Just in case you were wondering - I finally moved in to my flatshare after staying at hotels, hostels and sleeping on other peoples' couches! :)
Oh, I also changed the settings for leaving a comment, so you should be able to comment without having to register first now! :)



the view from my room on the first day of uni! :)

I used the last couple of days to discover some more of the city i will be living in by following the advice in my Lonely Planet and taking some of the walking tours suggested there.

The first walk I took is called "Around Wenceslas Square" (Václavské náměstí) which is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town.
It starts at the neo-Renaissance National Museum, which dominates the upper end of Wenceslas Square. From the steps you have a grand view down the square:



There is also a pavement memorial to student Jan Palach and Jan Zajic who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest, a symbolic event often taken to be central to events which led to the fall of the Iron Curtain. Jan Palach set himself on fire in front of the National Museum, the memorial marks the spot where he broke down:



If you cross the street, you stand in front of one of Prague's famous landmarks, the equestrian statue of Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia:





Here you can see the National Museum in the background of the statue

Below the statue is a modest memorial to those who died for their resistance to communism:





beautiful view over Wenceslas Square

If you wander down the middle of the square, you can admire grand buildings on either side - the finest is the 1906 Art Nouveau Grand Hotel Europa at No 25:



Across the street at No 36 is the Melantrich Building, from whose balcony the obituary of Czech communism was pronounced by Alexander Dubček and Václav Havel on 24 November 1989:



Nearby the Grand Hotel Europa is a shopping arcade that leads to the central atrium of the Lucerna Palace, graced by David Černý's ironic twist on the Wenceslas statue in the square outside:



If you follow the arcade to Vodičková and enter the Světozor arcade, you'll see a stained-glass window dating from the late 1940s that's actually an advertisement for Tesla Radio:



At the arcade's far end, you can turn left into the Františkánská zahrada (Franciscan Gardens), a hidden oasis of peace and greenery:



Follow the exit to Jungmannovo náměstí and go past the arch leading to the kostel Panny Marie Sněžné (Church of Our Lady of the Snows):





Keep to the right of the Lancôme shop, and you'll come to what must be the only Cubist lamppost in the world, dating from 1915:



Turn left and walk through the short Lindt Arcade to return to Wenceslas Square at its foot. If you look up, you'll see the last stop of this tour, the Art Nouveau Koruna Palace with its crown of pearls:



I'll tell you a bit more about the latest discoveries in my next entries and leave you with a Czech song that's in the Top Single Charts right now and which I really like (have fun trying to figure out what he is singing about... :D ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVTVJ4WGURo

(unfortunately the official video is blocked by the Gema, so this is the link for everyone who is not in Germany right now ;) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rNrTWquayE&feature=related )

Right now I'm on the bus on my way back to Praha after spending two wonderful days in Budapest.
We arrived on Thursday and met Vaida's friend Egle who let us stay at her place for the night.
Together we went to the city centre where we had a look at some sights including the Basilica of St Stephen, a neoclassical cathedral that was built over the course of half a century and completed in 1905. Much of the interruption had to do with the fiasco in 1868 when the dome collapsed during a storm, and the structure had to be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up.
It also displays the Holy Right Hand of the founder of Hungary, King Saint Stephen.

The weather was quite nice, it was a bit chilly, but it didn't rain, so we were really lucky :).
Egle also showed us a great place to have some traditional Hungarian goulash (we had to share one portion between the three of us as it was just so huge!).

After that we went to the Citadella, a fortress that never did battle. Built by the Habsburgs after the 1848–49 War of Independence to defend the city from further insurrection, by the time it was ready in 1851 the political climate had changed and the Citadella had become obsolete.
From the Citadella we had a nice overview over the city and enjoyed the sunset before we walked back to Egle's apartment.

On our second day we took part in a free walking tour (if you are going on a holiday, I strongly suggest so google if the offer a free walking tour in the city you are heading to as a lot of the bigger cities throughout the world are already covered!) that covered both the Pest and the Buda side and finished at the Buda Castle area.
From there we walked to the Margaret Bridge past Margaret Island and back to the Pest side where we had a look at the Hungarian Parliament.
Afterwards we walked through the Jewish quarter back to our hostel and enjoyed some delicious Hungarian wine. :)






Basilica of St Stephen



a parade at St Stephen's Square



cupola of St Stephen's Basilica



interior of St Stephen's Basilica



Budapest street view









Chain Bridge



Royal Palace



Bar where we had lunch





Freedom Bridge

















Citadella











impressions at night-time



Museum of Applied Arts



Great Synagogue



street art



<3 :D



Danubius Fountain



entrance gate to Gresham Palace, a good example of Art Nouveau architecture, now managed by Four Seasons Hotels















Buda Castle area











Matthias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion



Hungarian Parliament

Two days ago Vaida and I arrived in Bratislava - a city that's full of contrast for me.
Since I can't put it in better words myself, I will use an extract from the introduction to the Bratislava chapter from the Lonely Planet "Czech and Slovak Republics" to let you know what the city is like:

Narrow pedestrian streets, pastel 18th-century buildings and street cafes galore create a supremely stroll-worthy setting. One chichi restaurant after another vies for the attention of passers-by, and frequent free concerts take place in the main square.
Outside the centre, the contrast created under communism become more pronounced.
Ugly modern housing estates sit just across the river from the old town and the age-old castle shares a skyline with the UFO-like New Bridge.
Post EU-membership, new investment poured into the city, but subsequent global economic woes stopped a number of projects mid-construction.

On our first day it was sunny and pretty hot, so we strolled through the city centre and walked up to the castle area where we enjoyed the nice view over the ciry.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Jewish Culture before taking part in a free walking tour to the main sights.



view from our hostel room



our hostel room























city centre





Eurovea Shopping Centre



some street art



the New Bridge (that's also called "UFO on a stick")















castle area



view over the Danube river









the Blue Church (also known as "Cake Church" or "Jumping Castle", it was my favourite sight! :)



an abandoned hospital directly opposite of the Blue Church

I used the weekend to explore the city centre, the Castle area and its surroundings together with Vaida, a girl from Lithuania who I got to know in the intensive language course in Brno.
So here are some of my very first impressions:

As the caption already suggests, something really good happened: I finally found myself a place to stay!!! :)
But let's start from the very beginning: I found two interesting flatshares on the internet I wanted to look at and scheduled an appointment for last Thursday...
So I went from Brno to Praha and back (which took me 5 hours) to check them out.
The flatshare I will be living in is located close to the metro station called "Náměstí Míru" (Peace Square), the deepest station of the Prague metro. Its platform is situated 53 metres below surface. As a consequence the station is equipped with one of the longest escalators in Europe (length 87 m, vertical span 43 m, 533 steps, taking 2 minutes and 15 seconds to ascend or descend without walking).
The apartment is only 2,8 km away from my faculty and my flatmates are three girls from the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria.
Unfortunately it won't become available before the 27th of September, so I decided to use the time to do some more travelling together with a friend (I will tell you more about this in the next entry).
On the photos you can see the escalator of Náměstí Míru metro station and the facade of the house where I will be living in.
Pictures of the flat can be found on https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.187037907990653.48637.124262154268229&type=3 .

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! :)