Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Cali coast
After all those national parks and cities we've been to on our round trip we wanted to see the ocean, too. And where could be better place to make it real than in California? ;) Today, we (this time without Irish guys, who left yesterday) went to the north coast of Cali, below the San Fran. It took us about 3 hours to get to Monterey from Davis. Monterey is pretty city, but unfortunately at this time with cold ocean and today even with the cold weather. The sun was shining most of time, but it was still about 20 degrees of Celsius, I guess.
After Monterey we drove along the shore and then to Santa Cruz, which is touristic town upon Monterey. We went there to some amusement park to experience the roller coasters. However, I didn't get on any, it wasn't anything special there, I didn't wanna get sick for such a big money on normal roller coasters;) The beach in Santa Cruz wasn't very nice too, at least the part we've been to. And again cold. Now we are again in Rudy's.
It's 1 at the night and we'll have to say bye to Monika who is leaving to Czech tonight. Have a safe trip, girl, and take care! See ya in Czech soon...
Not just Monika is leaving, me and Jan are leaving tomorrow to work in the kids camp in Pennsylvania. So, it's 2,5 months of boring work, but after this.... Washington is waiting for me. Can't wait to be there.
After Monterey we drove along the shore and then to Santa Cruz, which is touristic town upon Monterey. We went there to some amusement park to experience the roller coasters. However, I didn't get on any, it wasn't anything special there, I didn't wanna get sick for such a big money on normal roller coasters;) The beach in Santa Cruz wasn't very nice too, at least the part we've been to. And again cold. Now we are again in Rudy's.
It's 1 at the night and we'll have to say bye to Monika who is leaving to Czech tonight. Have a safe trip, girl, and take care! See ya in Czech soon...
Not just Monika is leaving, me and Jan are leaving tomorrow to work in the kids camp in Pennsylvania. So, it's 2,5 months of boring work, but after this.... Washington is waiting for me. Can't wait to be there.
Wine tasting in Napa
One of the girls we met this party night works in the vineyard. Then, why not go to taste wine? And one of the best in the U.S. - from Napa area. The vineyard is about our far away of Davis where we stay and is situated in beautiful wine countryside. We tasted one of the best wine I've ever had - white, red, pink, dessert... And everything, which normally cost $20 we got for free and got 5o% discount for the purchase of all wines they have. And all because we were "friends" with Kate, girl we met the last night.
Thats America, you are "the best friend" after while. Looks like a hypocrisy, buts its very nice and can help you in many situations.
Thats America, you are "the best friend" after while. Looks like a hypocrisy, buts its very nice and can help you in many situations.
Chilling out in Cali...
We got back from our round trip on Friday. Since that time we are chilling out in our Dutch friend Rudy's house. He studied in Nebraska last semester and after that he moved to Davis, California to experience another place in the States. Why not? Sunny and hot California, near to San Francisco... However, I'm still happy that I spent whole my year just in Nebraska. The people there are just gorgeous.
On Friday me, Rudy, Irish fellow Dain and Rudy's roommate went to the party. Kinda weird party - organized by people from College of Arts. I thought this type of people - long oily hair, emo style (wearing black, kinda death metal style), flannel... - is just in Europe, but exactly the same people were in this party. So, not everything is different all over the world. Nevertheless, when we were coming back home by taxi-bus we started to talk to some random two girls who got to the cab. And why go back home, when we can play pool and actually going to the pool, this time swimming and to hot tub. So we got back again in the morning with the wet underwear, because we didn't have swimming suits.
Here is the picture with our underwear. Btw all of us commando ;)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Couple meters from bisons or grizzlies? It's Yellowstone...
One of the things totally different here in Yellowstone from the previous places we stopped in our round trip - weather. When we came here it was snowing and the temperature hit zero. After hot California, Arizona, Nevada and partly Utah big change. No matter the bad weather we checked in the hotel and headed to the park.
Yellowstone, the second largest national park in the U.S. (after nat. park in Alaska) is different than other parks we saw on our way. The geologically young and therefore unstable area famous mostly because of geysers. Two thirds of all world geysers are found here. Simply said, the Yellowstone is huge green forest and among the trees in some parts there is water steam raising into the sky, some geysers are erupting the water into the air. And one of the best deals in Yellowstone - you can see many wild animals very close to you.
Herds of bisons or in America known as buffalos, deers, elks, many of birds, wolfs... All of them we saw just couple meter of us (you drove through in the car mostly, so it's safe if you don't get off the car what we sometimes did). But we are still waiting for the king of the Yellowstone - grizzly. So, hopefully tomorrow.
