Czeching Out!

CZECH TREK!

So now I will tell you all about my second week of travel break! I went on a trip called the Czech Trek with DIS.

We left Sunday evening at 6 from Copenhagen, we were taking a bus all the way to Hruba Skala in the Czech Republic. For those of you who don't know European geography, Denmark and Czech are not right next to each other but fairly close. We had a 15 hour bus ride ahead of us! We got on the bus and drove for a few hours and then got on a ferry that took us from Denmark to Germany and then continued until about 9 the next morning, when we finally reached our hotel in Hruba Skala.

We stayed in a castle!!!!! It was AMAZING!! No other way to describe the area other than the words spectacular and gorgeous! And the weather was wonderful, warm and sunny...hooray :] We arrived and got checked into the rooms to stash our stuff then went down to breakfast, which was yummi! Then we started our day, which was not the easiest thing to do since we were all basically zombies. There was just over 40 of us so we split into two groups for the activities. I started with Ice Breakers! After 3 years of college and being on RHC, ice breaker games are getting a little old, but these were uhhh new and a little strange lol. During the 3 hours of ice breakers we played the typical name games, and line games and what not, but then we moved onto some trust games. Okay I thought "here come the trust falls", ohhh no... what we played were trust games on steroids! We started out with someone standing on a short ledge, and we created a line behind them so they could fall back and the whole group would catch them. That one was like "eh okay" a little more than the usual falling back with a partner, then we moved on to the extra sketch one! The next one was a person standing on a wall like 7 feet high and then falling backwards into people's arms. I thought "alright, a bit scary but no problem!" That was all good and dandy until our guide decided to take the first turn, WE ALMOST DROPPED HIM! I was just a little nervous after that, so when it came to be my turn I squealed the whole time I fell lol :]

Time for lunch! Now during the orientation meeting we were told that while in Czech we would be served meat, meat and more meat. So I was interested in seeing what lunch would be...they came out with fish sticks and french fries! I was like uhhh thats not meat lol. It was also funny because that morning when we got to the hotel and met the guides they asked if anyone had any food stipulations other than being vegan/vegetarian and two people said they can't eat seafood, to which the guides laughed and said "well were in the Czech Republic so you don't have to worry about that hahahaha" and then the first meal we have is fish sticks!

We switched activities in the afternoon so it was my turn to attempt archery...great idea...give a clumsy and uncoordinated person a bow and arrow! I was actually doing well for a bit, I had a good mix of arrows that didn't even make it on the board and arrows that almost hit the bullseye...strange I know. The string on the bow did hit my forearm a few times but I figured it would be alright. Unfortunately my confidence didn't last long! During my last two shots the string attacked my poor arm! Within about twenty minutes my arm looked like it was beaten with a brick...purple and blue with red marks where I was nearly bleeding! Leave it to me to get attacked by a bow and arrow without even trying...I know I know, it takes talent :]

After archery I went with a few girls on a short walk around the area, we ended up walking in an area I don't really know how to describe, it was like a forest but with huge stone columns everywhere. It was quite magical, I was in awe of my surroundings and I felt so small compared to the rock structures around me. We went back to the hotel to get in a small nap before dinner! Dinner was quite delicious, it was like a dumpling and meat thing with a creamy sauce and lingonberries on the meat. One of our guides had to give us a short intro to the dinner before we got it, she told us that dumplings were a traditional Czech food meant to be eaten with a fork and knife not your hands...I definitely felt like I was back in Denmark when she said that lol! We were all wondering why she was so adamant that we eat it with a fork and knife until we got our meal, the dumplings came out like slices of bread...I am still kinda confused about what a dumpling is supposed to look like since I always thought it was a ball lol. We hit the sack early that night since no one got much sleep on the bus!

