Day 6 & 7- Just a little behind...in Paris

I know, I know, I'm behind in my blogging!!! Time for the quick recap:

Day 6- I went to a palace in Bohemia in the Czech Republic. The son of the people who own and LIVE there gave me a private tour!!! It was so cool being in a palace that is still being used and in the middle of restoration. We then ate at the brewery right next store and it was simply delicious. We were all exhausted and then I skyped with my parents. Because, it was time to get ready for a day full of airports and getting lost.


 

The renovated palace. FYI nobility lived here, not royalty

Day 7- I left Prague temporarily so Kaja can study for her exams. I took a fantastic AirFrance flight to Paris (it was not so fantastic as there were two screaming children literally right behind me, thank goodness it was less than two hours). Valerie's flight had gotten in about two hours before mine, as she was temporarily delayed in the United Kingdom, and waited for me in the airport. Okay, I thought Madrid-Barajas was a confusing airport, but I had yet to experience Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was kinda, sorta, just a little bit, crazy. But, Valerie and I found each other and we were both beyond ecstatic. Now it was time to figure out how to get to Matt's place. We got most of the way there before we had some issues with turnstiles and figuring out how to get to another train. Val, called Matt and he rescued us at a station and assisted us (well Val) with our luggage as we walked the streets of PARIS!!! Matt is quite the hospitable person, as right after he dropped us off he went to a nearby Starbucks to pick up a couple otherrrr friends who are staying until Thursday!!!

So, Matt's trying to come up with a game plan for us to get used to the Metro system and the city, as well as finding a place to eat. The four of us are just more than grateful to not be paying some ridiculous hotel/hostel price and tell Matt that we are just as flexible as can be. He starts to catch up with us all as he serves us some delicious French pastry and foi grais. Yeah, that was seriously our welcome-to-Paris snack. (Did I mention that Matt is a level superior student at the French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu?) We all freshen up and walk down Champs- Elysse and see the Arc de Triomphe, which I had only seen before in Mary-Kate and Ashley's "Passport to Paris". It was seriously beautiful and we hung out with the tourists taking pictures of it. Matt then led us to a delectable restaurant (after finding out the crepe place was closed) called Café Restaurant Le Murmure. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooo worth the 16€, I paid for the best squid, vegetable, and chorizo plate I've ever eaten in my life. Below is the spread of French cuisine. I'll blog again tonight, about today hahaha. Sorry Mom and Dad, but at least you have something now!!

Arc de Triomphe

My calamari, Val's raviolis, Weston's burger, Grant's steak
and Matt's ratatouille & duck



Day 5- Kutná Hora

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was planning on it but I ended up Skyping with my brother so blame him. Yesterday, I went to Kutná Hora, about an hour and half drive from Prague. I was really excited
to see the bone church (The Sedlec Ossuary) but Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady ended up being
my favorite part of the three stop trip. I feel like no one wants to go there because everyone talks up the
Church of St. Barbora (Barbara) or The Sedlec Ossuary. No one was inside the cathedral and it was
pretty awesome climbing up into the attic and seeing the cathedral from a different vantage point. Parts
of it were original from the 14th century but a good chunk of it is original from the 1700s and then what
was redone again later in the mid 2000s. The Sedlec Ossuary is made of the bones from 40,000 people
that died during the plague. It's actually pretty cool and not really creepy. Other places were more eerie
than that.


The Sedlec Ossuary: Made with bones from about
40,000 people.



The ceiling at Cathedral of Assumption of Our Lady.
Just wait until all of my photos of this place are up. It's
just stunning.

 

We then drove over to the Church of St. Barbara. This church was so beautiful. The architecture of the
building is phenomenal. There are painted windows, not actually pieces of colored glass glued together,
but are still just as beautiful. The pulpit is handcrafted out of wood and there is a beautiful altar as well.
There are several chapels within the church, devoted to various saints. This is yet again another 14th
century building. (Seriously, these buildings are amazing). We tried going to the Church of St. James
but it was closed. We did manage to visit the Stone Fountain as well as the Plague Column in the center
of the city. It was an amazing day and probably ties with Karljsten Castle as one of my favorite parts of
the trip.

