Year Abroad - Olomouc Part 5

Trip to Český Krumlov! 

Wednesday 30th April

I had been excited about this day for so long! Finally I was going to visit the town of Český Krumlov, which was supposedly the fairy tale town of the Czech Republic, and also stay with a Czech family - time to speak some Czech!
In the morning I went to school for my intense day of just one lesson, before heading to the main station to catch a train to Prague. Luckily I ended up on a really swish intercity train, so had a pretty relaxed journey there. In the station I met Daniela, who I was going to stay with, and her boyfriend Karel. We jumped on a train to Hořovice, a town near to the village where Daniela's family live and were picked up at the station by her step dad. He then drove us through the beautiful rolling hills and little villages of South Bohemia to their little village.

Me and Daniela by the castle in Český Krumlov

After meeting her whole family and being shown to my room we were ready for BBQ time! To start with her very cute 5 year old sister Eliška would only say "Ahoj" to me, but soon enough she was showing me her guinea pig and impressing me with her knowledge of English colours, said in an adorable Czech accent.
The BBQ was a feast, and I ended up eating so much! I had been worried before about having to speak Czech for the whole evening, but I managed a few sentences here and there and vowed to make more of an effort the next day. After a whole afternoon and evening of listening to Czech my brain felt like it was going to explode, but I reckon I picked up a few new things, even if I didn't say a lot! Now I feel like I know how Czech families live (well one at least). For me that's when I really feel like I know the culture of the country, when you know how real people live! Now I can really imagine living in the Czech Republic myself at one point, if that's where life takes me.

Thursday 1st May

Thursday was May Day (1st of May for those of you who don't know it ;) I was asked if we also have June Day and July Day - we don't) so I learned about the traditions that they have in the Czech Republic to celebrate the day. The main tradition is that a couple has to kiss under a flowering tree to have good luck and happiness for the next year. Considering how many trees there were around with blossom, I didn't exactly see swarms of couples making the most of them ;)

That morning we got up, had breakfast, packed the car and started on our long, windy journey to Český Krumlov. 

Huuuge bridge over the Vltava

Our first stop on the trip was a small chateau in a pretty little town, with a lake and a big park which was really pretty, but we only stopped there long enough to have a walk around the building at look out over the park. From there we jumped back in the car and continued on our trip. After a quick ice cream/petrol stop and we took a short detour via a really big bridge over the Vltava river. This part of the river was seriously wide and the bridge looked like something they would bungee off of in a Bond film because it was so high up! The view was pretty spectacular though with some cute little houseboats floating around (imagine canal boats chopped in half - that's what they looked like).

Červené Lhoty

The next place we stopped was called Červené Lhoty, which was a big red house, surrounded by a lake in a tiny village. The house was really pretty in the sun, if a little bright, and with the rowing boats (lodicky) floating around it did have quite a fairy tale feel about it. After a bit of investigating on Karel's part, we finally decided to go on the tour around the fancy apartment rooms in the house. Cue GIANT slippers (worn over the top of your outside shoes <3 ) and an hour of being pretty confused as to what was going on (due to the tour being in Czech...). It was pretty fun walking (skidding) around and seeing how the people there had lived, but sadly I didn't really understand the last story and the main point of the tour - aka why the house had been painted bright red... I think it was something to do with a someone dying but don't hold me to that!

After the tour, and after Daniela sampling the world's worst frappé (black coffee and whipped cream, I'm sorry what?!) we left Červené Lhoty and jumped back in the car to find a place to have lunch. We stopped at a few little towns and did some pretty inventive u-turns before finally coming to a restaurant in a pretty square which even catered for me - woo!

We finally arrived in Český Krumlov at about 5 o'clock that evening, after I beautifully fell asleep most of the way there, missing a lot of the view of České Budějovice, which I had really wanted to see! The family dropped me off at my hostel and headed over to their apartment for the evening, as they were staying out of town. I stayed in Krumlov House Hostel which was really cool and different to any hostel I had ever stayed in before. It was mostly made out of wood on the inside, including the staircase, and had a lovely kitchen and living room which felt like you were actually staying in somebody's house! You even had to take your shoes off and leave them at the door, but they provided you with slippers so it was all good ;)

Český Krumlov

After being shown to my room, the hostel owner gave me a fab map of the town and showed me all the places to go with tips on things to do. I was quite excited to go in to the centre and make the most of the warm evening so after ditching my bag in my room I headed straight out. It had been a really sunny day and the evening was just as beautiful, so the view over the fairytale-like town was so pretty. The castle is really big, and the town is made up of all these tiny winding streets of colourful terraced houses. I spent an hour or so wandering round the town and looking at the castle, before grabbing some snacky food in a corner shop and going back to my hostel. When I got back the hostel owner told be about a really good sunset view you could get over the town and the mountains, so (in true excitable tourist fashion) I hurriedly ate my "dinner" and climbing up a hill outside the town to watch the sun go down. It was pretty amazing with the town and the castle in the foreground surrounded by big foresty mountains. A great end to a day of intense touristing!

Friday 2nd May

Friday the family came back into Český Krumlov and met me at my hostel before driving in to town and attempting to find somewhere to park... Luckily we finally succeeded and our second day of touristing could begin! It was another gorgeous morning and really hot, so I decided to just risk a t-shirt and jeans - when you're British you have to make the most of every sunny day ;) Daniela, Karel and I wandered around the centre for an hour or so and got in our sunny castle pictures while we could. After a bit of confusion over where everyone was (even the walky-talkies couldn't help us) we finally found the rest of the family and walked up the hill to the castle. When we got there the weather decided that a British person apparently can't have a fun day in the sun, and it started drizzling. Luckily we had decided to go up the tower in the castle (this must be done in every town visited) which got us out of the rain for a bit.

From the tower in the rain!

