Like a Little Prayer

Letní škola was composed of 180 people (all with varying reasons for studying Czech) and was basically four hours of czech classes each day except for Fridays and Sundays. The rest of the time was spent running around the city with a plucky group of Americans, English, and a token Scot. I don't think i can adequately write about my experiences at the lovely Letní škola, so i'll let pictures do it for me. (beware, barrage of pictures coming your way). Also, i must give credit to Katy, Julia, and Jacqui as i grabbed some of their pictures off of facebook. :) i must say, jacqui was relentless in her pursuit of documenting Letní škola- so much in fact that one of the first images of me shaking my fist was caught by her camera:



On with the story!


The group of us (sans the cameraperson- julia) at Club Alterna, the student pub. You could find us hanging out here roughly five days a week.

Cast of Characters:



Josh of Oxford fame



Peter, also from Oxford. One of the most amusing yet odd guys i've ever met.



exhibit A.



Andy, the patriotic Scot. He was always enumerating the famous figures of Scotland, including (according to him) Harry Potter.



Mike. An interesting, talkative guy. : ) who apparently was keen on eating me alive...



Julia, the sweetest girl from Brizzzel i've ever met. Here I'm warning her about the evils of goats.



Katy, a crazy and hilarious gal from my czech class.



Alicia, a girl so awesome that i married my brother off to her.



Jacqui, from UT as well. We celebrated her birthday (and several other's!) while we were in Brno.

And now there's not much of a narrative- just random pictures. ;]



Our first "night out" at the Letní škola. Julia, me, and Ana, who described herself as one of the only Slovenian goths.



Andy and Josh. Maybe josh was doing the robot?



I was making up my dance as i went along :)



Two cute pictures of Mike and Alicia






At the mall, about to see Superman se vraci (superman returns). can you tell we're excited?!



At a cafe, happily anticipating ice cream.



In the hostel in Prague...I yelled out pose! and away they went.





Andy and I in the pub...where else?





"Okay Jacqui...no more pictures, ok?" :)



Peter makes fun of the fact that i carried my alarm clock in my purse as i lacked a watch...he was justified in mocking me. ;p



At the closing ceremonies...Texans and a Scot.



Letní škola graduates!



Andy, Alicia, and I at the closing ceremony dinner. if you look in the background, you can see Katy carrying Tang- a drink that we survived on in the cafeteria for about a month.



Katy and I at the closing celebration.



Alicia, Andy, and I on the last night and back where we belong- Club Alterna.

It's cliche to say it, but it must be said: I made such good friends at the Summer School. They made Brno, a city that is rather drab on its own, one of the most interesting places I've been yet. When we had to exchange goodbyes, it was one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. One by one we left the pub and tried to stifle tears. It was strange at first because, after all, we only knew each other for a month. But over that month we spent so many good times together and got more attached than i think we realized. At one point i wondered if we were friends of circumstance- a bunch of English speakers banding together to take over a Czech town. But it wasn't the case- I was extremely fortunate to find people who were witty, amazing, and wildly entertaining. I would love to have these friends in any situation, any where, and i hope that we will be able to see each other soon. In fact, i know we will. As i told alicia on the last night, i love them all too much for it to be the last time to see them. So yay letní škola survivors, and see you soon. (that could be construed as a threat...but it's friendly, i promise.) :)

I close with the "dragon" of Brno- which was in reality just a crocodile....i wonder when they'll figure it out.

We'll Always Have Vienna

I have a very belated story to tell- but now i can illustrate it with photos! try to contain your excitement and read on. :)

I left Brno two days after i arrived because the hostel situation wasn't the best and my SERVAS contacts weren't working out. Deciding that i'd have plenty of time to see the city once i came back to study, i looked up bus schedules to Mikulov, hostel information in Vienna, and left the next morning. it was exciting at the time because it was the first time i left a city without a plan for lodging set in stone and without much information about my next destination other than the fact that there were hotels and pensions to be had.

