Serbia Trip

My next adventure was an organized trip to Serbia!  The trip was led by a guy named Boris, a Serbian native, who organizes these trips for exchange students each semester.  The cost was maybe $200 total, so not too bad for two nights and three days in Serbia.

We took a train from Brno to Novi Sad, Serbia.  This WAS part of the included cost, but the train left at 8am on Friday and I had a liiiitle too much fun the night before so I missed it. :P  I ended up taking another train, with changes in Bratislava and Budapest, and arrived in Novi Sad at 4am.  I found our hostel, which was located right in the midde of the city, and waited for the rest of the group to wake up.  The hostel manager was a pretty chill guy and we just chatted it up while waiting.

Saturday was the day to visit the city of Novi Sad.  It's the second largest city in Serbia with a population of around 400,000, and was a pretty quiet community.  It was FREEZING in Serbia at the time!  Back home in Brno, we found out that it had actually snowed.  Novi Sad has the Danube River running though it; on one side of the river is the main residential part of the city, the other has the castle.  The castle was pretty impressive... There are over 16 kilometers of tunnels underneath it!  There's a myth that a tunnel also runs beneath the city, and also a myth that there is a huge treasure hidden somewhere underneath, but neither have been discovered yet.  Much of the tunnels are still unexplored.  The actual city of Novi Sad is pretty quiet, but still nice.  We walked around and had a free walking tour from a lady that lived in the city.  We left Novi Sad in the afternoon to be on our way to Belgrad!  Here are some pics of the first day:

Cathedral in the center of Novi Sad.  This is a shot from our hostel... It was literally right in the center of the city :)
 

From the top of the fort at Novi Sad, with the Danube River on the right.
 

Main park in Novi Sad.  It used to frequently flood when the Danube rose too high due to rain, etc.  They have since built barriers to prevent it from happening.



Our next stop was Belgrade, the Capital of Serbia!  With a population of just over a million, it's a little larger than Novi Sad.  There are a ton of things to do and see in the city... unfortunately, it was pretty dark and murky during my time there.  We had an organized tour of the fort and the city in general, stayed in a pretty cool hostel (I can't remember the name of it) and had a lot of fun!  The fort was pretty incredible, it used to be the entire city of Belgrade until whichever kingdom at the time gave the city permission to build outside the walls.  Belgrade has been an establishment for over 7,000 years!!!  That's a long time!  Lots of history within the city... It was definitely a good visit.  Here are some pictures:
 

The Cathedral of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.  The interior is still under construction, with a planned completion date of I believe 7(?) years from now.  They have to paint all the walls and finish some of the construction.  It's really impressive though!
 

I remember this as one of the most important buildings in Belgrade, but can't remember which one... I think it might be the Parliament or the Court?  
 

Center of Belgrade.  The longest street in the city runs through this area (the back left) and ends at the entrance to the Fort.  Shops line the street up and down; it's definitely the place to do some shopping.
 

View from atop the fort.  The Danube runs straight through the city, splitting a couple times while it does.
 

Between the two separate walls of the fort.  The one on the right enclosed the old city and where everyone lived, and the one on the left enclosed the military fortress of the city.  They had a bunch of antique artillery equipment and such on display.


Well, that's my trip to Serbia.. Definitely recommended!!  In my next post, I'm going to talk about some of the parties, etc. I had while in the Czech Republic.   It has been one heck of a wild ride, that's for sure!  I'm currently in the middle of finals week and can't believe this exchange is almost over :(  Making the most of these next couple weeks!

Until later,

Jake

Best Trip of the Semester - Istanbul, Turkey

Hey all!

Sorry it has been a while... I've been slacking on catching up with my blog.  Anyway, here we go again!  This time, I'm going to talk about my four day trip to Istanbul, Turkey.  It was the longest trip I've taken since being here (unfortunately, I have class M, T, Th, and F so it's tough to get away for too many extended vacations) and was also the most rewarding.  Turkey was #1 on my list when I came to Europe, and I'm happy to have had the opportunity to visit!! 


DAY 1


I traveled to Istanbul with my friend Joe, the other American at our university.  He had a friend doing an exchange program in Jordan visiting, so our plan was to meet up with them.  We left Brno around 9am on a bus to Vienna Airport, as it was the closest airport with cheap, direct flights.  Once again, we used Student Agency for bus transportation... They are great!  We flew out of Vienna airport sometime early afternoon on Turkish Airlines.  Okay, me being an airplane nut, I must say... Turkish Airlines was GREAT!!!!!  It was only a 2 hour flight, yet we were served a full meal with free drinks by awesome flight attendants.  The round-trip flight cost us a little over $200.  It was overall one of the best flight experiences I have ever had (and I've done a lot of traveling!).  I would highly recommend Turkish Airlines to anyone looking to travel to Istanbul or anywhere else in that region!