Český Krumlov from above was so pretty, even in the rain! With the winding river and all the tiny streets it really did look like a fairytale... Have I mentioned that already? ;) we sheltered in the tower until the rain stopped and then decided to continue walking through the castle to the gardens on the other side. Most of the way through we were dry, and I took as much of the view as I could because by this point I had really truly fallen in love with the town. We strolled through the grand, English style gardens to the outside theatre, which consisted of what looked like a fake manor house as a stage and seats on a turntable which followed the actors as they moved around. All very interesting until it started to rain again. To start with we were fine, it was just spitting so even ok in my t-shirt. But then it really bucketed it down and I started feeling really underprepared! I luckily didn't get too drenched, but I can't say I was feeling very dry by the time we finally got back to the car!

The theatre stage

Feeling a little bit rained on and sorry for ourselves went into a little Czech pub to warm up and grab some lunch. Unfortunately we were served by the unfriendliest waiter possibly on earth... When he brought out the menus Daniela kindly asked if he knew what might be gluten free, to which he said no, so I said it would be find, I would just have the chicken and American potatoes (potato wedges to you and me). She then asked him to check if the potatoes would be gluten free, to which he responded by disappearing for a couple of minutes before bringing out the bag of frozen wedges and dumping it in her lap and telling her to see for herself. All very awkward and made me feel really bad for being the one with the awkward diet, oops!

So after our fun lunch experience we thought we'd lighten by driving to the castle of Rožmbirk. On the way there we passed a few groups of people canoeing down the river, and Jiří, Daniela's stepdad decided that we really had to do it. After some confusion in what was being planned over the walky-talkies, we arrived at Rožmbirk, which was really pretty overlooking the river and a village nestled in a valley in the mountains. A quick discussion and some negotiations later and it was decided: we were going canoeing. Having only just recovered from our soaking (although I did now have my waterproof at least) I wasn't super keen, but was willing to go along with it if need be. They were my hosts after all! Sadly for Jiří we were very unsuccessful in tracking down somewhere which was still open at 4pm on a rainy Friday, and after a few failed attempts it was decided that would have to just give up and go back to Rožmbirk after all. Annoyingly I suddenly developed this really bad stomach ache, and really just had to lie down, so the family took me back to Krumlov for the evening. All in all a bit of a mixed day with the hot weather/torrential rain/suddenly getting ill situation, but I still had a great time anyway with Daneila and her family anyway! :)

Saturday 3rd May

Saturday morning I got up and packed my things before being picked up by the family to leave my new favourite Czech town. We drove to the palace of Hluboka, which is supposedly a Czech version of Windsor Castle (although I've never been so can't vouch for that!) and is really grand and white with lots of crenellations and ornate gardens and glass houses. The only slight problem was that most of the Czech Republic had decided to descend upon the palace that day, so we had to queue for a bit to get our tickets, desperately hoping we would get to the ticket lady before it shut at 12:30 The palace was apparently once inhabited by some princesses (I want to say Hapsburg) so was decorated and furnished in the most over the top and fancy way you could possibly imagine. Every room was covered in wood panelling, with huge door frames carved in intricate styles. There must have been at least a forest worth of wood in that house, if not more. It was impressive but not really to my taste, purely because it had clearly been decorated in a way to make the owners look extremely rich. Which they clearly were but still... I was a really fab tour though (I had the English text so knew what was actually going in each room) and I'm so glad that we did it!

Hluboka palace

Finally I was dropped off at a bus to Prague in a random Czech town to start my trip home to Olomouc. It was sad to say bye because they had all been so lovely and I'd had such a great time, but I hope that I'll see them all again sometime in the future :) especially when Daniela comes to visit me in England ;) (hint hint...)

So that was my trip to Český Krumlov, next up is a day trip to Dresden and visiting Kutná Hora and the bone church!

Na shledanou!  ;)

Year Abroad - Olomouc part 4

An alternative visit to Prague

(With extra special gluten free tips!)

The last weekend before Easter I took a little weekend trip to Prague, to meet Jade and see the sights! 

The last time I went to Prague for touristing was when I was on language school in Poděbrady, which is almost two years ago, so I was pretty excited to do it all again and to see Jadey after such a long time!

We arrived in Prague on Thursday night, and after meeting Jade to the airport we made our way to the Plus Prague Hostel (which was bargainous and is SO NICE you have to stay there ;) thank you Rachel for your recommendation!) Although it is a little further from the centre, it only took us 15 minutes to get there by foot/metro so it was hardly a hassle. By this time it was already 10:30 so we called it a night and decided to get up bright and early and get going the next day :D

Up at the crack of 9:30am on Friday we were raring to go, so grabbed a cheeky free map from reception and headed out. The map had a handy "alternative" walking tour, which we decided would be ideal because it took you to all the major sights via less obvious and touristy routes - perfect. As it was the Easter holidays and warm, the crowds were out in force, so anything we could do to avoid them was a blessing! Our tour started up at the museum, which is pretty epic, standing grandly at the top of Wenceslas Square. 

After admiring the museum and the statue of the Good King himself, we wandered down the ever-crowded Wenceslas Square before turning off to take a more scenic and calm route through a small garden. We followed the garden around, went down a few side streets and popped up again by the Old Synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. I had heard from a few people/websites/guide books that the cemetery was really worth seeing, and as I hadn't seen it on my last visit to Prague, I was quite keen to check it out. But after seeing the queue and the fact you had to pay, we decided not to bother going inside, and our map even gave us a cheeky window to look through, so we got to see it for free after all! It was basically just a really old cemetery... But the history of it is what makes it more interesting: in such a tiny space there are thought to be 12,000 tomb stones visible and it is thought that over 100,000 people have been buried there... It's kind of creepy now I think about it! 

Our route then took us past a pretty impressive law building of Prague uni (it could rival Wills in Bristol), over the river Vltava, up a billion steps to a really cool view over Prague. You could see the whole city, including Charles Bridge, Mala Strana andthe castle, it was such a sneaky but good spot to see everything! Also at the top of the hill was a restaurant, which was in such a interesting building, but after seeing that their special for the day was lobster (and it wasn't cheap) we thought it might be a bit out of our lunch time price range. 

