Spring Break: Prague,Rome, Florence, Greece

Lennon Wall - Prague
Coliseum - Rome
Vatican City - Rome

Top of Duomo - Florence
Toga Party - Corfu Island, Greece

Before I get started I should warn you that this post is a little lengthy. We had an incredible spring break and I want to talk about each place. If you dont want to read it, don't.

Prague: Our first leg of the trip had us in Prague, Czeck Republic. We got a really nice apartment style hotel there for 2 nights. The first day there we walked around and checked out the city. It was pretty amazing, a lot of castles and bridges and things of that nature. It was nice because everything was walking distance. Anyways, the food there was pretty solid, had a few really good sausages(there were stands every block). The night life in Prague was pretty impressive. The first night we went to a few bars and a club that was playing all 70s and 80s music, a nice change of pace from what we are accustomed to in barca. The next day we got to walk around the whole city and see everything. We saw the john lennon wall, petrin hill, old town, charles bridge, some huge castle, and we even got to go to a beer garden. It was awesome. That night it was time to celebrate this guys 21st. Without getting into too many details, we went to a club and rapchik may or may not have gotten in a fight with the bouncers and we may or may not have gotten pepper sprayed. Either way, we had an amazing night. Prague was a very cool city and a ton of fun. Successful trip.

Rome: The next stop on our journey was Roma. Let's just say rome might be the coolest city I've ever been to. Everywhere you look there is ruins and things of that nature. We got to see the colesium and the vatican and many other amazing sights. I'm not really in to history much but this place was incredible. Everything was so amazingly interesting. The food was the best thing I've ever experienced. Pasta, pizza, gelato, tiramisu and profiteroles, get outta here. Easily the best food I've ever had, the pizza was incredible but if you're wondering, its not as good as deep dish :). The night life in rome is pretty solid. They aren't really into the clubs as much, its more bar oriented. It was definitely a nice change of pace. The whole time in rome I was actin like a wise guy, and obviously the line "when in rome" was used quite a bit. Overall, Rome was tremendously tremendous.

Florence: After our trip to Rome, we headed to Florence. All I can say is wow! What an incredible little city. Unfortunately we were only there for a little over 24 hrs but we definitely made the most of it. Within our first hour there we probably saw 30 people we knew from home or from IU. We got to see a ton of people that we hadn't seen in a while so it was really nice. Once we dropped our luggage off at the hostel, we started walking around and saw as much as we could before it got dark. After that we went to dinner and it was amazing. Honestly the food here is probably the best in the world and everything on the menu looked amazing. Luckily a lot of people spoke english because the only italian words I know are arivaderci(and I say it like brad pitt in inglorius bastards), ciao, and gratzie. Its actually a really funny language because everything sounds so funny, literally almost every word ends with an I or o. Moving on, the nightlife in florence was pretty surprising. We went out with some friends and literally there must have been 100 people we knew at the bar. We all ordered this beer that everyone called blackout beer(yes it definitely does exactly what it sounds like) and it was on from there. Foolishly we pregamed at our friends apartment before the bar so needless to say we were feelin pretty good. All in all it was a great night. Finding our way back to the hostel, not so great. We stumbled the small city of florence for probably close to an hour(it should have been a 10 minute walk). The second day we woke up and walked around and saw everything in florence. We went to the top of the duomo(a huge, beautiful church in the center of the city) and we saw the statue of david(the dude who rocked goliaths world). We had gelato twice and went to this amazing sandwich place and I asked to guy to "make my sandwich real nice" so he did. Anyways, florence was another successful, amazing trip and I could definitely see myself studying there. We then hopped on the train back to Rome to spend one more night there before catching the cruise to Corfu Island greece.

Greece: After a 4 hour bus ride from Rome to Port Ancona, we hopped on a 14 hour cruise to some random little city in Greece where we then got on another hour and a half cruise to Corfu Island. Once we got there everyone was ready to go and things got a little rowdy. We dropped our luggage off along with about 400 other college kids at the Pink Palace. We headed down to the beach and just hung out there until it was dark. Then we had to get ready for the infamous Pink Palace toga party. We got in our togas and went to down to dinner. The food was decent, but honestly anything would have tasted decent after being in Italy for 4 days. Anyways after dinner we raged and had a great night. The next morning we woke up and signed up for the booze cruise. We got on at about noon and didn't get back until around 6. Needless to say it was an amazing day. We got to sail around the island and do some pretty cool activities. By the time we got back a nap was well overdue. That night we went to a club called The Palladium(doesn't compare to the one in pulco). We had a great night but we payed for it in the morning. We had to wake up at 8 to sign up to go atving and I felt like I just got run over by a train;however, it was well worth it. We went atving around the whole island for about 5 hours and it was so much fun. By the time we got back to the hotel it was time to pack up and check out. Our trip was coming to an end but and we had another 24 hours or so ahead of traveling. All in all, corfu was amazing. The weather was perfect and we got to do some really incredible things.

