Trip log SE: Europe - Olomouc city and the night life

[Edit: After uploading the post, I realized this is more of a "Special Edition" of my log since it doesn't really include the travel descriptions haha. Nevertheless, enjoy!]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I updated the last post. I have been preoccupied with a lot of things and have been quite busy these days. I should be busy at the moment as well (lol) but I decided to update the blog some more or I'll never get to finish my trip log haha. So here we go!

Besides going on business trips and stuff, I mostly stayed in my room/office because the lab was literally in the building right next to where I stayed. I mostly ate at the faculty cafeteria or picked up simple stuff from a local market. I learned how to speak Czech because I  had to buy bus tickets, groceries, etc.. basically to survive haha.

Meal 1: Very fresh and steamy pasta made with tomato sauce and salami slices. Beer: Zlaty Bazant, a Slovak beer.

Kofola: a soda drink very popular in Czech. It tastes like Coke + Pocari Sweat. I got used to it pretty fast haha.

Meal 2: Bun with cheese and ham slice. A plum for a dessert. Beer: Radegast (Czech)

Meal 3: Meatball, small bun, a pickle, and mashed potatoes. Drinks: Kofola and Gambrinus (Czech)

Meal 4: Cream pasta, pickled peppers, salami sandwiches, and orange juice.

Meal 5: Chicken thigh, sauce, soup, dumplings (just breads, actually- but they're called dumplings because of the way they're made), and lemon drink.

Meal 6: Garlic soup and Czech-style fire roasted half chicken with potato dumplings and cabbage. This was my favorite menu in Czech by far, and all that meal only cost about $7USD. The restaurant is located at the top floor of a skyscraper in Olomouc, and I was quite fortunate to get a window seat. The window seats are popular date spots and always get reserved beforehand. Note: the tallest buildings in the town are all Catholic churches.

I was lucky to be considered as one of the guest faculties because of the research I have been doing. I was invited to a dinner with the head of the Cell Biology department and a guest Japanese professor followed by a nice cold mug of local-brewed beer. They were so delicious, but I thought it wouldn't be polite to be carrying around my camera to a dinner I got invited to with other professors. One thing I can say is that Czech people love their beer.

I was also lucky to be invited as one of the panel audiences for the students at Palacky University Honors Research presentations. Afterwards, a few students invited me over to their graduation party.

So here are a couple of pictures that I took while we had some great times talking in broken English and Czech:

The picture on the right is with the shot of absinthe the girls had ordered for me. It was also fun because the bartender there made me use my broken Czech to order my drinks.

Bar #3. We had even more beer and more conversations. Another department joined us and we had some interesting conversation in Czech + English + French. That doesn't mean I understood them- I understood like 20% of the conversation, but so did everyone else. The power of alcohol seemingly enabled us to be able to carry conversations with each other pretty decently.

We went to several different bars- and when we were done, the sun was already coming up and I was supposed to be in the laboratory in 4 hours.

This concludes the log #8 for now. Next up is my bus trip to the Holy Hill (Svatý kopeček). Stay tuned!

Trip log #7: Europe - Piestany, Slovakia

It's been a little too while since I have updated this blog- so I shall continue with my trip log today! :)

The trip to Slovakia was purely for business. We visited to check out one of the largest plant-science facility in Slovakia to discuss issues with our plasmids and potential partnership in their business. After all the business meetings were over, we decided to check out Piestany, Slovakia--a famous spa-city.

At the entrance to Piestany, I spotted a very unique town mascot:

The mascot is breaking his crutches in half, which is a depiction of a famous belief that the Piestany spa water heals any injuries. Piestany is known for its rehabilitation clinic and health mud massages that cost up to $150 per hour or more, and each spa houses their own physicians to check up on the progress of their patients. In addition to the elderly who come for relaxation, celebrities and sports players apparently visit the spa quite often.

After passing this mascot, I walked down a short bridge into a small spa-land (Kupelny ostrov). Though a part of Piestany, the area where the spa houses are located is somewhat isolated from the main part of the town.

As you can see, the spa house neighbors a river that passes through Slovakia.

