Prague Nightlife

Prague has so much nightlife to offer you can go dizzy with finding all the different bars and clubs that pour the best beer and pump the best beat. I, in fact, devoted myself this weekend (and week because sleeping apparently isn't cool in college) to the night. What I found though was that you don't have to go far from your doorstep to experience the best places. There are a bunch of reviews on Prague Nightlife at http://www.expats.cz/prague/directory/bars/ if you are looking for more pieces here, this will just be an overview of some places I went to and the night environment I found.

First things first. Don't whatever you do walk out your door to a club at 10:00pm, you'll find them all empty and you and your friends will look rather silly. Around 10:00pm on a week day or 11:00pm on a weekend pick a bar close by to meet with friends and to start your night. Be wary that most bar/restaurants close around 11:00 (if their door says they close at 11:15pm it doesn't mean you can show up until that time and they'll take you that is usually when you should be out the door so last call would be at least 15 minutes before that) I prefer bars close by, in Prague there are many bars called "non-stop" they claim to be twenty-four hours but probably are not. Here they serve beer for cheap: most of them for around 30 czk which today is $1.60. I know right? Alcohol here is considerably less expensive than in the states-although everything is! Another good thing to note is that the metro doesn't run all night. It ends at 12pm and then the night trams run so plan accordingly.

You can head to another bar after you're finished here. There are lots of things to do around Wenceslas Square but be aware that most these bars are part of the international scene so not many locals would be here. This is a good starting point if it's your first night out.

Some places I've been here:

Vinarna U Sudu
Great info http://www.spottedbylocals.com/prague/vinarna-u-sudu/
I really liked this place and wished we stayed longer here. I would definitely go back-what looks like a tiny wine bar actually descends into a labyrinth of different underground hallways with high tables or low tables perfect for a group. The air is smokey but is dog friendly there are also games in one hall like Foosball. Paid 35 czk for a beer, service wasn't bad but I am pretty sure our waitress was drunk haha. Great place to start your evening.

Beer Factory
Great info http://www.expats.cz/prague/article/restaurant-reviews/beer-factory/
This place is known for its pour-your-own-pint system. Go with a big group, pick your drink and pour it yourself. You can also compete with people from other tables. We didn't eat here but the waitress wasn't very helpful. They play good music and a small dance party started but died. They also play all the sports games. The beer is not too bad but pricier than most places. In sum, its a good place to waist some time at but I wouldn't make this my nights' destination.

Nebe
Great info http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=1435
This always seems to be our fall back plan mostly because the tram down the street takes us directly back to housing and really I don't mind. This place has some great atmosphere and really pumps up on the weekends after midnight. Drinks are more expensive here but if you've planned your night right you won't need to buy any here. Get out on that dance floor! They play some great music all familiar American beats from Shakira to Soundtrack from Grease they got it all. No cover but pay 20 czk (about a dollar) to check your coat-this is required. They also pad men down at the door.

Rock O' Reilly
Great info http://www.rockyoreillys.cz/
Prague has some great Irish bars! Rock O' Reilly has great service and they speak English! yay! This is a great place to go during the week or weekend before hitting the club-its right off of Wenceslas :]

Some friends and I at Rock O'Reilly's Bar

Music Sky Bar
Great Info http://www.skybar.cz/
Music Sky Bar is off of the Narodni Trida metro exit. Really open area with great tables and great drinks. Nice service. Small dance floor.

Friends and I sharing a Cuba Libre

Jazz Republic
Great info http://www.jazzrepublic.org/
Awesome location right off of Mustek metro stop. Plays live Jazz bands, tons of seating-good service although little English. Awesome selection of drinks. Great hangout!

I'll probably add here at a later date some more places I've found. There are just so many!!

Whatever you do, do not forget to get a late night (early morning) snack at the vendor carts. The favorite here is Smazeny Syr and my mouth waters talking about it! Imagine a large square mozzarella stick packed inside a hamburger bun with mayo and curry ketchup, oh goodness! Potatoe pancakes are good too! This is a late night tradition and if you don't try it you might as well get back on the plane home!!

