Praha + Plzen

Last weekend was a special one, I visited Prague, for the 3rd time. I think it's one of the few places I've visited more than once or twice, and that's because I liked the city. Despite the many tourists and the fact that you'll have a hard time finding a real, genuine Czech, the city is quite beautiful and fun, there is something for everyone here : museums, boat trips, the castle, beautiful gardens, lots and lots of excellent pubs and restaurants. The weather was fine so people were out biking, strolling, or taking a boat ride on the Vltava.

I've been to Prague for the first time last november when I went on a road trip with some friends and I spent a whole weekend wandering the streets during the day and the pubs during the night. I had a great tourguide, a friend living in Prague, and now I can share some of his little stories and jokes, plus, I'm learning new things every time. So I think, modesty aside, I am a pretty good guide myself.

So, last weekend, we started from the other side of the Fred and Ginger dancing building. I'm not always a fan of contemporary architecture, but this building, that looks like it's being sucked into the eye of a tornado, is quite nice, and not to damaging to the surroundings...or to your eyes.

We continued towards Narodni Divadlo, the national theater, here in a picture from last November. The theater was build as part of the Czech national revival, with everyone contributing. Shortly after construction though, it burned and had to be rebuild, and again, the people gave money. A symbol of the Czechs' love for the theater.

Next to it is the second scene of the theatre, one of the communist buildings that stain the face of Prague. Luckly though, the city was not as plagued by the communist style as much as Bucharest was.

We continued along Charles Bridge. Be careful if you are in Prague in this period as the bridge is under construction and parts of it are closed, making the pedestrian traffic quite difficult. And it's full of tourists. So there are frequent jams and it's hard even to take a picture, not to mention meeting your beloved on the bridge. (With all the people there, you could pass right next to him or her and never know, luckily, mine was next to me) The artists are still there so you can buy little souvenirs.

Mala strana and Kampa are parts of Prague that I really love because of the bars and the fact that sometimes at night they seem deserted and taking a walk in this part of the city is like going back in time. But in a spring weekend, during the day, tourists are everywhere, so be careful for pickpockets and toilet queues.

The Prague Castle is like a city inside a City, very good view of the town and a nice area to stroll around. I don't recommend going to the Golden Street. I've put pictures so that you don't have to. Tourist paradise here, basically you pay money to see some antique stores with watches and other little nothings. The tunnels in the attics have beautiful armors and weapons but still not that interesting. There is a vineyard on the hill, for the passionate and you can stop for a drink or some good food in a restaurant.

Just across the river is Josefov, the Jewish town. It looks like anything but a ghetto, because this side of town, once prone to inundations was rebuilt and has some of the most beautiful and grand houses. You can still see the sinagogues and the Jewish cemetery. The tour of the synagogues and the cemetery is quite expensive and not really worth the while if you don't have a particular interest. So if you want to see the cemetery and not pay for it, there is a trick, a small window in a metal door, right across the street from the back entry of the Rudolfium. You'll certanly see tourists peeking through it. Otherwise, the quarter is interesting if you want to buy souvenirs, Bohemia crystal especially.

Another thing I like about Prague is that all the interesting places are within walking distance. Unlike other cities such as London or Paris, where you have to rely heavely on public transportation, here, you can spare yourselfs a few crowns and buy a beer instead. The public network is quite good, covering most of the town with the metro, also it's cheap, but you can walk just as easily.

Close to Josefov is Staromeska Namesti, with St Cyr Church and the Astronomical Clock, just follow the tourists if you don't know where to look. And if you see people waving an umbrella althought it's sunny outside, just know they are guides, so stay close to them, you might hear interesting stuff.

I'll let you in on a secret, I have a plan to start a mass aplause in front of the astronomical clock by strategicaly placing my friends in the crowd.

For shopping, a very good spot is Wenceslas square, where you have Bata, H&M and the works. From there we went to Karlovo Namesti and then took the car back to Plzen.

Next, Plzen on a Sunday afternoon. The fourth city in the Czech Republic, about an hour West of Prague and the only one liberated by the American Army, in WWII, as I came to learn during the weekend. It's quite nice to stroll around, and I think it's also a nice place to live (I only spend some of my weekends there).

