Praha!

Finally here is my post about Prague! Sorry about the delay. I had a big math test this weekend so I was basically a hermit last week and I wasn't allowed to do anything that wasn't eating, running, or studying. But I went to Prague just over a week ago now and met my friend from high school, Amy, there!

Friday (March 8th)
I left my apartment at like 7:30 which was the earliest I've been up in a long time. It was early. But I had to catch a bus to the airport. Everything went so smoothly and the flight was ultra empty. I had no one in my row or immediately in front of or behind me. It was simply marvelous. Now getting to the hostel was a bit of an adventure. The hostel we were staying at was recommended by Charlotte (see London post) and everything looked great online. It also said online it's easy to get to from the airport. Apparently to Czech people easy is a twenty minute bus ride, two different subways, a tram ride, and a ten minute walk. There were just so many directions! But it was really inexpensive which was a nice change of pace. After a slight detour taking the tram in the wrong direction, I made it safely to the hostel which was as great as the website described. It was definitely geared toward a young crowd and was very welcoming. I got there about 6 hours before Amy did so I had plenty of free time to go exploring and check out the city. I found some cool things. Firstly, Prague is much more dirty than any city in Sweden. There was a lot of trash on the streets and graffiti. Everywhere. I first ventured to the top of a hill where I found a fantastic lookout and the National Monument.

Graffiti! And my lookout tower.

View from the lookout. If you look really closely you can see an Allianz building. I thought that was cool. It also reminded me that Allianz is a German based company so European branches make sense.

Part of the National Monument on Vitkov Hill.

Then I wandered the other direction toward what I thought was the city center. Turns out, I was wrong but I did find some cool things. One of which being the Žižkov Television Tower. From far away it looks a little Brave New World-esque with the silver and general weird shape. Looking a bit closer, there appeared to be giant ants or something attached to the building. With even closer examination, I discovered that they were actually babies. That's right. Prague has a weird TV tower with babies crawling up the side. 

TV Tower

In Prague, the city planners like to put things on top of hills so walking was exhausting. Up and down, up and down. Finally after a few hours of walking up and down and all around Prague, I headed back to the hostel. I met a few German girls that were so great and had just spent the whole week in Prague.
The hostel had a free dinner of pasta so obviously, I took advantage of that. Finally, Amy arrived! Since she spent the whole day travelling, we just hung out in the hostel. There was a bar in the basement so we went down there for a beer and met others staying in the hostel! It was super fun. We called it an early night because we had a HUGE day ahead of us. Since we were only in Prague from Friday to Sunday, we tried to see everything on Saturday.

Saturday (March 9th)
We got up and walked to the Old Town Square. On our walk there we stopped, as was suggested, at Bohemia Bagel. It was a fantastically filling breakfast. And so cheap! Only like $5 for a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Here are our bagels with hot chocolate. Possibly the best hot chocolate I've ever had. 

We finally made it to the Old Town Square to catch a free walking tour of the city. Free tour? Yes. The guides only make money from tips. Our tour guide was the best. She was an American that has been living in Prague for the past 4 years. Her name was Andrea. The tour began at the Astronomical Clock Tower.

Clock Tower

The clock tower has lots going on. The top face has an astronomical dial which shows the place of the sun and moon in the sky. For all you horoscope fans out there, it also includes a zodiac ring. Behind that there is an actual clock face with Roman numerals. 

The lower face on the clock is a calendar. It includes pictures for each month which represent a different task in the harvest season. Outside of the circles, every day of the year is listed along with a name. This creates Czech Name Days. It's basically another reason to celebrate a person. Traditionally, people give you flowers, buy you drinks, and wish you a happy name day when your day comes around each year! Here is a Wikipedia page that has the Name Days listed. Find you name, celebrate your name day! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_days_in_the_Czech_Republic

Also in the Old Town Square we saw Church of Mother of God before Týn which dates back to the 14th century. If you look closely at the two towers at the top of the church you will see that they are not identical. Andrea told us this was intentional. The towers are supposed to be different. One represents Adam and the other Eve. Adam is on the right and is a little bigger and masculine. While Eve is on the right, skinnier and more feminine. 

The church poking out in the background is the Church of Mother of God before Tyn.

