It’s hard to truly get to know a country, but I feel confident to say that these past few months in the Czech Republic have allowed me to know it pretty well. It’s sad to me that I probably won’t get to know another country as well in the future because vacations can only last a couple weeks or so. Sure, by visiting other places you get to see the main attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but you don’t get to know the people, culture, or cities and basically become a local by just visiting for a week. You become a part of the community by attending festivals, becoming a regular at your favorite restaurants, and exploring everything the city, and surrounding towns, have to offer.
One festival I went to was the May Day festival in Olomouc. They had lots of delicious traditional food, crafts for sale, and live Czech music. Whenever I hear music in the Czech Republic, whether it be in a restaurant or store, it is usually American music or songs sung in English. So, when I heard some live performers actually singing in Czech, I got excited because I had been wanting to hear music from here. I wanted the full experience from every single aspect.
The vendors were selling everything from jewelry, to food, to succulents and dreamcatchers and it was so fun to shop around and see all the artisans' beautiful work.
I ended up buying a gingerbread cookie that looked like a butterfly because I couldn’t believe how beautifully it was frosted. It was almost too pretty to eat!
I also tried a fried potato pancake, which was huge! It basically tasted like garlic hash-browns and it was very tasty, but I could only eat half of it because of its size and how greasy it was. You can only eat so much of that kind of food before starting to feel sick.
Later that day we went paint balling because that is what a lot of the college students do for fun in Olomouc. Some Czech students actually accompanied us to our little paintball excursion. I had never been paintballed before so I was a little nervous because I was told it hurt a lot when you got hit. Once I started playing though, I realized it doesn't hurt too terribly much, and its so much fun its worth the pain. The area we played at was so cool! The company bought an abandoned fortress and transformed it into a paintball zone so it literally looked like we were inside the game Call of Duty.
Another weekend I visited a small town called Hruba Voda, which was only 15 minutes away from Olomouc. There were lots of activities to take part in such as horseback riding, Alpine slides, high rope obstacle courses, and mini-golf. It’s a place families go on the weekends with their kids. It was so fun to take part in recreational activities because it was so different from anything else we had done while abroad. I got to ride a horse named Neon up a high hill to see the magnificent view below. It was so peaceful riding Neon and being able to reflect on all the amazing experiences I’ve had in the gorgeous Czech Republic (when he wasn’t stopping to eat leaves and refusing to listen to me).
I also got to go down the Alpine slides a couple of times, which was surprisingly extremely exhilarating. It looked like we were going to go off the track at times!
And I got to finish off the day by playing a game of mini-golf with everyone and got second out of thirteen people. Taking part in festivals and going on little trips within the Czech Republic has allowed me to truly appreciate this country.