Exploring the Country

This past week was tough. There was a lot of recovery from the trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau that I had to make. Although not immediately affected at the sites, as what I had seen settled in it made me really want to get up and take action. It also caused me to feel like I was not doing enough to better the world at the moment. It reenergized my love of service once I was able to trace the feelings though the help of talking with some friends from home. I had a lot of work this week as midterms are coming up, but I was still able to take the time to explore and take a couple trips!
Friday was the zoo. We slept in a bit and then met up with everyone at the CERGE building and headed off to see the animals in the zoo. There were so many baby animals from a baby elephant to a baby giraffe. It was absolutely amazing. The weather was a bit foggy, but isn't it always in Prague? We even rode the chair lift up above the park and saw a beautiful view of the city. Afterwards we headed to our respective homes before gathering for a bit in the evening before sleeping and preparing for Saturday!
This Saturday, 11 of us ventured up into the north of the country and may have ventured into Germany at one point. We hiked in České Švýcarsko. This happens to be where they filmed scenes from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The scene when the Beavers say that this is all Aslan's realm, that is exactly what we looked over. Let me just say it absolutely was Narnia. You could see why the filmmakers chose that. But it was not easy to get there. Not that it was physically demanding, but there were a couple other hiccups along the way. In the morning our friend Leah almost missed the train and our other friend Grant woke up just before the train was meant to pull out so he was unable to make it. Then we arrived at the town that we needed to catch the bus to in order to hike up the mountain. Well we missed the first bus because our train came in a little late. But we didn't know until it was too late. We then read the board and saw the next one came in 40 minutes so we wandered a bit and then met back at the bus stop. There was still no bus to be seen. Then I read the schedule and saw that it only went until the end of September and was not up to date as it is almost November! After then asking several people including a woman in a russian specialty store, people in the train station, and numerous drivers of other busses one was finally able to tell us there would be one! ...In nearly 45 minutes. But once we got there the hike was beautiful. Words can not describe how beautiful nature is. Once we all got to the top of the hill and stared over the land and at the longest footbridge in Europe, and NARNIA all we could do was smile. Everyone looked awestruck with a huge grin on their faces, myself included. It is amazing how beautiful our world is. On the climb down all of us could not believe that the place is not more popular among visitors and how the Czech Republic as a whole is so underrated outside of Prague. It was possibly one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had. We took the train home and then Leah, DJ, and I wandered around Prague 7 until we came to this great Indian restaurant and had a delicious, well deserved meal after our hike.
Sunday, I tagged along with Leah and some of her friends from Erasmus (the European version of my program) and we went to the small central Bohemian town of Kutna Hora, a UNESCO world heritage site. We were meant to leave earlier in the day, but there were some sleepy heads and we got off to a later start allowing us to arrive there by noon. Our first excursion was to the Bone Church. This church literally has the bones of 40,000 (at least) people. The chandelier in the middle of the chapel is made of every single bone in the human body. It was so crazy. I took pictures for a little while before it really dawned on me that those were people. Apparently the bones were placed there to remind the church community that they are mortal and to cherish life and follow God's laws. Then we traveled through the city and saw two more churches. The first, The Cathedral of Our Lady was really cool in that as we walked around we were able to go up this long spiral staircase into the attic and walk across a platform with beams all made without metal nails. This led to where the choir sings and happened to be the most amazing view of the church. The second was St. Barbara's Cathedral and it was massively later gothic in style with a beautifully ornate interior. Then we headed back to our train. We expected there to be a bus, but apparently there were not many running in town that day! So we had to walk slash run to make our train. We watched the time slowly pass as we headed around the town back to the station getting more and more nervous by the minute. The time we were meant to be on the train came and went and we continued hurrying just hoping it was late! While we were doing this the sun was setting and allowed us to see a double rainbow that we could see nearly the entire rainbow of on the bottom and the most colorful sunset. The sky looked like a work of art. It was impossible to catch a proper image of it on any camera. It just would not have done it justice. Once we returned Leah, her friend Emma, and I all grabbed some delicious Prague 7 gyros and then headed home. 
Overall it was an incredible weekend. I was able to really explore the country that I am studying in rather than traveling off elsewhere. I have loved discovering all the hidden treasures that the Czech Republic has to offer and I can not wait to continue doing so! But for now I have two full weeks of midterms and hopefully some smaller tours around Prague. Should be another wonderful week in, "the golden city of a hundred spires!"