We got to see the Art Nouveau Municipal House. On the bottom floor of the Municipal House, there is a restaurant. This is the restaurant in the movie Triple X with Vin Diesel. Connected to that is the Powder Tower which is of Gothic style. It doesn't exactly fit with the Municipal House but Prague has strange architecture (see television tower). It was used to store gunpowder in the 17th century which is how it got its name. We saw the Jewish Quarter and the Old New Synagogue. Since we were touring on a Saturday, the Jewish quarter was rather quiet. We saw the Estates Theater which is where Mozart conducted the world premiere of his opera Don Giovanni. We also saw Wenceslas Square! The Czech Republic is a funny place because even though there are ancient buildings dating back hundreds of years, the country is only 20 years old. Also because of the many different influences that have been in power of the area, Prague has very unique and somewhat mismatched architecture. You can tell that looking through the pictures.

Powder Tower

Municipal House

Wenceslas Square

 After our tour, we wandered the streets on our own to find the Charles' Bridge, the Prague Castle, and the Lennon Wall. Of course, since it was a Saturday, it was PACKED with tourists but still fantastic. As you can tell from my pictures, the weather wasn't that great but we wanted to see as much as we could! Construction of the bridge was started under the rule of King Charles VI, the namesake of the bridge. 

The entrance to the Charles' Bridge

From the bridge, we could see the Prague Castle waaaaaay up on a hill.

We then made our way to the Lennon Wall. Since the murder of John Lennon in 1980, the wall has been a political focus for Czech youth with messages of peace and love. There are a fair number of lyrics from Beatles' songs on the wall. The communist Czech secret police would whitewash the wall after messages and graffiti was painted on the wall but it was always repainted.

We found a love lock bridge! There were some on the Charles' Bridge but it was too crowded to get a decent picture of it but we found this little guy with tons of locks on it.

Our Czech Dinner!

 For an early dinner we went to a restaurant suggested by Andrea. I had dumplings, Czech beer, cabbage and sauerkraut (I guess I like sauerkraut now!) and pork with bacon bits. It as all delicious and extremely filling.

We went back to the hostel to clean up and prepare for our big night! We had heard about the Prague Pub Crawl. At the first pub we met some other Americans that were studying in France. At the first pub there was an open bar so we had lots of free drinks! At each of the following pubs, we got to skip the lines and we got a free welcome drink. Our final destination on the pub crawl was 

Karlovy Lázně which is central Europe's largest night club. We got to skip the line! 

Karlovy Lázně

Inside was crazy! There were five floors of different types of music. It was huge!

We obviously had to check out the Ice Pub. 

They provided jackets and gloves!

The Ice Pub was definitely a highlight but not as cool as the Ice Bar at the Ice Hotel. So much ice. Somewhere in the giant mega club, I lost my phone. But some nice Dutch boy found it and is mailing it to me here in Uppsala. 

Sunday (March 10)

Sunday was a travel day. I had a flight a little after noon and since it took about an hour to get to the airport, that killed the morning and didn't allow us to see anything other than the public transport back to the airport. 

Prague was fantastic! I had high expectations because everyone has talked it up so much but even though I lost my egg chap stick and my phone, I still had a great time! I'm so glad I got to meet up with Amy and hang out in central Europe. 

Jann and Julie arrive in less than 3 days and then we head west to Gothenburg! 

TTFN (Ta ta for now!)

Video from Lapland!

As promised, here's a video from my week in Lapland! 

Sledding at Narvikfjellet!

I've lost my Tech Services abilities to fix all the computers! I cannot upload the dog sledding video at this time. I'll try a couple more things and hopefully get it up soon!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Lost in Lapland!

I just got home from the most fantastic trip to Lapland which is a region in northern Scandinavia and Russia occupied by the Sami people. The Sami is the northern most indigenous people of Europe. Most of Lapland lies north of the Arctic circle. A majority of the Sami people today herd reindeer. So here's an in-depth account of my journey to Lapland!

Day 1: Saturday March 2nd -

We departed from Uppsala around 2:30 in the afternoon. I went to Lapland with two of my Dutch friends, Dieuwertje and Silke, and my Aussie friend Lana. Nothing exciting happened. It was about an 18 hour bus ride so there was napping, reading, games, and a couple movies. Max burgers for dinner! I don't think I've mentioned Max Burgers yet. It's a Swedish fast food restaurant similar to McDonald's except it is not as international. But they have a similar menu - burgers, fries, shakes, chicken nuggets, etc. The Max Burger is their specialty and it has a special sauce on it. I will need to stock up on the special Max sauce before I go home. It is so good! I think it's just a seasoned mayo but it is delicious. And we drove through the night.

Day 2: Sunday March 3rd -

Arrive in Kiruna around 7:30am. We had breakfast at our hostel and bundled up for an adventurous morning. We got to go snowmobiling and dog sledding! I had never been snowmobiling before but it's very similar to jet skiing except you have less freedom if you're following tracks. It was really hard to try and go out of the tracks. We wanted to go faster but of course, we had to go the same pace as everyone else in the group. It was still so awesome! I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Me and Lana

We were lucky - it was absolutely gorgeous! Cold but gorgeous!

