Vienna and My Roman Holiday

So it has been a while, again. Sorry for my lack of blogging. In the past weeks I have been to Vienna and Rome!

I was supposed to meet a friend in Vienna, but he was unable to make it so I went solo. I had such a good time and am so glad I did it! I say the Hapsburg Palace a bunch of gardens, museums and churches. I found a really amazing museum there that had a huge collection of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian art from antiquity. I spent hours wandering through there and I could because there was no one with me to speed me up. I loved it. I also went to the palace museum and treasury. My favorite part about museums in Europe is that for the most part, as long as you turn your flash off you can take pictures of anything! I uploaded Vienna pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/mollz1407 so Czech them out. It was really interesting because they had a huge collection of old dinnerware and because at on point the Czech lands were under the rule of the Austria Hungarian Empire, there were a bunch of pieces from Prague and the Czech Republic! In the Treasury they had royal robes with the two tailed Czech lion too. My favorite thing I found while wondering one night. I came across a church with evergreen window boxes and the advent countdown in the windows. It had a park in front where they were setting up a Christmas market and a giant decorated tree. I could see it from quite a distance and just gravitated towards its gorgeousness.

Last weekend I went to Rome! My friend, Emily, from Susquehanna is studying there and showed me around. I am so glad she was there and I got to go! I had a long weekend so I went from Thursday to Monday. We saw so much! Thursday night we went to the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps at night. They were way less crowded then during the day and so beautiful all lit up!

Friday we went to some open air markets and saw the Pantheon and the basilica at the Vatican. That was very interesting, especially the stairs that are guarded so only the Pope can use them and the crypts where the popes are buried. While wondering around we got caught up in a protest. Apparently in Rome the government decided to cut school funding drastically, and that is what the protest was about. What baffles me is that the police are dressed in uniforms designed by Versace and the busses are Mercedes-Bens, but I didn’t get involved in the protest because Emily said that the last one involved pepper spray and tear gas. That night we bought a bottle of a special seasonal Italian wine and went to the Pyramid and the Coliseum! It was too late to go inside, but it was lit all gold and was just so magnificent!

Saturday, Emily and I took a train to Pisa! We climbed the tower and took the silly picture holding it up and did some of the museums. It was a fun day!

Sunday we went to an open air flea market. It was huge and I bought some Christmas presents! In the afternoon we back to the Coliseum and got to check out the inside! It was giant and magnificent! Emily was telling me that when they built it they put in metal reinforcement rods, but during one of the wars there was a shortage of materials to build weapons so they drilled into the stone and took the rods. That is why there are holes in it and that is why part of it crumbled with the earthquake. We crossed the street and went to Palatine Hill which is where the Emperors built their houses. It is just a bunch of ruins now, but you can just imagine how magnificent it was then all covered in marble. After that we went to the Triton Fountain and a gallery.

Monday I headed back to Prague, but before that we went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel! I have read and seen pictures about these places, but to actually be there and see them in real life is phenomenal! And as always over the course of the trip I had some delicious food. We made gnocchi with pesto and sausage, spinach lasagna with the tastiest sausage! We also eat pizza, paninis, Italian cookies and gelato! I loved Rome!

This weekend I am laying low in Prague, preparing for mom and Annmarie’s arrival! The Christmas market went up at my metro/tram stop and it is beautiful! It is so lovely to come home after a long day of classes and see the tree lit up and all the little vendors. I will put up a picture next time, but I want mom and Annmarie to see it in person first!

From evenings in Venice to Sunrise on the Charles Bridge

Ahoj!

So yet again I have neglected my blogging responsibilities! But at least now I have a lot to fill you in about. Since my last post my good friend Emily, who is studying in Rome, came to Prague. She only stayed for about twenty four hours, but it was really nice to see her! I made potato pancakes for her and my friends and we all had a good time.

Thursday October 23 my friends, Lucy and Sarah, got up early, took our Czech Midterm and then headed to Italy! Our Flight landed in Trieste at 11:40 and we immediately scavenged for food. Trieste was only recently became Italian territory. It was formally part of Austria and has a lot of Austrian influences such as there “buffets.” We found an amazing one that served all kinds of pig meat. We asked the waiter what he would recommend and we got delicious pork sandwiches with fresh horseradish and mustard in a great atmosphere! We only stayed in Trieste for a couple hours before we took the train to Venice. Venice was amazing! We bought a rolling Venice pass that let us ride the water buses and gave us discounts on museums. The first night we stayed in an inexpensive hotel and then in a fabulous hostel! The hostel was huge and gorgeous! Dinner and breakfast were included and it was amazing! The owners were young and a lot of fun and took anyone who wanted out. Venice was fabulous! We went to Murano, which is known for its production of glass. We went to the glass museum. It had pieces from the first century! It was fascinating! We also saw the St Marcos Church. I loved Venice because everywhere you looked that was fascinating works of architecture! I think that is what I like most about Europe. It has so much history and you can see it in everything around you.

