THANKS BABY!!!!

i love you so much. thanks for the present. i know i'm gonna love it. i'm gonna tell everyone that if a package comes not to tell me what it is. i love you so much baby. make sure to wish evan a happy birthday today too. and tomorrow i think i'm going to walk to the army navy store, and then go to the 5 below place for the interview. so if i'm not back by four, keep waiting. it shouldn't take to long. i love you so much. thank you for being the absolutely best girlfriend i could ever ask for. kiss kiss. miss you. love you abigail esther ruby duckor.

12 more days til your birthday!

I ended up staying later tonight than I thought I would, but thats ok cause i don't have class til 3!!! And i got birthday presents for you! DON"T OPEN THEM UNTIL IT IS YOUR ACTUAL BIRTHDAY. ok, you promise?  I hope you are having a good day and keeping busy. Love you with all my heart, kiss kiss, You are the one that I want .

i love you!

i hope you have an amazing day. i can't wait to talk to you again. miss you baby. i'm going to sleep now, its so very hard to sleep without you. can't wait til we can sleep together. love you. kiss kiss.

Good morning good night love

Hey I am so sorry my internet sucks. I love you so much! have fun in your photo shoot!

Happy Thanksgiving!

You look really good in that picture! I miss that sweater. We already ate and everything, sorry I didn't get chance to call you earlier, but I will be online the rest of the night tonight. Love you lots and lots!!!

i miss you

i wanted to show you that i really did shave. and how good i look. love you and miss you a whole lot. happy thanksgiving baby. xoxox kiss kiss

its crazy how soon you'll be home!

i can't believe it. its already thanksgiving in two days! that means its almost the 30th! which means its only 18 days til you come home! thats crazy. thats soooo soon. and i keep putting pressure on my self to be a new man by the time you get home. or at least have a job. and i'm trying. but i just realized how happy i am that its only a couple of weeks now. so make sure you enjoy the rest of the time you have out there. i know you're sick. but you'll get better ok. just make sure you're savoring the last couple of weeks you have there. and try to be happy! i love you soo much. and i miss you sooooooooo much baby. things will be very good in a couple of weeks. i promise. can't wait to talk to you in a little while. love you baby. kiss kiss

Fuck I miss you

I am so close to being home and with you, and I just miss you so much, more than ever before, which  didnt even know was possible. Being sick and home all day hasn't been helping either. Not being busy has just given me way to much time with my thoughts. Now i know a little bit more how you must have been feeling all semester.
My parents left this morning to catch their flight here! I still can't believe that they are coming, and i haven't been able to get excited about it either cause i've been so sick. yuck i hate being sick. and i hate not being with you.
I can't wait to talk to you tonight. I watched the rest of walking dead! I knew she was going to die! But it was still really sad. I didn't want the show to end. You got me hooked

this was my weekend

So Neil got here on Thursday night. We just went to Gusta Pizza and hung out at Andrea's for a little but. Then on Friday we met up early and walked around the leather market. it was pouring rain all day, which made things a little difficult, but kinda fun too. Chris and I got these little leather coin purses in the shape of a cat for Claire and Lauren. And for lunch we went to the food market. Sarah got tripe (sheep stomach)! I tried it. It actually didn't taste that bad, the texture was just to weird for me. Chewy and membraney. We walked around Florence a little bit more and then went to the Uffizzi. It was fun showing neil around. Then we hung out at chris's apartment and dried our socks. And we went to eat at this restaurant called Casalingua it has good italian food for cheap. I got tortellini with a ham and cream sauce. real good. Then we went to Andrea's apartment and hung out and drank. Louis's friend that is studying abroad, Michelle came over too, cause she knows neil. She was cool, I was glad I got to meet her. We were there for a while but then went to a couple clubs and bars. We ended up at this place called Lochness Lounge. Neil really wanted to dance though, so after everybody else went home we went to this other club astor. There was like no one else there, except for a small group of girls dancing and this really really old man that was dacning too! it was so funny, but mostly weird. He had mom jeans on and his "dancing" was mostly him rubbing his crotch and swaying his hips and then flailing his arms around. He then was trying to teach neil how todance which was even funnier. We left pretty soon after we got there. Chris kept asking the DJ to play Telephone, but he never did.
On Saturday we went to Ganzo for brunch, which was ok, not great. The pancakes didnt taste like pancakes. Then we went and climb the duomo, and even though i had done it before it was still amazing. Walking up the stairs reminds me how much history is there. Then after that we went up to Piazza Micheangelo, just in time for sunset since it sets so early now. But it was too cloudy to really see anything. We went it this one church that was almost pitch balck inside. really scary. Then we went back to my apartment and made dinner! Andrea and Sarah came over too. Then we went back to chris's apartment and hung out and watched Easy A. So tired, went to bed, got up to take neil to the train station, went back to sleep, and then made cheesecake!