I want a snowmobile!

Lana, me, Dieuwertje, and Silke

Then we got to go dog sledding! The dogs were surprisingly strong - they looked so small and scrawny when we were petting them before our ride but they could pull all four of us and our driver.

Our dogs!

More sled dogs!

After an eventful morning we returned to our hostel to start a walking tour of the city of Kiruna. Kiruna is an old iron mining town with the world's largest underground iron mine. We also saw the Kiruna Church which was built to be nondenominational so all would be welcome and in Sami style with the triangular shape. There are 12 gold statues that sit on the roof of the church and each represents a different emotion from happy to angry to sad. Fun fact: Because of the lucrative mining business, Kiruna is slowly being relocated. The iron mines are so profitable that it is worthwhile to relocate most of the city. Eventually the relocation will include the church and the first buildings in Kiruna.

Kiruna Church

The Church is made completely of wood.

My camera battery severely suffered in the cold weather. The temperature in Lapland did not go above -11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit). I'm slowly getting the hang of this whole temperature conversion thing! Because of the cold, my camera battery drained really quickly so I don't have any other pictures from our walking tour.

That night we went out to a small bar in Kiruna but the drinking age was 23 so we just had tea and talked! We went home early to get a good night of sleep but of course, we missed the northern lights! The rest of the group stayed out a little later than us and saw phenomenal northern lights.

Day 3: Monday March 4th -

We had to do grocery shopping for the rest of our trip on Monday morning because the places we were going were so small that they didn't have a grocery store nearby! Just afternoon we departed for the Ice Hotel! The Ice Hotel is a hotel made entirely of ice and snow. The Ice Hotel in Sweden is in the village of Jukkasjärvi which is Sami and means meeting point. It was the world's first Ice Hotel and is rebuilt every year and stands from around December until mid April. All the ice used in the hotel is taken from the Torne River which runs just behind the Ice Hotel. The ice used each year is actually ice cut from the river in the previous March. So the ice used in the Ice Hotel I saw was actually frozen last winter and cut from the river in March 2012 and then stored in a cooler adjacent to the river for 8 months until construction of the 2013 Ice Hotel began in November 2012. The ice is used to make the beds, chairs, pillars, walls, and even glasses in the hotel. The Ice Hotel this year includes an Ice Bar, a Chapel, a reception area, a main hall, and 65 rooms that people actually stay in! The Ice Hotel is covered in snow because snow acts as an insulator for the ice. They keep the hotel at a balmy -5 degrees Celsius to keep the hotel from melting. Guests at the hotel also have warm accommodation available if they get too cold in the night. And of course, after checking out all the unique rooms and the Chapel, we headed to the Ice Bar where they serve all the drinks in glasses made of ice! The water of the Torne river is extremely clean and clear, which is why they use it for the Ice Hotel, and you can also drink it which is why it can be used for the glasses.

The arch to the Ice Hotel

The Outside of the Ice Hotel

In one of the rooms!

The main hall

In the main hall

Another room - Each of the suites was different. and all of them were extremely intricate. 

At the Ice Bar with our ice glasses!

Each year, the Ice Hotel is remade and it has the same general architecture because they use the same molds for the frame year after year but different artists are hired to decorate and carve to create the artwork of the hotel. It is so crazy how much work goes into this hotel that is just going to disappear in 5 months. In mid-April, when it gets too warm, they pull out all the man-made items in the hotel such as wiring for lights, smoke detectors (yes, according to Swedish law, every hotel room needs a smoke detector regardless of what the hotel is made of), and mattresses, block off the ice hotel, and let it melt back into the river. The Ice Hotel was astounding. So pretty and detailed.

We then hopped back on the bus to go hang out with some reindeer and some Sami people. We got to feed the reindeer.

Lana and Didgi feeding the reindeer

Reindeer reindeer reindeer!

After that we spoke with a Sami woman who told us more about the Sami people. The Sami people consider the year to have 8 seasons, each season is dictated by the reindeer they herd. Fun fact: There is not a single wild reindeer in Sweden. All the reindeer in Sweden are owned by a Sami person. In June every year, the reindeer's ears are marked so the Sami can tell who owns which reindeer. It is also offensive to ask a Sami person how many reindeer they own. Owning reindeer shows wealth so asking that would be the same as asking "how much money do you have in your bank account?" She also prepared a little snack for us of crackers and reindeer meat and a reindeer drink which was made by cooking all sorts of reindeer bits including the bones in water. I tried both! The reindeer meat wasn't too bad! The drink was not my favorite thing. I think the hardest part was not knowing what was floating around in my cup.