Anyways our flight was scheduled to leave Trieste at 10:40am on Sunday. Unfortunately we were still in Venice on Sunday morning and had to wake up at 4:45 so we could take one water bus, a train, and two buses to make it to the airport just in time for us to get there and be told that there was fog in Prague and our flight had been canceled. Luckily Sky Europe had a bus ready to take us to a different airport to catch a different flight. So we hop on the bus and ride an hour and a half, to finally make it to… the Venice airport! Haha. By the time we got home we had spent twelve hours in transit. But all in all Italy was amazing and I cannot wait to go visit Emily in Rome!

Monday we did not have classes and after recovering from Italy we went out to the Beer Factory. The Beer Factory is a magical place with a tap at each table that keeps track of how much alcohol your table consumes. It then shows the consumption of you and every other table on a screen and it becomes a race to see who can drink the most. But on our way there we ran into three British boys looking for something fun to do, so they joined us, making is a force to be reckoned with. They were a lot of fun and very sweet. We ended the night with some dancing and paid for nothing.

We again did not have class Tuesday October 29th because it was the 90th anniversary of Czechoslovakia! They celebrated with a giant military parade. IT was a big deal because the last one occurred during the communist era and it looked as if all of Prague was there! Petr invited me to go with him and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. They had representatives from the air force, the police, fire fighters, ground troops, you name it they were there. After they did their procession came the equipment. They had everything! Not just the standard fire trucks, but the tanks, armories, and my personal favorite the rescue boats pulled by cars with the men dressed in their scuba gear! It was extremely bizarre, but I am so glad I went!

Wednesday I had two classes and three finals. Blahhh.

Friday was Halloween and I helped the girls down the street (Winnie, Mairead, and Quinn) host a Halloween party! Quinn’s parents came and brought a ton of Halloween decorations and candy! It was amazing! Because they don’t celebrate here everyone had to come up with creative costumes from scratch. We found a second hand shop and I ended up going to the party wearing a fitted sheet full of balloons haha. But our party was a complete success! I didn’t know we even knew as many people as showed up! Then we all went to Radost FX for that Halloween party for many more hours of fun!

The SusQuehanna University London program was in Prague and I got to hang out with a bunch of SU friends during the day. Then that night a friend made dinner for our flat. He made a traditional Czech dish of cabbage and dumplings and then a bunch of us went out. At some point in the night everyone decided to stay out until daybreak and watch Sunrise on the Charles Bridge. It was quiet the adventure and then when we finally made it there, it was very foggy and so one minute it was night and the next it was light. But it was fun. We got to sleep for a couple hours and then one of the Czech buddies made us a traditional Czech lunch! The rest of the day was not very productive.

Monday it was back to class, but before Quinn’s parents left, they took us to dinner. Ten of us in all went to a cute little restaurant and had an amazing dinner! They were so generous and it was such a good time.

Now you are all up to date. If you don’t hear from me this is a brief summery of what will be ahead for me;
Vienna- November 7-9
Rome- November 13-17
Ann Marie and Mom- November 23-29
Berlin- December 5-7

Love you all! Keep in touch!

Mollywog <3

What I Have Been Up to While Neglecting the Blog

Sorry about my lack of communication in the past two weeks. Things have been crazy! Let us backtrack to where I last left you. The weekend after we went on the daytrips we went on the overnight trips! I went to Freud’s birthplace, Olomouc, and Velké Losiny. In Freud’s birthplace we saw the house where he spent the first three years of his life. It is in Moravia and took about 4 hours to get there. Then we traveled to Olomouc and saw the city and stayed the night there. We had really nice hotels and we had an amazing view of the city from our window! The next day we headed to Velké Losiny, where the Czech witch trials were held. One of the psychology professors gave a very graphic depiction of what happened. Apparently the witches could shrink male parts and had teeth on their female parts. It was very informative and pretty intense. Then we climbed a steep mountain where they believed Witch’s Sabbaths took place and got more gruesome information. But of course as usual my favorite parts were the meals! They were all fantastic. We had great main courses and got to try Medovnik which is Czech honey cake! It is delicious! We got back late Sunday afternoon and did the school thing. I added some slideshows to the blog! You can Czech out everything I have done up to this point in the Prague tourism slideshow!