ok, skratch that

Ok, scratch that. I ended up not going to christina's so i am and will be home the rest of the day. Call whenever is good for you. Love you lot and lots. Right now I am eating dinner with alyssa at home but i will be completely free after that

hey abby

5 o'clock for me? that works i guess. i don't know what i'll be doing. i was hoping you'd write me about your day like you said you were though.

hello

hey im sorry things got complicated. i didnt mean to lead you on that we would be able to talk, i realize that i did. I was trying to say how im looking forward to when we would have time to talk, but not that it would nessesarily be the next time we talked. I think sometimes i lead you on because it is what i really want and i want to give you something to look foward to cause i know it will make you happy. But in a sense i guess that is just lying to you, so i will try not to do that anymore. it makes me so happy to make you happy, it is just selfish of me. tthank you for being understanding and flexible and not being mad though, it means a lot to me. I will be home in the evening tomorrow, want to plan to talk around 11 for me? let me know...

hey baby

sorry i was so upset earlier. i just miss you. i do understand you're busy. i think you just made me feel like you were def. gonna have time. and then i kind of felt like you ditched me. but i had time to calm down, and i gotta just let it be. i hope you're having a good time. stay away from chris' roommates! ; ) and i'm excited for you to leave me a blog. i'm gonna hang out with dan and evan for a bit. i love you baby. and i miss you soo much. i was just excited to tell you i had a dream about you. and you looked soooo good. you were just wearing a tshirt and these black underwear. and you had a tight little body, and it just made me miss you more. i love you love you love you. and i'm not upset with you any more. good night baby. kiss kiss.

i am upset

you know i waited all day to talk to you yesterday as upset as i was, and i understood that you were too tired to talk. so we planned on talking today. and you did tell me you were gonna be eating dinner, but i asked you if you'd be too busy, and you said no, i'll make time for you. i know you're having a busy weekend. but i'm having a shitty weekend at the same time. and i set my alarm for you and made sure i still had nolly's computer and everything. and when i try talking to you, you only say a couple things. and then leave. and tell me you can talk at chris's and then that we should just wait til tomorrow. when i hate waiting til tomorrow. you know how much i hate waiting, and how long my days are. its just starting off, and you already tell me we can't talk. and i know you got company over, but i don't know why no one can ever just wait for a minute. or why you get so nervous holding them up, like they're on a tight schedule. i just can't wait around a computer for you all the time baby. and if i don't then we never end up talking and its very frustrating. i get myself so excited to see you, on these shitty days and then i'm let down. and i'm not trying to make you feel guilty, but you make me feel guilty when it seems like its my fault you have to decide between your friends and me. you know, i didn't know they were gonna be leaving as soon as i was gonna talk to you. you're the one who told me that time. i love you baby. and i understand you have friends too, but i'm not asking for our time to replace theirs. just to find time, or comunicate better. please let me know if you're gonna be able to talk or not tonight.

I just got your letter I just got your letter!