It looks like that we are moving to the Grand Teton National park below Yellowstone tomorrow. And after that we are going back to San Francisco, respectively to Davis to our friend's house. Maybe we will go to the California coast for a while. Who knows. Nothing is planned exactly and we take it easy. So, take it easy too! And look forward to the pictures, hopefully soon...
Yellowstone, the second largest national park in the U.S. (after nat. park in Alaska) is different than other parks we saw on our way. The geologically young and therefore unstable area famous mostly because of geysers. Two thirds of all world geysers are found here. Simply said, the Yellowstone is huge green forest and among the trees in some parts there is water steam raising into the sky, some geysers are erupting the water into the air. And one of the best deals in Yellowstone - you can see many wild animals very close to you.
Herds of bisons or in America known as buffalos, deers, elks, many of birds, wolfs... All of them we saw just couple meter of us (you drove through in the car mostly, so it's safe if you don't get off the car what we sometimes did). But we are still waiting for the king of the Yellowstone - grizzly. So, hopefully tomorrow.
It looks like that we are moving to the Grand Teton National park below Yellowstone tomorrow. And after that we are going back to San Francisco, respectively to Davis to our friend's house. Maybe we will go to the California coast for a while. Who knows. Nothing is planned exactly and we take it easy. So, take it easy too! And look forward to the pictures, hopefully soon...
Monday, May 21, 2007
Salt Lake City and the finish of our road trip - Yellowstone
I tried to download the pictures, but the connection here in hotel in Salt Lake is so bad that I just gave it up, so I'll download them when I'll get on computer with better connection... Sorry for that.
Anyway, finish the story... After Bryce we today got to Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah and also the Mormon metropolis. Mormons, special church which is established especially in Utah (about 70% inhabitants of Utah belong to this church) is considered by many people like a sect and people who belong to this church as weird people. And I have to kinda confirm this, Mormons are strange and for other people hardly understandable and therefore Salt Lake City is nice city you feel that it's something different here.
Tomorrow we are going to our final destination on our way - Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park where we spend about four days. I'll let you know what's going on. For now, take care!
Anyway, finish the story... After Bryce we today got to Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah and also the Mormon metropolis. Mormons, special church which is established especially in Utah (about 70% inhabitants of Utah belong to this church) is considered by many people like a sect and people who belong to this church as weird people. And I have to kinda confirm this, Mormons are strange and for other people hardly understandable and therefore Salt Lake City is nice city you feel that it's something different here.
Tomorrow we are going to our final destination on our way - Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park where we spend about four days. I'll let you know what's going on. For now, take care!
Other adventures from my trip across the Southwest...
So finally i got for a while online so I can drop here some new information about our round trip in Southwest U.S. So, what happened after Yosemite? From this national park full of traffic jam, smog and people (who would expect such a situation in natural park?) we moved to less busy Kings Canyon and Sequoya National Park. We didn't see much from Kings because we were in rush - we had just one day for both - so we decided to spend more time in Sequoya to see huge trees. And I have to say that it was impressive. In the normal forest solely spread giant red Sequoya trees. And there were just huge... With very special red color which they have because of special chemical liquid which protects this trees living normally about 2000 years against diseases and fires. Actually fires are very beneficial for the trees because they help in reproduction of this weird trees. The Sequoya can be burnt and you can see the black burnt spots and they are still alive.
The pictures of this crazy trees I'll add when I'll get on my computer where I have all my photos...
After Sequoya our national park road continued - we headed off to Death Valley, still in Cali. And nomen omen - the Death Valley is monumental colorful natural theater. Red , white, black, white and mostly mixed cliffs going along with each other. And we drove in the middle of these cliffs. Except other things there are huge sand dunes, where you feel like in the Sahara or the lowest point in the U.S. and the North hemisphere as well - if i good remember 86 meters below the sea level.
We deserved some break after all these national park. We took it in the biggest gambler place in the world - Las Vegas, which lies in Nevada. It was visible since the beginning that it's all fake and commercial, but although liked it. I haven't seen anything similar before. And what I didn't expect - I spent there my birthday. I guess you can hardly find better place where to spend the birthday party. And I really enjoyed it - but as it's said what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I will tell you just individually and won't spread it out publicly ;)
After wild two days in Vegas we moved to Grand Canyon - to the north part - North Rid. Grand Canyon has two main touristic parts - South and North Rid, while South Rid is much more visited, about 90% go there. Good for us, we could enjoy the breathtaking view on Canyon without crowds of tourists. The day after we arrived to Canyon and camped in the near National forest we hiked to the Canyon. We didn't manage to get on the bottom, because the Canyon is really deep but we enjoyed the hike to the waterfalls walking along the beautiful and colorful cliffs of Canyon. Huge hike!
All picture from the places mentioned above I'll add later. So look forward...
