The man who is in my opinion the funniest actor ever is no longer among us.
Yesterday, Leslie Nielsen died at the age of 84. Let's take a minute to enjoy his best moments one more time.
R.I.P., Mr. Nielsen. You were not just a master in your genre. You actually WERE a genre yourself. We will miss you.
maandag 29 november 2010
zaterdag 27 november 2010
Day trip to Kutná Hora
Winter is rapidly approaching here in Czech Republic. That's why I decided I'd better go on another trip before it gets too cold to do that. The destination this time was Kutná Hora: a small town around 60 kilometers away from Prague. I got up early this morning so I could arrive there before noon. It had been snowing a bit the night before, which was promising for the quality of my pictures.
Kutná Hora must be a very touristic place in the summer, considering the fact that even at this time of year there were quite a few Americans (recognizable by their incredibly American accent while trying to pronounce Czech words) and Asians wandering around. And I must say, it is quite a nice place. The cathedral is amazing, although it's hard to capture it in all its glory on a photo taken from the ground. This is my sad attempt:
Also the square in the center is very beautiful:
This is the square where I had lunch in a pizzeria that was recommended to me by a friend who had been to the exact same place a few years ago. The pizza was quite ok, a bit too little tomato sauce for my taste, but the ingredients were very fresh. The hair that I found stuck in the cheese ruined it a bit though.
So early in the afternoon I had seen pretty much all I wanted to see, so I just started walking around a bit through the less poetic places of Kutná Hora. After concluding this was a bit boring, I remembered the so-called "bone church" one of my colleagues had told me about one day earlier. I was able to find it without much trouble and went inside. The entrance was already very unusual:
It turns out that the area around this church was very popular to be buried in a few centuries ago. The cemetary was over 3000m2. However, the town decided they needed more ground and removed most of the graves of the cemetary. They found it a bit irrespectful to just throw away all those bones, so therefore they hired an artist to make art with the bones. And the following two pictures show how creative you can be with old skeletons:
So after having walked some more through the suburbs of Kutná Hora, where I accidentally stumbled on a big Christmas market, it was time to go home. There was no direct connection for two hours though, so I just went on a train in the right direction and got off in Kolín. Instead of waiting 30 minutes at a boring train station, I went to explore this town. I found out that Kolín is not so special, but it has a nice shopping mall that is large enough to make one forget the time and miss the train to Prague. Luckily the connection between Kolín and Prague is, for Czech standards, excellent, so I got home safely in the end, after yet another great trip within Czech Republic. :)
Kutná Hora must be a very touristic place in the summer, considering the fact that even at this time of year there were quite a few Americans (recognizable by their incredibly American accent while trying to pronounce Czech words) and Asians wandering around. And I must say, it is quite a nice place. The cathedral is amazing, although it's hard to capture it in all its glory on a photo taken from the ground. This is my sad attempt:
Also the square in the center is very beautiful:
This is the square where I had lunch in a pizzeria that was recommended to me by a friend who had been to the exact same place a few years ago. The pizza was quite ok, a bit too little tomato sauce for my taste, but the ingredients were very fresh. The hair that I found stuck in the cheese ruined it a bit though.
So early in the afternoon I had seen pretty much all I wanted to see, so I just started walking around a bit through the less poetic places of Kutná Hora. After concluding this was a bit boring, I remembered the so-called "bone church" one of my colleagues had told me about one day earlier. I was able to find it without much trouble and went inside. The entrance was already very unusual:
It turns out that the area around this church was very popular to be buried in a few centuries ago. The cemetary was over 3000m2. However, the town decided they needed more ground and removed most of the graves of the cemetary. They found it a bit irrespectful to just throw away all those bones, so therefore they hired an artist to make art with the bones. And the following two pictures show how creative you can be with old skeletons:
So after having walked some more through the suburbs of Kutná Hora, where I accidentally stumbled on a big Christmas market, it was time to go home. There was no direct connection for two hours though, so I just went on a train in the right direction and got off in Kolín. Instead of waiting 30 minutes at a boring train station, I went to explore this town. I found out that Kolín is not so special, but it has a nice shopping mall that is large enough to make one forget the time and miss the train to Prague. Luckily the connection between Kolín and Prague is, for Czech standards, excellent, so I got home safely in the end, after yet another great trip within Czech Republic. :)
maandag 15 november 2010
Weekend in Olomouc!
I had been looking forward to my first real trip within Czech Republic for weeks already. This weekend the moment was finally there. The initial plan for the first day was to meet some guy from Couchsurfing on Saturday afternoon and to visit the city together and go out together afterwards. However, plans can change.