We arrived into Istanbul around 5pm.  It took us a while to get into the city... First, we had to secure a visitor's visa.  In Turkey, everyone is required to have a visa.  This is really easily obtainable, as you can just purchase one in the airport... Pretty nice!  For Americans, the cost was $20 per visa.  They are good for up to 90 days and include re-entry.  After visa, we went through customs and passport control.  There were quite a few people visiting Istanbul so this process took another half hour or so. 

After getting out of the airport, we took public transportation to the city center, which took a good hour or so.  The city is HUGE!!!  We were told somewhere around 16 million people live there.  This is where Istanbul's primary attractions are found: The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia.  The hostel we stayed in was called Antique Hostel and located literally three minutes from the entrance to the Blue Mosque.  Definitely highly recommended for visitors!  A super friendly staff with nice, clean rooms and very affordable.  We didn't do much that night as it was pretty late by the time we finally made it to our hostel.

View of the Blue Mosque at night.

 View from our Hostel :)

View of Hagia Sofia at night, with some gorgeous fountains to go along with it!

Another shot of Hagia Sofia.


DAY 2


Our second day was filled by trips to Princes' Islands!  These are about an hour and a half ferry ride from the center of Istanbul.  It's pretty easy to find public transportation routes to where the ferries leave from, you'll just have to do a Google search to figure out the closest to you!  I believe the ferry was like $2 one way, so not bad at all.  We got a good night sleep and ended up departing sometime around 11am.

There are several islands that make up Princes' Islands, and four of them are stopped at along the ferry routes.  All four have small cities, and they are all gorgeous!  Automobiles are non-existent on the islands; the exceptions are for medical and construction vehicles.  However it is extremely rare to see one.  That was pretty cool for all of us! 

For the cost of maybe $10, we rented bicycles for the entire day on the fourth and final island stopped at by the ferry.  This is known as the actual "Princes' Island" and is the largest of them all.  We biked around the entire island, getting a good workout in the process!  We also embarked on our own little rock-climbing excursion at one point, climbing to one of the tallest points on the island so as to be able to see the entire city and surrounding sea.  It was DEFINITELY worth it!  Such an incredible view...  Istanbul appears to stretch forever, despite being quite a ways away and looking tiny.

After spending several hours on the island, we returned to Istanbul.  It was a pretty quiet night, involving some really good Turkish hookah and a cool hookah bar.  Suggestion:  If you go to Istanbul, you MUST go to Princes' Islands!!  They were incredible and gave me an entirely different impression of Istanbul than that which I had before this trip.  Here are a few pics of day #2:

View of one of the islands as we rode the ferry.

The food we ate on the island.  It was seriously some of the best food I've ever had!!!

View from part-way up the island.

 Street view of the town on Princes' Island.  No cars!


DAY 3


We found ourselves visiting the Grand Bazaar, another Mosque, and Asia on Day 3!  We started off by walking from our hostel to the Bazaar.  From the Blue Mosque, it is only a 15-ish minute walk so no need to use public transit.  We were blown away at the sheer size of the market!  It consists of over 50 blocks of streets, all covered by roofing/canvas, with what seemed like millions of markets and goods.  You can literally find anything in there.. Souvenirs, swords, authentic Turkish clothing, lamps, even Beats by Dre.  Anything!  We spend a couple hours just walking around and taking everything in.  Joe bought himself a lamp. 

Inside the Grand Bazaar.

After the Grand Bazaar, we started walking back towards where the ferries were docked.  We were determined to go to Asia!!  If you didn't know, Istanbul is situated on both European and Asian soil.  2/3rds of the city is in Europe, including all the main attractions, airport, etc.  The other part of the city is across from the Bosphorus and technically in Asia.  Along the way, we found another very impressive Mosque and decided to check it out.  Its name is Süleymaniye Mosque and it was gorgeous!  A little off the beaten path, there were fewer tourists around it than the larger two in the center.  We checked it out for a good hour, then went on our way.

 Süleymaniye Mosque interior.

The Asia side of Istanbul was still gorgeous, but there was nothing super special to see.  We eventually ate food (naturally at McDonald's, just so we can all say we've eaten McD's in Asia!) and then went to a bar and hung out for a while.  That night, I believe we went to Taxim, which is one of the busiest and craziest parts of Istanbul!  Definitely worth checking out if you want to experience Istanbul night life.

Asia!


DAY 4


 Final day in Istanbul!!  Our flight left early afternoon, so we got as much done in the morning as possible.  The first thing we did was actually go inside Hagia Sophia... Unbelievable!!  Hagia Sophia is a legend in regards to architecture (for you architecture students/enthusiasts, you know that!) and definitely did not disappoint.  The entrance fee was not too bad... Maybe $10 or $15, I honestly can't remember.  There is so much history and stuff to see, you could be in there a while depending on how interested you are in the available information.  It was a beautiful piece of work!

