Train Rides Galore

            Good news Mom and Dad! I ran a lot this week. I ran so I didn’t miss the tram, I ran so I didn’t miss the train, I ran when I heard the words “free food”. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m staying in shape, we run a lot here. I have been a little homesick and it’s only week three, but I’m trucking through and luckily have been keeping busy. We had a short school week with leaving for our fieldtrip to Prague and Dresden on Thursday, and classes were cancelled on Monday due to our professor being sick. On the bright side, pretty much everything is booked for spring break; Lily, Lydia, Jessica, Aubrey, and myself are spending three days in Rome and four days in Barcelona! To say I’m excited would be an understatement!

            This weekend was another entertaining one to say the least; I experienced my first train ride, which was actually a lot of fun. All of the seats in the train were in their own little rooms, six seats in each room, and three seats on each side facing each other. I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie while I was in this train. I bought a croissant sandwich and a piece of cheesecake and only spent about 40 korunas, which is equivalent to a little under 2 US dollars. The train ride was only about two hours and half hours and we had arrived in Prague. We went straight to our slightly sketchy hostel to drop off our bags and then we were headed out for a tour of the city. After already spending a few days in Prague at the beginning of our trip I had already seen pretty much everything such as the Charles Bridge, the John Lennon Wall, the Old Town Square and New Town Square. You could say we were pretty much experts of the city by then ;) After our short tour we had the rest of the day to ourselves, which included eating our favorite Czech desserts called trdelnik’s which is a delicious cinnamon almost donut-like cylinder with Nutella spread on the inside. Exploring the Easter Market because the whole city was filled with little sheds that sold anything from food and desserts, beers and wines, and hand painted Easter eggs. We then met our teachers Jan and Martin for a beer later on that night and just wandered around the town and found our way back to our hostel.

Trdelnik

Easter Tree in Old Town Square

            I swear we spent all of Friday morning walking up the biggest hill in all of Prague to get to the Prague Castle. (It probably only took 20 minutes, but the straight incline felt like two hours) The view from the top of the hill was a pretty one as always and the Cathedral was beautiful! We toured the rest of the castle and then once again had free time to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. A good nights sleep was the best idea that way we could be rested up for our day trip to Dresden, Germany the next morning.

Cathedral

            Another train ride was taken on Saturday morning to get to Dresden which I didn’t mind at all and was almost looking forward to, the view the whole way was so pretty because we followed a river that had houses lining up and down the hills of the country side. Once in Germany we stopped at the Lutheran church and even got to climb to the top to get a look over the whole city (was definitely worth the 5 euros). We ate some delicious pizza that was shared between two of us and it still didn’t fit on the plate. And we got to visit a museum filled with armory from the countries past wars and battles. It wasn’t the most exciting thing to do but I still enjoyed all the history. One day in Dresden was definitely not enough, the day flew by and we only got to see a small portion of the city! I wish we had more time!

Lutheran Church

View from the top

Another view from the top!

Dresden, Germany

            On Sunday we got to visit the Jewish quarter of Prague, where 85,000 names of Jewish people killed in the holocaust were written on the walls. A lot of information to wrap your head around and completely understand which has me a bit worried for when we visit Auschwitz. After visiting the Jewish quarter we were back on the train to Olomouc! So many train rides this weekend and sooo much walking. I love Prague but it’s definitely nice being back “home” in Olomouc!

Jewish Cemetery in Prague