After our 14 hour cruise back and 4 hour bus ride back to Rome, we got one more incredible dinner. Finally, we had to head to the airport and head back to Barca. What an incredible break. We got to see so many amazing things from the charles bridge to the coliseum to the duomo to the incredible beaches of Corfu. What an incredible trip. Amsterdam tomorrow, can't wait!

I'm a nobody, nobody is perfect, therefore I'm perfect

Makin memories,

Prit

Pre Spring Break - Post visitors

So I just wanted to check in right before spring break. Ill make this one real quick.

Unfortunately our run of visitors has come to an end as the brown kid has now come and gone. We had a great time, I got to show him around the city that I've called home for the past few months. We went out a lot while Naz was here and I was pretty impressed with his ability to keep up since hes been chillen at home the past few months. We even got to watch most of the first and second rounds of the ncaa tourny, but lets not talk about that. Its crazy to think that when we get back from our spring break we only have about 3 weeks left in barca. Where has time gone?

With that said, Spring Break is finally upon us here in barca and im gettin pumped. We got a busy 10 days ahead as we are going to Prague, Rome, Florence, and a cruise through Greece. Its about to get out of hand, especially since I have my 21st comin up on Sunday. Night one in Prague, night 2 in Rome. I cannot wait. Thats really all I got for now, I will have plenty more when/if I return from our 10 day adventure.

Lets touch god tonight boys...

Makin memories,

Prit

Snow in Barca...Classic Kotvis

Another amazing couple of weeks in the book. Finished up midterms last week, that was a great time. I'll get my grades back in the next few days so lets keep our fingers crossed.

So last week kotvis visited, needless to say we had an incredible time. I got to show him around the city and take him out to the clubs. Unfortunately the weather was a little under par, and it actually snowed in barcelona for the first time in a REALLY long time. The locals here were freaking out to say the least. I was walking from one class to the other and people were literally taking millions of videos and pictures, most of the people here have never seen snow before. Two days before the snow I was hangin out at the beach, so it definitly caught some people off gaurd. The city basically shut down for the day.

Last thursday night was probably one of the best nights we've had since arriving in this amazing city. We went to dinner right on the ocean, and enjoyed a nice meal that included all you can drink wine...needless to say that got a little bit out of hand. After dinner, we went on a mini bar crawl on our way to the club. At one of the bars, I ended up getting thrown on stage by a "dancer" and getting my shirt ripped off. I'll spare you all the details, but lets just say it was a good time; Kotvis was loving every second of it.



Unfortunately, Lou had to leave but lucky for us Sherm the worm is now in town. Gunna do it all over again this week with him, and the brown kid gets here on wednesday so that should get pretty rowdy. Oh by the way, cohen had a friend in town last week and we got to meet her friend who was visiting from London, his name is Tom and he is a professional rugby player. Probably the coolest person I have ever met, and we got to hang out with him for like 3 days. His accent was just absurd and everything he said sounded hysterical. Last thing...I have a newfound obsession with Justin Bieber, hence my facebook profile picture. He's just the man.

I hope all my friends back home enjoy there spring breaks in acapulco and panama city beach...but sorry guys, it still doesnt compare to here.

You can take me out of college but you cant take the college out of me.

Still makin memories,

Pritkin

FC Barcelona - More than a club

Heyyyyy world. Its been about a week and a half since my last post. Everything over here has been great, still have midterms until next monday though. The weather here has been gettin better by the day which has somehow made barcelona even better.

Last weekend we finally made it to Parc Guell, which is one of the coolest places to see here in Barcelona and its only a ten minute walk from our apartment. Parc Guell is a "garden" built by Antoni Gaudi, a famous catalan architect. It has amazing structures and you are able to look over the whole city, its an amazing sight to see.

