Para- Para- Paradise {Czech Trip}

The "Czech Paradise" trip was a trip around several towns in Bohemia (eastern Czech Republic).  Our first stop was a small town with the name of Litomyšl (sounds kind of like "Little Michelle ha!).  Here we toured the Renaissance Chateau which is a UNESCO site.  We were able to walk around the town and explore a little bit as well as eat lunch.

Litomyšl

Renaissance Chateau 

Next, we headed to my favorite part of the trip: the open-air museum in Piletice!  I didn't really know what to expect here, but I was pleasantly surprised.  We were greeted by an older Czech couple in traditional Czech clothing.  They did not speak English, so they greeted us by action and not by words.  They greeted us in typical Czech manor by offering us a piece of bread dipped in salt upon entering the museum.  

The open-air museum showed us how the Czech people lived years ago as well as a few traditions that are still practiced today.  The best part was that we had the opportunity of practicing some of their traditions.  I had the privilege of learning (by watching- no English spoken) how to paint eggs with wax paint as well as how to braid the willow branches to create the stick that the guys hit girls with on Easter!

A little apprehensive because I wasn't sure what she was saying or if I was allowed to keep the egg lol!

Adding the final touches to the willow branches- the ribbons!

After this quaint little place, we went to the home of the Czech equivalent to Mickey Mouse: Rumcajs!

"Shoemaker Rumcajs" 

The man himself- Rumcajs! (& his crew)

The town that is home to Rumcajs (Jičín) is also home to some beautiful sights!  The best views almost always require walking up many steep, old, rickety stairs.   Jičín was no different.  The stairs are always worth it though to see the beautiful views! 

 Here are some views from the top of a tower in Jičín: 

After all that hard work of climbing those stairs, we all decided to get ice cream cones in which mine promptly jumped to the ground.  It was one of the sadder moments in my life although I think it was probably God's way of telling me that I did not need any more sugar that day.  

Losing one's ice cream is emotionally draining, so it was a good thing we were headed to our cabins for the night next!  We stayed in these super cute cabins which was definitely a nice change from the ever so popular European hostel.  The cabins were in the middle of nowhere, but they also had a restaurant there that we hung out in for the remainder of the night. 

Saturday, we set out towards the town of Kutná Hora which is home to the famous "Church of Bones".  You can see that it is appropriately named.

As interesting as this was, I much preferred the other famous church in this town, St. Barbara's Cathedral.

Sidenote: It was also unexpectedly cold (not sure why we weren't expecting it by this point), so most of us did not have appropriate clothing for the weather.  Cold was a pretty common occurrence during the extent of my stay in Europe.  I learned many things from this experience, but I think the most important is that hot chocolate is indeed a means of survival at times.  

Thankfully the next day held significantly improved weather!  This worked out perfectly because we went hiking in the Prachov rock formations!  This was also probably tied for my favorite part of the trip.  It was a pretty decent hike with some great views once again!

The remainder of the trip looked something like this: 

• We saw another cool castle!

• Michelle barely escaped with her head! (& we also toured a torture museum inside) 

• ...& I took a shameless selfie on castle grounds!

All in all, a fantastic trip seeing and learning even more about my paradise-like country of residence for 5 months. :) 

Auschwitz & Krakow, Poland

The first weekend in April, I went on an organized trip to Krakow, Poland with about 70 other international students.  70 people is a lot to have on one trip, so to transport us all in one vehicle we took a double decker bus!  It was my first time riding in a double decker bus so that was kind of fun.  

Our first place we visited was Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.  This is actually about two hours outside of Krakow.  I had always wanted to visit to Auschwitz so I was thankful for the opportunity to visit, but was also kind of nervous to go.  Driving up and seeing the long electric and barbed wire fences immediately made my heart sink a little bit.  We pulled into the parking lot with what seemed to be about a million other tour buses.  I was so surprised by the amount of people there.  

The entrance gate to the camp with the phrase, "Works makes you free"

We went on a guided tour through the camp.  Being in the place where close to 2 million people's lives were taken from them was very surreal.  Our tour guide took us through various camp buildings where people worked and lived.  In these buildings, there are many collections of prisoner's clothing, shoes, and other personal items.  The fact that the Jews brought so many personal items and items for daily use shows that they truly believed life was going to be normal again when they came here.  All of these collections were extremely heart-breaking, but the worst for me were the disabled people's crutches and other aids.  The disabled population was another group that Hitler targeted.  Having someone close to me with a disability as well as planning to work with disabled people made me sick to my stomach to see this collection.  Another disturbing collection they have is of women's hair.  Women were forced to shave their heads and the Nazis saved all of the shaved hair.  We also were able to go inside one of the gas chambers. This specifically, was also very unreal to walk through.  I couldn't help but imagine what had to be going through those innocent people's minds when they were in there.  