The second, and final thing we did prior to heading to the airport, was visit the Galata Tower.  This tower gives you probably the best panoramic view of Istanbul!!  It was maybe another $10 to go up it, but again, totally worth the price.  The tower is quite old but has been renovated on the inside to include an elevator, as well as a restaurant and small club on the top floors.  You have to check it out when visiting!!

On the second floor inside Hagia Sophia.

Panorama view of Istanbul from above the Galata Tower.  The two large buildings you can see on the left are the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

Final shot of the Blue Mosque from Istanbul... Until next time!  And don't worry, because there will definitely be a next time :)


Well, hope you enjoyed my little tour I gave of Istanbul!  We were there for two full days and two half days and saw a lot.  However, it would be super easy to spend a couple weeks in the city and still not see everything.  Things we didn't see that were on the list:  The wall, the aquaducts, more of the nightlife, the northern part of the Bosphorus (there are supposedly some great ruins that you can see with guided tours), and others.  It is also very easy to take tours to other Turkey attractions, including Troy and others, from Istanbul.  It was one of my favorite places I've ever visited and I HIGHLY recommend it to other travel enthusiasts! :)

Until next time!

-Jake

Day Trip to Bratislava, Slovakia

Hello again!

We decided to spend just one day in the capital of Slovakia... Bratislava.  No, it is NOT like how it's portrayed in the movie Euro Trip (actually that was somewhere in Prague!).  As you might be familiar with, the Czech Republic and Slovakia used to be the same country, prior to the early 1990's; Czechoslovakia.  The two countries are VERY similar, having mainly the same language (albeit a few small pronunciation and grammatical differences) and same traditions, etc.  Both are in the European Union, and while the Czech Republic decided to keep their currency (korun), Slovakia switched to the Euro.

We left for Bratislava sometime mid-morning using again the Student Agency bus.  The ride took approximately 2 hours and I think for round trip tickets, the cost was somewhere around 20 euros... Not too bad!  After getting into Bratislava, we went straight up to the main castle which is situated on a hill overlooking the city.  We spent probably an hour or two there (it's basically the only real attraction in the city) and then found some good, authentic Slovak food.  After that we still had a couple hours to kill, so we decided to check out some Slovak pubs :)

As I said, there really was not too much to see in main-stream Bratislava.  The castle overlooking the city is the "new" castle... Apparently there is an "old" castle a little outside the city, but we did not get to see it.  Here are a few pics of what we were able to see in Bratislava!

In conclusion, I determined Bratislava was a pretty nice place... Just without all that much to see.   You really only need three or four hours to see the city, unless you're looking at going somewhere outside the town of course.  It was definitely worth it though, and I can add Slovakia to my list of countries I've visited! :)

Until next time! 

-Jake

Weekend Trip to Vienna, Austria!

Hey all!

So I went on a weekend trip to Vienna, Austria a little bit ago and just wanted to share a little bit about the trip :)  It was only a two hour bus ride from Brno, and cost maybe 14 Euro (less than $20) for a round trip ticket.  We used the Student Agency for the bus, which actually works out pretty well!  You can reserve tickets online, then pick them up from the Student Agency office located right in the main center of Brno.  Here's a link to their website (in English):

http://www.studentagency.eu/

They are a great option for buses to Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and many other places, so check them out if you are looking to travel around Europe!  Anyway, we took a very early bus and arrived at dawn in Vienna.  Basically we decided to look around a bit, get some breakfast, and find a nice park and sleep for a few hours since we pulled an all-nighter to get onto our bus.  We then spent the entire day exploring and looking around the main areas of the city.  And it was GORGEOUS!!  Probably one of the nicest large cities I have ever been to.  Here are a few pics of what we saw our first day:

There were so many places and gigantic palaces, I was not able to keep them all straight!  It was amazingly beautiful though.

The Underground was actually extremely convenient and easy to use.  We didn't really pay for any tickets.... Which makes me feel kind of guilty but we were just there for two days.... and the routes went all over the city making it very easy and convenient to go from place to place.