The next weekend was awesome! Friday we took the metro and a bus to the Praha Zoo. It was amazing! When we got off the bus we looked across the street and saw these amazing gardens! We got side tracked and wondered in and took tons of pictures. The first thin we saw when we walked into the zoo were two elephants being lead around and then children playing in a pen with lemurs! The Zoo was amazing! It is huge and we spent a minimum of five hours there! On our way out we noticed the opening of an art exhibition in the zoo. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to be there, but we paid our admission to get into the zoo and there was free food so we decided to give it a try. They had wine and champagne and a Mediterranean spread! It was a great way to end our trip to the zoo! The night just kept getting better, because we got back just in time to go to a friends for his Czech-Mex night! Sarah made fajitas and salsa, Paul made re-fried beans, salsa and guacamole, and Emily brought ice-cream! Then we played a Czech game that I will be purchasing and bringing home with me. It was a great day!

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Kutna Horá. Kutna Horá was at one point the second most important city in the Czech Republic. In the 15th century they discovered silver there and started mining and minting there. Today it is best known as the home of the bone church! The church itself is made of normal building materials, but when the cemetery became full; some 40,000 skeletons were dug up and now decorate the church. It is hauntingly beautiful. We got into the town right around noon, when everything is closed for lunch, but being resourceful we had packed a picnic that, that we enjoyed in the glorious weather! We started at the bone church. One of the things about the Czech Republic that amazes me is their nonchalant-ness about picture taking. We paid the entrance fee and then were able to take as many pictures as we wanted! After that we had a map of several different sites to see and hit most of them. Another incredible destination in the town is St. Barbara’s Cathedral. It is a gothic gem, which in my eyes outshines St. Vitus in Prague Castle. It was gorgeous! When we had seen all there was to see we headed back. We had taken the train there which was quite an experience since we had never ridden on this sort of train. I enjoyed it a lot! All in all it was an amazing weekend! I put my 300 plus pictures of this weekend up in the Czech tourism slideshow. Or you can scan through them quickly by going straight to http://picasaweb.google.com/mollz1407

On Tuesday I went to the Opera. I saw The Bartered Bide. It is a Czech Opera and it was really funny, when they scrolled down the screen and put up the English and German subtitles! It was pretty good and it is always fun to dress up for an event. Then last Wednesday night was my flat-mate, Emily’s birthday! She turned 21. My other flat-mate, Sarah, worked at Ben and Jerry’s one summer and learned how to make ice-cream cake so we made a chocolate and vanilla one with a cinnamon cookie center and whipped cream frosting. It was delicious! After that we went to a great Thai Restaurant. It was really good, but a little expensive and spicy. Haha. After that I want back to one of our friend’s flats to help her frost her carrot cake. After eating several pieces we rolled our way to the bar that the rest of the birthday crew went to. I only had one drink but Thursday morning I had a vicious cake hangover.

Thursday I just had one class. CIEE set me up with a Czech family to hang out with and I finally got to meet them Thursday night! We met at the Church right by my house and we walked to their flat which ended up being right around the corner from mine! They are so sweet. Petr is a firefighter and there is Katka and their two daughters, 4 and 7. The girls are so sweet. They immediately decided to teach me Czech. They sat me down and made me read Czech books, recite the alphabet, and write numbers and colors. It was cute. Then we all sat down and eat potato pancakes with zucchini and garlic. They put pickled cabbage and sauerkraut on them and it was so good. I got to talk to the adults a little after the kids went to bed and they let me sample their home-made Brandy. They are such a nice couple! They asked me what my favorite Czech dish is and when I told them they said they would make it for me next Wednesday! I told them about my adventures to Petrin Hill and about the apple crisp. They were intrigued and I told them I would make them some! I’m really excited to see them again!

To wrap things up I am still having an amazing time in the Czech Republic! I can’t believe it’s already been a month. My friend Emily from SU is headed to Prague with some friends on Tuesday and I am very excited! And I have mid-term break next week and a five day weekend. I’m trying to figure out were to go! There are so many possibilities because I am so central! Again I’m sorry this has been so long in coming. I’m not sure if there is something wrong with my email. I have been sending emails and not receiving responses. I guess everyone else could be busy too though. Holler at me! I miss you all!

Mollywog

Day Trips Around the Czech Republic

Last Monday was my first day of classes. I have all 5 classes on Monday and Wednesday so on those days I am at the school from 8:30 till 6:30. It is a long day. haha. On Tuesday and Thursday I just have to o into school at 8:30 for my 50 min class an then I am done. This will be great on Thursdays when I want to travel so I can get an extra head start! This is my first day of school picture for mom! So far I like everything for the most part. There is always alot of reading and I am trying to find the balance between work and play, with so much work to be done, but I'm having fun in the process!

