The Skeleton Church in Kutna Hora

Kutna Hora isn't your typical spot to go to while traveling through Europe. And it was because of Contiki that I actually went here, and was pretty happy I did too!

Kutna Hora isn't far from Prague, on the way to Vienna (by bus). And what it's known for is the Sedlec Ossuary, the skeleton church.

What is a skeleton church you might ask? It pretty much explains itself... It's a church filled with skeletons!! What happened here, in Kutna Hora, was back in the early 16th century the grave yard was overfilled and more room was needed. So it was ordered to dig up old graves (creepy!) and with the remaining skeletons they were placed in the church.

Some people were a little creeped out by all of the skeletons, I sort of thought it was cool. Klutzy me, I set off the alarm because I got too close to take a picture (The first picture above, oopse!)

The Food Festival in Prague!

When we got to Prague, we had a little time before dinner, but sure enough we were starving. Our guide showed us to the center of the town where the astronomical clock was about to strike the hour and we watched the show.

After we set off for a little snack before dinner, which we were in

luck that there was a food festival in the town square of Prague the week we were there! There were all sort of different stands that had cheese, candy, chocolate, different pastries, and other yummy delicious treats!

First we got this potato with sauerkraut snack that was much sweeter and filled with spices than we had expected! Then we got this pastry that was wrapped with cinnamon and was so delicious! I also sampled a few cheese throughout my time in Prague, I often came back here to get a few snacks here and there.

If only every where could have a food festival like this!

Pictures from Top to Bottom: 1. The Yummy pastries being baked! 2. This guy at one of the meat stands had a pretty good sense of humor, I hope you can see the knife! 3. LOTS OF CHEESE! When we took this picture, my friend Ellen said "Say Cheese!" 4. The Potatoes cooking in a ginormous wok! 5. Ellen, myself, and Chantel enjoying a pastry!

Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau

It was important to me to go to Auschwitz and Auchwitz Birkenau during this trip to Europe. As I am Jewish, it is apart of my people's history, even though I have no direct family members that were actually involved in the Holocaust (all of my family was already in America by that point, but if you go to my more distant family there were those that weren't here).

Once back in high school, I had almost done a March of the Living tour with my youth group, which goes throughout Europe to the concentrations camps and then after a week of doing that goes to Israel for a week to celebrate the New Year there. I got myself pretty excited for it, but I can't remember why I didn't follow through. But I knew that one day I would go to Europe and I would see some camps (I also had the chance to see Sachenhausen outside of Berlin).

I didn't just pick Krakow for Auschwitz. I had picked it also because it was supposed to be a beautiful city filled with culture, have a lively night life, and there were supposed to be some good bagels there. When I was looking up hostels, I found one that set up daily tours Auschwitz, so based on that and other reviews I figured that this hostel was a good one.

The bus ride was over an hour long to Auschwitz. When we got there we were broken up to two groups (Don't worry, I got to stay with my friend, Jess) and we were assigned a tour guide. Because it was so crowded, we had headphones so that we could hear our guide. That was something I was very surprised with, how crowded it was. It was very quiet, but often hard to walk through the buildings and stairways because it was so packed.

Everyone gets hit differently, is what I'm told. Jess and I were both pretty effected by this one room that showed all of the hair that was cut off from the victims. It was behind this glass and it went on for too long. The other one that really got to me was the room that was filled with kitchen supplies that were taken from the Jewish people and other victims before entering Auschwitz. I know how many my house hold has, and we have a lot. Our's don't equal to the smallest percent of what was there! They had many different rooms filled with different belongings of the victims. They had these in "Canada Buildings," and they called them that because Canada was thought of as a good place.

After this part of the tour, we went over to Auschwitz Birkenau. Because it was bigger, we didn't need the headphones, and it wasn't as crowded. We went into some of the housing that still stood and then walked the way to the memorial, which is the only unchanged part of Auschwitz Birkenau (In Auschwitz there is a "main lobby") as it is a resting site for thousands of people. The walk was pretty long, it didn't look long but once I was walking that you notice that without good shoe that it's not an easy walk.

Something I couldn't get over was how it was such a beautiful day. It was late October, the sun was shining, and it was probably about 60 degrees fahrenheit (15-16 C was what we were getting at that time). I never think of the concentration camps to ever have a beautiful day, but when I think about it now, they probably had many sunny days with lovely weather. I think that was the saddest part and that part that will stay with me.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words...

..But I'll leave a few words for each one.

A Statue that I liked by the Waterfront District in Zurich, Switzerland and my roommate,

Carol, and I at the top of the Cathedral Dome, with a cute little heart in the grass!

