Well I witnessed history this morning.... and that is I slept in longer than
Meredith.

I woke up around 11am, but Meredith had already been up for a few hours. I'm
not really sure why I was so tired. But as much as enjoyable traveling is, it
is definitely exhausting! And we didn't really have any plans so I didn't feel
too bad about it all.

Anyways, it didn't take me too long to get ready and then we were off to see the
Charles Bridge. We learned a little about the bridge about the tour and we were
warned that it is a nightmare trying to walk across during the afternoon.... but
we didn't really have any other time to walk it... so we bared the crowd.

We walked across the bridge closest to the hostel, and then up the river to the
Charles Bridge. The river is lined with all these different parks and cafes.
It is absolutely beautiful. There was a little "around the world" fair set up
that had booths selling food from all over the world. We didn't buy anything
but it all looked really good!

On the Charles Bridge we got some good pictures of the Prague Castle. We were
going to go up to Prague Castle to see the gardens. But we talked to some
people from our hostel and they said you had to pay an entrance fee and that
they were not that impressive. So we opted against that.

Yesterday on the bridge, Daniel told us about the Jan Haus Statue. Which you
are suppose to touch the right side for love and fortune and the left side for
bad luck and fertility. haha... I didn't get a chance to touch the statue but I
got a picture of Meredith touching it.... the right side of course!

The bridge is also lined with a million different artists. A lot of them were
the ones that draw you in cartoon characters, but there was one vendor that
caught our eye. It was a photographer, selling these graffiti shots. One in
particular caught my eye and it was a COEXIST picture, which is an organization
I really like. But the pictures were still about $20.

Although we didn't buy any of the photos they made me remember about the John
Lennon Memorial wall in Prague. And I knew that that is where most, if not all,
the pictures had been taken seeing how a lot of them were Beatles lyrics. So
that is what my objective of the day was: to find the John Lennon wall and get
my own pictures!

We tried to look up the location on my phone, but it was hard to figure out. So
we decided to go back to the hostel and google it... love google. Anyways,
turned out that the memorial wall was right next to the Charles Bridge, just a
street over. So we were right there! So we headed back to the bridge on our
search :)

On our way to the bridge, we decided to get some coffee at the cafe we went to
the other night. We ran into Katrina, a girl from Scotland staying at our
hostel, and she joined us. The coffee was good, and definitely a little
pick-me-up-er to start our exploration.

The thing about Meredith and I traveling is, we wander. We look at a map, find
something we want to see and then head in that general direction. We understand
that this way takes us a lot longer than the direct route and following the
exact roads, but this makes it really interesting.

We knew that the wall was by the French Embassy so as soon as we saw French
flags we started turning down random roads and streets. But we could not find
it! We saw a lot of other cool things... but the wall was nonexistent.

So we broke down, and looked up a map on my phone... which took us there in like
2 minutes :)

Words can't even describe how I feel about this wall. We read the reviews and
people were like "not a must see" & "only go if you have a lot of free time"
but oh my goodness... I think it may be my favorite thing I have seen so far.
But I am also a big Beatles/peace/graffiti fan. Anyways, the wall was
absolutely breathtaking.

The story behind the wall is that the night after John Lennon was shot, one of
his biggest fans went to the wall and painted a huge portrait of him. People
started adding different lyrics, and sayings and peace signs. During the
communist reign in Prague, the wall was painted over continuously. But the next
morning it would be filled again. It was people's own passive way to protest
the communist presence in Prague and search for peace. It is even said that if
you go to the wall the next day it will look different because of how often
people add to it.

There were obviously the dumb and immature people who write "(name) was here"
and what not.. but you just have to look past that. My favorite was the quote
"you may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope one day
you'll dream with us, and the world will be as one" ... from Lennon's song
"Imagine." They did a version of the song on Glee :)

I got some great pictures, and I can't wait to photoshop them to look a little
more catchy and then blow them up and put them in my bedroom next year. And I
will be able to do all that for less than the cost of the one "Coexist" picture
on the bridge. And they will mean more because they will be my own pictures.
The only thing I was a little disappointed with was that you could see the
remnants of the Coexist graffiti, but it was not photographable anymore. But I
got some other amazing pictures regardless.

We eventually had to leave the bridge :( But seriously, if you ever go to
Prague... go to the John Lennon wall. It isn't the most advertised attraction,
but it is worth 20 minutes, especially if you are by the Charles Bridge.

The other cool part by the wall, was the locks on one of the small bridges. It
is the place where couples come together with a lock and lock it to the bridge,
and then throw the key in the river. There was probably a couple thousand
locks! It was pretty unique, I also think there is a place in China where
people do this.

After the wall we decided to head to the grocery store and pick up a few things
to make dinner with. And yup, we got stuff for our now signature salad. This
was the fourth night in a row we ate the salad, but I am not even close to
coming sick of it. We also bought some watermelon :D :D :D Which is cheap
here! Like $1 for half a watermelon... however it was seeded. So that was
annoying to cut up and de-seed, but totally worth it.

And I also finally got the nerve up to talk to the Chinese people staying at our
hostel! :) I heard them yesterday cooking and I kept telling Meredith how I
wanted to talk to them... Haha, they were shocked when I started speaking
Chinese, and just started laughing. That is the reaction I always get, which
may or may not be a good thing. But then they compliment me on my pronunciation
:) Then they tried to say something back to me... haha which I totally couldn't
understand.

After dinner Meredith and I did the usual and watched some Dexter. It is a
little more gory than I like, but it is entertaining. And it allows my brain to
relax for once!

I also got an e-mail back from my friend Matt, who did the study abroad in
Brussels last year. I just asked him some questions about it because I don't
really know too much about the work load. He said not to worry about it, that
while in Brussels it isn't much work, just keeping up on reading. But then when
you get home you have 2-20 page papers to write! And they are due early
September... AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I only have 2 weeks home after Europe before I have
to move back to school to start work, and now they will be spent writing papers
:( Luckily I have a 10 hour lay over in London on my way home where I can work
on them, and then I am also going to Megan & Ryan's in August so I will have the
car ride to work on them some more. I am making a goal for myself, and that is
to have a rough draft of one of the papers done before I leave Brussels. I know
that I am not going to be wanting to do homework 24-7 while there. But I also
have been traveling for the past 40 days, so hopefully I my travel bug will be
out of my system and I will be content with staying around Brussels on the
weekends where I think a lot of the other students will be planning weekend
trips to Paris and Amsterdam and what not. The e-mail was definitely a reminder
that I am here for a reason, and not just to be galavanting around Europe. I'm
definitely going to get reading on my books too!

Anyways, back to today. Meredith and I's luck ran out today though, and we got
a snorer in our room :( And bad! We haven't had any snorers since the night
train from Paris to Florence... and it was great! All of the girls were in the
room and we were trying to hard not to laugh loudly at the girl snoring. But
then I looked at the Chinese girls and said "da hulu" which means to snore, and
they just died laughing.

I definitely don't think I will be getting much sleep tonight.... But Meredith
and I have to be up around 5am to make the 6:30am train to Berlin!
-brooke.