Czech us out...In Prague!

I know it's been a couple days, so Here's the Catch up!

Thursday Morning:

Me, Sylvia, Brad, Laura and Josh all set out for an Adventure in the Czech Republic! We were a little unsure when we headed out because the train system is quite confusing and we have Eurail passes, but we aren't sure when we can use them and when we cannot use them! Luckily, our train trip went more smoothly than we could have planned it in a million years--We had someone watching over us!

View from the Train

We made it to Prague in only 3 hours from Leipzig, somewhere around 4:00. We put our stuff up in the hostel and got settled. The lady from our hostel was way over-enthusiastic, but incredibly sweet! She gave us maps and directions all around the city, not to mention our hostel was one of the safest places I've ever been!

We made it!

She directed us to a local restaurant for dinner, which had best (and cheapest) food ever!

This is known as Chicken Cake...The Czech translations were a little off

After dinner we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves so we decided to explore a nearby park! We had lots of fun playing on their version of playgrounds, which are more like workout machines with sand under them, but either way it was a wonderful evening!

The girls in the Park

We were Pretty Exhausted from Traveling, so we turned in quite early. I'm pretty sure I was asleep before 10, which must be a record! It was a fun first day and we need some sleep for the days to come!

Friday:
Our Hostel lady brought us breakfast of Stracciatella (cookies and cream) yoguhrt and bread with Tea and coffee!

With full bellies we headed off to the Old Town Square, where we planned to meet for a FREE tour of PRAGUE! Our Tour guide's name was Stef and this was her first week working tours, but she was hilarious, and a great guide! Very knowledgeable.

Stef always looked like she was dancing when she talked

Second Breakfast

We started off learning about the Old Town Square. There were rivalries in the Churches in the square, so there are several surrounding it. The weekend we were there, the square was hosting some sort of folk music festival from several European countries. Quite entertaining.

One of the Churches in old Town Square

The Best Part of the Old Town Square, and the First stop on our tour!
The Astronomical Clock!
formed with Zodiac signs, and other mystical designs, it predicted time date, moon phases and much more!
It puts on a show, every hour, a statue rings a bell and the 12 apostles appear
it's Quite funny, because everyone runs across the town square to see this on the hour, but the performance is very small, and almost comical
Definitely my favorite part!

After the old town square, We obviously had to move into the New town Square! It was the largest square in Europe! In the new town, there were quite a few modern shopping areas, but also what is called the Powder Tower, where in the War, Gunpowder was stored at the top of the Tower...seems like an easy target for the enemies to me...

Powder Tower

We stopped for Lunch at a popular local spot with incredible food!

BOHEMIAN BAGLES!

We then progressed into the Jewish Quarter of the city, which we revisited on Sunday, so more about that later! it was really a neat area though!

The Spanish Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter...Those two don't quite match

After the Jewish Quarter we began to wind down the tour towards the river, where we sat and listened to the rest of Prague's amazing history!

First Sighting of the castle in the distance!

After the tour we decided to head for Charles Bridge and then to the Castle.

Church before crossing Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge
Heres the legend on Charles Bridge, Rub this side of the Statue for Good health

But not this side!
(don't worry, I didn't touch it! We wanted to be extra-careful in Prague)

Next, we took the Long hike up to the Castle! We made a friend along the way

He Scared me and I screamed Ridiculously loud!

STC

The first View from the castle stairs out into the Beautiful city of Prague!

Here is the Cathedral at the Castle, it was stunning!
Another City View from the top

After a LONG day of Walking, the girls opted for some shopping and a little napping in the local park. We grabbed a snack of Fresh Cherries, yum and enjoyed the beautiful day and weather!

The best snack!

We were feeling a tad-bit homesick for the evening so we made an American night out of it! We headed to the Hard Rock Cafe ( A cultural experienc in intself) for a deliciously expensive meal! So worth it.

At the Hard Rock

Our Waiter Appreciated Texans!

Then as a special treat, the girls went to see a showing of HARRY POTTER! I've been waiting months for the release, as were the other girls, and it was worth every penny, or Czech crown anyways.

The Theatre sign

All in All, It was a wonderfully exhausting day! Two more adventure filled days to go!

Love,

Jenny

Only a week and a half left? What??

We were looking at the calendar today and realized how quickly the time has flown! It is amazing how what was once such a foreign place has now become sort of a "home" to the 16 students studying here. Even though we don't speak the language, we have developed a strange familiarity with the city of Leipzig. I may be speaking for myself here, but this city will definitely be missed!

Our first night in Leipzig. Hard to believe this was only 2 1/2 weeks ago!