This Weeks Activities in Prague

What a beautiful week it was in Prague! It seems that the snow has melted, the icicles have dropped and everyone was out this weekend to play. I enjoyed some great activities this week!

National Gallery of Prague at St. Agnes of Bohemia Convent
It started with a class field trip on Wednesday to St. Agnes' Convent which is now the National Gallery of Prague. Full of mostly medieval art from Central Europe and Czech. My favorite thing about his Convent is it's ghost story, what is an old convent without one? It says that one of the nuns was killed by her own father, when he found out that she is in love with a poor young man. Then he cursed her for putting the family in shame and said she shall never rest in peace as long as the convent is there. The ghost of the girl reputedly rambles around the convent in the night, moaning and wearing a habit stained with blood. It is said that she helps young people who are unhappily in love. So a friendly ghost!

Unfortunately I forgot my camera (but we couldn't take many pictures anyway) here are some I found online:

Country Night at Local Bar
Czech country music is very popular to this day, it is linked with the so called tramping movement, which was a pastime that was born out of the interwar period's pressures and opportunities. Saturated with idyllic images of the American Wild West and seeking respite from the pressures of modernizing urban life, many Czechs fled into the woods. Tramp settlements with names like "Hudson," "Little Bighorn," and "Swanee" soon became the temporary homes for scores of Czechs impersonating cowboys, "Red Indians," forty-niners, and other American characters.

The restaurant Na Mělnické is tipical for the outskirts of Prague, we got to meet locals, have a cheap dinner and enjoy the happy atmosphere created by the musicians.

Cirkus Cirkus 2012
Did ya'll hear? The circus is in town!! After reading the Night Circus I had an itching to see those big tents and flashing lights and that's just what I did! After a 4 metro stops the wrong way and a little doubts on the direction we were heading we saw a heavenly symbol in the sky- the spotlights! It was a very exciting 3.5 hour show, for only fifteen dollars! My favorite part was the cute guys dressed as pirates doing flips off swinging platforms! 

Carnival in Prague

There's not much to do in Prague for Carnival (Mardi Gras celebration) that is free or even cheap! We saw a performance in Old Town Square that was mostly geared towards kids and an act that included references we're not sure anyone one understood! 

Locks of Love

On a small bridge next to Lennon Wall you can find a tribute to individual love. Here lovers attach a padlock to the bridge and through the lock into the water, symbolizing their ever lasting love! 

John Lennon Wall

The weather was beautiful this Saturday so we crossed Charles Bridge and headed to the little famous ally way known to house a wall of inspiration. John Lennon never experienced Prague for himself but was a hero to the pacifist youth of Central and Eastern Europe during the totalitarian era. Prior to 1989 when communism ruled, western pop songs were banned by Communist authorities, and especially John Lennon´s songs, because it was praising freedom that didn’t exist here. Some musicians were actually jailed for playing it!

When John Lennon was murdered in 1980 he became a sort of hero to some of the young and his picture was painted on this wall, for whatever reason right here, along with graffiti defying the authorities. Don’t forget that back then the Czech people had few opportunities to express their feelings with their lack of freedom. By doing this, those young activists risked prison for what authorities called “subversive activities against the state”.

But the threat of prison couldn’t keep people from slipping there at night to scrawl graffiti first in the form of Beatles lyrics and odes to Lennon, then they came to paint their own feelings and dreams on the wall.

The Communist police tried repeatedly to whitewash over the portrait and messages of peace but they could never manage to keep the wall clean. On the second day it was again full of poems and flowers with paintings of Lennon. Even the installation of surveillance cameras and the posting of an overnight guard couldn’t stop the opinions from being expressed.

At first glance the Lennon Wall is like any graffiti-covered wall you see around the world. But this wall is special thanks to its history. I’ve heard people saying that it is Pague’s equivalent of the Berlin Wall. They are not far from the truth. Some people also believe that the „John Lennon Peace Wall“ helped inspire the non-violent Velvet Revolution that led to the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989.