The first visit of Plzen was a bar tour and the next day we almost didn't recognize the surroundings. There was a beer festival in the main town square (duh, they produce 70% of Czech beer here). Some picture, just to give you an idea of the look of a normal Czech town (Prague is by no means normal, rather filled with tourists).

In Plzen you'll have no problem to find real Czechs so you can stop them on the street and talk to them, they do exist outside the capital. And me, a crazy Romanian.

Making plans

These days all my plans have been useless, whatever I do, the plan changes all the time. So I start to think: do we really need plans to get ahead? Don't get me wrong, I love making plans, I am right now making a shopping list (nothing glamourous, tomorrow's dinner and that summer skirt I want, maybe a dress too).

My latest plan was to go to Liberec this weekend, but the plan was abruptly changed and instead I spent a wonderful weekend in Prague and Plzen. I'm not sorry for it, in fact, I'm quite happy it all turned out like this, I went barhopping in Plzen, showed Prague to a friend, which is always one of my favourite activities, watched a movie, had interesting discussions, ate good food and drank enough to make me cheery. But what I ask myself now is whether it makes any sense to make plans if you don't stick to them?

We get all excited about a plan, or at least I know I do. We make our life around it sometimes, make plans on top of plans, link them to other things in our lives. We spawn a web of plans, all in a desperate effort to give ourselves the illusion we are in control.

And then we get disappointed because we didn't see our plan come true. Our world seems a tiny bit destabilized, abnormal, spinning out of (our) control even. The plan made it look all that better, made us feel in control, masters of our destinies. And the bubble bursts and we are not gods anymore, we don't know exactly were the road takes us.

In some rare cases - like mine, this time - when the changed plan goes better than the original would, we forget things didn't go as we wanted and can end up saying this was what we always really wanted. Anything to keep the appearence of control.

But does it really help us, to have all this control? Life is so full of surprises and twists out of our reach that no matter how well we prepare everything, it will never be 100% sure. I didn't go to Liberec because of events that were independent to my will or power and that I could not have predicted no matter my preparation (maybe a very very wild dream would have imagined that knock on my door close to midnight, that made me go to Plzen in the morning, but I was completely taken by surprise, and it was a nice one).

Isn't it better sometimes to go with the flow? See what happens next and improvise? Sometimes life can be fun like that too, scary, but fun. So Liberec is for another time, I'll make plans for it when the time comes, but I won't be dissapointed if I get another offer.

Control is just an illusion, all we can do is make a plan, don't get to attached to it and hope for the better. And be open to all possibilities.

My destinations

I am a bit of a day dreamer so as I stay at my office, from time to time my eyes turn towards the window and as I gaze at the distant, almost shadowy mountains, I think of destinations, old and new, nearby or quite far. Almost all the time I'm planning a trip. Right now I have plans for Jablonec, in a few weeks and Bratislava and Hanover when time will permit it. And then I have trips in between, unplanned,but a good surprise, like the one to Strasbourg a few weeks ago.

So where have my day dreams taken me, so far? This is just a list, by no means an exhaustive one, of places I've visited or I'd like to visit.

Countries I've visited: France, United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland.

Countries I'd like to visit: Spain, Portugal, Marocco, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, Iceland, Sweeden, New Zeeland, Russia, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Cuba, Canada. (basically the rest of the known world, but these are just the ones that made the short list).

My philosophy on travel is not to make just a collection of places seen, make a scratch on a wall with my name, I want to get the feeling of the place, get to know the people, feel like more than a tourist. That's why I don't like guided tours, they just take you around, the time to take a picture, tell you an anecdote, but never let you actually breathe in the perfume of the place at your own pace. Which is was I need the most.

And so, I am going to take my own personal tour guide, which is a guide book and my intuition for discovering interesting things and I'll be on my way, towards new adventures.

Stay tunned, pictures to follow to this post.

A walk around the neighbourhood

Yesterday I decided to get out of the house. I wanted to go either to Liberec or to Jablonec. I had a bit of a hard time deciding which to visit first so I decided not to decide for now but to take a walk around my little town. I'll leave the big visit for another weekend. The two towns are connected via a tram and thus are accessible. There's interesting architecture and there's a jewllery museum in Jablonec. So I'll have plenty to see.

