Ahoj!

Here's my update from week 4 of being abroad! I just returned to Olomouc (very, very early this morning) from a weekend in Budapest, Hungary. It was a blast. Between the Hungarian food, the natural thermal spas, the nightlife, the Hungarian wine, and the city itself, I enjoyed every minute in Budapest. We ate way too much goulash and spent an entire day soaking in the spas (it's recommended that you only stay in for 20 minutes) but it was a weekend I'll always remember and I am glad that I got to check Budapest off my list.

At the Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest

St. Stephen's Basilica

The Buda side of the Danube

We arrived late on Friday night, and immediately got checked into our hostel, which immediately was taking us out on a bar crawl. We stayed in a typical Budapest party hostel, that pretty much means that cleanliness was substituted for fun. Budapest is famous for it's "ruin bars", meaning that they pretty much turned some abandoned buildings, stores, and lots in the Old Jewish Quarter into the coolest bars I've ever been in. Most of them are multiple stories, with many rooms, and filled with vintage furniture, a DJ and a bar. Think of an entire building of flats converted into one big bar. It was so edgy and cool, I was in love. So that first night we hopped from ruin bar to ruin bar with everyone that was staying at our hostel, mingling and just having a great time.

On Saturday, we got up early, hit the free walking tour (a must for every city) and spent the day exploring. We learned the history, saw some beautiful sights, and took everything in. We had delicious Hungarian food, Hungarian wine, gelato (lemon basil and elderberry flavored :)) and just truly enjoyed the city. That night, we had once again more Hungarian food, and headed for a boat tour on the Danube. I had constantly heard from others that Budapest at night seems like a completely different city. If Budapest wasn't the prettiest city during the day, at night, it was completely captivating. All of the buildings and bridges were lit, and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was at night that Budapest was just extremely beautiful.

St. Matthias Church on Castle Hill

I loved the architecture of this one. Budapest has a lot of Turkish influence which is the style of the roof.

Me lovin' Budapest

A cute cafe outside of the National Theatre.

Some champagne at the start of our Danube River cruise.

The Budapest Parliament building all lit up at night. Gorgeous!

On Sunday, we headed for the spas. Another absolute must in Budapest. We spent the entire day just hopping from pool to pool, enjoying the steam rooms and sauna, and soaking up the sun for the first time since we've been here! That's one thing I do miss, sunshine. The weather in Budapest was wonderful. We spent our last night at a really nice restaurant, just enjoying dinner and company, and then we headed to the town square and drank some Hungarian wine for our last night in Budapest.

Szechenyi Thermal Baths

We had the BEST Hungarian dinner our last night. I had goulash, and this dish, which was goose, goose liver (surprisingly delish!) and vegetable risotto. Paired with some Hungarian wine, of course!

As much as I am enjoying our weekend excursions and day trips, I also love my daily life in Olomouc, and truthfully miss "home" when I am away on the weekends. Taylor and I love our little flat, and our flat mates are extremely nice as well. One girl is from Spain and the other from Italy. We also have a lot of fun here during the week, and there is always a lot going on on weeknights as I think most students travel on the weekends.

I also really enjoy the classes as well. Truthfully, most of them make me wish I had been a history major. Our lecturers are always incredibly intelligent and you can just tell that they are excited to share their specialty with us. While all of the courses are based Central European history, we have had courses in economics, government, religious history, and many more topics. I think what keeps me so interested in each topic is simply the fact my ancestors experienced everything that we discuss. I constantly find myself thinking about my Grandma and her parents during our lectures. We watched a wonderful documentary about a man that is rediscovering his Czech roots and I was just fascinated about how closely it resembled the stories I have heard and now the villages I have seen in the Czech Republic where my own ancestors came from. Aside from the fact that this man's father was a wealthy Czech politician, whereas mine lived in tiny villages and sought better opportunities in America, rather than leaving because of oppression.

But truthfully, I think that is why I love being here. I love the food and the culture, because I have a little bit of it at home. I am just fascinated by everything, and learning all that I have about the Czech Republic really puts a lot into perspective for me. I now understand why my Czech ancestors settled in Nebraska, and I now understand why my family loves their Czech culture so much. It's truly something to be treasured. These four weeks have been everything I imagined. Now, they just need to stop going by so fast! We are going to Auschwitz in Poland this weekend, and then I am meeting Thea in Prague for dinner and the opera on Sunday!

Easter Weekend

Well today on our trip to southern Moravia, I was blessed with fertility for the year by some young Czech boys. I was chased with a long stick decorated with ribbons and was spanked by some boys. They thought it was so funny and it probably was. This is truly one of the funniest Czech traditions I have witnessed and learned of. Some boys chased us and smacked all of the girls with their sticks, but only after politely asking our guide, Tereza, if it was okay. It was all in good fun and tradition. Easter Monday is when the young boys typically go to the homes of young girls they know and spank them with this willow twigs, in exchange for some candy. I believe that when the boys are older they spank the girls in exchange for some Slivovice, or plum brandy. Only in the Czech Republic :) Spending Easter Monday in such small Czech towns has been wonderful, and the weather here is absolutely beautiful today. Southern Moravia also happens to be wine country so I would be lying if I said I wasn't on the train drinking Moravian wine while writing this right now.