In 1998 the wall had to go through reconstruction of its crumbling facade but the spirit of the wall lives on. It used to be covered in anti-Communist graffiti, now it is covered in messages of love and peace. The original portrait of Lennon is long lost under the layers of new paints but if you look hard enough you can still find tributes to Lennon and a yellow submarine!

The wall, located at Velkoprevorske Namesti, Mala Strana, is owned by the Knights of the Maltese Cross, who allowed graffiti to continue. It will be a symbol forever.

http://www.prague.net/john-lennon-wall

God is in the Pages of One of the Four Hundred Thousand Books in the Clementinum National Library of Prague

The Building:
The founding of Clemetinum goes back to the 11th century and the Chapel to St. Clement (hence the name) near which the Dominican Order set up their monastery. Couple of hundreds of years went by and during the 16th century Jesuits arrived at the place of the monastery with a task to strengthen the catholic belief. Their influence and riches grew and soon Clementinum rivalled Carolinum – the core of the legendary Charles University. Despite the expulsion of Jesuits in 1618 they returned after two years (because of the defeat in the Battle of White Mountain), literally took over Carolinum and brought here the precious library.

In 1918 the newly-established Czecho-Slovak state took over the library. Since 1990, it has been the National Library. It contains a collection of Mozartiana, material pertaining to Tycho Brahe and Comenius, as well as historic examples of Czech literature. The architecture is a notable example of Baroque architecture and Clementinum, covering 20,000 square metres, is the second largest complex of buildings in Prague after the Prague Castle.

Cool facts from Wikipedia:

• At one time the Clementinum was known as the third largest Jesuit college in the world.
• The oldest weather recording in the area of the Czech lands started in Clementinum in the year 1775. The recording continues through the present day.

And my favorite:

• The Clementinum is mentioned in "The Secret Miracle" by Jorge Luis Borges. The main character has a dream of the library of Clementinum where the librarians look for God in the books of the library. One of the librarians says: "God is in one of the letters of one of the pages of one of the four hundred thousand books of Clementinum. My fathers and the fathers of my fathers have looked for this letter; I myself have gone blind looking for it." 

So, a reader enters and delivers an atlas for the main character, saying that this atlas is useless. The main character opens the book at random, and find a map of India, touching one of its minimum letters and, then, finds God.

This website has some great information about the history of the Clementinum building, http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/the-clementinum-the-baroque-pearl-of-prague.

The Job:
Would you believe I landed an internship here??
I have never been so giddy as the stirring I felt walking through the maze of the Clementinum building. Getting the behind-the-scenes tour of the Clementinum was truly a special experience. The halls, musty in their ages, are filled with torn and weathered pages. Books itching to be opened to be touched, to be seen, to be opened. They scream at me, making my hands shake and heart beat, what mysteries lie inside? What place have you come from? Who's fingers have grasped your spine? What lessons have you taught? What kind of love have you brought? These books hold so much beauty, each unique and overwhelming. I am possessed.

The National Library of Czech Republic is focusing the Manuscriptorium Department on digitalizing their books and linking them with word texts, translations, search words and live images of the real document. Guess which doe-eyed American girl gets to help? That's right! Me!

Right now, I am working on a Latin Encyclopedia, Isidori Hispalensis Etymologiarum sive Originvm libri XX Volume 1. It is an encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (died 636) towards the end of his life. It forms a bridge between a condensed epitome of classical learning at the close of Late Antiquity and the inheritance received, in large part through Isidore's work, by the early Middle Ages. Etymologiae presents in abbreviated form much of that part of the learning of antiquity that Christians thought worth preserving. Learn more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologiae

Using some xml coding and some handy software I get to play (very carefully and lovingly) with this gorgeous text. Here's a little snapshot, isn't the prettiest thing you've ever seen?! The main website is www.manuscriptorium.com, but be aware we are in beginning stages.

I am so happy I get to stare at these magnificent pages all day!

