Back to my roots.

Thea, Rudi, and I spent one of my last days in the Czech Republic visiting some of our very distant (15th century distant) family and visiting the homes of our Czech ancestors. It was such a cool day, something I will always remember and something that very few people ever get to see or do. I am so thankful that my family was able to locate the small villages and even homes that my great, great, grandparents lived in. That is honestly so cool. We visited Soutice, a tiny village with only a few houses, a pub, and a church, Ostrov, another small village, and Rendejov, which has very few houses circling around a well. We have only been able to locate a few of the original houses of my ancestors, as many of them have since been torn down or renumbered. There is one house in Soutice, that looks just as I imagine it would've looked when my great, great, great, grandma would've lived there in the late 1880's. The house is Ostrov, #5, has been remodeled and continuously lived in. Thea told me that most people have summer homes in these small villages and will come to the Czech countryside on weekends to get out of Prague.


House #3 in Soutice. This was the home of Maria Parizek, born in 1845. It is abandoned now and the weeds and bushes are overgrown. Maria Parizek would be my great, great, great-grandmother. Maria was married to Frantisek Studnicka. Studnicka was my grandmother's maiden name.


The house in Soutice.


The village of Soutice.


The village of Soutice.


Thea and I at the house in Soutice.




The small church in Soutice.




After Soutice, we went Rendejov, where a few of our ancestors lived, but we haven't been able to locate the exact houses, as we think they have been renumbered. Rendejov is tiny. There are about 10 houses just in a circle around a well and a very small chapel and that's it. I can't imagine the way that my ancestors lived so so many years ago.







The last stop was Ostrov, where Thea has found the home where Frank Studnicka lived before immigrating to the United States. Thea started a blog when she studied abroad in Olomouc, kept using it throughout all of her travels, and eventually took off and someone contacted her about sharing some similar family history. It turns out that he was right and Thea and Matthias were able to put the rest of the family tree together and see these small villages and find some of the houses too. Seeing all of this history and being able to meet my distant family half way across the world was a once in lifetime thing that hardly anyone gets to experience.


My great, great grandfather's house in Ostrov.


A little piece of my family tree from Bohemia.

After exploring, we returned to Zruc, which is about an hour from Prague, and I got to meet the Rysavy's. Talk about wonderful people. I had heard my mom and sister talk about meeting them, and we are all friends on Facebook, but it was so amazing to finally be able to meet them. We spent the evening getting to know each other, snacking and drinking pivot and vino, and enjoying each other's company. They speak Czech at home so they taught me a little and had lots of laughs at me trying to figure out each word. It was so much fun and they truly are wonderful people. I can't wait to visit them again during my semester in Olomouc. Alena is a dentist so we even talked about me doing a little international job shadowing. It was a wonderful day.

In my last week in the Czech Republic, Thea and I took a trip to Brno, and I did a little more wandering around Prague.


The cathedral in Brno.


The Capuchin crypt in Brno. CREEEEPY


Tiramisu and coffee in Brno.


The Jewish Quarter in Prague. It is one of the only preserved Jewish Quarters in Europe as the Nazi's planned for it to be a museum of an extinct race.


The cemetery in the Jewish Quarter.


Jews with the last name Baum that were killed in WWII. There are numerous walls marked with names in the Jewish Museum.







Each wall contained different Czech towns and the names of those that were killed from each town.


The different concentration camps of WWII.


Jews with the last name Studnicka (the -ova meaning female) that were killed in the War. This woman was from Prague. I was surprised that I saw the name Baum so often, compared to Studnicka.

The Cinque Terre: Ciao bella!

So on the 19th (my 21st birthday HOLLA) we got up early again and this time headed to the Cinque Terre. My mom and sister have both been here so I've seen pictures and heard them talk about it and knew I would love it. When Thea and I were planning our trip, I wanted to go somewhere be beach-y, and the Cinque Terre was the perfect place. We came home sunburnt and three shades blonder but our week in Italy was something I'll never forget.

When we arrived in the Cinque Terre, we found our hotel in Riomaggiore, and got settled in. First I should tell you that the Cinque Terre is a national park in the region of Liguria on the northwest coast of Italy between Genoa and Pisa. There are five towns in the Cinque Terre (hence the cinque) and they are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We stayed in Riomaggiore, which turned out to be one of my favorites along with Vernazza and Manarola. It's really easy to get between towns as they are trains that run very often and they are coastal walks and ferries as well.

Our hotel ended up being a cute little apartment right above a restaurant on the main street in Riomaggiore. The towns are really small, but our location was prefect, and for finding something cheap and last minute, we had a really nice apartment with a kitchen for the three days that we were there. For lunch that day, we had fried fresh seafood, some of the best I've ever eaten. Being on the coast, I only had seafood the entire time we were there. So we took our lunch and a bottle of wine down to the marina and sat with our toes in the water and soaked up the sun.



Birthday Lunch! Mixed seafood and red wine!


First drink on my 21st :)




The harbor in Riomaggiore.


