Welcome to Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Karlovy Vary, pronounced Carlsbad in English, and translated as meaning "Charles' Bath", is a city of about 35 000 situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, about 130km west of the capital, Prague. It is named after The King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV, who founded Karlovy Vara in 1370. Karlovy Vara is famous for its hot springs and mineral water which is said to give life to 100 years of age if drunk everyday. All around the city are spouts containing this holy mineral water where people fill up mugs to drink it while walking. This mineral water is the basis of many famous Czech legends, said to have healing powers and life adding abilities. 

Holy mineral water of Karlovy Vara

Mineral water, looks safe right?

In the 19th century, Karlovy Vary became a popular tourist destination, especially for international celebrities. The city is known for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, attracting celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp every year. Karlovy Vary has been used as the main location for a number of films including Last Holiday filmed in 2006 and the James Bond hit Casino Royale, both of which films used the city's Grandhotel Pupp. 

Karlovy Vara is such a beautiful city with so much amazing architecture, history, beauty, and class. The rows of old, unique buildings stretch up and down the winding streets of the city, and around every turn is something new. Hidden away are delicious cafes, one of which Nonika and I visited and fell in love with, so so good! We tried the traditional garlic and potato soup along with a few other things. Thermal baths are everywhere and are a must do if you are here at the right time of the year to get the real Czech experience! Also, you cannot go here without trying spa wafers, sold at various street stands throughout the city. They come in so many different flavours including lemon, coconut, vanilla, white chocolate, etc. They are delicious, especially when served warm!

We love spa wafers!!


After our walking tour of the history of the city, Nonika and I spent the rest of the afternoon together wandering through the cobblestone streets through small shops and bakeries that line the roads. There is so much to see in Karlovy Vary and just wandering around the city can captivate you. It so beautiful and has so much character. It is a must see place if you are ever in Czech Republic!

Melted My Heart

Anyone that knows me knows I absolutely adore kids. They just make everything better. They make you slow down, and realize that there are way more important things to worry about, especially when these kids are in an orphanage. I'm continually astounded by the extraordinary people in the world. Here in Kiev there is a family, mom, dad and daughter, who take in children from various orphanages and raise them until they are 18. They just got 5 new, what we would call foster kids, and there are a few other children who have been there for 5+ years. These kids love their 'mama' and I'm amazed and these people and their willingness to help these orphaned children, out of love and no other motive. They get no money, they get no compensation from the government. The family lives in an apartment building where they have had 2 apartments converted into one so they can house more children. The children are Valera who is 5, Maxim who is 6, Alona who is 7, Lusha who is 10, Artoom who is 11, Alina who is 13, and Dasha who is 15. Valera, Maxim, and Alona absolutely love the attention and hang off of you every chance they get! It is so sweet, and I am beyond excited to go back every week and play with these children and help teach them English. 

Alona! Most energetic little diva in the world.

'Mama'

Valera and Maxim :) 

The hospital this week was an adventure! The equipment they use surprises me to no end. It is all at least 20 years old and doesn't work 3/4 of the time making it nearly impossible for the students to do research or for tests to be carried out. They only have an x-ray machine 2 days a week, so if you come in on a Friday, you're out of luck until Monday! The doctor I am shadowing was showing me how their electromyogram worked and then let me test it out. She is such an amazing person to work with and is so willing to teach, show, and get me involved with everything that she can. A pharmaceutical rep was at the hospital today. Apparently he thought he was quite the charmer kissing my hand and telling me he was going to call me at 3am... like that's going to happen! These guys just think they can charm you into loving them... where I come from he just comes off as creepy plain and simply haha! 

Room for starting IV's and giving intramuscular injections 

ENT doctor who is available only once a week and sets up right in the middle of the hall

Ice Age equipment!

Electromyogram.. I'm healthy! 

One night this week Nonika, Kyla and I went out for dinner to a Ukrainian restaurant. As we were leaving the waiter, who spoke a little bit of English, says to us, "are you coming back tomorrow?". We kind of looked at each other and Nonika asked if he was working. He said yes and so we promised to go back! But we didn't... hope we didn't break his heart too much! Then we went to institute where we got to meet some other girls who are here in Kiev. It was a great way to end our day, and we got free pizza, what could be better! 

Traditional Ukranian Holubtzi

Loved being at the orphanage with these fun girls!

