Weekend in Prague

Last week we had about three days of class and left for our first field trip to Prague on Thursday.  We left early in the morning and we got there at about ten.  It was only a two hour train ride so it was pretty fun.  I've never been on a train like this one before, it had six seats in a little room.  I was just glad that it wasn't too crowded in our pod.  Once we arrived in Prague we started walking to our hostel which was only about a ten minute walk.  We were able to see a lot of buildings that were used by the Germans during World War II.  The buildings we saw at first were just barracks for troops.  We all made it to our hostel and found our rooms then unpacked.  There was only four of us in the room we were in so we had a pretty good time hanging out with each other.  Once we got unpacked and situated we started walking around Prague with our Professors Jan and Martin.  They took us to a church that, in the early 1940's, was used to hold the allied troops that assassinated Reinhard Heydrich.  Heydrich was the Nazi official who stayed in Prague and led the occupation of Czechoslovakia.  We were able to see the memorials of the fallen allied troops in the basement of the church because they were found, and they died in the church.  After the church our professors let us go for the day and a few of us started exploring.  All we really did was find a place to eat and then went to the Charles Bridge for a while.  Later that evening, a couple of friends and I went to the Charles Bridge and got a little lost.  We eventually found it then realized that we have to get back to the hostel.  Once we got back to the hostel we figured out that we took a longer route to the bridge than we needed too.  On Friday, we went to the Charles Bridge with our professors, and they gave us a little historical background of the bridge.  As we were taking our pictures of the bridge, it started to rain a little bit.  At first there were just sprinkles, then we decided to keep going.  Our next stop was the Lennon wall, and the wall was beautiful.  There were all different colors and pictures.  It was really a great thing to see in Prague, and as we were soaking it all in it started to rain harder, and we had to find shelter until the rain stopped.  We found a little cafe just around the corner, but we ended up loosing some people on our way there.  Those of us who did make it there just sat and got some food.  Eventually we found everybody and started the walk up to the Prague Castle.  This castle is on top of a very tall and steep hill, so it was super fun to climb all the way up.  Once we arrived at the front gates we could see almost all of Prague from above and that was a sight to see.  The group spent the rest of the day exploring the castle and listening to the history of it.  We got done in there at about 3 and when we left it had started raining again and was super cold.  A small group of us found a place to eat for a while and waited out the rest of the bad weather there.  Once we left, we decided to go to the Old Town Square and hang out there for a while.  I finally found another one my bread things that are called chimney cakes apparently.  The rest of Friday was just walking around looking at buildings and trying not to get lost.  Later that night we went to a cool little Mexican restaurant, and I finally had a chimichanga. Saturday rolled around and we took a little day trip to Dresden, Germany.  It was only about a two and half hour bus ride, so I took a little nap.  When we arrived we walked to the town square where a huge Lutheran Cathedral stands.  In WWII, Dresden was bombed by the allies and this cathedral wasn't hit too much, however, over time it started to fall apart.  In the 1990's it was torn down and rebuilt with some of the original stones.  It was very cool seeing the new yellow bricks mixed in with the older grey bricks.  We got lunch at this little booth on the street, and they had some awesome deer and boar goulash.  After lunch, our professors started showing us some buildings and telling us what they are used for now, and what they were used for in the past.  Once we got to another square we were able to split up and see either the picture gallery or the old royal palace.  I chose the old palace because that housed the old armory, and I knew I had to see that.  As I walked into the first room I saw a huge wall just filled with ceremonial pistols.  I was speechless when I saw all of these pistols, swords, long guns, and jousting armor from before the 19th century.  We continued to walk around and the exhibit was almost endless.  I saw old tables and board games that belonged to the Dukes of Saxony.  Once I left that series of rooms I was able to find a few friends and we went to the next floor, and that floor was just dedicated to jousting.  There were figures with all of the different sets of armor on.  We walked around there for a while then exited and tried to find the rest of the group so we could head back to the main square.  We did make it back in time to head back to our bus.  The ride back to Prague seemed to take longer, but we finally made it back around six or seven that evening.  The rest of that night was pretty much the same as Friday night.  Sunday came and we went to the old Jewish Quarters and were able to see a Synagogue with 85,000 names painted on the walls.  This was a memorial to the victims of WWII.  After that we went outside and walked around a Jewish cemetery that is hundreds of years old.  There have people buried there since the 14th century.  It is believed to be at least eight layers deep.  Once we left the cemetery, we walked down the street to the oldest Synagogue in central Europe.  This Synagogue was constructed in the 13th century.  It was very interesting to walk through and see how buildings were built back then.  After we left, we were given a few hours to finish up in Prague, and see a few more things before we left.  At about 4 we left Prague and came back to Olomouc.  We arrived back home later in the afternoon and we were all super tired.  I went back to my room and unpacked then went to eat.  Once I ate, I went back to my room and fell asleep.  Overall, it was an awesome time being in Prague and learning about the history of the Czech.  I'm excited to keep going on the rest of our field trips, and I am excited to go to Germany and Austria this weekend.  After this weekend, we only have one more week until our spring break, and then we already half done with our program.  I feel like it's going by way too fast.