As a CIEE student I am required to go on at least two trips. One overnight and one day trip. We had the day trips this weekend so on Friday I went to Terizin and Ludice. Both were very sad. During WWII two Czech assasin parishuted in and assasinated one of Hitlers right hand men. As punishment, Hitler randomly choose Ludice and devistated it. He murdered all the men, sent the women to concentration camps and then germanized the arian looking children and exterminated the rest. Then he burned the houses down, tore down whatever was left, dug up the dead and cut down trees so there would be absolutely nothing left of Ludice. There is now a bunch of memorials, gardens and such in commemoration.

We continued to Terizin. Terizin was one of the largest Jewish Gettos in the Czech Republic. It was were all the Jews were forced to live during WWII. We also visited The camp in Terizin. It is not a consentration camp as I had thought. Before Hitler it was used for political prisoners as a holding destination, before they were shipped to different Prisons. After the Jewish getto was established, the camp was used for disobedient Jews from the Getto and then as a holding destination before the Jews were shipped to concentration camps.

On Sunday I went on a much less melencoly trip. We explored art and achatecture outside of Prague. We went to an open air museam which was a collection of old Bohemain buildings, they had transported from all over Boheamia and from all different time periods. They also furnished the houses. It was very odd only because you would be in a room with an antique stove but then also with a vintage bed. We then traveled to another cute little city. There we had the best Czech food I've had since in the Czech republic. It started with a bowl of califlower soup then progressed to pork with a BBQ-ish sauce and fantastic dumplings and then for desert we got a slice of Tiramisu the size of a brick. I had to roll to our next destination, which were modern art exibitions and a museam. Because we are a school group we can do so much more than the average tourists. We got to climb to the top of the museam and go out on the roof. Here are some of the shots I have gotten from being on the roofs of places. haha.

Besides that I'm just enjoying my time in Prague! It is freezing here so the other day I decided to make Chicken noodle soup from scratch! I cooked the chicken and made the broth and everything was going fabulously until I decide that one bag of noodles was not sufficent. So I added another bag and by the end had made chicken noodle muck. It has the consistancy of a casserole, but I think it is still pretty good! We did a little exerimenting and found we could fry it and enjoy chicken noodle pancakes. I should probably just stick to apple crisp, but I'm having fun making cooking mistakes. haha.

But I must go now, class is calling. Please excuse my spelling, apparrently my spell check doesn't feel like working. I'm also having an internet delema so sorry the posts have been so few and far between. I miss you all! Please write!

<3>

Weekend adventures in Praha-ha-ha-ha

On Thursday we went to the ballet at the National Theatre. Everyone dressed up and the theatre is gorgeous. Instead of one long ballet we saw four smaller pieces of all varieties. My favorite was a very modern piece with 10 male ballerinas and 10 trampolines. They each had their own personality, character and form of dance and what could be more fun then ballerinas on trampolines? The theatre was gorgeous, the only thing that put a damper on the evening was that we had our intensive Czech final the next day. But I just got it back and received an –A! This is fantastic considering it is 25% of my Czech grade!

Friday after my Intensive Czech final and scavenger hunt, I headed back towards home to find that there was a wine festival at the square by my apartment. They had a ton of little venders selling hand made goods, food, and burčak, a Czech specialty, which is basically premature wine. It is both sweet and sour and is very tasty. They also had people dressed up and performing. It was a lot of fun to participate in a Czech tradition with the locals. We tested the new wine and eat some traditional foods!

Saturday was so much fun! We went to Petrin Hill and say the rose gardens and imitation Eiffel tower on the top of the hill! There was also a fantastic view from the top of the hill! On the way down we discovered apple trees, and went from tree to tree climbing and collecting the most delicious apples. We ended up in the center of Prague castle after apple picking and then we all went home. Later that night my flat-mates and I were lost looking for one of our favorite hangout places and ran into some friendly Danish men who enjoyed our company for the remainder of the night.

We live really close to a bunch of other CIEE students, who all live in the same apartment building and so Sunday morning we made eggs, hash browns, and apple crisp with our thousands of apples and invited them over for brunch. Besides that we basically relaxed and got ready for our first week of real classes. Around 7 our Czech buddy/ flat mate took us to an Italian restaurant. It was amazing! I had gnocchi and then for desert, we had pancakes stuffed with ice-cream and fruit! All-in-all I’m having a great time! Of course I miss you all and I hate not being there for all the sports victories and blue-ribbon ceremonies, but time is flying and I will be home soon enough, wishing I was here. Haha. Love you all!

