We would like to see "more-of-ya" blog posts. Get it? Moravia? "More-of-ya?"

So first and foremost, I need to apologize to those of you who have been eagerly awaiting a blog post for some time now. I definitely got behind...need I quote the preamble from a previous post about the baby and the car and the distractingly delicious muffins. Well, I have been really busy and also have a cold. Unfortunately here in Prague, they do not sell the same types of medicines that we can buy in the store. I went to a lekarna (drugstore) and pantomimed my symptoms to a very patient woman and she handed me cough drops. I purchased them later realizing to get something like Tylenol Cold I would have to go to a doctor. So instead of doing that I am chugging orange juice like it's going out of style--hopefully Vitamin C will come to the rescue. I'm sure my roommates are annoyed by my continuous coughing though.
Anyways, Moravia. It was such an amazing trip. It was sponsored by NYU with priority for the music kids (that's me!). It was basically twenty-five people from my dorm on the trip. The bus ride was kind of long--and everyone mostly slept. I was a nerd and read some articles for Topics in 20th Century Music. We first arrived in Brno, which is the capital of Moravia and the second-largest city in the Czech Republic. Quick FYI. Moravia is a region of the Czech Republic similar to the way that England or Scotland are regions/countries of the UK. Prague is in Bohemia. Bohemia is North and West. Moravia is South and East. Moravia is more religious and much more traditional (ie. traditional folk music). Bohemia is atheist and more urban. Back to the trip. We met our tour guide for the trip who led us around Brno showing us the historical buildings and such.

We climbed to the top of the church for amazing views of Brno.

Sooooo many stairs.

What a vista!

After our tour of Brno, we had two hours to have lunch and explore Brno. Five of us went to one restaurant that we could sit outside at because it was a beautiful day. I got gulaš. It was so good. It also came with knedliky (dumplings). Then we went to the main square and each purchased some burčak, which is essentially "baby wine." It's wine that has not fermented as much by the yeast as normal wine. We came during wine season. Side note: Bohemia is famous for beer, Moravia is famous for wine. It tasted like juice. It was so delicious. Czech people call it something like "the storm," because it's so easy to drink a lot of it and not realize it, though the alcohol percentage is low, it's still in there. I tried a cup of the white and of the red. The red was so much tastier--it was pretty much grape juice! Then a Moravian began to play for about ten minutes before we left. They were really good and had a clarinet (awesome!) and a dulcimer. I've never seen one in person.


We then left Brno for Mikulov, a quaint town in the hilly regions of Moravia. NYU fed us dinner--it was delicious chicken pasta. After dinner, a Moravian string quartet came and gave us a concert in the restaurant. They were so good. They sang many traditional folk songs, which was great since my music history teacher had talked about folk music in the previous class. Their voices were all great and their harmonies were tight. And the first violin was especially impressive. Unfortunately, only towards the end of the concert did I think to pull out my camera to record a song. I only grabbed the last two songs which were both American.

Mikulov

"Yesterday"

The next day, we got to climb to the top of Holy Hill (deemed so because of the old monastery at the top). There are also stations of the cross along the way because Holy Hill was often the site of many Moravian pilgrimages. The views from the top of it were so beautiful and from there you could simultaneously see Slovakia and Austria while standing in the Czech Republic. Sooo cool. It was so beautiful overlooking the Czech countryside. Unfortunately, my camera died so I only got to snap two pictures.

I'm in the Czech Republic and in the distance is Austria and Slovakia

After we hiked down Holy Hill, we headed for Bzenec, a small town that was holding a festival for the grape/wine harvest. So naturally there was a lot of burčak. It was especially delicious. There was a fair with a lot of pastries and klobasa, which is like the mix between a sausage and hot dog but they're really tasty and always served with mustard. There was also a concert/play by the townspeople  in which they performed folk songs and acted out the presentation of the grapes and wine to the king. All in all, Moravia is so wonderful--the rolling hillsides and picturesque towns--I could get used to that.