Jessica in Prague

My legs are tired... here's why:

This last weekend we had two field trips outside of Prague. Me being the inattentive college student that I am, I do not know the names of all the little towns we went to, so don't expect too much detail in that department!


Saturday we all went to Cesky Raj... Czech Paradise. I always thought paradise would be warmer, but what do I know? Anyway, there was a castle involved, up a hill of course (more like a small mountain), but the main attraction is the surrounding forests, rocks, landscape-age, trails, etc. Our first bus was late due to icy road conditions, that should have been a sign. We finally get there and we hiked up and around this "hill" for a good two hours. It wasn't too cold out, so that was nice. Great views of the surrounding lands, very pretty. Had to use my inhaler. The best part were the icy hills. We had to slide down them on our butts, including this really skinny crevice area... it was a blast! Never had more fun acting like a 12 year old!

We get back to the bus to go to lunch and find out it's stuck. Some cars are blocking it in and it can't manuever well on the ice. Well, our muscle-men move the cars out of the way, and we all start pushing the bus and putting twigs under the tires. All to no avail. We finally just walk down the hill to a restaurant to wait out the tow-truck. 35 hungry people descended onto this tiny little restaurant, and it took us over three hours to get everyone fed and back on the bus... we went home and laughed about it all, knowing it was probably going to be worse the next day.

It wasn't too bad Sunday. We set out to a historical settlement somewhere, and then on to Krivoklat Castle. First we made a few pit stops to small villages with pretty architecture like this one haunted church with no ceiling. We arrive at the bottom (of course, the buses can't go up the steep hills, but we can!) of the historical settlement and start climbing. And I mean climbing... up at least a 60-70 degree incline with no railings or path, or good shoes (I asked the guide ahead of time if there was going to be any hiking, he said not too much... they have a lovely sense of humor here, have I mentioned that?). We get to the top, and there is nothing there, but a rather lousy view of some hops fields (do they come in fields?). The guide mentioned something about having seen Rambo and knows that Americans can do anything. We're all standing at the top of the hill taking pictures of the stupid view simply to get something out of that ridiculous climb... cursing under our out-of-breath, and dreaming of warm, dry socks. It only hurt for a minute, really! Less hiking than the day before, but worse because of the steeper incline, and anti-climatic summit.

Haunted old abandoned church in some town	The stupid view at the top of the Mt. Everest that we climbed
Krivoklat Castle	My new Czech boyfriend. Now, he's got some machismo.

Again the best part was going back down... the greatest looking sledding hill ever! Of course, there was too much snow to actually slide down on our butts, so instead we all did the kamikaze run down it... good times! Had lunch at a decent hour (grilled chicken with ham and cheese on top of it, in gravy, with bread, coleslaw, and croquettes... little potato balls... YUMMY!). Got to Krivoklat Castle late, thus could not actually go in. The castle itself was not that exhilirating (to such an avid traveler as myself! seen one, seen 'em all! no, just compared to others, it wasn't in my top five, let's say). The city surrounding it was marvelous, though. Right out of a fairy-tale. I must commend the bus driver for manuevering around all the turns... that takes talent. Finished off the tour with a look at some frozen river where I got some good sunset shots. BTW, all my photos can be seen on snapfish.com. I don't know how you would view my pics... but some have been able to figure it out, others are having trouble.

Now I'm waiting to go have some hot chocoalte, after polishing off half a chocolate bar with strawberry yogurt filling already. Had one of those off days... miss the tram, really cold out, got to sleep late, bad lunch, bad reading/emails... but I digress. Mandy has been cheering me up like the fantastically wonderful roommate that she is, she is slowly converting me into an Idahoan, maybe even a Mormon. I'm going to come home saying "squoze", and calling movies "shows". Bye all! Sorry so long!