Israel for one night...

Jimmy and I had to fly back to Israel to catch a flight back to Newark.  This was a result of bad planning, but I won't get into that.  We were both so bitter that we had to fly east 4 hours to just fly back west the next day.  After arriving in Israel and scarfing down a falafel wrap, we were no longer bitter.  

Jimmy and I walked around Tel Aviv for a bit and then met up with our friend Moshe who was on the Birthright trip with us.  

We had a beer with him then walked back to our hotel.

I was about to hop in the shower when a humungous, little girl eating, cockroach tried to attack me!  I ran out of the bathroom yelling at Jimmy to kill it!  He was more scared than I was! Well, not really but he was a little nervous.  After he finally built up enough courage to open up the bathroom door, the cockroach was no where to be seen!  I swear I wasn't lying!  I saw a flesh-eating monster!  Once my hero, Jimmy, located the roach, he grabbed the handicap shower hose and sprayed Cocky, that's what I name the monster, to death!  We survived!

Then we went to bed...New York in the morning!

Berlin...

So I've been bugging Jimmy to finish up the blog and what do you know...he hasn't!  So once again I have taken matters into my own hands.  So Berlin...

We got into Berlin Sunday afternoon and EVERYTHING was closed.  We were told there was a festival going on by our hotel so we decided to check it out.  It turned out to be really entertaining actually.  There were different exotic drinks everywhere, little boutique stands, food, and entertainment.

Jimmy threw on his stilts and put on a show...

That night it started raining, so we grab our umbrellas 

and set out for dinner.  It was great.  We actually ended up eating there another night for dinner.  On our rainy walk back, both of us were inspired to reenact scenes from the musical "Singin' in the Rain".  I must admit Jimmy has some moves when it comes to dancing with an umbrella, but for some reason he always resorts to wiggling his booty after every move.

The next day we set out for a free walking tour that my friend Caity told us to do.  It was great! We saw so much, learned a BUNCH of history, and the guide was just awesome, but possibly on speed.  Here are some of the sites we saw...

Holocaust Memorial
Holocaust Memorial
Parliament 
The hotel Michael Jackson dangled the baby

Checkpoint Charlie
Berlin Wall

After the tour we walked around, found a place to rent bikes and rode around all day.

The next day we rode bikes, walked around Mitte (great shops!), bought some souvenirs, went to that same restaurant we ate at the first night, and headed to bed...Israel the next morning...

Prague...

So far, our favorite Eastern European city has been Prague.  It is not only lively 24 hours a day, but there is amazing architecture and history as well.  The first day we arrived we just got a feel for the city; we walked around, shopped a little, got some information about tours, and Jimmy took a picture with his hero…

After we walked around, we ate dinner, 

and then called it a night.  We were exhausted from all of the traveling.

The next day we set out for the Jewish Cemetery.  When we got there it was just as amazing as my Dad had explained.  There were thousands of tombstones piled on top of each other and even more bodies that lie beneath the tombstones.  

It was a pretty fascinating site.  After the Jewish Cemetery we set out exploring without a plan.  We saw a huge crowd of tourists heading in one direction and figured that’s where we needed to go.  We found the jackpot.  We ended up at Lobkowitcz Palace.  

We walked around the Palace and found some other fascinating structures.  

Conveniently, after we walked through the palace area we ended up right on the Charles Bridge.  There were vendors and performers lining the bridge.  

Jimmy and I bought some original souvenirs to which I used my haggling skills to secure a terrific price.  After our little exploration, we headed back towards our hotel and made a pit-stop at Bohemian Bagel.  Jimmy ate 2 bagels…he’s such a pig!  Then piggy and I walked bout to the hotel, showered, put on our finest wear, and set out for dinner.  

After having two shots of Prague’s finest, “Puke” and “Barf,”

we ate a great meal with some live Cuban music for entertainment, which we found out later on our bill that we had to pay and entertainment fee of 70 Koruna.  Then we headed to the club...

 

It was five stories and each floor had a different type of music.  We danced on every floor!  Jimmy, for some reason, loved the techno floor…hmmm.  

