As I mentioned in the previous post, it has not been the easiest of weeks, but thanks to friends in Prague, Facebook chat, and Skype, it’s at least been manageable. There's just no good answer for why these things happen, and there's no perfect way to deal with them. And, I think it might actually help things to jump back into this blogging business full force, so here we go..
Wednesday was everyone’s favorite day, WTCD! We went to Vysehrad and learned everything there is to know about Vysehrad from Pavel. I’d already been to the site twice because it’s such a beautiful area- once with Rhee-Soo and Kyra on a daytrip and once with Hannah when she visited. However, this time, we actually learned about what we were seeing, so it was totally fine that it was my third time there. Plus, the views from Vysehrad never get old. Some fun facts: Vysehrad is a castle that was originally founded in the 10th century, although I think the oldest remaining structures/visible building foundations are from the 12th Century. There’s no formal “castle” buildings to visit there, but there’s ramparts, and Romanesque-style rotunda of St. Martin (built in like the 11th century or something. Crazy), and the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul. I like this particular church because there’s a lot of color inside, all over the place. Although the church as it currently stands is not as old as come of the others I’ve seen since coming abroad (due to the many times it’s been rebuilt), I thought that the gold-flecked patterns of flowers that climbed up the columns and onto the ceiling were nice touches. The artwork in the interior sets this church apart from others I’ve seen.
Another thing that Vysehrad has going for it is an epic playground made almost entirely out of wood in the style of a fortress. There are even walls with mini ladders at a shallow incline that you can use to “scale” the castle walls. All around the playground are wooden sculpture references to the Prague foundation myths. I totally thought they were Vikings the first two times I visited, so I was slightly disappointed when I found out this particular detail. Oh well. Makes a more sense.
We also sat in the grass and listened to some music from a composition inspired by the founding of Vysehrad. It was lovely, and would have been more fun if it hadn’t been about 50 degrees and absurdly windy on WTCD. It was actually so cold by around 4:45 that Pavel let us go early. Wednesday evening was Lisa’s birthday!!! (21 on the 21st!) so we celebrated at a fun pub across the river.
Thursday after Czech class, Renee and I picked up our favorite pasta take-out from Grosseto’s (http://www.grosseto.cz/vinohrady/listek/menu.htm number 72), and it did not disappoint. Then Renee ran off to Egypt for the weekend, and I went back to the apartment and took what was a not-quite-long-enough nap before hanging out with friends.
Yesterday was great. We took a CERGE trip to a town called Litomerice (I never put the Czech symbols on this blog because it requires copying and pasting, but fyi, it’s not really pronounced how it looks). Some highlights:
1) There’s an extensive underground tunnel system that was put in place, and it stretches for three kilometers and three stories under the town.
2) Karel Macha, a famous Czech poet, died there, and Litomerice had his body for a while. However, the body was moved to the Vysehrad Cemetery (which I saw on WTCD) when the Germans occupied this area of the Czech Republic in WWII (Litomerice is part of the Sudetenland, so it was given to Germany by France and the UK).
3) We had lunch at a restaurant that is made up entirely of old cellar rooms from the extensive network mentioned above. The restaurant owner gave us a short tour of about 300 meters of tunnel. Pretty cool
4) We had an American tour guide from California, and he was great. He used the word “like” more than just about anyone I’ve ever met. Example: “The Hussites laid, like, siege to the town.”
5) Anna, one of the ladies who helps run the CERGE program (she did awesome things like get our Visas okayed by the foreign police, etc. etc.) grew up in a castle near Litomerice, because her parents took care of it. SO, she has a key. We went to the castle, which was beautiful, and she showed us around. I’ve never met anyone who grew up in a castle before. Sort of jealous.
6) The last thing we did was go to a wine tasting. I’m a big fan of wine tastings.
When we got back to Prague, we went to Lemon Leaf, then came home and chilled. Annnnd yesterday was ALSO a very special day because it was Nitra’s BIRTHDAY!!!!! Big 18, so now she can buy cigarettes to feed that smoking habit (kidding kidding :-P). We got to Skype and catch up for a while, which was simply lovely, and we will celebrate her birthday properly in.. six weeks?! Yikes. Time flies. But at least I’ll have a giant Macado’s sunday with Nitra to look forward to upon my return :-) Yay for sisters.
No comments:
Post a Comment