We spent the rest of the Easter weekend in Prague and Dresden, Germany. As always, our travels were interesting and so fun. In Prague, we visited the Prague Castle and the Jewish Quarter, as well as touring the city in the meantime. Having seen both of these sites before, I was still really interested to hear about each from Jan and Martin. They have so many interesting facts and knowledge about every attraction we visit. My favorite part of being in Prague this weekend was the Easter markets and going to Easter mass at St. Vitus Cathedral. The mass may have been in Czech, but being in such a beautiful (and very, very cold) church was an experience. The food and atmosphere at the Easter markets was wonderful as well. Music was always playing and there were desserts, sausages, and all sorts of traditional Czech foods. I has sausage, some sort of grilled smoked cheese with cranberry sauce, mulled wine, langoš (fried bread with garlic and cheese), and probably some Czech pivo throughout the weekend. I also got to spend some time with Thea while in Prague, which was great.

The Lennon Wall in Prague

On St. Charles Bridge

The Easter Markets in Old Town Square. Where you could always find me with a sausage and a beer :)

The Easter Markets at Náměstí Míru

A life changing "grilled cheese" and mulled wine from the Easter Markets.

A few of us at Prague Castle after having lunch and beers at Strahov Monastery. My favorite brewery in Prague!

Happy I finally got to go to mass at St. Vitus Cathedral, even if it was in Czech :)

We had a lot of fun in Prague too. I made everyone go to Lucerna, a music club that plays 70's and 80's music and videos every weekend. If you know me, you know that this is right up my alley. I'm just glad that the Czech's love ABBA as much as I do. We went back to a great underground pub called U Sudu, with cheap Czech beers. We definitely had our fair share of fun in Prague.

On Saturday, we took a train to Dresden, Germany. I had no expectations of what Dresden would be like. I knew that it had been heavily bombed during WWII, so I expected a more modern city than what I saw. All of the buildings in the city center had been rebuilt exactly as it was before. There is a beautiful Lutheran cathedral that has been rebuilt using some of the original stones, mixed in with new stones from after the bombing. It was a beautiful city. Dresden was also the seat of a German empire so we visited the Zwinger Museum, which had a lot of historical art. Some of us went to the gallery while some went to a museum of Turkish armory. We had delicious pasta for lunch, and some traditional German desserts of course.

Taylor and I had a delicious French breakfast at Cafe Louvre before heading to Dresden. A Viennese coffee, croisannt and Camambert cheese, and an omelet :)

The beautiful Lutheran cathedral in Dresden. The darker stones are original, whereas the rest of the church was reconstructed after the bombing of Dresden in WWII. Dresden was the home of Martin Luther so the cathedral is especially beautiful.

Views from the top of the cathedral.

Today in Znojmo and Mikulov has been absolutely magical. The small villages were quiet because of the Easter weekend, but it was such a great change coming from Prague, which is always so packed and busy. We wandered around Znojmo, and saw the church and castle, which had wonderful views of the city and the country side. We found one of the few restaurants that was open for lunch and had wine and schnitzel. It was delicious. We then headed to Mikulov, where we saw a Jewish Cemetery and hiked to the top of holy hill, which was breathtaking. We drank Moravian wine and had such a great time in the Czech country side. Some of us even commented that seeing the country side reminded us of home. It's no wonder that so many Czech's settled in Nebraska, with the landscape being so similar.

Views from the castle in Znojmo. Znojmo is a small Czech village in the southern part of Moravia, aka wine country :)

We climbed to the top of Holy Hill in Mikulov and had wonderful views of the town. 

Enjoying some Moravian white wine at the top! 

"No one leaves southern Moravia sober." - Ann

The church in Znojmo

Lunch. Which consisted of white wine, pork schnitzel, chicken schnitzel, and fried cheese. Really healthy.

The "historical drinking team"

What a wonderful day in Moravia :)

Overall, this last week in Olomouc, Prague, Dresden, and southern Moravia has been magical, as Europe always is to me. I really enjoyed this last week as we got to be more independent in Olomouc and even on our field trips. We have plenty of time to explore which I really enjoy. I am still loving this opportunity and can't wait for the weeks to come. A short week of class and Budapest next weekend!

Our classes were cancelled last Monday, so on a whim, some of us decided to explore Bratislava for the day! Bratislava is the capital city of Slovakia. This dial shows the distance between Olomouc and Bratislava.

The Blue Church in Bratislava

The view from the castle.

The castle looked beautiful lit up at night.

My delicious Slovakian lunch. I'm not 100% sure what it was but it tasted great.

Kutna Hora, Hluboka nad Vltavou, Ceske Budejovice, and other places I can't pronounce.

Thea and I (and sometimes Rudi!) have taken a few trips to some small Czech towns in the past couple weeks. First, we went to Kutna Hora, a little town about an hour outside of Prague. Kutna Hora is famous for its bone church. Buses of tourists stop here, but we were lucky enough to get there pretty early and beat the crowds. The church is seriously morbid and a little weird really, but it was cool to see nonetheless.


Apparently this chandelier is made from every bone in the human body.


The Schwarzenbergs Crest made out of bones.



We also saw the very beautiful, St. Barbara's Cathedral and had delicious lunch, and some Czech wine!











Our next stop was Hluboka and Vltavou, don't even ask me how to say it, I've given up on learning anything other than hello, please, thank you, and you're welcome in Czech. But, it was this beautiful little town with a fairytale castle sitting at the top of the hill. We took a train and spent the day exploring this massive castle that was once home to the Schwarzenbergs, a royal Czech family. We took pictures, climbed the tower, took a tour, and had some ice cream.




Pretending to be royalty :)





















After that, in a nearby town called Ceske Budejovice is a huge Czech brewery called Budweiser Budvar (the original Budweiser if you ask me, but that's debatable). So we took a tour, and got to see how the beer is made and got to sample some pivo too. It was really cool for me, since I didn't know that much about the brewery process to learn what goes on, but Thea and Rudi are brewmasters so they were teaching me too. It so cool to me that beer is such a huge part of the culture here. I love it!