Better Late Than Never

So this post is only 3 months overdue.... Oops. In my defence, I've had a very busy summer! I'm sitting at my parents' beautiful home on Kootenay Lake in Nelson, enjoying my 10 days of vacation after a crazy summer of tree planting and fire fighting, and figured I should get this out of the way before I head back to school and completely forget about it. 

There's a lot of pictures here so to keep this semi-short, I'm going to keep the writing to a minimum since I just wanted to wrap up my time in Prague with a post about my last few trips (and also because it seems like ages ago that I was in Portugal and I don't remember specifics anymore..). 

Witch burning on April 30th, a Czech tradition to give a final farewell to winter

Hanna and I at the witch burning on the shores of the Vltava in Prague :)

A day trip to Karlovy Vary, a spa town in western Bohemia, which produces Becherovka, an herbal bitters

Lunch of goulash in a bread bowl. Yum!

Something I'd been looking forward to all semester was a week-long trip to Portugal in May! I traveled there with my good friends Kasia and Kasia from Poland and Georgi from Bulgaria, and aside from enjoying what the country had to offer, we were there to visit our friends Marcelo, Mariana and Hugo who we had studied with the previous semester. The trip started out in Berlin, which we bussed to in order to fly from there to Brussels then onwards to Porto.

The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Francesinha, a Porto speciality made of bread, ham, cheese and a beer sauce

Beautiful Porto!

It was May so not exactly the warmest weather, but that didn't stop us from going to the beach :)

In Coimbra, the city our Portuguese friends study in, we arrived straight into the middle of Quiema das Fitas (Ribbon Burning), which is basically an annual week-long student party. We mingled in with all the dressed-up students in the parade, which was quite the experience. Beer is flowing like water in this parade, which weaves its way through the city, and the students on the floats are intentionally pouring and spraying beer on their fellow classmates. We may not have been students there but that didn't stop us from getting covered in beer! It was a great time though, and cool to see how passionate the students are about their respective faculties.

Chants and cheers were non-stop all afternoon

Sticky and smelling of beer but having a time! L-R Hugo, Kasia, Georgi, Kasia and me

After two nights in Porto and three (crazy, party-filled) nights in Coimbra, we bussed down to Lisbon where our friend from Prague, Mariana (a different one) showed us around the beautiful capital.

Padrao dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) on the Tagus River estuary, celebrating the Portuguese Age of Discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Lisbon!

I had a 24-hour turn around in Prague after the Portugal adventure before taking a night bus with Hanna and Tanja to Salzburg for a weekend trip. The weather was horrendously rainy for the majority of our trip but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights of both Salzburg and Vienna. We couchsurfed, all four of us, with an absolute gem of a guy who has the cutest little bungalow on the outskirts of the city. Quick shout out to Benny: you were an amazing host! Thank you!

Salzburg from the Festung (Castle) Hohensalzburg, one of the largest medieval castles in Europe

Look who I found in a park in Salzburg! So great to spend some time with Lauren in Austria and Prague :)

Mozart's birth-house. This entire city revolves around the composer.

Adding to our 'Countries we've run together in' list :)

There was a 6km run through a nearby zoo that Benny had signed up for on the Saturday that we were there so despite the rain, we all went to watch.

Strong start from our host! 

The biggest pizza I've ever had in front of me, covered in a forest of arugula. Best thing ever though!

Salzburg at night

After two nights in Salzburg we took a morning train to the Austrian capital, Vienna. Luckily for us, the weather got quite a bit better for the last stop of our trip. I didn't find Vienna to be overly exciting (maybe because I was feeling a bit under the weather), but there are definitely a lot of substantially large, ornately-decorated buildings to look at in this city.

By complete chance, we happened across the first live performance by the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest who just so happened to be an Austria, Conchita Wurst. We were a little confused when people on the streets started handing out paper beards to put on our faces. I was convinced it was a visor (and actually used it as such to shield my face from the sun for a while) until we saw others wearing them on their chins:

Tanja, me, Lauren and Hanna gearing up for the concert

I was pretty happy we came across this concert! We didn't really know what was going on, as everything was in German, but it made Vienna much more memorable and fun for me.  