The weather was so nice that we were also able to finally go to the beach. We have been to the beach before, but we hadn't been able to actually just lay there and hang out. It was really relaxing and its really nice to be able to hop on the metro and be at the beach in a matter of minutes, quite a contrast from hoppin on the b-bus in bloomington and going to college mall. We had the pleasure of seeing two naked men walk down the beach right past us. It was absolutely disgusting and it made me want to throw up. Literally the only thing these men were wearing was high black socks and sneakers. Seriously, it was nasty.

We capped off the weekend by going to the FC Barcelona soccer game. It was absolutely incredbile. People here are obsessed with the team, they live and die by it. There was about 90,000 people there for a game that wasn't really a big deal. Unfortunately, they dont sell any alcoholic beverages at the game, which is probably a good idea because it would definitly get out of hand. With that said, we hit up a bar before the game and indulged in some beer and tapas which got us feelin good before headin over to the stadium. We ended up singing the IU fight song as we were walking in, needless to say we were gettin some weird looks.

Life is good.

Great moments are born from great opportunity.

Makin memories,

Pritkin

More Barca and trip to Madrid

So it's been a few weeks since my last post, mostly cause not much has been happening really. The past couple weeks we've just been doin the usual, goin to class and goin out most nights. Life is good. Last tuesday night everyone went to Carnaval in Sitges, which is a big celbration on Fat Tuesday, similar to Mardi Gras. It was a really good time, everyone dressed up and had a blast. Cohen dressed up as an asain and was basically a celeb there, all the asains were running up to him and taking pictures, pretty funny stuff. Unforutunately I have some midterms this week so I need to concentrate and get through this week. The weather is finally starting to get better and we shouldn't see any rain for a while. Either way, its better than bein in the blizzards at home. People are startin to visit us soon which is pretty exciting, we got cohens boy comin tuesday and millers dad comin wednesday, kotvis in a few weeks and then naz and sherm the worm, exciting stuff goin down.

Now for our trip to Madrid. First of all, let me just say its an awesome city and its pretty big. The buildings and all the statues are really cool. Its the capital of spain so there is a lot of history there. The nightlife is fun, not as crazy as it is here but a really good time nonetheless. Hmmmm what else? Oh, there are WAAYYY too many gay people there. Needless to say, I was in some pretty uncomfortable situations. We were wandering the streets later in the night in madrid and we tried walking in to this one club, and the bouncer looked at us like we were crazy and said, "No chicos." Sure enough, it was a lesbian bar. Oh how I would love to be a fly on the wall in that place. Moving on, this morning as we were checking out of the hotel I witnessed somethin that I thought was pretty cool. There was a group of older german people standing around in the lobby and one of the ladies went up to the front desk to ask a question, sure enough she started speaking english to the spanish worker at the desk. I thought it was pretty cool, a spanish and german woman havin a conversation in english. Stupid story I know but I felt PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN BABY. Anyways this blog isnt goin anywhere really, basically Madrid was sick but its good to be back here.

Were finishing up bookin our spring break, its lookin like prague, rome, florence, cruise through greek islands...gotta love it, till next time holla atchyaa boy

...If I was you then I would probly hate on me too

Makin memoris,

Pritkin

Vacation on Vacation: Interlaken, Switzerland

WOW.

I don't even know where to begin. This past weekend was without a doubt one of the best of my life. We left last thursday and arrived in geneva with about 100 other kids on our program. We then took a 2 hour bus ride into a small little town called Interlaken which is nessled in the swiss alps next to two huge lakes. It's probably the coolest place I've ever seen. Thats neither here nor there, but how about this...250 college kids studying in Rome, Florence, and Barcelona invaded a quiet little town in the swiss alps, does it get any better? I think not.

I'll start with the hostel. Before we left, we were warned that our hostel was one of the oldest in Europe and that it did not have the greatest living conditions. That's probably the biggest understatement of all time. Our room had 32 beds...32 beds! Are you kidding me? We were staying in a room with about 20 other kids and we had a good time with it. Our room was literally like a tourist attraction, there was no lock on the door and all the other kids who were staying in our hostel would come to our room just laugh at us. Cohen woke up at 3:30 in the morning to a girl tickling his feet...enough said.

Moving on, Friday we woke up early and hit the slopes. Now I'm not much of a skiier and I had never skiid anything close to the swiss alps, so I definitly had my work cut out for me. Luckily, rapchik is a ski instructer so he was able to help me out a lot. I took my fair share of falls but I had fun with it and got a lot better as the day went on. I'm used to skiing runs that take about 5-7 minutes max, these were about 45 minute runs we were dealing with here, it was pretty amazing. Our first run we stopped about halfway down and had a beer and just took it all in. It was an amazing day to say the least.

