Studietur i Czech Republic

Last Saturday evening 2.y (my gymnasium class) and I departed on our studietur to the Czech Republic. It was a 16 hour bus ride to our first destination, Terezin. Even though it was a long trip, it was a very hyggeligt trip with lots of delicious snacks and socializing. After an early early breakfast Sunday morning in a cafe in Terezin, we visited Theresienstadt, a concentration camp during World War II. It was very interesting to see a concentration camp, but it was also very unsettling to be in a place where so many people were killed. One really interesting thing I learned, before Theresienstadt became a concentration camp it was the Terezin prison, and the assassin of Duke Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, was imprisoned there. It was also where he died. Afterwards, we visited a museum dedicated to the memory of the Jewish people that lived in the Jewish ghetto located in Terezin. The ghetto was the last place Jews stayed before they were sent to Auschwitz. We then drove to Srbsko, a small town in the Cesky Raj, where we would be staying for the next couple of days. After we arrived and settled in, we went on a "short" walk to plan evening activities. The walk ended up lasting a solid 5 hours. Needless to say there was no evening activity. :) The next morning we were up early for our mountain biking adventure. It was a beautiful ride especially with all of the fall colors. After our 18 km (11 mi) bike ride, we went rock climbing and rapelling. The rapelling was intense! We rapelled down a 25m (75ft) cliff! It was a little scary hanging off the edge of a cliff with only a rope and a harness. That evening an interesting thing happened. While my roommates and I were talking upstairs in the small cabin we shared, some boys from with another study tour from Denmark came into our cabin and squirted about half a bottle of ketchup on as much of our stuff as they could. Some of my roommates clothes, beds, shoes, and my shoes now smelled like ketchup. Yay. The next morning we checked out and headed to a river for rafting. It was more like river floating than river rafting, but it was ok. It was a super long river floating trip. We had to paddle 10 km (6 mi) in an almost non-existant current. We made our merry way to Prague following the rafting trip.

The first thing that we saw in Prague was the Yellow Market. The yellow market sells cheap copies of popular clothing brands such as North Face or Bjorn Bjorg etc. The best part was watching my classmates haggling prices with the vendors. After about 4 hours of shopping, we returned to the hotel. The next morning we went for a run at 6:45 in the morning to the Lennon Wall. Not my favorite part of our time in Prague; it was much to early to attempt that sort of exercise. After breakfast we visited a Kozel brewery in Prague. I have never seen so much beer. Kegs of it everywhere. However, it was really neat getting to see the production of beer from the beginning, with the making of the beer, to the end, with bottling the beer for export. Then we went on a guided tour of Prague that lasted the rest of the day. Prague is a beautiful city. The architecture of the buildings was impressive especially the churches. Another highlight of the day was that I got a Starbucks coffee for the first time in months! There is only one Starbucks in Denmark located in the Copenhagen airport. In fact, some of my classmates didn't even know what a Starbucks was. Pretty crazy considering that there is one on every corner in America. That evening we had dinner at a pizzeria, which was very hyggeligt. I know I have used that word many times, but it is commonly used in everyday language in Denmark, and it is also how my classmates would describe this evening. The next day we visited a gymnasium in Prague. It was pretty similar to the gymnasium that I attend in Denmark. The only difference was that the students had to take more classes and the school was smaller. We took a tour in pairs with students at the gymnasium, and crazily enough I met a girl who had also been an exchange student last year to Montana. At the end of the tour, we were given free rein until we had to meet up that evening to return home. A group of my friends and I went to the walking streets and shopped, ate Ben & Jerry's icecream, drank coffee, and overall had a great time. We also ran into the ketchup boys again, yelled ketchup in their general direction and continued on our way. It was such a fun and hyggeligt trip with my class. 2.y is the best class ever!