We also went to Birkenau camp which is very close to Auschwitz.  This camp was where the unloading of the trains occurred.  Prisoners from Auschwitz had to walk to this camp to work many times.  The Nazis would count every person who left and every person who returned to ensure that it was the same number.  It had to be the same number whether the prisoners were dead or alive so often times people had to carry their dead friends or family back into the camp.  

Altogether, being here was just so unreal.  It was, of course, extremely sad, but I did not have as much of an emotional reaction as I thought I would have.  I don't know if this was because it was almost a numbing feeling to be there or if it was because of the rushed tour and the many tourists.  It is definitely worth going to see though.  It is such a huge part of history and is important for everyone to see so that we can be thankful for what we have to ensure that something this catastrophic never happens again.  

Going to Auschwitz was really the only reason I decided to go on this trip, but I was so pleasantly surprised by the beautiful city of Krakow!  My mom makes fun of me because after each city I visit, I tell her "Oh, I just loved this city!", but it is really true.  Krakow was unique to each of the other cities I have been to.  We stayed in the city center which was so fun. 

Also, either all of the food is really good here or we just got really lucky with the places we chose to eat at!  We had some  awesome traditional Polish foods as well as some amazing desserts.  I was also surprised by how fancy, yet inexpensive some of the restaurants were.  I think we had candlelit dinners at almost every place!

Now, I am usually all about trying the local cuisine, but when I was walking down the street and spotted a restaurant called, "The Mexican", I literally jumped up and down and squealed with excitement.  This was the first Mexican restaurant I had seen in Europe.  Mexican food and peanut butter are the two things I miss the most so you can imagine why I was so happy!  I convinced my friends to go eat there and the atmosphere and decorations were really cool, but I was kind of disappointed in the food.  I think it was Mexican with a Polish twist.  That's okay though because I will appreciate Mexican food back home even more now. :) 

The highlight of the trip for me though, occurred when I was in  the middle of searching for my usual Christmas ornament from the city in the markets in the main square.  All of a sudden I heard a song that I recognized being played loudly in the square.  I wasn't really paying attention  and then I realized what song was playing!  It was the Resurrection Sunday song that a large group of Christians did a flash mob to in a square (which I also visited) in Budapest!  My mom had somehow found the YouTube video of this a couple years ago and we loved it!  It was really cool to see such a huge group of Christians proclaiming Christ's name and worshiping Him through dance especially in this part of the world.  So when I finally realized what song it was, I figured there must be people dancing to it just like the video in Budapest!  The song had been playing for a while so I literally ran out of the market and to the square in hopes that they weren't finishing already.  Sure enough, there was a big group of people (including nuns!) dancing to this beautiful song!  After feeling like I was the only Christian here, it was so refreshing to see a group of believers worshiping our Lord together!  I know that God orchestrated this flash mob for probably a multitude of reasons, but one was for me to witness it and be reminded that I am not alone.  I love love love the ways the Lord shows His love for me.  I have a video of the dance, but I can't get it to upload here.  Stay tuned for when I upload it to facebook!

   

Moments

As my time in Czech Republic is going fast on the down-hill slide, I find myself constantly reflecting on all of the many day-to-day moments that I simply love.  Many of them are insignificant or even kind of silly, but these small moments play a big part in creating the sweet memories that I will take home with me and cherish forever.  

Those moments when...

• you have to run to catch a tram/bus and you get on before the doors close!
• you say "dobrý den", "děkuji", and "prosim" without even thinking about it.
• you get to the store right as the baker is bringing out hot, fresh bread.
• someone starts speaking to you in Czech and you stare at them awkwardly and finally interrupt them with, "nemluvím česky".
• you exchange smiles and giggles with a baby on a silent tram ride.
• you catch the magic tram (a tram that changes numbers so you don't have to change trams) and it is going exactly where you need to go! 
• you start referring to home as "back in the States..." 
• people think I am from Scandinavia...until I open my mouth.
• you come back from a trip and it feels so good to be home in Brno.
• the sun comes out and warm weather arrives after a much too long winter and everyone's moods are instantly lifted!
• you are walking down the street and smell the sweet heavenly smell of cinnamon, but can't always tell where it is coming from.
• you can wear sunglasses because there is sun!
• you actually know what the words on storefronts, signs, and menus mean!
• you hear someone outside of Vinarska (my dorm) speaking English.
• you hear someone outside of Vinarska speaking American English and immediately want to know where they are from.
• you make an awesome meal on the hotplate.
• get lost.
• you realize you have know idea what movies are out or what is going on in the world.
• you wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt due to laziness or lack of clean clothes and receive judgmental looks because people here don't even dress this way when going to the gym.
• you try to ride the tram without holding on to anything and fall over.
• you walk through Vinarska or down the hill to the tram stop and get stopped many times by people you know and you realize that the people here have become your family.  

