Sorry it's been so long since I made a blog post, I've been SUPER busy the last few weeks. However, I have some time now to sit down and write a long post and explain all that I've been doing!
My last post was the first night I got to Prague, and a lot has happened since then. I've gone to Plzen, Cesky Krumlov, all around Prague, I've planned out my European trips, and I've taken over 600 pictures.
Let's start from the beginning.
The program I'm in at Charles University is called Eastern and Central European Studies (ECES). The first week we were here, they required us to go on two cultural activity trips to different places in the Czech Republic. I chose to go on the "Castle Tour" and the "Plzen Tour".
Castle Tour: We went to two different castles, but they are owned by the same family. Different branches that don't speak and haven't spoken since somewhere around the 1600s, but still the same family... The Lobkiewicz Family. They weren't what I was expecting... they are more like Chateaus. Which are fine and all, but I wanted to see the HUGE Gothic towers and the great architecture and what not. Basically I just saw a lot of people's stuff from back in the day and how they lived and what not. The typical museum tour, you could say. That day was fun, but not what I wanted.
Plzen Tour: This tour was AMAZING. We went to this little town called Plzen which is about an hour and a half from Prague. It's where the Pilsner Beer was invented. We heard a lot of great stories about the town (like how one general was trying to siege the town but he didn't realize they had tunnels underground so they could go out and get food and water during the night, so he brought in a camel to frighten them into thinking it was a devil. Well, the town is known for beer so they sent him and his troops a few barrels of beer, waited until they got drunk and went to sleep, went out and stole the camel. They then put it on their side of their defense wall, in plain sight of the general. He called off the siege and asked for his camel back so he could return it to the Sheik he had borrowed it from. The Plzen people said no, they were keeping it... so their town crest has a camel in it now!) Anyway, we went up into this awesome church tower and got fantastic views of the entire city! I got some great pictures from that one!! Then we went on a brewery tour, which was also amazing. They have been brewing the same beer since 1838ish, and apparently they found original documents recently that gave ratings to their beer in a ton of categories and the actual chemical readings and such, and from then until now the changes only start to happen at the 0.0001 level. So basically, it's the same beer as in 1838. WOW! That was pretty impressive to me. Oh! And we got to go down into their cellars and get the freshest Pilsner Urquell in the world, it has absolutely zero preservatives in it because it is only for tours and employees to drink in the cellars. That's the only place in the WORLD you can drink it like that. And we got free mugs =]
Cesky Krumlov: If you ever get a chance to go anywhere in the world, ever, go to Cesky Krumlov. It is considered the most beautiful place in the Czech Republic, but I think it's the most beautiful place in the world. I want to move there. I want to retire there, seriously. It is so amazingly fabulous/gorgeous/quaint/perfect/hospitable, etc etc etc. It's the perfect clash of old and new. The people that live there basically thrive on tourism, but that's okay because they NEVER run out. It is amazing. I'll post a few pics of it, but it can't even be explained in those. You have to see it for yourself. WOW. We saw the Cesky Krumlov Castle, which was definitely the type of castle that I can pictured in my mind. It was built in 1251 and has been standing ever since. We sat in a chapel that was literally built 750 years ago.. I'm amazed. They have one of the 2 Baroque Theaters in the world that are restored. There are only 5 left, but only the ones in Cesky Krumlov and Vienna are restored and used for tourism and shows. I also had something called trdelnik here. It's sweet bread dough, wrapped around a steel pin that rotates over a fire and cooks it like that. Then, while it's still piping hot, they roll it in cinnamon sugar with roasted almonds in it (or you can get it with walnuts, without nuts or with chocolate on the inside). I'm addicted... I can't stop eating trdelnik. I have had somewhere around 5 since I got back to Prague, and I had to use some SERIOUS will power to not buy another today when I walked past the stand. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.
Prague: Now, onto my new home! So far I've been to school, Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Petrin Hill, Prague Castle, the John Lennon Wall, the Rudolfinum, Charles Bridge, and more. I'll describe my touristy days (the ones where I actually went to do things, other than just school and sleeping! I'm trying to fight off a cold).