One thing that is really different from home is the service here! At home, service is fast and efficient, and the server brings your bill as soon as you are done eating. Waiters and waitresses are paid differently here, and aren't as concerned with turning tables as people are in America. Service is very relaxed, to say the least, and you have to practically hunt your waiter or waitress down before you can pay!  Last night at the Safari restaurant, I think our waiter just plain forgot that we were even there... I went inside to find him and he helped us right away.

Here's a little German lesson for you:

"Zahlen bitte" (zah-lin bita) means "may I pay?"

Today was a pretty average day! Our group is exhausted. We're learning so much, inside and outside of the educational setting, that our brains are all on overload. We worked in our teams again today and will meet tomorrow morning to begin preparing our final presentation to the Leipzig Eagles team. For those of you who haven't been following, we're working on a marketing project to increase awareness of the women's professional basketball team, the Leipzig Eagles. We're working on totally re-vamping their image. It has been a huge task so far, but we're having a lot of fun and learning so much!

Follow the Eagles on Twitter! Search for LeipzigEagles.

You can also find us on Facebook and become a fan. (Do it if you're cool.)

Tonight was group karaoke night, and we had a blast! The singing wasn't the greatest quality, but it was definitely an A for enthusiasm.

Brad started off the evening with Elton John's "Rocket Man" (The hat was for inspiration.)

"Sweet Home Alabama"

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Typical Karaoke! Gotta love it.

(I couldn't resist posting this picture...Jenny's face is hilarious!)

Tomorrow, after our group meeting, we will all go on our first free travel weekend! Our group is splitting up and going to several different places. Students will be traveling to Paris, London, Munich, Denmark, and Prague (that's us!). So check back for updates on Sunday!

And tonight I have to give a shout out to our youngest faithful follower that I'm aware of.

Thanks to Brooke Kehl for keeping up with us! Miss you, friend. :)

Pray for no rain this weekend...seriously,

Sylvia

Put on your Adventure hat

The past two days have included many great adventures around Leipzig!

Yesterday was a good work day for all of our teams. We had time both in the morning and all afternoon to get some things accomplished for our project. The clock is starting to tick on our project so we all made time lines for the next two weeks!

For lunch, Sylvia and I had our first adventure. After the Hong Kong Bistro incident, we were both a little hesitant to try Asian food again, but we decided to try out the Vietnamese Asia Bistro. The menu was almost impossible to read and the lady cooked the food on a tiny grill in front of us, but this adventure definitely payed off! It was AMAZING, and we will return frequently I'm sure!

After a hard day's work, we decided to attend a local Bach Concert, outside the ThomasKirche (The Church where Bach worked), in the City Center. Despite bouts of rain, we enjoyed an amazing concert while sipping some coffee and hot chocolate, and Eating the world's most amazing chocolate cake from the Bachstueb'l, a nearby cafe.

cappuccino

Laura's Amazing Apple Streusel

After the concert we adventured in search of the student life or a local band. We went to a recommended local hangout, but it appeared that there was a Gothic concert going on, so we opted for another option. We found a restaurant out in the middle of a Huge park, called the Glas Haus. We ordered our new favorite German snack, Pommes!

Eating our Pommes!

Today has been a whole new adventure! It was another big workday for the groups. My group went on a long search to find the city hall. This is what we found first...

This is the Court house, not quite town hall, but we were getting warmer...

This is a Fox we saw in a parking lot on our quest for the Townhall! Crazy!
Finally, we found it

Once there, my group experienced the language barrier in full force today. We were trying to figure out how to get a permit for the Eagles to set up an exhibition in the City Center. However, the lady helping us completely misunderstood our request, even though we used mostly German, and she eventually gave us directions to the Eagle's stadium. Defeated we went home, but learned valueable lessons in the differences between German/American culture, and also the difficulty of doing business with a language barrier.

This afternoon, Laura and I stumbled upon a HUGE market that apparantely only comes twice a week! I bought some fresh strawberries and bell peppers and Laura got all the incredients for some amazing fresh pasta, yum!
at 4, our group went for a tour of the DHL corporation. They workers all work from 9PM to 6AM! It was cool to see the incredible technology that allows thousands of packages to be scanned, sorted, and sent out in a matter of 24 hours in many cases. It's brilliant!

Yes, we actually had to wear these awesome vests on our tour

Our final adventure of the day was actually a Safari...to dinner! Some of the boys saw a safari places for dinner, and asked if we were going to take the journey. Well of course we can't say not to an adventure! Grant, Colin, Sterling, and Branson all ordered mystery foods, and liked them. I suspect Grant will be returning again because he LOVED his dinner. Miriam and Lindsey ordered Ostrich meat with vegetables for dinner, and Sylvia and I split Antelope meat! It was amazing.

Antelope Meat, topped with some sweet potatoe fries!

Luckily, dinner included some awesome authentic African Entertainment.
This guy sang Authentic African chants, complete with animal noises, drums, and tribal dances! It was a fun, entertaining dinner!

