Day 20: Hikes and Movies and Wine OH MY!

I forgot to mention where we were staying in Mikulov. It is an elementary school. A vacant elementary school boarding house in the middle of a random town. Interesting!

"7am waking up in the morning, gotta get fresh got eat breakfast?"...Anyone? Bueller? Alrighty then! 

Well the gang woke up early and we went to venture out to find the restaurant where we got free breakfast. We couldn't find it. We tried to ask for directions but our Chenglish didn't go far since they have a different dialect in Mikulov. Eventually we ran into more students from the program that seemed like they knew where they were going so we followed them. And we made it breakfast.

The next thing we did was decide we wanted to go on a hike up one of the massive hills because we were told the views were incredible! We ended up on a route that was not leading up close to the hill so we turned around. I did get some cool pictures of the town along the way though! We passed through the castle gardens too.

Weeee! So Pretty!

Banksy?

The castle was beautiful!

We proceeded to hike up the castle wall like badasses...until it got too narrow and didn't feel like falling off a cliff.

On our way down the hill after seeing the castle, we found an awesome little carnival! We were all little kids at heart so obviously we went on those swings. You know, the kind at the fair that look like at any moment a child in a chair might go flying out into the middle of the street and get hit by a car? Yup! That's the one!

Here I am, getting strapped into the death trap!

You can't see it but that old Czech man spun all of our chairs so that the chains were completely twisted...I then started to question the safety of this ride

There's the panic as the chair finished whirling me around spastically

And in reality, it wasn't that bad! It was super fun!!

Next? BUMBER CARS!!!! It was 6 of us from the program and then one Czech boy in the cars. The Czech boy said something to Keegan and Ally probably along the lines of the three of them ganging up on the rest of us! That child was vicious! I got a hysterical video of the ride, really great point of view of college kids doing what they do best! It was super competitive and blast! Who knew Mikulov would bring out the little kid in all of us.

After battling some mild motion sickness we decided to finally find that hill and climb that sucker! We found a staircase (that appeared out of no where) that led exactly where we needed to go. It was an awesome hike with some pretty spectacular views!

The path we hiked to the top of the hill

When we got to the top of the hill there was this old tower that we climbed up to. This is the view from the top of the tower!

Oh hey there!

Put mountain men in a mountain...and they'll never come down

Our view from the hike down the mountain

After our play time and hike we all had a nice communal nap time followed by some delicious coffee. 

We ate dinner in the town square. It cost all of $2. But then we ran into Daniel, who works for the Prague Institute and helped plan the excursion. He was at the sweets place and said that we needed to try it! So we all got ice cream and wine, of course. He told us what we should order and it was AMAZING!!!

After our delicious dessert, we went to see The Artist in the garden of the castle...yeah I know, it's okay to be jealous! It was magical! Until the end where all of us students were waiting for the speaking part and it was dubbed over in Czech. We couldn't help but bust out laughing because none of us were expecting that!

The night didn't end there though! We all went back to the awkward elementary school and ran around the yard. It was a hell of a night. I may have been tackled clothes-lined at some point but it was all in good fun!

Day 19: Mikulov Here We Come

Alarm was set for 7am with a departure time from the Pension at 9am. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I stuffed clothes into my backpack, showered, and even had time to eat breakfast and make sandwiches for the road.

The first thing that was planned for the trip was going to Brno, the second largest city within the Czech Republic. We had about an hour break between that and an organized tour so a bunch of students went to go find the "hospoda"(pub) for a quick drink. 

At 1pm we tours this house that was built in the 1920s. Very art deco! It was called the Tugendhat House, home to Greta and Fritz Tugendhat and was built by the famous German-American architect Ted Mosby...I mean Ludwig Mies van der Rohe! Before we started our tour of the house we needed to step into these contraptions that had plastic on them. You pushed your foot down and the plastic conformed to your shoe. It was epic! There was no way to sneak around that house, your feet made so much noise whenever you walked plus, it was a prevention so that none of us tracked dirt into the home.

The house was super special because it was the first time in the history of architecture that a steel load-bearing structure was used in a private house. The house featured a large spatial floor plan with built-in furniture. It is also built into the side of a hill. There were also huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows on the bottom floor that opened electronically! They opened up to a beautiful garden.

After touring the Tugendhat House we had about an hour and a half left to explore Brno. Naturally, Eliza and I wanted food so we ventured out to find a bowl of soup, after our coffee of course. 

NOTHING! No soup anywhere! What a catastrophe! We walked around like street urchins sharing the one apple Eliza brought between the two of us as we scavenged for a place to eat. There were tons of places to drink but virtually none that served food :(

Eventually we stumbled upon a square that had a live orchestra playing and a McDonalds. Yes, the American tourists got McDonalds. And you know what? Best McFlurry of my life! 

After visiting Brno we drove to a small Moravian town called Pavlov, which is in Southeastern Czech Republic. Pavlov is in the countryside so it was a nice escape from the city life for a while! At Pavlov we went to an exclusive wine tasting. 

SWEET BABY JESUS! I don't know what they do to the grapes in Pavlov or Moravia but DAMN! Best wine I ever had I had on this trip! We tried maybe 9 different wines and all were excellent. They gave us a bowl of bread and a plate of cheese to cleanse our palate between wines but...we ate four plates of cheese...you can't put cheese in front of me and not expect me to eat it! I'm sorry.

And of course, they saved the best wine for last, and it was called "Ice Wine." Or "Mouth Orgasm"...the vineyard owner's words, not mine! But my god, it was! I would have bought a bottle if I brought more money but it cost 800 CZK and I had only brought 1000CZK for the whole weekend. I soon hated my life for not bringing more money!

Here are some pictures from the mini excursion:

The Moravian countryside

On our way to the wine cellar to taste some amazing vino!

The cutest little vineyard town

The sun setting on the amazing Moravian hills

Even the Microsoft computer background made an appearance!

Our final stop on the day's journey was Mikulov, where we would be staying for the next two nights. We went out exploring the town a little and grabbed some food. It was an early night because we had to get up super early the next morning if we wanted breakfast.