Friday late in the afternoon I received a message from him that unfortunately he could not host me this weekend and that he also had little time to show me around, because his floor was under water. That was kinda last minute. But as a Couchsurfer you need to be flexible. And so I was. I immediately went searching for other people I could meet on Saturday, and eventually I got in touch with a girl named Nela, who invited me to meet her in the city and I could also spend the night at her place. The only "problem" was that there were already two Polish Couchsurfers staying at her place as well. So on Saturday I went into the city with Nela, Anna and Tomek (the two Polish people) and we had a good time, visiting all places in the dark and drinking beer at something that was neither a restaurant nor a bar. And we spent the evening at home talking, making crazy pictures and eating Polish candy. :)
On Sunday I met my penpal Mája. She was a really nice and talkative girl and she showed me all the poetic and romantic places Olomouc had to offer. We went to visit the cathedral, the park, a tower with a marvellous view on the city and the surrounding countryside and we also ate in a cute traditional Moravian restaurant, where the menu was written in the local dialect. The food there was very good, and in fact was able to order my meal in Czech! Or at least I was able to say the number, name of the meal and "prosím" (please) after it. And we saw the magnificient fluteman too! He really exists! Anyway, as you can read I really had a great time on Sunday and at the end of the day I already started to feel at home in Olomouc and was a bit sad I had to go home to Prague again.
After a long travel of over 3 hours I finally got home, but I was still full of energy after such an amazing weekend. I really want to thank all the people who made my weekend so good, you guys are awesome!
So here are some photos of my trip:
The full selection of the pictures of weekend can be found on Facebook.
Friday late in the afternoon I received a message from him that unfortunately he could not host me this weekend and that he also had little time to show me around, because his floor was under water. That was kinda last minute. But as a Couchsurfer you need to be flexible. And so I was. I immediately went searching for other people I could meet on Saturday, and eventually I got in touch with a girl named Nela, who invited me to meet her in the city and I could also spend the night at her place. The only "problem" was that there were already two Polish Couchsurfers staying at her place as well. So on Saturday I went into the city with Nela, Anna and Tomek (the two Polish people) and we had a good time, visiting all places in the dark and drinking beer at something that was neither a restaurant nor a bar. And we spent the evening at home talking, making crazy pictures and eating Polish candy. :)
On Sunday I met my penpal Mája. She was a really nice and talkative girl and she showed me all the poetic and romantic places Olomouc had to offer. We went to visit the cathedral, the park, a tower with a marvellous view on the city and the surrounding countryside and we also ate in a cute traditional Moravian restaurant, where the menu was written in the local dialect. The food there was very good, and in fact was able to order my meal in Czech! Or at least I was able to say the number, name of the meal and "prosím" (please) after it. And we saw the magnificient fluteman too! He really exists! Anyway, as you can read I really had a great time on Sunday and at the end of the day I already started to feel at home in Olomouc and was a bit sad I had to go home to Prague again.
After a long travel of over 3 hours I finally got home, but I was still full of energy after such an amazing weekend. I really want to thank all the people who made my weekend so good, you guys are awesome!
So here are some photos of my trip:
The full selection of the pictures of weekend can be found on Facebook.
zaterdag 6 november 2010
Coming back to Holland
Hi guys!
This time I have news for you. Not about me finding a new room (I'm still searching for the ideal place to live in, there is no real reason for me to move to a place that is not significantly better than where I live now), but about the fact that I will be coming back to Holland in December! My favourite band, Scouting For Girls, is coming to play in Utrecht on the 14th of December, and the chances of those three wonderful guys ever performing a similar concert in Czech Republic are very slim, so I have to be there!! So I will be arriving back in Holland at Friday the 10th December, and will fly back 5 days later. I expect to be quite busy during my days in Holland, but if anyone that I haven't made agreements with yet is really missing me a lot they can always send me a message and maybe we can meet some time. :)
I'm sorry for my followers that I don't write a lot any more on this page about my experiences here any more. Everything here has just become normal a bit for me. :) Maybe some time I will write a blog about the differences between Czech Republic and Holland. At the moment I just don't feel so inspired to write a lot of things here. Since I have regular internet access now, it's easier for me to tell my experiences directly to my friends via msn or e-mail. However, I will try to write one blog post at least every 2 weeks. Don't expect anything from me next weekend though, since I will be going to visit a friend in Olomouc that weekend. And if you don't know where that is, just google it. :)
Take care!
This time I have news for you. Not about me finding a new room (I'm still searching for the ideal place to live in, there is no real reason for me to move to a place that is not significantly better than where I live now), but about the fact that I will be coming back to Holland in December! My favourite band, Scouting For Girls, is coming to play in Utrecht on the 14th of December, and the chances of those three wonderful guys ever performing a similar concert in Czech Republic are very slim, so I have to be there!! So I will be arriving back in Holland at Friday the 10th December, and will fly back 5 days later. I expect to be quite busy during my days in Holland, but if anyone that I haven't made agreements with yet is really missing me a lot they can always send me a message and maybe we can meet some time. :)
I'm sorry for my followers that I don't write a lot any more on this page about my experiences here any more. Everything here has just become normal a bit for me. :) Maybe some time I will write a blog about the differences between Czech Republic and Holland. At the moment I just don't feel so inspired to write a lot of things here. Since I have regular internet access now, it's easier for me to tell my experiences directly to my friends via msn or e-mail. However, I will try to write one blog post at least every 2 weeks. Don't expect anything from me next weekend though, since I will be going to visit a friend in Olomouc that weekend. And if you don't know where that is, just google it. :)
Take care!
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