The next day I started with repelling and the high ropes course, such an exciting morning :] The repelling was some 40 or 50 meters, it was so much fun, I did it a few times!! There was also a zip line across a gorge, which was SOOOOO fun :] I've never done a zip-line before so I was ridiculously excited, I felt like I was flying! Once you landed, you crossed back to the other side by a rope bridge suspended over the gorge, which was actually kinda scary! You couldn't feel the tension in your harness the way you could when you repelled or did the zip line, so it made me nervous for the first ten feet. Eventually you get over it and just try and cross without falling lol. I did the zip-line and rope bridge a few times as well and then I just laid out in the sun until lunch :]

Lunch was as expected...delicious, but I was still awaiting the large plate of meat we were warned about lol. After lunch was the guided trek. It was awesome, we walked through the forest and up a few cliffs to some great picture spots, you could look out over the whole countryside and had a great view of the castle. I think I could have lived in that forest forever, it was so fantabulous...yes that is a made up word! We learned that the rock columns were sandstone and they formed the amazing columns because that area was a sea hundreds of thousands of years ago and the columns are the left over sediments from the sea floor. After the guided trek was another great meal and then a break before our night activity.

We waited until it was dark outside and then met with our guides for a candle light orienteering activity. We split up into groups of 7 and given maps and candles, we had to go find twenty something clues spread out on the castle grounds which were numbers and words. We had to go back to the meeting point to write down the numbers and words, we couldn't take the paper with us so we had to back a few times. We could only use our candles for light, which was not easy because the wind kept blowing them out and the wax kept dripping on me...ouch! Also not smart to make people traverse a cliff side castle in the dark...I tripped A LOT! After we had all the clues we had to put the words together and figure out what they said. The message was that there was something in the tallest tower of the castle and the key to the door was around the knights neck. We got the key and found the right door but we also had some competitors trying to get in the door with us, we ran up the tower and went outside to find the prize, turned out the prize was actually inside. So even though we were the first team to reach the prize we didn't see it and ended up fighting for second place, in that process I just about got squished by an oversized athlete, consequently we lost that prize too but got the third place prize, which was a ton of chocolate and cookies which I was more than happy with :]

The next day was a really early start, we had breakfast at 6:30 and then got on the bus to drive to our next activities. We dropped off half the group at the river to go canoeing, and then the rest of us continued to a forested area where we would do some rock climbing and more repelling. We climbed up a hill/cliff to get to the rocks we would climb up and repel down. There were three levels of climbs, most everyone did the easy and medium but only a handful did the hard cause there wasn't a lot of time for it...I was bummed cause we ran out of time before I could have my go at it! I haven't done any climbing for a few years so I wasn't good but it was so much fun! The repelling actually gave my heart a little jump at first, which is generally hard to do lol. It wasn't the repelling that scared me at all it was the first step back because you couldn't see where you were going at all! Once I saw where I could put my foot I was fine again and had a great time on the way down, the rock caved in about 25 feet before the landing so you were just in a free hang which I found very exciting!

We walked to a town after climbing for lunch at a cafe, where we had more dumplings shaped like bread slices and meat. There were three goats attached to a tree next to my table, they were so adorable, but it also made me sad because I didn't know if they would be eaten later or not and they didn't seem to have any food or water. After lunch it was my groups turn to go canoeing, I partnered with my friend Allison, and we had a few problems trying to keep our boat going straight lol, we tended to do circles often but hey it was fun :] Within about 50 meters of were we started there is this little man made waterfall situation that we had to go down, not very hard since there was a passage in the middle made for small boats to maneuver through. They told us to just go fast down the slide and not to grab on to the sides of the boat and we'd ve fine. Now I know what your thinking, I had already fallen in a canal why not also fall into a river in Czech, but a miracle happened and my boat didn't tip over! Actually we nearly did but apparently our screams were enough to keep us upright lol. Two boats did capsize, but the water was shallow so the only problem was that people got wet, no big! The funny part was that one of the boats that tipped was the leader and a student! Chupec was our leaders name, and he hadn't ever fallen in the river after 7 years of leading the canoe tour...bahahaha, so he got made fun of like crazy by the other guides!

We went back to the castle for our last dinner and to pack up, we were leaving for good the next day. My roommates and I thought we'd finish packing after dinner and then go to the hotel bar to socialize for a bit...too bad that never happened, we fell asleep lol. The next morning we had our last breakfast and then loaded up the bus to head to Prague where we would spend the day before starting our 14 hour journey back home. The ride to Prague was two hours so I thought it would be a good time to take a nap :] We got to Prague around 10am and were on our own, they gave us 300 Czech Kroner for lunch, about 20 dollars, but we had to pay for dinner on our own. I went off with a small group at first, we walked with two friends to find their hostel, they were staying in Prague for longer instead of coming back on the bus with us. And then we went on a journey to the Prague castle. We crossed the famous Charles Bridge, which is quite beautiful, it had statues all over it and had a great view of the castle up on a hill. It was really warm in Prague and I was not wearing the proper clothing lol so walking in the sun to the castle was slightly miserable, but the castle was worth it! Allison and I didn't stay at the castle too long, just wandered around it to take some photos and then we separated from our friends to go find some lunch.

