Prague...the "New York" of Czech

Well we are back from our long weekend in Prague and Dresden, Germany and although it was fun I can't help but find myself happy to be back in little Olomouc and in my dorm room bed. The best way to describe Prague is the New York of the Czech Republic. It's packed with tourists. When we first arrived in Prague I thought I loved it, but after four plus hours of walking around and being pushed around as I walked, constantly being bombarded by salesmen, and weaving my way through all the tourists I was over it. I do like Prague because I was able to get many souvenirs for my family and friends and bought and a souvenir Garnet ring for myself. Garnet is a native Czech Republic gemstone and I figured it would be a momento of my studying abroad trip. Below mine is the hand in the bottom left corner. 

Being around all those tourists however makes me very appreciative of our little, small town Olomouc.

On our day trip to Dresden we left in the morning and took the 8:30 am train. On the train Katie and I met a very nice younger English man that was backpacking across Europe and his two week break from school classes. I think he got quite a kick out of Katie and my "English accents." Let's just say they aren't very good. Ha! We are practicing though. Once in Dresden we took a tram to the German Military Museum. The museum was just recently built and it was awesome. The building was five stories packed of historical information. I learned some very amazing things, and I never thought I'd say this but the two hours we had in there flew by. The following are just a few things I learned...

These are pictures of some of the shoes taken off the dead bodies at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The description talked about a 12 year old girl that was one of the few women who had the horrible job of collecting and matching all the shoes of the dead Jews. Her poem is below and if you can’t read it, the name of it is “Shoes of the dead”.

Then one other interesting thing they showed in the museum was different animals and how they were used for war communications and other various purposes.

After the museum we walked to the new market and saw a church Dresden citizens reconstructed after the bombings that completely destroyed the city. For lunch a couple girls and I went to a cute little restaurant and had German food while sipping on wine. The ride home, however, was probably my favorite part.

 

A couple of the girls and I bought some more wine at the train station and drank it all the way home. We were feeling pretty good ....well good enough for Katie and I to race down the up escalator. :) Neither of us fell though so obviously we were still doing ok. 

That same night most of us went to the famous Czech club that is five stories tall and on every floor there is a different theme on each floor.

This is a picture of the front door that lists the floors and what song is playing at that time.

Most of our time was spent on the "hip hop" floor. There were tons of Spanish and Italian men (like literally the ratio of men to women was 9 to 1), and in Spain and Italy they don't have a lot of blondes so the guys would literally grab and touch your (referring to myself as a blond) hair. People touching my hair is one of my biggest pet peeves so I wasn't a huge fan of this.

As you can kind of see….mostly dark haired men.

Overall it was a very fun night, and I was really happy about everyone being able to get home safely. 

Reflecting back on my weekend in Prague and Dresden I would NEVER say I wouldn't do it again. I loved it! I am very happy however to be back in my little city of Olomouc. Katie and I are currently working on making plans to meet up with some fellow Nebraskans in Croatia this coming weekend. Stay tuned for more of this girl's European adventures! 

Patience is a Virtue

We are winding down our first week in the Czech Republic. Wow are things different here. I must say I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back a changed woman. I'll have a British accent (as our new best foreign friends are from England and France) and I won't know how to drive (as we walk everywhere).


So far from what I've seen the architecture in Olomouc is gorgeous. It's like a big, real life Disneyland. You know how you walk down the little streets at Disneyland, and they've made all the buildings look all cute and antique? Well that's how it really is here! It's absolutely adorable! The only bad thing is in America you can kind of tell what buildings are sketch and which aren't...well here you can't tell. You can find the cutest, cleanest little restaurants hidden in some random hole in the wall. So what we've been doing is randomly going into restaurants, pointing at something on the menu and seeing what we get. It's adventurous and makes every meal an exciting event. I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back 30 pounds heavier. :( Worth it!! Ha.


Honestly the one word I would use to describe the Czech Republic is 'simple'. Everything is just so calm, quiet, and laid back. There are not many cars (as I've heard they are quite expensive) so everyone walks everywhere, or they take a bus and/or tram. Little kids even walk. The Czechs aren't as impatient as Americans. I feel like in America parents throw their children in stroller because they are in too much of a hurry to wait for their kids to walk along side them. In Czech they let their kids walk and explore, and they take the time to enjoy a nice walk. This does make getting places take longer but from what I've observed they don't work that much here. They have long lunch breaks and all the shops are closed by like 7pm. Then everything is closed on Sundays and only open from 10am-1pm on Saturdays. Bars and pubs close at 1 am, but that is understandable because they are usually open again in the morning. But after bars close the clubs are open literally all night.


Classes don't seem to be too challenging yet, but once Dr. Clark's class starts I'm sure that will change. I've had some points where I've gotten home sick but so far I'm still glad to be here. I don't know I just feel like I've done and seen so much in the last five days there is no possible way to type it all. I hope to keep blogging at least once a week, but having no internet in my room makes this a little more difficult (What did I say...simple people here). But overall right now I'm doing good and just working on adjusting to this new way and pace of life.


Stay tuned more European adventure stories to come....