Schonbrunn Palace. 1441 rooms in there! 

We rented bikes for just 1 euro each which were great for zipping around the city and taking in the sights a bit quicker.

Lauren spent five days in Prague with me after Austria and I took her around to many of the sights, some of which I hadn't even seen yet such as the dancing house:

The house is nicknamed 'Fred and Ginger' after the dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

The Vltava river and the castle in the background on a beautiful May afternoon

A traditional Czech meal of smazeny syr (fried cheese) with potatoes and cranberry sauce

Well, it was quite a year. I'm so thankful to everyone I met or who helped me along this year, I miss you all very much and will always have fond memories looking back on my time in Prague and throughout Europe. You're all welcome to come visit in Canada, anytime, and I hope we get to meet again sometime in the future.

This flag will have a place of honour on my wall at school this year :)

And thank you to everyone for staying with me all this long time! Hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures and misadventures. Time to put the blog to rest while I finish up my studies. Until next time, blog world..

Cheers,

Sonja :)

Mountains and Castles and Tests, oh my!

Well, hello again blog! It's been awhile. My most sincere apologies for the long absence, but I do have a valid reason: I was studying to write my MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) and therefore didn't really do anything exciting in the past month. Actually, I don't think I left Prague for a whole month which was brutal as I watched all my fellow exchange-mates jet off to Budapest and Krakow and Amsterdam. However, all that is over and done with and I am free to enjoy my last month (?!?!!) in Europe!

Some might ask, why would you spend your exchange in Europe studying for your MCAT? Well, that's a good question. To explain, I'd have to jump back to December, when I realized that I have loads of free time on my hands due to a schedule of courses that are both easy and not time-demanding in any way, and one can only travel SO much. Since I'm graduating next May, my post undergrad future is fast approaching and in order to get the ball rolling for what I'm going to do afterwards, I decided to take advantage of my free time. I didn't know when in the next couple of years I would have that much of it again, between work and school. Studying in Europe was a challenge, especially when the weather was gorgeous this spring and all my friends were off on trips or hanging out on the hilltop in the nearby park or wandering the streets of Prague. It definitely tested my motivation and determination and stress levels, but I think considering the circumstances everything went as well as it could have. Now all that's left is to wait for the results!

Anyways, enough blabbering. The weekend before the test was Easter and although it probably would have been wise to stay in Prague and study some more, I couldn't handle another weekend in my dorm room so I traveled to Zakopane, Poland with my good friend Kasia to spend Easter with her and her family. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend! Zakopane is a stone's throw away from Slovakia, so right at the southern border of the country, and set in the beautiful Tatra Mountains which form the natural border between Poland and Slovakia. I felt right at home in the mountains. Actually, I think that the landscape and lifestyle where Kasia lives is the most similar to where I come from in Canada of anywhere I've seen in Europe. We spent the weekend eating copious amounts of delicious homemade food, hiking around in the mountains, relaxing in a spa (Bukowina thermal resort, which boasts 6 indoor and 6 outdoor swimming pools, 5 types of saunas and, most importantly to me, a hydromassage pool!), and watching an Easter Monday tradition in Zakopane. Huge thanks to Kasia and her wonderful family for having me!

Morskie Oko, just a 20 minute drive from Kasia's place. Heaven!

Mountain selfie! (Bestemor and Bestefar, sorry about the sunglasses but the snow was too bright to take them off!)

It was great to experience some Polish Easter traditions. One of them involved filling baskets with Easter eggs, oranges, sausages, chocolate, and other little trinkets and taking them to church on the Saturday to have them blessed, I think? I'm not entirely sure of the significance of it but it was neat to see almost every person, or at least every young person, walking around town with one of these:

Zakopane natural ski jump. In 1997, Pope John Paul II (from Poland) celebrated a mass at the hill's stadium. For the 1962 FIS Nordic World Ski Champs here there were 120,000 people in attendance in this small town of 28,000. 