The ZOO!!!

Just being elephants too! 

Longest footbridge in Europe!

Just a glimpse of Narnia 

We made it to the park! 

Chandelier of every bone in the human body

The Schwarzenberg family crest in bones

View of Cathedral of Our Lady from the choir

The town of Kutna Hora

St. Barbera's Cathedral

The most amazing rainbow!

Peace Love Poland

I never would have imagined myself venturing into Poland, but UPCES had a planned trip there so of course I jumped at the opportunity to experience more of the world. We left on Thursday after one of the quickest weeks of my life! Having returned from Munich on Sunday I had four days to organize all my assignments and prepare the apartment to leave yet again. But it was worth it.
We left Prague around 5pm on Thursday night and arrived in Krakow early Friday morning, around 2 am to be more precise. We then checked into our hostel and got a couple hours of sleep. Driving into Krakow at night was beautiful. I had no idea what it was going to look like and arriving to see the castle lit up was a lovely site. We were all so tired, but seeing an unexpected castle woke me right up and made me very excited to explore.
In the morning we all had breakfast and then split into four groups for a city tour. The morning was designed to show us the major sites of the city and the historical foundations of it. I knew Poland was an extremely Catholic nation, but my goodness did they have churches everywhere. I felt as we were walking around I could always see one when we were near the main square. We had the opportunity to enter the main cathedral of Poland and outside I got to take a picture with Pope John Paul II!!! Then we walked along the oldest street in the city and saw lots of churches and a museum dedicated to the life of Pope John Paul II. We ended in the main square and it was beautiful. All around us were historical buildings in an area I never could have imagined. For lunch I went to a milk bar and had what could possibly be considered the best pierogies of my entire life. They were stuffed with cottage cheese and potatoes and covered in onions, absolutely delicious. The afternoon was when things got serious after the light hearted exploratory morning. We went to the Jewish Quarter of the city and saw the old synagogues as well as many places where Schlindler's list was filmed and ended with a tour of Oskar Schlindler's factory. It was intense to say the least. Walking through the square in the Jewish Quarter we past places where many people were shot and there are now chairs all over the square. Each chair represents 1,000 lives lost from that area. It was very moving. I walked where so many have walked before, but I walk there by choice not because someone has forced me to live there. Not only that, but I walk there and I have the security of knowing that tomorrow I will still be alive. I do not walk in fear. The factory had a great exhibit about the Jews before and during the war. Sadly, it did not end with a positive note. It ended by stating Poland then entered another dictatorship, that of communism. After all of that we returned to the hostel and I found a free piano concert that was part of a piano festival in Krakow so Rachel and I decided to go and check it out. On our way there we got tremendously lost. We left forty minutes before it was meant to start and arrived thirty minutes late! However, on the way we had the opportunity to explore the town by night. A bridge we had walked over earlier that day on our way to what was once the ghetto is lit up purple at night. If we hadn't been lost I do not think we would have discovered that! The recital itself was really cool. It was a polish pianist playing on a violin harpsichord and he played what I believe was polish music. It was somewhere in between contemporary piano and classical. There was a mix of dissonance with typical, ear pleasing, chord formations. I was really glad that we went. Afterwards we found our way back near the main square on accident and ate at a nice little restaurant that gave us a 15% off coupon outside. Then we were off to bed.
Saturday morning we got up bright and early and had some breakfast. Then Rachel and I went on our own little city tour. Mostly we wandered into the main entrance of the churches in the areas to see the beauty inside. The stain glass walls and the decorations of all of them were so pretty! Each one had it's own unique charm, but there were still the strong Catholic symbols tying all of them together. At one point we accidentally walked in on an order of priests saying their morning prayers and it took us a little while of sitting in the back to notice we were the only women in the room. So we made a quick exit! Then we wandered through the main university campus and finally over to the Jewish quarter for lunch. We had some of the most delicious burgers there at a place our friend had told us about the day before. Then we boarded the bus to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is really hard to describe the experiences of that afternoon. I was so shocked when I first experienced it that it was hard to get very emotional, but the more I talk about it, the more my brain processes where I was, and what I saw. For starters Auschwitz had two points that got to me. First was a room that held two tons of women's hair. The hair was all the same color because these women had been gassed. We stared at the hair of people who are dead. The second was a room dedicated to the children who were murdered. There were clothes and shoes that could have fit an infant. It just showed the violence that occurred spared no one. The museum also had photos of people after the selection process and we knew looking at them that none of those people lived more than 15 minutes after those pictures were taken and they had no idea what was coming. We then drove over to Birkenau which was the main extermination camp. It was massive. There was just row upon row of chimneys that used to be the heaters for bunks of those who worked there. What got me the most was the beauty in the surrounding area and of the weather that day. There was a rainbow in the sky as we pulled up and as the sun went down there was a red moon. The sun was shining for the rest of the time there and it was quite mild. It felt so inappropriate to be in such a somber place in such a good mood because of the weather. We stood where the selection process took place as well. I got to look down that path that people who were not selected walked as they were led to the gas chambers and told they were going to be taking a shower. Then we walked over and saw the destroyed chambers and the memorial as the sun went down. It was such a large place on such a beautiful day and yet it was a place of death; a place of suffering and death. Afterwards we drove back to Krakow and enjoyed our last night after resting for a bit and processing what we had just seen. Rachel and I found a nice restaurant where there was a free violin and guitar concert! We did really well with the free concerts.
On Sunday we drove back to Prague. We arrived back around 7 so DJ and I went home and dropped off our things before heading out to see the last night of the Prague light show! It was pretty cool. Overall it was super modern. The Charles bridge had huge projections of an eye on either end and Old Town Square had a box that played what sounded like Skrillex music and had lights that moved all over the place! From start to finish it was a great weekend, emotionally intense, but great. We'll be exploring Prague and the Czech Republic for the next couple weeks and midterms are coming up. This week we have a trip to the zoo scheduled and hopefully a visit to the town of Kutna Hora to see the Bone Chapel. Should be a great week!