The river was quite wide, and housed strange-looking water fowls.

Look at those swans in the river on the left. That bird on the right looks like a seagull, but not really...

As we crossed the bridge, the spa house became more and more visible... and wow!

The house was ginormous. (Yes, it says Thermia Palace in English)
Famous for its healing peloid, the harvest/maturation pond was located right on the back of the spa house.

Another interesting thing about this spa town was that the "healthy spa water" was readily available for drinking at the water fountains installed in the walls of these spa centers.

The spa water was pretty warm (at 60C, or 140F), and the spa centers ensured that the water was fresh from the hot springs. The taste? Hm.. tasted somewhat like a boiled egg.

Afterwards, we headed towards the main streets of Piestany.

These street shops had Slovakia traditional dolls and crystal vases and dishes:

After a long trip, I noticed that the power was out at the faculty housing facility due to rain. Unfortunately, I only had a card key access to the building, so I was pretty much locked out. After about an hour, a maintenance guy showed up, who did not speak any English. Luckly, I had picked up a few Czech phrases to explain the situation to let me into the building. Of course, it was about 5% Czech and 95% body language.

Due to the power outage, I had a simpler meal for the night.

The beer, Budejovicky Budvar (sold as CzechVar in US), is the original Budweiser that Anheuser-Busch company apparently got the idea from. Light and crisp lager taste, perfect with a greasy meal like those slices of salami.

That concludes my Trip log #7. Thanks for reading!

(The photo was taken per request from my parents who wanted to see my face while I was @ Czech)

Trip log #6: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Continuing from the visit to the St. Michael's, I continued down towards the center plaza of Olomouc, where various fountains and restaurants are gathered. The town square had the following:

Jupiter's Fountain (Jupiterova Kasna), or more popularly known as Zeus.

Marion Column (Mariansky Sloup). This column was built for the protection of the town. It seemed to be very common for every city in Czech to have Marion Columns with golden Virgin Mary at the top. As people pray to the Virgin Mary, she is thought to provide unending support and protection to the town or the city.

There were other fountains around the town square as well, such as these:

From the left:
1) Neptune's Fountain (Neptunova Kasna). It was very interesting to see a mix of Christianity and the Latin Mythology around the town. The explanation was that because Olomouc was the capital of Moravia (which was one of the Catholic pilgrim sites later), and that Caesar also settled in and claimed as one of his cities. A quick history/geography fact: Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while Olomouc is the capital of Moravia.
2) Arion's Fountain (Arionova Kasna). This fountain was completed in 2002. A very modern fountain, lights and decorations were once installed. I haven't had a chance to really take a look and take a picture of it, but I was lucky to find one on Olomouc's tourism website :)

Very beautiful, huh :)

Before we continue to the more center of the town square, there were a few more fountains that I would like to show:

 

From the left: 1) Caesar's Fountain (Caesarova Kasna) and 2) Hercules' Fountain (Herkulova Kasna). The interesting thing about these fountains, and the other ones around the town square, is that only the weapons of these heroes were made in copper.

The town square also had two palace buildings, now a restaurant-house type of buildings.

 

These palace buildings were a few of the oldest buildings around Olomouc. From the left: 1) Petra's Palace (Petrasuv Palac) and 2) Edelmann's Palace (Edelmannuv Palac). These Baroque-style palaces were only open by appointment, and I was unfortunate not to be able to visit them while I was in Olomouc.

Now, towards the center of the town square.

 

This is the Town Hall (Radnice) of Olomouc. The Town Hall has a tourist information center and other town-business offices. The Town Hall also houses one of the two Astronomical clocks in Czech. One is housed on the wall of Prague Town Hall.

This Astronomical Clock (Orloj) shows time of the day, time, movement of the sun and the moon, horoscopes, and other information. Sadly, the clock had to be rebuilt after the war, and still carries a communism-style mural due to the rebuilding. Unlike the Prague Astronomical Clock, the dolls do not move.

