Yeah for Thursdays!
I had a productive week, went to a soccer game between the town rivals on Monday and almost got beat up on the tram ride home :O. Finished a paper for school and am in the process of booking a trip to Rome over my birthday weekend!
This morning I ate Aloe Vera yoghurt which I thought was blog worthy, I've only ever seen that as a lotion scent. It was not delicious for future reference. I am doing laundry in the sink this morning and preparing for my 10 day trip! The closest thing I've done to true backpacking since I've been here. I am leaving tomorrow morning for 4 days in Munich where Spring Fest is going on. A mini version of Octoberfest with music and the like. I have heard really good things about Munich and I'm also going to try and sneak into a sold out concert of Mumford and Sons; a European band I REALLY like!!
After Munich I fly to Amsterdam with a large number of girls and we will spend four days there, I will probably make a day trip to Belgium or Rotterdam or another place close. I still cannot figure out how I am going to fit everything in my medium sized back pack for 10 days, I'm not sure about Munich but Amsterdam is quite expensive so I will be packing salami and cheese and living of fruit and the like. It may sound funny but random picnic spots with friends are my favorite!
I met a girl studying in Amsterdam last night at Juve (the school pub :)) and she is sending me a list of things to do (and eat!!) while I am there. I love personal recommendations!
Cloudy day in Prague so the perfect weather to get stuff done!
Wish you were here!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Kutna Hora - Church of Bones
Went to Kutna Hora yesterday, a small town about an hour outside of Prague that has a church made out of bones. Figured out the train and got on, met a couple from Panama that asked directions (We must have looked like I knew what we were doing). We had to transfer one train but our first was delayed so we waited at the middle bus station for awhile. Made it to Kutna Hora and first impressions of the town were not so good. Found the church but it was creepy so took the appropriate amount of pictures, felt odd taking pictures of skeletons and it was so cold in there you could see your breathe, Creepy! made the rounds of another supposedly famous church nearby but it had been redone and had no character. We bought a beer that we thought was local but found out that Heineken had bought out the brewery. We heard about another fancy church and got a ride into the city center. It was sunny and nice and the church was beautiful on the outside but the thought of going in was less than enthusiastic so we enjoyed the sun, found a pub, drank some Budvars while overlooking a green valley and hearing the church bells ring. Sat next to what looked like some Czech hippies, found an awesome rusty bike. Made it back to the train station after meeting an odd American family in the bus. We watched our train pull away and asked some men what time the next one left, without speaking or understanding one single word we managed to communicate with them. Found a word in common and asked them where the nearest pivo was. Went to a restaurant where some hockey was on, the odd American family dumped their 18 year old son on us. (weird) but after another round we were at the train station again only to find out train had been delayed an hour to 'techinal difficulties'. while waiting we met some boys from Denmark and talked politics and life stories with them :) Got back to Prague late but in time for some dinner and to get ready for the nation to nation which was Latino themed. Meeting the Danish boys for coffee at my favorite hole in the wall shop.
Lovin life, this last week has been full of fun and unanticipated adventures.
Lovin life, this last week has been full of fun and unanticipated adventures.
The Most Perfect Day - Happy Easter
Mikoluv Moravia,
April 4th 2010
The most perfect-us day
This day was amazing, I of course am writing it after the fact because I only ever have time to make bullet points and try to remember all the amazing things that happen to me on adventures. but this one goes down in history :)
I was in Mikoluv Moravia (which is a part of the CR but kind of thought of as its own country) with a school trip that the day before had taken us to a glass blowing factory full of men in funny outfits blowing glass for rich people. As an Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene graduate this factory would not have passed any health guidelines and standards (and the porn calendars on the walls would have gotten a thumbs down in the US as well) The bus took us about three hours from Prague southerly, once we left Prague the countryside is breathtaking and amazing and reminds me of Kansas and the land of Oz mixed together. I thought long and hard about buying the fam some glass at the store but decided it would be a travel nightmare so I just took pictures of what I would have bought you :) We did a wine tasting which was pretty in depth and we all left the cellar feeling good :) HISTORY TIDBIT: Moravia is wine country and has a high unemployment rate since they joined the EU, this is because limits were put on the agriculture once they joined. We then made it to the small town of mikoluv which is near the Austrian border, and in wine country. We stayed in a nice hotel (not a hostel for once!) which even had a ba-day (not sure how to spell that). On Saturday we were up early for some good FREE! breakfast which I'm not sure if I;ve written about yet but is very different then our typical breakfast food. Here in the Czech republic its always salami, ham, cheese, bread rolls, some yogurt and cereal and sausages. My French roommates always have chocolate and sweet thingsfor breakfast which is different but awesome! then we went to Vienna Austria. we only had 5 hours there and after experiencing some large travel group stress we broke up into smaller groups and went to a produce/flea market and had some Vienna coffee and high on caffeine and life wandered the town finding many important buildings and monuments. We saw the summer palaces of the Hapsburg family which I am learning alot about in Cultural history class beautiful fruit and sweet stands at the market, saw some amazing break dancers (I love the random things that we run into). They prayed before they dance and said "we've got to pray to make it through the day" .