For now, I'll share with you some photos from the small town I live in. I really like the houses in the region and gardening is like a national sport around here and everyone has splendid gardens. But I feel weird taking pictures of people's houses. And so I cheat and I take pictures of streets instead. I can capture the house in context this way.


It was just a short walk through the town but the sun was up and it was a really nice spring day so I enjoyed it. People were out riding their bikes, playing with kids, doing chores around the house. Picture perfect suburbia. For a moment I wanted to live on one of those streets, in one of the houses with a beautiful garden and blooming trees.

Not many comments to make, I'll take more photos these days, when I hope I'll discover more (yesterday I had to get back a bit quicker than expected).

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from the Czech Republic for all the Orthodox Christians out there. I colored some eggs, got in the spirit of the holiday with some Romanian cuisine (and French wine). And tomorrow I plan to take a trip to a nearby town.

I wish you all, wherever you may be, far from your loved ones or (hopefully) in their arms, to have peaceful and sunny holidays.

Hristos a Inviat!

Wherever the road may lead you

I've been working for two weeks now, I'm already starting to feel tired. It's not yet very challenging but we're getting there.

I thought I should show you my road to work. Every morning I walk about 20 minutes to work and another 20 from there to my house, unless I make a detour in the town for some groceries.

This is where I start my journey. I open this door and I face the outside world.


I had to cross a dangerous street every day but I discovered a shortcut behind the house. This creek passes nearby.

The town is quite well kept, with beautiful houses and gardens, people here seem to have a passion for gardening. I'll try to take pictured of the houses I like best, like this one.

A big part of my walk takes me along a road outside of the town.

And the road goes on... It's usually quite busy, bikers, trucks, cars and me, walking along.

And here we are, our stop for the next 9 hours or so:

At the end of the day, I can go home, or take another road, into town. This is the road I took to get from the train station to the plant, on my very first day. I don't really need to go into town anymore, I discovered that there is a bus stop and a grocery store behind my house, so I don't even need to move that much.

And finally, home. Or at least, my home away from home. A nice place to rest after a hard day's work.

Having a destination is just the begining

I just came back from work. It's been almost a year since my last job so it's a bit hard to get used to the schedule, especially since I didn't keep straight hours then. The Master's was a bit like a job but also a big party/family so although I did work a lot during these last six months, it didn't seem that hard or that bad, at times it was even fun.

My moment of glory was definitely the conference we organized, for which I did a lot of work but also in which I actively participated. (Yeah, I am bragging). It was a turning point I think, for all of us, it could have destroyed us as a group or make us closer, fortunately I feel that we only gained from it. It was an interesting experience, lots of lessons learned, hopefully we will apply them as well. It's something to be proud of, all of us.



And now we are spread all over Europe for our Internships.

I am working in the automotive industry, crunching numbers. For now, it's been boring, I don't yet know what I am supposed to do, I just got my missions and they are challenging, so I won't get to be bored for long. I'm not yet sure if this is a subject of interest to me on the long run, but it could jump start me for something greater.

This is just the beginning, six months are behind me, yet six more are in front of me. Have to make the best of it.

In my secret garden

As I type these words I'm sitting by the side of a small pond in the garden of the beautiful house where I have a flat. A nice one, a bachelorette pad, all equipped with all a girl could ever wish for, kitchen (I'm an independent woman, I cook, you know), huge bathroom with a nice shower to soak in for ages. Big, comfy bed, wardrobe to put all my clothes in. I feel like a princess.

But how did I get here you might ask me. Well, darlings, this is a long story. First, I got on the bus, as you all know, at 5.30 a.m, one Tuesday morning in Bucharest, at the end of March. And got off the following day, with a little delay at the boarder crossing, in Prague. And the journey had yet to begin. I had money to exchange, a heavy luggage to carry and a train to catch.