Square by the castle and cathedral

Me with Pope John Paul II

Jewish Quarter

Off to the factory

Factory Entrance

Statue by the University

Entrance to Auschwitz

Train tracks into Birkenau

Memorial at the end of the tracks

BAVARIA!

This weekend DJ and I took a trip off to Munich to see our friends Billy and Gerard from home. We left on Thursday night excited and grabbed some delicious gyros by our tram stop on our way to the bus station. The bus ride was smooth and they even played Anger Management during it which we enjoyed. Then we pulled into the Munich train station. It was very cold and raining and DJ and I walked to our hostel only getting slightly lost for a moment. When we arrived we checked in no problem and I said I can’t wait to see Billy and Gerard, who were to get there after us. After I gave them my name at the front desk, they handed me a note saying that “Billy and will not be arriving until 7 am.” They forgot Gerard’s name and I also was unsure about what had happened! Knowing they had to be ok if they called the hostel, DJ and I put down our things and went out to explore the city around midnight. In our wanderings, having no idea where the center of town was located, (two train stops away!) we walked for about an hour and stumbled onto a street that has tons of strip clubs on it. After walking through that, we eventually came upon a train station and decided to go underground and attempt to figure out where we were in the city. We had made it one train stop and had one more to go. Although the trains run much more spread out at night, we decided to wait because it was almost one am at this point and we knew we’d have to get up early tomorrow to greet Billy and Gerard and sort out why they were going to be so much later than originally planned for. We could not risk getting too lost. We finally emerged from Marianplatz to the main square in Munich to look straight up at the Glockenspiel lit up by lights in the darkness. Because it was a Thursday night, no one was really there and we had freedom to look around some major sites in the wee hours of the morning before heading to bed at our hostel around one thirty.
At 7:30 am Billy and Gerard came in the door exhausted. They had gotten on a train an hour early and this train happened to make more stops than their originally intended train causing them to miss their connection and spend most of their night in train stations. So we let them take a little nap before we all got breakfast and headed off to our tour of Dachau, a concentration camp about 10 km north of Munich. The tour was powerful to say the least. We were able to walk through buildings that were actually used during the Nazi takeover of Germany. Dachau was used as a work camp and not a death camp, but the people still went through very similar processes when entering the camp. At first when we walked into the area I did not know that the gates were on the right side as our tour guide took us left. When he said the entrance way was behind us, my heart dropped. It was crazy to think I was walking the same steps that so many before me had, but I did it by choice. The gates and doors of Dachau no longer lock we were informed because it is no longer a prison and everyone who does visit, is free. I found that to be extremely powerful. Then we toured through rooms where they would take people’s belongings and shave them down and give them the same uniform as everyone else; the room where they took away people’s dignity. Then we went through the concentration camp prison and the living quarters of those who were brought there as well as the physical Dachau memorial.The camp went through different phases, the second phase having the worst conditions because at the end of the war, they wanted to put on a show. Finally we walked along the paths where there are now chapels of many different denominations as memorials of hope. Finally we walked to where the crematorium was as well as the only still standing gas chamber of all the concentration camps. It is said this one was never used for mass deaths, but that is was tested many times with different chemicals. After we left we were all very somber. The weather that day had been cold and rainy so it was very appropriate and now our spirits were as gray as the clouds above us. But then the sun came out as were started to slowly process all that we had just witnessed inside of Dachau. Once we arrived back in Munich we went to the center of the city and we went up one of the towers and saw a beautiful panorama of the surrounding area. We walked around the middle of town for a little while and then chose to go to Haufbrauhaus, the famous beer hall in Munich. We all ate traditional german foods and the boys all got some beer while I had a glass of wine. Our food took a very long time to come, but we bought a pretzel while we waited. The pretzel was one of our best decisions of the whole trip. Afterwards we went out for some dessert at a coffee shop by our hostel before turning in to prepare for the day ahead.

