The Final Stretch

My plane leaves to come back to the Promise Land aka the Land of the Free aka the Home of the Brave aka the United States of America in about 6 hours. I have to check out of my room in about 2 hours. I'm not packed. Rather than packing, I am blogging. I got sick yesterday evening - really sick. I think it was either a 12 hour flu bug or some sort of food poisoning. Had a rough night of sleep but life goes on.

Alrighty - last week. The past week in Prague has been truly amazing. Last week we had a paper due Monday, a presentation on Tuesday, a Final on Wednesday, a paper due Thursday and a paper due Friday. If you know me, you know that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to writing. Regardless, I gave those assignments whatfer and tried my best...we'll see what the outcome is.

Either last Tuesday or Wednesday, my buddy, Jake Appelbaum, and I decided to rent a paddle-boat and cruise around the Vltava River in downtown Prague. Come to find out, paddle-boating is typically a couples activity. Oh, well. We did get a few beers before we got on the boat which was pretty sweet. To the right is a picture of me standing on the boat in the middle of the river. It rained for about 20 minutes so we parked the boat under one of the bridges - so romantic, huh?

Last Friday, a few of us decided to go up to the Prague Castle since we had never been. 10 USD and about 3 hours later, we were done with the adventure. The Prague Castle is definitely a beautiful sight that every tourist must see, but it didn't have that old castley feeling. Some parts of the Prague Castle are still being used by the Czech government which I believe contributes to the non-castley feeling. The Chapel was much more interesting in my opinion. Didn't get a tour so my knowledge on this one is limited, but it was neat to see. Here's a picture of the castle for your viewing pleasure.
The following day, Saturday, July 31st, a few of us went to the Prague Zoo. The Zoo was actually very cool. I was a bit harsh in judgment because I have been to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park nonetheless it was a great zoo. Two things that surprised me about the Praha Zoo - trash cans are not emptied throughout the day by the staff (disgusting), dogs are allowed into the zoo for 1USD. I have a million pictures from the zoo but I'll just give you a few.







God Bless America!

















The Most Noble Beast





The next day we headed out to do a so-called 'Amazing Race.' We were able to pick our teams which resulted in me handpicking the most competitive team in all of Europe because I can not stand losing. The morning started out with a bus ride to Cesky Krumlov at 8:15 a.m. The first team got to leave at 8:00 a.m. - lucky ducks! Once we got to Cesky Krumlov we had to find a hotel, a museum, a statue and a brewery. I forced my team to jog it in because I knew that would separate the boys from the men. I stopped in to a travel agency once we got there and I asked them to print out a map for me and circle everything that we needed to go see. They did. We won. No big deal. Our prize was a key chain, a bottle of champagne and the most important prize of them all - bragging rights. Bingo.

Our hotel ended up being unbelievable. There is no way 4 college kids deserve to stay in a place that nice. Here's a picture of our crib. Front porch? Yabsolutely.
We stayed in Cesky Krumlov until Monday early afternoon. It was a short stay, but the town was beautiful! Cesky Krumlov is located in the southwest part of the Czech Republic about 50 miles or so from Austria. It is up in the mountains a bit but is still a large tourist destination. Monday morning we went rafting on the Vltava (yes, it is the same river that goes through Prague). None of the locals were getting in the water yet I managed to do at LEAST 4 different types of dives off of our raft. It felt great. Here are a few pictures of the town.

My final thoughts on the trip:

I love America and wouldn't want to live anywhere else (long-term). Ever. I have a new found respect for Central European culture. I think that the European Union is the biggest load of crap and I can't stand that they try to immulate the U.S. I thoroughly enjoy reading every sign in a good museum (it has to be a good museum though). I would rather travel alone. I am truly blessed to have had this experience - It was absolutely the experience of a lifetime. Prague is the most underrated city by Americans' standards. I like Cesky Krumlov the most out of all of the places I have been. I like Prague the second most. I think it's weird the Czechs aren't very nice. Berlin is way overrated (the history there is realllly cool though). I can't live in a city for too long. I really enjoyed my marketing class - I still think that marketing is the same as high school SGA: you pick out colors and plan different events. I have a more developed love for country music. Europeans are skinny but they smoke a lot more than Americans. I shouldn't get mad at people who are in the United States and can't speak English. I love the weather in the Czech Republic. The ACC project that I'm working on gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with people who normally wouldn't give me the time of day - I spoke with the former Head of Defense Intelligence of the Czech Republic, the former Lieutenant General and Director General of the Hungarian Military Intelligence Office, a former German Federal Foreign Affairs Officer and the former Chief of General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces who was scrutinized for not giving in to the Soviet military pre-1989 (the list goes on).

Alright, I have an hour to pack my bags and get out of this place. I need to get going. Thank you all for following my blog. It was an experience of a life time. I'll be back in the U.S. in 18 hours.

Can't wait to show everyone my beard/faux hawk,

Luke Wells