Thank you so much for the letter! I love it! you are such a good writer and artist I love every square inch of the letter. Especially the fingerprint and especially the sazon. I want to put it on everything! We have eachother and we will for the rest of our lives, so who cares about stupid computers right? You are all that i need and you make me so incredibly happy when you tell me that I am all you need. I love you and miss you and cant wait until i can have a longer conversation with you. I'm sorry I have been so busy this weekend, I know how much you've been needing me. Thank you for being so understanding and letting me sleep. I will try to be online around one for you. I hope you are sleeping tight right now, kiss kiss love love love you

i love you

i can't tell you baby, how excited i am for you to come home. i just want it to be now. i feel so much pressure ot do so manythings before you get home. and i know i don't have to feel like that. but i feel like i'm gonna let you down if nothing has changed when you get home. i don't know. i just miss you a lot. and i want to rewind time somehow, and go on that trip with you. i want to hide in your parents suitcases. i want them to surprise me and tell me they got a ticket for me. i just want you. i want you so bad. i want things to just work out baby. i love you. i miss you. kiss kiss baby.

hi!

I'm sorry baby but I am not going to be able to talk at 7. We are going to dinner at that exact time :(. I was hoping you would be on now. But I will back home later tonight. Or at least online. Prob around 2 or3 . I love you so much. Please try to enjoy your day. Leave me a message if you figue out what your are doing today. Love you lots and lots. Kiss kiss times a bilion kjillion.

Hang in there

Hey Baby,

I am so sorry about your computer. i wish there was something i could do for you. It sounds like you will be better offf just getting a completely new computer when you have the money. And then maybe you can get a new ipod with it too! That makes me really sad about all the stuff you lost. I think you should write a letter everyday to the head of the company explaining your situation until they give you your money back. There is no reason it should have died. Who were you in your past life that you deserve all this bad luck?
I will be back here at 7 for me, 1 for you. I think today we are just going to take neil around Florence and then go out to dinner and then hang out in Andrea's apartment and then maybe go to a club or bar. Yesterday we met him at the train station and it was so nice to see him! I am really excited to show him florence. We were all really hungry so we went straight to Gusta pizza. And then we went back to andrea's apartment and hung out there for a little bit. Neil was kinda shy which was weird but maybe he was just tired from traveling all day. Then I came  back here and hung out with Alyssa for a little bit, which actually wasn't too bad. Its funny, I was so worried she was going to be one of those "UAlbany" girls but now I'm realizing that she is really one of those UAlbany guys. Just like Tim and Gene, always having to be right and proving you wrong, always wanting to tell her story but not listen to yours, loud, all she doesn't do is scratch her balls all the time. I can't decide what is worse. I like how I kinda know how you feel when you hang out with them, and I realize how I didn't know at all before.
I love you so much baby and I am seriously considering flying home right now to save you. I'll be your knight in shinning armor now. We will figure it all out, you just got to be patient. Jonathan has a laptop he never uses, I know its not a mac, but maybe you could borrow it for a while... All you can do is stay sane, ok? Hang in there

and on top of all that, i'm still really sick. dan cancelled on playing nerf tonight which is the only thing i was really looking forward to. and then nolly came home and threw out his back, and can't move. and jessie said they're not coming down for thanksgiving. but my moms made tacos. so i guess thats the silver lining right? i'm trying to stay positive. but i'm so mad. i just wanna talk to you. maybe we can talk tomorrow on facebook. around 1 for me? let me know. love you. talk to you soon hopefully.

my computer is dead

i hate my luck so much. and i almost want to cry. i'm so pissed off. i can keep writing you blogs and i'll go on facebook whenever i can. but they said they didn't know how to fix it, but i could send it in for around 300 dollars. and itd be another 700 if its fried. so fuck it all.  i lost pretty much everything. and i can't skype with you. and its not fair and i don't deserve this. and i just want to talk to you. i just want to see you again. i love you baby. and i just want this to be fixed. this isn't fair baby. i love you. i miss you. and i want to be able to talk again. please just leave me posts about everything. tell me about your day and what you do. i hate this baby. its not fair. its not fair. i love you baby. kiss kiss. xoxo

Hi Love

I finished the budapest post! I hope your day is going better than this morning. I am sorry all this crap happens to you. Don't let it get you down though. Everything is going to be alright alright alright. I'm home now. i am going to leave my computer on and put the volume up real loud so call me whenever. I should be up around ten tomorrow. Love you lots and lots. I couldnt stop thinking about you all night. I hope you got food and got to hang out with dan. Miss you wish I could kiss you!