Finding a good exchange rate in Prague can prove to be tricky. You have to check for charges, because even if the rate could be good, there might be a charge applied (a percentage) , so be ware and be aware, especially try to find the exchange rate in advance. I prepared myself for a walk around Prague, carrying heavy luggage up and down the stairs, when, all of a sudden, in the Florenc bus stop, I find, much to my surprise, a good exchange rate. I take advantage of the opportunity and I head towards the nearby subway station.

The subway in Prague is a very good means to get around the city. You don't do a lot of sight seeing, but there are good connections between the lines and with other means of transport (trams run very well as well) and the fares are quite cheap.

I took the tube just for one stop, to the main railway station, Hlavní Nádraží, a busy, busy place and where you can have difficulties buying a ticket. I took the train to Bakov nad Jizerou and then, the adventure continues, carrying a suitcase through the town, then through the field to a factory in the middle of nowhere. Where I started work, or rather met my colleagues and my new workplace for the next six months.

And then I got to this wonderful place that is my appartement? No. First I went for a few days in a penzion or guest house, 14€ per night, clean, but not a place to live in for 6 months. And with a little help I found my house, completely furnished and having all I need.

For my friends and family, photos are on flickr, for those of you who got an invite and didn't answear, to bad. And for the rest, well, my little hobbit hole is in a crimson house, with big windows and a tilled roof, one floor and a big attick, a big covered porch and a huge japanese garden. And my appartments overlook the lawn and a small pond with edges made of black painted wood recovered from railroad tracks ( an element of decor that ornates the flowerbeds on the slope of a hill).

As for my work here, I'll tell you next time. I'm going to make myself a tea and sit on the porch.

"I like eggs with my ham, when starting on a journey: fried not poached, and mind you don't break 'em"

Said Thorin the dwarf, before the start of the amazing journey that would lead to the discovery of the Ring, in Lord of the Rings. My breakfast won't be this big tomorrow morning as I leave, very early, for my internship in the Czech Republic.

I'll travel by coach, with Eurolines, the same that took me to my first experience abroad, as an Erasmus student in Nantes, almost 4 years ago (seems like an eternity). This time, the trip we'll take a day, departure at 5.30 am from Bucharest, arrival in Prague the following day at 7.30 am. The ticket was about 80€, a lot less expansive than the plane, as there are no direct low costs going to Prague. It's a bit uncomfortable but still manageable.

Once in Prague, in Florenc bus station, I'll have to take a train from Hlavni Nadrazi, the main railstation, that will take me directly to my destination, Bakov.

So right now I'm packing, only the basic, but already my suitcase weights 20 kg, and I'm not finished. For 6 months, I'll need a lot of clothes and stuff, some that I'll have delivered to me, some I'll take with me in my suitcase, backpack, and laptop bag. Another plus of traveling by coach is that the weight limit is 35kg and the extra charge is a lot less than for planes. And I'm taking advantage of it.

Next, i'll talk about my actual trip. Stay tuned, there are more advnetures after a short pause. And boy, some adventure it'll be.. Bye for now.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Spring has come at last and it's my favourite season, not too hot, not too cold, you still wear layers but it's sunnier and more enjoyable. And with spring, a change has come.

You probably don't know that much about me, so I'll give you a little information. For the last 6 months I've been studying in an abbey in France. No, I'm not studying to become a nun, I'm not that religious. This is where I'm studying in a Master's program dedicated to investment in Eastern and Western Europe. So far it's been an interesting experience, we are a very diverse group, Polish, Ukrainians, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Slovaks, French, Russians, Romanians, Uzbek and we've had a really good time together, working and...partying. But every good thing must come to an end so, as our first semester is over, and here I am, packing to go on my Internship in the Czech Republic.

Next, a few photos from these last 6 months.

This is the Abbey in Cluny, this is where I've been studying for the last 6 months. For more info, check this out.

Me and the gadz'arts, the students at Arts et Metiers, I'll tell you about them a bit later, let's just keep the mystery for awhile.

Us, in our first get together in the girl's dorm room. That's me on the right, next to Emy, another Romanian and my best friend in the class.

During our picnic in October, where we met the graduates, and got to know each other a little better.

This isn't going to be a perfect blog, so I'll leave it at that. I'll come back later, with more pictures and with funny stories, but now...my already large suitcase is waiting.