Fall break in Ljubljana, Bled, and Vienna

This past week, me and a few friends traveled to Ljubljana, Slovenia (just south of Austria) for Fall Break. It was a great time to get away, relax and enjoy the scenery outside of Prague. Ljubljana is the capitol of Slovenia and a fairly pretty city. It is very small, maybe the size of Norman. It isn't as touristy and it is just a very quaint and beautiful place to go and relax. Everything is very slow and relaxing. Here is a picture of the Ljubjanica River which runs through the heart of Ljubljana. Here is a picture of one of the main squares in Ljubljana at night time. The night life was just a fun thing to see. Not huge crowds of dunkards or anything of the sort. Just people mozying around enjoyin the night's air
Here in Ljublana is the remains of an old Roman wall built back in 14 A.D. by the great Caesar Augustus.
One of the greatest things in Ljubljana and probably the cornerstone of the city is the great castle on top of the hill just above the main city. From here they could see for kilometers as to know of there were invaders coming. The day we were here it was a little foggy, but as you can see, you can see the entire city. I am on top of the main tower with the castle courtyard in the background.

Beautiful Bled, in Slovenia

So, another place that we visited was a small city in Slovenia called Bled. It is perhaps the most touristy place in all of Slovenia. Why you ask? Well, Bled is situated in the Julian Alps and has a wonderfully beautiful lake situated in the middle of the town. And in this lake, as you shall see is situated an island with a magnificent church in the middle of it. With mountains all around this lake, and also with a castle perched atop the cliff overhanging the lake, it makes this city a quite amusing city. If you would like to relate it to anything, we could call it the Lake Tahoe of Slovenia. The water was very clear and intoxicatingly fresh. This first picture was not taken by I or anyone else on the trip. It's just a good pic and I couldn't find a better pic that I shot. My pics are following. Here you can see this island and the church if you squint hard. It's straight ahead. Trust me, it was cool, however uncool this view looks. I couldsee it better.
So we tried to get here early enough to get on paddle boats, but we got here too late so you will have to enjoy the view of the wooden boats with the great island in the background.
Ah... what an island...
And here is a pic of the castle that overhangs the great lake. The island is approximately to the left of the castle, yet unseeable in this picture. Don't worry, it's still there though, trust me.

Vienna, where for art thou Vienna...

Our final stop on the relaxing week was Vienna, the grand capitol of Austria. Known primarily for its great architectural structures and the residence of Mozart during his era. Therefore, me and Stephen are happy to be on the trek back towards home for more than one reason...One of the grandest things that we found in Vienna was the Parlemant building. This grand building was pretty crazily instense.

Here I am in the front of the Parlemant building with a great big statue of someone realy important apparently.

This is an interesting piece of architecture. This here is the great library of Vienna. Historical fact. Once Hitler took annexed Austria, he gave a huge speach from the balcony of this structure (directly behind me, to the right of my head) with hundreds of thousands of people filling in this entire square to listen to him.
This is the entrance tothe grand palace to Vienna. Pretty cool.

Outside the University in Vienna, I'm payin tribute to one of my biggest role models whose name will live on forever in futility... shall I say Che...

Soccer... to the death!

So, one of the craziest sports in the Czech Republic (along with the rest of Europe and the world, for that matter, excluding th United States) is football (in America, known as soccer). Word to the wise, when in any country besides US, when you say football, it means soccer, and when you say soccer, people say "Huh?''
So... last week I went to one of the craziest soccer games in history! (or at least, the craziest game that most Americans would ever experience). The teams were bitter cross town rivals... Sparta and Slavia. Both these teams were of Prague.
So, I went with several of my friends. And throughout the whole game there were insane acts of riotous events performed by both the home and visiting peoples. People were lighting smoke bombs about every 4 minutes. And the smoke was so dense at times that you couldn't even see the field!! Riot police were running up in the stands every 5 minutes stopping the riotous hooligans. There were railroad flare goings off and everything was chaos. The visiting team was ripping out seats and throwing them at the riot police. It was pretty darn crazy. Fires were about everywhere and I couldn't tell where I should look next. And pretty much no one really got kicked out. Only a few I think. It was sick crazy. Maybe this gives you a little hint of what life looks like in the Czech Republic. Life is like this everyday. I never know what the heck is gonna go on.

Sychrov and good American fun.

So, yesterday, Thursday, I went to a castle just to the north of Prague. This castle, called Sichrov (seegh-rove) is known as one of the most preserved castles in all of Czech. And it was a beauty of an adventure. How might I have had the chance to go to this on a school night you may think. Well... one of my fellow teachers, Peter, works for a tour guide company that gives tours around Prague and to different castles. I expressed interest in it, and he made some "behind the curtain'' deals, and voila, I got to tag along. And probably the beauty of the whole thing was that it was completely free. Every last ounce of it. Well, I had to pay $2 for my train ticket from Kralupy to Prague, but the 75 minute busride there, the tour, the free hot wine (yes, hot wine. it's pretty popular during the winter months, and not too bad either), the amazing dinner that was after the tour, and the bus ride back, was all free! Yea, basically, i'm the most awesome person alive. And also, get this, my tour was comprised completely of awesome American grandmas and grandpas. They were a fun group to hang out with. It felt good to speak to native English speakers once again as well. The castle was pretty amazing also, not just that it was all free, but it was definitely the best castle that I have been to yet, preservation wise. Everything looks just like it did in the 1800's. And mind you, it looked pretty sweet in the 1800's. I'll include some pics later today.

