My Town

Last weekend a friend and I went to Bratislava. It was amazing, but since I am about to leave my lovely, little town I wanted to tell you about it first. It was truly love at first sight. Really, I just fell in love with this place. It is a beautiful European town of about a 100,000 people. Its downtown has cobblestone roads in the, fountains, outside cafes, narrow streets and beautiful buildings. Being here feels like being home. The dorms for the summer school are pretty nice too. They are on the edge of the city and have a wonderful trail along a river right behind them.

Left: This is the happy picture painted on our balcony. Above: This is my roommate, Sauri, from Japan.

The town:

The river that I would run/walk along. The mornings were always my favorite times to go; it was so peaceful.

My saving grace in Olomouc from the meat and fried food. This vegetarian bar was my miracle!

Hurray for the Czech language!!! That is my class above. We had three great teachers and a lot of fun!

Krakow, Poland

Hello all! Last weekend a few of us went to Krakow for 3 days and had a great time. It used to be the capital of Poland and has a very long history. We ended up just renting an apartment for a couple nights that was very close to the main square for only $150 a night. Pretty amazing, huh? It was actually quite nice too. Here are some pictures...enjoy!




We stayed on this street, towards the end. The structure at the end of the street used to be the main enterance into the city.








This is just on the other side of the old main enterance.

The Main Square

This city is full of people and horse carriages. They are all different and each very beautiful (I mean the horse carriages but I guess that works for people too). I had to get a picture with one...I am running backwards while a friend is trying to keep up to get the picture...and the horses just keep going. The driver must have thought I was crazy.

A crowded street off the main square. I loved the church in the distance; it made it one of my favorite streets.

Me enjoying my bed after a night train from

Olomouc to Krakow with all 7 of us in one compartment. I don't think any of us slept.

Us girls having a read at a unique little English used book store.

An nun enjoying an ice cream. One can see nuns and monks everywhere on the streets in Krakow.

Aren't they cute?

Me in a cave under the castle where legend has it that an evil hearted dragon was killed.



We just happened to be there during a pierogie festival. They were really, really good!

Just thought it was pretty. This was on the second floor...there were a whole row of windows like this.

This is a local thing....it literally grilled cheese.

It smells really strong but everyone liked it. I couldn't bring myself to try it.

The main square always seemed to have someone entertaining...puppits, break dancing, fire throwing.

Interesting art on the main square.

There was a big indoor souvenir market in the building on the center of the main square. There were mainly three types of stands there: jewelry, wooden toys and carvings, or wooden boxes and plates

Polka Anyone?

On Monday we had a folklore band night which included singing, dancing, Moravian wine (for those that drink) and a polka dance contest. It was tons of fun. My dance partner and I actually won 3rd place out of 17-19 couples. I think we lost points on the last two dances though: the creative polka and the sexy polka. Somehow Japanize culture (my partner was Japanese) and I just don't equal creative and sexy. It was lots of fun though.

The lovely third place couple dancing the "traditional" polka probably during the sexy polka. j/k

There was a lot of interpretive polka dancing going on.

My Saturday

Yesterday we went out to a nearby castle. It had been completely renovated in the beginning of the 20th century and was much more modern looking inside and out than the old English castles but still very interesting. It was under personal ownership until the 2nd World War, I believe, but today is under public ownership. They also rent out parts of the castle for weddings for not quite a 1,ooo pounds. We saw a couple wedding parties while there. On our way back we went to a cheese museum. Random, I know. The museum itself was even more random. No comments.
Aim....
For 15 crowns you can try your hand at archery (about a $1). What castle would be complete without some little shooting booth?

Fire..... I actually got one that was pretty good. Must have been thanks to the 10th grade archery gym unit.


After that a few of us made the trek out to the Olomouc Zoo. It sits way out in the more hilly countryside. We weren't expecting much but were all very impressed. They had lots of different animals, some of which weren't the typical US zoo animals and this huge outside area for monkeys. I think they must really love monkeys or something because there were about 4 different areas throughout the zoo.



I've never seen so many giraffes in one zoo (two more are not in the picture). It was cool to see. We think there must have been a buy 3 get one free deal.


The big outside area for monkeys with one of those free-standing bridges you walk across to exit the zoo. It was really pretty with a little creek that ran through it.


I made some friends at the zoo.

Kutna Hora

On our way back from Prague we stopped at an old silver mining town. Around the 13th century it had a population of about 80,000, with the majority of the residence being German. Today, it is a small, quiet town of 20, 000.





Another interesting fact about Kutna Hora is that it has a Roman Catholic Church decorated with the skeletons of an estimated 40,000 corpses....something you don't see everyday (not such a bad thing).

Prague

Hey Everyone!

Last weekend my program made a trip to Prague (Praha in Czech). It was tons of fun and included everything from boring tours to a group of us getting lost at 3 something in the morning. Here are some pictures of the trip. In general, it reminded me a lot of the Old City Tallinn in Estonia, which is also very beautiful.





The Charles Bridge














A very late dinner for a few of us on our first night in Prague. We finally found a place around 11pm.








These wooden puppets and other toys are all over the Czech Republic. They are even in the regular toy stores (i.e. they are not just a tourist trap but a real Czech child staple).








The main square by day and a chapel in the palace courtyard