We then followed the route around to a back entrance to the castle (very sneaky), which we looked round before heading down into Mala Strana for a spot of lunch. I love Mala Strana, it feels like a different city, set aside from the rest of Prague, with its matching red roofs and cream buildings. If you go down the side streets away from the tourist bit, you can find all sorts of sweet little shops and houses and buildings. Sadly the main road from Charles Bridge to the Castle is tourist heaven, with hoards of people and shops selling everything from wooden toys to giant gingerbread Easter eggs...

Unfortuenately to get to Charles bridge we had to take this route and fight the crowds! I have heard that the best time to visit the bridge is at dawn, because there is no one around and it is a beautiful place to be when the sun comes up. But as neither Jade nor I are morning people, we ended up there in the afternoon. It was still enough for us to take in the view and the towers though which is  all we needed :)

 From Charles bridge we made our way along the river to the Vyšehrad, past the slightly random Dancing House. The Vyšehrad is the Westminster of the Czech Republic, where all the famous authors are buried. I saw the stones for Neruda and Němcová, authors I studied in first and second year at uni, which was interesting but again a little bit creepy!

On the hill by the Vyšehrad is a nice green area, and as we had been walking for what felt like a million years by that point, we crashed on they grass in the sun for a bit and decided our next move  - aka go back to our hostel, chill, and then head out for dinner.

Food tip #1: Jade and I went to a restaurant recommended by my Czech friend Daniela (thank you  so much!!) which claimed to have the best burger in Prague. Normally you have to be a little bit careful with the whole "we sell the best in the world!" thing (if you've seen Elf, you'll know what I mean),  but this really was the best burger I have ever had. It literally had ALL the burger trimmings (sorry Dad) you could think of, had a crispy bread bun (which I obvs didn't have) and a side of triple fried herby chips and home made tartar sauce. Not so nutritious but AMAZING. This is the website, if you are ever in Prague, go here :D  http://www.cafepalanda.cz/en

After a bit of an unsuccessful night of trying to find a bar, we ended up finding a hole-in-the-wall take away cocktail place, so just grabbed one of those for our journey back, like you do... It actually really yummy with half a fruit salad attached to it and was cheap!

Day 2 and we were wondering what to do, having pretty much seen everything the day before, but Daniela had told us about a Farmers market, so we decided to go and check that out. As we didn't end up getting there until 12ish, a lot of the things they were selling had already gone, but there were still stalls selling interesting looking juices and syrups so we had a look round before heading to the Old Town Square so that Jade could see the astronomical clock do its thing. This is always a very strange experience... Basically every hour a huge crowd forms to watch the some things happen on the clock and then they all cheer at the end! All very strange. The best part of the whole saga is that a man appears at the top of the tower and plays the trumpet for a couple of seconds, aside from that it isn't hugely exciting, but just seems to be a rite of passage for every Prague visitor! 

After the excitement of the clock we went off to find somewhere to have lunch, and ended up in a nice pub on the other side of town, up past the museum and near a park. The food was yummy and I persuaded Jade to have her first ever fried cheese (food jealousy or what?!) which I'm pleased to say she loved ;D another rite of passage if you are visiting any part of the Czech Rep, which I explain in more detail in the post "What is Smaž?". Nicely full of food we decided to go and find a beer garden so Jade could tick that off of her Prague bucket list. The one we found (in the Park I mentioned, sorry to be so vague!) was in a fab location, as the park was at the top of a hill and had a pretty spectacular view over the whole city. Jade had a beer, I had a tea, we were nicely refreshed and enjoying the view. Maybe not seeing sights but soaking in the culture another way :D feeling refreshed we made our way back in to the old town, went back over Charles bridge to Mala Strana to have a wander around and soak up the atmosphere.

This was were the pedalo antics really began... We had been eyeing them up since we had first seen them on Friday morning, and seeing everyone just bobbing and shooping around in them in the warm spring air, we had no choice but to go and hire one ourselves... Which was the best thing ever! Talk about an alternative view of Prague! You get to see Prague castle, Charles bridge, you can even see the roof of the National Theatre (normally there is scaffolding in the way) whilst floating along instead of fighting with millions of other people. A very relaxing end to our day, and I'd recommend it to anyone who goes to Prague, provided there isn't a queue or anything silly like that. It wasn't even that much money for a whole hour between the two of us.

Sunday we had a bit of a lie in and then went for brunch for the start of our sophisticated day (mainly a day of food ;) ).

Food tip #2: the Cafe Louvre is on the same road as the National Theatre, and has a very big sign so it can't be missed. Don't be put off by the slightly shady/tacky looking outside, the inside is soooo cool! It's claim to fame is the number of famous, clever people who used to frequent it, Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka to name a few. The decor makes you feel as if you are in some sort of Downton Abbey type film (which, of course, I LOVED) and the food and drinks are to die for, and aren't even that pricey! What not to be missed is the real hot chocolate (not one for healthy eaters, but it's amazing) which is essentially melted chocolate mixed with cream. Of course Jade and I had to have one, but we weren't complete slobs, we obviously had breakfast too... Of ice cream sundes yay! Nothing like loads of ice cream, caramel and chocolate at 11am ;) my kinda meal!

Extremely satisfied with all of the sugar we had just eaten, we thought we had better make use of our last day together in Prague and get some more culture. We headed over the river by metro, to catch a tram to the stop for the funicular train which would take us up to the top of Petřín hill. (Sadly I wasn't paying attention to the names of the tram stops so we did go quite far past our stop before we got off and walked back... My bad.)  Petřín hill is a strange place in a kind of weird fairy tale way. You can take the funicular with your Prague travel pass, which was handy, and I do love a good old funicular. We zipped up to the top and went to check out the mini Eiffel Tower (obvs) and other random sights they have there.