The Perks:
Baroque Library Hall
The Baroque library hall was finished in 1722. Its appearance and arrangement - for example the labels on library bookcases - survive intact. Thus it provides us with an example of the setting of an authentic Baroque library. The books in this hall constitute a collection of printed theological literature written in all languages except Czech, gathered as they were arriving at the Klementinum from 1600 until recent times. The books with whitened backs and red marks have been here all along since the Jesuit period. The ceiling decoration, created by Jan Hiebl, symbolizes the antique wisdom and learning as the basis which leads to Biblical prophets and later to Christian teachings.

The Baroque Library Hall has been closed off for the past several years due to restoration. However, a got to walk throughout the hall! Colossal globes of the world and the stars divide the hall. A ceiling hand-painted and bright in its restoration shows the meaning of why this Library was so important to its creators. The feeling of warmth, mystery and awe at human creation can truly be felt within this secret treasure.

I couldn't take any pictures but I found these on the internet and they should make up for my lack of words. Not just a book lovers' place of worship but a magical place for anyone!

Getting There:
From Florenc take the B line to Mustek and switch to line A, get of at Starometska. Exit the middle staircase that says "Tram," turn Right, you'll see the river. Walk towards the Charles Bridge. You've passed it! But it's O.K because it's a block long-it will be on your left side. Go into the courtyard and enter by the metal tree sculpture. No jackets or backpacks allowed, check your items!

Šenov Glassworks Tour and Mělník

Our early morning started with an hour bus ride (normal sized bus this time!) to Šenov Glassworks which is in in the outskirts of Prague, Czech Republic. We got there around 10am and followed the wooden balcony that trails around the entire building overlooking the workers that hand make this beautiful glass. We were a big group but the people were very hospitable. We went in groups and actually got to make a piece of our own! You got to pick the pattern and the color and then would get to blow the glass into a vase shape (with help of course!). It was very fun! We also got to see the men work, building swans and ornaments and long glass pieces for some custom project unknown to us. These men are truly artists and it is sad to see that the profession is dying. Class making was started in this Bohemian area when the locals found that the soil and weather didn't allow for any type of agriculture, in order to make money the locals founded the glass works operation. Nowadays, however, people are less interested in the handmade stuff and go to factory glass that is made quickly and cheaply. The workshop is very hot and we laughed as the workmen took breaks and returned with snowballs to throw at each other, the receivers were both surprised and relieved! The tour was great and they also have a restaurant that houses at least 100 people and great bar and food plus some gift items!

Senov Glassworks Workshop

Me picking out my texture!

I blow glass like the pro's

He also thought it was the best....ever.

Restaurant

Old Sand Scale

There is also a castle in the area and we learned that this used to be a border region of Bohemia. Interestingly, the castle door is at the bottom of the cliff and is very easily penetrated (isn't that the opposite of the purpose of a castle?) During hard times the castle was continually ransacked by thieves and criminals who hit around the castle in bushes and behind rocks. Rich in the middle ages, the sandstone near the castle was used to make the glass. Up until the 20th century many parts of Czechoslovakia were primarily German-speaking and were favored by the German administration that took over during the period. Minorities of Germans were usually the craftsmen and lived fairly well. However, after WWII, as you can imagine, many of them where killed and expelled. This town served as refuge for these expelled Germans.

Castle on top of the cliff

We then traveled south to Mělník which has some great history and is a small quaint little town. The town square is very small but charming and we were given a tour of the underground wells where people hid and lived during the German and then Russian invasion. Mělník means something like "dirty rock" which points at the underground caves that leave residue on your coats and hats. Not the most appealing name but they are good about laying things out here! We walked up to the cathedral and saw the Mělník castle. The prettiest site was looking over the cliff to the two converging waters below, the Labe and Vltava rivers. In November 1274 Mělník gained the statute of town from king Přemysl Otakar II and later became a royal town belonging to Bohemians queens and has since been commonly known as a Queen's City. We made our way back to Prague and I was happy to enjoy a three hour nap when I got home! 