This is the Holy Trinity Column (Sloup Nejsvetejsi Trojice), the fanciest, tallest column in Olomouc. Each Holy Ghost, Angels, Jesus, and Halos are all coated with bright gold. This column, as I learned, was built in the hopes to protect Olomouc from the plague. The column also has the Disciples sculpted around. Though it seems to have a small chamber in the middle of the column, when I looked into it I couldn't see anything.

At a restaurant called Cafe Caesar right across from the Trinity Column, I ordered my first restaurant meal. I was particularly excited because this was the first meal I have ever ordered and paid for in Czech while speaking Czech. Of course, I tried to act natural and like a native in front of them. I knew I somewhat had succeeded because they talked in Czech to me instead of English. I was able to read the Czech menu and exchange a few words in Czech- but I gotta be honest: I went to the pasta restaurant because you can't really go wrong with an Italian-style pasta that is also widely available in the US. :)

 

And the greatest thing was that this awesome meal only cost me about $6 in US dollars. In the McDonald's right across from the Cafe, a Big Mac meal was equivalent to about $9 US dollars. Mostly tourists dined at the ridiculously expensive McDonald's. I could hear English everywhere haha.

See? McDonald's is truly everywhere.

This concludes my Trip Log #6. The next log will be about a town called Piestany in Slovak Republic. See you next time!

Trip log #5: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

Hi guys! Thanks for coming to read my trip logs. Instead of having the logs imported straight to Facebook notes, I have decided to only import the shortened version to the Facebook so you can come visit my blog and read the posts while listening to the music. Also, blog allows for more visual editing for the ease of reading. SO, if you haven't done so, click "View Original Post" in Facebook, or visit my blog from my profile.

Remember to click on the pictures to view a larger, clearer picture! :)

Anyways, I'll pick up from where I left off the last time: visiting Church of Virgin Mary of Snows.

I walked down a street towards the center of the town from the church. Because of the tradition of having church bell towers and crosses to be the tallest buildings in town, the churches are usually placed on a hilltop or are really tall; therefore, they can be spotted from almost anywhere in the town.

Then, I visited the Chapel of St. John Sarkander (Kaple Sv. Jana Sarkandra).

According to Wikipedia (of course the most trusted source on the Internet), Saint John Sarkander (Czech and Polish: Jan Sarkander) (1576–1620) was a Polish and Moravian priest. He was consecrated in 1609, and worked in Holešov from 1616. He was accused of betrayal and tortured in Olomouc prison, partially due to his refusal to divulge what was said in confession. Nowadays St. Jan Sarkander chapel stands on its place. The original torturing rack and Sarkander's gravestone are preserved here. Sarkander was canonized by Pope John Paul II during his visit in Olomouc in 1995.

I then roamed around the town to check out the following buildings:

1) Jesuit Seminary (Jezuitsky Konvikt)

2) Chapel of the Corpus Christi (Kaple Boziho Tela)

3) Jesuit Seminary
4) Vila Primavesi
Then I visited St. Michael's Church (Kostel Sv. Michala), which sadly was not open to public. The building was huge, and the interior is supposedly a Baroque style. I couldn't imagine how beautiful it would be inside.

Though I couldn't see the inside, I was treated with a nice view of a statue with a street musician. I gave him a coin equivalent of a US dollar.

As soon as I gave the musician a coin, a very sketchy-looking guy came up to the musician and seemingly asked who he just got a coin from. Of course, being the only Asian on the street, and the musician pointing at me, I quickly realized that I needed to get out of the street corner. The sketchy guy came up to me and asked in a very poor acting (he was trying to make a crying face but wasn't working quite well) that he needs a coin to call his sick brother. Because I had seen his angry and stern face at the musician the minute before he started walking toward me like a coyote, I knew from the beginning that he was lying. I told him that I do not have any coin or any money, and that I was just passing by to go home.

Later when I asked my host professor about it, he told me that such cases are not as common as they are in Prague, but still present in Olomouc, targeting the obvious foreigners. The sketchy guy was apparently waiting for me to take out my wallet so he can snatch it from my hands. Something to be careful about if you're planning on going on a trip. :)

I think that's a long enough read for the Log #5. Thanks for reading!