Bohemia Tour

This is the week that we’ve all been waiting for and all been dreading. This past week was our last time spent together as a group. It was also an amazing trip spanning across the Czech Republic. Some cant wait to get home and others never want this to end. You can find me somewhere in the middle, mostly leaning on the side of never wanting this to end. Just give me my friends and family and I could be here the rest of my life. It’s the beginning of the end, and would not want to spend it anywhere else besides the Czech Republic.

My small group and I returned from Paris Monday afternoon, quickly got a few tasks done, and then hustled over to the History building where we took our Czech language final. I was fairly nervous for the test, but ended up doing very well on the test. After the final some of our group headed to Rockstar to have one of our final drinks with Tereza and Ann. The next morning I was up bright and early to pack for our Bohemia trip.

Soon after our departure we arrived in Litomysl, our first stop of our “Bohemia Tour”.  Litomysl is a quiet, quaint town home to about 10,000 citizens. We all checked into our very nice hotel, grabbed some lunch, and then sat down for a presentation on the town. A nice lady from Chicago gave us a history lesson of the city and described the recent revitalization that was taking place. Many of the old buildings, the castle, and school went under a 17 million dollar project. After the presentation we got a tour of the main church in town. Throughout the years it had been destroyed by fires, by the towns people, and then eventually by the Nazi regime. Recently in 2010 the church went under a major reconstruction and is now a beautiful, strong standing church. It possessed a few modern aspects, which is very uncommon for a church of this age, but was necessary in the reconstruction process.

Inside the church in Litomysl

My professor and I!

Next, we were on our own for the rest of the day. We meandered around town and ended up grabbing some traditional Czech cuisine. That day was Jessica Krecklow’s birthday, therefore many of us helped her celebrate at a bar. Approximately 15 of us squeezed into an underground bar and had a night full of stories and laughter.

Kutna Hora was next on our Bohemia tour. Our first stop was outside the city at the bone church. This is also referred to as an ossuary. I was really excited to see this because just the weekend before I was in Paris where I had the opportunity to see the most famous catacombs. I choose not to go in Paris, because I had read on ricksteves.com that the Kutna Hora bone church was one of the best in Europe. Experiencing this church was very different. There was mounds of skulls and a variety of different other bones. It was an eerie feeling walking though and seeing all these bones that stood in front of me. We left the ossuary and checked into another nice hotel with a complimentary breakfast. Our first stop in the city was St. Barbara’s Cathedral. It was very beautiful and large. Jan and Martin gave us a tour and told us stories about the paintings on the walls. After this tour we were free for the rest of the day. I choose to sit on a park bench and write names in the gravel. It was so nice to relax in the wonderful weather we had. I continued my journey by sitting on a ledge overlooking the cathedral and part of the city. From this ledge Molly, Alexander, and I saw a walking path that led into a forest. This was way to intriguing for us and we had to go exploring. We hiked through the woods and got new views of the cathedral. It was so refreshing to go out into nature and get some fresh air. Eventually, we got back into the city and sat down for supper. I can safely say that this was one of the best meals I have had in Europe. My supper consisted of a pork loin with a delicious sauce, a baked potato filled with blue cheese, and finished dinner with a traditional Bohemian honey cake. This was a perfect ending to a great day. A few hours later I was fast asleep in bed ready for the next day.

A look at some of the bones

Playing in the sand like a little kid

St. Barbara's Cathedral

My delicious meal

Two days were down and we had two days left. The next two days were the best days of the trip. We started our third day by touring the Budvar beer factory. I had been looking forward to this tour since day one of the trip. My dad loves Budweiser, and this is where I finally got him a souvenir. We toured the factory and saw each step of the process from beginning to end. The best part of the tour was the free samples we got. Our tour guide filled us glasses straight from the tank, and boy was it good. Next we loaded the bus and headed for our final stop, Cesky Krumlov.

First we checked into our hostel. In our previous towns we had stayed in nice hotels, but not here. Cesky Krumlov is more of a tourist town, therefore it had hostels. After we checked in and got settled we were free to do as we please. Our first adventure was to climb up the hill in order to get a view over the city. This is one of the things my group of friends always wants to do in each city we visit. We hiked up and got some great views looking down onto the city. After our hike we made our way back down to the town and had dinner near the city center.

Us boys at the top of the hike

Our final day in Cesky Krumlov was by far the best. This whole trip the group has been waiting to go rafting. We were scared we wouldn’t be able to go because the weather wasn’t cooperating. Thank goodness it finally did. Soon enough we hopped in our rafts and started to make our way down the river. The next four hours were a blast. We ended up heaving beautiful weather and had an amazing time with each other. There was lots of laughing, stories, and memorable experiences during this trip. Eventually we made our way out of the river and all headed for a group dinner. This was so delicious and a great way to end the trip. We were all at the same table and again shared lots of laughs and enjoyed each other’s company. We continued to have fun by going to one of the clubs in town. There we danced the night away and made our way back to the hostel that night.

Rafting was a BLAST

This trip was been one that I won’t ever forget. It’s sad to think that this was our last week together as a group and we’ll eventually all be going our separate ways. I’m grateful that our last week was spent in the Czech Republic. This is mainly because the Czech Republic is so cheap and is easy on my wallet. It was also great to tour around the rest of the country and get a better feel for the country I have been living in for the past two and a half months. Our Bohemia trip was the perfect final trip together.

It’s now time to do my own thing. I have 16 days left in Europe and still so much to see. I will spend my last two weeks traveling to Belgium, Greece, and Italy. I’m ecstatic to visit Brussels, Athens, Santorini, Crete, and Bergamo. It’s now time to hop on a few planes and make my way to the beach and soak up some sun.