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!