Saturday was amazing because it was the day we went to Neuschwanstien castle! This castle was used as a model for Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyworld. We got up early and met with our tour guide who happened to be American. Then we rode out into the Bavarian countryside for two hours on a train. About ten minutes away from our stop, suddenly mountains appeared. We were staring at the alps. I had forgotten until that morning that I was going to get to fulfill one of my dreams by seeing them. The clouds covered the top and there was snow on the ground as we got closer. Once we emerged from the train, the air was cool and crisp. With the colorful leaves on the trees and the snow on the ground it was like we were caught between seasons. The area was breathtaking. Once we got off the train, we still couldn’t see the castle though so we had to take a bus up to the base of the hill it is on. The first time we saw it, it was from further away and it looked so tiny, but as we got closer, it grew in size. Throughout our tour there we learned all about King Ludwig II and his life dreaming of being part of a fairytale. It was extremely interesting as he was a also a friend of Richard Wagner and all of this was occurring in the 1860s and 1870s while the United States was going through a Civil War. Bavaria was being ruled by a monarch up into the 19th century. But the best part of the day was just being in nature. The views of the castle and from the castle were spectacular from every single angle. We got to go onto a bridge over a waterfall and view it from several angles as well as climb down into the gorge which included a part where we walked on an area of metal screwed into the rock over a precarious area of running water and rocks. There is nothing like a little bit of adventure! Then we rode home super hungry and had to find somewhere for dinner as soon as we returned to Munich. While strolling through the streets I saw a tree covered in white Christmas lights. I’ve decided that is the way to choose restaurants. It was a small restaurant like Haufbrauhaus, but way less crowded and we all found the food to be better. While there we even got dessert. Afterward we took a quick trip back to the hostel to regroup and figure out where a live music venue DJ had read about was. Well we found it. And we left. When we arrived it turned out to be filled with clear punk rock lovers. We students from NJ, did not exactly fit in. So we found ourselves at a nice bar down the road where we relaxed for a bit to enjoy our last night together. When we were done the waiter asked us if we had, “any more wishes?” and we had a laugh about the translation. Then we walked home and went to bed, but not before some drunk people we passed in the street told us we’re all sexy. 

In the morning DJ and I got up to check out with Billy and Gerard and to make sure they made it safely onto their train before we set out to explore the city on our last day there. Once Billy and Gerard had left DJ and I set out to find an outdoor market and an indoor market right next to each other. We did not factor in that it was going to be Sunday and alas, they were closed. So then we walked towards an underground art gallery. It was Sunday and they were switching exhibits and alas, it was closed. So we found ourselves in the English Garden park to grab a cup of coffee and to make a game plan. We decided to head over to the old olympic stadiums from the 1972 summer games. It was spectacular. As it turned out, the Munich marathon was happening and it ended in the massive stadium. This meant that something we usually would have to pay to see we got into for free!!! There was also a hill nearby with some spectacular views of the whole city.  Then we strolled into the BMW museum briefly and took some pictures of the fancy cars. Afterwards we went back to see the middle of town one last time before heading off to our hostel to gather our things and head home. This upcoming weekend we’re off to Krakow, Poland so we have four days of rigorous work ahead of us!