 It was a nice wander around and we got some groovy pictures of Prague and the castle from another alternative view, but sadly most of the sights you had to pay for. After hunting out the magical cavern (which I was really intrigued by) and finding out it was essentially a creepy house, we decided it was time to head back down the hill and find ourselves some lunch (yes we were already hungry by this time, chocolate and ice cream doesn't keep you full for long). I had done some googling on places to eat gluten free, so I dragged Jade to a Švejk restaurant slightly out of the main tourist area. The restaurants are a chain of pubs but most of them don't have GF offers, this one on the over hand, had a whole menu! 

Food tip #3: Švejk U Karla offers it's whole normal-person menu as a gluten free menu as well! You can imagine my excitement when I saw that they had GF fried cheese and even Czech style dumplings! Oh fried cheese, it had been too long. I kind of got over excited because I really wanted to try Czech dumplings, and so did Jade, but we both wanted the fried cheese... So obviously we both had fried cheese, chips and tartar sauce with a side of GF dumplings to share ;) the waitress did look at us weirdly when I asked for it hehe. But it was AMAZING and was such a nice way to round off a fabulous and alternative weekend in Prague :D 

Year Abroad - Olomouc Part 3

After almost 2 months in Czechland I finally had my first "YAY I LOVE OLOMOUC" moment yesterday, which I think you'll remember I had quite a few times about Heidelberg (see my goodbye Heidelberg blog for details...). I was on a run (I know, me + running = hilarious image) and as I had left it so late in the day, it happened to be as the sun was setting at the end of a really warm and lovely day, and as I turned to head back to my halls, I got a spectacular view of an evening sunlit Olomouc with the huge Jeseniky mountains in the background - which you don't get to see very often. Such a beautiful view to round off a fab day! I think it's safe to say I have finally settled in here.

I have even been speaking some Czech, and it might actually be improving, even if it is at a snails pace! Hopefully with 2 months left to go I should be chatting away in no time.. ha ha ha...

Anyway, it hasn't all just been teaching and learning Czech, I've been on some adventures lately too! Here are the latest places I have visited, with some hints on what to do if you find yourselves at any of them :)

Litovel

The Gymnazium at Litovel

One Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and decided to make the slightly fiddly journey to the castle of Bouzov, which took us via the small town of Litovel. According to my travel guide, Litovel is named the "Venice of the Hana region" with six streams of the river Morava flowing through it, so we were all pretty excited, and had some high hopes for it! Sadly it did let us down somewhat... We were already on something less than top form, due to an incredibly misleading weather forecast telling us it would be 20 degrees, when in fact it didn't get higher than 12 degrees the whole day. I, for one, was more than a little under dressed for 12 degrees and rain... But we powered through!

The column in Litovel town square

In Litovel we decided to hunt out something resembling sights, and came across the town's Gymnazium (grammar school) which had it's own lake and was actually pretty impressive!
Other than the Gymnazium, the town had a pretty town square with, of course, a column to ward off any plagues/bad things which might come to attack the town.
Sadly I can't really recommend Litovel as a great place to visit as there really wasn't a lot to see, but maybe if you are just on your way through and have half an hour to spare then check out the Gymnazium, oh and also in the play park by the old town walls there is a great zip wire, which we did spent about 20 minutes playing on.. That I can recommend... ;)






Bouzov

                                          

                                               A slightly grainy view from the bus

Trying out the local fashion

After Litovel we caught a bus to Bouzov, which is a minuscule village nestled among pretty rolling hills with a huge and amazing fairy tale castle! The bus dropped us off at the foot of the hill of the castle, and on the short walk up to the top we had the chance to try on some classic castle gear, test out their weapons, hold owls, oh and also buy some post cards - all pretty standard! Sadly I didn't get to actually hold an owl so there's no pics of that... but I did try on a rather splendid helmet! (You can't tell just how frozen I am in the photo...)

Inside the castle

When we finally made it to the castle after all of the distractions on the way we had to find our way around a slightly complicated ticket system with a lady who only spoke Czech (damn), but eventually we figured it out and were in! I literally felt like a princess the whole time we were having a tour around the castle, with all the tapestries and shiny things and huge fireplaces (except princesses would never be so cold) so it was definitely worth the journey/confusion in the end!
It had all sorts of curious passageways and towers and balconies making it a really interesting place to visit! I am hoping to maybe go back there in the summer when it is warmer because there was also a lovely park to be explored as well, but we were really too cold to do it...
Definitely worth a visit, but don't rely on public transport to get you there if you do! From Olomouc it is only 32 minutes by car, but by train/bus it took us 2 and a half hours... but if you have the patience/enough clothes then visit it :D and feel like a princess for a bit ;)

Šternberk 

On the Saturday I took a trip to the nearby town of Šternberk, where, according to my (now slightly untrustworthy travel guide) there is a beautiful castle which is really worth visiting. So I rocked up to the train station after a short 20 minute journey, with the usual plan in mind - follow the signs to the centre. On previous trips I had been super keen and prepared with screenshots of the way to the centre on my iPad, ready and waiting to lead the way, but after not needing the maps the last few times I just decided to wing it and follow the signs. The only problem: there were no signs... No offence to my Czech friends, but the sign system here does seem a bit dodgy, with them often pointing you in the exact opposite direction of where you need to go! With no signs and no map there was only thing left to do - follow the crowd ;D This worked to some extent, in that I did make it slightly nearer to the centre of town and then to my excitement I spotted a sign actually to the castle, YAY! So off I went following the friendly sign down a hill, a little confused because I still couldn't actually see a castle and they tend to be up hills not down, but oh well I had a sign so I went for it! 

However it was misleading, I think it was actually a sign for cars not pedestrians, so after a nice stroll along a river I decided I had probably gone wrong. Back to the main road again! This time I followed the sign as if I was a car, which took me up the hill (wooo) and slightly in the right direction. When I got to a junction (with no clues on where to go next) I spotted the spires on the main church, which I knew was right next to the castle. Now I had a goal I thought I would just find my way there keeping them in sight (through a play park, up a huge hill, back down the hill again, down some side streets).

My whole hike from the station to the castle took and hour and half, it only took 15 minutes to walk back... 

When I came to the main square it did cheer me up a bit, it was so pretty with lots of little places to sit and ice cream shops (my fave). From there I carried on up to the castle, excited to have finally made it! I had a quick wander around the outside, to get some piccies and see as much as I could before going inside, which I assumed I would probably have to pay for. When I did go inside it was only to find out that it is really expensive to look round, and you have to be on a tour, the last of which had just left... Damn it.

So to sum up I'd say that if you are around for a while, Šternberk is worth a quick visit, because it is very petty, and if you get there at a good time of day and don't mind paying a bit extra, then go and have a tour because in the pictures it does look really lovely on the inside! To give you some idea of how long you need there, my whole visit lasted 2 hours and that included an and a half of being very lost! Take a map and you could do it in 1 hour, plus an hour for a tour if you do one :)

Year Abroad Olomouc - Part 2

Plzeň

Up at the crack of 6:45 on the Friday to get the tram to the station to get a 4 hour train from Olomouc to Plzeň. Needless to say I actually meant to get up at 6 to get our 7 o'clock tram but in true early morning fashion I managed to just not wake up until 15 minutes before the tram... Cue massive panic and leaving with half wet hair... 

Plzeň main square

So we finally arrived in Plzeň 20 mins later than planned and made our way across town to the Pilsener Urquell museum where we were going to explore the medieval underground tunnels underneath the city. The tunnels were kind of cool but I'm not sure they were reaaally worth seeing.  The idea of them sounds interesting - 13 kilometres of tunnels running underneath the old part of the city which used to be used as fridges by the wealthy people or to hide from people invading the city. After about 45 minutes of wandering through these tunnels we finally resurfaced and made our way to the Pilsener Urquell brewery where we were having a tour. It was quite cool to see how the beer is made, as we got to see all the stages in the process. There were these huge copper containers which were heated by fires from underneath, which were used to enable the sugars to react and to turn the liquid to beer. We also went into their underground storage tunnels, where the beer if left to ferment. Generally it was pretty interesting but I think for most people the best bit was getting a class of fresh beer from a ginormous barrel in the cellars (which I couldn't actually drink booo :( ). 

 After the brewery we had dinner in the restaurant (which was pretty nice although it was 5pm so we weren't particularly hungry at this point) before finally heading to our hostel! We were exhausted at this stage so were all really looking forward to having a couple of hours rest or so before heading out to a bar. Sadly in the true nature of that weekend we only had 15 minutes to chill before going straight back out again! The evening was a slight disaster due to a miscommunication between the organising lady and us as it turned out I payed 100 crowns but could only have beer... But we had fun anyway :)

View from the cathedral

 Bright and early on Saturday we left our (very dodge) hostel to have a walking tour around the city centre. Although it was a bit drizzly it was still interesting to see the sights, particularly the main square and the cathedral. After defrosting and grabbing some lunch in a shopping centre, the weather finalllyyy brightened up just in time for us climbing to the top of the tower in the cathedral. The first few steps were a tiny narrow staircase made of stone, and I did have a tiny inward panic thinking that it would be like that all the way to the top! Luckily it opens out so I didn't have to worry too much in the end... Although the last few flights were pretty much ladders which were hilarious to climb up, and cued a lot of "I'm dyyyyiiinnnnggggg!!!". It was well worth the climb though because the view of the whole city from the top was pretty spectacular! 

Karlovy Vary 

Karlovy Vary

In the evening we jumped on the bus to Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), one of the most famous spa towns in the Czech Republic. We didn't get to see much of the town that evening because we arrived quite late, but as it was my 21st birthday we decided to celebrate and go for dins which was soooo yummy! Despite a minor set back in the initial discovery that the showers in the hostel didn't have curtains, it turned out to be quite a nice place (we found normal showers in the end) and we even had wifi in the rooms! LUXURY.

Up at the crack of dawn the next day to more rainy weather but we decided to seize the day and see the town anyway. It kind of brightened up a bit late morning, or at least it tried to, but even so the town was sooo beautiful. There were no buildings in the whole town which weren't really interesting! Also being a spa town there were all these hot springs just chilling in random spots in the town, some of which were as hot as 60 degrees!! We saw a couple of people drinking from the springs so thought we'd try it out too, which was SUCH a mistake. To sum up, it tasted like blood. Ew. For lunch we decided to find somewhere less touristy off the beaten track and ended up stumbling across a really nice traditional Czech place with delicious food. Win!

Sadly we had to head back to Olomouc (via a random walk around the centre of Prague) right after lunch so sadly didn't get to spend a lot of time in Karlovy Vary but what we saw was lush! I'd love to go back in the summer if I get the chance to see everything in the sun.

So hot!

The following weekend I took a cheeky trip back to Britain for a family weekend in Wales which was lovely and we even had some sun on the beach! Back in Olomouc and my teachering is going pretty well :) I have already taught three of my own classes which is crazy but it actually went well! 

Lake and Přerov

Our next weekend in Czech was gorgeously sunny, basically summer, so we decided to hunt out the lake on the outskirts of Olomouc and visit a couple of the pretty towns nearby. The lake was only 10 minutes away by bus, and you can even swim there when it's a bit hotter so I can't wait for that! Irina and I took a picnic and sat by the lake in the sun which was fabbbb, bring on summer! Around 3ish, we got the train to the nearby town of Přerov which doesn't have a lot of tourist things but the square by the castle was really cute and the old town wall is still standing in some places. Worth visiting just for an hour and some lush ice cream but not necessarily a must see! 

Kroměříž

Peacock at Kroměříž

The palace at Kroměříž

Sunday was another gorgeous day in the Czech Republic so we went to visit the town of Kroměříž which is about 40 minutes by train from Olomouc. Kroměříž is a small town but it has a lovely old centre with a square and a huge palace and gardens. Sadly, as we were only three days away from April, we couldn't go into the palace, but we were still allowed to wander around the large gardens (I'd say park...). Not only did the garden have all of the necessary things - lakes, a tiny stream running through it and lots of trendy flower beds - it also had a mini zoo!! Everything from goats to peacocks, guinea pigs to reindeer, just chilling together in a section of the park. It was pretty cool, and we spent a long time stalking the peacocks until one of them finally opened it's feathers to show off for us ;) In my opinion no hot day is complete until you have ice cream, and we certainly didn't let the side down: one on the way to the palace, one on the way back. Oh and we also had to buy one of those really long sweet things like you get on holiday in France of course.. it was only 10 crowns! All in all a fab day strolling around in the sun and feeling like someone out of Downton Abbey. I think I will go back for one afternoon if I have time, as there are still flower gardens and the inside yet to be explored! 

So I have to say that my first few weeks in the Czech Republic has been great so far, and I have already seen so much already and can't wait to keep exploring this weekend! Bring on more castles ;)

Kroměříž town square

Year Abroad - Olomouc Part 1

I made it to Czechland! And even survived my first week! Or just about... there were a few entertaining mishaps along the way, but they are bound to happen.

After a pretty long day of travelling on Monday (3 hours to Stanstead, 2 hours to Brno, 2 hours later I arrived in Olomouc) I finally arrived at my kolej (halls of residence) in Neředín, Olomouc. My room and flat are luckily really nice, and I have a room to myself which seems to be a bit of a luxury!

On Tuesday I went to the school to find out my timetable and meet all of the staff I will be working with (sooo many people and names which I wont ever remember...) and everyone was really friendly. I started teaching that afternoon, which was a bit intense because I had just arrived but it was good to get stuck in. I took part in a couple of classes and the kids interviewed me in groups to find out more about me, which was hilarious! They asked everything from "how old are you?" to "do you like Justin Bieber" and tried very hard to get me to speak Czech to them (I told them I wasn't allowed, when in fact it's because I thought they would probably laugh at me...). All of the students and teachers seemed really nice and very welcoming so I hopefully will settle in quite quickly there!

My first week was mostly sorting out everything which needs to be sorted out to survive in a new country: bank, phone, bus pass etc. Now I wont lie, I did chicken out a LOT of times and just spoke English, because most of the time people didn't understand me if I was speaking Czech anyway! Most of it went relatively smoothly.. the only really entertaining experience was opening a bank account.

I strolled in and went up to the cash desk and asked my most frequently used Czech phrase - mluvíte anglicky? (Do you speak English?) and sadly the nice man there didn't, so he sent me on to his manager. She was very friendly but unfortunately for both of us it turned out that her English was about the same as my Czech. Cue a hilarious conversation of her saying something in English and me repeating it in Czech, and vice versa for about an hour... The biggest problem was that she simply could not get her head round the fact that my house has a name, not a number. After telling her about 5 times that "yes that is my house, no the next bit is the street" she finally caught on. So now I am the proud owner of a Czech bank account, registered to Stephanie Oliver at "Heteredehene" (soo close yet still so far) and born in "Wincherrster". Oh well close enough, I just hope they never have to find me in Britain...

So after a lonnggg week of organising myself I could finally do some exploring of the city I will be living in for the next four months!

On Saturday we went up to Svatý Kopeček (Little Holy Hill) which is what looks like a small palace and turns out to actually by a pretty spectacular cathedral on the inside!

Outside...

Inside!

The village of  Svatý Kopeček was tiny but had two or three pubs serving traditional Czech food which we checked out before choosing one which was a bit less busy. I had a really yummy potato/cheese/broccoli dish which was baked and of course I had a Kofola on the side (just because it's great and you can't get it anywhere else except the Czech Republic!). The Olomouc zoo can also be found on the hill but we decided to save it for another time. It was a really nice village to visit though, up in the mountains and surrounded by forest, I will definitely go again when it's a bit warmer so I can see more of the view!

Town Hall

Sunday was my day for exploring Olomouc itself, and luckily it was a gorgeously sunny day so perfect for walking around outside! My tour of Olomouc started with Horní Naměstí, which is the home of the UNESCO Holy Trinity Column, the town hall and three or four fountains, which in the sun was really pretty. The buildings around the square are all painted different colours and have really ornate architecture, like many of the buildings in that part of town, and made it feel like I was in a pretty medieval market square. 

Pretty streets of Olomouc

My stroll then took me to Dolní Naměstí, where there is another big column and lots of little cafes, and on towards the Cathedral down some really pretty, narrow streets and past even more lovely buildings! The university buildings were among some of the prettiest and grandest I saw, most of which dated back to the 1600s and used to be boarding schools for the wealthy or noble students of the university, so they were really interesting to look at. After winding my way through the streets I finally found myself at the Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace. The Cathedral is built in a Gothic style, and although it looked really big from the outside, it was surprisingly small on the inside, especially in comparison to Svatý Kopeček, despite the fact that it is more important, in theory! The Bishop's palace is next door to the Cathedral, although I didn't explore it in much detail (because I couldn't work out how to get in...). After trying several doors and having no success, I gave up and decided to buy an ice lolly instead from the kavárna (cafe) before continuing on my tour. 

Saint Wenceslas Cathedral

Sadly I didn't read the actual description of the ice lolly before buying it, but as I was craving a mint ice lolly (a mint Feast, for example...) I just went for the one that looked like chocolate with a green wrapper. Unfortunately for my unsuspecting taste buds it turned out to be tvaroh flavoured... aka cottage cheese. Now this, my friends, is why we should learn even the most obscure of vocab, because if not it will come back and bite you! I have certainly learnt my lesson...

From the Cathedral I wandered back up to the main square past lots of little shops and the main university buildings, all of which will definitely have to be explored in more detail later on! Needless to say I also went past zillions of cute cafes.. which everyone knows are my downfall when it comes to spending money... having said that there were two or three which I will definitely be checking out!

The view from the top of the town hall

When I arrived in the main square it turned out that a group of people were going up the tower in the town hall, so I thought I would tag along as well. As it happens I'm so glad I did it because it was really cool and definitely worth the 15 Korun (50p) it cost to go up. From the top the view was amazing, I could see all over Olomouc, including all of the sights I had just visited, and even as far as the mountains and Svatý Kopeček. The tourist information lady who took us up told me that in the summer the view was even better, and you can see even as far as the Jeseníky mountains, so I will definitely be coming back as I do love a good view! 

Fairytale towers

The final stop of my tour was the gardens. On my map I saw that they were botanical gardens, and as spring has just sprung I thought it would be a pretty end to my stroll. As it turns out, they are shut until April, but what I could see instead was still worth seeing, and was one of my favourite bits of my tour. Some parts of Olomouc are still surrounded by the old town wall, something I didn't realise until this afternoon, and the wall by the city gardens is really dramatic, with a steep drop down from the top and watch towers at intervals along it. Suddenly the city I had been walking around all day was turned into a fairytale town, which seemed all the more magical with the river running through the gardens. Definitely worth a visit and I think it might just be my new sanctuary for the next four months! 

Sadly it's now time for me to get back to learning some vocab (tvaroh, tvaroh, tvaroh...) but I will write again in a week after my trip to Plzeň and Karlovy Vary, where I'm celebrating my 21st, eeep!

Na shledanou!

Year Abroad - Bye bye Heidelberg! Part 6

After an amazing four months spent living in the beautiful city of Heidelberg, studying at a world class university, I am finally coming to the end of my stay. As a round up of my time here I have compiled a list of my favourite things to do, some of which probably sound very random so do forgive me...

1. Going up to Königstuhl

If you haven't noticed by now I love going up to Königstuhl, which is a "mountain" in Heidelberg, with the Schloss at the bottom and an amazing view at the top. To get to the top you can either walk up (which Dad and I did when I first arrived), go up on the bus (which I did when Sam visited) or get the funicular railway (the fun way! unintentional pun...). Going up on the funicular is great because it's free with my student travel pass and even though it's sometimes terrifying in the rickety old carriage to the top, it's always worth it when the view appears. On a lovely clear day you can even see as far as the Pfalz mountains in the distance. Königstuhl is without a doubt my escape spot from the (not so bustling) city life of Heidelberg.

Heidelberg and Königstuhl

2. A slightly easier (because I have to do it everyday...) and less time consuming thing I love to do is looking at the Schloss when I go over the river on the bus to and from uni. On some days it will be glowing orange in the sun, other days surrounded by clouds, and sometimes you can't even see it at all! But my definite favourite was when there was a Christmas market up there because by night it would be lit up with rainbow colours and was really spectacular!

The Christmas market at the Schloss in December

3. Not all of my favourite activities are view related, I promise... Another favourite thing of mine to do is notice all the little things which make it completely obvious that I'm foreign. Whether it's turning up to a lesson with *shock horror* lined paper instead of squared, or recklessly going out in shoes with no socks, or whipping out my two phones when I'm in uni - one for texting and one for Wifi, of course... Whatever tiny thing it is which makes me temporarily stick out like a sore thumb, I just love noticing it! And when I do notice it I might even exaggerate it a bit - proud to be British and all that! (Having said that, I have only worn shoes without socks once since Christmas and my feet froze all day. Damn, I'm slowly turning to their ways!)

4. My favourite place in Heidelberg to eat isn't some swanky restaurant or even a cute little cafe, but the Marstall Mensa. A mensa is a sort of canteen, except in the Martsall they have a buffet where you pile up your plate with as much or as little as you like and then pay by the weight of your plate. With my student card I average about €2 a meal, and hot chocolate is always just €1, which is an absolute bargain! The Marstall used to be the stables to the Duke of the Palatinate (who lived at castle sometimes) and has apparently been voted the best student mensa in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which I can definitely believe! It has such a cool arch shaped roof which they light up at night, and frankly I spend waaaaay to much time in there.

Inside Marstall (from http://lifeatuni-heidelberg.blogspot.de/2011/05/martstall-mensa.html) 

5. My favourite Sunday night activity to do, after a weekend spent revising/doing the epic amounts of homework we get given here, is to go to the Marstall cafe and watch Tatort. Although to begin with it was pretty hard to understand what was going on (different crazy German accent every week!), I soon got the hang of following the plot of the traditional German detective program. Now, I was no stranger to Tatort before I came to Germany, but I didn't realise just how much of a thing it was here! On a Sunday night in Heidelberg loads of students cram into the Marstall cafe to watch the show on a big screen, and everyone will laugh, be surprised or be outraged at the same time - it's great fun and generally hilarious despite the fact they are generally grim topics! The one mistake we did make (which I wouldn't wish on anyone!) was going on a Polizeiruf 110 day... This is shown every 4 weeks and is an alternative detective program, but no where near as good as Tatort. Also the episode we saw had a really awkward topic... Ask me if you really want to know!

