The Bones, and the Cold, and the Bears. Oh My!

Well it has been quite the week here in Praha! Here are some of the major happeneings...

-Alana had her 21st birthday so we went out and celebrated on Sunday. It included a tasty dinner, a disgusting shot (which I intend to bring back to the US), and finally alot of dancing!

-I went to coffee with a random Czech connection. Ready for the tree here? My friend Kaitlyn, her stepdad Jerry, his friend Lin, his stepdaughter Draza. Did everyone follow that? I met Draza last week for coffee. She is 33 and lives here in Prague with her 4 year old daughter and her husband. I was put in contact with her through Jerry and his friend Lin. She is very nice and agreed to meet with me. She brought along her mother and daughter. She was pretty adorable. Her husband came and met us later. They were all very nice and it was fun to meet with some local people. They also asked me if I would be interested in a weekend in the countryside with them!

-I had my first midterm on Friday. I think it went pretty well. I have another one tomorrow and then I have a paper due on Thursday. Fun times lie ahead! But midterms means its almost midterm break. And midterm break means time for TRAVELLING!!!

-The heat in our apartment was finally turned on! On Wednesday at noon it was 39 degrees farenheit here in Prague. At that same time it was 3am in Seattle and it was 48 degrees farenheit. I have the weather on my desktop so I know I'm not exaggerating! It was cold last week! It also sleeted a little bit. Everyone was calling it snow, but being a true Seattleite I know the difference between snow, sleet, rain mixed with snow, and snow mixed with rain. It was a decent sleet or a snow mixed with rain. But we survived are in the high 40's and low 50's this week.

The other events of this weekend are a little bit bigger...

On Friday (after my midterm) I hopped on a train and headed out to Kuntá Hora. This is a small town 72km east of Prague. What is Kutná Hora's claim to fame? The Bone Church. What the heck is a 'bone church'? It is a small church that is completely decorated with bones. Human bones in fact! It was incredible! There were bones everywhere and all of them were incorporated into statues of some kind. And the focal point of the whole place was the chandelier that hung from the center of the room. It was stunning in a weird, morbid, creepy sort of way. The town itself was not that amazing. It was very cold outside and we could not figure out the public transportation. But we were able to wander towards town and then find a small restaurant to eat dinner in. Then, even in the cold, we stuck to my goal of having zmrzlina (ice cream) in every city I go to. I have to test them all out and see who has the best! So far I think Krakow is the winner, but the journey is far from over. There is still much ice cream to be had! After our ice creams we headed back to the train station and got back into Prague.

On Saturday our program took us to Český Krumlov. This is a small town in southern Bohemia. It was a very cute town. They took us on a tour of the castle which was nice. The coolest part about the tour? In about every room there was at least one, if not more, bear rugs. Full bears. I really wanted to bring one home, and they kind of reminded me of the animal skins that Grandma and Grandpa used to have down at the beach house. But bigger and bears and still had their heads. And their eyes which was a little creepy, but cool. Little did I know that it is likely these bear rugs came from the bear pits on the castle grounds! In the 16th century the Rožmberk family decided to put a family of European brown bears on the castle grounds and today you can still see the bears in their bear pit! I was not lucky enough to see these bears, but rest assured I did try! The rest of the day in Český Krumlov was spent having lunch and wandering the small town. It was gorgeous and full of very cute little shops. We played at some playground. We took alot of pictures of random things. We just had a fun time wandering aimlessly. Definately a fun trip.

That essentially covers this past week in a nutshell. I am very excited for the upcoming week. My roommate Katie and I have some exciting travel plans. Want to know where? What fun is it if I just tell you? You can guess, but here is a hint- we are heading west. Oooh the possibilities! I am even more excited because a week from Thursday I will be hanging out with my sister and cousin in Germany! Stay tuned for Three Fraine's taking on Europe! Watch out!

Na víno zemi!

