And now for the update I really did write today!
Sorry to keep you in suspense about my adventures for so long haha! It's surprising how "little time" I feel like I have here. When I last left you I was off to Berlin. Sadly, Berlin did not see me. Mallory & I set off towards the bus station, in the direction we were told to go by the lady who sold us the bus tickets, but she lied to us. We ended up going to a whole other far side of town, and by the time we figured out where we really were supposed to be, got back on the tram to go there, made a mad dash for the bus, we got there to find no yellow bus in sight. And miraculously we had made it just on time. Some guy waiting for his bus said sometimes they run late, so we waited until a yellow bus showed up 20 minutes later, but it wasn't ours and the driver said that bus had already come through.. which meant it left early. Well we decided since we had a return ticket we'd just catch a train to Prague, then Dresden and finally Berlin. We got to the train station with an hour or so until the next scheduled train to Prague, and the lady there wouldn't sell us tickets! She just kept saying "no, no." We then decided since it was going to cost more money to get to Berlin than we would have actually spent the whole weekend there, that it just wasn't worth it. Needless to say we were pretty bummed. We just really wanted to see the Brandenburg Gate, which is the symbol of Germany, (among other awesome things in Berlin of course!) but that didn't happen unfortunately. A few kids had stayed around for the weekend so we all hung out, did some grilling, all that good stuff. Our Friday grill out also included a 5 hour marathon of The Office. That was wonderful. That Saturday four of us took a train to Brno, which is the 2nd biggest city in the CR, and spent the afternoon there. We saw a cathedral and walked around the palace, and played frisbee on the royal grounds.. that was pretty cool.
I spent this past weekend in Olomouc as well. Much like last weekend, with a lot of grilling and hanging out lol. Thursday went to a festival and saw a band from Prague that's apparently pretty big in the CR, and they were pretty good! Friday night we went dancing which was fun. Saturday I went to the Olomouc zoo, which was pretty cool. They had a pen of goats that you could go into, so I went in a held a baby goat - probably my favorite part of the zoo haha! It was just so darn cute! They had a lot of cool animals, but unfortunately we went during sleeping time so most of the animals were a little less than energetic. But it was still pretty cool. I don't know if I've ever mentioned how everyone brings their dogs everywhere here, but if I didn't now is a perfect time. People take their dogs everywhere, into stores, McDonalds, the trains, and the zoo! Quite interesting huh?
Our group is no longer the only group of Americans in Olomouc. Last week a ton of kids from Georgia came. There's about 30 of them from Valdosta State who live at the other set of dorms across town by the University, and another group that's kind of from a lot of places, about 30 of them as well. We kind of feel like our territory is being invaded lol, we really liked being the only Americans.. and we've met a few of them, and they're kind of the stereotypical Americans in Europe.. and I don't think our group was like that, we adjusted really well. Oh well right?
We're all starting to freak out a little because Wednesday we have our Czech language final... this language is so hard! So lots and lots of studying will be done today and tomorrow to get ready for that, and then Monday is our last day of classes. Tuesday we'll be leaving for Southern Bohemia and we'll be there for 4 days, come back and then we have the last weekend and week free before heading back to the states. A good friend of mine just arrived in Italy for a month study abroad there, so I'm trying to get there for a few days that last week.. we'll see if $$ allows that to happen! :)
Monday, May 12, 2008
"Everything happened in Poland.."
For you, my dear blog readings, I apologize this update is so long overdue.. but here's the last weekend in April for ya - Slovakia & Poland!
On our bus drive to Slovakia we stopped at a castle and hiked up the "mountain" to it. I don't remember what castle it was, but it was really old, and cool. Our bus drive continued to Levoca, Slovakia where we stayed the night. We ate at a small restaurant near our hotel and they had mashed potatoes! They were delicious, and I had been craving them the week before when I was sick. The next morning we went into the church in the town, which is home to the tallest alter in the world, 60 feet tall! We walked around the square just a little bit before beginning our journey to Krakow, Poland. We got stuck in a big traffic jam, which was annoying, but we made it entertaining enough. One of the guys started telling us great things about Poland which was really entertaining.. like Earnest Hemingway wrote a novel about the evergreen trees of Poland there, Tu Pac is actually living there, and lots of other random stuff like that. He came up with "American history is a myth, everything happened in Poland" which then became a great joke.
