Mum and auntie come to visit

The first week of March I got a visit from two cute little american ladies- my mother and my aunt kathy!
i took the train up to London on Friday and met them at their hotel- i cant believe im saying hotel and not hostel. Upon my arrival I discovered they had already made best friends with the receptionist- not a huge shock if you know my mother. After many hugs and "omigosh i cant believe you're really here" we headed to the Tower of London. I thought going to see the Castle/tower was pretty cool because we've heard so much about it in my British studies class- a much more rewarding experience than I would've ever thought. But the coolest part of the tour, which we didn't go over in class, was the crown jewels. they were huge! one on a scepter was the biggest in the world- to give you an idea as to how big they were. i wonder if they would consider putting a couple of them on loan? After navigating our way through the under ground (i was a little nervous that I would lose one of them but thankfully they both wore their neon green and blue raincoats) we went to Harrods. omg best store ever! they had everything from a eye shadow to candy that looked like fruit(see the picture above if you don't believe me) to valentino to a fish market. The next day we went to St. Pauls Cathedral, where my mother struck a stunning pose in front of the Queen Anne statue. Then we went to Piccadilly for some shopping and Leicester Square for dinner. Sunday we went to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards and a walk to Hyde Park. Then I brought them back to Harlaxton for a couple of days. It was refreshing to have them here a. obviously because I missed them b. there excitement over the manor renewed my own- things tend to loose their luster over time. But once I stopped to think "hey, i live in a castle" I was reminded of what a nice ring it has to it. During my class time, the two got to do some of their own exploring after which point a couple of my friends informed me they had to point the two in the right direction. But they seemed to manage because by the end of the two days my mother was once again on a first name basis with the receptionists. Monday night we took mum and kathy out to the Goose, the usual pub we go to. It was a fun night- good company, cheap drinks, and a good game of british trivia in which we knew absolutely nothing about. Tuesday they got a chance to explore Grantham on their own, which I'm sure took all of about a half hour but they seemed to enjoy it none the less. Then I joined them at Blue Hog for a farewell dinner. I greatly appreciated them hoping the pond to come see me because it ended up being a very enjoyable week with the girls.

Prague

Hiya! time has been flying by way too fast and I have once again found myself to be quite behind on my blog updates. my apologies. So to jump right into things- Prague or Praha as they say, was very a interesting city. Our first day we went to the Charles Bridge. The bridge was about a mile long stretch of painters, street vendors, jazz players, biblical statues, and fabulous views of the city. It was very unique and one of my favorite parts of the city. After crossing the bridge and climbing a hill that rivals the one at Eau Claire, we made it to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral area. We saw a lot of dogs, a movie or maybe it was a commercial?- well something being filmed, a lot of puppets which kind of creeped me out, and an absolutely incredible view overlooking the entire city (which until then i hadn't realized what a populated and large city it is)! The city had a lot of fascinating architecture, as well as a lot of natural/nature aspects, so it was really cool to see all of it from one spot. At night we made our own dinner at the hostel- not to brag, but we made some damn good pesto- and then we went to an absinthe bar. Absinthe is apparently "the drink" of Prague and happens to be illegal in the US, so naturally we had to have a shot. It was absolutely great watching the guy prepare it- which involved fire, a sugar cube, an absinthe spoon, and a very intricate mixing process- but taking the shot was absolutely disgusting. It tasted like I was drinking burning hot black licorice- yummy right?! haha ya im glad i tried it but I think I'll be ok if i never have it again. Finally we went to Lucerna to dance the night away. The next day we went to the "old town" part of Prague. First stop was a huge market, where I was tempted to buy a lot more than I actually did, simply because you feel like you're using Monopoly money (1,000 crowner= about $50). Then we went to the Jewish Ghetto (during WWII they made all the Jews live in this part of town which purposely was the lowest part of town and often flooded). I've never seen anything like it- the tombstones were literally stacked one on top of the other- very sad. Afterwards we wandered around some more and went back to the hostel by sundown. We were so impressed with out pesto making skills, and it was extremely cheap to make, that we decided to make it again for dinner. Then some of us went out with some boys from Holland that we met at our hostel. At the bar we ended up meeting some boys from France which I was excited about thinking they would be impress with french speaking skills, but once I actually had to recall my francais I found it to be much more limited than I had anticipated so we resulted to a lot of hand gesturing. it was great fun.