Trip log #3: Europe - Olomouc, Czech

** Tip: you can click on the photo to view the larger version of it. Also, I recently moved my journal entries to Blogspot. To prevent double posts on Facebook feeds, I have deleted the old Facebook feeds.

 It was the first weekend in Czech that I decided that I should take some time to explore around Olomouc. I took a bus down to the central part of the city and just began walking around with a Town Guide map in my hand.


I tried this "instant pasta" that I got from the mall the day before only to find out that it tasted pretty bad. The noodles won't cook fully, and there was not enough sauce to have the pasta covered in the tomato sauce as pictured. But hey, I was hungry, and I ate it to the last piece of pasta haha.

Czech republic, like very much of Europe, is predominately Catholic.

-Saturday-
My first stop was Dom Sv. Vaclava (St. Wenceslas Cathedral), located in the East of the town.

Beautiful, no? It was really tall, too.


Entrance to the Cathedral. *edit I did also go into the catacombs of this cathedral, but photography was not allowed. The catacombs had a huge stone altar, a couple of bishops' garments, and a huge stone cross. I felt the weight pressing down upon me as I walked around the catacomb.

Now, a picture dump of the inside of the Cathedral:


The Cathedral has a gothic-style structure of tall, square pillars and modest internal designs.

Virgin Mary


I think this was St. Wenceslas..


Altar


Eucharist


Pipe organ


Virgin Mary on the wall of a Jesuit building across cathedral

The Cathedral is connected to Premyslovsky Hrad (Premyslovsky Castle) which is now an Archdiocese Museum. I heard that the last prince of Czech was murdered at this very location.

Premyslovsky Hrad


Extension of the Premyslovsky Hrad


Arcidiecezni Muzeum


A statue in front of the museum


Unfortunately, photography was not allowed the inside of the museum. The museum was filled with royal jewelry, archbishop's (the royalty were often the bishops and other higher position clergy members) canes, rings, and so on.


Trams and buses like this roam around the City/Town of Olomouc.


The small stand updates the time when the bus will arrive. It is exact to the minute- very convenient. I wished MARTA was as punctual as these Czech buses.

After a quick tour, I stopped by at the Center Plaza of Olomouc.

And of course, I had to eat something while I was at the plaza.

I had a cup of espresso and a scoop of ice cream with one of my host professors. The espresso came with a small coffee, a glass of water, sugar, and milk. To this day, I'm still not used to that tiny handle of espresso coffee cups.


They had gelato. Yum!


Another family was eating a meal here.

After all that walking, (yes I foolishly walked home instead of taking the bus- but I think it was worth it since I got to see a lot of things on the way home) I was exhausted. As I prepared for the lab presentation to take place the day after, everything was still dreamy. I couldn't believe I was going to live in Czech for 2 months.

I realized I needed to learn Czech as quick as possible to survive. :)

The log #3 ends here for now. Hope you enjoyed reading it!