We hope to keep the adventures coming the next couple days, while working hard on our project. it is going to get harder over the next couple weeks as we approach crunch time, so remember us in your thoughts and prayers!

We appreciate all your comments, prayers, and support!

Love,
Jenny

The hills are alive...Salzburg/Bavaria Day 3 & 4

....with 40 degree weather, pouring rain, and freezing cold ACU students!

SATURDAY, we spent the entire day in Salzburg, Austria. It was a great day! (Minus the cold weather and rain.) Jenny, Rebecca, Laura, and I set out on our little adventure.

Umbrellas were definitely a necessity all day long...

We visited the Festung Hohensalzburg, or the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a huge and gorgeous castle that looks over the entire city of Salzburg.

The view from the top of the castle.

There were lots of artifacts in the museum but there were 3 exhibits that I really liked:

1. These are iron sculpted soldiers in fighting stance. I have never seen a display like this, and it was really cool!

2. An old ceramic oven. The colors were so vivid.

3. A flashback to the old days - an ancient bassoon! (For those of you who don't know, as nerdy as it may be, I used to play the bassoon in middle school and high school.) Seeing this made me miss playing!

After the castle, we went to see the nearby Catacombs, located inside a gorgeous cemetery. Each grave was overflowing with colorful flowers and decorated with ornate wrought iron. (We were told that part of the Sound of Music was filmed here, the part where the Von Trapps were hiding from the Nazis.)

One member of our group decided that he would pay to be buried here some day. We'll see how that works out...

Across from the Catacombs was the oldest bakery in Salzburg! It has been in the same place for 800 years, and they still sell huge wheels of bread made with the original recipe.

It was a little bland (to say the least!) but I actually liked it.

Laura and Rebecca eating our huge loaf of bread.

We decided to all split the big loaf, and then we each got an individual sweet raisin bread, which was amazing, and I don't even like raisins. We ate those on the way to the highlight of the trip....THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!

We got our tickets and boarded the bus. Our tour guide was a little crazy, and loved to sing - loud, off key, and occasionally in German. She was fun though, and we had a great time.

This was the start of the tour. Can you tell we're excited?

Here is a list of all of the sights we saw:

- The gazebo where Liesl and Rolf kiss.

- The front of the house, including the long yellow wall Maria walks along as she is singing "I have Confidence."

- The lake the children and Maria fall into.

- The house the director wanted to use as the Von Trapp house, but wasn't permitted to.

- The trees the children hang out of along the road as their father returns with the Baroness.

- The church where they married in the movie.

- The church where they were actually married.

- The abbey.

- Mountains used in the movie.

- The Maribel Gardens, where the children and Maria ran and sang.

It was a four hour tour, and worth every euro we spent. In addition to all of the movie landmarks, we saw some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery we've seen yet. Can you see how blue the water is? And we were dry and warm, which was a blessing that rainy day!

After the tour, we hurried back just in time to see the Domkirche. It was so ornate, and probably my favorite church I've seen so far. The ceilings were incredible.

Exhausted, we piled back onto the bus and headed back to Shönau, where we stayed in Bavaria. We ate a delicious (but expensive) dinner of Cordon Bleu, and then headed for bed. What a day!

SUNDAY:

We got up early and boarded the bus back to Leipzig at 8:30. (Ok so its not that early, but give us a break - we're college students!) Professor Winegeart and Miriam arranged for us to stop at Dachau, one of the German concentration camps during the Holocaust. I guess excited isn't exactly the right word, but I was very interested in seeing the camp. I'm so glad that we were able to make this stop.

The front gate reads "Work will set you free." 

The bunkhouses where prisoners slept. They also each got a locker for personal possessions. I'm not sure if each family was awarded one, or if it was one per person, but it was unreal to actually realize how little these people had.

The restrooms inside of the bunkers.

I can hardly even look at this picture. Approximately 206,000 Jews were housed in the Dachau concentration camp over a 12 year span, during which there were over 31,000 deaths of prisoners. This is the oven where most of those bodies were burned.

It was an unforgettable trip, and I'm sure that all of the students will continue to process their thoughts about it over the next few weeks.

We got back to Salzburg at about 6:30 that night. We were all tired, but met at 9:00 for a devo in the Winegeart's apartment. It was so great to be able to get together and reflect on our day at the concentration camp. One of the guys in our group brought up a very profound point during our discussion. He spoke about Jesus not only dying on the cross for us, but for the guards of Dachau as well....WOW. That got me! Professor Winegeart led us in a great devo, and we spent some time in prayer together and shared communion. It is definitely times like this that will make this trip so memorable.

Thank you all for your comments! That is what keeps us going. :)

Dreams really do come true....

Miss you all so much,

Sylvia