Spring Break 2013- Europe!: Leaving Prague, currently in Frenstat!

Monday was my last day in Prague! We walked through the Jewish Quarter of the city... They charged more admission for the Jewish Synagogue than for anything else in the whole city (even the Castle!!) so we decided not to go into the Synagogue to see the cool grave site that the area is known for.

After the Jewish Quarter, we walked back up to the castle and had a traditional Czech lunch for just $7 that included Soup, an entree, and dessert! A full 3 course meal... for $7! Awesome!

We later walked back across the Charles Bridge over to the dancing houses (pictured below... The house on the left is supposed to be the girl leaning into the guy on the right). After the dancing houses, we went to an English Bookstore and I bought one of the most popular Ernest Hemmingway books that I have yet to read, "For Whom the Bell Tolls", we then returned to the apartment in Prague and packed our things for the trip to Frenstat!

I was going to add pictures in the order that I'm talking about everything, but unfortunately the pictures went in a crazy order when I uploaded them, so I will just write here then add captions beneath the pictures :)

It started to rain as we were leaving Prague, so we walked in the mist to the train station, then boarded a train for Frenstat. I'm so glad we took the train because it gave me a chance to see the countryside of the Czech Republic. It reminded me a lot of going through rural areas of Virginia where there's farmland but not much else! Snow started falling heavily as we rode the train, so suddenly the countryside was covered in white and was absolutely beautiful.

We got stuck in the train cabin with gypsies! They talked VERY loud and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that there were other people in the cabin. To combat their noise, we watched a movie without headphones in and the volume turned up :D

Magda's brother in-law picked us up from the train station in Frenstat and took us back to her Mom's apartment. At the apartment she had prepared a HUGE feast for us! It was chicken and pork schnitzel (that's what they call it here, it's more of breaded chicken/pork, but the breading has egg and flour in it, IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!), potatoes and salad.

We were exhausted from the long travel day, so we went to bed and woke up early this morning to go on a hike! We took the bus to the bottom of the mountain (which is also a Ski-Resort) and then rode the chairlift all the way to the top. It was snowing like crazy at the top! I was completely unprepared and just had my running shoes to hike in pretty deep snow (at some places it was about 18 inches deep)... After a mile, we reached the summit where there is a huge statue for the Slavic god Radegast, who happens to have a beer named after him!

We walked a mile back to the Ski Village and had tea in the only restaurant open to warm up (because the resort is currently closed for skiing). Then we walked 4 miles down the mountain all the way to the bottom. We ran into a baby mole on the trail. It was crazy, we were hte only people on the entire mountain... We had to make our own tracks through the snow... I thought I was going to lose a toe or two by the time we got down, but my feet warmed up quite nicely after we got back to the apartment.

Upon our return, Magda's mom had cooked another feast! This time it was pork inside of latkas with ham and green onion... It was SO GOOD (even though I think I've probably gained 10 pounds from these last two meals alone).... And now we're back at the apartment, hanging out until we go to dinner with the rest of the family tonight :) Enjoy the pictures!