Day 3 & 4- Castles and Camps

Sorry, about not blogging yesterday. I was tired after my trip to Karlštejn Castle. Karlštejn Castle is located about 40 km from Prague up in the forest. Built in the mid 14th century by King Charles IV, this is nothing but impressive. King Charles IV built it to protect the crown jewels instead of being used to protect a city or area. The castle has three parts; the Imperial Palace, the Deanery, and the Marian Tower. The Imperial Palace is where the knights resided and possibly the queen. The Deanery had King Charles' bedroom, the audience hall, and the hall of royal ancestors. Unfortunately, I couldn't go into the Marian Tower which housed the royal treasury as well as The Chapel of the Holy Cross. Only 16 people can go in at a time and there's all these rules about going in to see it. It sounded awesome though. So instead I just got awesome photos of the view. OH random but brilliant fact; a wooden bridge was built from the Deanery to the Marian Tower so if attackers tried to capture the jewels the bridge could be burned, and no one would have access to it. Also, the castle was never completely conquered. The Swedes came the closest by capturing 2/3 of the castle before retreating.

 

 

Today, Kaja took me to Terezín. Terezín started off as a fortress in the 18th century built as a prison for offenders during the national liberation struggle, before becoming a concentration camp during World War II. The guide explained it more like a transit camp, where people would stay temporarily before being moved onto a different camp. There were no gas chambers here but still, thousands of people died here by disease or execution. The town was hastily built and used by the German Nazis to film propaganda videos. All those museums in America cannot come close to capturing the emotions that go through you when you're actually at a camp. And the irony of it all was that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the sky was blue. Yet, only 75ish years ago, people were being work to their deaths in the exact same weather. 

Day 2- 500 Pictures in 5 Hours

Super cool book tower

Today I got to do all the touristy things in Prague. Kaja took me to Old Prague where she had to make a stop at the public library. Their public library is so cool that I had to take a picture inside :). They also have a national library, but you can't check out books. Oh well that's still pretty cool.

Orloj

She then took me to Old Town Square where I indulged in a trdelnik (see instagram photo). She also took me to Orloj, the clock tower. There's an interesting story behind the tower. Back in the 1400s a clockmaker made this clock for the city of Prague. It's an astronomical clock and on the hour the doors open up and you can see different saints. At the end, the rooster crows. It's quite amazing. Anyway, many different European cities wanted the clockmaker to make clocks for them and the mayor of Prague said absolutely not. This is going to be in Prague only, so he blinded the clockmaker. The clockmaker was so upset that he stuck his hands in the mechanics of the clock and died soon after. The clock didn't work for 200 years. Morbid, yes, but fascinating none the less. There is NOTHING in America that was built in 1200, so that fact alone is amazing.

The end of the Charles Bridge that takes you into Lesser Prague

After walking around Jewish Prague, Kaja took me to meet up with Lucy who spoke Italian and Czech fluently with a little bit of English. So I got to practice my Italian (thank goodness my comprehension in foreign languages is better than my speaking abilities.) Lucy took me across the Charles Bridge into Lesser Town. She also took me to a park where there are PEACOCKS!!! How awesome is that??? They just roam--similar to the OC Park--and are just hanging in windows or trees. She also took me to the bridge with locks, which you can apparently get arrested for now.


I saw St. Nicholas Cathedral briefly and then hiked up 100 steps to Prague Castle. After hiking these steps you get the most spectacular view. You can see the US Embassy sitting all by it's lonesome at the top of a hill (in typical American style) with the Germans fairly close by. The one thing I love about these vistas is the face that everything is green or a brick color. Or blue. I've only seen skies this blue after a rain in SoCal. We continued on to St. Victus Cathedral and it is seriously one of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen, not that I've seen many. The stained glass is so detailed it's amazing that it was built in 1060. I feel like the people of that time put more thought and energy into the details of it all. Like seriously, each statue is devoted to a saint or an important person and everything tells a story.We saw the changing of the guards, which I think they do every hour. Lucy also explained to me about the flag on top of the president's house. Similar to the United States, if the flag is up, the president is at home, if not he is away.