From Canyon we moved to another national park - Bryce. I have to say that for me it was one of the most impressive place which I've seen here. Very special rocks created by earthquake and erosion. However, don't talk about it much - let's see the pictures...
The pictures of this crazy trees I'll add when I'll get on my computer where I have all my photos...
After Sequoya our national park road continued - we headed off to Death Valley, still in Cali. And nomen omen - the Death Valley is monumental colorful natural theater. Red , white, black, white and mostly mixed cliffs going along with each other. And we drove in the middle of these cliffs. Except other things there are huge sand dunes, where you feel like in the Sahara or the lowest point in the U.S. and the North hemisphere as well - if i good remember 86 meters below the sea level.
We deserved some break after all these national park. We took it in the biggest gambler place in the world - Las Vegas, which lies in Nevada. It was visible since the beginning that it's all fake and commercial, but although liked it. I haven't seen anything similar before. And what I didn't expect - I spent there my birthday. I guess you can hardly find better place where to spend the birthday party. And I really enjoyed it - but as it's said what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas, so I will tell you just individually and won't spread it out publicly ;)
After wild two days in Vegas we moved to Grand Canyon - to the north part - North Rid. Grand Canyon has two main touristic parts - South and North Rid, while South Rid is much more visited, about 90% go there. Good for us, we could enjoy the breathtaking view on Canyon without crowds of tourists. The day after we arrived to Canyon and camped in the near National forest we hiked to the Canyon. We didn't manage to get on the bottom, because the Canyon is really deep but we enjoyed the hike to the waterfalls walking along the beautiful and colorful cliffs of Canyon. Huge hike!
All picture from the places mentioned above I'll add later. So look forward...
From Canyon we moved to another national park - Bryce. I have to say that for me it was one of the most impressive place which I've seen here. Very special rocks created by earthquake and erosion. However, don't talk about it much - let's see the pictures...
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Yosemite National Park
After hilly San Fran, we moved to our friends place as I already told you. There we spent more time than we expected so we set off the road at the late afternoon on Friday and got to the Yosemite National Park, which was our other stop on our round trip, already at the night.
I know that sleeping in the room for 4 people in 9 people doesn't seem very comfortable but we survived this night and finally were able to see Yosemite in the day light not just during the night as we were going to the park to get to our motel.
So what to tell about Yosemite - its not the best I saw but its beautiful and kind of special... Tomorrow we are moving to Sequoya National Park and Kings Canyon. Here enjoy the pictures from Yosemite...
I know that sleeping in the room for 4 people in 9 people doesn't seem very comfortable but we survived this night and finally were able to see Yosemite in the day light not just during the night as we were going to the park to get to our motel.
So what to tell about Yosemite - its not the best I saw but its beautiful and kind of special... Tomorrow we are moving to Sequoya National Park and Kings Canyon. Here enjoy the pictures from Yosemite...
Friday, May 11, 2007
The beginning of our round trip - foggy San Francisco
I managed to pack my stuff, which took me very long time. I told bye to my friends (btw. even to John and Tim, with who I had an argument couple days ago) and could head to Omaha to stay in my friend's house over night and in the morning fly through Las Vegas to San Francisco.
So, that's the crack, as the Irish with who are we traveling would say. We (5 Czechs + 3 Irish + one British) spent three days in San Francisco and tonight we are staying in our friend's house in Davis near Sacramento. Rudy is our Dutch friend who studied with us in fall semester in Lincoln and for the spring semester he moved to California to finish his study abroad with studying at University of California, Davis.
What to say about San Francisco? I can't get rid of the comparison with Lisbon in Portugal. San Francisco is as Lisbon located on the hills, it's mostly white colored, there are riding the similar trams across the city and the city is lying on the coast of the ocean and is connected with opposite coast with long bridges exactly as Lisbon. Last but not least San Fran is much more European than other American cities. But what differs San Fran from Lisbon are fogs. There are there almost all the time. And the pride of SF - the Golden Gate Bridge is most of time covered by fog.
San Fran is liberal city. Much more liberal, than for example Nebraska, when I spent this year. In SF there is a big gay and lesbian community. They have here even their own part of the city - Castro. The freedom you can experience just when you are buying the alcohol - mostly they don't ask you for your ID, which would be in Nebraska unimaginable.
Lots of people are excited of living in San Francisco. I say, it's a beautiful city, but for me, it's something between American and European city. And why to make a compromise, when I can live either in American or European city? However, definitely I wanna come back one day...
So, what's the plan for upcoming days? Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Sequoya Nat. Park... As soon as I get online I'll let you know how it's going...