Opening credits (from https://www.hueber.de/seite/tan_lernen_lektionen_2_b_l11?menu=5443)

6. On a slightly different note, one of the great things you can do as a Brit living in a Euro country is pretending that the Euro is the same as the pound. So when you *eh hem* accidentally spend €50 on new clothes, you have that temporary "OH MY GOODNESS ALL OF MY MONEY IS GONE" moment, and then realise that actually you have "only" spent £40! It's so great, and always makes me feel so much better about my slightly excessive shopping habit here... But sorry German kids, it wont work the other way round if you come to Britain :(

7. Another view related, more recent favourite activity of mine is going up Philosophen Weg to the top of Heiligenberg. On the walk from the Old Bridge to the top of the berg you come across all sorts of random monuments and ruins, like the Bismarcksäule, Stephanskloster and Thingsstätte. As you trek your way up the hill the view of Heidelberg and the surrounding region just keeps getting more impressive, with the view from  Stephanskloster winning hands downl! On a clear day nothing beats wandering up to the top, with all the fallen crunchy leaves to play in walk through and winter sun shining through the trees.

Stephanskloster

8. Last but not least, one of the best things about living in Heidelberg, or in Germany in general, is that I get to speak German all of the time! I'm not saying I am fluent by any means (adjective endings anyone?!) but I think I can safely say I have actually improved in my German - if not my actual skills then my confidence to speak it anyway! I'm even at the stage where I can argue in German and watch films and even understand when they are talking really fast. For me this is the coolest thing ever, and I feel like it is proof that I have actually used my time here wisely to do the one thing I was supposed to do - learn German! (Ha lets not talk about the 3000 word year abroad essay...)

So there you go, those are all of the amazing things I love about being in Heidelberg, and I shall miss the beautiful city and all the amazing people I have met so much! But don't you worry Heidi, I shall be back!

Year Abroad - Heidelberg Part 5

Thingstätte and Munich!

After a quick 2 week stint at home for Christmas (which went way too fast!) I am back in Heidelberg for a short amount of time. My flights home are booked for the 10th of February, and although I am super stressed out with the abundance of exams and uni work, I will be really sad to leave! So I decided to make the most of my last few weeks here by squeezing in some last minute trips. You'll all be glad to know I finally went to the top of Heiligenberg to Thingstätte and visited Munich, both of which I have been dying to do for the last four months.

My first weekend back in Heidelberg consisted of me mainly sitting in my room with a cold feeling sorry for myself, wading through a pile of work I didn't do over Christmas and booking tickets to "pop" to Cardiff to visit Sam... On Sunday, having spent two and a half days wallowing, I decided to seize the opportunity of some sunny, but chilly, weather and go for a stroll. Somehow my stroll into the near by pretty suburb of Neuenheim turned into a hike to the top of Heiligenberg, a large hill (mountain in my eyes) opposite the castle. In the winter sun the walk was so pretty, and all the (incredibly chilly) fresh air did help me feel a little better. And I only got a tiny bit lost!

Up Heiligenberg

At the top of Heiligenberg, and quite hard to find if you don't know where you are going, is a huge amphitheatre, created during the National Socialist era for rallies and training the Hitler Youth, called Thingstätte. This all might sound incredibly depressing but it really is quite spectacular! It can hold 5000 people sitting or 8000 standing, so it's absolutely huge. On the walk to and from Thingstätte I only met a few people (made great friends with this German family who were also trying to find it...), so I was quite surprised when I went through the entrance to find loads of people lounging in the sun. Apparently there is a Heidelberg Uni tradition where everyone goes up to Thingstätte together at the end of exams, which I can imagine would be so cool, but sadly I'm not here in the summer for it!

Thingstätte

On my second weekend I went to Munich with Fi, something I have been meaning to do for soooooooo long! We only went for a short trip, Friday evening until Sunday evening, but we managed to get a surprising amount of things done in that time. Friday evening we found the nicest little Italian restaurant with the yummiest GF pizza I have ever tasted ever! The proof being that we went back again on Saturday evening... Sadly it was quite out in the suburbs so we did have to go on a little adventure to find it. Saturday morning we went on a (VERY) cold walking tour around the old city, which was actually really good despite the chilly weather! We went to all the main sights and into the Hofbräuhaus beer hall, where so many of Munich's historical events have taken place, which was really cool even at 11am!

Hofbräuhaus

After the walking tour we grabbed some lunch and explored some more of the city. We had a wander round the Viktualienmarkt, which still had remnants of it's Christmas market lurking around, and then took the hundreds and hundreds of stairs up to the top of Alter Peter, the tower of St. Peter's church. From the top of the tower you get an amazing view over the whole of Munich, including all the main sights - the Frauenkirche, the Neues Rathaus and Marienmarkt. Although it was a bit of a trek up all of the stairs it was definitely worth it for the view!

Frauenkirche and the Neues Rathaus

 The next thing on our list was, obviously, Dirndl shopping! If you don't know what a Dirndl is, it's basically a traditional German dress worn in Bavaria. Most people will only get their Dirndls/Lederhosen out for Oktoberfest, but in smaller towns and villages people even wear them to church on Sundays! Ever since my friends went to Oktoberfest in September last year, I have been incredibly jealous of their pretty Dirndls, and as it was January sales the time just seemed right to do a little Dirndl shopping of my own!

Yay Dirndl shopping!

On Sunday we got up early and headed out to do a speedy bit of touristing before visiting the nearby former concentration camp at Dachau. Although it was a really foggy day I was determined to see the Nymphenberg Palace whilst we were there, so we jumped on a tram to check it out. Because of the foggy weather, however, it was a bit of a game trying to find the place! I can imagine normally you can see it from the road where you get off the tram, but we had to get so close that we were standing right outside before we even realised it was there! It did make for some cool pictures though, and I would definitely go back again in the summer to see it in all it's glory :)

A very foggy Nympenberg Palace

From there we got on a train to Dachau. I wont write too much about it because I think it's really something you have to do and see for yourself, but it was definitely worth going. It didn't have the horrors of the remains at Auschwitz, but you still definitely got a feel for how horrifying it would have been to be detained there, just from the shear size of the place and the number of buildings that once stood there.

All in all a fun and very education weekend spent in Munich! Now all that's left to do are the summery things like the English Gardens, but I really just see that as an excuse to go back one day... ;)