Sunday, May 25, 2014

Bohemian Trip :)

LEZAKY

At the beginning of our trip we stopped at the Lezaky memorial. Lezaky used to be a village in Czechoslovakia during the German occupation. In the Spring of 1942, the Nazis killed all men and women of the village and the kids were taken away from their families and sent elsewhere. The village was totally destroyed and it was all because its residents were suspected of being associated with aiding Operation Anthropoid. They assassinated some Nazi generals. That is why there is a memorial of the whole village.




KUTNA HORA

Silver Mine: The first thing we did in Kutna Hora was the silver mine. We had to wear a white robe and a helmet and since it was pitch black in there we were given a flashlight. It was really fun going through the mine and learning about the miners and what they had to go through. Miners back then would work with only one candle which wasn't really the best lighting for miners. They worked 6-8 hours a day and   it was really hard work.  



Sedlec Ossuary: Church Of Bones
The Church of bones was really cool to see.  It was unique, It was just weird to see a church decorated with real human bones everywhere. The church contains bones of at least 40,000 people. Most of the people in the church were victims of the black death and soldiers from war. Everyone wanted to be buried there since it was believed that the soil brought back by Henry, the Cistercian abbot from Jerusalem. He then spread the dirt all over the cemetery. So when the black plague happened, many people went to Sedlec to die there. Then, some time after came the idea to make an ossuary and decorating the church with bones of people. So yea, it was very interesting to see these decorations in the church.













St. Barbara's Cathedral: 






CESKY KRUMLOV:

Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful town it's small but at the same time it has a lot of things people can do.  The Vltava river is really pretty and the town almost seems like a maze when we walked through it. The streets are really weird there but I liked it. Some people say if Venice and Colorado Springs had a baby this town would be the baby. The Cesky Krumlov Castle was really pretty and there was a lot of history there that we learned. The architecture of the castle and the town is a mix of gothic renaissance and baroque.  We also went to the Baroque Theater which dates back to the 1400's and it has been preserved and is still used today.  Under the stage there is machinery that allows the scene of the stage to change within 10 seconds which I thought was really cool. We went water rafting which was my favorite part of the trip. We were 6 girls in the raft. Within 10 minutes of rafting we came to this steep fast current, our raft was turning, we were mostly going backwards, everyone was screaming, and we \ thought we were going to flip but we didn't. That was probably the most exciting part, after that it was really slow and peaceful. It was very relaxing and it was nice to get a break from all the traveling, and just listen to the birds and the water. We rafted for about 5 hours, had dinner and went to bed. Our last stop was the Budweiser factory. Which we did the next morning before going back to Olomouc. We had a tour around the factory and had some beer. It was interesting to see the whole process of making beer. Those were the main highlights of Cesky Krumlov.
   







Cesky Krumlov Castle

Baroque Theater





Budapest!!

Budapest was probably my favorite city to visit in Europe.  It was beautiful, all the food I tried was delicious, and the people there were very nice and most spoke English which was really helpful, so we didn't really have to use our miming skills in order to communicate with people since we don't speak Hungarian. During the day we went to the main attractions like the Chain bridge, Parliament building, Jewish memorial, Central Market Hall, the Buda Castle and St. Stephen's Basilica. We also went to the Gillert Baths since Budapest is known for their baths.  The baths were really relaxing, there were several warm baths inside as well as outside.  There were two pools as well, an inside pool and an outside wave pool. The wave pool was my favorite, every hour for about 10-15 minutes they would turn on the waves and everyone had a blast. The night life in Budapest is very lively and there is a lot to do. We went on a "Boat Party" which consisted of a welcome drink and an hour and a half cruise around the city while they played music on the boat. I loved it.  The "Ruin bars" are also really fun to do while in Budapest.  There is just so much to do there that the four days we were there weren't enough to even do a half of what we wanted to do. We walked a lot in Budapest since it's actually two different towns connected by bridges.  One is flat which is Pest and and the other is in big hills:Buda. They are both beautiful and in between them is a river. I loved it there and someday I want to come back to Budapest and do all the things I didn't get to do there. Here are some pictures of Budapest:
Parliament Building


Chain Bridge


Central Market Hall

Traditional Hungarian Food

Buda






Chain Bridge





Buda Castle



St. Stephen's Basilica


A museum in Budapest


Another Museum





Chain Bridge at night



At the Parliament building with a guard 



Gillert Baths


St. Stephen's Basilica at night