Waking up at 6:30am on Saturday morning, we tracked across Prague to the bus station, where we took a 3 hour bus to the countryside of Znojmo to the wine vineyards. This was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had in my life. Throughout all of the traveling I’ve done during my life, I’ve never seen anything like these vineyards, which was probably why the unique experience was my favorite of my entire trip. Our bus ride ended in a little town where Martin and his wife picked us up to drive us to our hotel. After a very quick meal, we boarded another bus with other tour members and were off to our first of four vineyards. The entire experience was full of sunshine, wind, rain, and lots of delicious wines. We traveled to four different vineyards which were each full of differing scenery but were all absolutely beautiful! We were even able to see some of the vineyard workers out picking grapes during one of our stops! At our fourth stop, someone on the trip received word that the Czech Republic had moved forward in the World Hockey Tournament and would be playing Russia in the World Championship game! Everyone was extremely excited and it was awesome to see how everyone came together to celebrate! After our last stop, we returned back to the hotel for a brief dinner and then met up with the entire group again to travel to a former monastery where we enjoyed more wine tasting, food, and music! It was a fantastic day!
Author Archives: mea178
Karlstejn!
On Friday morning we woke up and caught a train outside of Prague to the town of Karlstejn where we visited the castle there. This was the most beautiful day we had so far in the Czech Republic and it was nice to see some sunshine. The walk to the castle took us through tons of little shops and pubs. We stopped to eat lunch at one and then made our way up to the castle where we toured outside and were even able to visit inside the Well Tower. Afterwards we returned back to Prague and went to dinner with Martin and his wife. We called it an early night because we were waking up for an early and event-filled day on Saturday which involved a three hour bus ride to Moravia in the countryside of Prague!
Senate, Prague Castle, & Czechmates!
On Thursday we began our day with touring a little bit of Old Town and then heading to the Czech Republic’s Senate. In Old Town, there are tons of different shops that have everything from tourist souvenirs, to various types of glass, and even marionettes. In the middle of Old Town is a famous clock which goes off every hour, on the hour. The clock is an astronomical clock which features many aspects of the Prague culture and was designed by a master clockmaker named Hanus. After Hanus was done designing the clock, the councilors of Prague blinded him so that he would not ever be able to make a replication. After visiting Old Town, we made our way to the Senate. Outside of the senate were multiple Peacocks and other various birds which were absolutely bizarre to me. The Senate building was absolutely beautiful! We grabbed a quick pizza lunch afterwards and headed on our way to the Prague Castle. The Prague Castle is a beautiful castle which overlooks the entire city of Prague from a huge hill. The hike up involved what felt like a million steps but once we reached the top, we were able to overlook the city and visit inside the cathedral. Afterwards, we headed back down the mountain and met up with our Czechmates for dinner. Throughout the spring semester, we were each partnered with a Czech student and we exchanged facebook messages and e-mails with them about our different lifestyles. Being able to finally meet our partners was so much fun, and it was interesting to talk to them in person rather than through e-mails. I absolutely loved all the girls and was so excited to see them again when we left!
On Thursday we began our day with touring a little bit of Old Town and then heading to the Czech Republic’s Senate. In Old Town, there are tons of different shops that have everything from tourist souvenirs, to various types of glass, and even marionettes. In the middle of Old Town is a famous clock which goes off every hour, on the hour. The clock is an astronomical clock which features many aspects of the Prague culture and was designed by a master clockmaker named Hanus. After Hanus was done designing the clock, the councilors of Prague blinded him so that he would not ever be able to make a replication. After visiting Old Town, we made our way to the Senate. Outside of the senate were multiple Peacocks and other various birds which were absolutely bizarre to me. The Senate building was absolutely beautiful! We grabbed a quick pizza lunch afterwards and headed on our way to the Prague Castle. The Prague Castle is a beautiful castle which overlooks the entire city of Prague from a huge hill. The hike up involved what felt like a million steps but once we reached the top, we were able to overlook the city and visit inside the cathedral. Afterwards, we headed back down the mountain and met up with our Czechmates for dinner. Throughout the spring semester, we were each partnered with a Czech student and we exchanged facebook messages and e-mails with them about our different lifestyles. Being able to finally meet our partners was so much fun, and it was interesting to talk to them in person rather than through e-mails. I absolutely loved all the girls and was so excited to see them again when we left!