The Chapel at the Prague Castle and the view of Budapest's Parliment from the Fisherman's Bastion, one of my favorite views!

The Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Elizabeth liked yellow and wanted her palace yellow!

And a Chopin piano in Krakow, Poland.

A new sculpture piece in Kensington Gardens, London (and by new I mean since the last time I was there).

Oopsey

So I never got to post much while I was in Europe. It's hard! I wasn't in my hostels/hotels/friends' places much besides to shower and sleep and often when I was there was no wifi or I had to pay too much for it.

Therefore I've decided to post little tidbits and stories from my travels, not just this past trip but also from working on cruise ships and tips that I've learned from traveling.

A little of Berlin...

So as I predicted, I'm not always the best at updating the blog. Since getting to Berlin there hasn't been a lot of wifi for me to use and I've only been in my hotel to change, shower, and sleep.

Berlin was absolutely amazing! I had learned about most of Berlin's history through history but it really comes alive once your there. The city had been completely bombed back in World War II but everything had been reconstructed and the city looks great. You can tell where some statues and buildings were effected by bombs and shots and other war like activity by often a white spot on the building which means that it was filled in.
I also found the history of the Berlin Wall and the split between East and West Berlin to be amazing. I know that I learned the basics, but when you're learning history in school, that is a period of time that is fairly close to the present and often waited to touch upon all the way until the end of May (the very end of the school year) and you find that your teacher is crunching in only the important and basic facts that you'll need to know for you final. I don't think I learned about a single escape or attempt to escape and I never knew that the wall only took six weeks to complete, just to name a few.

A very nice part of Berlin was that it was my birthday! Yes, I remembered to mention to people on the tour that it was my birthday. We happened to do a great pub crawl that night where we had to find clues to the next pub. In addition to a pub crawl on my birthday, I went to the top of the Cathedral's Dome and had a beautiful view of the city, went to the New Synagogue, and had Sushi!

The Hike

Yesterday Steven and I went for a hike from Sierre to Sion. The hike was supposed to be about 4 hours, but we got lost. Oopse. Still the hike was very nice, we went through the wine vineyards and some little towns and eventually took a bus about 4 hours into the hike when we saw a sign for Sion that said another 2 hours. Once we got to Sion we had some local wine and dinner.

Pizza in Switzerland

Wherever I have traveled to, everyone asks where can you get a good pizza (well just about everywhere). Well a nice little pizza place I ate at was Molino Select which was right on the river.

But besides the point, the greatest thing about Swiss pizza is probably that they all have (or can have) buffalo mozzarella!

On the down side, the Swiss don't eat pizza with their hands and you have to use a fork and knife to eat it. Lame.

Lack of Sleep...But I Have Arrived In Zurich!

I've been up for almost 26 hours and I've never wanted to go to bed as badly as I do right now!!!



That's not true. I really wanted to sleep when we got to Israel. That was HORRIBLE. It was non stop, constant going, colder than we wanted it to be, and then at 9pm we finally get dinner but we're not in our hotel room. Not just that, it was new years eve so we all wanted stay up until midnight. at 12:01am we went to bed.

I'm doing ok though, Steven greeted me at the airport and we dropped my stuff off at his place. We got something to eat and started to walk around the old city, went to an art exhibit of Alberto Giacometti, went to the waterfront and saw the fountains. Saw the St Peters Church and the Frumunster church. Unfortunately it's a bit cloudy but we have planned to leave Zurich for tomorrow 'cause we believe I should be up early.

Steven says I'm funny when I'm lacking sleep and that I'm starting to hit new levels. Maybe that's possible. Tomorrow will be a more energetic day! Man, jet lag is horrible! Enjoy the silly picture of me really wanting to sleep.

7 Day Away!

As I've not shut up about, I'm traveling to Europe in 7 days for about a month! I'll be going to Zurich, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, London, and Dublin with part tour and the other part my friend Jess and I'll be staying with friends and family in some cities and well and meeting up with some friends in others.

I've been saving up money to do some traveling for a year now, with summers at camp and the past year working on cruise ships and then since coming back from cap I've been planning the trip, which there have been a few bumps in the road here and there but now all I really have to do is pack! (Which will be the worst thing EVER considering all I'm using is a backpack for a month!) All my hostels and flights are booked, I've done all my shopping, and all my research what I want to do, and yet I just don't feel like I'm ready at all! Sort of strange, I've done my share of traveling, but never have I had this much preparation for it (unless you count the countless medical tests I had to do for working for Norwegian Cruise Line) and I've never had such a build up. I've been planning this for a year now and it's finally happen!