Ahoj~ Well it is around 11:30pm and I had a really great birthday. Thanks for all of the wonderful posts and well wishes! I felt loved all the way across the ocean. I feel better today. I just needed to sleep. I woke up to a cloudy sky with the prospect of rain. We went to the Prazsky Hrad (Prague castle) which is said to be the biggest, oldest castle in the world. There are steep steps all the way to the top and the grounds are very beautiful. This place is so big it has a little town inside of the walls. The best part of the day was something we found on accident which was completely abandon compared to the castle and the grounds. We found this trail that went down below the castle. The trees were yellow and green and leaves were falling all about. There is this old moat that was used in the past by this total jerk (I mean king) who used the moat minus the water to keep deer in. He paid someone to feed the deer and they could not escape so he could shoot them from his window. Fortunately he is dead. We sat on a bridge over the moat. This is where I read my birthday cards delivered via Katie from Daryl, Shoshie, Amanda and April thank you so much it was wonderful to have mail. We then went to lunch in this cafe and I had this wonderful potato soup where the waiter taught us how to pronounce thank you: Dekuji (DYACK-quee)We went to the royal gardens and then it began raining on us. We got a little wet but made it back to our hostel for showers and dry clothes. The rain stopped and we headed out across town for dinner at this great vegetarian food restaurant called Lehka Hlava or "Clear Head" check out the website: www.lehkahlava.cz I had some wonderful skewers of vegetables. the ceiling was very cool with little sparkling lights like stars everywhere. After dinner We went to the Charles bridge for a night time walk and saw the castle on the hill all lit up. The light sparkled off the Vltava river and the night was beautiful. Our new room mate just came from Corsica and is from Amsterdam so we plan on picking his brain since we will be there in a couple weeks. There is so many huge old buildings with carvings and etchings, some gothic some more romantic. I really like Prague. I keep thinking how much my mother would love it here and how little we would be able to do because she would want to take so many thousands of pictures :) It is a really beautiful city and it is very easy to get around on trams and trains. We have a full day planned for tomorrow so I will go for now. Na zdravi! (Cheers),

~Renel