Saturday morning I woke up with a slight hangover but that was the least of my concerns. I was scheduled to skydive at noon. A lot of people were asking me if I was nervous...but of course being the alpha male that I am, my response was something along the lines of, "Pshh, me nervous? Nahh." But in all serious, I was freakin out. I mean, wouldn't you be? Jumping out of a plane at 11,00 feet could probly strike the fear of god into most people. So me and cohen arrived at the site with a group of other kids, apprehensive and scared out of my mind. We got in the suits they gave us and I was expecting an instruction course that would take a little bit. Nope. I met the guy that I was jumping with and he told me what I needed to do and that was it. It was literally a 2 minute conversation. We got in a small little plane and started our journey. It was about a 15 minute flight to get to the jump site. About half way up the guys started to joke around with us and my guy even said, " I hope your harness works." Real comforting dude thanks a lot. Anyways we got to 11,00 feet and it was on. They opened the door, the first kid looked at me with the most terrified face I've ever seen to which I responded with a thumbs up and then he was gone. I was next. My guy told me to get up and walk over to the door. Next thing I know, my legs are dangling out of a plane and I was officially freakin. I was expecting a countdown or him to ask me if I was ready. Wrong. Before I had a chance to blink, I was free falling. I cant even put the feeling in to words. The most incredible experience I've ever had, just insane. The free fall was about 40 seconds, and at about 5,00 feet the chute came out and we sailed down the the ground for about 6 minutes. I dont know what else to say except if you haven't done it, you HAVE to. It was honestly a life changing experience to say the least. The rest of the trip was just icing on the cake. I went to the casino after cause I figured it was my lucky day, I mean after all I did jump out of a plane and live to talk about it. I could not wipe the smile off my face. I got pictures and a video but its being sent to me so I don't have them yet.

Thats all I got for now, luckily there were no homeless people in Switzerland for cohen to kick away their life savings. By the way, swiss people are so nice and the chocolate is just as good as advertised.


Life is short but sweet for certain.


Still makin memories,


Pritkin

Seville and first trip to the gym

Been a while since my last post so let me update you on what we've been up to. This past weekend we took a trip to Seville, which is in southern spain to visit our friend ross. They say Seville is the third biggest city in Spain, behind Madrid and Barcelona so I was expecting a fairly large city. To my suprise, Seville was fairly small. It was a really nice little town, it was a lot more quiet then here in barca and they're aren't nearly as many americans there. The nightlife is a little more laid back, which was a nice change of pace for us.

The highlight of the trip is pretty obvious and as you are reading this story, try and imagin it in your head. Saturday we were walking the streets of Seville just checking it out and enjoyin the nice weather. As we were walking, a homeless man was standing on the sidewalk trying to collect change from people. Adam, scott and I walked by the guy and didn't think anything of it, but of course cohens clumsy dumbass didn't see the huge basket of change and booted it. Change went everywhere. There must have been 40-50 people staring at him thinking about how much they hate americans. Cohen frantically dropped to the ground to try and pick up all the change while of course using his favorite line, "LO SIENTO, LO SIENTO!" I dont think I've ever laughed that hard in my life, please just try and imagin cohen doing that, its too funny. If you dont know him, first of all your lucky, second of all it might not be as funny, but if you do, you should appreciate that story.

Now that were back in barca miller and I joined a gym. We've gone the past few days and its really nice. Unfortunately no smoothies though so I don't think dicker would approve. But there are a few things that bother me about the gym. First of all, the weights aren't in pounds, they are in kilos, which makes me feel a lot weaker because the weights look smaller and I have to do the conversion rate in my head for everything I do, its really annoying. Why cant they just use pounds??? Its clearly a much better system. The other thing that bothers me is these spanish dudes that work out wear the shortest shorts ever, like shorter then old school larry bird. If they arent wearing short shorts, they are wearing spandex pants. Its completely absurd, they look ridiculous and I have a hard time working out next to them cause I feel really uncomfortable. Thats about all I got for now. Were leavin for interlaken thursday so I cant wait to ski and skydive, hopefully I'll have some great stories and hopefully there wont be any homeless people for cohen to kick away their life savings again.

And thats the way the cookie crumbles

Makin memories,

Pritkin