Allison is a vegan so we actually had to scout out a place where she could eat the food and settled on a nice cafe where they served pasta. We sat outside and both ordered pasta with tomato sauce, we had a waitress who spoke english so she understood when Allison told her that she couldn't have cheese so not to put any Parmesan on her pasta. A little later we were served our food and what did Allison's pasta have on it...cheese, not very good listeners are they lol. Since Allison hasn't had dairy in so long she will get sick if she has any, so she called the waitress back over and told her that she asked for no cheese on her pasta because she couldn't have it. They apologized and took her plate away, they came back a little too quickly with a bowl of unkempt looking pasta. We were wondering if they just flipped the pasta upside down and added more sauce, Allison took a few bites before coming across a ton of melted cheese. Yes, they did just flip the pasta and added more sauce, again not very good listeners! Allison went inside this time and handed over the bowl of pasta and said "I CAN'T HAVE CHEESE, IT MAKES ME SICK!" This time they understood and eventually brought her a fresh bowl of pasta, cheese free!

After the lunch debacle we took a tram over to Petrin Hill and took another tram like think up the hill to get to the observation tower so we could climb up. We got a student discount so it only cost like 3 dollars to go up the tower and we had the most amazing view of the city! There were beautiful houses, bridges, hills and parks everywhere you looked! It started to get a little crowded so we climbed back down and walked around the park at the top of Petrin Hill for a bit before catching another tram thing back down. We took another tram over to Old Town and walked around for awhile before going to the Old Town Square, which is like a small market place. It was very lively and fun, I think there was a festival going on because there was a stage with bands and other cool stuff. We checked everything out and watched the super amazing clock tower while it chimed 6pm, it has this procession of the twelve apostles and then a guy plays a tune on the trumpet from the top, every hour. We walked on to find another market, which wasn't nearly as impressive as Old Town Square, but was worth seeing and wandered around looking for something to eat for dinner. We settled on Subway, since they have a veggie sandwich. After dinner we did more wandering, we went to the Jewish quarter to walk around and then sat by the water for a bit before heading back to Old Town Square. We ran into some kids from our class in the square so we chilled with them until it was time to go back to the bus.

We changed into sweats on the bus and prepared for the long haul! We were supposed to leave promptly at 9, but someone hadn't shown up yet. We had a girl from China on the trip who apparently had gone off by herself that day, probably not a very good idea! They called her a few times before she answered and asked her where she was, it sounded like she didn't know she needed to be back at the bus so we had to wait another twenty-five minutes for her to find her way back. Eventually we got her and then took off for Denmark. I had a very restless sleep, its hard to get comfortable in bus seats! When I finally did start to fall asleep we reached the ferry, about 6 am, and we had to get off the bus. I got home about 11:30 Friday morning and my host family was in Milan for break so I was alone, i took this opportunity to veg out for the rest of the day. I couldn't focus or do anything productive so I decided to just enjoy the sunshine and watch movies :]

Saturday morning I slept in and then called my friend Sierra, cause she was home too, to hang out. I went over to her place and we said we'd do homework but really we just watched some movies and made dinner. She wouldn't let me leave lol, she said it was way to cold outside and too dark for me to walk the 6 minutes it takes me to get home, and that I should just spend the night lol. I didn't put up much of a fight, especially when she said we could make french toast with raspberries for breakfast :] So I spent the night at her house, her host family was gone too, and the next morning we made breakfast and then I went home to clean and attempt to do some homework, that didn't happen. Sierra called me again to come over for dinner, without her cooking for me I would have eaten cereal for dinner lol! My host family got back late last night, so I woke up this morning to a delicious breakfast again lol.

Right now I really should be writing some papers that I have to turn in next week, but the weather today told me otherwise :] It was too gorgeous to do anything productive so I decided to hang around the yard and tell you all about my life instead!
But....you should all pray that I find the will power amongst the 60 degree weather to write my papers!