Monthly Archives: September 2007

Bohemian Paradise

About an hour north of Prague is the area called Ceske Raj or Bohemian Paradise. The area is scattered with sandstone tables, forests and quaint castles. Together with the IAESTE interns in town we went there for a Sunday hike yesterday.

The weather was really nice and the trees were slowly starting to change into autumn costumes.

The last week we have also been hosting Ryan and Marisol, two American CouchSurfersÂ who are travelling Europe on their 8th months now. It is amazing how many places they have been and it makes me tick to go on big trip. SeeÂ Ryans great pictures at Flickr.

Belgium and Holland Tour de Force

This past weekend Mehmet fired up his Skoda and we went on a westbound road trip. Mehmet is a Turkish friend from IAESTE Prague and together with Femi, me and Mehmets friend Murat, we started out Thursday night around 1am. We got to the German border about an hour later.

I never realized how privileged I am being pale and having a Danish passport. Going in and out of countries have never taken me a long time. This time was quite different however. Apparently there was a stamp in Mehmets passport that wasnt right so it took almost 2 hours before they finally let us through. That set us back quite a lot in time and it took us until Friday afternoon before we reached Breda, Netherlands were we met up with Aytek another of Mehmets friends.

All three Turkish guys works for ExxonMobil so in we got the tour when we went to pick up Aytek. Here are Murat, Aytek, [Aytek’s coworker], Mehmet and [another coworker].

Friday night we spend in the old and beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium. Here are the guys in front of the Belfry Tower from 1280.

Femi and I crashed at a hostel in town while the other guys went on to met another friend. Saturday the next stop was Antwerp were we stayed for the afternoon walking the city and getting some true Belgium fries.

And then it was on to Amsterdam with the Red Light District, coffee shops and canals everywhere. We all had a blast and ended the night at the night club Escape which must be one of the biggest in Amsterdam.

We ended up with two 50 euros parking fines and since we couldnt find a hotel or hostel we slept in the cars. Everyone was tired so it wasnt as bad as expected and Sunday morning we went for a short walk around Amsterdam before driving the 10 hours back to Prague.

Another awesome weekend is over so fast!

[ Update 13/9] Murat just uploaded his pictures and there are gems like this two:

Visit from Denmark

Last week I got my first visit from Denmark Solveig my aunt and Jens came by for five days. They brought me some aquavit and winter clothes which was useful since the autumn seems to have seriously taken its grasp on Prague.

I showed them some of Prague and on their own they discovered some areas like the Jewish cemetaries that I still havent been to. One thing I discovered when they were here was the beutiful Wallenstein Garden below the castle. A really nice (and free) spot in the middle of the city.

Walking to paradise

So its been a week since I got back to Prague so its about time I start to tell something about Hawaii. Here is a video from our hike on the Kalalau Trail read more below.

The highlight of the three weeks was without a doubt the four days we spend in the island of Kauai. Kauai is the oldest islands of Hawaii and also known as the Garden Isle because of the flourishing nature found here. Its one of the wettest spots in the world and the massive amounts of water has shaped the rock into what is called pali in Hawaiian. On this picture you can see the palis:

Fernando had gotten hold of permits for us to hike the Kalalau Trail. The trail follows the the massive windswept Na Pali coastline overlooking lush green valleys and towering rocky cliffs that rises almost 1200 meters to the deep blue pacific below. The trail is 11 miles (18km) long and winds it way along the cliffs in a very varied landscape with rain forest, desert and rocky cliffs. The trail is almost never straight but moves up and down, in and out. The view is spectacular and around each corner awaits new wonders.

It was hot and humid to do the hike so we drank a lot of water. Luckily there are plenty of streams and creeks on the trail so we could refill our bottles.