Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov

This was our last faculty lead trip of our program and I would say it was one of the best. We started by driving to Kutna Hora and made a couple stops on the way in. One stop was in a small town named Letchy (not quite sure if that’s right). In this town there was a mass murder of nonjews who were not supporting the war effort. It was a large area of grass where you could see areas where houses used to stand. In each place of a house there was a memorial statue of a cross. Then we were off to Kutna Hora where we made our first stop at a church made of bones. This was amazing. Every wall was decorated with human bones. There was even a coat of arms made out of bones. Then we were taken to our hotel and then we were off to the silver mines. This was actually one of my favorite tours that we were given. Literally crawling through the tunnels underground was so fun. It was dark and very hard to move around. It was definitely a different experience and I recommend it to everyone, except if you are claustrophobic. Then we were left on our own for the night where I went off with three other girls exploring the quiet town of Kutna Hora. We ate at a small restaurant where I had one of the better meals of the whole trip. The next day we were all up early to go to the large basilica. This basilica was one of the most beautiful structures I have ever encountered. I took many pictures of it because it was so beautiful. The tall structure and teal colors amazed me. The fact that this big of a structure was located in such a small and quaint little town shocked me as well. After viewing the basilica and a small memorial outside of it we headed of to Cesky Krumlov, but on the way we stopped at the Budweiser Budvar Factory. This apparently is a completely different kind of beer than Budweiser back in the states. I didn’t think I would enjoy the factory as much as I did. It was so cool, like really cool. The best was seeing the assembly line and all the bottles going through the washing stations and then being filled and packaged. Just a little sneak peak into how it all works. Definitely worth the time stopping there and the beer was great!

Cesky Krumlov is beautiful. I could have lived there. It was full of small buildings tight together next to a river and painted all sorts of colors. It was small enough to walk everywhere without being too small. We got there in time to explore for the rest of the day. I went out and walked the town and through the park. Then casually sat down, had a beer, and walked around some more. We then found a dinner place and then hung out in our hostel room with a couple girls. The next day was the best day of the whole weekend. RAFTING. It was a blast. The small river that goes around the town was quiet and nothing like white water rafting. It was casual and we all made sure to grab a couple beers before we headed out on the water. We had too much fun on that raft. Everyone met up at a halfway point at the river and we all shared a couple drinks and laughs together. I am so thankful for our faculty leaders Martin and Jan. They were the best and such great company for every trip.  After the quick pit stop everyone got back on their rafts and headed towards the end of the river. This is where the fun just began for my group. We decided to take it slow and take as much time as we wanted because we were in no hurry. Well, little did we know we still had about a two-hour trip down the river and that was with actually paddling. So, our trip took a little longer than two and those couple beers caught up to us all and for a while there we were paddling in circles. Oh man, it was a great time. We were the last group to arrive at the end, but we didn’t care and we had fun. We then had dinner with the whole group and headed off to bed afterwards. It was a wonderful end to a great weekend. It was bittersweet as well. We all knew our trip was coming to an end and I know I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Thankfully, I still had a 5 day trip planned to Barcelona to look forward to!