Vienna

Ahhh Vienna! So many wonderful things to say about this place! This past weekend we packed our bags and headed on our first trip since moving to Europe. We went with two other friends from Prague and we couldn't have asked for better company. We arrived in the evening and quickly learned that we don't necessarily enjoy coming to a new city in the evening. It was dark, many restaurants were done serving food, and learning a new metro system is difficult at the end of the day. Although we felt inconvenienced we were able to convince a kitchen to stay open a little longer and safely found a place to lay our heads for the night. When we woke up Saturday we were off to explore the city. The first thing we noticed was how much more modern Vienna was than Prague and also how wide the streets were. In Prague the builds are so tall and the streets are so narrow that you almost feel claustrophobic, where as in Vienna it was like a breath of fresh air! We walked over 17 miles on Saturday exploring the city. We saw all the major tourist attractions, as well as, a few of the local hang outs. One of our friends what we went on the trip with had a friend that lived in Vienna that offered to show us around. Our first stop was an authentic Viennese restaurant. We had the schnitzel and Le Cordon Bleu with side salads. Although, to our surprise the salad had potatoes and sauerkraut on a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. It was a very strange looking salad, but surprisingly good! One of our favorite parts of our visit to Vienna was the Naschmarkt. (Sadly we didn't think to get pictures) The Naschmarkt was a combination of a flea market and farmers market. They had fresh fish, wine, beer, fruits, tea, specialty treats, meat, freshly pressed juices, and much more.  We also visited St. Stephan's Cathedral which was absolutely breathtaking. I thought the churches in Kutna Hora were beautiful but they did not compare after seeing St. Stephan's. Overall, Vienna was a beautiful city that we would love to go back to! They have two rivers that run through the city that make for amazing walks and beautiful scenery.

Imperial Church built in 1716- 1737

National Opera House

Gate to the Imperial Palace

National History Museum

Gardens From The Imperial Palace

Old foundations

Spanish Riding School

St. Stephans Cathedral

Danube River

Spanish Riding School

Parliament Building

City Hall

Everyday Life

As we have been here for over a month now, our life is starting to fall into place and get pretty exciting! This weekend we decided to take a spontaneous trip to Vienna, Austria. Next weekend we will head to Berlin, Germany and then two weeks after that we are renting a car and traveling to Ljubljana, Slovenia with 3 other friends! We are so excited to begin traveling and see all the amazing sights that Europe has to offer. Speaking of Europe.... I did a lesson with my students today about our world and where we live. I said, "Here is where we live, we live in Europe." I instantly stopped and had to think about that for a second. That was the first time that it truly registered in my head that I actually LIVE in Europe. Everything has continued to be better than I had imagined before coming here. Its fascinating to me to walk home from work and see all these buildings that have been here for long. It almost doesn't seem real.

I will say that since I have arrived their are a few minor things that I will say I dislike. That first is grocery shopping! I HATE it! It takes so much effort to go on a short trip to the store because I can't read anything, so I have to translate everything and their supermarkets are much smaller than the US. They typically only have one option for each item and they only have about 5 small aisles worth of food. The liquor section of the grocery store is just as big as the food section...which goes to show their diets;) The best way for me to describe it would for you to imagine the market section of a Target and not a Super Target just a regular Target with a small grocery section, that is what their supermarkets are like. It is taking a lot of getting used to. The second thing that I find annoying is after you go out to eat and you get that feeling that you are so stuffed that you can't even move, you typically will just go to your car and drive home. Well here you have to walk home... so you don't get the chance to just be lazy you are forced to get up and walk it off. I really shouldn't be complaining about it because it is actually a good thing but I still find it a bit annoying!

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and information from our trip to Vienna. I will try to upload photos as soon as possible! Also for those of you that want to follow along with the blog feel free to put your email address in the box underneath our picture on the right hand side. By doing that you will get an email every time we update the blog and you don't have to keep checking if we have put up a new post.

Cheers!

