Back To My Roots

This weekend I went with Panrimo to Moravia! Moravia is the eastern region of the Czech Republic. That's right I'm part Czech believe it or not! My professor told me I looked Czech one day so I thought that was pretty funny. Also... my grandmother who is Moravian just turned 85 the day before my trip so it was perfect timing. Happy Birthday Grandmommy!

We left on Saturday morning for a 3 hour train ride to the eastern side of the country to a small town called Lednice. When we got there we ate lunch and then headed to the castle. It was such a nice day that we ended up walking around the gardens instead. Perfect for the first day of spring! We walked around for awhile then headed to a winery. We first got a tour of the winery with unlimited wine and some of my group took fulllll advantage of that. After the tour we filled up on cheese and bread and then had a wine tasting. Our wine expert/tour guide told us all about the different wines, how wine is made, what makes wine dry vs. sweet and so on. We ended up trying 6 white wines, which is most commonly made in the Czech Republic due to the little sunlight, 1 rose wine, and 1 red wine. It was all very informative and glad we got to go!

The next day we did the tour of the inside of the castle which was very ornate and detailed. We weren't allowed to take pictures unfortunately, but the outside was still beautiful as well. After the castle we headed back to the train and made our way home. Short and sweet, but it was a nice trip.  

Buda-post

Szia!! (Pronounced "see ya" as in "see ya later") That is Hungarian for hello! It is rather confusing because in Hungary hello is good-bye and good-bye is hello. This past weekend Cody and I took a trip to Budapest, Hungary! It was awesome. We started off our trip on Thursday afternoon with a 7 hour bus ride. We used Student Agency to travel and the bus was super comfortable, we got free drinks and there were movies, music and wifi.  Looing out the window was entertainment enough... some of the Czech countryside looks like magical forests and is very scenic. It made the ride go by quickly and was inexpensive. We got there around 10:30 and made our way to our hostel. Upon first entering the hostel it seemed a little sketchy, but once you got inside it was very nice and ended up being a great stay. This was my first ever hostel experience. Hostels are really cool because its pretty much just a bunch of 20-something year olds staying together so it was fun to talk and meet new people. Some of the people we met are actually studying abroad in Italy with one of my friends from Clemson and she is her roommate! What are the chances! The world is getting increasingly smaller I think. Here is a picture of our beds.

 

The next morning we went on a 3 hour free walking tour around the city which was really helpful to see the city and the major sites. Our guide taught us about some Hungarian history and some Hungarian words. He brought us across the Chain Bridge to the palace and told us a lot of other cool things to see on the way. My favorite place by far was Matthias Church at the end of the tour. It was very beautiful and colorful and overlooked the city.

 

Saint Stephen's Basilica

Chain Bridge

Changing of the guard at the palace

 

 Matthias Church- favorite building I've seen in Europe so far

 

The rest of the day we tried to see the parliament building and St. Stephens Basilica but they were closing by the time we got there. March 15th weekend was a national holiday for Hungary- it was the day they lost a war so that was kind of interesting, but a lot of the big sites were free to the public. Normally you have to pay to go into parliament and you get a tour guide. Since we didn't get in on Friday we ended up going the next day when it was free. Unfortunately we had to wait an hour and a half in line and they only had one room open so I was kind of bummed about that. I've heard the whole parliament tour was really cool, but I guess I'll have to go back another time! The building itself was MASSIVE. Also on a side note... Cody and I were taking a selfie in front of the building and then a tv camera guy started filming us and so we are basically famous in Hungary, just saying. Here is our famous selfie if you ever spot us on the Hungarian news...

 

 

 

Inside parliament ^

 

After parliament, we saw St. Stephens Basilica, which was gorgeous.

 

 

After we saw the basilica we headed over to the Grand Market. It was way bigger than Krakow's market and had food, souvenirs and all kinds of Hungarian things. We ate the Hungarian food langos which was AMAZING. Probably one of my favorite meals I've had here. There are different variations of it, but its kind of like a funnel cake, pancake, cheesy bread with a bunch of toppings.

