It’s fall break,
which means I thought I would spend the first few days in Prague admiring the
leaves that have been changing color. Instead, Prague seems to have wanted to
give the handful of us who hadn’t left town for various fall break excursions an early Christmas present on Saturday with the first snowfall! As we all know, smiling is not a thing here but I don't care if you're Czech something is seriously wrong with you if you don't smile when waking up to snow in Prague.
Charles Bridge in the snow.
Even though I couldn’t feel
my fingers fumbling with my camera, all the pictures on the Charles Bridge were
definitely worth dealing with the freezing weather. I live in a fairytale and
when Prague is covered in snow it is even more magical. After “frolicking” on
the bridge (our main goal for the day), Rachel and I hurried across the bridge
for some of the best hot chocolate in the city. We may have looked like wet
puppy dogs but the hot chocolate, meaning chocolate soup since I’m pretty sure
they just melt a dark chocolate bar, hit the spot! The rest of the day
consisted of movies, fried cheese and a porter at our pub with the girls before
our trip back to Budapest on Tuesday! It may have been a very simple day here
in Prague, but it will definitely be one I cherish when looking back.
Currently:
It’s past
midnight and I can’t sleep
I have a bus to
Budapest to catch in 6.5 hours
The time changed
and I probably wouldn’t have noticed if Rachel didn’t tell me
I just spent
another 5 minutes trying to think of a Budapest pun bud I was unsuccessful…I pest be off. Goodnight.
I am officially
on Fall Break! Even though it always feels like the weekend with 3 days of
class and we’ve agreed there’s not much “study” in “study abroad” it’ll be nice
to have a break from the classes that have taught me one thing: how to be in
class physically but not mentally.
It will be nice
to experience Prague now that it is fall and the leaves are changing colors.
Last weekend, I went back to the little town of Cesky Krumlov with Erica,
Marisa, and Erica’s mom and grandma who were visiting and it was beautiful. We
took more “senior” pictures, played in the leaves, and drank champagne in the
gardens. The rest of the weekend included a spur of the moment hang out at
a really fancy bar where the price of my drink was worth it just for the popcorn
and olives they give you. Then we walked over to karaoke where Sunny and I did
a wonderful take on Moulin Rouge’s “Your Song”.
My time here in
Prague is already half way over and as my bank account diminishes, and my
journal gets more filled with my quote-worthy friends and memories I never want
to forget, it’s about that time when everyone is getting a little homesick. In
order to deal with this I’ve composed a list of reminders for myself and fellow
abroad students even when you are craving a little taste of America.
What you want to
do: Go to McDonalds after a night of good clean family fun.
Result: Disgust
and shame
Instead: Drink
water and go to bed.
What you want to
do: Go to Starbucks
Result:
Satisfying but expensive
Instead: Go to a
café that you won’t be able to go to in 2 months
What you want to
do: Watch American TV shows and movies
Result: You
never leave your bed...I swear Hocus Pocus just popped onto my screen!
Instead: You’re
in Prague. DVR and illegal downloading sites were invented for a reason.
What you want to
do: Speak Czech
Result:
Czenglish.
Instead: Smile
and nod. Smile and nod.
Even though it
will be nice to come home to a house ready for Christmas and family time in
less than two months, if you tell me how many days left I have in Prague you
WILL regret it.I can’t handle all
the sentimental talks about not going back to school with these people. On a
happier note I received a care package with Top Ramen, Girl Scout Cookies and
various other goodies yesterday. Thank you, Grandmama!
Even Grandmama can get Girl Scouts this time of year.
What my Prague Family has been up to:
watching Mary-Kate & Ashley movies
using photobooth at random memorials in the middle of the night
using a potato as our "flat stanley"
continuing delicious weekly dinners
planning family vacations
having quality bonding time with lap tops and beer
dealing with my never-ending Harry Potter obsession
Pocket Bread and VLC. We are in the process of making a quote-wall so the wall isn't so bland for our weekly family dinner photos.
