Communism Museum

The museum focuses on the totalitarian regime from the February coup in 1948 to its rapid collapse in November 1989. The theme of the Museum is "Communism- the Dream, the Reality, and the Nightmare" and visitors will be treated to a fully immersive experience. Immersive factories, a historical schoolroom, an Interrogation Room, or the video clips in our Television Time Machine

are all part of the experience. This museum was really quite scary. The blatant brainwashing control and the over idealism of the rulers was totally gross. What amazes me is

that the Velvet Revolution just

happened. In the videos the people

were in color and wearing clothes I wore as a child. 1989 was only 21 years ago and the Czech Republic has changed so much. It amazes me how quick society has rebounded, and to an outside seems free from the trauma of war and nazi's and the regime of communism.

The Berlin Wall

Yup, thats Karl Marx

Beautiful Trees!

The sun does not set until about 10:30pm and so the sky stays really blue till around 11pm. I snapped a couple really cool pics with trees. Told you my blog would included artsy weird angled pics.

Roommates and clock towers!

Yea for roommates! We were walking through the square and this flower guy let Krystle hold his flowers for the picture. We also were in time to hear the trumpet player that plays on top of the clock. The Prague Astronomical Clock is one of the oldest European clocks of its kind (the first ever originated in Padua in 1344 and a second in Strassburg in 1354) and continues to hold its exceptional position. It is unique in being the oldest of those where the original clockwork has been in operation from the beginning to the present time for six centuries, and even the astronomical dial shaped like an astrolabe survives in the original form. The Astronomical Clock tells the: Bohemian Time, European Central Time, Declination of the Sun, Sunrise and Sunset, Babylonian Time, The Signs of the Zodiac, The Position of the Moon, The Phases of the Moon, The Equinoxes and Solstices, and Sidereal Time.

Maitrea

So when we got back to Prague we were starving and we rushed to this vegetarian restaurant to chow down. Maitrea is a beautiful little place that has a huge underground sitting area, which is common in Prague. The menu is extensive and they even have great mexican burritos! (burros for Scott) YEA for mexican food. They have like 40 fresh fruit juices and beer with hemp in it. The coolest thing is that the offer free dinners to pastors, monks, priests, clergy, and enlightened people.

When we arrived I ordered a

grapefruit, apple and orange juice called the Pink Panther. It was delicious, you could totally taste the fresh apples. For dinner I had split pea soup which was amazing and creamy and a Green leafy salad with grilled goat cheese, kalamata olives, grapes, sun-dried tomatoes and maple syrup dressing. It was one of the most amazing meals ever! I mean I was like starving but it was still so fresh and tasty!

Trip back to Prague

So I decided to be artsy. I loved riding the train and the four of us had so much fun. On the way back I messed around with my camera to get the blue to pop in some of the photos. Hope you like the video at the end. :)

Random Czech Facts

Random Czech facts-

• 12% of your salary goes to pay for health insurance
• 30% of salary/ employer pays taxes too
• You have to pay to put a deposit down to “rent” a cart at the grocery store
• Cashiers sit down at the grocery store
• You have to pay for grocery bags
• 20% is the tax added to the restaurant bill, not including tip
• Beer is cheaper than water
• Tap water is safe to drink and tastes great
• They have cobblestone on most of there streets, even though its more expensive it saves the horses from hoof root and when they do work in the streets they just have to remove the brick to do work under the streets and they can just put it back when done.
• Drinking age is 18
• Cigarette packs say “SMOKING KILLS” in huge letters on the pack
• Spa care is covered by insurance, like when you get heart surgery, government pays for you to go to a spa for 3 weeks.
• You can buy unpasteurized milk at the grocery store.
• There is ham and cheese potato chips and bacon flavored popcorn at the movie theater
• Restaurants charge for take-out boxes
• Czechs consider the first floor, floor 0. And underground floors are -1. -2… So l am staying on the 7^th floor by the states, but the 6^th floor in Czech Republic
• There are no social workers in elementary schools
• No one uses their cell phones here as much as they use them in the states. No one is on them in the grocery stores or on the streets.
• When people get married, the wedding party drives down the street to the church honking the whole way.
• There is no ice in drinks and you have to pay for water everywhere, except my school.
• Czech say they can tell we are Americans by the shoes we wear

Kutna Hora Church of St. Barbara

St. Barbara's Church is one of the most famous Gothic churches in central Europe. St Barbara is the patron saint of miners (among others), which was highly appropriate for a town whose wealth was based entirely upon its silver mines. The original design was for a much larger church, perhaps twice the size of the present building. Construction, however, depended on the prosperity of the town's silver mines, which became much less productive. So, in 1588, the incomplete structure was enclosed by a provisional wall until 1884 and the roof was unfinished until the 19th century. It was just amazing inside and the moment I walked in I lost my breath. There was music playing and the four of us were the only ones in the church. The oldest piece of art was a Madonna dated back to the 13th century. It was even more beautiful than the church in the Prague castle.