This last weekend I went down to Moravia. This is the southern region of the Czech Republic and is typically referred to as the wine country. I have heard that the people in Moravia have an elitist attitude about themselves and their wine. They say that the people in Prague don't know what good wine is so they send all of their bad wine up here and keep the good wine in Moravia. So basically, if you want good Czech wine you are supposed to go to Moravia.

I left Friday after class and took the bus to Brno. From Brno I had to travel one hour farther south to Mikulov where I was staying for the weekend. Since none of the people I was travelling with had class on Friday they all left in the morning, but being the good student I am I left later. This meant that I would have to figure out getting around Brno and into Mikulov on my own. After spending close to an hour in search of the bus station in Brno I tried to go buy a ticket. I quickly learned that they do things differently here. You don't buy a ticket at the station. When you are getting on the bus you hand your money to the driver and he prints off the ticket for you. Well I was not aware of this so when I went to tell the lady at the window that I wanted a ticket she snapped back at me. I think what she said to me was, "You're in the Czech Republic, we speak Czech. No English!" But I can't really be sure. I tried my best to ask her in Czech where I catch the bus and she told me. At this point I decided to leave and try to figure out the ticket part later. I then had an hour to wander and explore Brno. The city is not that big but when you have a small map it can be hard to find certain sights. I tried to find the Old Town Hall but I passed the street and ended up at the Town Square. This is when I heard the voice of an angel! The square had quite a bit going on. There was a floor hockey court set up with a pee-wee league playing and there were a bunch of new cars sitting around it. As I was standing in the square I heard the song "I've Got To Break Free" coming from some speakers nearby. I went to watch and was thoroughly amused and entertained. He danced, he sang, and he even stopped mid line to pose for cameras and make jokes with people in the audience. Needless to say I enjoyed my time in Brno.

After watching two songs by this handsome devil, I decided to turn back to the bus station and head to Mikulov to meet my friends. Once the bus arrived I got on and told the driver where I was trying to go. He said something in Czech to me and I just replied with "Anglicky" (meaning English) and so he shook his head, mumbled something to himself, and took my money. I grabbed my ticket from his machine and I went to find a seat. As I started to walk away he said to me, "Arrivederci!" I laughed, said thank you, and sat down. The ride to Mikulov went fairly quick and painless. It was when I arried in Mikulov that the problems began to arise. I didn't have a clue which stop I was supposed to get out on. So after debating with myself for quite some time I finally chose one and hopped off the bus. It's a good thing too because I think if I had stayed on much longer I might have ended up in Austria.

Once I got off the bus the search for my friends came. That was tricky but after some wandering around the tiny town I finally found them! We went and had some wine and dessert at one restaurant and then decided to go to the sports bar by our hostel. While we were there we watched Czech Slovakian Superstar. This is essentially the same as American Idol. After that the bar changed the channel to MTV which was showing the Beyonce-Justin Top 20 Countdown. It was really fun to watch that!

On Saturday we got up and were getting ready to check out of our hostel. About a half hour before we were going to leave, the old German lady that ran our hostel brought us a plate full of apple pastries for breakfast. She was such a sweetheart. She spoke no English but was really nice to us and gave us the entire flat in the upstairs of her hostel/house. After we checked out we went and walked around the castle grounds and then went to the edge of town to some caves. The caves were really cool, but I kept bumping into the walls and low ceilings. I was a little concerned that I might bump into something and the whole place would come tumbling down. Luckily I came out alive and the cave is still in tact. Cool parts about the cave: There were bats, there was a mammoth bone, there were some weird statues one of which was a weiner dog, and one of the pockets in the cave had been flooded. After the cave we went back into town and had lunch. Some delicious goulash!