Tried the so-called famous Sacher cake which was very disappointing and then we hung out in a park and played Frisbee for a bit and stumbled upon some cool graffiti. The bus took us back to Mikoluv for a fancy dinner. The week was shaping up to make me feel very dignified and mature.
But alas as cool as all of this is none of it was part of the most perfect-us day. After drinking wine for a good portion of the night with my colleagues (this is what the czech students call their class mates) I got up early to climb this little hill with a chapel on it and watch the sun rise. I made it to the chateau and took pictures of the beautiful scenery and the gardens. As a friend and i were walking back to the hotel to change for Easter mass we stopped in an antique store in a small alley way....as we were looking the older man at his desk started talking to us in czech. I responded my usual response "ne mluvime czesky" ( I don't speak Czech) and he breaks out in English with a great British sounding accent. It turns out he lived in Chicago, California and australia, so we had a good long conversation and it was great :) it made my heart smile that I could have somethings in common and things to talk about with a man in a store in a small alley way in a small town in Moravia. Made it to Ester mass which was said in Czech, an set in an amazingly beautiful church. (this is a common theme I am finding) each church i go into is so elaborately decorated with elegant paintings and statues. A little girl got baptized and I realized that the songs the sing have the same melody, which means they are the same songs and responses we have.
We left mass at 11:25, some friends and i decided to break off from the school group and figure out a way to explore Vienna for another day. It just so happens that one of my flat mates is kind of dating a boy from Moravia and he invited her to his hometown which was close to Mikoluv, my roomie and i tagged along (after asking him first of course). The train to his town left at 12:05. We literally ran up this hill and stopped in the antique store to get a quick souvenir which our new friend gave us for cheap cause he is so cool. We booked it to where we thought the train station might be wandered into a building by the tracks and the adventure begins!! In smaller town Moravia not many people speak English so we tried to communicate with the lady we wanted to go to Znojmo, we wrote it down for her and she frantically pointed outside. So we ran out and jumped on the train. With no idea whether it was the right one fr not or if we would get thrown off for not having tickets we stayed on. It was an adrenaline rush and turned out we had made it to the right one. Once in Znojmo we met Lucas's family and his mom made us a bomb-dig home made lunch, he drove us (after not riding in a car for a few moths it was cool) to a castle near his house that we toured, saw some beautiful countryside, went for a little nature hike around the castle, and to top it off he took us to his wine cellar and vineyard. That's right I am now on the prowl for a Moravian boy that has a family vineyard! His dad met us there and we tested the wine and heard the history of the cellar belonging to Germans during the occupation and how to make wine and such and such. It was like our own private tour and I loved loved loved meeting the locals and seeing a family and eating home cooked meals. These are the kind f adventures that I live for! I hate to say it but monuments and churches and castles all start to look the same after awhile. I think i smiled all day long and it kept getting bigger and bigger because of all the cool things that happened.
The monday after easter they have a tradition there that the men and boys go to girls houses and hit them with a stick that has ribbons on the end, this is to keep them young and pretty and healthy. The girls then have to give them alcohol or food. We walked around small Znojmo on monday and it was funny seeing small boys and grown men rushing around with their sticks. It was a cloudy day but we saw the rest of the city and got on a bus back to Prague. The bus was full but there were people that had no problem standing for the 3 hour bus ride in the alley. It was also cool to see the samll town buses and how at every station there were small groups of people saying hello and good bye to their loved ones. Most Czech students go home almost every weekend.
I am uploading the pictures on to picasa which I got running, let me know if you need the link!
