Brew Crew

Weeks on Weeks on Weeks: I lied. I said I would try to post more often to avoid rambling, but here I am with about two weeks’ worth of filling in to do. My last post ended with me settling in to Olomouc, and I’ve since then spent a weekend back in Prague, making a day trip to Dresden while being there, and am now just unpacking from spending a couple nights in Brno. On top of my trips over the weekends a lot has happened during the weekdays. My experience thus far wouldn’t be nearly what it’s been if it wasn’t for the ten people I’ve gotten closest to. I kid you not when I say that this crew has reached family status. We’ve befriended one another in a way similar to that of brothers and sisters; we’re all so comfortable with each other, and I love it this way! It makes me miss my older brother, Luke, so much! Especially since Jacob kind of acts like Luke in some ways and looks like him, a lot! Jacob and I, and Thad too, have all been able to be gross and obnoxiously weird around each other, so it’s been really easy to get close to them. They have both taken on the role of big brother for all of us girls, and it’s much appreciated to say the least. Here we are in Brno, Jake on my right and Thad behind me!

Shenanigans: During the week prior to Prague, I took advantage of the 60 degree weather and visited one of the beautiful parks of Olomouc. On my walk I noticed several people roller- blading, as well as multiple packs of five or six people performing what seemed like taekwondo. I also witnessed not one but two children of different families being led to a pee in the grass when the bathroom was literally the same walking distance away. Kind of weird seeing in broad daylight, but apparently it’s okay here. When I brought it up to a Czech student, he told me, “People go to the bathroom wherever they please here in the Czech Republic.” (I don’t really know if he was kidding or not...) Later in the evening, a few of us experienced a night that has not and will never be forgotten. Fancy Night happened. The crew had planned that we’d get dressed up (for no real reason other than we wanted to) and go out together looking fancy. Although we did get ready, looking fabulous, five of us got left behind. We scurried to the tram to meet the rest of the crew where they said they’d wait for us, but as we were passing a stop different than the one we were supposed to get off of, we saw them waving to us on the tram as they kept on walking. By the time we got dropped off and sprinted to where we saw them from the tram, we were out of luck with ever finding their whereabouts. Nevertheless, the four ladies and I headed to the nearest location with Wi-Fi access, McDonald’s. This is only relevant because three of us got McDonald’s glasses to take home with us; it literally put the cherry on top of our Fancy Night –no pun intended! We figured that the glass they gave us in our bag cost more than our meal to make, so we were pretty stoked. We headed to the nearest tram stop beyond ready to get home and out of our heels, but we got on the wrong one. I remember laughing hysterically as the tram turned off of our main road home once, twice, three times and then stopped after the fourth or fifth turn. Frantically, Abby yelled, “Does anybody speak English!??” Fortunately one did. He told us it was only a ten minute walk, so we were homeward bound in a part of town we’d never seen before. Although his directions back to the dorms were correct, it actually took us about forty minutes to get there. Our Fancy Night will always be remembered but hopefully never repeated. During this same week, my roommate Jessi and I turned our room into the central hang-out location amongst our crew. We’ve had ladies’ pasta night, several movie nights, and lots of evenings spent “getting ready” in our room. After a night out, we headed in to town for lunch at one of the many gyro eateries in Olomouc where we ran into Jessi’s third cousin, Beth! What are the odds!?? It was incredible being there to witness it; I was so overwhelmed with joyous emotion that tears welled in my eyes! It was unbelievable that of all places Jessi runs into Beth in small town Olomouc after not seeing one another in five years. I woke up that morning saying it was going to be a good day and sure enough, it was a very good day.

Prague and Dresden: This was our first fieldtrip with the class and although many were excited to be heading back to Prague, I was indifferent about the trip. This was just because our first weekend there I was never feeling 100%. However, rearing and ready for travel I was willing to give Prague a second chance. When we arrived we checked into our hostel and toured the town with Jan (yawn) and Martin. These are two English speaking professors here at Palacký University in Olomouc that have been making the entire Czech Republic study abroad program so rewarding. They are equally full of so much knowledge, and we’re beyond lucky to have them here to better our experience. We walked and walked, seeing several of the historical sites some of us had visited a couple weeks before. My favorite part of the tour was seeing the John Lennon Wall. This wall was created to symbolize the freedom and rebellion against the communist regime. The youth of Prague made this wall of John Lennon for their admiration of his fight for peace, freedom, and equality. However, now it has sadly been taken over by a mass of graffiti. Before moving on, I stayed to listen to a guy maybe around 25 years old, sing songs of the Beatles’ in front of the wall. The playing of the guitar and singing of “Let It Be” really added to the whole visitation of the wall. Following the wall, I was taken on a climb up Petřín Hill and to the of Prague’s mini version of the Eiffel Tower. Sweaty as ever, the haul was well worth it; 299 steps later and a one of kind view awaited us. After this we were Tavern bound! The Tavern is a restaurant owned by an American, serving greasy American classics like giant hamburgers and loaded chili-cheese fries and RANCH. We girls were a little too excited to have a taste of something as simple as ranch. The next day we ventured to Pražský hrad which is Prague Castle in Czech; here we toured the cathedral, saw rooms full of coats of arms painted all over the ceilings, and the servants’ living quarters where there are a few shops and cafes. We also watched the changing of the guards, which is a pretty intricate process where guards on duty change out and someone comes to take their position. Our third day we took a train to Dresden, Germany. We began and ended our day in front of an enormous church that was bombed by the allies and then restored, having only a handful of the original bricks from before it was demolished. We were given the choice to visit either the Old Masters Picture Gallery or another castle, so trying to do something different I decided to go to the art museum. This was probably the least effective day of my weekend; the art didn’t really have much of an impact on me, but I still appreciated the opportunity to visit and found interest in some of the portraits. We met back with the entire group to climb to the top of the church, but the view wasn’t anywhere nearly as breathtaking as ones we’d seen before. Ready to head home, Taylor and I were meandering our way to get dinner before hopping on the train when our entire class went sprinting behind us to catch the train that was leaving in three minutes. With our backs turned to them as they ran past, we would’ve been waiting for forever for them to walk by and grab us to get on the train. Fortunately for Taylor and I, the train was missed by the entire group, and we found them out of breath, having a beer. Once we got back to Prague that evening, we made it to our reservations at a place called, The Pub. This place has four taps in the center of every table, seating about ten people, measuring the amount of beer that is poured into your mug. Therefore it is a competition between tables as the liters of beer for every table are projected on the big screen. We all thought this place would be awesome to have on Husker game days! (However, I don’t like beer at all, so I was just there for the fun of it!) On our last day in Prague we visited the main Jewish Ghetto there, visiting the Pinkas Synagogue and cemetery inside the ghetto. I can’t even put into words how I felt being there. If I felt this way about the ghetto I cannot fathom what the feeling will be when I visit Auschwitz in a few weeks.