When we finished lunch we went on a hunt for some wine tasting. Unfortunately all the cellars in town were closed due to harvesting. But we still had some good wine throughout the weekend. And a few of us bought bottles to take home to Prague. And we all bought some burčák! Now, you may be wondering, what is burčák? Simply defined it is delicious! It is commonly referred to as the impatient person's wine. It is extremely young and not fully fermented. It is only left to sit for five to ten days and after it is pured you have about four to six hours to drink it before it goes bad. We all bought a liter, which was served to us in big plastic bottles, and we hit the road back to Brno. When we got back to Brno we had about 2 hours to kill so we went in search of Old Town Hall. We found it and this is where we saw the Brno Dragon and the Wagon Wheel. The Brno Dragon is really an alligator hanging from the ceiling that was given to the city by Archprince Matayás. And the wagon wheel was created by a carpenter that said he could cut down a tree, make a wheel, and roll it to Brno from Lednice (40km) all in one day. The townspeople didn't believe him so he set out to prove them wrong. He did it but after that the people of Lednice were convinced he had assistance from the devil so they never bought his work again. Sucks for him. The other crazy thing we saw in Brno- a McWalk. A walk through window for a McDonalds. It was amusing.

After we had wandered as much as we could we went to catch our bus back to Prague and got in late Saturday night. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend. I decided one day when I retire I will move to Mikulov and own a winery. I will sit around drinking wine all day. Any of you are welcome to join me!

Say hello to my new boyfriend!

Here is a little preview to my weekend. I was wandering the streets of Brno when I heard this man's sweet, melodic voice coming from a speaker. Thinking there was a karaoke stage set up I quickly went to watch the stage. It was not karaoke, it was just this man dancing and singing on stage to a small crowd in the middle of the town square. He was quite entertaining and amazing!

The King of All Fests...

I spent this past weekend in Munich, Germany. Why? One simple answer. Oktoberfest! Never in my life did the thought occur to me that one day I would go to Oktoberfest. But let me tell ya folks- it was AMAZING! I am going back someday. You can count on that!

Our trip to Munich started early on Friday morning. I, along with three of my roommates and some other members of my program, got on a bus at 7:30am and headed out of town. This was possibly the best travelling bus ride I have ever had. Granted the only comparisons I have are the Greyhound I took to Ellensburg and the bus I took from Salem to Portland, neither of which were that great. This bus was comfortable, had leg room, gave you free coffee and tea, AND played movies. And the movie selection was FANTASTIC! I was going to listen to my own music and sleep the way there, but I looked up at the screen shortly after leaving Prague and what do I see? Some slow motion grinding in a sepia tone. That's right people- they were showing Dirty Dancing! I, of course, took the opportunity to watch one of my all time favorite movies. After watching Patrick and Jennifer I thought, "Ok, now it would make me day if they showed Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights right now." I knew this was wishful thinking so I put my iPod back in and was contemplating sleeping again. As I was talking to Hailey who was sitting across the aisle from me, she asked me if I knew what movie they were showing. I looked to the screen as the film was starting and knew I recognized it but just couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then after a few more minutes I realized exactly what movie it was. Not Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, but Mamma Mia! I was ecstatic! Another one of my favorites! By the time that movie had ended and they started showing another movie I decided that the three hours of sleep I had the night before would not be adequate for the weekend ahead so I decided to skip the third movie and sleep. It wasn't a musical anyways so it couldn't have been that good.

Once we got into Munich we had to go find where we were staying and drop our bags off. There was glitch number one. We were staying with some girl we had found on CouchSurfing and she had called us to let us know that she had left to go to Oktoberfest so we wouldn't be able to get into her apartment. Although she did tell us we would be able to store our bags, for free, at a hostel down the street. We weren't so sure about this plan so we decided to go with our friends to their CouchSurfing apartment and drop our stuff there. That was glitch number two. After going on a mini journey to find this place we decided it was too far out of our way to keep it there so we went to the hostel. And then came glitch number three. The hostel told us we couldn't keep our stuff there since we weren't guests at the hostel. However they did tell us that if we went back to the Metro station we would be able to keep our bags there. So that is what we did.

