We're in the South of France in a small city called Peripignan, after a grueling 13 hour journey from Strasbourg. We're both incredibly tired and a little out of it, so forgive us if this blog shows it. We missed our bus today heading to our next wwoof farm outside of La Roque de Alberes, and the next one isn't for another 4 hours from now. It's about time to update the blog; we haven't done so, it seems, in far too long. So much has happened! Here is what we did after we left Poland.
Our last night with Jack was quite an evening, and so hangovers and all, we headed to catch an early train to Olomouc, Czech Republic. We were attracted to this little town because of it's historic center, featuring one of two astronomical clock towers in the Czech Republic (the other being in Prague) and also a myriad of fountains in statues and churches. Other than that, it's a sleepy college town, where almost everything closes on the weekends, giving the empty streets kind of an eerie feeling when contrasted with all of the architecture. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, found our hostel, and grabbed a quick bite to eat. The hostel recommended a small tea house, where we could find inexpensive vegetarian options. Little did we know at the time, given the exchange rate, everything in the Czech Republic is inexpensive. Ashleigh and I had two full meals, as well as two pots of high quality tea, for about ten dollars. The rest of the first evening we spent wandering around the city center and talking with people we met at the hostel.
The next day, we set out for two museums, which happened to be free that day. First, however, we had to go see the Astronomical Clock chime at noon. This Astronomical Clock is quite different from the one in Prague. During the Communist rule, it was rebuilt to reflect the ideas of the revolution. As such, there are murals of working people, like blacksmiths, farmers, scientists, etc. We have to say the clock's performance did not live up to it's reputation. The melody it played was dissident, the little figures moved too slowly to hold our interest. It was really an overall, very boring display that lasted a grueling five minutes; five minutes, we'll never get back. The clock show culminated with a golden rooster coming out of his housing, cawing and flapping pathetically, and then going back in again. Ashleigh snapped some pictures of the clock tower, as well as some of the architecture in the square.
This contribution to the town square is recent, and quite controversial...
After this, we headed over to the Arch-Diocese Museum, which housed a collection of art pieces, as well as artifacts from the Arch-Diocese of Olomouc. This was quite impressive. There were some very ornate gold sculptures, as well as some very beautiful religious paintings, full of cryptic symbolism and imagery. After this, we headed over to the Museum of Modern Art, which housed a surprisingly interesting collection. It seemed to specialize in works from turn of the century "purists", who stuck to a more traditional format, while the rest of the art world made it's shift to more abstract pieces. That is not to say that there were not a healthy amount of works from their more abstract contemporaries. For some reason, we have almost no pictures from this museum; I guess we weren't in the mood to take pictures at the time. However, we do have some pictures from a viewing tower on top of the museum, as well as a few from the Arch-Diocese museum; the pics at the bottom are from said tower. 
An old well in the courtyard of the Arch-Diocese Museum.
The next day, we set out for some of Olomouc's famous church's. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
After these church's, we went out for a piece of cake. It was fantastic!
After our relatively, short afternoon, we went back to the hostel, finished up our last blog post, and then set out for a microbrewery for a couple of drinks. We headed to bed early that night to catch our train to Prague the next day.
We arrived in Prague in the early afternoon, and made our way to the next hostel. After we got settled, we took around the city and tried to get ourselves oriented. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the architecture. It's really a fantastic place in every sense of the word. The next day, we set out for the Royal walk, which takes us by a number of fantastic sites. Here are a few pictures from that day.
Eventually, we ended up at the castle. It was toward the end of the afternoon, so we were able to walk around and see a couple of things without it being too crowded. One of our most favorites sites we've seen this far was Saint Vitus's Church in the castle complex. It had some of the most intricate and beautiful stained glass we've ever seen.
We left the castle complex as the sun was about to set, and walked across Charles Bridge. 