Cool sculpture in Melnik

Melnik Clock Tower

Melnik Town Square

Melnik Fountain

Converging Rivers 

A Foreigner in Prague Feb.7. 2012

It took me by surprise even though I knew it was coming. I have studied culture-shock and have experienced it previously. My first explosion and now my second have all been derived by language barriers. My first time, if you have read my previous blog from Abejar-Spain, struck me when the family sat at the dinner table exchanging stories, making jokes and feeling the warm fuzzies of family togetherness, I was an outsider in this moment. Although I have taken and understand Spanish, I am and, I fear, forever will be a student of this language. So I hunched in frustration as people spoke at a 100 miles per hour every person screaming over the first to be heard in a language I could not understand. In this moment I felt defeat and from then on when I hear about people who move to another country to create new homes in new places with new people who have different customs I have a great respect for those people. When I hear people who say, "this is America learn to speak English," I immediately see this person's judgement to a situation they now little about. And on every occasion I have come across these people who say this, I have learned that they have never been on the other side, never had they been the foreigner, never had they had to communicate to someone something important and found that, for now other reason than language, they could not.

It grew dark as I finally found the metro stop to where I needed to go. I had written the directions on my hand so I wouldn't forget. The hardest part is always getting out of the metro. Like the Cheshire Cat these signs point two directions for the same place. The map is helpful but if you can't figure out where you exited the metro the task is pointless. Orienting yourself is impossible. So as I stepped out of the metro stop I looked to my hand for some guidance; I remember seeing the little tram sign on my map near the correct street so I went toward the tram symbol on the orange sign above me. Like any foreigner, I do not know what streets are bad at night. I know well-lit is safer but this could be a corner full of drug-dealers and human-trafficking operations and I would not know. I would be walking in my mustard-yellow hat and pink gloves and somehow someone would study me and see that I was not Czech. They would know because I stop at every street to read the sign, I stand straight and perhaps I carry and air of fear that they can smell. So, of course, the worst possibilities come to mind. Every person is an enemy who will try to kill me the instant I loose my ground. Have you ever tried to look confident even though you were lost and kept thinking of how they would play out your murder? It's not easy. After about fifteen minutes of walking in circles, keeping my head down, I finally had an idea of where it should be. It's beyond dark now and the street lights never appeared. I promised myself to check the next street; if it is not there, I would go home and abandon this idea until morning. I turned the corner, cold and tired and found that it was there, my new enemy, the post office. Sending a box to myself turned out to be the worst idea I might have ever had. Of course, it was cheaper than overweight luggage. But was there anything in that box that I couldn't find here? No. Probably not. So I took my first steps into the building and realized I needed to take a number. There was a list of possible business that you needed to carry out, each with a corresponding ticket, of course, this list was in Czech. Not knowing what any of this meant I just pushed one and took a ticket. I sat down with a dozen other people and waited. Waited. Waited. I sat in my seat hovering over the slip of paper the USPS had given me-my package number and it's information, where it came from, who is going to ect. This I felt was my golden ticket, this everyone could understand, I would not need to talk or worry, I would just had the teller this. The people around me were quiet and stared at walls and at floors waiting in anticipation; wanting to get home to their families, run other errands, to get to another date somewhere across town. I do not know but I believe I was perhaps the only person who waited in fear. Is my box here? Is there somewhere else I should be? These are simple questions that anyone would ask coming to a new city, but language is the basis of everything; If they tell me I should be somewhere else, how will I know that is what they are saying? If they tell me my box isn't here, is it because they cannot understand me or because it really isn't there? I can tell them that I don't understand Czech (Nerozumin Cescky) all day, but that doesn't matter. Finally my number was called, I said hello to the teller in Czech (Dobry den) and asked her if she spoke English (mluvite anglicky?). I spoke too softly firstly because I was timid in knowing if this was correct and secondly because I didn't want everyone around me to know that I was English and perhaps a target for my walk home. So I repeated my response and she blankly looked at me. I started to panic, "Shit." I gave her the copy of my packing slip and she looked it over, her face was an open book and she obviously she had never seen something like this. She turns to her coworker to have a look at it and in Czech they talk about what to do with the foreign paperwork. She nods and looks and her computer. She doesn't type anything in she simply moves the mouse around and hits the arrow button a couple times and then she tells me simply, no. "Not here," she says. Now, I know its there, I know its there because I checked the USPS website and found that it has been in Czech Customs since January, 23rd. I also know because I went to a different post office early this morning in Praha 2 (which is another story in and of itself) and they told me my post must be in Praha 8. So when she told me my box was not there I had options; I could fight with the woman, persist that someone here should speak English and I want to talk to them, we could keep babbling back and forth her in Czech and I in English, I could look around to the people in the post office and shout for an English speaker that could come to my rescue, or I could walk away and try perhaps tomorrow when the world wouldn't seem against me. And so I turned unable to express my frustration or sadness or complete astonishment at how hard it is to be understood. Something so simple-pick up the box, a task impossible. Defeated again, I walked with my head down, hiding tears in the night with my gloves and whimpering slowly to myself. I was expecting it, I knew it was coming I knew that one of these days it would hit me and it did, perhaps, harder than I imagined.

I hope tomorrow I will be brave enough to go to the post office again. For I believe it is a courageous  act that few understand and yet so many like to comment on. I am a foreigner here and it was never so blatant than when I walked through the cold, dark night to the post office in Prague.

Mikulov, Lednice & Nemcicky in Moravia

This will be a long post but a very satisfying one if you're able to make it to the bottom! It describes a trip our USAC director planned for us to Moravia, the wine country of Czech Republic.

Czech Republic is made up of two areas, Bohemia which makes up 2/3 of the country and includes Prague and the other western areas that produce beer and then Moravia which is comprised of mostly small medieval towns that produce wine. Moravians say there are three types of wine; white, red and wine that Prahans (people who live in Prague) drink. They think that Prahans have drank so much beer that they can't tell wines apart! Of course, this leads Moravians to offer Prahans the lower quality stuff. This is becoming less and less true though as Bohemians travel and become more acquainted with their Moravian neighbors.

We started from Prague and hit the small town of Mikulov, Lednice and then a wine tasting and sleepover in Nemcicky. I'll describe each of these magical places but let me start off by painting the picture of how we got started. It's not hard to imagine 19 hung over Americans waiting for a bus to appear at 7:30am. What will surprise you is the white miniature "bus" and its comical driver that would take us to Nemcicky. The bus was tiny and yet all 21 of us fit into its 7 rows of three seats. The tightness, however, was not my concern. It was only when we started moving toward Moravia, the coldest region in Czech Republic, that I had several upsets. 1) The windows had a bad habit of freezing over. The windows around us were covered in frost and the driver continually spread a smelly chemical on a small spot to his left and in front of him to make a clearing of the ice from which he could see. So our driver sat squishing his neck down to see out the tiny whole, grabbing constantly for his spray bottle to melt the white frost. 2) Our water bottles froze! The driver pulled his new water from the holder on the door only to find that the water that he thought would quench his throat had clumped into an iceberg that hit the rim of the bottle with a thud. 3) Suddenly, a sequenced thumping of the bus made me feel as though the back right tire had blown! Struck in silence as my mind and body tried to make sense of the feeling, I finally realized it was just an uneven road with a bump every 3 tire rotations, great road development out here :/ . 3) Probably the most upsetting is when I started to mentally prepare for what I thought would end up being a three hour wait in freezing weather on the side of the highway for help to arrive (I do have my AAA card if we needed it, they'd come and get me right?). We had stalled, and were going around 30 miles per hour on a highway because the engine had frozen! 4) After lunch our driver had a considerable amount of alcohol, I would have been more serious in doubting my safety if I didn't have complete faith in this man's tolerance level, he's Czech no doubt! 5) And finally, I don't wine too much when I'm the one not prepared. You can't wine and say your feet hurt when you're the one who decided not to buy good shoes but I was prepared for the cold and yet two pairs of heavy wool socks didn't stop my feet from turning into Popsicles, no heating in this puppy!

