Paddle Boats!

today was st. wenceslas day and so we had no class! yippie! to celebrate, we rented paddleboats for the equivalent of $3 and relaxed in the charles river. it was an awesome way to spend our afternoon. 

 

at the adorable dock

 

the national theatre, maybe? 

 

ahhhh, this is the life! 

 

our boat with the prague castle behind us

lauren and sylvia's swan boat. ha 

pretty sunset! 

switzerland? no, germany!

on friday i went to the "czech-swiss national park". apparently it's not in switzerland though...and we were ACTUALLY at the czech/german border... but they call it "swiss" because it looks like switzerland supposedly. weird. anywho, it was absolutely gorgeous and such a nice, pretty easy hike. it was really great to spend the day outside and sweating. we hiked to the top of this "mountain" to the largest natural rock bridge in europe. soo gorgeous! once up there most people ate lunch in a traditional czech restaurant overlooking the valley, but i brought my own sandwich, so i sat peacefully and munched on my sandwich and enjoyed the view.

me and elle before the hike. apparently we are soccer moms. 

 

pretty!

 

as we gained elevation the rocks became really cool

 

more cool rocks

rock bridge at the top!

me and the Denver DGs doing the DG wave. couldn't resist! 

classes and getting lost

hellllooo! apologies for not having updated in a while--the 15 page paper for the class i took in london this summer was due on tuesday and, naturally, i didn't start it until about a week ago, so i was miserable and up to my ears in romantic literature. the good news however, is now it is DONE and i can relax and continue to enjoy the beautiful czech republic. our intensive czech class is now over (i passed with an A-!) and our real classes have started. I am taking History of the Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, History of the Czech Lands and Contemporary Europe, Totalitarianism in the 20th Century and Art and Architecture of Prague. They all seem like they'll be very exciting and engaging. Also, on tuesdays, i signed up to take more czech classes--only an hour and a half a week and we won't be graded or anything, but i figured it'd probably be good to know a little more, considering i don't feel as though i know any...
it's currently raining outside which makes me want to relax and eat soup all day. elle and i are going to go to the train station momentarily to buy tickets to Brno, another city in the czech republic famous for Mendell's discovery of genetics. We will spend Saturday and Sunday there with a few friends from our program.

here are pictures:

 

our class went to see "Swan Lake" at the state opera house. it was gorgeous! 

 

inside the opera 

 

out for kristin's (left)20th birthday! 

 

last saturday we went to see one of prague's professional soccer (futbol) teams, Sparta, play. This was my attempt to wear red and support them. 

i gave up with the bandana though and bought a legit jersey. hopefully i'll go to another game and will be able to wear it again! we arrived 3 hours before the game to ensure that we all (20 of us!) could get seats together. It was waaay too easy to do, so we had lots of time to kill. naturally we went to a pub and indulged in copious amounts of czech beer, making the time pass very quickly! 

 

and these were our seats! for the equivalent of $6 we sat pretty much at midfield, and 6 rows from the pitch. it was AWESOME. and, to top it all off, Sparta won 2-0. we were all a little disappointed that we didn't see any crazy european football riots though... maybe next time!

my art and architecture class took a visit to the oldest monastery in prague, built in the 1300s. it wasn't as boring as all my classmates suggest in this picture... 

yesterday me, lauren and elle made a conscious decision to get lost. we hopped on the first tram that arrived, and then got off when things looked interesting. we ended up in a really neat part of town with beautiful architecture and a stunning church. i wish i knew the name... but it was really gorgeous. 

a pretty row of colorful houses

from there we walked around and eventually found the river and a path alongside it. here i am with the charles river and prague castle in the distance. 

charles bridge

we stumbled upon a quaint little park on "the other side" of the river. gorgeous flowerbeds. 

wandering the small cobblestone streets in mala strana. we found an awesome english bookstore here and browsed for quite a long time. 

pretty

we then stumbled upon hte john lennon wall--a wall of grafititi all associated with the beatles, and primarily lennon. it was reallly awesome!

Kutna Hora was awesome. I don't have too much time to write, but it was a beautiful, beautiful city. In the 1300s, it was a town of about 50,000 inhabitants or something like that and produced much of Europe's silver. Today about 25,000 people live there. Here are pictures!

 

Church of St James

 

The town of Kutna Hora from above

 

pretty inside st james 

 

still pretty

then we went down INTO THE MINES! i never thought i was claustrophobic, but it definitely got a little tight in there... it was so fun though! this is me and my roommates being silly in our ridiculous outfits. 

grossss

tight squeeze!

me with kutna hora in the distance

then we went to a creepy, creepy ossuary. the church has over 40,000 bones in it! really really ridiculous they're just piled up everywhere. 

family crest, made out of bones. 

detail of the family crest. 

chandelier made out of bones...every bone in the human body was used in this... ah!

the altar... 

creeppy

Helllooo! Prague is officially feeling like home and I'm so very happy! On Monday I started my intensive Czech language course which is next to impossible, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. I can introduce myself, take someone's phone number, count to 199, order at a restaurant, tell the waiter that my soup is cold, and make plans for tomorrow! hopefully i'll get the hang of it in a few weeks and be able to effectively get by here. most people speak english though, so that's nice.

i live in a reallllly cool apartment in a perfect location with 4 other awesome girls. we have a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment on the top floor, complete with sauna and jacuzzi tub! it's kinda ridiculous! but really really fun! this weekend we are going on a day trip to kuntá hora, a small mining town outside of prague with a creeepy ossuary. you should google it!
here are pics.

 

the entry way to my apartment. we think that's adam and eve? 

 

view of the kitchen and dining room from the living room

 

my bedroom! that's my blue bed :)

 

view of charles castle and the river

my roommate lauren popping out of our window. 

charles river from the charles bridge.

elle, lauren, liz, syliva, and me!

beef goulash! yum! 

na schledanou!