April 4th 2010
The most perfect-us day
This day was amazing, I of course am writing it after the fact because I only ever have time to make bullet points and try to remember all the amazing things that happen to me on adventures. but this one goes down in history :)
I was in Mikoluv Moravia (which is a part of the CR but kind of thought of as its own country) with a school trip that the day before had taken us to a glass blowing factory full of men in funny outfits blowing glass for rich people. As an Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene graduate this factory would not have passed any health guidelines and standards (and the porn calendars on the walls would have gotten a thumbs down in the US as well) The bus took us about three hours from Prague southerly, once we left Prague the countryside is breathtaking and amazing and reminds me of Kansas and the land of Oz mixed together. I thought long and hard about buying the fam some glass at the store but decided it would be a travel nightmare so I just took pictures of what I would have bought you :) We did a wine tasting which was pretty in depth and we all left the cellar feeling good :) HISTORY TIDBIT: Moravia is wine country and has a high unemployment rate since they joined the EU, this is because limits were put on the agriculture once they joined. We then made it to the small town of mikoluv which is near the Austrian border, and in wine country. We stayed in a nice hotel (not a hostel for once!) which even had a ba-day (not sure how to spell that). On Saturday we were up early for some good FREE! breakfast which I'm not sure if I;ve written about yet but is very different then our typical breakfast food. Here in the Czech republic its always salami, ham, cheese, bread rolls, some yogurt and cereal and sausages. My French roommates always have chocolate and sweet thingsfor breakfast which is different but awesome! then we went to Vienna Austria. we only had 5 hours there and after experiencing some large travel group stress we broke up into smaller groups and went to a produce/flea market and had some Vienna coffee and high on caffeine and life wandered the town finding many important buildings and monuments. We saw the summer palaces of the Hapsburg family which I am learning alot about in Cultural history class beautiful fruit and sweet stands at the market, saw some amazing break dancers (I love the random things that we run into). They prayed before they dance and said "we've got to pray to make it through the day" .
Tried the so-called famous Sacher cake which was very disappointing and then we hung out in a park and played Frisbee for a bit and stumbled upon some cool graffiti. The bus took us back to Mikoluv for a fancy dinner. The week was shaping up to make me feel very dignified and mature.
But alas as cool as all of this is none of it was part of the most perfect-us day. After drinking wine for a good portion of the night with my colleagues (this is what the czech students call their class mates) I got up early to climb this little hill with a chapel on it and watch the sun rise. I made it to the chateau and took pictures of the beautiful scenery and the gardens. As a friend and i were walking back to the hotel to change for Easter mass we stopped in an antique store in a small alley way....as we were looking the older man at his desk started talking to us in czech. I responded my usual response "ne mluvime czesky" ( I don't speak Czech) and he breaks out in English with a great British sounding accent. It turns out he lived in Chicago, California and australia, so we had a good long conversation and it was great :) it made my heart smile that I could have somethings in common and things to talk about with a man in a store in a small alley way in a small town in Moravia. Made it to Ester mass which was said in Czech, an set in an amazingly beautiful church. (this is a common theme I am finding) each church i go into is so elaborately decorated with elegant paintings and statues. A little girl got baptized and I realized that the songs the sing have the same melody, which means they are the same songs and responses we have.
We left mass at 11:25, some friends and i decided to break off from the school group and figure out a way to explore Vienna for another day. It just so happens that one of my flat mates is kind of dating a boy from Moravia and he invited her to his hometown which was close to Mikoluv, my roomie and i tagged along (after asking him first of course). The train to his town left at 12:05. We literally ran up this hill and stopped in the antique store to get a quick souvenir which our new friend gave us for cheap cause he is so cool. We booked it to where we thought the train station might be wandered into a building by the tracks and the adventure begins!! In smaller town Moravia not many people speak English so we tried to communicate with the lady we wanted to go to Znojmo, we wrote it down for her and she frantically pointed outside. So we ran out and jumped on the train. With no idea whether it was the right one fr not or if we would get thrown off for not having tickets we stayed on. It was an adrenaline rush and turned out we had made it to the right one. Once in Znojmo we met Lucas's family and his mom made us a bomb-dig home made lunch, he drove us (after not riding in a car for a few moths it was cool) to a castle near his house that we toured, saw some beautiful countryside, went for a little nature hike around the castle, and to top it off he took us to his wine cellar and vineyard. That's right I am now on the prowl for a Moravian boy that has a family vineyard! His dad met us there and we tested the wine and heard the history of the cellar belonging to Germans during the occupation and how to make wine and such and such. It was like our own private tour and I loved loved loved meeting the locals and seeing a family and eating home cooked meals. These are the kind f adventures that I live for! I hate to say it but monuments and churches and castles all start to look the same after awhile. I think i smiled all day long and it kept getting bigger and bigger because of all the cool things that happened.
The monday after easter they have a tradition there that the men and boys go to girls houses and hit them with a stick that has ribbons on the end, this is to keep them young and pretty and healthy. The girls then have to give them alcohol or food. We walked around small Znojmo on monday and it was funny seeing small boys and grown men rushing around with their sticks. It was a cloudy day but we saw the rest of the city and got on a bus back to Prague. The bus was full but there were people that had no problem standing for the 3 hour bus ride in the alley. It was also cool to see the samll town buses and how at every station there were small groups of people saying hello and good bye to their loved ones. Most Czech students go home almost every weekend.
