Český Krumlov

We did a weekend trip to a town called Český Krumlov which is said to be the most beautiful city in Czech Republic. Maybe it's true. It was really beautiful with its narrow streets, churches, castle and the river flowing through the town.

View over the town.

View over the town.

My bed. We stayed at the hostel Krumlov House.

The view from our room. The hostel was reconstructed but kept in its original, old style, which made it a really romantic place. Especially when there was a thunder storm outside one night.

A funny group of people in front of a church.

Our group ready for a swim in the river. It was a hot day and we found a spot where you could jump in to the river, which is Vltava by the way, the same river that flows through Prague. I like rivers, and it was really beautiful, refreshing and also relaxing to swim in the river between small houses and tall churches in the gloomy evening sun.

There were lots of restaurants offering medieval style dishes. We had dinner in one in which they grilled the meat on a fire inside the dining hall.

We went for a walk around the castle area in the evening.

The castle tower.

The view over the river.

In the castle we had a random encounter, they had bears.

The next day we had more river related activities: we went rafting. It was no hardcore white water rafting, more like just paddling and taking it easy, like we did. On the river sides there were "restaurants", or more like just little shacks that sold beer and sausages, so we did quite a lot of stops on the way. :)

Rafting through the town.

Rafting through the town.

Taking it slightly easier.

The last day we took a tour in the castle which was quite nice. My favorite place during the tour was the Masquerade Hall. On its walls there were painted people in masquerade costumes. For some reason they resembled a lot some characters in Hayao Miyazaki's movies (e.g. Spirited Away). I'm sure he visited the castle when he was young and got inspired by the paintings! :)

Going wild in Vienna

Yo. I'm on my last weeks here in Prague, so as you can imagine I don't spend my time in front of the computer. But now I have a moment to spare and I'd like to post some pictures from a weekend in Vienna. :)

We had a little reunion in Vienna with Joshi and Edi, who were exchange students in my uni last fall and with whom I shared my courses with. We also went to Lapland together.

So anyways, in a nutshell the weekend was: smiling, talking and laughing together, having breakfast for 5 hours, singing while walking on the street, having delicious food, partying the night away, and having an awesome time together. Oh yeah, and taking a dip in Danube.

The view over the city with Christina, Edi and Joshi.

A picture of us on the train, after several attempts to get one... :)

We had our dinner at a beer garden, and we had traditional dishes like pork knee and cabbage. Aside the beer of course.

At the place where the beer garden was, there was an amusement park with the world's highest carousel. You know the traditional carousel where you sit in this sort of a swing. Well, this was like that, but the only difference is that this one rose to 120 meters.

I'm scared of heights. And before having dinner my friend said that "We should do that later tonight!", and the whole dinner I was a bit nervous for what was coming... But I wanted to do it, because I knew that I would regret it if I didn't. And it was fun! :)

The scary thing was the fact that you were hanging from these little chains, and the chains were attached to the carousel by one small piece of metal. Fucking scary! But the view was awesome when the sun was setting. Whooh, totally worth doing! :)

On the metro coming from a long walk through a festival area singing songs and drinking vodka and orange juice from plastic bottles and going to a karaoke bar.

Lots of funny late night randomness that night, crowned by a genius idea to go swimming in the river Danube. Guys, don't do it, it can be dangerous, because the current is really strong. But we were okay and it was fun. :)

Considerably fancier than the night before we did some sightseeing and had good wine.

Wild actions continued the next night. We had energy after having breakfast, coffee, snacks and lunch for 5 hours that 'morning'. So... again we were entertaining ourselves with songs, and, for example, doing mini crowd surfing.

Woop!

Vienna.

Now I have to apologize for being so brief, the thing is that we are having my farewell party tonight, and... I'm really excited! :D See you!

When it gets tough

Well, as you might have noticed I haven't been updating my blog too often these past weeks. I've been out. Remember how I was talking about how super it is when it's summer? Well it is. I've been out day and night enjoying life with my friends and the joys summer and this city have to offer. But I have to say, that nothing lasts forever. Okay, maybe some things do. But not here in Prague. Since most of my friends here are foreigners, who have come here to work or study only for a while, it's anticipated that there will be a time they leave. Many of my friends have left. But only some, there are lots of wonderful people still in Prague. But I'm leaving too. Every once in a while my thoughts race to the coming fall and the following year. They're not satisfied anymore with only knowing that the sun is shining and I'm wearing shorts and flip flops.

Sometimes, when things are going pretty damn good and you're racing higher in everything you do and you feel almost invincible, life kindly lifts up its hand and gives you a huge slap on your face. You feel like shit. But the thing is that you shouldn't hide under your blanket and suck your thumb. You have to get up, stand on your two feet and keep going. Or turn around. Be a big girl. Or a big boy.

The city feels like my living room. It's not strange anymore. My footsteps follow me on the pavement on which I've walked many times before. If my stay here was an arch, I'd have passed the top point and I'm sliding to the end. I'm being a bit too dramatic now. I still have a month to go. And I'm gonna enjoy it to the blast. I mean, what else would I do? ;)

Random pics of my activities:

International Choir of Prague getting ready for performance. When you get together with them, you know that you're gonna have a great time :) that's what I love about them.

ICP!

An encounter with a snail on my walk to Letná. Life is beautiful when you enjoy the little things.

The best time of the working day - lunch hour. :) We go to the park, for a walk, to our usual restaurant where we get discount... Today we went to the riverside.

Football

Baby, it's the FIFA world cup, and the city has turned into one big football stadium. Everywhere you go you can watch the games and hear people cheering for their teams. I'm not a hardcore soccer fan but I really enjoy the world cup. Watching the games is a fun activity that brings people together. "Do you wanna hang out and watch the game after work?", "Did you see the game last night?".

My favorite spot for the games - and of course not just for the games - is the beer garden in the park Riegrovy Sady. They have a big screen - two to be exact - where they show sports. You can chill, drink beer, and if you're hungry, eat sausages. What I love about that beer garden is that you always run into friends in there. Even though I've been in this city for only 4 months, every time I go to Riegrovy Sady, there are people I know. Also, from that park there is a fabulous view to the castle, especially in the night.

Fans cheering for South Africa.

Our football fan team.

Rainy afternoon in Globe.

Old town square. It seems that all the homeless people in Prague have set up a camp in front of the screen.

Too bad that the world cup is getting to its end. Well, the beer garden and the parks are still open. :)