It's SPRING!

Sun, shorts, dresses, flowers, Vltava, parks, picnic, warm evenings, smiles... 

It's spring! And I'm loving it! 

Happy 1st of May!

<3

I joined a choir!

Last week I joined a choir. My friend invited me there but for some reason I was feeling veerryy lazy and reaalllyy unmotivated, and I almost skipped the whole thing. The whole day I was doubting and making up excuses for myself not to go.

After work I realized that I didn't have the address of the place where the rehearsal was. So I sent my friend a message asking about the place, and told myself "if she doesn't answer me, I can't go". So I was secretly comforting myself with the fact that I might have a reason not to go.

But she sent me a message. I was lying in my bed thinking "I don't want to move...".

But then I realized how stupid it would be to skip the opportunity without even giving it a try. So I got up from my bed mumbling swear words to myself and dragged myself to the rehearsal. Actually I had to really hurry, run the escalator to the metro and everything, because it took so long for me to make up my mind...

After the rehearsal I had changed my tune. I was soo glad that I went there and didn't skip it just because I was feeling lazy! So I went there on Wednesday and that same weekend they had a choir weekend trip, so without really having an idea about what it was all about, I joined the trip!

We went to Český ráj! Český ráj means "Czech paradise", and it sure was beautiful.

The choir weekend was fun! We sang a lot. Like all the time. Then we also went outdoors, had Czech food, beer, and on both evenings we stayed up late singing, dancing and talking, even though we had to get up at 8... :)

Once again, it was really fun to get to go on a trip, sing and have lots of fun, but moreover it was great to get to know all the people! :)

Here are some pictures from Český ráj.

We stayed right next to Hrad Trosky, a castle built on a volcano with two peaks. It's one of the most recognizable symbols of Český ráj and possibly the only one of its kind in the whole world.

When the volcano erupted, there was a blockage so the lava had to force its way around it creating two high-rise columns. In the 14th century knight Cenek of Vartenberg built a castle on top of the columns, to serve as his residence. The castle changed hands several times over centuries, from noblemen to robber barons.

We played tag. :)

Running on the field.

View from one tower to the other one. We were really high up, you can hardly even tell the bunch of people from tiny dots where the arrow is!

Lucia was tired of taking boring photos so I had to pose. :)

The view was incredible! You could see all around and very far. We were told that the Bohemian Crown Jewels were once kept there because of this very reason.

A view.

On an evening walk.

Good times! :)

Countryside

Last weekend was awesome. Let me tell you about it.

So. Last week. I receive an e-mail from a person I have seen like only two times before, and the title of the mail is "Crazy weekend in the countryside". The e-mail is sent to many people and it goes something like this: "Rory has a guesthouse and he invited us there for the weekend. It's a great place near a lake and it should be lots of fun. RSVP as soon as possible. Bring a sleeping bag!".

It seems like a cool thing to do, so I decide to go. I try to ask more about the whole thing, but don't really get a picture of what we're gonna do or where we're even going.

So Friday comes and we meet at the train station. There are eight of us. Most of the people I have seen a couple of times before at some parties. We go into the train. We sit into one cabin. The train starts moving.

As we speak it turns out that none of us really knows this Rory.

So there we are, sitting in a cabin of a train while it's getting darker outside, eight of us, not really knowing where we're going, and not really knowing each other either. The Italian guy opens a bottle of red wine and we drink it from colorful mugs while laughing at how our situation could be straight out of a horror movie!

We arrive to the middle of nowhere. Well that's what it seems like in the dark. At the train station there is a woman waiting for us with a car. Girls hop on and guys go to a pub to wait for their ride. We are taken to the guesthouse where we finally meet our host Rory, a jolly lad from Scotland.

Train station.

Rory tells us to get ourselves beer or wine from the bar and to sit down to wait for the soup he had made.

We drink beer and wine, and eat delicious soup, while not being able to think about anything else but where are we, who are these people and what is going on!

Supper.

Then boys start to play guitars and french horn, and we sing. A girl and a boy dance to the music and I have a moment: "We are in the middle of Moravian countryside in a tavern, beer is flowing and guitar is playing... Did we travel in time or is this real?" Hahaha... :)

Saturday is beautiful. The air is calm, the sun is shining. After breakfast we go for a walk into the nature.

The village Nekoř.

Blue car.

We walk to the lake and decide to have guláš and ice cream. We find a grass field and start to play Frisbee. We throw the Frisbee around for a while and decide to divide into two teams and play ultimate Frisbee. The game turns out to be great fun!

Half-time.

We come across many old cars and I wanna have a picture taken with one.