This is part of the Jewish Quarters with all of the names written on the walls.

First Weeks In Olomouc

I arrived in the Czech Republic on March 9th with my dad a couple of days before I needed to meet my study abroad group.  While we stayed in Prague from the 9th to the 11th, we were able to get a pretty good feel for the new culture that we weren't use to.  Once the 11th rolled around, I went back to the Prague airport and met my classmates for the semester in Olomouc.  We talked for a while and then the bus arrived to pick us up and take us to our new home.  I had a great time talking to everyone in the airport and on the bus over to Olomouc, which was about a four hour ride.  We got to our dorms later in the afternoon on Sunday and were given the keys to our rooms.  My roommate, Zach, and I found our room and unpacked, we took this time to talk to get to each other and talk about why we were both excited about the trip. We eventually ended up walking around the main street for a while looking for a place to eat.  Finally, we found a little bistro that had awesome food, and when we finished we made the long walk back to our dorm.  Luckily, it was pretty warm out that night because we were a long ways from our building.  Once we found our way back we prepared for the first week in a new University.  On Monday we had an introduction talking about what the plan was while we were here.  We went over all of our class days and the field trips that we were going on.  Monday was a fun day because we walked around for a little bit in the afternoon and got to know one another a little more.  I think the only bad thing about Monday though was when we got to the ATM to get some money.  We were all standing in line chatting amongst ourselves, and when it was my turn to get some cash my card was declined.  I tried about three times and nothing seemed to work.  I started to freak out a little bit and was thinking about how I could get money to eat and pretty much do anything.  I called my mom and it turned out that my bank hadn't activated my debit card.  I was relieved once it was activated and I could get money.  It's actually kind of funny looking back at it now.  Monday night the university threw us a little welcoming party and we had some good food and we met some really cool Czech students.  We were probably there for about three hours and talked to some of our professors and the students who were very fun to talk to.  A couple of friends and I talked to one guy for a pretty long time about what its like to live here and go to school here full time.  He was very nice and he spoke pretty good english.  Eventually, some of us started playing the jukebox and then it got really loud and we mainly just danced for the rest of the night.  Monday was pretty relaxed, except for the whole money disaster, but when we started Tuesday there was a little more walking involved.  We started at the international affairs building and walked from there to many different places.  I can't remember our exact route, but I remember what we all were able to see that first day walking around.  As we walked, we saw so many beautiful buildings, statues, and churches.  That first Tuesday was a great way to get to know this new city a little bit better.  Also, our guide pointed out some places to eat and she took us to a really great restaurant for our first meal in Olomouc.  Tuesday was very fun and it was exciting seeing the town, but it was really nice to finally get some well needed sleep after walking all day.  It was nice that the first couple of days here were in the 40's and little to no wind.  Wednesday came and it was more walking, and more warm weather, we found some more awesome pieces of history and culture within this gorgeous city.  We were able to meet a very cool professor from the university and let me tell you, he is great at remembering dates without having to look at notes.  He gave us a little presentation about the history of Olomouc, then we followed him around for a while and he gave us a tour of the city.  He took us around town and talked about what the buildings were used for centuries ago and what parts of them were refurbished and what was original.  Also, he was about 90 years old and quicker than most of us on foot.  Once we parted ways with our guide we went to an old fort that was used by the Austrians in the 1700's.  Now, it is called Fort Science and is home to four floors of history, astronomy, and almost everything you can find in nature around here.  I could have spent hours running around this fort, exploring and reading about all of the cannons and soldiers that they had descriptions about, however, they were all in Czech and I'm not very good at reading this language yet.  Luckily we are taking a Czech language course in our classes, so hopefully by the end of our program I can read some signs.  While we were at the fort there was a planetarium showing of different moons and comets that lasted about a half an hour.  Wednesday started to get a little cooler, but it was pretty nice compared to the weekend.  Our tour was over around three and some of us decided to go see the mall, which is probably the biggest mall I have ever seen.  