St. Victus Cathedral- Simply stunning

Some interesting things I've  noticed while here has been lack of children and doors. Like there are plenty of kids here but they're families of three maybbeee four. I have yet to see more than three kids together that aren't part of a school group. It's a cultural thing here though, it's just something that's super unique to me. Now about the doors. Yes I'm being literal, I guess I could be figurative as well. But there are doors e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Almost all of them old and original. These doors are beautiful, just like the ones in our lives. They are locked or unlocked at specific times for specific reasons. Despite the wear or the amount of detail on the door, each door is unique and beautiful, leading to the next part of the adventure.

Day 1- 19 Hours of Travel

Nineteen hours of travel later I'm in Prague, Czech Republic!! I woke up at 5a (PST) and took out of LAX by 9a. Flew to Miami (I got to see the Everglades for the first time!!!) and from Miami to Madrid. Now first off, to all those people on the transatlantic flight, if you didn't get up to stretch in those eight hours, I don't know how you do it. I got served breakfast twice within 18 hours and my body was very confused as to what  I should be enjoying. In Madrid I had an hour and a half to catch my LAST and final leg of my travel day. Now for you to truly feel my pain, google Madrid-Barajas airport layout and follow me. I had to take a five minute train ride from terminal 4S to 4. I had to get to gate K90. So after my little train ride I had to go through security...again. This is where my passport was stamped and thank GOD I understand Spanish because no one was helping me out in English. All the signs are in Spanish and NEVER have I had to say, "Tu hablas engles?" Yeah, no one in Spain does. I'm FINALLY at gate K52. Where on this planet is K90?! So one guy knew a little English and directed me towards the COMPLETE opposite end of the terminal. It was so far down the terminal there weren't even signs for it yet. I make it to K90 with 20 minutes to spare hop on Iberia Flight 3148 and land in Prague at 1:15pm (their time).

I was ready to seize the day. Kaja took me to get this photo:

I love how laid back this place is. I'm currently exhausted which is why this is not a very coherent blog post but tada!! You all got one and all the links are in Czech, so I'm feeling quite proud of myself :) Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!!!

Book Signing

On April 25, 2013, For Underdogs Only had a book signing at Tustin High School's Open House (Light Up the Night). Players from the book, including DeShaun Foster, Winter Welz, Tom Giebe, Edward Tandy, Frank Frappier, Ricky Miller, and Myron Miller were all on hand to sign. Best selling author, Kim Robinson, was personally signing books as well. Kim read an excerpt from the book and debuted the book trailer filmed and edited by teacher, Mr. Zimora and a Tustin High student. All hands were on deck as former students, faculty, and friends were there to support Kim and her first book. It was a great night and here are some pictures documenting the event. Congrats Kim!!

" 'I don't think I'm worthy enough to have book written about me, but you go ahead and write it. You are following your dreams and I like people that march to their own drum.' And my dream since  I was eight-years-old has come true." -Kim Robinson on Myron Miller

 

 



From left to right: M. Miller, F. Frappier, R. Miller, W. Welz, K. Robinson,
T. Giebe, E. Tandy



The line for DeShaun Foster to sign

OC Fair Potentials

To all of those that read my blog-

First of all thank you for being supportive of my art. I love it and definitely have my favorite shoots!!! Now it's time to participate. If you click here you can voice your opinion on my art. Yes, I know it's subjective BUT you can vote for your favorites and hopefully it will be one that I enter into the Orange County Fair!!! Here's how it works:

From TODAY 3/9/13- 3/17/13 you can vote for as many photos as you like. Obviously, only two votes per photo (one comment and one like). After 3/17/13 I will take down the album and put up the top 25 and continue until I get to the top 5-7 photos. Then I enter those photos into the fair. God willing, they all get picked to judge. If any photos (hopefully all) are picked, the fair will notify me and then I mat and frame the photos. The photos then get to the fair prior to opening weekend. They will then be judged and hopefully get a ribbon or something!

But I'm very excited and will also be in a photography competition on August 1 at the fair. So come by and support!! I will keep you all posted!!! Thank you!!

Sincerely,

Kara Russek
Devon Bella Photography