We take a different path back and come to this paradise-looking small grass terrace by the river. It is just so perfectly beautiful: green grass, little stream flowing, rays of sunlight shining from between the trees, the river glistening...

We sit down and the Italian takes out the food he had brought for lunch: cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, prosciutto, brie... We are amazed by the picnic we're having. He even lights a candle!

Small bridge.

Green grass.

Chillin.

We arrive back to the guesthouse where there's barbecue waiting for us. We lie down on the grass, drink beer, eat salad and barbecued meat in the gloomy evening sun... I think I'm a romantic! :D

Tractor.

Enjoying life.

As we continue the party inside, we get into games such as "never have I ever" and "truth or dare", and it turns out that we have some pretty cool people in our group. ;)

When most of the people are gone to bed and the party is in its end, Rory asks us if we're hungry. We go to the kitchen and there are chickens in the oven. We break some chicken wings and after eating Rory puts the chickens back saying "let's just tell my wife that one of the chickens was cripple, and she'll never know what we did". :)

Sunday again is beautiful. We play table tennis and badminton on the yard, and try to figure out what we're gonna do. We end up just relaxing at the guesthouse, and having lunch there. We eat the chickens (of which one is a cripple...) outside on the terrace.

Lovely lunch.

We have a train to catch, so we head back to the town, Letohrad. While we have a bit of time to spare, we get pieces of this Czech cake, medovník. Mmm...

A piece of medovník to go.

We take the train back to Prague, feeling tired and slightly sunburned, but definitely happy! :)

The weekend was great... Activities, nature, awesome people and lots of food! :) I was thinking, there are not many people who take you into their home, feed you and throw a party for you. But there are some. Rory and Maria are good people. If you want to have a great time, go to their pension A-Bonet.

Let's talk about maps.

I would like to share something with you. It's bothering me.

Maps.

Maps are pictures of places drawn by people. It's natural that people put a bigger emphasis on places that are important to them, and give less attention to places with less importance in their mind. It also makes sense that maps were, for their part, once used to create an image of superiority for the western countries over their colonies.

But we live in the year 2010 and what's bothering me is that we're still using corrupt maps.

Please take a look at this website. Peter's Projection. Just click the "next" button down on the right, and you'll see what's wrong.

Say no to geographical discrimination on maps! Google.

Vyšehradský železniční most

I was walking around the town and came to a bridge Vyšehradský železniční most. Here's some pictures I took.

Swans.

Foot.

View to the castle.

The bridge.

Cookies!

Last weekend I got a new flatmate from the United States. And with him he brought cookies - loads of sweet, delicious, American cookies. Big, fat chocolate chip oat flake cookies, peanut butter and mint chocolate Girl Scout cookies... There is a huge pile of chocolate and cookies in our kitchen, and boy, have we been eating them! For breakfast, snack, snack, snack, after lunch, snack...

But it was Easter. So you're allowed to spoil yourself. Just for a weekend.

Last weekend we also had an Easter lunch with a bunch of really nice people. It was a pot-luck: everyone brought something to eat. So we ended up having a table full of tasty food, Easter eggs, and chocolate. We talked, ate, ate some more, played games, and ate a lot of chocolate. It was fun! :)

Let the egg battle begin!

Food and toys...

Needless to say, it's time for less cookies, and some serious yoga.

Spring, Easter and stuff

This heading definitely ranks one of the worst ones ever... But anyway :)

It's spring. Not as warm as I would like it to be. The sun is peeking but still hiding behind the clouds. I'm sleeping too late every morning because of changing the clock. But it's spring! :D And I love it!

Today on our lunch hour we went to one of the Easter markets in Prague, on Václavské náměstí. And we had a dish traditional for Central Eastern Europe called langoš. It's basically deep-fried dough with garlic, ketchup and cheese on it. Yummy! But greasy...

Langoš!

So, now Easter is coming up. And probably the only national holiday and a day off from work during my internship. And I don't have any plans! It would have been a good chance to go somewhere... but I don't stress that much. Maybe it's just better that you don't have a tight schedule on holidays, just enjoy the free time!

They have odd Easter traditions here in the Central Eastern Europe. Here in the Czech Republic they have these wooden sticks, especially made and decorated with colorful ribbons for this occasion, and on Easter they hit girls with them! And in Slovakia they go even further, they throw buckets of cold water on girls! Easter is a seriously kinky holiday here: spanking and a wet t-shirt party! :)

I bought this Easter-stick as a souvenir for myself. Maybe I'll get hit with it. In the name of cultural experience!

I wish you all a great weekend, lots of sun and a good time! :)