Pics 06.12.10: Pete's Dueling Piano Bar

Pics 06.12.10: Pete's Dueling Piano Bar

Love this song...

Show how much you care...

By sending the kitten basket!

Looks like I didn't get up in time for breakfast

After!!!

Before

Kenny rogers

Sent from my iPhone

Pitcher for Texas Rangers, taken at the Colonial Golf Tournament on Friday. 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ruby Sellers <rubysellers@hotmail.com>
Date: May 31, 2009 4:41:44 PM CDT
To: Stacie Garcia <slgarcia@gmail.com>
Subject: FW: Kenny rogers

 
> From: rubysellers@hotmail.com
> To: laurarea500@yahoo.com; rlthomann@yahoo.com; rubysellers@hotmail.com
> Subject: Kenny rogers
> Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 07:37:25 -0500
>
>
>

Lilies

New car

Yay, I got my Pilot!

Oh Nuts Candy

Paul Blart Mall Cop

Such lovebirds!!!

Check out the humidity

You can't even see the huge water tower one street over!

Thursday

Got an early start to the day and headed out to walk down Vaci street and get some shopping in at the Great Market Hall. It was quite an experience! The 2nd floor had all sorts of handmade and local crafts, along with a lot of the usual touristy stuff that you'd expect to find. The first floor had tons of fruit & vegetable stands and meat markets along with a few pastry and coffee shops.

After we finished up at the Great Market Hall we walked down toward the Jewish Synegogue and Parliament, before crossing over the Chains Bridge into Pest (west side of Danube river) and heading towards the castle district. My legs have completely given out on me at this point. They aren't really sore, but it feels like each leg is made out of concrete and it takes all my energy just to put one foot in front of the other. I told Amy that I think we did the Breast Cancer 3 day walk today, in one day.

Tonight we're going on a cruise of the Danube that leaves dock at 8:15pm. Hopefully it will still be light enough to get a few pics before the lights come on at nightfall. Until then we're hanging out in the Marriott Executive lounge scoring some free food, drinks and of course... internet.

Tomorrow we are going on a Segway tour of the Pest (east) side of town at 10:00am. It should last a few hours, so after that we may try to hit a few more shops before going to the baths sometime tomorrow afternoon. We'll have to get to bed early because we both fly out super early on Saturday morning.

Dumping cronies on the train

Yes, I bought and ate all of this on the train to Vienna in order to
use all my Czech money.

Having champagne in Vienna

In front of the John Lennon wall

Prague Day 2

Wow, I'm exhausted!  First, let me say that the B&B we are staying at couldn't possibly be better.  The beds, although smaller than a standard twin and so close together that Amy and I are sharing a King size blanket, are very comfy.  I don't think I even rolled over last night.  I slept like a rock.

In the morning they serve a buffet style breakfast with the most delicious sweetbreads, coffee, ham, a variety of cheeses, including brie (yay!), yogurt, cereal, juices, etc.  The innkeepers are super helpful and got us reservations to a vegetarian restaurant that Amy had read in her Rick Steve's travel guide.   After breakfast we set out to tour the monastery and Prague Castle.  We stopped for lunch at the vegetarian restaurant and it was FABULOUS!  It was so good that we tried to go back for dinner but couldn't get in without a reservation.   I had a baked goat cheese salad with cranberry sauce and walnuts, risotto with tempura and veggies, and a piece of cheesecake with strawberry sauce for dessert.  We also ordered hot chocolate for dessert and it was so thick and creamy that it had to be eaten with a spoon.  Was basically like eating hot pudding... was the most delicious thing ever.  We're going back tomorrow and I'm already salivating just thinking about it!

Outside the Prague Castle we found a little Absinthe shop and the owner made us a drink to share.  He placed a sugar cube in a slotted spoon on top of the glass, then poured the absinthe over the cube.  He then poured water into the glass.  Then he lit the cube on fire, poured in more absinthe.  We were so excited to taste it, probably just because its a forbidden fruit back in the states.  But, quite honestly, it tasted like hairspray.  We shared 1 drink, fortunately, because I don't think either of us could have finished our own drink.  And, we certainly couldn't have walked around after it!  It was a pretty potent drink!

We walked all day today, from 10:30 am to midnight.  I wish I had worn a pedometer to see how much we've walked.  I'm sure it was many miles.  While we were wandering around Old Town we were stopped by an American guy, Josh, from Florida.  He's here with his mother visiting his ailing grandmother and heard us speaking English.  We chatted for a long while while walking around the city in search of Josh's apartment and a bar he wanted to take us to.  We wandered for quite a while before finally getting to his place so he could drop off a beer glass he had bought.  While he dropped it off, Amy and I sat to have a pilsner.  Then we went next door to an Italian restaurant where we had pizza for dinner. We made it back to the subway (Metro) at 11:30 and ran into two American girls that are staying at the same B&B as us.  They're studying in Milan this semester and just in Prague until tomorrow.  Kind of a small world that we ran into them at the Metro stop!  

So, that was the day!  It rained for most of the day, but the sun did finally peak its head out around 7pm.  It felt really good to have some sunshine.  It's still a bit chilly, but it's not unbearable.  

toots and turbulence

I'm sitting in the Frankfurt Airport, half-comatose. I have a 2 1/2 hour layover here this morning before traveling on to Prague. I had really hoped to get more sleep on the plane on last night and thought I'd have no problem since I had plenty of sleep aids in my system and was pretty much exhausted from packing, cleaning and working from the past few days. But, unfortunately I didn't get much sleep.

When I got on the plane I had an aisle seat, which isn't my favorite since it's not conducive to sleeping for me. The lady next to me asked if I would switch with her husband (who had a window seat), so that they could sit together. Scooore, I thought! So, I moved over to the window seat and started to get comfy. Then my seat mate showed up. He was a member of some Oklahoma Men's choir that was traveling over to Albania (or somewhere that starts with an A). He was a little weird and I'm pretty sure he would have talked to me all night if i'd let him. Anyway, we had dinner and then I settled in to watch "Life of Bees" and hopefully get some good sleep in. After the movie I put my earplugs and eyeshades on and started to drift into dreamland.

As soon as I drifted asleep, my lovely seatmate tapped me on the shoulder to ask if I wanted water when the flight attendant came around. I declined, and tried to go back to sleep. The next time the FA came around, the guy woke me up again asking about drinks. This time I pointed to my full water bottle and told him I wouldn't be needing any drinks and would like to get some sleep.

I should also mention that shortly after takeoff someone around me began tooting (letting stinkers, if you will- mom, I know you hate the other word!) This odiferous assault continued ALL NIGHT! I'm really wondering if it was the guy next to me, because there was a little girl in front of me and I can't imagine anything this vile coming from her.

Anyway, I think I got about 3 hours of actual sleep, and even that wasn't very good. I'm going to try really hard to stay up when I get to Prague, because I don't want to miss out on a day of fun by sleeping. Maybe I'll get a little sleep on this next flight. My fingers are crossed, but I'm not counting on it!

It feels so cool to be back in Europe. I don't know what it is, but I just love it over here. Even the little shops in the airport are cool and fun and "euro". I'm so stoked to let the adventure begin!!!