Dachau memorial

View of Munich from above 

Getting in the spirit

The typical postcard picture!

Us in the postcard photo

Old olympic stadiums from 1972 games!

One Month Gone By

Yesterday marked the start of my journey, but as of today I have been in Prague for one month! It is amazing to think how quickly the time has flown. The two weeks of orientation into two weeks of class all gone. This past week was eventful to say the least. It started with the second week of classes flying by, not surprising since I've only 3 days of class in a week. The excitement therefore tends to lie on the weekends. Thursday night we had a quiet night at home and the Friday I woke up early and met up with my friend Dani and we adventured off to our Professor's town just outside of Prague. It was such a lovely diversion. He toured us around the lower parts and took us onto one street to show the transformation of the nation over the 20th century. He walked us through fields and farmland and had us climb some rocks to see a beautiful panoramic view of Prague from outside the city. Afterwards we went to a restaurant that served delicious Yugoslavian food. It's very meat based, but their bread was also amazing. I couldn't tell you how to pronounce what I ordered, but it was essentially meat an cheese mixed together and cooked. All I can say is that is was delicious. Then we all went home. Afterwards, all the girls who were on the trip went out for coffee. It was one of the coolest experiences to me because only Dani and I were american and we were also the only ones from the same country. The rest of the girls were from different countries in Europe and one was from New Zealand. The fact that studying brought us all together was really intriguing to me. Studying abroad has opened the door not to just meeting students from the Czech Republic or other schools in the United States, but students from all over the globe. I have the opportunity to make friends from all over because of my choice to come to Prague!

That night my friends from America and I went out to this club in town called Lucerna. It was a lot of fun. Every friday and saturday night they play 80s themed music so we had the chance to dance and sing along to music we wouldn't generally be able to in a club. It was a really late night so Saturday was very laid back. Although I got far less sleep than I had planned to I spent the morning working on some assignments for the week ahead before DJ and I finally wandered over to the park less than a block away from us. It was beautiful. Within it there are lakes and so many paths and trees and playgrounds. It was an extremely peaceful walk and I even climbed a tree at one point! Then I took a nap before we met up with our friends for some dinner. We had some of the best tapas and paella I've ever had at this restaurant that is underground a couple up blocks away from our apartment. Of course we also ordered some sangria which was also delicious! Afterwards DJ and I went to a bar called Jazz Dock to see some live blues. Both bands we saw were really good, but the second one had a man who was fantastic on the harmonica and I found that to be extremely impressive. 

Sunday morning we got up early to travel off to a town in the Czech Republic with some of our friends. Karlovy Vary is a spa town famous for it's mineral water with healing properties. The water tastes disgusting. It's warm when it comes out of the ground and it tastes so strongly of iron you're reminded of blood. However, we did get the chance to ride to the top of a hill and get some amazing views of the Czech Republic hills. We could see so far out and got some great photos. It was the prefect weekend to be there as the leaves here are starting to change and we saw all of it from above the countryside. It was so peaceful. We then hiked back down and enjoyed the changing leaves up close and afterwards went to one of the famous "bath houses" which was more like a YMCA pool before we headed home. 

Last night DJ and I had a bunch of people over for dinner. He made sauce from scratch and we had pasta. Dani and James bought us a pepper plant. It's cute, but since we killed our basil plant I am worried for it. UPCES sponsored Quizzo night which was a lot like a pub quiz where you form teams and answer trivia. My friend group of guys and girls ended up divided between the sexes. My team was named Miley and the Teddy Bears. In the end we didn't win the grand prize, but we did beat the boys by one whole point!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Munich to see Billy and Gerard and I am very excited! I can't wait to see what this weekend brings :)

Me after hiking by Roztoky

The first church in the Czech Republic

View of Prague from Roztoky fields 

Stromovka Park

Grand Pup Hotel, Karlovy Vary

Elizabeth Bath House, Karlovy Vary

View of Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary