Blogs from Brno, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic, Europe

Have you ever made you way to a MotoGP? Well, I have, a few times. Normally the MotoGP in question is in Melbourne. Klaire would hang out in Melbourne with friends and look around, while I would go and get feral with the bikers at Phillip Island. This time it was similar, except that Klaire was in Prague with her mum, and I headed down to Brno with her dad – my father in law. The drive from Prague to Brno isn't far – just 200 odd k's down the motorway, piece of the proverbial, you might say. Indeed, but you wouldn't have taken into consideration that the Eastern Bloc preference for building shit out of concrete – apartment blocks, Berlin Walls and bunkers – would extend to highways. Fair enough, neither did I. Long story ... read more

It takes only 2 hours from Vienna to Brno by train. Meanwhile you pass the beautiful hilly landscape of Moravia. It reminds me a little of Toscane in Italy. But what to do in Brno? Actually we had only one reason to see Brno and that was to visit the Mendel museum. But who was Mendel? Well, Mendel is the founder of genetics. You know the man who came up with the mathematical laws of hereditary, the stuff your teacher biology tried to make clear to you and never succeeded fully. I know, because I was one of them, I mean one of those teachers. We are looking for Grisha, when we come out of the station with our heavy rucksacks. But who is Grisha? Grisha is one of the pupils of the school I used ... read more

So, Hum…. How to even attempt to put such a divine experience into words…. My main drawcard for making the journey to Strilky was to see Swamji for Gurupurnima as well as see Him in European context. When I greeted Swamiji on the day of Gurupurnima, He said to me “Yashoda, you will get Kriya here OK?" Profound gratitude and pure joy bubbled inside me! There was quite a procession of people who came to greet Swamiji, bearing gifts of varying compositions. While the intentions were almost identical, I could not help but notice the amount of plastic packaging. Plastic is alive and thriving in Europe. I participated in the Kriya Anustan program which was quite intensive and a significant learning curve. It involved lots of sitting on our mats and breath techniques for many hours ... read more

I apologize for not writing much recently, things have been getting a little busy getting ready for the study tour. Today marked the first of six days of wandering around the Czech Republic. We actually got to leave Bohemia and head into Moravia! Today we went to a network of caves and then spent the afternoon in Brno. The cave system was amazing. I’ve been to a few caves and caverns back in the States (Laurel Caverns in Pennsylvania and Smoke Hole in Canaan Valley) and I really enjoy them, so this was a lot of fun. The guide didn't speak English, so we heard everything in Czech first, then there was an English recording that played for us. I kind of feel bad that everyone has to speak our language in order for us to ... read more

Greetings all, It's come time for me to update this old thing about my Easter adventures, and I have lots to say and only so much desire to write so much, so no time to dilly dally, let's get the ball rolling. On Friday, April 3rd, Libor, Jana , Ivan , and I drove to Vienna with our friend Jevgenij , where he dropped the four of us off, and we spent the afternoon in Vienna. We went to the Schönbrunn Palace where we hung out, people watched, and enjoyed the suddenly warm weather that struck Austria. It was a beautiful day, and we took it all in, then caught the metro into the heart of the city and wandered around a little bit, before eventually finding our way to one of Vienna's train stations to ... read more