We walked in and there are four floors full of little stores and a pretty big food court, with some pretty good food.  Once Wednesday was over it was time to start our classes!  Our first day was fairly easy, we had a quick introduction into the new courses and what they all consist of, then our very first Czech language class.  I think that this class is very fun and challenging, because some words are closely related to english, and other words are completely different.  The only bad thing about Thursday was the weather, it started to get colder than previous days and a lot more windy.  I think it might have even snowed a little.  Our class days usually start at 3 in the afternoon and go until about 6:15 at night.  Classes that we have on Friday start at 9:45 and get done at 1:30 so we can travel on the free weekends that we have.  Once our first day of classes were over we went to eat at this really good restaurant right next to the upper town square.  A fun fact about the town, there are two town squares called the lower town square and the upper town square.  The cool thing about these squares is that the upper square is lower in elevation than the lower square. Once we ate, I came back to the dorm and fell asleep pretty quick.  On Friday the weather got even worse, wind blowing us off of the sidewalks and negative degree temperatures did not help whatsoever.  We were all freezing and relieved to get to our classroom where there was heat.  On this day we had three hours of language class, which went by pretty quick, it did not feel like three hours, probably because we played some matching games with our new vocabulary.  After class, a few of us went to the mall again and we found these really good bread and chocolate things.  I'm not sure what they are called but I have never loved bread so much in my life.  We walked around the mall for a little while, going into stores and looking at stuff that we don't need but it's cool so we want it.  After the mall, we came back to the dorms and Zach started to pack to go to Budapest later that night.  I stayed here in Olomouc this first weekend because Dr. Biggs had planned to go to some of the local museums Saturday, and I figured that it would fun to tag along and check out some history about where I'm living for the next couple months.  I woke up and when I stepped outside I felt like I was stepping into winter at home, the wind was very strong and that made it hard to even walk to the tram stops.  We got to the first museum at around noon and there was a lot of cool sculptures and there was a model of a home from centuries ago.  Luckily we had one of our friends from the university with us so she helped out with the language barrier since none of us can really speak Czech.  We were able to see some interesting religious models to protect people from evil spirits. We saw this interesting piece that was a cylinder and it was split down the middle with good on one side and evil on the other.  Then we went to the next exhibit which showed a kind of timeline with artifacts found from the 5th century all the way to the 20th century.  There were swords, old door hinges, and other cool rusty stuff.  It was awesome walking through and seeing how people in this area developed over the years.  Once we left that museum, we went to this brewery and I got a pasta dish with almost an endless supply of pasta.  I felt like I was eating for hours and I only ate about half of it.  After lunch we went to the Archbishops museum on the edge of town.  This museum was originally his house, but now he lives somewhere else and they turned this one into a home for art and a very extravagant carriage.  We were able to go into the old basement of the home and we saw the old foundation that help up the original house.  It was very fun day but I think with all the wind and negative temperatures I got a little sick that day.  Sunday was very nice and calm.  We spent most of the day at Cross Cafe which sells the best cheesecake ever.  I was still trying to get over my little cold but it wasn't working too well.  I still have it but it's going away.  This week we are going to Prague and Dresden for a few days, and we will get to see a lot of interesting sights in those towns.  We are coming up on two weeks here in the Czech Republic and I still feel really good about being this far away from home.  So far I haven't felt homesick or anything like that.  Our room is a little small but Zach and I make it work, and I think it feels like a good home away from home.  Before I arrived here I was concerned about the language barrier, but so far it has only caused a handful of problems.  I figured out quickly that pointing is my new best friend.  Also, there are quite a few people here that can understand english.  I'm very excited to continue this journey with all of my new friends and travel around for Europe, but I feel like three months will not be enough time to see everything that this part of the world has to show us.  Even though three months isn't that long in the grand scheme of things it's still three whole months to explore and start a new journey in a new place, and I don't know when I'll be back here so I know that I have to make every second count.  

Faviola, my roommate Zach, me, and Breanna eating those awesome bread things.