growin all over it.

This is an astronomical clock. I kept calling it the astrological clock. We couldn't understand why everyone was standing there for 30 minutes waiting for nothing really. It made a noise at the hour, but I don't think I saw it move. Its neat looking. But why everyone was gawking.. who knows...

Communism Memorial. Very unique

The Jewish Synagogue. It looks like Aladdin's palace eh? We were waiting to see him come out on the balcony and greet us. Well we didn't get to see the inside even though the pictures looked equally amazing. But it was closed BOTH times we went, but we heard they were charging almost 15 euro to get in.. can they do that??

the 2 non-Jews posing in front of the synagogue

Hey Prague!

Well honestly, I am happy it rained. I've never seen such an incredible rainbow.. I mean TWO rainbows!

View of Prague from the castle, post rainstorm

AWwwww...Doesn't it just want to make you throw up? Well, here's a ouple picture for the parents. Adam's hair is getting obnoxiously long and curly. BUT don't worry, it'll be dredded in a couple weeks...

Thanks M and D for another awesome trip.. next up: Lisbon, Portugal!

a treat for ya'll

Ross and Adam (feat. Alex)...performing their version of:


Touch My Body (original: Mariah Carey)



"I know that you've been waiting for me, I'm waiting too
In my imagination I'd be all up on you
I know you got that fever for me 102
And boy I know I feel the same my temperature's through the roof

If there's a camera up in here, Then it's gonna leave with me when I do (I do)
If there's a camera up in here, Then I'd best not catch this flick on YouTube (YouTube)
'Cause if you run your mouth and brag about this secret rendezvous
I will hunt you down
'Cause they be all up in my business, Like a Wendy interview
But this is private, Between you and I"

I DARE YOU TO CLICK HERE!!

Ya es Primavera

Aiiii...it's finally spring time in the BCN and we have had some pretty consistent spring weather too! I have finally started wearing sandals and dresses again and wake up with a smile every day that the sun is out, and beckoning me to come play.... so when I'm not in class, I am playing in the sun. This is what I usually am doing...

BICING- this is a public, bike membership system that allows the sharing of city owned bikes through a card that you swipe at a station, collect a bike, go anywhere you want in the city, and when you are finished riding, drop it off at any other station with open spaces. Membership costs 24 Euro a year, SUPER CHEAP, plus I haven't had to take the metro anywhere (in the summer, the underground is unbearably hot and humid), which is way awesome because there is a bicing station in front of my house and in front of school, gracias a Dios!

PICNICING- There is an awesome park in the city called Ciutadella. It is huge and green and offers many grassy knolls to relax on as well as trees for shade and trees to climb. We have had a lot of May birthdays in our group of friends, so we have been picnic'in quite a bit. It is especially nice when Adam and my friend Derek bring their guitars and we relax, eat chorizo sandwhiches and watch this one naked guy pass us every hour or so. In the park there is also a lake where you can rent row boats and put-put around, a nice fountain to admire (under construction, what isn't in the city?) and a mammoth statue where you can find all the tourists, a zoo, an arboretum and lots more. It's a very whimsical park with diverse groups of people and is just a 15 min bike ride from home, downhill... again, gracias a Dios.

BEACH ing- not much to say here...except we cant take BICING here because the stations are always full on good days. I also don't have fotos because everyone tans nude... and my friends don't want to stumble upon their parts on my blog. sabeis?

TERRACE ing- A few of my friends are lucky enough to have a terraza on top of their apartment buildings.. this means that the roof, is a terrace shared by all the habitants of the apt edificio, free for anyone to do anything. Recently we have been utilizing this a causa de the beautiful weather, so sometimes we do our picnicing/pot lucking up there and sometimes it's just an excuse to be outside, play some music, watch the sunset (la puesta del sol) and have a drink with our friends.