Riomaggiore









After lunch we had intended to walk to Manarola, the next town along the coast on what is called the Via dell' Amore, or the Walk of Love, but for some reason it was closed. So we took the train, explored Manarola, had a drink (it was my 21st birthday!) right on the water, and then headed to the next town, Corniglia. After exploring, we headed back to Riomaggiore for an afternoon swim before dinner. We found a beach (they're rocky, not sandy) and laid in the sun and swam in the Mediterranean for the rest of the afternoon. Bumming on the beach and in the water was the perfect way to spend my birthday. We freshened up for dinner and headed to a nice restaurant with salty hair and all.


The walk up to Corniglia. Corniglia is the only town that isn't directly on the water.




The harbor in Manarola.


Manarola. We ate at the restaurant on the left the next night.


Drink #2 in Manarola!


Birthday swim!


The beach in Riomaggiore.

We split a bottle of wine, had homemade pasta with mussels, and then a seafood main course. Once again everything was delicious. After dinner, we grabbed a bottle of Vernaccia di San Gimignano wine, a bottle of limoncello and headed back down to the sea. We had to celebrate with at least a few drinks! Before long we met some Italian sailors that kept us company and I went for a night swim in the sea. It was my favorite birthday yet.


Birthday dinner in Riomaggiore!




Limoncello and a bottle of wine seaside was better than any bar crawl in America could've been.

The next day we headed to Monterosso, the furthest town north and fighting a little bit of hangover, got a pesto focaccia, and walked around the city. There are beaches in Monterosso, which makes it one of the more popular towns, but you have to pay to get in and Thea and I were just fine finding a huge flat rock to sprawl out on. So after walking around a bit, we started our hike to Vernazza. Probably not our smartest idea with the state we were in and the hot sun beating down us, but we got over our hangovers right away and took in the beautiful views surrounding us. The water is turquoise blue spotted with cute Italian boats and sailboats, the cliffs cut right into the sea, and then there are even vineyards cut into the cliffs. The Cinque Terre is one of my favorite places in the world, so beautiful. It took us about two hours to hike to Vernazza and when we got there we went straight for a mojito and the water. The hike was worth it though, and the super strong mojito we had was the perfect way to end it. We spent the rest of the afternoon passed out on the rocks and swimming in the sea. It was perfect. Vernazza was one of my favorites.


In Monterosso.


The hike to Vernazza.










Looking down on Monterosso.


Looking down over Vernazza.


Vernazza.




A mojito and the Mediterranean.

That night we went for dinner in Manarola and had a delicious tiramisu dessert. He had wine and seafood again. After dinner, while waiting for our train, I decided to jump back in the harbor and we swam and watched the sun set, it was beautiful. (We lived in our swimsuits and our hair was always salty, if you can't tell.)


Tiramisu in Manarola.


Our waiter took a picture for us and then invited us on his boat for a beach party, haha.



The next day, and our last in the Cinque Terre and in Italy, we got up early, rented a kayak and kayaked to Manarola. That was a lot of fun, even though Thea was worried about me dumping up the whole time (we had mom's camera, haha). We spent the rest of the day laying on the big rocks in Riomaggiore and swimming. That night we had reservations at a wonderful restaurant in Vernazza, so we took the train and spent a while walking around Vernazza and shopping.


Kayaking by Manarola.


Manarola from our kayak.


Riomaggiore from our kayak.


Beachin' one last time in Riomaggiore.


Seafood and the sole beer of the trip at Mamma Mia!




Shopping in Vernazza.


Sat and enjoyed the views in Verazza. Shorty after we were harassed by an old man in a speedo about why we were drinking water and not wine :)

In Vernazza, we stopped for a drink during happy hour and just sat on the harbor taking it all in. This was the trip of a lifetime.


Happy hour drinks.


Found an anchor so I had too.

For dinner, we ate at this fancy restaurant up on top the cliff right on the sea. The views were beautiful and the food was amazing. I had squid ink pasta with shrimps, and Thea had trofie al pesto, another local specialty with fresh trofie pasta. We split a liter of wine and had our last tiramisu for dessert. Everything was so delicious, and they even brought us free limonello shots as we sat and just talked and took it all in. We got back from dinner late and since we had to be up at 4:00 am to catch our train to Milan, headed to bed.


My dinner and a glass of wine.




Our last tiramisu in Italy.


Limoncello!

4:00 am the next morning was rough, but our time in Italy was absolutely perfect. We were minutes from missing our flight, and we were still on the airport shuttle five minutes before our gate closed. Thank god Thea was gutsy enough to cut through the line for security or we never would've made it. In the craziness of everything, I even had her passport going through security and she had mine. Not sure how I got two jars of pesto, and even some kitchen utensils I had bought through security but thanks for leniency Italian TSA :) We had to take off sprinting for our gate and with our huge backpacks and Thea wearing a dress that's a whole different story, hahaha. But we made it thank god!

Our time in Italy was everything I've ever imagined. The food and wine is so so special and the way of life is just completely different from what I've seen so far. I can't wait to return next spring and see Venice and Rome. But really, I'll never forget all the memories with Thea and I'll never forget my birthday in Italy. It was all just amazing. Ciao bella!