I am uploading the pictures on to picasa which I got running, let me know if you need the link!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Cyber Laundromat- sounds like an out of body experience, but it's not.
I'm on a blogging rampage this week!
At the laundromat now (Prague CYBER Laundromat to be exact) which is always a fun experience. Yesterday was cloudy and cold but we've got another nice one today, very sunny. I went out for a friends birthday at a nice thai restaurant last night. It was pretty fancy and the most I've spent on a meal here yet. 200 Kc which is about 10 dollars. But it was nice to have something a little different with some spice to it. I may have mentioned but the food here is not very flavorful and they don't provide sauces at all. You have to pay for Ketchup!!!! (ahhhhhh) One thing that does have flavor here is a dessert called Medovnik. It is a Czech dessert i guess and i finally tried it yesterday. YUMMM It's a honey cake with lot's of layers of cake and frosting-ish stuff and then this crushed cookie on top...delish! Another point for the Czech Republic.
Tonight I'm going to a music and film festival after class then will probably hang out with some freinds over a beer. I'm going on a school trip to Southern Moravia and Vienna this weekend. A lot of Czeh and Slovak students are going home for Easter weekend. We don't have school on Monday, my Czech friend Hana invited me back to her home town on Monday for Easter celebrations. A tradition here is on Easter Monday the boys knock on teh doors and have these special Easter sticks that they hit the girls with. It's supposed to keep the girls looking nice and young for the coming year (hmmmm unusual way to go about it :)) Then the girls give them candy or alcohol. I'm kind of oddly excited about seeing this play out. They are selling the sticks all over in the stores, they are just woven branches with ribbons on the end. I'm trying to figure out a bus from Vienna to her smaller town in teh Czech Republic. If that doesn't pan out I think I'm gonna leave the school group on Sunday and find a hiking place and do that on monday. Yay for spring~!
Czech words I know:
Smirzlina: Ice Cream
Dobre Den: good day
Ajoy: hi
Dekuji: Thank you
Prosime: please
Prominte: excuse me
Ne Mluvime Czesky: i don't speak czech
Sem Americanka: I am American
Potriviny: store/shop
Tabak: tobacco store where you can by tram tickets and snacks
Zen: here
Pivo: beer
Jedno Pivo Prosime: another beer please :)
At the laundromat now (Prague CYBER Laundromat to be exact) which is always a fun experience. Yesterday was cloudy and cold but we've got another nice one today, very sunny. I went out for a friends birthday at a nice thai restaurant last night. It was pretty fancy and the most I've spent on a meal here yet. 200 Kc which is about 10 dollars. But it was nice to have something a little different with some spice to it. I may have mentioned but the food here is not very flavorful and they don't provide sauces at all. You have to pay for Ketchup!!!! (ahhhhhh) One thing that does have flavor here is a dessert called Medovnik. It is a Czech dessert i guess and i finally tried it yesterday. YUMMM It's a honey cake with lot's of layers of cake and frosting-ish stuff and then this crushed cookie on top...delish! Another point for the Czech Republic.
Tonight I'm going to a music and film festival after class then will probably hang out with some freinds over a beer. I'm going on a school trip to Southern Moravia and Vienna this weekend. A lot of Czeh and Slovak students are going home for Easter weekend. We don't have school on Monday, my Czech friend Hana invited me back to her home town on Monday for Easter celebrations. A tradition here is on Easter Monday the boys knock on teh doors and have these special Easter sticks that they hit the girls with. It's supposed to keep the girls looking nice and young for the coming year (hmmmm unusual way to go about it :)) Then the girls give them candy or alcohol. I'm kind of oddly excited about seeing this play out. They are selling the sticks all over in the stores, they are just woven branches with ribbons on the end. I'm trying to figure out a bus from Vienna to her smaller town in teh Czech Republic. If that doesn't pan out I think I'm gonna leave the school group on Sunday and find a hiking place and do that on monday. Yay for spring~!
Czech words I know:
Smirzlina: Ice Cream
Dobre Den: good day
Ajoy: hi
Dekuji: Thank you
Prosime: please
Prominte: excuse me
Ne Mluvime Czesky: i don't speak czech
Sem Americanka: I am American
Potriviny: store/shop
Tabak: tobacco store where you can by tram tickets and snacks
Zen: here
Pivo: beer
Jedno Pivo Prosime: another beer please :)
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