Have You Heard of South Moravia?

One of the best parts about my study abroad semester has been traveling all over Europe. But when people, including me, typically think of "Europe", they rarely are talking about the Czech Republic. In fact, besides Prague, I bet the majority of people could not name one other city in this country. I definitely couldn't before I came here! And even though I've been here for months now, I feel like I learn about an entirely new section of the country every day (which if you ask me is incredible considering this whole country is less than 3/4 the state of Ohio!)

I have been lucky enough to travel to multiple regions around the country with NYU to see what they're all about. This past weekend I traveled to South Moravia, a region in the southern part of the country. We visited a few different cities down there and it was incredible.

We left on Friday morning and took a few hour bus ride to our first destination. To be completely honest, I'm not sure where we were, nor was I sure where we were for the majority of the weekend. But after re-looking over our itinerary I discovered that we were in a city called Třebíč. There we toured a UNESCO protected Church, one of the seven UNESCO protected sites in the country, a Synagogue and ventured into a village called Pavlov. There we stopped at a prehistoric museum before we started our trek up the mountain!

This hike was absolutely beautiful. There were various lookout points along the way, but for the most part we were deep in the trees. We saw some rare flowers blooming on the mountain sides and eventually made it to the tippy-top. Once sat a huge castle on the top of the mountain, but today only ruins are left. The lookout from up here was incredible, AND incredibly windy!

We finished off the night by driving a few hours to THE Spa Town of South Moravia, Luhačovice. Every year people come to this particular town for varying amounts of time to get their knots rubbed or their toxins sweated out. We were lucky enough to take part in this spa oasis at the Hotel Alexandria. The five different types of saunas, hot tubs, pools and ~free champagne~ made for a very relaxing night.

The next morning we woke up and took a tour of the spa town, INCLUDING stopping at various natural spring taps. This water MUST be the equivalent of the fountain of youth or something because I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE DRINK IT... BUT THEY DO! And a lot of it! To me it tasted like one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth. Not to be dramatic but I was actually gagging for about five minutes after I tasted that nasty stuff. The water is supposed to be very good for you, though. I guess those minerals work wonders!

Our trip was then continued with a stop at a ceramic museum and workshop. Now some of you may think I really thrived at this activity because I'm usually not too bad at art! I love painting and pottery of many kinds but WOW did my ceramic pot turn out like something I've never seen before. We used a potters wheel that was just moving entirely too fast and I stuck my thumb right in the side of my masterpiece just as I was finishing up. If anyone has ever used a wheel you know one. single. mistake. can throw the whole thing off, and that's JUST what it did. (Sorry mom, I guess I don't take after your artistic talents after all).

The last stop on our South Moravian tour was to a Chateau with the most beautiful park/meadow/back yard I have ever seen.

It went on for acres and was full of bridges, trees and hills to explore. I also got the most DELICIOUS ginger tea for lunch here so, thanks NYU, wish you paid for my meals more often:))).

Overall, the weekend was another one for the (electronic) books! So I was so happy to vlog and post about it this week when I came back to Prague (especially because I have a term paper due Monday and I'm doing quite literally everything in my power to NOT work on it... I hope my professor doesn't see this. And if it's you, professor, just know that I HAVE started it so have no fear!). AnYWaY, thank you for reading another post about my life!

Lots and lots and lots of love,

Only a few more weeks left of abroad! So stay tuned to find out how the rest of my semester goes!

xoxo,

(a)Lex

*from Alex's previous travel blog, Life with Lex. April 10, 2019.*