After dropping our bags we met up with our friends and wandered about the city. We didn't really have a map or any ideas of what there was to see so it was alot of wandering down streets and guessing what things might be. But still, the parts of Munich we did see were quite nice. We found a small pub where we had dinner. Afterwards we found a gelato stand and got some dessert. I love ice cream a bit too much. We then all went our separate ways and headed home. My roommates and I went to grab our bags and got onto the tram to find our apartment. We started talking to people on the tram and then realized we had missed our stop. But the guys we had been talking to told us about this hostel they were staying at and said we should come hang out. So we did. The "hostel" was really a giant tent with about 160 bunk beds set up. Next to that tent was a slightly smaller one that was empty. And then there was a big field for people to pitch tents at. We decided to see if they had room since it would be cheaper than where we would be staying and it turned out they had a little bit of room in the smaller empty tent. So they gave each of us a sleeping mat (that was rainbow colored) and a few thick blankets and we joined the group of people sleeping on the floor! It was very fun and everyone at this place was extremely nice.

We got up early on Saturday and headed to Oktoberfest. We ended up meeting this mom and her two daughters while we were in line to get into the Hofbräu Tent. The mom ended up getting all seven of us in through a kitchen door and then we found a table full of Italians that let us all squeeze in with them. We were set! They had just started serving the first steins of beer at at 9.30am we were served ours! We had an amazing time standing and dancing on the tables and benches, making friends with people that had come from all over, and drinking beer! I really loved it. The most memorable moment for me came in the afternoon. At about noon we went to see a few friends that were on the upper level of the tent. Shortly after going up there the security gaurds were clearing out the entire section and not allowing anyone to go downstairs. We all had to go outside. We then were put back into a line to get back in. We begged the gaurds to let us in since our purses were all at the table with the other people in our program but they refused to believe us. After a little while of waiting in line I had to pee. I thought I would try to hold it until I got inside so I didn't lose my spot in line but it got to an urgency level. So I got out of line and found the restroom in the Hofbräu beer garden. As in all women's restrooms there was a line that was extremely long. So I decided to go find another one. This meant I would have to leave the Hofbräu altogether and would likely have to fight to get back inside the beergarden alone. This was not acceptable since my purse was still inside the tent. So I went to a security gaurd and explained my situation and he let me out to use the restroom. Well I couldn't find the women's room and I was about to die so I ran into the men's room. This consisted of 4 long rows of urinals. And not individual ones. They resembled a metal industrial sink, but lower to the ground and stretching for a few meters. So I decided to pop a squat at the urinal and hope that the place didn't fill up. I had a few guests come and go as I was there. Most made comments in other languages but one spoke English and simply said "Well that is a solution." And that it was. I went back to the friendly security gaurd and he let me slip back in and I was left to fight my way into the tent. I decided to go try to find another entrance which is when I found another nice security gaurd who spoke English and I explained to him that my purse, wallet, ID, passport, and everything I had was inside the tent and I had been kicked out. He asked nothing more and let me in through a kitchen door. So I was reunited with my friends and my belongings! The rest of Oktoberfest was spent hanging out with people, attempting to sing the German drinking songs that were playing, and making friends. It was an awesome giant party!

We took an overnight bus back to Prague that night and got back to our apartment around 6am on Sunday. It gave us plenty of time to recover and relax and get ready for the week ahead!

Poland and The Pope

This post is long overdue.

Last weekend CEA took us to Poland. We took an overnight train Friday night and arrived in Krakow on Saturday morning. They put us on a bus and after a quick breakfast at our hotel we went to Auschwitz. As we were boarding the bus I realized I didn't have Rick Steves with me. So I jumped off the bus but they had already locked up our stuff. So I got back on the bus but as I was walking up the stairs my flip flop got caught on a step and broke. And, being the brilliant packer I am, I didn't have any extra shoes with me. Luckily, three of my four roommates have the same size feet as me and two of them had packed extra shoes. So we went to our luggage, got me some shoes, and I got my Rick Steves!