Mollywog

Flat-Mates and Castles

Hello again!

I thouht you might want to see who I am living with so here is a picture! On the far left is my roommate Katie, who is a Czech buddy and then Sarah and Emily live in the other room of the flat. We are drinking a Czech specialty! It is sort of like wine, but tastes like a mix of vinigar and apple cider. It is actually really tasty! We are at a really cool underground bar called U Sudu.

My flat is the only CIEE flat in the apartment building, but luckly there are three floors of CIEE students living right around the corner from us so Friday night me and my flatmates bought bre, bread, and wine and headed over to there place for stir fry. They are alot of fun and afterwards we continued the event and went to 80's dance night at a local dance club!

We did not have class yesterday, but we went on a feild trip to two different castles outside of Prague. I'm still tryin to figure out the weather. Up till yesterday it has been sunny and warm, which is nice, but I have few warm cloths, but yesterday when I decided to wear one of my few short pants, the temperture droped 20 degrees. So I was very thankful when we got a chance to tour the inside of our first attactions, Křivoklát Castle. There was a beautiful wedding there, but my favorite part of the tour was the torture chamber with real torture peices.

After that we had a fabulous three course lunch and then proceeded to climb to the second castle, Karlštejn, pictured to the right. We did a scavenger hunt were we ran around answering questions about price of admisions and hours of tourist operation.

Anyways, today was my day off! No classes or manditory trips so we all slept in and then went across the river later to shop. We also studied and made pancakes! All in all I'm having a great time! Tomorrow will be my second week of intensive Czech language and tomorrow after class some friends are planning to go to either the Titanic exibition or the museum. I also found out that my friends from Itily will be visiting Prague in October so I'm looking for some great places to bring them!

Na shledanou, till next time, miss you much!

Ahoj (Like a Pirates says) from Prague!

Czech it out! I finally arived in Prague Friday and this is my darling flat! Not ony is it pleasing to the eye but it is also very safe. There is a special lock that gets us in the front door and then two locks on our flat door, plus a dead bolt. I practically have to wish myself into it. I go to class in Vysehrad and I live up and to the right in Varšavská street. I take a tram and metro and then I have a good hike to the study center. On a good day it takes about 20 minutes. I catch the tram at Námĕsti míru which means peace square or something like that. In the middle of the square is this fabulous church!

Anyways, back to my flat. I share a room with a "Czech" buddy and then there are two other American girls that live here too! I have a giant closet, but not much to put in it. haha. I also have a cute little kitchen with everything I need. And of course there is a nicely furnished living/dining room. The bathroom is my favorite part! It is fabulous! We have two and a half bathrooms so there is no fighting over who showers first. The one connected to my room is the best! It has a giant bathtub!

I started intensive Czech language classes on Monday and I already had have a Czech quiz today. Imagine! My third day of class and I had a quiz! I am in the beginner class, but I feel like I'm in the fast track! In my head I sound very good, but I get nervous before I have to speak and what I say comes out completely wrong. I need to work on my pronunciation. Which is unfortunate because they say that the Czech people will forgive you for grammar and spelling, but pronunciation is the most important! Anyways we learn Czech language for about 4 hours in the morning sometimes more, with some breaks, for the next two weeks.

One up side to having Czech cass is I can now tell what I am purchasing in the grocery store. Saturday I stood in the dairy section for what seemed like an eternity trying to figure out what was creamer. Finally I went with something that showed a picture of it being poured into coffee. ha-ha. Then I proceeded to do the same thing in front of what I thought was the sugar... No splenda. I'm getting a little better now.

The 22 is when the real classes/fun begin. I'll still have Czech Monday-Thursday at 8:30, but at least it will be a change of pace! I got my schedule and you can see my classes on the right. They ended up being all almost back to back on Monday and Wednesday, so I can start traveling as soon as Czech is done Thursday morning! Meanwhile these next two weeks in the afternoon/night they have activities planned for us.

Last night we went to a giant place with pool, bowling, air hockey and of course a bar. There are bars everywhere in Prague! Pivó is Czech for beer by the way. I'm still not totally about bee but I had a kick ass rum and coke last night, made with Czech rum. It was delisous, just like drinking candy! Also Today we went on a guided tour of the town surrownding Prague castle. It was fun and I'll definatly go back to check out the inside. We had a great view of all of Prague and this is only one shot.

Anyways ust saying greetings from Praha! I love and miss you all!

Mollywog