What my family back home has been up to:
Sydney has a new puppy! I have about 50 screenshots to suffice until I get to hold her in real life.
Happy Birthday Megan!
Happy Birthday Sydster!
I still don't know what Lyndsey is up to.
Mom and Dad are about to go on 30 years!
dealing with my never-ending Harry Potter obsession
If you are
“friends” with me on Facebook then you are probably very well aware of the
misery eight of us had to endure one frightful night in the Czech Republic last
weekend. If not, then you are in for quite the tale! But let’s not get ahead of
ourselves. It started out as a beautiful Friday morning with a day trip to some
historical sights out of town. Let me rephrase that…it started off as a dreary,
foggy, overcast morning when we had to board the bus for our field trip to the
town of Lidice, which was wiped out from the Earth’s surface and inhabitants
killed by nazi Germans.
There are so
many unanswered questions when looking back at these dark times in our world’s
history and these field trips only give me a glimpse into what so many innocent lives were forced to undergo. We got to walk through a museum in Lidice showing life before,
during, and after these tragic events took place in such a simple and quaint
town at the time.
This is a memorial dedicated to the children of Lidice. The flowers are from the Czech and German president- the first time a German president has ever visited the site.
Inside the work camp.
We then went to
Terezin, which was a kind of concentration camp, the last stop before the
extermination camps. Terezin also served as the particularly cruel prison for
resistance and political prisoners. The rainy day definitely set the mood for a
trip spent visiting towns with such a frightful past.
After the long bus ride I hurried home, changed out of my wet rain clothes, made some tea and began planning the rest of my life on Pinterest! If only that were the truth... Why would I pick a cozy evening when I could be hiking 35 miles through the stormy night with a bunch of incredibly fast-paced Czechs who wait for no one? Once we knew we were going to be late due to the traffic getting back from the field trip we were for some reason determined to not let anything stop us and called Jan. He then sent taxis so the crazy 8 of us could make it in time and spend the rest of the night pushing our bodies mentally and physically for the next 8-14 hours depending on which half of the group you were part of. The following video I have made will serve to somewhat explain that night:
35-mile Pilgrimage hiking tips!
1. Don't do it.
2. But really. Don't.
3. Even though its cold, you don't need to wear 5 layers when you have 15 hours of hiking ahead of you
4. When they say a flashlight might be helpful they mean to say "If you don't have a flashlight your chance for survival is slim, unless you have been gifted with night vision like most people in the Czech Republic apparently have been".
5. Make sure you have enough credit and battery on your barbie cell phone so you can use it as a backup flashlight, rather than wasting it to call people who will only tell you to "follow the red markers" if you are lost in the woods
6. Have a fully charged iPhone: If you find wi-fi at a miracle bus stop, czech-in on Facebook so everyone (including yourself) have some idea where in the world you are in relation to Prague.
7. Aragog may not be alive anymore, but who knows what else lurks in the woods of the Czech Republic so have some type of weapon
8. Don't go on 35-mile Pilgrimages because you will get delirious and die! Don't go on pilgrimages in the Czech Republic, don't go on pilgrimages anywhere else. Just don't do it, ok, promise? Ok now everybody take this giant wafer because that's all you get if you do the hike anyways.
The wafer you are given if you walk 15 miles like me, Sunny, Vanessa, and Jesse or walk 35 miles like Anna, Ken, Matt, and Nathan.
...but if for some reason you decide to go against hiking tips 1, 2, and 8 or just want that really disgusting wafer
This past
weekend we finally got to leave the Czech Republic for a fun yet exhausting
trip! We started out with none other than a hike to the Maiden Castle ruins
above the Vltava River where I was reppin my Cal Poly pride and got to pet a
goat. Our main stop for the night
was Cesky Krumlov the cutest town I’ve seen in the Czech Republic thus far. We went
on a Castle tour where no pictures were allowed, but Marisa luckily snuck one
of the theater, which was my favorite moment of the tour because it felt like a scene straight out of Finding Neverland.
Cesky Krumlov
The illegal photo of the theater.
Vienna, Austria.
Day two we left
for Vienna where we were rewarded some Schnitzel and amazing pumpkin soup after
hiking down a mile long hill of the vineyard we were not warned about (big
surprise). These unexpected hikes are really starting to get to us, as everyone
threatened to not leave the restaurant if we were going to have to walk back up
that hill. To be honest, the rest of Vienna is a blur and my first impression
of this city just was not the best. It was very upscale and there is no need to
grab a map of the city because you will never find where you are. We had a
lovely meal at my friend’s Aunt’s house and then we were off to the museums
that happened to be staying open until 3 am that night. I just wanted to see
some dinosaur bones and then I’d be happy. We went to a couple museums but the
fact that I was not going to see Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson I decided my night
at the museum was over after one of the statues waved bye to Erica and I (not
kidding).
In front of the Belvedere in Vienna, Austria.
The next day we
visited the Belvedere Palace’s gardens and went to the art museum where they
were celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gustav Klimt known for his
painting “The Kiss”. Getting lost just one last time, Rachel and I made it to
the bus on time and we were quite ready to say goodbye to Vienna and wake up in
Budapest!
After crossing the border into Hungary, we took a quick stop at the oldest abbey in Hungary, Pannonhalma which began in 996. We went on a guided tour with the coolest monk I will ever encounter wearing his jeans and vans. The best part was the library.
Buda and Pest. "Budapest? More like BudaBEST!" -Sunny
Budapest has won
favorite city by far! The fact that we were here for two nights also made us
feel way more relaxed on time and had more time to explore. We started the
night at a fancy restaurant where we were served the best soup in the world,
great wine, and some goulash and then took a night walk to the castle. They had
told us that it would be warm on this trip…I don’t know if that meant we have
totally different definitions of what “warm” means but I was freezing the
entire time since I did not pack a proper jacket. Good thing it was so BUDAful
(had to) that I didn’t mind walking in the cold. The next day started with a
ride on the metro that sounded like you just won a video game at the end of
each stop, and we were off to the Szechenyi Spas.
I stuck my feet in but Erica
and I decided we wanted to explore the city a little more. The whole day
consisted of adventures, taking “senior pics”, eating hummus, going to the
Central Market Hall, seeing a random statue of Ronald Reagan, and Jan, our program
director/favorite Czech, ran and jumped onto a really tall statue like a
beast.
This has been the most moving Holocaust memorial I have come across on this trip. These shoes represent the Jews of Budapest that were lined up and killed along the Danube waterfront during World War II.
Everything about
Budapest was amazing and the fact that I’m surrounded by such great friends
made it even better. A must go is the Szimpla Bar which is the 3rd
best bar in the world and THE best bar that I will ever go to. I don't know if I will ever find a place where bathtubs and old car parts are some of the provided seating. I’ve been
slacking on the pictures a bit but it is so hard to capture the places we go
through a camera lens. Guess I will just have to come back!
Leaving our mark at the Szimpla Bar. Hope to see you again.
Do I even need
to talk about Bratislava? It is the capital of Slovakia and this is the one
picture I took while there:
I never
thought….
I would get
tired of seeing castles
Eat a pepper
that was even too hot for ME to handle
Prefer my broken
Czech when surrounded by German and Hungarian
Be provided with Hungarian meats and cheeses as our "bus snack" and see a loaf of bread this big:
ONE MONTH. That is how long I have been in Prague now, which seems unreal. This past week it seems to have really hit us that we live here. Going to school, studying at local cafes, going grocery shopping every couple days all has become the norm and Prague feels more like a home than a foreign land. And, we have now made it a tradition for a weekly dinner with my R30 family.
Mac&Cheese night!
After hiking in Mikulov.
This weekend
there were two options: drink beer or drink wine. Meaning, half the program
went to Oktoberfest to buy 11 Euro beer, which just isn’t in my budget for this
fall considering the fact I’m living in a city with the best beer selection in the world;
and where you can buy .5 liter for about $1. So, instead a group of 15 of us
went on an overnight trip to the wine country of Moravia in the southeast of
the Czech Republic. We all signed up for this only knowing that we would be
wine tasting, and then because of the word choice in an email that was sent to
us we thought we were sleeping in a wine cellar. We honestly did not know what
to expect the moment the van picked us up Saturday morning. Hair did, sweater
and boots on we were all ready for a relaxing weekend at a vineyard...right?
But in hindsight, have we ever gone on a trip without some form of hiking
involved? We should’ve known...
The group in Lednice.
Sisters, reflect
back to the land cruiser and how we always fought over sitting in the back
because it was so bumpy. Well, imagine having to sit in a van that bumpy for
four hours. But don’t worry, “My
Heart Will Go On” was one of about ten songs that were consecutively being
played on and on and on to muffle the squeaking of the wheels that sounded like
they could’ve fallen off any moment. And it wasn’t until the last 5 minutes of
the return journey that the AC started dripping all over Garrett and Nathan in
the back.
Climbing the stairs of the observation tower.
The first stop
with Tony the bus driver and Geiger our leading man, was the South-Moravian
town of Mikulov, where we were told, once we got there, that we would be hiking
up a hill: sweaters and all. Our next stop was a castle and Unesco Park of
Lednice, where we had yet another hour and a half walking around a lake, 302
steps up a tower made by the man who invented the pencil, and Nico and Marisa
who chose not to climb the tower got their official archery certificates so can
now take part in the next Hunger Games.
As the day
continued all of us were getting more exhausted, hungry, and in a desperate
need for some wine. We finally made it to our final destination of the small
town of Boretice for wine tasting in the cellar from the 1700s. Even being pre-warned to eat a
lot of food, with seven hours of drinking as much wine as you desire ahead of
you, no amount of bread could save you at this point. First of all, wine
tasting is a bit different than back at home. Rather than sipping and spitting
out a small portion of wine, our glasses were poured half way full and then we
were rushed to gulp it down before the wine pourer came back to us. The next 6
hours that followed would include bread, wine, wine, bread, wine, and doing the
YMCA with Czechs: something everyone should experience in their lifetime.
Wine tasting!
The main attraction on Sunday
The next morning
began with a man giving anyone who wanted them some Cuban cigars when all we
wanted to do was get home. And when we finally left we got lost, stuck in
traffic, and thought of new ways to get comfy in a very tiny bus. Let’s just
say the highlight of Sunday was seeing a huge mushroom. Overall though, it
ended up being a great trip I got to share with my closest friends here!
The wine cellar!
Lessons learned:
When going on a hunt for Mexican food, don't forget your Czech phrase book so you understand that they went to the bank and will be back soon.
Keep track of the ratio of bread eaten to wine drunk
Sleeping in the
wine cellar would have been less creepy than sleeping where we actually had to
Czechs are
horrible drivers
If you are
British you WILL be the center of attention
Even though I couldn’t feel
my fingers fumbling with my camera, all the pictures on the Charles Bridge were
definitely worth dealing with the freezing weather. I live in a fairytale and
when Prague is covered in snow it is even more magical. After “frolicking” on
the bridge (our main goal for the day), Rachel and I hurried across the bridge
for some of the best hot chocolate in the city. We may have looked like wet
puppy dogs but the hot chocolate, meaning chocolate soup since I’m pretty sure
they just melt a dark chocolate bar, hit the spot! The rest of the day
consisted of movies, fried cheese and a porter at our pub with the girls before
our trip back to Budapest on Tuesday! It may have been a very simple day here
in Prague, but it will definitely be one I cherish when looking back.