As usual, the bus dropped me (and about three other people) off in the middle of nowhere. while adjusting the weight of my bag on my back (which made me want to find a place to stay all the more merely so i could get rid of my burden), i glanced around the dusty road only to see a large hill with a castle on top. my rule of thumb was, when in doubt and without a map, head towards the castle- there's bound to be something.

eventually i wound my way uphill to the town square and found the tourist info. point. say what you want about czech cities, but on the whole, they're user friendly. Locate a castle-like building, and there will be a town square with a plague column. somewhere within that square you'll find tourist information where people either a)speak english or b) are usually pretty patient with your bad czech. With their help i found a reasonably priced pension, which meant a room with two twin beds and a bathroom to myself. imagine! after the hostel it was like heaven. my guidebook had told me that because the city had no hostels, the lodging would be more expensive. in the end it was 15 u.s. dollars a night for a room to myself, which i was more than willing to pay for a clean, private room nestled by the hills.

The city itself was beautiful, with some especially notable sites:



View from the lookout tower



The city's lookout tower/fort





The castle gardens



"Holy Hill"- on top of which is a chapel that the townspeople make a pilgrimage up to each year, though it looked to be a pretty steep climb.



The Jewish Cemetery

After two days, i felt i had gotten a good feel for the city and it was time to move on. i was also motivated by the sudden heat wave that made sightseeing quite a trial. in the heat of the afternoon, i was finding myself wholed up in my room, chugging water and hoping for a breeze to come through the window. It was time to move on to a hostel and find good company to be lazy with.

i left the pension early the next morning, saying goodbye to the resident boxer that followed me around the halls with a squeak toy. To my surprise, i had quite a time finding the train station. You would think it wouldn't be difficult, as it would have tracks and trains, and probably some people. Yes, it had all these things, but was rather hard to find because it was hidden among various winding roads and was no bigger than a modest two story house. But at long last i boarded a train for Breclav, where i would get out and buy my international ticket for Vienna.

The problem that i usually had with czech trains is this: they're hardly ever labeled, and if they are, it's one dusty sign stuck to the front of the train that flashes by so quickly that there's no chance in hell you'll be able to read it. So at Breclav, when my train was running late and they didn't bother to announce it, i got into a train that was at the correct platform at the correct time. I quickly sat down, and luckily, a woman struck up conversation with me. Lucky because she asked me where i was going, and when i replied Vienna, she said, "um... we just came from Vienna." I looked at her stupidly for a moment before replying, "Ah, then i'm on the wrong train."

I was fortunate enough for that to be my only train mishap throughout the whole trip, and at that, i still got off the train with some time to spare before it took off. After consulting with some clueless station officials and checking the boards, i finally got onto the correct train and arrived in Vienna without any more problems.

The station of course was huge, and i ran around with a guy who turned out to be a fellow UT Longhorn (small world) looking for an information desk. I had bought a map of vienna in mikulov, but it wasn't exactly preferable to use as it was huge, and i wanted to get some directions to the hostel i had found on the internet. the man at the desk efficiently grabbed a tourist map, circled the area i had asked for, and handed me a slip of paper that the hostel had helpfully left at the station to direct backpackers to their door.

I got off the bus at the stop written on the slip of paper and began to look at my map for the correct street. almost immediately after i had taken out the map, an old woman got off her bench and hobbled over. she asked me something in german, and i replied "myrthengasse 10?" hoping that she was asking me where i was going. she pointed me in the right direction with a smile, and i thanked her before continuing on. when i had walked awhile, i brought out my map to check it again. a woman walking her dog stopped and asked me what i was looking for in german (though i can only assume.) she pointed me in the right direction and i continued on, amazed at how friendly the people were. When i came to an intersection and was checking my progress on a map, a girl asked me in english where i needed to go. Simply amazed at the generousity that the people of vienna had showed me in the first fifteen minutes i was there, i told her my destination and she gave me detailed instructions and wished me luck.