Auschwitz was very cool. I'm glad I got the opportunity to go. We had a tour guide that led us all over the camp. We started at Auschwitz 1 and saw different cell blocks that had many of the things found when the camp was liberated on display. Things like hairbrushes, shoes, luggage, and hiar. Lots and lots of hair that was shaved off the heads of people from the camp after they had been killed. We also saw some of the cells in the "Death Block" and we saw one of the shower areas and crematoriums. We then went to Birkenau and had a brief tour of one of the barracks and "bathrooms" that they had there. This is where the less than amazing part of the trip came. We had a very short tour of this huge camp and had close to no time afterwards to explore it on our own. But otherwise, it was still an amazing experience and well worth it.

After Auschwitz we got back on the bus and went to Krakow to check into our hotel. We got settled in there and then I headed to Old Town Krakow with some other girls from the program. We got separated pretty quickly so I toured around with two friends. We saw a few different churches including St. Francis Basillica. We also saw the Archbishop's Palace where Pope John Paul II lived while he was archbishop and while he was the pope on his visits to Krakow. We walked towards the Old Town Square where the Main Market Square was and lots of other shopping. We wandered around there a little bit and then decided to go find some food for dinner. On our way we got convinced by someone named "Ice-Man" to take a golf cart tour of the Jewish quarter with him. He was quite the character. It was very fun. After the tour we told him we wanted to find some dinner so he dropped us off at a Polish restaurant that he said he goes to all the time. It was mighty tasty. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and met back up with people from our program to go check out the Polish nightlife. It is not so hoppin'. Although, we didn't dance to the YMCA twice as well as a nice medly of other oldies. But no one was doing the YMCA except for us. It was still fun.

On Sunday we had our official tour of the city. This started with going to Wawel Castle and going inside the cathedral as well as part of the castle itself. It was very pretty and full of artwork. We then wandered through the streets hearing little bits here and there about things and ended at St. Mary's Church. This was absolutely beautiful. The altarpiece was completely carved out of wood and was stunning. I could have sat in there for hours. At this point the tour had ended and so we were left to do whatever we wanted. So Katie and I wandered around Main Market Square some more and then headed back to our hotel to listen to a speaker that our program had arranged for us.

Mr. Bernard Offen lived in the Jewish ghetto of Krakow and survived 4 different concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was a very interesting guy and we were able to spend two hours sitting with him and asking him questions. He lives in California but spends 4-6 months each year in Krakow to help with his healing process. He also makes films about his life. He, along with his two brothers, were the only ones from his family to survive. They both also live in the US and are both writers.

After hearing Bernard we got on the bus for the last time and went to have a traditional Polish dinner. We had some mushroom soup; Polish rice; chicken cutlets; a "mixed salad" that consisted of a pile of shredded carrots, sauerkraut, beets, and a pickle; potato pancakes; and pierogis. After dinner I got the best gelato since I got to Europe and then we headed to the train station to take an overnight train back to Prague.

Poland was great. I really enjoyed Krakow and I'm glad my program took us there because otherwise I don't know that I would have gone on my own.

A normal person, after taking an overnight train and spending a weekend out of town, would have gotten on the metro at 7 am and gone home to sleep. I on the otherhand have never been all that normal. I got on the metro and went the opposite direction of home so that I could get on a bus and go to Stara Boleslav. Why, you may ask, did I decided to spend my Monday off from school going to a small town 30 km from Prague? Pope Benedict XVI people! That is why! Monday September 28th was St. Wenceslas Day in the Czech Republic so all schools were cancelled and The Pope decided to take a trip to the Czech Republic for the holiday weekend. He flew in on Saturday and spent some time in Prague with the president and his wife. On Sunday he went to Brno and on Monday he went to Stara Boleslav, where Wenceslas was murdered by his brother, for a special mass. I went to the mass in this giant field along with hundreds of thousands of people from all over. I didn't understand any of the mass because it was all in either Czech or Latin but it was still very cool. And I got to see the Popemobile! It was pretty sweet and a great way to end the weekend.

Sorry this post is so late. School got the better of me this week. If you are part of the Zuelke or Fraine family you probably got the email/facebook message about my homework assignment. I turned it all in Thursday night. Six pages of facts covering over 100 people. If you need a way to kill a tree or two, just borrow my family for a family tree assignment. You could wipe out a rainforest with us!