Friday October 14-Day 1

Our adventure began early Friday morning. Naomi and I had to run from the Strassenbahn to make it to the bus on time but we still made it! Once everyone was accounted for, we were off on our German adventure! Because the Czech Republic lies between Vienna and Berlin, our first stops would take place in this wonderful country. After what felt like an eternal bus ride we made it to a town called Cesky Krumlov! I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t even pronounce, let alone read, any of the signs but I took comfort in the fact that we’d only be here a few days. I realized how many German words I actually do know as I stared at all the Czech one’s that I don’t.

As with all the small European towns I’ve seen so far, this one’s beauty did not disappoint. A plethora of camera clicks could be heard as soon as the buildings of this mountainside town came into view.

Naturally there was a beautiful palace right in the middle of town so we had to go have a look. A tour of the palace was available for a few Euros but to be perfectly honest I’ve seen so many castles I can’t even keep them straight so I opted for the tower climb to the most beautiful view. All the architecture I’ve seen here so far has been pretty different from Austria’s. In Vienna all of the buildings have intricately carved designs in their walls and façades and the colors used are pretty neutral. Here, rather than carving designs, the walls are just painted to look like they have cool carvings. The colors are typically much brighter too. It looks really cool but personally I think it makes these architects look pretty lazy compared to the ones that actually carve, but maybe that’s just me.

We had quite a bit of time to kill so Camille, Kendal, Rebecca and I searched all over this little town for whatever there was to do. We had a yummy cinnamon pastry type thing that I think was actually Hungarian but it was hot and delicious nonetheless.

Then we came upon a deal for a ticket to a wax museum and a mirror maze. The was museum was not much but I was proud of myself for knowing some of the historical figures such as Maria Theresa and Rudolph the IV and other such important, historical, royal figures to this area. It should be no surprise, however, that my fave wax figure of all was the young Harry Potter. He’s the only reason I wanted to go in the museum in the first place!

The mirror maze was an ingenious idea and it totally played with your mind. They gave you plastic gloves before going in so that nobody got their fingerprints on the mirrors. Since the mirrors were so clean, your own reflection could be seen 1-5 times from any given spot. We took a whole bunch of trippy pictures where you could see yourself and others several times. It was crazy! It was incredibly difficult to figure out where you were, especially in relation to other people. Once we were hungry we stopped at a little café and I had some interesting Czech soup for dinner.

After these fun excursions we went back to our cute little hotel where Kendall and I watched Harry Potter 7.2 while most of the rest of the group went bowling. Then we snuggled up in our cute little beds and went to sleep!