I found the hostel and checked in, but was disappointed to find that i'd only be able to stay for one night because they were booked up. After i threw my bag down on my bed, i began the process of orienting myself to the city: first priority- i needed a guidebook. i had come to vienna on the spur of the moment and knew absolutely nothing about it, other than people had told me it was beautiful. of course it's true- the city must put so much money into simply maintaining the old, beautiful buildings. Exhibit A:



the Naturhistorisches Museum (museum of natural history)

After i had located a handy lonely planet guidebook, i started calling other hostels nearby to make a reservation for a couple of nights, as i wasn't sure whether or not i'd be moving on to a SERVAS host. Luckily, there was another on that street, which meant i wouldn't have to haul my bag around town. That's how i ended up at Believe It or Not hostel- as in, believe it or not, this small apartment is a hostel. There was a kitchen, common room, private room with two twin beds and a bunk, and then the large "dorm"- which was just a regular bedroom with this interesting, three-story bunk structure:





The first couple of nights i was in the "loft," which meant climbing that rickety ladder and crawling to a pallet.

Though it was a weird situation, it was by far my favorite hostel on my trip. Everyone was in such cramped quarters that we all knew each other, and more often than not, went out as a group at night, or on a few occasions, sat around in the common room eating dinner and sharing stories. i met more people there than any where on my trip, and definetly intend to stay in touch with them.

I'm not going to try and list every little event that i did in Vienna, as i was there for awhile and it would bore you to tears- but i'll try to go over the highlights. One of them would definetly be the Kunsthistisches museum which housed some of the most beautiful paintings by the old masters- rubens, raphael, klimt, and so on. Then i moved on to the MUMOK- the modern art museum which was interesting to say the least. After some enlightening as well as mildly disturbing pieces, i called it a day for intellectual pursuits and did some badly needed laundry. when i returned to the hostel with my clean clothes, i found some new residents sitting around in the common room. i joined their conversation and we went on to dinner together. We came back to grab our sweaters and invited the rest of the hostel out for a drink. This pretty much explains how i spent most of my nights in Vienna- wandering around in good company.

I basically took a break from traveling there and just decided to enjoy the city and rest. I'd trade books with the other residents, and when i got tired of sight seeing and museums, I'd and go read and take naps in parks. and as the parks were so beautiful, i was still seeing something pretty amazing.





Another sight that i particularly loved was shonbrunn, the hapsburg's summer palace. Because it was so vast, i wouldn't be able to get it all into one picture without the help of a helicopter- so here's a nice view of the gardens.


view of the gardens with the Gloriette in the background.


view from the top of the hill- the palace shonbrunn and gardens.


Ooh! and the Gloriette

After standing around in the heat, Krista (a friend from the hostel, o' course) and i went down to a popular swimming area on the river and enjoyed the icy cold water and oppurtunity for sunbathing (as by that time i had a golden brown farmers tan that i was keen to get rid of.)

Also, two canadians convinced me to go to Kunst Haus Wien, and i'm so glad they did as the building alone is worth seeing:





They turned out to be two of my favorite canadians, and we ended up hanging out quite a bit. Here we are finding creative ways to pass the time while our laundry gets done.



I figured i would eventually title this "how i broke my neck in vienna," but luckily it's not the case.



Matt invents a new artform.



Brad the Canadian is the blond one with his mouth hanging open, and here's a glimpse at the rest of the hostel crew, including three parisians and two physicists from oxford.

I went to mass in Stephansdom, Vienna's premiere cathedral, saw Orson Welles' The Third Man, got lost with an englishman and a bumpkin from Florida (we preferred to call it 'the extended tour'), heard amusing stories from one of the most talkative scottish barmen i had ever met (but how many have i met?), hung out with a cute australian couple and an extremely energetic frenchman, made friends with the cute old german lady who owned the convenience store across the street from the hostel, ate my first Döner kebab, walked into a bar with 2 aussies and said frenchman where they were, oddly enough, playing the theme from "Dallas," and went to Prater (Vienna's amusement park) with three parisians.



A view from the famous Prater ferris wheel





Constance was determined to find cotton candy



Jean had never ridden a roller coaster before, but once he got on one, he wanted to do them all.

And that's all for now- Brno and the summer school get another entry entirely. :)