Celebrating Easter: Czech & Slovak Style!

The week leading up to Easter, Brno had an Easter market in the main square.  After experiencing my first Easter market in Budapest and falling in love, I, of course, had to visit the one in Brno...3 times.  Being the major foodie (or maybe fatty is a better term) that I am, one of my first thoughts upon arrival was, "how in the world am I going to decide which food to try?"  I have asked myself this question while in the U.S., but here I ask it much too often.  When there is fresh, homemade, hot traditional Czech food all around that I may never have the chance to try again, it presents quite the dilemma.  To solve this issue, my fellow adventurer, Scarlett,   and I decided to embark on the journey of trying nearly every food there.  In an effort to convince you that we aren't complete fatties, I would like to point out that the portion sizes were pretty small and we shared everything.  (Okay, I don't know if that was to convince you or myself more.)  It was so worth it though.  All of the food was delicious and it was so fun taste-testing!  

Brno Easter Market

Beautifully painted Easter eggs

Czech halušky and French style potatoes and sausage

We actually did go for more than just the food though.  There were lots of great handcrafted items including the famous painted eggs.  Pomlázka, the Easter beating stick, also was readily available at the Easter market and throughout the city!  Even though the pomlázka is for the guys to whip the girls, I went against the rules and bought one for myself as a souvenir.  The guys take this tradition pretty seriously so I received some judgmental looks. The best consequence to my action though, was when I came back to my dorm and Mr. Dobry Den was working the desk.  He saw the stick and and in his broken English told me that it was not for me, it was for him.  He then proceeded to hit me with the pomlázka hahaha.  If you knew Mr. Dobry Den, this story would be even better.  Backstory: The desk workers here aren't students, but are usually older.  Dobry Den means "good afternoon" and is just his nickname around here.  I'm not sure what his real name is.  He gets a bad wrap around here for busting parties (he apparently has never been to my floor though), but I think he is great.  I guess I shouldn't feel bad for not knowing his name, because he doesn't know mine either.  Every time he sees me, he says "Hi U.S.A."!  :) 

I also learned that the Thursday before Easter is called Green Thursday and everyone is supposed to wear green.  On my way back to room, I saw that the Brno brewery was having a big concert and offering green beer ha!  I guess it is a big deal!

On to actual Easter weekend...

 My sweet friend, Natalia, invited me to spend Easter with her and her family at their home in Bratislava, Slovakia.  For those who don't know, Natalia was an exchange student at my high school and we became good friends that year.  She is from Slovakia, but is currently studying in Prague.  It is so crazy to be in the same country again!

I left a once again snowy Brno on a Euroline bus to Bratislava.  The trip was a short hour and a half.  Natty picked me up from the bus station and we drove in a CAR (after only traveling by foot, trams, and buses, riding in a car is reason for excitement) to one of the malls and enjoyed some delicious sushi.  

Next we headed to her beautiful home which is in a small village right outside of the city.  I was welcomed so warmly by her sweet mom.  I was treated like a princess all weekend long!  I was so spoiled.  Her mom is an amazing cook and I got to try traditional Slovak halušky, homemade dumplings, as well as many sweets.  We had a really relaxing weekend which was so needed and appreciated.  We watched lots of movies which I loved because I haven't done that at all since being here!  We even had popcorn during one!  On Saturday, Natty took me to see some cool views of the city and to Old Town.  

Bratislava

Old Town

I stayed with Natalia and her family through Tuesday morning.  One night, Natty went to see of her friends who she hadn't seen in a long time.  She asked if it was okay and felt so bad for leaving me, but I was totally fine staying at her house and resting some more.  :) I watched a movie/enjoyed using wifi.  Later, I wandered downstairs and found her mom welcoming me with desserts...plural.  She had made 5 different desserts and brought me samples of each.  If I come back fat, just know that it was not entirely my fault. ;) Thankfully, through the language barrier, she was able to tell me that they were made with "no fat".  They were delicious though, and that made me feel a little better.  One of the other days, she brought another dessert and said "only fat".  We all started laughing because she meant to say "no fat" haha!  Up until this point, Natty had translated all of our conversations.  Since she wasn't there this night, we were left to use the little bit of English that she knew, the VERY little bit of Czech I know (she speaks Slovak, but it is almost identical to Czech), and hand motions!  This was such a fun challenge! :) We ended up talking and laughing at the language barrier for probably an hour and a half.  I absolutely loved this time!