Our hostel was Hostel Hutteldorf, located in the Vienna suburb of Hutteldorf.  It was also a pretty nice hostel, and very large!  At least compared to the ones I had stayed in on previous trips to Europe.  It was definitely a young person's hostel, and we actually met another guy from America that was just on a 6 month "travel-around-the-world" tour and who seemed pretty cool.  Here's a link to the Hostel, if anyone would like to check it out :)


http://www.hostel.at/en/hostel-hutteldorf/


That night, we all went out to eat at this little local restaurant (I can't remember the name of it) next to Hostel Hutteldorf.  I had one of the BEST meals I've ever had in my life.... It was schnitzel with bacon and a bunch of other stuff on it, doused in some amazing sauce I've never had before.  We had some delicious local brew beer and I had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  SOO GOOD!!! I wish I had taken a couple pics of our meals.  Then, later that night, we went to a place called "Museum's Quarter" which is this center with a couple gigantic museums, but turns into basically a gigantic party at night.  We had a great time there, and eventually made it back to our hostel!

The next day was the second day of sight-seeing in Vienna.  Our bus left that night at 8:00pm, so we wanted to check out as much stuff as we possibly could.  We saw a lot, including the gorgeous Schonbrunn Palace, the Rathaus, and some huge "Sports Festival" in the center of the Royal Apartments.  Here are a few pics of our sights we saw the second day:

It was quite the successful trip!!  While I showed several pics of our adventures, there are still many, many more.  Vienna is such a huge city... It is almost as if you run into a gigantic and impressive building everywhere you turn.  An amazing time, without question!  We made it back to our bus and back to Brno by that night.

Well, that's all for now!  Next, I'll post a quick blog with a few pics about my day trip to the Capital of Slovakia: Bratislava :)

Cheers!  (or, in Czech... Na zdravi!)

Update from Brno :)

Hey!

It's been a little while... I've been trying to get acquainted to my new home here!  Classes are going quite well.  My schedule is pretty relaxed, as I have one class a day, always in the afternoon.  The courses are not too difficult so far.  Luckily I have a bit of an advantage over the other ERASMUS students since my native language is English!  Here is a list of the classes I am taking:

• Java Programming Language
• Fundamentals of Artificial Intellligence
• Algorithms
• Czech History and Culture

I actually have it pretty easy compared to the other students.  I am taking the equivalent of 17 ECTS credits, which is the European standard.  A normal semester in Europe consists of about 30 ECTS, so basically it feels like I have a half load!  There are only a couple homework assignments per semester in each class, a project, and a final exam.  I am making myself study and keep up on the lecture notes though because if I don't, I know I will just fall behind and be in trouble at the end of the semester.  Been there, done that!

Brno is a pretty neat city.  It feels like a "large village."  The population is just below 400,000 (which to me, being from Montana, is HUGE) but at the same time, it as a small town feel to it.  Public transportation via buses and trams is excellent; easily the number one way to get around the city.

Pricing here is actually very cheap!  The Czech Republic uses the "koruna", or crown.  One U.S. dollar equals approx. 20 crowns.  The cost for a pizza, for example, is anywhere between 25 kc and 50 kc ... much cheaper than even a $5 hot-n-ready!  Beers are usually about 25 kc apiece.  Rent for the month, which included laundry, utilities, and internet, was 2,500 kc... $125.  Good luck finding housing in the States for that price!!

I will go ahead and post some pics from my university and from Brno...

This is the Faculty of Business and Management combined with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.  It is right next door to my dorms, and where the International Student Club (ISC) office is located.  A pretty new building!  My Czech History class is held in here.

This is my dorm.. Pod Palackeho.  The majority of where ERASMUS students are housed, it makes it very easy to meet up with friends and make plans (and of course, having little "after parties" in our rooms is pretty easy too (:  ).  Right next door to the FBM/FEEC, it is located next to the very last tram stop on lines 12 and 13, at Technology Park.

The yard outside my dorms.

Walkway from our tram stop to our dorms.  They are doing some hard-core construction to the right, so this walkway is to be taken out pretty soon... Or so I was told!

One of the main churches in Brno.

Inside the Colossal main cathedral in Brno.  It was very impressive!!!

Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, which is located on Petrov hill.  There are quite a few stories about how this came to be built here!

Overview of Brno from the summit of the Castle Spilberk.  The landscape in general is very hilly and green... We are too far away from the Alps to really have mountains, but it's still pretty here!

 

From atop Castle Spilberk.

Well, there are just a few of my pics of Brno.  It's a pretty nice city!  There are also a few really good night clubs and a million good bars (I'll leave those pics out) since it is considered a college city.

Other than that, I've taken a couple weekend trips to Vienna, Austria and to Bratislava, Slovakia.  Those pics are coming up!!  Possibly heading to Munich, Germany this weekend for Oktoberfest, and I already have my tickets booked for Istanbul, Turkey in two weeks!!  I am having a heck of a time here.  Traveling is very easy and convenient since I'm in the heart of central Europe, and everything is pretty manageable, price-wise.  I will do my best to keep this updated.. Hopefully I will be able to talk about my Vienna trip and throw some pics up by tomorrow or Wednesday!

Until later!

-Jake