I got your text!

Thank you so much for your text baby. I made me feel a lot better. I think I have been feeling weird, sensitive, angry and emotional these past couple of days cause I strarted a new birth control cause my other one ran out and the hormones are messing me up. Thank you for being there for me, it means a lot. I feel like I am going crazy, and not my self, and is upsetting. I just want to lay in bed and never get up, you know? Ilove you so much. I'll talk to you tonight.

Love, Abby

When I say Buda you say Pest

 Budapest! We caught the bus late Thursday night. Turns out not that many people on the trip, so we each got our own row of seats! I actually slept a little which was a plus. We drove through austria so i got to say danke schon again. The hostel was nice, we had our own big room with comfy beds. it felt realllt homey. And the people working there were nice they gave us two really good restaurant suggestions. The Budapest accent is weird. It sounds like they are not pronouncing all of the words. or that they have a ball in their mouth. First thing we did after checking into our hostel was head to the central market (picture above). Its this huge hall with two stories of stands in it. On the bottom layer was food. Lots of meat, lard, strudel and paprika. On the top is souvenir stuff. Like Russian dolls, beaded things, fur hats, painted eggs. Turns out every store had all the same things, which got old quick. But i brought your super awesome present here. And a cool hat that i think you will like me in.

 This is St. Stephen Basillica that was right by our hostel. It is one of the tallest and oldest church in Pest. Our guide said it was one of the biggest churches in Europe, but when I went inside it didnt seem that big. It is as tall as the famous Budapest Parliament Dome that is a couple of streets away. They made them the same height to send the message of equal power btwn church and state.

 After the market, we went to the bath! This is a picture of the outdoor pool. There were like three pools outside and like 15 small one outside. It was kinda confusing what we were supposed to do cause all the signs were in hungarian. But this naked lady in the locker room saw that we were confused and helped us figure out how to open the locker and stuff. It was so cold outside in our bathing suit and we had to walk across the outdoor pool area to get to the indoor pools. SO we started with the indoor ones. It was relaxing, just sitting in the warm pool. There were a lot of people there though. We went in a suana for a while too. It was really hot and smelt minty and was hard to breath. Then we went to the outdoor pool, which was a lot cooler cause it was dark out and there were jets and a really fast lazy river! You can see it in the picture, that circle in the middle. After the bath we went to a hungarian restaurant. It was a small place and we had to wait a long time for a table. So long that people cheered for us when we got it. But it was worth the wait. I got pork medallions incrusted with a honey dijion sauce that was sooo good. You would have loved it. Also we shared aspargus covered with bacon in a cheese in sauce. We were pretty tired so went right to bed after that.

 The next day we went on the walking tour. Which was a huge group of people but the guide was good, funny. Th is was this weird structure that looked like a turkish castle, and apparently inspired Walt Disney's designs. Budapest used to be two cities, Buda on one side of the Danube river (which runs through germany also), and Pest on the other. They were united when communist Russians took over after WWII. It was interesting seeing the effects a repressive communist rule had on the city, kinda like prague.

 this is a view of the river. You can see the Chain link Bridge which is famous cause its pretty and is the only bridge that was rebuilt in its same location after WWII. After the walking tour we went to the oldest strudel place in Budapest. It was funny cause we werent sure where it was but then when we were on the walking tour we passed this really good smelling place and that turned out to be it! I got a apple strudel and a cheese strudel and they were both really good. We walked around some more, stopped at a market, and through a castle! and decided to go to a different bath and try to get massages. BUT once we had walked all the way over there, which was a far walk, they were closing early, so we couldnt get the messages. But that was ok, cause since we weren't doing that, we had time to go to the fine art museum, which is what i really wanted to do. That was on the other side of town though, and by the time we got there they weren't selling tickets anymore! poop. I was actually really upset about it but tried not to show it. The Museum is right by this famous memorial called heroes square, so we hung out and took pictures there. It looks really cool at night. Everyone was climbing all over it. Sarah and I did too. It was kinda high up though, which was scary, especially getting down from it. The statues were really scary too. The horses looked haunted (see picture). Some kids were climbing all the way to the top of them!