So, that's the crack, as the Irish with who are we traveling would say. We (5 Czechs + 3 Irish + one British) spent three days in San Francisco and tonight we are staying in our friend's house in Davis near Sacramento. Rudy is our Dutch friend who studied with us in fall semester in Lincoln and for the spring semester he moved to California to finish his study abroad with studying at University of California, Davis.
What to say about San Francisco? I can't get rid of the comparison with Lisbon in Portugal. San Francisco is as Lisbon located on the hills, it's mostly white colored, there are riding the similar trams across the city and the city is lying on the coast of the ocean and is connected with opposite coast with long bridges exactly as Lisbon. Last but not least San Fran is much more European than other American cities. But what differs San Fran from Lisbon are fogs. There are there almost all the time. And the pride of SF - the Golden Gate Bridge is most of time covered by fog.
San Fran is liberal city. Much more liberal, than for example Nebraska, when I spent this year. In SF there is a big gay and lesbian community. They have here even their own part of the city - Castro. The freedom you can experience just when you are buying the alcohol - mostly they don't ask you for your ID, which would be in Nebraska unimaginable.
Lots of people are excited of living in San Francisco. I say, it's a beautiful city, but for me, it's something between American and European city. And why to make a compromise, when I can live either in American or European city? However, definitely I wanna come back one day...
So, what's the plan for upcoming days? Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Sequoya Nat. Park... As soon as I get online I'll let you know how it's going...
Monday, May 7, 2007
Summer plans and leaving Nebraska
After couple days without much sleep, moving out from my dorms (which I btw did from 9:30 at the night to 3 in the morning...) I'm finally posting. Days full of farewell parties and saying see you and mostly unfortunately bye. Normally I like partying but this last week I just HATED. Tired, thinking of what I have to do before I leave and what's the worst knowing that I won't probably see most of guys I spent unforgettable year with. And right now I'm really sad, because I had argument with ones of my best friends here - John and Tim and I didn't tell them bye, which totally pisses me off. I spent with them some great times, they helped me a lot and now we will leave each other in this awkward situation? We will see how will it go. Hopefully we will solve it out because I really don't wanna leave like that...
I'm not good at saying bye (and who is?) but I realized that it's time to move and head to other life adventures. So I decided not to come back to Czech for the summer and stay here in the States... So, guys it's my pleasure finally present you my summer plans. Here you are:
1. Tomorrow morning me and my Czech and Irish friends are flying to San Francisco, CA where we are renting a car and heading to our round trip across California, Arizona, Utah to Yellowstone National Park. The trip is planned for almost 3 weeks, so looks like a lot of fun ;)
2. After this trip, me and my Czech friend Jan are flying to Pennsylvania to work in the kids camp for more than 2 months.
3. Right after the camp I'm moving to Washington DC, where I should have an internship at the Czech Embassy in Washington for more than 1 month.
And afterwards, I'm coming back to Czech!!!!! I guess in late September. So, plan the party at this time for me ;)
Now you know my plans, so I'm looking forward to know what's going on with you. And whoever wanna come to Washington to visit me, you are more then welcome... Hopefully I'll go online sometimes in upcoming weeks, so I can keep tracking my journey here. Stay tuned!
I'm not good at saying bye (and who is?) but I realized that it's time to move and head to other life adventures. So I decided not to come back to Czech for the summer and stay here in the States... So, guys it's my pleasure finally present you my summer plans. Here you are:
1. Tomorrow morning me and my Czech and Irish friends are flying to San Francisco, CA where we are renting a car and heading to our round trip across California, Arizona, Utah to Yellowstone National Park. The trip is planned for almost 3 weeks, so looks like a lot of fun ;)
2. After this trip, me and my Czech friend Jan are flying to Pennsylvania to work in the kids camp for more than 2 months.
3. Right after the camp I'm moving to Washington DC, where I should have an internship at the Czech Embassy in Washington for more than 1 month.
And afterwards, I'm coming back to Czech!!!!! I guess in late September. So, plan the party at this time for me ;)
Now you know my plans, so I'm looking forward to know what's going on with you. And whoever wanna come to Washington to visit me, you are more then welcome... Hopefully I'll go online sometimes in upcoming weeks, so I can keep tracking my journey here. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Finally, done with the finals...
I had my last exam today. Spanish test was the last exam I took here at UNL. I'm so glad that's over. I mean my exams, not my stay here. For that I'm still kind of sad, even I start feeling that I have to move again. It was gorgeous year for me, but I'm ready to experience again something new. I'm ready for summer! And guess what? We are going to travel for almost three weeks.
California, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, prepare for us! Next Tuesday we are gonna jump out on you and start another adventure over there...
And just quick note for the end - my sickness is hopefully over. Just you to know ;)
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