Prague!

Morning guys! Here are some photos and sights from around Prague, which I think was a favorite place for a lot of people on the tour. the first two shots are from the roof of the U Prince Hotel. This is a quaint little place in the back corner of the Old Town Square, next to the astronomical clock. The cool thing about it is that they have this rooftop cafe where you can have drinks or lunch and look out on the whole square. Drapo, Catherine, Leanne and I went up there one day and had a long leisurely lunch, with everything from cocktails, to fancy entrees, to coffee and dessert. We got to hear the clocktower go off several times, and I think that afternoon was one of my favorite moments on the trip.

The next photo is of the Old Town Square, which is so pretty. Prague is hard to describe, it's like Paris, Munich and Florence all rolled into one, and at the same time, it is a city all it's own. The Old Town Square is made up of restaurants with outdoor tables, and buttercream and strawberry colored buildings like this. Pretty!

The last photo is of the astronomical clock in the Old Town square. It's pretty cool - it chimes every hour, and there's a little show of figures. The two windows at the top open at the twelve apostles parade by. A little skeleton rings a bell, death calling, and human figures, one holding a mirror to represent vanity, and another representing greed, shake their heads, "no, we're not going". Then this golden and green rooster crows, signifying another hour of life, only it sounds more like a kazoo than a rooster, and it makes everybody laugh. It's pretty fun to watch.

Dude...like, are you famous?

Today's blog post is all light and fluffy with some of the nightlife fun we had in Prague. And as you can see by the photos, we totally met celebrities! The first photo is of Cheryl, George Stults, and me! You've seen George if you've ever seen 7th Heaven and I will admit that I had seen it and did know who he was. He was really nice, took a bunch of pictures with us, and even hugged me when we were leaving. Sorry. I like to keep track of the celebrities I get hugged by.

Next is Richard Burgi. You've seen him on Desperate Housewives, he's Terri Hatcher's ex-husband (on the show) and now he's with the Nicolette Sheridan character. I think. You also may have seen him in "In Her Shoes" with Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette - he played the boss that Toni Colette was sleeping with in the beginning. He too was really nice and took a million pictures with us, but I didn't talk to him as much as I did with George.

Pretty cool, huh?

Berlin Sights

As promised, here is my next vacation post. Here are some of the sights we saw in Berlin. The first is the Berliner Dome, an impressive cathedral right at the foot of Museum Island, a patch of land where there's a bunch of museums one after the other. The Berliner Dome was the cathedral to the royal family, who used to live in a castle across the street, and now it overlooks a grassy lawn that is awesomely named "Lustgarden". How appropo...

The second photo is of what remains of the Berlin wall...it's pretty crazy to actually see it and think about how it separated one side of the city from the other. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to live in Berlin at that time...knowing you couldn't cross the barrier. We also heard some cool escape stories...like one West Berlin man wanted to break his East Berlin girlfriend out, figured out how high the barricade was at the checkpoint, rented an Austin Healy, practiced driving with his eyes closed, went by the border, ducked and floored it, and made it through before the guards even knew what happened.

The third photo is of the Holocaust Memorial. It's just a maze of all these different sized rectangular blocks...but the further you walk in, the higher they get, and soon they are two and three feet over your head. The idea is that when you walk in, you all of a sudden disappear behind the blocks...I like that symbolism. It's also supposed to be confusing and disorienting, much like the experience of the Jews who only thought they were being relocated somewhere for a better life. It's a cool memorial, and the museum underneath it was sad and moving and really interesting.

Vacation Stories! Chapter 1: Berlin

Hey guys! Sorry I've been away so long, but I was on vacation in Europe. A little over a week and travel in Berlin, Prague and Vienna. I was pretty lazy about pictures and updates from my trip last year on the blog, so this year, I am going to try to do a little better. So here goes:

On the right you'll find a photo of Drapo (aka Matt, for those of you from the trip) and I posing with Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in Berlin. This statue is hilarious - Drapo wanted us on Marx's lap, but he was a bit tall for that kind of climbing. Still, I think this photo rocks, and a friend of mine said, "It looks like the four of you have gotten together for a drink or tea," Ha.

Berlin sort of staggered me, it was very different than any other European city I'd ever visited. Not pretty like Paris or Munich, but worn and rough from World War II and Hitler and the Soviets and general unrest. The history was amazing, we learned so much about Hitler, the war, the Holocaust, the Berlin Wall, life in East and West Germany, escape atttempts, the wall coming down, etc. Berlin as a united city is also relatively new, and it is really interesting to see this city taking shape, putting up long overdue memorials to the Holocaust victims, and so on. I'll post more about these sights soon.

Another Florida Trip

On Labor Day weekend I flew down to Tampa to hang out with Abbey, Max, Asia, the dogs, and Max's father and Giovanni (their nephew) who was visiting. Here's a recap of the weekend:

In JFK - I saw Carson from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy checking in right near me. He was wearing a snazzy red and blue U.S. Open jacket and white pants. He looked fabulous. Second celebrity sighting in a week!

Biggest holy crap moment of the weekend: we're on the plane, taxiing, and all of a sudden I see us get on this line of about eight planes. then the captain comes on and tells us we're 25th in line to take off, and it will take another hour to get off the ground. Oy.

Abbey and Max are the most gracious hosts ever. They insisted on picking me up at the airport (which is not around the corner) even when my arrival time became 1 a.m. instead of 11:30 p.m. Thanks guys for coming to get me!

Since the last time I visited, Abbey and Max have acquired a few more dogs. They are actually breeding them now, so they actually had EIGHT this time. Here are there names: Shine, Trinity, Tyson, Tiffany, Chanel (because she was fifth in the litter...No. 5, get it?) Isis, Biggie, and Kimora. So if anybody wants to buy a dog, I know where you can get one! :-)

Asia! She was a month old the last time I saw her - now she's almost a year and a half. She's a ham - as you'll see in the pictures where she's right up close to the camera...posing and smiling away. She's a happy happy baby, and she's always running around, spinning, falling, laying flat on her back for a second, and then cracking up.

We went to the Magic Kingdom and rode the merry-go-round and It's a Small World - it was fun to take kids to Disney World for the first time. Last time I was there...I was the kid!

Shopping! It's Abbey and my trademark. Funny moment - going down the hall to the bathroom at the outlets, there's photos of other outlets in other states that this same company must own. So I'm walking down with Max and I say, "Oh there's the one that Abbey and I went to in Connecticut. Oh, and there's the one we go to in New York. And.." and Max is saying, "What the hell is this?' and I say "Jenn and Abbey's shopping trip hall of fame!"

Seriously though, I was so happy to be able to spend time with Abbey and Max again, and play with Asia and just be around them. They are in the very elite group of some of the greatest friends I have...and I want to thank them for all they do for me. Abbey, your doubles are in the mail! Miss you guys!