Day 1: I got up that morning (Sunday) and decided that I wanted to go up to Petrin Hill that day. So I got some friends together and we went to Bohemia Bagel for breakfast (which is this amazing little American-owned bagel place with American breakfast foods!! I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a supreme bagel, in case you were wondering!) Then after that, we walked down to the Charles Bridge. That bridge is beautiful. It crosses over the Vltava River and goes from one side of town over to the Castle side of town. Amazing views, tons of tourist trap little carts (which I haven't fallen into yet, but I also haven't done any Christmas shopping yet!!), and a sense that what you do is really very insignificant in the world. Not in a bad way, but in a good way. Things will go on whether you make bad or good decisions, so don't dawdle too much on the bad ones because they'll go away eventually. That's my best way of explaining it I guess. Anyway, up to Petrin Hill. There is a funicular (tram) that goes up this gigantic hill next to Prague Castle in this enormous park. When you get to the top, there is a HUGE rose garden. I swear, it goes on for miles. I know I keep saying everything is beautiful, but this entire COUNTRY is amazingly beautiful. You'll never really understand it until you come here, I know I didn't. Anyway, at the top there is also a 1/3 scale sized model of the Eiffel Tower that you can climb up on and get panoramic views of the city. My legs were still sore from the LAST huge tower I had to climb, so I'll do that another time. There were still amazing views though! We opted to walk back down instead of taking the tram so we could see the rest of the park. When you're in the trees, you feel like you're in a forest. I loved it! There are little abandoned buildings that have perfect views of the city and a small cafe that, again, overlooks the city. I'm going to go do homework there tomorrow I think! Or just take my Kindle and read up there! =]
Day 2: After class on Monday (I get out at 2), me and a bunch of girls decide we're going to go up to the Castle since none of us had seen it yet. On the way, we stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This is really just a wall that, during Communism, the young people would go there and spray paint Beatles lyrics and pictures and peace signs, etc. It was a way for them to express themselves against the current political situation. The government would paint over it, and basically overnight there would be more drawings put up. This went on until maybe 5 years ago. The people that own it now have just come to terms with the fact that their wall will never be clean, and it's a landmark in Prague. It started out and a symbol for peace and faith that something better will come along, and it's still inspiring that message to the youth. I thought it was a great thing. Anyway, then we continued on up this HUGE hill to Prague Castle. I have never felt so out of shape in my life as I have on this trip, but this one topped the cake. It's STEEP and LONG. Oh well. I made it, without too much huffing and puffing (the whole time I was cursing myself for not going to the gym like I always said I would... which I will be doing when I get home). So we got to the top, took about a MILLION pictures, and then walked back to the metro station. On the way there though, we found this place that was literally called "The Secret Garden". It was behind these big wooden doors, and it was where the Senate House was! Amazing. There was also this really creepy/weird thing called a dripstone wall, but it had like animals and faces and stuff in it... strange.
Today after class, my teacher took us over to the Astronomical Clock Tower and paid for us to go up into the tower! It was great!! The views of Old Town Square were awesome, you could see all of Prague from up there!! Totally worth the climb. I could have taken the elevator, but I want to attempt to work off all the fried cheese sandwiches and trdelnik I've been eating... haha. Well, I've only had 2 fried cheese sandwiches, and if you knew how good they are you would be impressed. They're like a mozzarella stick in patty shape, smushed between 2 buns... and I like to put ketchup on mine =] SO good. Oh! The food!! The goulash is delicious, dumplings are good but I feel like I can't eat very much of them... traditional Czech food is very heavy. They have TONS of Italian food here though, so I like that. Also oodles and oodles of bakeries, which is awesome and crappy at the same time. Awesome for my tastebuds, crappy for my health haha. So, I work on willpower and self control!
Czech people have this very big coffeehouse tradition. There are cute little quaint coffeehouses and what not all over the place. They are all amazing, mostly all are cheap, and they also have pastries. I know, again with the pastries. But it's their tradition!! Who am I to mess with that?? They do coffee and cake basically everyday. Which is actually what I was out doing before I got home. Our program advisor takes us out to coffee and cakes at different types of cafes and what not, pays for it, tells us some history, answers any and every question we have, and we generally just hang out! It's pretty awesome.
Let's get down to the good stuff now... PICTURES!! I'm not going to post a whole ton of them on here, just my favorites. These are the ones that I'm going to get blown up, framed, and hang up when I get home.
My last post was the first night I got to Prague, and a lot has happened since then. I've gone to Plzen, Cesky Krumlov, all around Prague, I've planned out my European trips, and I've taken over 600 pictures.
Let's start from the beginning.
The program I'm in at Charles University is called Eastern and Central European Studies (ECES). The first week we were here, they required us to go on two cultural activity trips to different places in the Czech Republic. I chose to go on the "Castle Tour" and the "Plzen Tour".