Taken from the Charles Bridge
The next day, we got a late start. We wanted to go back and try to see the rest of the castle, but by the time we had arrived there in the early afternoon, it was already so crowded with tourists that we decided against it. We walked through a couple of exhibits, all of which did not allow us to take pictures, and then decided it wasn't worth the time and the claustrophobia. By this time, it was late in the afternoon, and most of the day had been spent. We wandered around in search of Franz Kafka's memorial statue and then went for a meal in the square.
Kafka's Memorial Statue
Here are some pictures from the square.
If you remember from our last post, we bought bicycles in Poland for cheap, expecting to use them for a while and then sell them. Well, my bicycle was broken by this time in our trip, so we decided to try to sell Ashleigh's while it was still in working order. We tracked down a bicycle shop and went well out of our way to try and get rid of it. When we wasted the afternoon trying to find this bicycle shop, we decided to leave it and make a lucky passer-by's day. As such, most of the afternoon on the third day was spent doing this, and there was only a bit of time to try check out the Franz Kafka's museum. When we arrived, it was on the verge of closing. The museum was kind of a let down. It portrayed Kafka as tortured soul yearning to be free in a world that is just oh so stifling. We can't help but have a different interpretation. As such, we thought the museum was a little much. The following is a sculpture outside of the Kafka museum.
The next day, we woke up early and set off for our next farm adventure in Germany. The Weber's live in a small town outside of Dresden called Barenstien. They are a family of four, Brita, Jens (pronounced "Yens"), Luisa, and Ana. The latter are eleven year old twins. We have to say, our week with the Weber's was absolutely incredible. They took us into their home, and treated us like we were family. We stayed in the attic above one of the barns. We had our own kitchen, where we ate breakfast before work. As far as the work was concerned, we had hard days and easy days. Jens is involved in conservation work in the southeast German region. Jens had mowed a couple of meadows in the area, which needed to be cleared of grass-clippings to allow rare species to flourish. On a couple of days, we worked in the meadows. This work would not have been particularly difficult had it not been raining and snowing while we were working. The excess water weighed down the grass, making it more difficult then usual to carry. The area was experiencing a-typical weather while we were there. A couple of days into our stay, it snowed heavily (about six inches if I remember correctly), which is extremely rare for that region at that time of year. The ground was covered with snow until we left later that week. One of our easier jobs involved moving hay from one room to another to make it easier to fill hay orders. The grass that is clipped from the meadows can be dried and turned into hay, which can then be sold. Our easiest days involved correcting grammar for the English version of Jens' conservation organization's website. The organization he is involved in is called the Grune Liga. From what we gathered, he is the head of the Sachsen Chapter of the Grune Liga. I know he is still working on the English website; we'll make sure to keep an eye on it and post a link when it's up so everyone can read about it. He takes amazing pictures as well, so even if you're not into the Green movement, the pictures are worth seeing in and of themselves. The family also took us out to show us the area. Brita took us to Dresden one day, where we got a walking tour of the city and visited a couple of museums. Jens and Brita took us to a castle, the name of which escapes me at the moment, that housed a museum featuring a history of the area (natural history included). Jens also took us to a museum in Pirna, which housed exhibits of everyday goods from the German Democratic Republic (the East German Communist country). Brita and Jens both grew up in during the Communist era in East Germany and shared fascinating insights into the everyday life of East Germans. As a budding sociologist, I just ate it up. It was really great to hear the perspectives of actual DDR citizens. Ana and Luisa were also charming children, with a amazing grasp of the English language, considering their age. We were utterly astounded by these children. Both of them are avid readers. Luisa is writing a crime novel. To date, she has written 140 pages of it. Ana does the illustrations. They're both very outgoing and ABSOLUTELY hilarious. We just can't say enough about this family. We had the best time here, and it was an experience I'm sure we're going to remember for the rest of our lives. We didn't take to many pictures while we were there, but here a couple we took in Dresden and after the show had fallen.
THE BEST HONEY WE HAVE EVER HAD!
Thats all for now. We have to go catch our bus to our next WWOOF farm. We will be on this farm for three weeks. Hopefully, we'll have time to do a short update on Burghausen, Munich, and Strasbourg in the next couple of days. Take care!!!
love you and miss you, update!!
ReplyDelete