česty krumlov

I returned from Brno on Friday night, to make sure that I was back for our trip to česty krumlov the following day. It is a very small and historic town in south Bohemia. It is really stunning. We had a tour of castle and the quarters of all the important people who have at some point resided in česty krumlov. It is well worth a visit again. In fact to make sure that I didn't ruin my next visit (when I am taking all of you around the Czech Republic), I spent most of the day lying by the river and drinking coffee. I felt I truly absorbed the atmosphere.

After my lazy day, I was very tired. But Saturday is the only night that we can go out and not worry about getting up the next day! And seeing that I am only in Prague for a limited amount of time, I was not going to waste this opportunity. However I didn't consider musical tastes, and our first destination was a ska and punk night. You will be relieved to hear that this night was not on, seeing that it was on a deserted university campus. So we ended up in a cheesey bar/club, with lots of ridiculous danicing to follow. You will be happy to hear that every nationality that joined me on the dance floor fulfilled their stereotype. Bit of camp dancing from the Germans, heavy head banging from the Fins and some weird but pretty cool dancing from the French. I had a great night, and it was good to get to know everyone on my course a little better. It was a real effort to get back to our 'off the metro line' location, but at 5am, we finally did. As you can imagine, I don't have much to say about Sunday.

Brno and back

As you all know I am not going to be studying for the year in Prague. I feel a little sad that I have made all these friends and that I will have to leave them all. But I still stand by the fact that I think Brno is more of homely place, and in a year I will really know it. However I still do not have anywhere to live! That's why on Thursday Kirstie and I made a break from school to travel to Brno. It should take only 2.5 hours to get to Brno from Prague, but it ended up taking 3.5, after the traffic and the bus breaking down!! Yep, I think I am cursed when it comes to things breaking down at the moment. In S.E Asia buses were breaking down left right and centre! However, our recovery time was something of a record, and we were only in the hard shoulder for 20 mins (a very scary 20mins though). The plan for our arrival in Brno was that we were going to meet a friend of Iva and Honza's (they being the lovely czech people I met through Francis' dad). We must have stood next to them for about 10 minutes at the bus station before we realised it was them. Lenka and Filip have to be the most welcoming people in the whole of the Czech Republic. They entertained us all evening, gave us a place to stay, and then the following day, helped us look for a flat and then showed us around Brno. Lovely lovely people. The flat hunt led onto some good leads, but we are yet to have an address in Brno. Kirstie is going back on Wednesday hopefully we'll be lucky. Lenka is on the case as well, I have my fingers and toes crossed!

Down in the city

So as a cultural venture for our widening understanding of the Czech republic, our school decided to take us on a tour of Prague. Having only seen the really obvious parts of prague centre, and not in much detail or any real knowledge, I was all ears! Then three hours later, when I had't eaten or drunk since about 1pm and it was now 7pm the tour began to lose its hold on my concentration. Oh how I would have loved to have been able to listen to why an astrological clock drew such a crowd every hour, and who or what hundreds of sculptures were. But alas, food took priority and the most important sight of prague became one of the many Hospoda's! Now a Hospoda is a simple establishment that sells basic czech dishes and cheap beer. Perfect, i hear you cry, for the hungry and thristy student! I have already found myself in quite a few. A reliable source of nourishment.
Nice and full and ready to go again, we all went to a lovely beer garden looking over the whole of prague. It was a bit of a locals secret and our arrival was not kindly greeted. We spent the whole evening talking about the different drinking games of europe, and I tried desperately to save the damaged name of the humble brit. I think I am managing to convinvce my fellow europeans that we are not all hoolagans and drunks. I would like to say that we will go back to this beer garden. But the weather has become very temporamental, raining non stop for the last few days. I hope it clears!

The Beginning...

Here it is, my first installment of my czech experience. So having arrived about three days ago to an airport not telling me clearly how to get to prague, after getting a few buses and following people with big bags assuming that they were going to the same place as me, I finally arrived in my room. I share with a friendly, but a little too chatty and questioning Polish girl. She is a good room mate, clean and private, I think there is a lot more yet to discover. I'm coping, but as I said, its only been three days. I have had two days of czech lessons... WOW, what have a let myself in for. Having minimal Polish has proved not as helpful as I would have hoped. But everyone seems to be a beginner, so I am not alone, and definitley not the worst. The Finnish and Portuguese accents do not translate to the czech pronunciation very well at all, makes for some amusing moments.

I am staying on a very large and grand campus on the out skirts of Prague. It is only a short bus ride to the metro, but it feels like we are out in the middle of no where. Saying that, we are finding more and more evidence of life the longer we are here. But as you can imagine any univerisity campus in the summer is a pretty desolate. However everyone on the course seems nice and our corridor is a fun place to be, very european, most EU countries are represented. And everyone is speaking English, a strange sensation. I feel a little guilty that I am lucky enough to not think about English as well as Czech (all our classes are taught in czech), but sometimes I get a little tired not being able to talk English like I would with fellow brits. Not worrying about other peoples comprehension is something that I have always taken for granted.

First Blog

As I sit here trying to think of everything that I should be remembering before I leave for the Czech Republic in a few days, my mind keeps going blank. I'm sure there are a million and one things that I should be doing and I'm not. However I have got around to checking that my passport is still valid so that’s one box I can tick. I'm not in the slightest bit nervous at the moment about my impending trip, maybe that’s something to do with my current blankness. Is it denial?