Jessi and me in front of the John Lennon Wall

The view from the Prague Eiffel Tower

Several gravestones in the Jewish Ghetto

The oldest gravestones

Back Home: Almost reaching the one month mark of being away from Kearney, and Olomouc is being called home. Like I mentioned, the past week or so, we’ve gotten extremely close to each other, and for me, it’s made it easier to not waste time missing home. Last Monday, we all went out for Jenna’s 20^th birthday, went to lunch and got her a cake like it was something we’d been doing for years. My roommate Jessi and I also found a gyro place that delivers for free, and we now consider Gyradiko the Jimmy John’s of Olomouc. One of the guys here, Anthony, generously hosted a spaghetti and wine night for our entire class. Who would’ve guessed that 20 of us would fit into a dorm room!?? We had a great time and can’t wait to do it again!

Brno: This past weekend, nine of us packed up and took a bus to Brno. Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and is the capital of the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. We stayed at different hostels each of the nights but both located near much of what we wanted to see and do (also both in which I forgot to take pictures of). The day of our arrival we journeyed through the park with a fortress at the top. To our dismay it was closed, so we decided to get lunch at a place called, Pivo Richard. We were so hungry that we all engorged on a feast, tiring ourselves and having to nap. When we woke up we were all disoriented with the feeling of jet-lag, so we stayed in and played card games in our pajamas. The next day some of us were forced to buy coats because we had packed for 70 degree weather, and it was cool and drizzling rain. Our group split up for most of this day, while some went to a nearby lake, we visited the fortress of Špilberk castle which we couldn’t see the day before. This fortress was like something I’d been hoping to see during all of our castle tours, and I was finally getting to in Brno. There were staged guard rooms and torture sessions set up. It was really interesting to see how it used to be, but we agreed that we’d never want to be left alone down there! Next we visited the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, and it was beautiful to say the least. Afterwards we made our way to a Capuchin Crypt. This was my favorite part of Brno! The crypt here is a funeral room for Capuchin friars. The bodies buried in the Capuchin Monastery basement turned into mummies from the soil and system of airing. Of the 205 deceased in the crypt, 41 are preserved there today. The saying that was inscribed throughout the Crypt translates: “WHAT YOU ARE, WE WERE; WHAT WE ARE, YOU WILL BE.” The craziest part about these bodies was that a handful of them are older than the United States. We all concluded that Brno is like a “wannabe” tourist city. Although it has its historical sites for tourists, it is not as upbeat or as crowded as Prague.

Bodies in the Crypt

Brno Ladies

On top of everything I’ve also been in class for four hours every day, surprised? Every day we have Czech language with our silly instructor, Katka, followed by at least one history lecture in which the professors vary for. It’s been fun inside and outside of class, and the days are sure flying by! My next post will be about my upcoming field trips to Vienna and Venice, and then my spring break in Rome and Malta. Thanks for reading, love and miss you all!

-Molly

Random Stuff:

• No one waves here. I’m genuinely outgoing and will say “Hi!” or wave to about anyone who passes me, but here hardly any of them respond back.
• I have discovered that I am a morning person! I’m one of the few that are chipper and ready to take on the world at 8AM here.
•  I do not like beer. It’s awful, and I might even be allergic to it. On a couple of occasions I’ve found myself sick after just half of one. Wine is the way to go.
•  All of my answers can be found on Facebook. Funny story though, we had yet another pointless orientation one night after class because the university gave us the wrong student ID cards. Having the wrong identification on one of our train rides resulted in a fine. Secondly, half of our class had been unable to access the internet because the university forgot to mention the day we got here that there was a kit of cables to get internet in our rooms. Lastly, there has been a cafeteria for each dorm that we were just being told about. The guy “orientating” us yelled, “WHY ARE YOU GUYS JUST BRINGING THESE ISSUES TO ME NOW? YOU HAVE ALL BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST FOUR WEEKS. DON’T YOU KNOW THAT NOT EVERYTHING IS HANDED TO YOU? WHY HAVEN’T YOU BEEN ON FACEBOOK FINDING THIS STUFF OUT?” Kind of a joke now that all of our answers can be found on Facebook.