After all that we went back to the hostel and then we walked to the Parliment building, and to this thing called the shoe memorial. We had to cross this really busy street to get there. And I almost got run over. It was really scary. I was shaking afterwards and almost cried. Katie had just crossed, and I thought the next car coming was slowing down, but it must have sped up because next thing i know i hear car brakes squeaking and had to jump back. The car let me pass and then a car that was on the other side of the road waited for the car that almost ran me over to pass it and honked at it for like a minute. Katie gave me a hug though which made me feel better. The shoe memorial is in the picture on the bottom. It was to remember the Jews that were killed on that spot by Nazis when they invaded Budapest. They had them line up along the river, take their shoes off and then shot them and their bodies landed into the river. The memorial is all these life like bronze shoes and it was really sad. Because it made those people, and what happen so real, you know? When you think about it, shoes really show a person's personality and what they were like. Not that the bronzes are exact copies of the ones of those who died, but it still puts a face on the people.

We contiuned walking along the river and checked out the parliament, which is huge, one of the largest in the world. the after that we went to eat at this restaurant that was really classy and modern and delicious. We got Garlic soup with the fried bread called lagos (picture above). SO good but so filling. We had order paprika chicken too though, which is a hungarian specialty, we so full it actually hurt to eat it. but we did. Then we went to the jewish quarter and walked the synagogue there, which is also huge, i wish i had a chance to go inside it. Then we went to this bar called szimpla that neil recommended. it was cool, all underground and grungy. We got shots of palinka, which is a famous hungarian fruit brandy. You can get it in a million different flavors. We got Honey plum, which smelt like babies so i didnt really like it. We didn't stay there too long. We went and got some sleep, woke up and walked around a little. They were busy buying souvenirs but i didnt have any money left so i went inside that huge church and walked around a park, which was nice. Then 13 hr bus ride, lots of movies, and wanting to see you!

synchro spotted

in this video

schedule

this is the best i could do for your schedule. hope i did good. love you baby.

I'm here love you don't forget to sign me up for classes!

i love you baby

i had a really good time talking to you before you left. it felt good. i miss you a whole lot of course. but i hope you're having a good time. and that the bus ride wasn't too bad. i had a good day. me and nolly watched the halloween and the space simulator episodes of community. and then dan came over and we went to look for applications. we got some at that new army place, which was the only place that actually had paper applications! which sucked cuz i hate online ones. but we went all over latham farms and stuff. and there was this amazing limo outside the dollar store that i'm pretty sure madonna was in. because the license plate said 4MADONNA. so obviously it was her. it looked like this but more with more doors i think.

and then we walked into dick's, still trying to see if we could see who was in the car, madonna was playing on their radio in the store. it was really weird. but we walked around for a bit, and then we went to mcdonald's for another mcribb. my second one this week. but they're sooooo good. i might get one again haha. and then dave invited us to play football with him and a bunch of people at the sport's authority parking lot. weird i know. but i was actually a lot of fun. and we plalyed for a couple of hours. so i actually ran. but my legs are killing me now, cuz i wasn't wearing good shoes for it. but it was fun. no one was too competitive or anything. and then i came home and wished i was talking to you. but i gotta get up and do your classes tomorrow. wish me good luck. and i was gonna write you on skype so when you went on you'd see it. but i forgot you are gonna be on marty's name. so i hope you read this. love you baby. hope you're enjoying your self and safe. leave me a message with your plans or when i should expect your call. k. love you soo much. miss you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo

There was once an empty land

there was once an empty land
it was vast, but the life could not last, and plants could barely stand
what few creatures did rome, were sad and alone
and had no place to go
the skies were black and the weather was bad
creatures would leave, never look back, and would remain forever sad
there was an incredible pain
and the land was soaked in constant rain
inhabitants were afraid it would always be this way
it would always be this way
it would always be this way they would say
...
until that day
when they did not feel that hurt
until the arrival of her
now the way the stories go
the land filled with a beautiful glow
a glow that ran for miles and miles
and upon the sad creatures for the first time were smiles and smiles
they were no longer alone, and the land no longer empty
the happiness grew and it was plenty
she made the flowers grow and the plants live
it seemed that she would never stop, she would give and give
the land was nourished
and the people flourished
there was now life in a land once bare
you see because she was every where
everywhere at every time
because you see this was no land, this was my mind.
and baby you're always on my mind.

i had a dream about you

me, you, and a couple other people went to japan for school or something. i can't remember. but we got there and i was so happy that we were there. just because it was somewhere that you've never been. and i was so happy to be able to take you there. and we slept together. and it felt so good to hold you and sleep. but you told me in the middle of the night you got up to go somewhere. somewhere that you knew i wouldn't want you to go. i can't remember what it was. either a club, or something else for school. but you told me you didn't end up going which was nice. but anyway. we were also in japan at the same time as a zombie apocalypse. probably because i watched this show, the walking dead last night. that new one based on the comics. its really good. but put zombies in my dream. but i love you. and miss you. and can't wait to see you again. xoxo

and i love love loved your poem

can we watch this together?

can you believe it?

thats all snow, and its still snowing. a lot.

ever ever ever ever

Baby Baby you make me crazy
How can i be lazy
With you always on my mind
I just want to wake up and find
You on my bed
not in my head.
Get out of there
Its just not fair

I guess you're sleeping
and we won't get to talking
til i come home
dont bother to phone
At latest it will be 11
and then we can pretend we are in heaven
together,
forever,
and ever and ever ever ever ever

thank you

A TON! thats a good one, i was trying to figure that out for a long time. i don't get the joke though. sorry.

AND TOMORROW IS THE TWINS BIRTHDAY!!!! HOW DID I FORGET?!

the bus has wifi, call me whenever

we're heading out.

hey baby, hopefully the bus will have wifi and we can talk. but we're about to head out now. i love you and miss you. wish we could talk. i hope you had a good day. and a safe trip. leave me a message when you get home. or see if you can call me on skype. i should be getting on the bus around 5. leave me a message if you have plans for tonight too. love you baby. kiss kiss.

xena loves you too

oh and i love you!

Look what jessie found for me

http://www.j23sneakers.com/adidas/adidas-basketball-shoes/adidas-js-wings-x-jeremy-scott

can you believe this is what i stumbled upon one second after writing that blog?

baby

i don't know what's wrong with me baby. i don't know if i just don't get enough sleep. or if i really miss you that much. but i don't feel good. i feel tired, but i can't go to sleep. i don't know why. i just can't let my self. i'm afraid to lay down alone. i feel lonely. my emotions and my moods switch back and forth. from feeling really low, to convincing my self that i'm ok. and then i feel better, like i can take on the world, but then the next second i'm back on the bottom. i just want to see your face. i want to talk to you again. i'm afraid to go back home. i feel like i'll be depressed again. i think i'm feeling that when i go home, you'll be going home too. and i'm afraid of how disappointed i'll be when i realize that isn't the truth. i miss you baby. i miss you so much. only with you do i feel complete. or not alone. you know? only with you do i feel like i can complete my goals. and now i just feel like i'm waiting for something. i always feel like i'm waiting for something. thats why its hard for me to go to sleep. i feel like there is something i have to do before i go to sleep. i keep on waiting for something and i don't know what. i'm waiting for someone to hear my music, i'm waiting for things to get better, i'm waiting for me to feel better, i'm waiting for you to come home. thank you for calling me. it means so much. i hope i didn't ruin your day. please don't worry about me too much, i just have to write things to feel better. i love you abigail. i love you. i'm gonna sleep now. kiss kiss. goodnight.