Friendliness in the Czech Republic

So, yesterday I was to teach at this big Distribution company based out of Kralupy. Iwas to meet with this one gentleman for a personal lesson (these are by far the easiest lessons, cuz all I do is chat it up for an hour and a half). But anyways, I had no clue where this place was. I had a general knowledge of where I thought it was,but I really had no clue. The directions I got were vague (welcome to Czech Republic), so I just started to head out at 520 and hope I got there before 6 when I as supposed to be there. So I had been walking in what I thought was the right direction for half an hour, and I was asking people (in Czech) where this place was. (Most the time, I had no clue what they were sayin, I just said yea). But what I realized is that from whereI was the only thing they could tell me was that it was "way the heck over that way" and then they would point. I finally asked this one young lookin fella at this gas station, and he says (in czech) "yea man" and then he motioned me to his car. So, I got the picture, and jumped in. (Side note: hitchhiking is not illegal in Europe, yet, it is a natural means of transportation. People are weirded out when you hear it is illegal in America. It is rather safe here in a sense. Not as many psychopaths here, just nice atheists). So I got in and we started driving. And we were driving a long way, and it got to point where I thought he was taking me to some crazy god forsaken place in the middle of nowhere, but then he turned, and I realized where I made my mistake. And we got there, and i hailed the ground that his feet walked on. So I got there (I was definitely like 1 or 2 km off the beaten track.) And this guy got me there at 555, in perfect time. This guy was way nice. Czechs rock. Have a good day. And if you get the feel... hitchhike, just kiddin... kinda.

We all had a lot of fun touring Western Bohemia this past weekend...Maybe even too much fun.... (wink wink)

Western Bohemia

This weekend, me and some other American friends went to the Western part of Czech Republic. He we hung out with some other teachers and visited some sights. Pictured here is a big castle, called Loket. It is a very pretty castle that we went and visited on Saturday, (this was probably bout the same time the good 'ol Sooners were gettin romped up on by those drasted Longhorns).

Below is another pic of the city of Loket. It is a really small pretty town that is beautifully situated upon a hill.

Next we went to Karlovy Vary (in English "Carlsbad). This town is beautifully built, and fairly big. It is known for two special things. One for their amazing springs they have situated all over the city (below is a picture of one of them. There are 12 of them). It is tradition to purchase little pretty shot glass like cups and dip them under the springs to enjoy the hot salty water. Mmmmm.... sounds tasty, huh? Some of the springs were170 degrees. Yea, we filled up on these, you can bet yourself.

And the other thing they are famous for is their distillery of the famous Czech liquor "Becherovka".

So anyways. We hung out here and at the castle Saturday and things were very enjoyable. It was very good to get away and find solace with friends and see new places that I have never seen before, but that have been around for ages.

And of course, this town here, Sokolov, is where our two good friends, Joel and Hank, live. They live on the 12th floor of their building. Pretty sweet view in the morning,huh?

Mushrooming is the life if thou shall call thyself Czech

Some of the most important things for people are enjoyment and activities that bring about fun. Sports are one thing. Czech Republic is popular for many known sports. The most famous sport in Czech Republic is hockey, of course. It’s freakin cold here all the time, therefore obviously hockey is a lovely activity for people to play. The next most popular sport is football (in America, called soccer). This, of course, is the most popular sport worldwide, excluding the United States of course. These sports are the loveliest of all Czech Republic, and very popular worldwide.

The third most popular sport in Czech Republic, although, is the great sport of mushrooming. This famous Czech pastime consists of gathering mushrooms wherever they may grow. On a nice day, perhaps after a nice rain or shower, people will always be going out to a local hillside to collect mushrooms. And everyone does it! There is even a national championship of mushrooming, of who can pick the most mushrooms the fastest. It is really a quite exciting story. Oh, and if a Czech ever finds a good find, then they are always showing it off, bragging about the size of their mushrooms. Oh, and there is possibly tens of several different kinds mushrooms that each person knows by name. It’s pretty crazy how lively mushrooming is, while frolicking among the beaten paths of the hills; maybe it gives fulfillment to the people, in a country void of religion.

Hm… just a comment about life in the Czech Republic.

Update on 22.9

For those concerned. 22.9 went with a partial success. This poster declaring "We thank you" was posted many places around town. It says that 96% voted yes for the square and 4 % voted for the new town hall. but only 4530 people voted, several thousand below what was needed. But perhaps this was a big enough voice to the council so that maybe they will do something, but nothing is final.

Just wanted to let you allknow about that. I knew you were achin to know.