Life's Full of Ups and Downs

River running through main touristy area.
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This has been by far the weekend with the most ups and downs.  To begin with, I will tell you the down, so that I can end on a positive note.

Well to sum up the week, it was full of lessons and relaxing.  Tuesday night, our neighbor Jenny turned 23.  We went out with her and some friends to have dinner.  We ate at a restaurant called Red Onion which has some of the most flavor able food in town.  It was okay, but the meal Natalie and I shared had a little too much meat for our liking.  Later in the week, from the inspiration of my friend Traci, I made homemade applesauce.  I did it with no recipe and it is a hit around our flat.  It was great to be cooking and am looking forward to making more yummy meals.  The food I eat is always the same with little variety.  Being able to cook some new dishes will be great.  Just waiting for the internet to get hooked up so I can search some recipes.

Lubos, Kari, Me, and Natalie. Our group who all went.
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Internet…. Suppose to come on Friday.  They did, but said they can’t finish the installation process till next week.  So Friday of this week, they should be back and finish up the installation.  Hopefully all goes according to plan this time!  Our heat service man was also suppose to come on Friday afternoon, but cancelled.  I do not think he realizes how cold it is getting in our apartment… cooking is one of the best ways I keep warm.

Friday evening was the very down side of my week.  My friend Kari and I were on the metro, heading to a local shopping mall.  Some guys started crowding us by the door.  Not really aware of what was going on, but very annoyed with my lack of space, I eventually was able to get both of us through them to some breathing area.  After we exited the metro, we were walking up the escalator and I noticed my purse was unzipped in three different pockets.  I looked in to find my wallet gone.  In a panic, we called my Czech friend Lubos to ask what we should do.  We spent the rest of the evening in the Czech Police station filling out a crime report.  Chances our I will never see the wallet and the things inside again, but at least there is a chance.  My mother was great and cancelled all my cards immediately why I was at the police.  Unfortunately they did get away with a hefty amount, but the experience has taught me a lot about being even more careful and aware of signs of the people around me.

Getting some spring water.
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To keep my mood high, we had previous planned a trip to Karlovy Vary.  Not wanting to cancel on my friends, Natalie was nice to loan me some money to let me come with.  This is one of the most gorgeous cities I have been too.  I am sure the changing leaves help, but I absolutely loved it, and found it was exactly what I needed to raise my spirits after the previous day.  We arrived there around noon and walked down to the main tourist street.  This runs along the river.  There we got some spa wafers.  Very famous treat here.  They are like wafer treats you are used to seeing at home, but are more flat and are in the shape of a big circle.  They look like a giant coin and in between the two wafers is a thin layer of crčme frosting.  It comes in a variety of flavors from chocolate to vanilla, and even an apple one!  We got some chocolate ones and nutmeg filled ones.  They were yummy.  The nutmeg one though tasted more like a vanilla with some cinnamon in it.  It was not my favorite flavor.  Natalie and I also got a spa glass.  They had a variety to choose from and they are used to gather water from the many mineral spas around town.  These spas are packed with healthy minerals that are suppose to cleanse your system.  The water tasted ok, but you could taste the minerals in the water.  I enjoyed the first two, but after that, the feeling it left in my mouth was unpleasant.  We only tried the hot springs, and never found any cold ones to try.

Natalie and I drinking spa water.
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We continued to walk through the town and then headed toward a hill that we could hike up.  It was a gorgeous walk through the woods.  The path was covered with fallen leaves, but many of the trees still held their fall color.  The hike up was a bit tough, especially with the shoes I had worn that day, but it was beautiful.  It was about 3-4 km up (I think roughly about 2 miles, but I am not very good at doing conversions.) and came to our first look out point.  We had a wonderful view of the city and the changing fall leaves.  From there, we hiked on to a place called Diana’s Look-out Tower.  This one had a elevator, so we were lazy and took it to the top.  Another spectacular view!  It was amazing!  You could see for miles.  I felt as if I could see Germany from there.  Probably couldn’t but that’s just how high up we felt.  At the bottom of this tower was a restaurant where we had some goulash.  It was yummy, but the best goulash we have had so far is at the restaurant right by our house.  It comes with both bread and potato dumplings. Yum!  After some lunch, we headed back to the bus stop to get our ride back.  It was a quick day, but well worth it.  It is so far my number one recommendation for a place to visit in the Czech.  But on the other hand, we have only been to three places outside of Prague, so we don’t have too much to go by yet.  Time will tell.

City street.
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On Monday, we head to the final two days of our intensive.  This is again like I mentioned, in the country, but along the main river that passes through Prague.  We are staying right next to a dam.  It is a pretty area and a great way to get away from the city.

Thanks again to my mom for helping me through everything that happened on Friday.  I appreciate her quick response to getting everything squared away.    And thanks to Casey as well who has been incredibly supportive through everything.  I love you both! Everyone else, have a great week!