On Saturday we went to the Moravian Karst and I think that must have been my favourite trip so far - it was simply amazing. It's hard to believe that nature can create something that beautiful without (or because?) humankind being involved in the whole process.
The photos can hardly describe the atmosphere in the caves - it was somehow mystical and unreal.
As I mentioned in the entry before, we also went on an underground cruise on a boat that went on for about twenty minutes - suddenly we were overground again which felt so weird after not seing any sunlight for two hours or so.
We then took a cable car to the mountain top with a gorge 138 m deep that was formed when the ceiling of an underground chamber collapsed.
Since the whole area is a protected nature reserve, it encompasses a lot of notable geological features and landscapes - just look at the photos... :)

Afterwards we dressed up nicely and went to the local theatre where we watched a performance of the ballet "Giselle".
I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of ballet - the costumes and the dancing were quite nice, but to me it ended very sudden and since Giselle already dies in the first act, there's no point in having a second act really.. ;)
The interior of the theatre here in Brno is really nice though as you can see on the photos.

Today we talked about some Czech music in the cultural part of the language course and I really liked it, so I would like to introduce some of the modern Czech songs to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8p8q4x9AA0
(they are doing this strong Czech accent on purpose...)
or http://www.tape.tv/musikvideos/Monkey-Business/My-Friends
(for those of you whose youtube video gets blocked by the GEMA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iGpTxiDMCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqgdcqC7ZA (tepláky means sweatpants - they make fun of the people who wear sweatpants all the time - as you can see Czechs don't take themselves very seriously ;)
I hope you enjoyed this Czech music... :D

On Friday I'll leave Brno and head to Prague - thinking of it feels weird after having the routine of going to school, sharing my room with someone else and meeting all this new people from all over Europe for the last week.
It also makes me feel quite anxious since I still have nowhere to stay in Prague - looking at some hostels made me feel sick - they even offer 26-bed-rooms for 15 Euros/night!
I might actually try couchsurfing for the very first time in my life - do you have any suggestions / advice / comments on that?

I will do some more studying of Czech now as we will have an exam on Friday - so good night (dobrou noc!) for now and I hope you enjoy the photos!

Yesterday after the language class we went to the Brno planetarium - it was very informative as there were some models that explained us how gravitational force etc. work.

In the evening we had a little party at our dormitory and some students also went to a club in the city centre afterwards - I didn't join them though as I was way too tired from the language class and the visit to the planetarium.
On the photo you can see me and my roommate Maria from Estonia... :)

Today's cultural lessons were very insightful - we watched a Czech movie (with English subtitles of course ;) called "Kolja" that won an Oscar in 1996.

The movie is about a concert cellist called Franta Louka in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia who has run up a large debt after losing his position in the state orchestra.
When his friend, the grave-digger Mr. Broz, suggests a scheme for making a lot of money by marrying a Russian woman so that she can get Czech papers, he reluctantly agrees. She takes advantage of the situation by emigrating to West Germany, leaving her five-year-old son with his grandmother.
After the grandmother dies, Kolja has to live with his stepfather - Louka.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find an English trailer, but if you're interested in the movie, you can watch a synopsis here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfVSvI4fo-s .

Tomorrow is going to be a big day again - we will visit the Moravian karst where we will take a cruise on the underground river.
After that, we will see a ballet performance of "Giselle" at the local theatre.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I'm looking forward to hear how things are going for you! :)

After finishing the language course and watching a movie about Prague, we went to a high ropes course where we stayed for the whole afternoon.
In order to get to the actual part of the high ropes course, you had to take a flying fox over a river, so that was quite exciting for a start. :)
The rest of the course consisted of 32 more or less hard parts with bridges, spiderwebs, ropes and flying foxes.
I have never done anything like this before, but I really liked it and I really want to do it again!

I hope you can get the glimpse of an idea what it was like to be up there by looking at the photos, the others are of the city centre in Brno.
I especially like all the old buildings, I hope you do, too... :)

Tomorrow we are going to visit the planetarium here in Brno, I'm really looking forward to it, it will be very interesting for me since I haven't been to one yet.

I'm looking forward to hear how things are going in Germany and I will keep you updated about my journey!

I just want to let you know that I arrived in Brno safely!
The journey yesterday was quite exhausting, it took me 12 hours to get here and I nearly missed my connecting bus because I was leaving early.
But somehow I made it and now I'm in the second biggest city of the Czech Republic doing an intensive language course along with 44 other exchange students from 17 different European countries.

My roommate is Maria, a 21-year-old shoe designer from Estonia and we get along really well (since we are the two only blonde chicks here we have to stick together :).
Today we started with our first few Czech words and learned to say where we're from and stuff like that.
After three hours of language course we had another part where we learned about Czech culture, history and geography.
In the evening we went to a typical Czech pub where I tried some goulash with dumplings, it tasted great!

So what's my first impression of the Czech republic?
It's really green over here, the people are friendly and open-minded (even though unfortunately most of the older people don't speak English, so I really have to get going with my studying!), I love the architecture and the old buildings and everything is so cheap (0,5 litres of beer cost less than one Euro!).

I have to get going now because I still have some homework to do for the language course in the morning, I hope everything's fine over in Germany and I'm looking forward to hear from you!