Lauren

Kutna Hora

This past Sunday Tom and I went on a day trip to Kutna Hora! We took a train with a group of 6 other friends. We began with The Church of Assumption of Our Lady and St. John. This church is a Baroque Gothic style church built around 1300. In 1421the church was burnt down by the Hussites, it remained in ruins for the next two centuries. In 1700 they decided to rebuild the church to what it is today. This church is part of the UNESCO world heritage list.

The second church we visited is called the Sedlec Ossuary also known as The Bone Church. This is the most famous church in Kutna Hora. This church has bones of over 40,000 people on display. They began to artistically decorate this church with bones in 1511 and then did a reconstruction in the 1800s. We were excited to see this church to see what it was all about but as soon as we walked inside we instantly felt a strange feeling in our stomachs. It was hard to believe that these were real bones of people from so long ago. I also struggled with the reasoning of why people would use the bones of humans to decorate a church. Although it was a little disturbing it was absolutely a must see!

Finally, the last church was St. Barbara. As soon as we started walking up to this church it instantly had a large presence. The church was massive and the church grounds were beautiful. This is one of the most famous Gothic style churches within Central Europe and is also a UNESCO world heritage site. The construction of this church began in 1388 and after many interruptions was finally finished in 1905.

*** To see more photos from the trip you can click on this link- https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

Or you should be able to click on the slide show on the bottom right hand side of the blog and it should bring you to the online web albums for each church!

Settling In

Ahoj!

We are officially Prague residents! This last week we moved into our apartment on Cimburkova street in Prague 3. Within our immediate area we have a lot of restaurants, small markets, bars, and our favorite cafe, Cafe Pavlac, right up the street! (If you are one who plans to come visit you can expect to have a meal or two there:) ) We are so lucky to have an amazing roommate who also happens to be from Minnesota! She is so great, she got TEFL certified through the same company and that's how we met. We are excited for the memories to come!

 

      

After only a week in country, I somehow managed to get an amazing job and started this past Monday! I will be working at ABC Academy, only a few tram stops away from my flat. I will be working 9-3 everyday which is wonderful! I am lucky to have a position that does not require me to travel so I can optimize my time and be paid for over 30 hours of teaching time. (Most companies require you to travel around the city and you do not get paid for travel time.) I will be working with a group of seven- four year olds. The school is a full English emersion program which is wonderful and the staff is amazing! I feel so fortunate to have them as friends and for support throughout my abroad teaching experience! Another amazing thing about this school that they go to camp 2-3 times a year. Starting Monday I will be on a bus heading to ski camp with 19 little ones. It blows my mind that they bring 3 year olds on a week long ski trip in the mountains! We rent out a cottage for 5 days and we have an Czech woman cook all of our meals. I cannot wait to try authentic Czech food and spend the week skiing...or trying to ski;)

Now that we have spent a significant amount of time away from The States, the cravings have started. Things we miss: Goldfish, Potato Oles, Doritos, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, beef jerky, peanut butter, Cheez Its, flavored pop (I have drank enough 7 up to get me through the rest of my life), and HOME COOKING. By the way our address is... ;)

Tom Buskey/ Lauren Manderfeld
Cimburkova 588/11
130 00 Praha 3
Czech Republic

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year! I can't believe that it is already 2016! Where does time go? We had quite an interesting New Years to say the least. Jet Lag had gotten ahold of us and wasn't letting go. We were so tired but knew we would regret not doing something to bring in the new year. I mean we are in Prague, we had to suck it up! We ended up walking a few miles to meet up with some friends we had met. We walked to Letna Park, which is a large park in Prague 7 that over looks the city. It was filled with thousands of people all of which were lighting off their own fireworks. It blew our mind how many people had professional grade fireworks and set them off wherever they wanted, with no regard to where people were standing. As the new year approached the fireworks got more frequent. As the clock struck 12, the energy throughout the city was indescribable. Everyone popped their bottle of champagne, lit off their fireworks, and smooched their loved ones. We felt so lucky to be apart of such a magical moment! If you are looking for a New Years like no other I highly suggest Prague!

Here is a video from NYE from the park overlooking the city. as many of you know pictures and videos sometimes cannot do justice but its a start! This is not a video we took, we used one from YouTube (We were too busy celebrating to get a good video!)

https://youtu.be/UjnEmt8CHp0