Czeching In: A photo blog: Exploring Narnia

This weekend was filled with fun exploring of beautiful Czech sites, so I’m going to keep my words brief and instead let the photos speak for themselves.

Exploring Nové Mestro (New Town) with my Prague as a Living History class. Can you spot me?

(Photo by Kelsey O’Day)

My favorite café (Le Court Galerie) knows my order now! I’m greeted every day with, “Dobry Den! Cappuccino? Máty čaj?” I officially feel like a local (besides the massive language barrier…)

Came across a David Černy art expedition at a small gallery on my street. He's a famous Czech artist and has various projects on display around the city. His latest installation is a giant middle finger in front of the Prague Castle (elections just happened and this was his own commentary)

Here are some shots from the art exhibit:

This sculpture would move and do push-ups. Panted breathing and grunts included

Thursday, October 24

I have recently made more of an effort to check out some Prague blogs (hah) so that I can get a sense of the city from a non-touristy viewpoint. A building that I came across was the Národní technická knihovna (National Library of Technology) and once I saw a photo, I knew that I had to see it for myself. I convinced three of my friends to go searching for it (it is in Prague 6) and when we walked inside, we realized that it was well worth the visit. I would definitely have trouble focusing/studying in here because I’d be too distracted by the clever graphics on the walls and the rainbow floors. Today was an ideal day. It was gorgeous out and we spent the day wandering around the city. We had enough of a plan for some structure, but we still had plenty of time and flexibility to see where the day took us.

Saturday, October 26

Today, ten of my friends and I went on a day trip to “Bohemian Switzerland.” My friend DJ organized the entire trip and planned what we’d do. Even though he sent us links to different websites about the place, I trusted his judgment, went with his plan, and didn’t really look up anything about the place at all. We took an early train into Dečin (a small town in the north-western Czech Republic) and then took a bus to Hřencko and hiked through the National park of České Švýcarsko (Bohemian Switzerland). We hiked to Pravčická brána, which is the largest natural rock bridge in Europe. It was magnificent! Being in nature and breathing the fresh air was incredible and we had the best time hiking, chatting, and taking in the scenery. In my art history class, we've discussed how the Romantic artists were overwhelmed by the vastness of nature and how small and dwarfed humans are in comparison to it. I sympathized with that sentiment today. The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed here and now we understand why. The set scout for that movie must have had the best time exploring different places before finally coming across České Švýcarsko. The trip can be best described through pictures, and although photos can’t quite capture the true beauty of the place, they’ll still give you a chance to see what I saw!