PLAZA ing- Barcelona is the best. Since a lot of us are spending our last amounts of money on travel, we, a veces, don't like to go out to bars... so instead we hunt down happenin' plazas where we can drink 52 cent beers with a bunch of Catalans... some plazas have playgrounds and toys, others just have a good ambiance (buen rollo we spaniards would say) so especially with the summer weather creepin in, the evenings are so nice to spend outside. So, we do!

that's it for now, just a quick update on my life... here are a few more things that may interest you too...
-I am finished with school May 20th (minus one test on June 11)
-I have a 20 pg and 10 pg research paper to write before then, plus a class presentation, and 3 other smaller essays (fáciles)
-I leave for Prague (Czech Republic) on May 16th for 4 days
-I am going to the Primavera Sound Festival on May 30th in BCN, headlined by CAT POWER (!!!) and the Swell Season (if you haven't seen the movie ONCE yet, you MUST, academy award best song)
-My friend Hannah (from home) comes to visit on May 27th for 5 days
-I leave for Lisbon, Portugal on June 1st with my friend Hannah for 3 days
-I am planning one more trip in June.... possibly to: Spanish islands of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, or to San Sebastian (northern Spain) or maybe somewhere in southern Spain

AND LASTLY:
I will be home (northern California) for: AMERCIA'S BIRTHDAY!!!! I will probably have a flight around June 30th so I will see you all in less the 2 months =)
In the words of Cameron: "America needs love too, she's all like, hey, I miss Karli, Spain quit being greedy"

Enjoy some spring time fotos until then, and you can expect another blog when I return from Prague!

deja and karli, having a tree party

view of the park from our tree

View of Barcelona from Ross' terrace

Here's one for the fridge, climbing some more trees with Adam

BICING.. that top gun song was definitely playing in my head

pot luck on the terrace for Derek's bday

picnic in the park

terrace, again

park, again.

deja-vu at the beach, not sure about her clothing choice

Happy 21st Birthday!

Yeeeeeah..
So I turned 21 in Spain, not too much excitement because the celebrations were a typical night in Barcelona except that all of my younger friends could be there too!

So..I needed there to be some kind of climactic something to fill the void of the usual, "FINALLY I'M 21 AND I DONT HAVE TO BE SOME 26 YEAR OLD FROM THE MIDDLE OF MINNESOTA," stoked about finally having another important use for your real I.D. feeling.

Something I've always wanted to do and almost accomplished for my 18th birthday, was skydiving..So we got a group together to do it! I'm even happier I waited because instead of driving to Lodi or some cow town outside Sacramento, we got to jump between the coast and the Spanish/French Pyrenees, how awesome is that?

There's no way to put into words the feeling of it all. My emotions of excitement, anticipation and nervousness were all having a huge battle inside every part of my body. We got there and I expected some long training videos, a bunch of awful waiting time before the jump. But once we paid, we were brought to a white board showing the order of events from when you jump to when you land, we got our harnesses strapped on, one more review with our tandem coach and within 30 minutes we were walking to the plane!

I was scared out of my mind the second before we fell, especially because I had to watch Adam go first and plummet to the earth. So we jumped, flipped turned a little and once I was oriented with up and down, I was overcome with happiness and a feeling of liberation. I forgot to breathe and think and all that, I was just flying through the clouds and soaring over the Mediterranean. They only thing I did think was if the chute didn't go up, I was too high to care. High, literally on adrenaline. Same adrenaline that kept me going for 8 hours later, my cheeks are sore from smiling, as are my abs and some other random parts of my body (??) Regardless, this was the most incredible thing I've ever done, EVER EVER EVER EVER. The second I got to the ground I was ready to do it again, although my brain probably couldnt've handled all the seratonine release.

My tandem guy was awesome too, he is from Belgium, asked if it was my first jump, he said it was his first also.. all that stuff and he made me feel extremely comfortable. At first he probably thought I was such a weirdo, when you forget to think and you just react, it's interesting to see how you handle it... for me, the only things I could say was "OH MY GOD" "THIS IS SO SICK," other adjectives like "TIGHT" and a few other choice words. But then on our way out, he asked to friend us on the internet, so now Laurent and I are facebook friends for life.

Alright, so without further adue (I've been away from english too long, I forget how to spell and speak) I present you with the video, which was a present from Adam and the group of friends that I went with.. They all chipped in to buy it for me and I am so grateful because I will forever relive that experience and all of you can just wait, watch and see if you too get sweaty palms and volcano cheeks everytime like me, cuz it is FREEEEAKY!

Enjoy, and happy birthday to me!
P.S. Thanks m and d!
P.P.S. We jumped from 13,000 feet. yiiikes!