Our bus looked like this! Fit 21 people!

Despite all this-we made it safely to wine country and what easy ride makes a good story?

Mikulov is a very charming city with a lot to see. This is a great destination for a summer day trip. Not that it isn't beautiful in winter but many things are closed and you can walk around an not feel like your nose with fall off at any minute. We ate lunch here and took a small hike to St. Sebastian Capel on the Holy Hill passing Mikulov Castle and Dietrichstein Tomb. This city started back in 1249, when Ottokar II of Bohemia granted the land of Mikulov, including a castle, and the surrounding area to the Austrian noble Henry I of Liechtenstein (like from a Knight's Tale!). The town is primarily known in history as a Jewish settlement where Jewish refuges from Austria came to live. Our hike to the Holy Hill was very interesting as the path leading up to the chapel is The Way to the Cross on Holy Hill; comprising of 14 chapels with monuments that depict symbolic representations of the suffering of Jesus Christ on his journey under the cross. The trail is one of the first places of pilgrimage in South Moravia and the oldest Way of the Cross in the Czech Lands. You can read more about the different chapels here http://www.mikulov.cz/tourism/monuments-and-sights/church-monuments/the-way-of-the-cross-on-holy-hill/chapels/?contentId=117534. For the extensive occurrence of rare plant and animal species the territory has been announced nature reserve. The creation of the Way of the Cross was inspired by an endeavor to express gratitude to God for overcoming the plague epidemic that tormented Mikulov in 1622. The first structure was evidently the chapel consecrated to Saint Sebastian, protector against infection with the plague. The hill is dominated by St. Sebastian's Church, the Bell Tower and the Holy Sepulchre. See pictures below!

Town Square

Dietrichstein Tomb and Chateau

One of the chapels on The Way to the Cross on Holy Hill

St. Sebastian Church

Our next stop was Lednice which in English means Refrigerator-and that it was. I had on seven layers of long sleeve t-shirts, sweatshirts and coats, I had on pants and two pairs of long johns, 2 heavy socks, gloves, hat, faceguard ect. and I was freezing my ass off! But to see this city, even in this terrible cold, was worth it. In 1996 Lednice was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (together with the twin manor of Valtice) as "an exceptional example of the designed landscape that evolved in the Enlightenment and afterwards under the care of a single family." It contains a palace and the largest park in the country, which covers 200 km². The park is home to over a dozen hunting lodges, monuments and temples. We experienced some of these sites by walking on the Lednice Ponds which were completely frozen! It was really neat to walk on the ice to these different monuments. Our walk ended with the Minaret a structure of Moresque architecture that has never had an equivalent in Czech lands. Fun fact: Josef Hardmuth, who designed the Minaret also founded a pencil factory!

Minaret

We ended our day at Nemcicky where we checked in at a hostel/ski resort/theme park/pool area. There we had a wine tasting at a small winery called Vinařství Pavel & Radim Stávkovi. The owner reminded me of a Czech version of my dad! The wine was very good and like all wine tastings they like to tell you things about the wine and area that you will no doubt forget by the morning-and I can't hold a notebook and a wine glass at the same time, so guess which one I chose?! The wine was very good and great priced, I bought two to share with my family. I, however, learned that I cannot drink red wine. It reminds me of what Audrey Hepburn said about pearls in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She says that she wants to love them and hopes that one day she will but it is an older more sophisticated version of herself that will wear peals. I hope to one day love red wine but I am too young for it. Does that make sense? The winery has a website www.vinostavek.cz. We were offered unlimited wine and food until 2am, great scott! The hostel is close by so when we were drunk with wine and laughter we bundled up to brace the cold walk back home.

Me with the owners (back and right) and one of our USAC coordinators Geiger (left)

A wonderful weekend of wine!