Castle Tour: We went to two different castles, but they are owned by the same family. Different branches that don't speak and haven't spoken since somewhere around the 1600s, but still the same family... The Lobkiewicz Family. They weren't what I was expecting... they are more like Chateaus. Which are fine and all, but I wanted to see the HUGE Gothic towers and the great architecture and what not. Basically I just saw a lot of people's stuff from back in the day and how they lived and what not. The typical museum tour, you could say. That day was fun, but not what I wanted.
Plzen Tour: This tour was AMAZING. We went to this little town called Plzen which is about an hour and a half from Prague. It's where the Pilsner Beer was invented. We heard a lot of great stories about the town (like how one general was trying to siege the town but he didn't realize they had tunnels underground so they could go out and get food and water during the night, so he brought in a camel to frighten them into thinking it was a devil. Well, the town is known for beer so they sent him and his troops a few barrels of beer, waited until they got drunk and went to sleep, went out and stole the camel. They then put it on their side of their defense wall, in plain sight of the general. He called off the siege and asked for his camel back so he could return it to the Sheik he had borrowed it from. The Plzen people said no, they were keeping it... so their town crest has a camel in it now!) Anyway, we went up into this awesome church tower and got fantastic views of the entire city! I got some great pictures from that one!! Then we went on a brewery tour, which was also amazing. They have been brewing the same beer since 1838ish, and apparently they found original documents recently that gave ratings to their beer in a ton of categories and the actual chemical readings and such, and from then until now the changes only start to happen at the 0.0001 level. So basically, it's the same beer as in 1838. WOW! That was pretty impressive to me. Oh! And we got to go down into their cellars and get the freshest Pilsner Urquell in the world, it has absolutely zero preservatives in it because it is only for tours and employees to drink in the cellars. That's the only place in the WORLD you can drink it like that. And we got free mugs =]
Cesky Krumlov: If you ever get a chance to go anywhere in the world, ever, go to Cesky Krumlov. It is considered the most beautiful place in the Czech Republic, but I think it's the most beautiful place in the world. I want to move there. I want to retire there, seriously. It is so amazingly fabulous/gorgeous/quaint/perfect/hospitable, etc etc etc. It's the perfect clash of old and new. The people that live there basically thrive on tourism, but that's okay because they NEVER run out. It is amazing. I'll post a few pics of it, but it can't even be explained in those. You have to see it for yourself. WOW. We saw the Cesky Krumlov Castle, which was definitely the type of castle that I can pictured in my mind. It was built in 1251 and has been standing ever since. We sat in a chapel that was literally built 750 years ago.. I'm amazed. They have one of the 2 Baroque Theaters in the world that are restored. There are only 5 left, but only the ones in Cesky Krumlov and Vienna are restored and used for tourism and shows. I also had something called trdelnik here. It's sweet bread dough, wrapped around a steel pin that rotates over a fire and cooks it like that. Then, while it's still piping hot, they roll it in cinnamon sugar with roasted almonds in it (or you can get it with walnuts, without nuts or with chocolate on the inside). I'm addicted... I can't stop eating trdelnik. I have had somewhere around 5 since I got back to Prague, and I had to use some SERIOUS will power to not buy another today when I walked past the stand. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.
Prague: Now, onto my new home! So far I've been to school, Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Petrin Hill, Prague Castle, the John Lennon Wall, the Rudolfinum, Charles Bridge, and more. I'll describe my touristy days (the ones where I actually went to do things, other than just school and sleeping! I'm trying to fight off a cold).
