Town Hopping

            This last week we started off on our last group trip to a couple of small towns in the Czech Republic including, Litomysl, Kutna Hora, and Cesky Krumlov. We went what I would call town hopping in this 5 day span.

            We spent our first day/night in Litomysl. This was a cool experience for us because we got to stay in the castle in this town as well as take a tour of their beautiful church and learn a little about the history of this town. We also got to enjoy various art structures that were unique for being in this small town. A few of us decided we were going to climb up this bus, which looked like a slide had been put right in the middle. When Megan and I decided to go climb it we got all the way to the top and got yelled at to get down. However, it was still a lot of fun and we ended up getting pictures and sliding down. That night we didn’t end up doing much but a bunch of us ended up just hanging out in the hotel. This is when mid-conversation Megan realized her and I have a matching mole, we decided this meant we were long lost sisters.

            The next day we got up and headed to our next destination Kutna Hora. On our way there we made a pit stop to visit this little town, called Lezaky that was destroyed after the Nazis discovered some people in the village had ties to the those who killed one of their higher ups, Heydrich. The Nazis did not just go after the few involved but the WHOLE village and leveled the place. Today stands a beautiful memorial to remember what had happened there. A couple of us had noted how ironic it was that this place was so peaceful for the tragedy that happened there.

            When we finally got to Kutna Hora, we got to tour St Barbara’s Cathedral, which was beautiful. However, it does resemble a majority of the other churches we saw. The one cool thing about this church is the significance of the name. St Barbara is the mining saint and holds close ties to the history of Kutna Hora for the longest time Kutna Hora was a hot bed for silver mining. The next day we even got to tour the silver mines in town before we left to our next destination. The silver mines were awesome and we got to dress up and maneuver our way through the narrow and short passages of the mines.

            We then headed towards Cesky Krumlov, but before getting there we stopped at Budweiser for a quick tour. This should not be confused with America’s Budweiser, they are two separate companies who happen to be disputing over the Budweiser name. In fact Europe’s Budweiser cannot send their product to America and vice versa. However, this was a fun experience where we got to see the whole process of how their beer is made.

            When we finally got to Cesky Krumlov we were given the evening to relax and do some exploring of our own. Cassie, Emily, and I got to enjoy watching USA hockey beat the Czech Republic team in a shoot-out in our hostel bar. We being American of course cheered loud and were not very popular and got out of there as fast as possible and head to find something to eat. After eating we spent the rest of the night just hanging out in the hostel and I did some math homework for my classes back in the states.

            The next morning we headed out to tour the Castle in town, which again was very ornate and showed just how much wealth one family should not have. It’s almost sickening to think that people had this much money. One item could probably pay for all of my schooling plus more, which is honestly sad. After our tour we headed out to lunch and got some good pizza before some of our group went on a rafting trip in the cold. I, on the other hand took a 2 and a half hour nap. At the end of the night we wrapped up our trip with our last group dinner, it was honestly a great way to end our week time together. Good food and good company.