On the outskirts of Krakow we stopped to tour the salt mines. From what our guides were saying, I was expecting more of a "cave" with small spaces and stuff.. but it wasn't really like that. It was really "touristy" you could say, and nothing that made you feel claustrophobic or anything. It was interesting, but not as cool as I thought it was going to be. There was a cavern there that 2 men spent 67 years creating, and it was just beautiful! People even get married down there. Crazy! The next day we saw some government buildings.. I'm not really sure what they were, because by the time we had waited an hour to go in I had lost interest. It just kind of like another old building with old stuff. We also saw a cathedral where a lot of Polish royalty are buried. For lunch we ate at Pizza Hut! It was sooo good, and they actually had free refills on pop! (No where in Europe has that!) I spent most of the afternoon with a friend down at the riverfront, talking and people watching, which was really nice and relaxing.
Sunday we went to Auschwitz. It was such an experience.. although I did get really upset at some people on our group who spent most of the time joking around and talking about stupid things.. I feel like if you don't want to have the experience there, that's your own decision, but you don't need to be rude and ruin it for other people. It was difficult being there of course, thinking of the horrific things that happened there. I will admit though that it was not as moving of an experience as the one I had when I went to the Mauthowsen (not spelled right!) concentration camp in Austria when I was in high school. Auschwitz felt more.. touristy.. there were way more people there and the museum was not as personal as the tour we took in high school.. where there weren't many people around, and you could feel what happened there. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got to go and it was an experience, it was just very different. It's a hard thing to do, but if you ever have the opportunity I encourage it!
Well, that's about it for Poland I guess! I'm leaving now for Berlin with one of the girls here, so you'll get an e-mail about that next week! Hope you're all doing well, and Happy May Day!
On our bus drive to Slovakia we stopped at a castle and hiked up the "mountain" to it. I don't remember what castle it was, but it was really old, and cool. Our bus drive continued to Levoca, Slovakia where we stayed the night. We ate at a small restaurant near our hotel and they had mashed potatoes! They were delicious, and I had been craving them the week before when I was sick. The next morning we went into the church in the town, which is home to the tallest alter in the world, 60 feet tall! We walked around the square just a little bit before beginning our journey to Krakow, Poland. We got stuck in a big traffic jam, which was annoying, but we made it entertaining enough. One of the guys started telling us great things about Poland which was really entertaining.. like Earnest Hemingway wrote a novel about the evergreen trees of Poland there, Tu Pac is actually living there, and lots of other random stuff like that. He came up with "American history is a myth, everything happened in Poland" which then became a great joke.
On the outskirts of Krakow we stopped to tour the salt mines. From what our guides were saying, I was expecting more of a "cave" with small spaces and stuff.. but it wasn't really like that. It was really "touristy" you could say, and nothing that made you feel claustrophobic or anything. It was interesting, but not as cool as I thought it was going to be. There was a cavern there that 2 men spent 67 years creating, and it was just beautiful! People even get married down there. Crazy! The next day we saw some government buildings.. I'm not really sure what they were, because by the time we had waited an hour to go in I had lost interest. It just kind of like another old building with old stuff. We also saw a cathedral where a lot of Polish royalty are buried. For lunch we ate at Pizza Hut! It was sooo good, and they actually had free refills on pop! (No where in Europe has that!) I spent most of the afternoon with a friend down at the riverfront, talking and people watching, which was really nice and relaxing.
Sunday we went to Auschwitz. It was such an experience.. although I did get really upset at some people on our group who spent most of the time joking around and talking about stupid things.. I feel like if you don't want to have the experience there, that's your own decision, but you don't need to be rude and ruin it for other people. It was difficult being there of course, thinking of the horrific things that happened there. I will admit though that it was not as moving of an experience as the one I had when I went to the Mauthowsen (not spelled right!) concentration camp in Austria when I was in high school. Auschwitz felt more.. touristy.. there were way more people there and the museum was not as personal as the tour we took in high school.. where there weren't many people around, and you could feel what happened there. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got to go and it was an experience, it was just very different. It's a hard thing to do, but if you ever have the opportunity I encourage it!
Well, that's about it for Poland I guess! I'm leaving now for Berlin with one of the girls here, so you'll get an e-mail about that next week! Hope you're all doing well, and Happy May Day!
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