Blogs from Ústí nad Labem Region, Czech Republic, Europe

We found ourselves driving out of Prague with an Alternator warning light on and happy dispositions looking forward to the first hotel we actually booked and paid for in advance in Berlin, Germany. Now, remember that the last time we were going to go to Berlin our Car Battery died and we were unable to get a jump in time to make it to both Berlin and Warsaw in a timely fashion and so chose to forego Berlin for the time being. As fate would have it, once again, we would not make it to Berlin, however we did make it to a wonderful little town called Trebenice about an hour north of Prague where a detour on the main highway led us. Now, something that you should know about the Czech Republic, there are numerous ... read more

This weekend has been a blur of people randomly showing up from all over the world, from Brno to the Isle of Wight to outer space and god knows where else and placing themselves within at most a day trip's length of Prague, resulting in me dashing all over the place and finally getting out of the house a fair bit! Unfortunately I havent been using my camera recently, and my internet connection is not letting me upload anything at the moment.. so there are no pictures from it. It began on Thursday, when my friends Gabriela and Jana texted me saying they had come to see some of Jana's relatives in a village called alhostice in Litoměřice district, which is just at the foot of that bastard hill I was trying to climb (and failed) ... read more

Ahoj.Minuly vikend som sa vybral konecne do Ceskeho Svycarska - uz som to dlho planoval.V sobotu som rano som siel vlakom do Usti nad Labem a odtial busom do dedinky Tisa - prvej zastavky. V tejto dedinke sa nachadza area Tiske steny s unikatnymi skalnymi utvarmi.Presiel som si velky okruh (je tam aj maly) a pokracoval som dalej cestou na najvyssiu stolovu horu - Decinsky Sneznik.Na vrchu je vyhliadkova veza, z ktorej mal byt podla fotiek paradny vyhlad na okolitu krajinu.Bohuzial nebol, kedze bola husta hmla.Tak som po malom obcerstveni z vlasntych zasob pokracoval dalej lesom k obci Maxicky odtial som povodne chcel ist do Decina a odtial busom do Hrenska a tam prencovat.Posilneny gulasom a pivom som sa rozhodol inac a pokracoval som dalej po turistickej znacke do obce Dolni Zleb.Tam som sa chcel preplavit ... read more

On March 23, Ahmed and I had our tour of Terezin (the Lesser Fortress, the Museum of Terezin, the Jewish Ghetto and the Crematorium). Terezin's fortress was used by the Nazis as a concentration camp for general Czech prisoners (most of whom were Christians) and for Jews as well (most ones who were part of underground resistance). Prisoners from other places in Europe also ended up here before being taken further East to the Death Camps. This was my first chance to visit a place like this - I have studied the Holocaust extensively as a History student in university but have never been able to visit places associated with it. Terezin was not Auschwitz, but it was terrible. The Jewish Ghetto area was used as propaganda by the Nazis to show the Red Cross and ... read more

"A stop on the road to death."... read more

Greetings! It's the end of the second day in Prague. Tomorrow (Monday) we fly off to Budapest. We started out today at 9 am from the hotel, walking over the the Jewish quarter. It's just five minutes from the hotel (great location -- President Hotel, and great hotel). the first building we entered -- the walls are all whitewashed inside, and then the names of the 80,000 Czech Jews who were murdered by the Nazis are written by hand in alphabetical order through the entire building. They are arranged alphabetically by surname; and then each first name is listed with birth date and date of transport (i.e. the date sent to concentration camps or death camps.) There is not date of death because the Nazis only kept records of the transport -- not the date killed. ... read more

Went to Terezin with the folks from town/the museum today. They had the annual memorial today. When we got there I walked around a bit with two girls there that were my age (from what I got out of it, one of them was by boss’s girlfriend/wife’s daughter), and thankfully remotely close to my age so that was nice lol. We were told to be back outside the complex by 10 for the ceremony, however they neglected to mention that the procession begins to line up 15mins before. We realized then when us in our light blue/green/hot pink umbrellas were running through a crowd of uniformed soldiers escorting folks with wreaths (survivors/different people from museums, etc) as well as the president..who we apparently were within feet of. Wish I knew what he looked like BEFORE they ... read more