In Central Europe, they celebrate Easter on Monday.  I was warned many times about their Easter traditions, but was looking forward to experiencing them!  Like I mentioned earlier, one of the traditions is for the boys and men to whip girls with a braided stick with ribbon on the end.  As they whip the girls, they say a chant.  The other tradition is to sprinkle or soak (depending on how nice the guy is) the girls with water.  Both of these traditions are to bring the women health and beauty.  Since the guys are so generous with these "blessings", the women are supposed thank them by giving them eggs- chocolate or hand-painted.  Sure enough, Natalia's neighbor boy came in the morning to bless us girls with health and beauty.  He was very nice about it and did not hit hard. :) I was a little worried when I saw the super-soaker water gun he brought in though.  Luckily, I think that was just to scare us because he did not use it! 

 I got whipped and sprayed with water from water bottles many times this day.  I am really hoping that all the health and beauty they gave me worked because I really needed it after all the food I ate that day.  While I was warned about the "beatings" and the water, I was not warned about all the food which was much scarier.  

Death by chocolate

We had cake when the neighbor boy and his mom came over, then we headed to Natalia's grandma on her mom's side.  She had lots of sweets sitting out and also served me lunch.  Had I realized the amount of food that was getting ready to be thrown at me, I would not have eaten lol!  Next, we headed to her grandma on her dad's side.  She had even more food ready for us!  After that, we went back to Natty's house along with the rest of her family and her mom had another feast plus literally fifteen different desserts waiting for us.  Ahhhh I have never seen so much food.  It was all so delicious though and I'm SO thankful to have gotten to experience a real Slovak Easter with a family who treated me like family. :) 

You da best, Budapest

This past weekend (March 22-24), I left Czech Republic for the first time since being here!  I traveled to Budapest, Hungary with BIG agency group with 37 fellow exchange students.  We traveled by bus and the trip was around 5 hours I believe.  We drove through Slovakia a little ways and then to Hungary.  We arrived in a sunshiney Budapest!  It was SO nice to soak up some Vitamin D even if it was cold and windy! 

There are 2 parts of the city which are appropriately named, Buda and Pest.  They are separated by the Danube river, which is Europe's 2nd longest river running through 10 countries.  When we arrived, we walked through Buda.  We started our journey on top of 

Gellért Hill, where we could look out and see all of beautiful Budapest!  Gellért Hill is named after the bishop Gellért who came Hungary from Italy to spread Christianity.  Sadly, the bishop encountered resisting pagans who put him in a barrel and rolled him down this very steep hill where he met his death.  Later, he was honored as a martyr and the hill was named after him and a statue of him was built.

Budapest from Gellért Hill

The statue of bishop Gellért 

After this our walk in Buda, we crossed one of the bridges (the Chain bridge, I think) and entered Pest.  We headed toward the Central Market!  The Central Market is a huge indoor market with fresh fruits, vegetables, salamis, and sausages on the first floor.  There was also paprika, which is the famous Hungarian spice, I learned!  They use it in many of their traditional dishes, including their most famous- goulash! On the second floor was where you could enjoy some traditional Hungarian food as well as shop for beautiful gifts and souvenirs.  We headed for the food first and I enjoyed a stuffed cabbage roll with extra cabbage on the side.  It was very tasty!  We ate standing up at a table with people bumping into us every few seconds because it was jam packed.  It was quite the experience! :) 

The Central Market

A quick, crazy meal in Central Market!

The market was really amazing!  We did not have very long there, but I did my best to see it all in a short amount of time.  They also had one of my favorite things: free samples!  I made sure to hit up all of the free sample stands.  I bought some of the famous paprika along with some sort of paprika sauce that I tried!  Another fun thing was trying to get used to the currency they use in Hungary: the Hungarian Forint.  I have gotten very used to Czech Korun and its conversion, so for the weekend I had to learn to use another one!  The HUF has a pretty crazy exchange rate with $1 equaling around 237 HUF.  I felt really rich with having 5,000 and 10,000 bills. ;) 

Paprika!

