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