I just loved the architectural style here! Most of the buildings are wood structures but beautifully crafted with amazing, intricate designs in the wood.

We attended church in a mountain chapel on Easter Sunday morning, then walked back through the forest to Kasia's house, casually passing by this view:

Rusinowa Polana (Glade). A popular summer hangout spot. (I wonder why?)

Then we road-tripped into Slovakia and my hosts led us to this spectacular view of the whole Tatra Mountain range:

On Easter Monday, there's an awesome tradition in Zakopane that almost the whole town attends, where men and women dress themselves up in traditional mountain clothing and don old wooden skis and poles then attempt to ski down a small slalom course on a ski slope above Zakopane. Kasia and I walked the 30 minutes up the mountain to take in the spectacle. It was a very entertaining morning, watching everyone attempt to descend the hill on the mushy spring snow, as well as meeting a ton of Kasia's friends. I love Poland and it's people so far! Everyone is very friendly and spirited and nature-loving, the food is delicious, and the mountains are nothing short of magnificent. I think it's the small-town mindset, because I felt like I was back in Nelson at the Slush Cup at Whitewater, although hearing the language and seeing the traditional garb brings me back to Poland.

After a fantastic weekend with Kasia and her family we took a really not fun overnight bus back to Prague, arriving at 5am.. I was leaving 36 hours later for Munich for the test so I basically unpacked, did laundry, and put everything back in my pack, as well as fitting in some last minute studying.

I couchsurfed with a lovely British-German girl and her Canadian flatmate for 3 nights while I was in Munich. It was great having a local to tell me what I should do and show me around and introduce me to the best ice cream place in the city! I did some sightseeing on the afternoon following the test to see the sights in Munich (I've been to the city before, 3 years ago exactly, but my memory needed refreshing).

The Old Town Hall

The New Town Hall, which ironically looks (to me at least) older than the Old Town Hall pictured above, due to the Gothic Revival style 

Outside the Theatine Church there were a ton of beanbag chairs and hammocks for people to hang out on!  Perfect to catch some sun or read a book on a hot spring day.

My host told me about the Scholl siblings, who were members of the White Rose, a student group in Munich, that distributed flyers against the dictatorship of Hitler. They were caught at LMU (the main university in Munich) and sentenced to death and killed by guillotine in 1943.

The day after the test, I took a train for 2 hours into South Bavaria to check out the Neuschwanstein castle which was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and has been in several movies. It was an absolutely wonderful day and I fully enjoyed my newfound freedom soaking up the sun and the beautiful mountain scenery.

Hohenschwangau Castle, the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, which is just next door to the castle I came to see.

The show-stealer: Neuschwanstein Castle 

Alpsee and Hohenschwangau Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle from Marienbrucke

To escape the tourists I continued on past the bridge and up the switchbacking trail along the ridge of the mountain to get a bird's eye view of the castle:

I can see why it's popular in movies!

Pollatschlucht, the waterfall below Marienbrucke next to the castle

Dipped my feet in the Alpsee before reluctantly leaving the mountains behind

The next day, I had intended to go to Salzburg before heading back to Prague but I was unable to find accommodation there due to my last-minute planning so I simply booked a bus home for the afternoon and spent the day wandering Munich. I got a bit too much sun yesterday so my energy level was significantly lower than usual, but I was free to go at my own pace so it was still an enjoyable day. I mapped out where I walked once I got home and it was over 15km, and in the hot sun too, so needless to say I was happy to sit and relax on the 4.5 hour bus ride to Prague.

Nymphenburg Palace grounds 

Lilacs are in full bloom everywhere right now! So beautiful and very fragrant

One of many beer gardens. Germans really do love their beer!

Well that's excessively long, so I think I'll stop here. I'm back in Prague now, with 4 weeks until my flight home and still so many things that I want to do and experience! Next up on the list: Portugal next week!!!!! Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Sonja