lifes a drag tshirt

love you baby.

i love you so much baby. i love you as much as i hate your internet. sucks cuz i'm actually awake and its almost 7 in the morning. you're probably getting out of class. me and jessie forgot about our laundry at the laundry mat last night and by the time we remembered it was closed. so we had to wake up before they opened. but i don't think i actually got any sleep. thank you for trying to call me. i was up and hoping you would. thanks for the message at least. i'm not sure of my plans yet. play it by ear i guess. i'll leave my skype open. call whenever. let me know you're plans too. k? love you baby. miss you soooooo much. i really need you home soon.

hey hey hey

My internet was still pooped out this morning. I know i said I wasn't goin to call you but i tried to anyway. Hopefully it will be fixed later. I'll let you know. Love you so so so much. Let me know your plans for the day too. You da best.

check your yupchiefgirl email

i sent you part1. hope you like it! love you. miss you a lot. i hope things happen like my story when we see each other again. kiss kiss.

fresh to death

Prague: Day #2

 

So, next day in prague marty and i get up early. have a relly good breakfast at the hostel and then walk more around the famous sites we missed yesterday. This picture is of the Charles bridge again and of a hot air balloon! The white circle in the sky in the picture.

 We walk across the river to the Lennon wall. Which is this wall that people graffiti to commemorate john Lennon after he died and people have kept graffiting it ever since with beatles lyrics and give peace a chance things. Seeing the words "all you need is love" always makes me think of you. We walked to the Old town square again, and were looking for this store marty wanted to go too but never found it.

 Then we went to meet my cousin Michael. To get there we walked through Wenceslas Square. Have you ever heard the song good King Wenceslas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcQYsujAVC0) ? i used to play it on the recorder and love it, so it was cool to be where he was from. Didnt have the exact address of where to meet Michael but we actually did find it in time which was actually really lucky. it was this cool indie coffee shop. He texted me before telling me where he was sitting so it was easy to recognize him. He brought his dog too! The dog was cute, but barked at us, he liked marty a lot. I was worried about it being awkward but it really wasnt. Micheal was really easy to talk to. Im really glad I got to connect with another family member, especially since my family is so small. We didnt meet for that long, and after marty and i went back to the Jewish quarter to meet up with Neil again. We walked up to where this metronome sculpture is.

 It is this huge metronome that ticks back and forth all day. It was a lot creekier than I though it would be up close, and neil said that it breaks all the time. There used to be a huge Lenin statue there, but when communisim fell in Prague, which wasnt that long ago (After WWII Prague was siezed by Russia and was forced to be communist and lived under horrible oppression), they blew up the statue and put this metronome there.

Then we went to these gardens at the Senate House. There was a peacock there! just running around. And a pond and this thing called the dripping wall.

 Im not exactly sure how it got to be there. But it is all these stalagmites but then there are carved faces and animals in it too.

Also there were owls there! Four of them. They were actually really scary and mean looking. They are such mysterious animals, it was so cool and suprsing to see them. Neil had been to the gardens a couple of times and never even realized that they were in there. For dinner we wen to this cute little thai restaurant. I had chicken and pineapple you would have loved it.
After we left neil we did a little shopping, but I didnt get anything.
Then later that night we met up and went to this underground labyrinth bar that was all these tunnels with cut out ares to sit and bars. We drank this stuff called young wine which is wine before its full fermented, tasted like alcoholic grape juice. And we meet up woth neil's friend (her name was briel) and her family that had just flew into prague that day. They were such a nice family, it was fun to talk to them. They are from poughkeepsie and so knew new paltz really well! They bought us beer and pizza too.
After we said bye to briel and her family we were some how still hungrey and wen t back to those fast food stands. I think i just wanted to spend more time with neil, it was hard to say goodbye to him. but at least we are going to see each other again soon.
Then to bed and up early to drive to Berlin!

City #1: Prague!