After dancing the night away we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next day, we walked around, watched a little bit of a basketball tournament, 

saw some bboys (break-dancers) perform, 

walked through a market, and had a great lunch.  Jimmy and I decided we were pretty pooped and wanted to see a movie.  We picked a movie (well, I picked a movie), “My ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND.”  We had an hour to kill before the movie so Jimmy talked me into going to the Casino and gambling my change.  I tried to say NO JIMMY, but I couldn’t resist!  I’m so weak! Haha!  Anyways, I won $25!  But then…dun dun dunnnn…we went to the SECOND Casino.  I’M SO WEAK!  And lost $15 of the $25…so sad!  After we fulfilled our guilty pleasure we went to the movie.  Ok, so when we were in the movie and the previews were playing, I decided to look up the movie reviews.  They were HORRIBLE!  Jimmy remembered seeing the movie “AWAY WE GO” which he thought was the Czech interpretation of the movie “UP.”  It was playing just 5 min. after ours started so we decided to switch theaters.  When we sat down in the theater, prepared to see the movie “UP,” we soon realized during the first scene, a sex scene, that it was not the animated Disney comedy “UP.”  We stayed for the movie anyway.  I fell asleep.  After the movie, we grabbed some dinner, Jimmy found “his drink,” Malibu Rum and Pineapple juice (I told him you would make fun of him, Dad), then, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.  The next day we were off to Berlin…

Vienna...

We arrived in Vienna early in the afternoon.  We checked into our hotel, dropped our bags and headed out for the town.  We walked around the shopping area, 

grabbed some lunch, got the most amazing gelato, went back to the hotel, Jimmy napped, 

I updated the blog, I finally woke Jimmy’s lazy booty up, got dressed for dinner and we headed out.  We went to a restaurant called Huth, 

which was pretty good, well at least Jimmy’s entrée was, but I ate most of it.  I, on the other hand ordered the famous Austrian Weiner Schnitzel (fried, rich, wasn’t impressed, ate 2 bites and moved onto Jimmy’s fish entrée), he’s a good sharer.  We both were in the mood to go out, but it was a Monday night and nothing was really going on.  Our concierge had told us on warm weather nights that there was a bar on the Danube River (pronounced [Dan-yube], not [Dan-ooo-bee] as Jimmy pronounces it and was made fun of by his father).  So we walked there and got a drink.  There were hundreds of people sitting on cot-like chairs on the sand, a big bar in the center, and the river inches away.  

It was great.  After hanging out for a bit we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next morning, or should I say early afternoon, we woke up and decided we were going to rent bikes and ride throughout the city.  Vienna has these self-serve bike rental machines where you put your credit card in and rent a bike for pretty darn cheap.  We rode for a bit,

shopped for a bit, walked for a bit, 

Jimmy got a Frankfurt hotdog, we went back to the hotel, Jimmy made a mess eating his hotdog, 

then we napped for a bit.  

Jimmy had researched a restaurant for dinner called Motto.  It was delicious and had a great atmosphere.  

We ate a great meal, went back to the hotel and called it a night.

We had planned a wine tasting bike tour (sounds real safe) for the next morning.  So we got up, met the group and set out for our 10-hour bike tour.  The tour took place 2 hours out of Vienna.  So after three train rides we were finally at the first tasting spot.  

We tried 3 different wines, which were all very good.  

Jimmy, after his first glass of wine.

Then we got on our bikes and rode for 45 min to a small town.  The ride was absolutely gorgeous.  

When we got to the town we went into a house and our guide barbequed us lunch.  It was great!  

At lunch we tasted 3 more glasses of wine.  By glass number 2 I quit.  If I was going to be able to ride a bike there was no way I was having that last glass of wine.  Jimmy quit before the first glass at the first stop.  Just kidding…but not by much.  Then we rode another 45 min to another town.  

This town was known for apricot jam and schnapps.  So I bought my dad some jam (hope you like your souvenir…if not…too bad).  Then we went back to the train station and headed back to Vienna.  On the way back our tour guide had 5 bottles of wine so everyone could have a little fun on the long ride back.  Jimmy and I were wined out, but our 3 friends we made were downing it like champs!  

When we finally got back to the hotel I was POOPED!  Jimmy said he was going to hop in the shower and then we could go to dinner.  When he hopped out, I was passed out and instead of going out, Jimmy ordered room service.  He ordered me a salad and when the food came he woke me up for dinner.  I ate…he ate…zzzzzzzzz!

We are now on the 4-hour train to Prague.  More to come…