Bone Church

In 1278 the Cistercian abbot of Sedlec, Henry, traveled to Palestine and the ‘Holy Land’, bringing home a sample of earth from Golgotha which was later, upon his return, sprinkled over the grounds of his local cemetery. The grounds were immediately considered scared, and hence became a much sought after location for relatives to bury their dead. In the 14th century, the Black Death spread the bubonic plague across Europe and now 30,000 bodies all wanted a resting place within the sacred grounds. Such vast numbers of dead led to the creation of the ossuary in 1511 by a half-blind monk who gathered up the bones to be stacked up within the ossuary, making space for new corpses, which were soon taken up by more victims from 15th century Hussite Wars. The ossuary itself is situated in the basement of the All Saint’s Chapel. Frantisek Rint, wood carver and artist was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to imaginatively compose the bones into works of art; amongst his creations came the Schwarzenberg family’s coat of arms, and a chandelier containing every bone in the human body (although I couldn’t say whether this includes the smallest bones found in the human ear!), composed of several bodies. In the four corners of the ossuary sit four ‘bells’, pile upon pile of bones carefully stacked with a hollowed centre. It is amazing and creepy all at the same time.

Train Trip, Harry Potter style!

Ever wanted to jump on a train to Hogwarts?? Well we did! (OK kinda...) The train we took to Kutna Hora, looked very much like the train to Hogwarts! The cable car was almost identical. We had such blast riding the train even though it randomly stopped in some town for about 45 minutes. The train attendant came into our car and spoke to us in Czech for like 30 sec all fast and what seems to be very informative, LOL, we said, "I don't understand," in Czech and he followed up with, "Please sit" and used hand gestures to make it clear. HILARIOUS! We had fun chatting and honestly even if we just went in a circle back to Prague, it was totally worth it. Oh and seeing Ron and Harry and Hermione was awesome too....wink wink! hehehhe

Video of the train ride!

Cheese Sandwich at the Train Station!

So this morning I was awesomely awaken by Katie inviting Colleen and I to go to Kutna Hora, which is a small town outside the city that has some amazing churches. I only had 10 minutes to get ready, so no time to eat. When we finally got our tickets and got settled I decided to grab something to eat. I found this amazing little cafe that sold panini's. The sandwich I am eating cost me about 3 USD and is the size of a sneaker that Shaquille O'Neal owns. It had gouda and brie and this flavored mayo with garlic, it was heaven on earth.

Gelato Challendge

So in Prague people eat gelato, lots of gelato actually. And guess what they are not dealing with the epidemic of obesity that the states are facing either. Rude huh! Anyways with following my motto of "When in Rome," I have adopted a nightly ritual of eating gelato. After much tastes from other gelato stands I finally found a place that suits my fancy, BOOM GELATO! The very first time I entered I was amazed at their tasty flavors and the cuteness of the shop. I was so overwhelmed with choosing just one flavor that I decided, "Why not try them all?" So I started a little challenge with myself. I started on the top left at banana and I have to work 24 flavors all the way down to coconut. I can not skip a flavor, but I am allowing myself to do more than one flavor at a time. Below is the picture of all the flavors and pictures of the following flavors I have tried. 1. Banana- actually not so good it tasted artificial. 2. Strawberry, which was actually quite good, but gelato does not taste like the ice cream in the states at all. Its just more light flavoring. 3. Green Apple and Strawberry. The green apple was actually really good and matched well with the Strawberry, the Strawberry was more like sorbet and I loved the color of both, so bright and cheery. More Gelato pics to come!!

Map of the city

Just thought I show a map of the city so you can see where things I am blogging about actually are in relation to where I am staying. I am staying in the middle of Wenceslas Square, where the people of Prague demonstrated which started the Velvet Revolution, in 1989. Its really in the middle of everything and a really cool place to be located. Wenceslas Square on this map is on the lowerish right hand side and if you see that green spot right below there Square on the map that is a park right behind our housing. Places to point out are Old Town Square, Charles Bridge and the Prague Castle. You can really see how large the Castle is on this map.

Where is Prague??

Thought I would post a map just to show people where exactly the Czech Republic is. It is located in Eastern Europe is considered central Bohemia and as you can see on the map it is located right smack dab in the middle of everything, its blue.

FIFA soccer game

The Hyundai Fun Park has stationed itself in the Old Town Square for the televising of the World Cup. During the day bands play and there are tons of vendors. There is a stage right next to the huge screen that shows the games. All games are televised and every game gathers all the tourists and townspeople to the center to cheer for there team. People dress up and wear flags and run around chanting. Its like rush week! You can buy beers, gelato, sausages....sit or stand to cheer for your team. The USA game was quite fun although I decided not to cheer for us out loud since I just didn't want to bring attention to myself. One of the guys on our trip wore USA flag shorts and a USA map on his shirt...umm ya I stood nowhere near him. There was tons of USA fans and overall it was super fun being there watching it. I think that its such a cool thing to see everyone gather to be all sporty. I am so glad to be in Europe during the World Cup!

Trdelnik

So in the main Square they have all there tents up for the World Cup, and this particular tents sells these famous Prague pastry called a Trdelnik. It is a traditional cake and sweet pastry, from the town the Slovak town of Skalica. It is made from rolled dough, wrapped around a stick then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix.

The spit was the coolest, who roasts pastrys on a spit! They were delicious and tasted kinda of sourdoughy and was really crunchy on the outside. The pastry was actually not that sweet by USA standards, but the best combo of crunchy and chewy. YUM!

Subway

We all took the subway after the castle and I was so amazed how beautiful the subway is. I mean come on...Every stop is a different color! The yellow tunnel is the stop right below our housing and and the green one is right down from the castle. We are only two stops from the Castle which is awesome because that is over the Charles Bridge. The rumor on the street here is that you are at risk of getting picked pocketed in the subway, so of course I was like super paranoid....which was funny, cuz I was so into taking pictures.