Josh and I were thrilled to spend New Year's Eve in Prague this year because WOW.....they really celebrate! Fireworks are sold in all grocery stores and on the streets and they don't seem to have any restrictions on where or when they can be set off. In fact, starting at sundown on New Year's Eve we could hear them going off until around 3am and they continued after sundown on New Year's Day! Pretty wild. And people weren't just setting off the little sparklers either. They had full Ebensburg Homecoming grade fireworks!
The evening started out with our good friends, Kacey and Allison, coming over to our apartment. We played Trivia Crack together which really made me feel as if I were at home! Typically on New Year's Eve we Seymours get together with the Nagys and have a fun-filled game night, so that was great fun! Then we went to Old Town Square where the biggest NYE festivities occur. Many people like to see the astronomical clock hit midnight, but the crowd was so massive that we couldn't actually get into the square. We were close, but we were in one of the little alleys leading into it. It was absolutely insane! People were pushing and shoving and we couldn't move an inch. It was a little stressful, but really cool! There were random fireworks being set off all around us and people were even shooting them out of their windows in apartments around the square. That part was a little scary because you'd be walking and without warning a firework would go off 10 feet in front of you! I had NO idea that the Czechs celebrated the New Year so hard! It actually felt a little bit like walking through a war zone. The fireworks sounded like gunshots, there was glass shattering constantly, and people were stumbling and falling down as if they had been shot haha! It was a really fun experience! It definitely made us realize though that the massive crowd in New York City on NYE is not our thing. We're so excited to see what 2015 will bring!
Speaking of which, 2015 is going to start off with a bang for us! Josh and I have made the very difficult decision to leave Prague earlier than we had planned. Originally we were going to stay until the end of May, but due to personal reasons we have changed that plan. About a month ago my grandma had a heart attack and stroke simultaneously and has just been brought home from the hospital yesterday. It's been extremely hard to be over 4,000 miles away from my family while they have been dealing with this terrible situation. Not being able to visit my gram and pap in the hospital has been very hard. When we moved abroad we knew that a family illness like this was a very real possibility, but of course you never actually expect it to happen. I love my family so much and can't wait to be there to support them again.
With that being said, let me explain to you our plans for leaving Prague. Today, our amazing friends, Tommy Walters, Terry Thompson, and Tommy's mom, Cindy Walters, have officially arrived in Prague! Then, on the 6th more of our friends including Kathy Sawyer, Robin Schmeider, and Lauren McElhaney, will also be arriving in Prague! We're so excited to have more visitors!!! We will be leaving Prague with Tommy, Terry, and Cindy on January 7th. HOWEVER, we're not going home yet! We will be going on a whirlwind tour of 8 European cities from then until January 31st starting in Budapest, Hungary with our friends. From Budapest they will be returning to the U.S. and Josh and I will continue on to Athens, Greece, followed by Istanbul, Turkey, then Copenhagen, Denmark, next London, England, then Lisbon, Portugal, continuing on to Barcelona, Spain and lastly Paris, France! On January 31st we will finally fly home where our families will be waiting excitedly. We are SO THRILLED to see all of these amazing cities! It's going to be an exhausting 3 1/2 weeks and it will be incredibly rewarding! We've been working on our itinerary for the trip and figuring out logistical things. We're flying everywhere except from Prague to Budapest where we will be taking a bus. So, follow our blog for the rest of January and you will see our exciting journey around Europe! We are hoping to update every 1-2 days, but we won't have wifi in every hotel/hostel so we'll try our best. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for safe travels this month! :)
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| Midnight! |
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| Couldn't be happier =) |
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