The first thing we see when we get into Prague at 8 in the morning, after a long, sleepless bus ride where my butt was actually in pain and it was freezing, is this building. The Dancing House! Its by an American architect that I learned about a couple of semesters ago and actually wrote a paper about one of his buildings. This one is supposed to resemble two people dancing, the curvy side is the girl in a dress and the other is the guy. Its right by our hostel, so I end up getting to see it a lot. Prague is beautiful, the eastern europe architecture is so different from Italy, its actually really nice to have a change in scenery.
Our Hostel is really nice. Not what I was expecting at all. Its bunk beds, but comfier than the ones in the apartement (some people in the group actually end up stealing the pillows). The bathroom has heated floors and a walk in shower, with one of those shower heads that is supposed to feel like rain, and comes straightdown. Its funny how little things like that actually seem to matter on a trip.
Anyway, we skip out on the walking tour to meet up with Neil! We meet at the astronomical clock, this famous clock from the 15th century. It was so nice to see him, I forgot how much I miss my friends. We walked around for a bit, went across this famous bridge, the Charles bridge. And we went to a famous castle, thats not actually a castle, but a palace. No one lives there anymore i think but they had guards outside, kinda like how they have those guards in london. We went to this beautiful cathedral (see below). It was filled with beautiful, colorful stained glass. It was so elegant, and different from the older basilica churches we've been seeing in Italy.

 

After we went to this monastary and ate at typical czech restaurant. I had fried cheese, which is one if their specialties. It was good, but was a lot of cheese. I guess its not that much different from fried mozzarella. Then we went to neil's dorm. Which wasn't very nice. made me really glad to be living in an apartment. But the nice thing about the dorms is that all his friends were on the same floor. We got to meet some of them, they were nice, kind hipstery. One girl was from new paltz and I only recognized her from her "fuck you keep moving" tattoo on her back! Neil's favorite friend came out with us again to help give us a tour of prague. We walked to and up petrin hill to this observation tower on the top. It was so fall like, and there were beautiful views of prague the whole way up. This statue was along one of the paths and made me miss you instantly.

 The observation tower was supposed to resemble the effiel tower, but it didnt really. So many steps to the top. but the view was worth it. Prague is so pretty with all the bridges, and pointy towers, and copper green roofs. Petrin Hill is kinda like a big park and it had this amazing playground. This thing I climbed to the top of was all these ropes tied together.

The we walked down along the river. Prague has all these crazy contemporary statues scattered all over it. There was this one artist who made statutes of huge babies, it would probably scare you. He put them on this tv tower and you can see them climbing it from miles away, they look like monsters. There was another sculpture piece of these yellow plastic penguins that light up at night. We walked to the jewish quarter, which is really historical. Jews started living there centuries ago. There is this old jewish cementary that has thousands of gravestones, all crowded together. There is this story from there that this Rabbi that used to live in the quarter created this creature called Golum to protect the jews from the progroms, and other persecution. But the Golam creature got out of hand and he couldn't control him. And now the golam is hiding in the old new synagogue, that is still in the quarter today. We couldnt go in to the synaogue though cause it was closed.
We decided to go to this mexican restauraunt for dinner. I get nachos and they are so good. No more italian food! Its a cute little place and our waitress is really nice.
Marty and I meet up with neil later and go over to his Irish friends apartment and hang out with all his friends. Its cool to meet people from different places. These german guys from a floor below try to join the party but no one likes them, or even really talk to them so they leave after half an hour. After hanging out, and drinking, we got to this club called Duplex. They are actually playing good music, even hip hop. So its good dancing, and no creepy italian guys are trying to creep up on us, which makes it even nicer. Are bus2alps group is there too which is funny. The coat check takes forever! And neil is so drunk i get kinda worried im never going to see my jacket again, cause he is the giving them to the coat check. (find out the next day that some of neil's friends did have their jackets stolen!) But it works out fine in the end for us. When we leave we stop off at this fast food stand thing and i get a fried cheese sandwich. too much fried cheese!!! im sick of it by the time im done with the sandwich. After talking to you you (yea!) we dont get to bed til 4:30 in the morning! but im not even tired in the morning cause im so excited for another day in prague!