I am so glad that we came the weekend that we did because we got to be there for opening day of the Easter market!  The Easter market was set up in one of the city squares.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  There were so many amazing and unique handcrafted items as well as lots of delicious food being cooked there.  Hungary, along with much of Central Europe, is famous for the Easter tradition of painted eggs.  There are also many painted egg shaped cookies!  There was one booth that was entirely cookies (plus some candies)!  Many of the cookies were decorated with great detail.  The lady who owned the booth explained to us that the cookies are all natural and their main ingredient is honey which also makes them stay good for quite some time!  I did not have faith in the taste of the cookie though, because they were very lightweight.  I like doughy cookies which are typically heavier.  Thankfully, my sweet friend, Michelle, had more faith in the cookies than I did and let me try one that she bought.  It was amazing!  It was a different texture, but so good.  The lady at the booth (as well as all the Hungarians I met on the trip) was so friendly and helpful.  We talked to her for quite some time and made a new Hungarian friend!  I also lucked out and got several samples at the Easter market.  There was a cheese booth with all kinds of wonderful looking cheeses.  I stood there long enough so the guy eventually let me try a piece.  He then asked where I was from.  When I told him I was from the U.S., he asked if marrying me was a way that he could go live in the United States!  I told him that I guess that was one way ha. 

Michelle and I loved the Easter market so much that we went back the next evening.  We visited our new friend and bought more cookies!  I bought some that are supposed to last until July so that I can take them home for my family.  Here is to hoping I don't eat all of them before then.  I also could not pass up the opportunity to eat dinner here.  There were so many delicious looking and smelling options that I had no idea what to get.  I went to ask the cookie lady what she suggested.  Her suggestion was the rooster testicle soup.  That one scared even this adventurous eater so I went with a pork sausage and grilled VEGETABLES.  Yes, vegetables.  I do not pass up the opportunity to eat vegetables because these opportunities do not come by often here.  It was an amazing dinner even if I had to sit in the freezing cold to eat it.  For dessert, Michelle and I split what is called "trdelník" in Czech.  It is a hollow bread dessert that is typically rolled in cinnamon and sugar.  Not only is the smell divine, but the taste is equally as wonderful.  

We got photo bombed by one of the booth workers! Haha!

Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to tour the Parliament building.  It is the 3rd largest Parliament building in Europe.  It was incredibly beautiful and so awesome to be able to tour such an important building.  

Okay, this was taken on the bus and makes Parliament looks small, but it is actually very big! 

Inside of the Parliament building

The Crown Jewels!  The cross is crooked on top because of it being transferred to different places so many times.  The crooked top is even accurately depicted in the stain glass and paintings of the Crown Jewels!

Next, we headed to the Castle District.  I'm getting really tired and cannot remember specific details, but it was wonderful and here are a few pictures: 

Yes, that's me hanging out of the window.  That's what princesses do, right?

We were freezing by this point, so when it was time for lunch, we headed to the nearest warm place we could find.  I got one of their daily menus which included Hungarian soup, goulash with paprika chicken, and a dessert!  Before our meal, the waiter brought us bread and a red sauce.  It looked like the sauce I had sampled earlier, which was sweet.  Well, this one wasn't sweet.  It was super hot and salty!  It would have had a good flavor, but there was too much salt.   My meal was so delicious once I could start tasting again after the spicy mystery red sauce.

Goulash!

After this, we got to tour St. Stephen's Basilica!  Just like everything else in Budapest, the basilica was incredibly beautiful!  One fun fact about the basilica is that St. Stephen's hand is preserved here in a fancy box.  At the end of the tour we got to climb many spiral stairs to get to the roof and saw some AMAZING views of Budapest as the sun was setting. :) 

St. Stephen's hand inside of a fancy box!

 On Sunday, we headed to the Szěchenyi Thermal Baths for a much needed relaxation and warmth!  The thermal baths are a tradition in Hungary and the Szěchenyi spas are one of the biggest and most famous.  It was a cold walk in a swimsuit from the building to the pools, but it was worth it once we stepped into the steaming hot water!  We were there for 5 hours and did not get bored like I thought we might.  There were different types of pools you could go into plus a sauna which I wasn't a fan of.  It was such a wonderful way to end our time in Budapest!

This pool was called the "Chess Pool", for obvious reasons.  

Our trip was not quite over though, because as we were walking back to the bus we got to witness some cute kids dancing in Heroes' Square! I took a video, but it won't upload here for some reason.  I'll try to upload it to facebook maybe!

I had such a great weekend.  You know a city is awesome, when you can still truly enjoy it while being frozen the whole time! ;)