Wednesday: Czech Television & Charles University
On Wednesday morning we all slept in before beginning our day. Breakfast in the Czech Republic is very different from what a “typical American breakfast” might be, consisting of mostly meats, cheeses and breads to choose from. I thought everything was absolutely delicious, but found myself becoming hungrier for lunch much earlier in the day than I typically did at home. After breakfast, one of Elavsky’s friends whose name is Martin came to meet all of us and take us to Czech Television for a meeting with one of their employees. Martin is a professor of Charles’ University, one of the oldest and most esteemed universities in Prague. Martin took us on a hike through the rain to Czech Television, where were able to go on a tour of their studio and learn about the ways in which their television company differed from ours in the states. I was pretty amazed to see that almost everyone in the studio spoke English, an observation which would only be reaffirmed throughout all of our travels across the Czech Republic. After visiting Czech TV we stopped by a grocery store to find some quick lunch and purchase some snacks for our rooms. In the Czech Republic, you have to pay for plastic grocery bags!! After eating a quick lunch we met back up with Martin and he gave us a tour of Charles University. He is a media/film professor so we were able to see the university’s studios and even work with their film editing programs. We then went visiting Old Town Prague, and went to dinner there. I must admit that by the end of the day I was almost just as exhausted as the first night and was very pleased to crawl into bed.
I’m In PRAGUE!!!
I’M IN PRAGUE!!!!!!
Much to my liking, after months of anticipation, over 9 hours on an airplanes, and what felt like miles of dragging luggage through the bumpy streets of the Czech Republic, we have finally arrived and settled down in Prague! Overall, the trip here couldn’t have gone much smoother. In all of our travels, no one in our group encountered any problems with security or customs and our flights both departed and arrived on time!
We left Newark around 9:00pm on Monday night and arrived in Heathrow, England at about 9:00am. Because this was my first time visiting Europe and I was very excited, I found myself unable to sleep much during the flight. I watched a few movies and ate lots of interesting airplane food. I never knew that mango cheesecake came in a liquid form… I must admit I prefer the solid. From my view in the sky over Eastern Europe, the characteristic which surprised me most was the abundance of flat land with very little hills and mountains. I also noticed that almost all of the houses and businesses had brown roofs as opposed to the United States’ traditional grey/black roofing. When we arrived in Heathrow, we were five hours ahead of the time back home and my lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with me. But, I was so excited to be in Europe, and because we had a 6 hour layover, a group of us decided to take a bus out to Windsor!
Windsor, England is home to the Windsor Castle, which is one of the residences of the English Royal Family. On our bus ride over, we were discussing which stops we would need to use when a woman sitting behind us joined our conversation and began to help us with directions. She lived in Windsor and was kind enough to let us know when we needed to get off the bus, give us some advice on what to do while we were there for our brief time, and even recommended a cheap but delicious caf� where we could grab a quick lunch. When we arrived outside the castle, there was a large crowd of people gathered in the street. Within 10 minutes, we were able to see the “changing of the guard” where a group of soldiers marched to the castle to switch guards within the castle. We then took a Top-Bus tour around Windsor and finally ate lunch at the caf�.
After Windsor, we were back to the airport and soon on our second flight from Heathrow to Prague. Before the plane even left the ground I was asleep and I woke up to the plane landing in Prague. After a few hours of gathering the group together, collecting baggage, exchanging currency, and buying cell phones, we were on the bus to our guest house.
The guest house is a small bed and breakfast owned by a woman who is friends with Professor Elavsky. She only recently began to learn English, so our conversation with her is mostly interpreted through Elavsky. After lugging baggage up the stairs and taking a chance to freshen up, we went out for dinner at a restaurant down the street from our house. We were all beyond exhausted and called it an early night to catch some sleep before our travels on Wednesday.
That’s all for now! Can’t wait to travel! Loving life in Prague!
A little bit of info…
Hi everyone. My name is Megan Albright and on May 17th (can’t believe that’s in less than one month!) I’ll be traveling abroad to Prague, in the Czech Republic for one week. This past semester, I’ve been enrolled in COMM410 -International Mass Communications- here in State College, PA. I’ll be traveling to Prague with three other students from the class, one of the course’s teaching assistants, and the course professor. My trip abroad is part of a new embedded program with the COMM410 course which is being kicked off with our group! Words can’t describe my excitement to experience life outside of the United States (I’ve only ever left the country to go to Canada) and I’m looking forward to sharing many of my experiences with everyone via geoblogging!
Location: University Park, State College