We hoped back on the bus to head toward Abisko National Park which was where our hostel for the next two nights was. We got settled and had an awesome barbecue and bonfire while we waited for the northern lights. We saw a bit of the northern lights but they weren't very strong so no pictures :(

Day 4: Tuesday March 5th -

We went to Norway! We hopped on the bus to drive to the Norwegian town of Narvik. We stopped a couple times for photo opps. It was cloudy and overcast but still amazing to see! I really enjoyed the bus ride to and from Norway because there were so many pine trees covered in snow so it looked like we were driving up in northern Minnesota. It was lovely. Norway has more pine trees in that area because of the moderated climate due to the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Sweden in the north near Abisko is considered an Arctic dessert because it receives very little precipitation. Narvik and Abiko are only about 50 miles apart but have vastly different vegetation.

I got to see the Fjords of Norway!!

The water doesn't freeze because of the Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream

History Lesson: Narvik was the location of many battles during wars because it was a passage to the ocean for Scandinavia. During World War II it was occupied by Germans and the Norwegians did not like that one bit. If a Norwegian was riding on a city bus and German came and sat down next to them, the Norwegian would stand up to avoid sitting next to the German. This caused the Germans to put a law into effect that made it illegal to stand on a bus when there are open seats on a bus. We then took a little cable car up the mountain to walk down! We did not realize that it would be such a scary task. We did know that we were going to walk down a mountain but still, it was very steep. We ended up sliding down! And then walking walking on the wrong path so we ended up walking on some icy road that did not bring us back to the bus. But we figured it out and so we were no longer lost in Lapland! 

We rode the bus back to Abisko, made dinner, and prepared for our Arctic swim! It was absolutely freezing but so much fun! We sat in the sauna for about half an hour then ran out in the cold wearing just our swimsuits and boots to jump in a hole cut out in the frozen lake. It was so exhilarating, we did it twice! The temperature outside was around -16 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrr. 

Here's the hole we jumped in!

Day 5: March 6th -

In the morning we had free time to eat breakfast and pack up and then we had a short walk around the national park. We saw the start of a 400 kilometer hiking/nordic ski trail which is apparently a well known trail. We then had more free time so we obviously went back to check out the sauna and ice hole that we jumped in the night before. The water had frozen over on top. We ran around on the lake for a bit taking pictures. The view was incredible because the lake is surrounded by mountains and the sun was out and the skies were blue!

On the lake!

Lapland Adventure Team!
Didgeridoo, Silke, Siana, and Lana

We then hopped back on the bus for our 18 hour ride home. It was a long trip. We watched Bridget Jones and the Avengers, had a trivia competition, and slept. We made it home to Uppsala just before 8am on March 7th. 

All in all, Lapland was an awesome trip. I was expecting the first day to be the best but each day following was surprisingly fun. I'm so glad we got to go north for a few days!

I'm trying to upload a video from sledding in Norway and from our dog sledding but it is taking ages so I'll have to try again when my computer isn't being so pokey. 

Looooooong posting! That's all. I'm off to Prague in the morning! So much travel! Later Gators!

International Gasque

So it's been a while since I've posted it's because I haven't done anything exciting recently. Except the International Gasque!

First things first, the International Gasque!
On Feb. 22 I went to my first gasque! It's basically a super fancy dinner with singing, entertainment, and just general silliness. It was so fun to get all dressed up for a night out. The gasque was only for international students, obviously, so it was nice because they taught us everything we need to know for future gasques. To give you an idea of the fancy level of the food, I'll explain our meal. We had a cheese pie as a starter with caviar and sour cream. Weird combination. I think I only like cheese and sour cream together if it's on a baked potato. But I tried caviar! It was gross. For our main entree we had a very rare and tender porter marinated beef fillet with cheesy potatoes. So the potatoes weren't that fancy but they were delicious. And for dessert we had white chocolate mousse. Along with the fancy food, we had about 6 different types of alcohol throughout dinner.

I mentioned the singing. The Swedes enjoy singing at events like this and once a song is complete, it is customary to cheers with everyone around you and then take a sip. The songs are all in Swedish, so everyone struggled to sing them but it was fun! It was all silly and

I don't have many pictures of the gasque. (I really need to get better at taking pictures!) But here are a couple!

Me and Signe

Dieuwertje, me, Silke, Lana, and Ben

Short and sweet post. Keep a lookout for my Lapland post, coming soon!