 

Langos ^ :)

 

In the evening we went to the famous Budapest thermal baths which were so relaxing. Our hostel people told us to go to the Gallert baths because of the architecture, but it was pretty small compared to the other ones. Still was great to relax!

 

 

One last thing! We also went on a pub tour and got to see the famous ruin bars. These bars are made basically out of ruins and have random stuff hanging everywhere. One of them was in an old school building which I found funny. One of the ruin bars is ranked the 3rd top bar in the world!!

 

 

 

We had a packed weekend and got to see so many sites. Budapest ranked high on the list, I would definitely go back for another visit.



Pivo! Pivo! Pivo!

Pivo = Beer

This past Sunday Panrimo took us on a trip to the Karlstejn Castle and Pilsner Urquell Brewery. Karlstejn is a castle in the Czech Republic about 45 minutes from Prague. It is on top of a mountain in a little tiny town and very beautiful! We finally had a warmer day so it was a lot more enjoyable. We took a tour of the castle, but no pictures were allowed.

A map of some of the castles in the Czech Republic... already 2 crossed off this list!

 

After the castle we took a 45 minute car ride to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery located in the town Pilsen. Pilsner is by far the most famous Czech beer and is found on every single street corner and bar. It is a very hoppy beer so its not my favorite, but drink what the Czechs drink right? We got to learn the whole process of how they brewed the beer which is actually pretty cool. The beer is made up of three things: grain, hops, and water. We got to try all of the natural ingredients and watch the whole process. Pilsner is unlike other beers in the fact that it gets 3X the hops whereas most beers only get hops added in one time. The heating/cooling/fermenting process takes around 3 months. At the end we got a free beer to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 Fun fact: The Pilsner factory has the largest elevator in the Czech Republic and it holds 72 people at one time!



 

Side note: I'm starting to realize how small the world is. Everywhere I go I seem to run into people I know or know someone I know and its already happened multiple times! When our Panrimo group got to our tour, I knew a group of friends from my ECES program and later realized that we were on the same trip to Poland with students from the CIEE program who were also on our tour. So pretty much I knew the whole tour group on a random Sunday afternoon. Its cool to see all of these connections. At the moment I am on the bus back from Budapest and its quite comfortable and has wifi while we are in the Czech Republic. Next blog post- Budapest!!

Poland Part 2: Kraków

After Auschwitz, we made our way to Krakow to see the city. Our guide Eva showed us around the Old Town Square which is similar to Prague's Old Town Square, but not as pretty. The square had a cathedral, clock tower, Louvre- looking glass triangle, and a market in the middle. Going into the market was one of my favorite things, they had a bunch of polish souvenirs and cool things to look at. Also I am part-Polish so it was cool to go back to my roots! We just explored the city and ate chocolate from the best chocolate place in Krakow!

 

 

 The next day we went on a guided tour of the city and got to see the castle, Jewish ghetto, cathedrals, and all about the history of Krakow. Eva told us that this cathedral has the most beautiful alter in all of Europe if not the entire world. I was surprised because the outside of the cathedral was very plain and wasn't expecting much. After we went in, my jaw dropped and I changed my mind. The entire inside of the cathedral was absolutely stunning, every wall, every flower, every sculpture, stain glass, etc. had so much detail, adorned with gold and silver. It cost money to take pictures so I didn't end up taking any, but honestly no picture could ever do it justice. 

 

 

 

The cathedral with the most beautiful alter

In the afternoon we took a tour of Schindler's factory and got to learn about WW2 and how it took place in Poland.

The square where Jewish people had to wait in chairs to be executed. Very saddening. ^

 The castle^

An eclectic castle..

 Famous stain glass in one of the cathedrals we went to^

 Old Town Square^

This guy just chillin

 

Krakow really comes alive at night and there is so much to do. Altogether I had a great time in Krakow, but still love Prague the best. On Sunday morning we went to the famous salt mines. It was crazy!! We were 400 ft underground and they had an entire cathedral and sculptures and a bunch of stuff down there. Definitely worth seeing. It was a great weekend!