Day 1: I got up that morning (Sunday) and decided that I wanted to go up to Petrin Hill that day. So I got some friends together and we went to Bohemia Bagel for breakfast (which is this amazing little American-owned bagel place with American breakfast foods!! I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a supreme bagel, in case you were wondering!) Then after that, we walked down to the Charles Bridge. That bridge is beautiful. It crosses over the Vltava River and goes from one side of town over to the Castle side of town. Amazing views, tons of tourist trap little carts (which I haven't fallen into yet, but I also haven't done any Christmas shopping yet!!), and a sense that what you do is really very insignificant in the world. Not in a bad way, but in a good way. Things will go on whether you make bad or good decisions, so don't dawdle too much on the bad ones because they'll go away eventually. That's my best way of explaining it I guess. Anyway, up to Petrin Hill. There is a funicular (tram) that goes up this gigantic hill next to Prague Castle in this enormous park. When you get to the top, there is a HUGE rose garden. I swear, it goes on for miles. I know I keep saying everything is beautiful, but this entire COUNTRY is amazingly beautiful. You'll never really understand it until you come here, I know I didn't. Anyway, at the top there is also a 1/3 scale sized model of the Eiffel Tower that you can climb up on and get panoramic views of the city. My legs were still sore from the LAST huge tower I had to climb, so I'll do that another time. There were still amazing views though! We opted to walk back down instead of taking the tram so we could see the rest of the park. When you're in the trees, you feel like you're in a forest. I loved it! There are little abandoned buildings that have perfect views of the city and a small cafe that, again, overlooks the city. I'm going to go do homework there tomorrow I think! Or just take my Kindle and read up there! =]
Day 2: After class on Monday (I get out at 2), me and a bunch of girls decide we're going to go up to the Castle since none of us had seen it yet. On the way, we stopped at the John Lennon Wall. This is really just a wall that, during Communism, the young people would go there and spray paint Beatles lyrics and pictures and peace signs, etc. It was a way for them to express themselves against the current political situation. The government would paint over it, and basically overnight there would be more drawings put up. This went on until maybe 5 years ago. The people that own it now have just come to terms with the fact that their wall will never be clean, and it's a landmark in Prague. It started out and a symbol for peace and faith that something better will come along, and it's still inspiring that message to the youth. I thought it was a great thing. Anyway, then we continued on up this HUGE hill to Prague Castle. I have never felt so out of shape in my life as I have on this trip, but this one topped the cake. It's STEEP and LONG. Oh well. I made it, without too much huffing and puffing (the whole time I was cursing myself for not going to the gym like I always said I would... which I will be doing when I get home). So we got to the top, took about a MILLION pictures, and then walked back to the metro station. On the way there though, we found this place that was literally called "The Secret Garden". It was behind these big wooden doors, and it was where the Senate House was! Amazing. There was also this really creepy/weird thing called a dripstone wall, but it had like animals and faces and stuff in it... strange.
Today after class, my teacher took us over to the Astronomical Clock Tower and paid for us to go up into the tower! It was great!! The views of Old Town Square were awesome, you could see all of Prague from up there!! Totally worth the climb. I could have taken the elevator, but I want to attempt to work off all the fried cheese sandwiches and trdelnik I've been eating... haha. Well, I've only had 2 fried cheese sandwiches, and if you knew how good they are you would be impressed. They're like a mozzarella stick in patty shape, smushed between 2 buns... and I like to put ketchup on mine =] SO good. Oh! The food!! The goulash is delicious, dumplings are good but I feel like I can't eat very much of them... traditional Czech food is very heavy. They have TONS of Italian food here though, so I like that. Also oodles and oodles of bakeries, which is awesome and crappy at the same time. Awesome for my tastebuds, crappy for my health haha. So, I work on willpower and self control!
Czech people have this very big coffeehouse tradition. There are cute little quaint coffeehouses and what not all over the place. They are all amazing, mostly all are cheap, and they also have pastries. I know, again with the pastries. But it's their tradition!! Who am I to mess with that?? They do coffee and cake basically everyday. Which is actually what I was out doing before I got home. Our program advisor takes us out to coffee and cakes at different types of cafes and what not, pays for it, tells us some history, answers any and every question we have, and we generally just hang out! It's pretty awesome.
Let's get down to the good stuff now... PICTURES!! I'm not going to post a whole ton of them on here, just my favorites. These are the ones that I'm going to get blown up, framed, and hang up when I get home.
This was just a mirror in the Castle plaza that used to be used for backing up, but I don't think it serves that purpose anymore haha.
John Lennon Wall
John Lennon Wall
John Lennon Wall
Rose Garden on Petrin Hill
Prague and Prague Castle
Astronomical Clock
Horse! They do horse and buggy rides around Prague for tourists. I'm going to do it in the winter time, around Christmas. So basically right before I leave =]
Cesky Krumlov
Cesky Krumlov
Cesky Krumlov
Flags? I don't know, I just liked it.
Cesky Krumlov (See?? How could I NOT want to retire here??)
Chairs at a cafe in Cesky Krumlov
Cappuccino in Plzen.
Tomorrow I have my final in my "Intensive Czech Language" class, which is a really hard language to learn, by the way. Not easy, and I pick up languages quickly. Oh well!
OH! My European adventures!!
With 3 other girls I'm going to:
Paris
Florence
Budapest
Copenhagen
Croatia
With my Dad (I'm meeting him there):
Dublin
With AIFS (my program):
Krakow
Vienna
Brno (Czech wine country)
Berlin
So basically, starting October 1st I will be gone every weekend for 10 weeks. I can't wait!! It'll make the semester go by faster, but I'm okay with that! I love Prague, but I miss my family, friends, boyfriend, dog, and tub shower. The shower here is tiny and I hate it. But I'll deal with it to live in this beautiful place for 4 months!!!!