How Time Flies.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page" - St. Augustine

Well it has already been about 2 weeks that I have been here in Ukraine, crazy!! The last few days have been relaxing and eye opening! We had the great opportunity of having our coordinator, Anna, show us around Kiev to some of her favourite places. Luckily for us, one of her favourite places included the famous Ukranian chocolate shop, Roshen. She bought us each a piece of her favourite chocolate, and was it ever good!! I have never been a huge chocolate fan, but I am totally converted now. It was the best chocolate I have ever eaten. I will definitely be bringing some home. Also, on our tour was we were walking past a food market, there was what looked like fudge in a booth, but as we got closer we saw that it was actually something called Halva. Halva is popular across the Middle East, Asia, Northern Africa, the Balkans, Malta, and Eastern Europe. It is a a dense, sweet treat, made from sunflower seed oil here in Ukraine. It is very rich, and surprisingly very good.. in small amounts! Anna also had to show us her favourite places to shop.... uh oh. I'll try to keep myself under control! 

Roshen chocolate store yummmy! 

Eating Halva

Kyla, Me, Nonika, Anna

Kyla and I - love her! 

On Thursday night Nonika and I went for dinner to this little restaurant we found while walking around... it really caught our eye because they had an english menu! It's part of our criteria when choosing places to eat or else we would be at a total loss. But it was amazing! It was traditional Ukrainian food and we settled on borscht and fried meat filled potato dumplings. The food here rocks! However, the bartender would NOT stop staring at us. He didn't even care how obvious he was being. Sometimes, people make you feel awkward, but you get over it and move on, but not with this guy, he was just not taking his eyes off of us. I wanted to just take a picture and give it to him! I'm not sure why we were so interesting, I would have said it was the opposite, but apparently something was intriguing to him haha! 

Nonika and I at the beautiful University!

Daily bus ride!

Friday we finally got to sleep in!! Yay!! It made the day perfectly relaxing. Sometimes all you need is a day to catch up and just think about how great your life is and all the ways you have been so blessed. For me, that's what Friday was like, and I couldn't be luckier with this wonderful life and opportunity that I have. 

On Saturday we got to go to the WWII museum, known has the Great Patriotic War here. It was such a neat experience. I'm not usually a huge museum fan, but this was exceptional. If you ever get the chance to go here I would definitely take the chance! Our tour guide was great and made it interesting. Being at the museum made me so grateful for all those who fought for our country so that we can be free today and live our lives the way we want to without opposition. After our tour we went to a Ukrainian place to eat lunch. We have resorted to just pointing at what we think we want and hoping for the best! Usually it turns out pretty well even! 

Gloves from the Holocaust made from human skin, so sad.

A photo in memory of each soldier who fought for the USSR in WWII

The girls at the museum!

Remains of a fighter plane from WWII

Sunday was a really great day for me. Being able to go to the International Ward here is so nice. The people here are all so welcoming and kind and I really feel at home. The ward got about 20 new ILP students this last week, so we got to meet a few of them. It is nice to have some girls our age in the ward now and hopefully we will be able to hang out with them while we are all here. There are even 2 girls from home, so that was a nice surprise! I love going to church here because it is right next to the temple, and the temple here is so so pretty. I love being able to see it every week, it brings me such happiness. 

Such a beautiful temple.

This next week is really going to fly by and then on Friday we are already off on our first week long tour of Europe, heading to Budapest, Dresden, Prague and Vienna!! 

Love my girls!

"Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost"

No matter where you are... the first day of classes is a drag! Try first day of classes where you can't understand your teacher and there are 4 of you in the class so it's like all eyes are on you at all times! The Russian language is a tough one to learn, but thankfully we have Kyla, our own personal teacher so we will be pros in no time! While we are here we decided to volunteer in an orphanage to play with the kids... obviously. Or, so you would think. When Kyla and I got to the orphanage we were told we would be scrubbing floors and walls... who are these people?! I get that they need help... but we love the kids... not the buckets and mops! At any rate, we spent a couple hours cleaning in pretty cute outfits I must say, and never saw 1 child! We were pretty sad, but we cleared it up and from now on we are playing with the kids, so crisis averted! 

Kyla in our cute cleaning uniform, looking good :)

We also were SO happy to find the post office today, Nonika especially.. she apparently has someone special who needs to be written every week, lucky guy ;) So I grabbed a few postcards to mail home to my best friends! Nothing better than mail. Later monday night, Anna, our coordinator, and I went for a walk around the city centre square and just talked then she took me into a beautiful old cathedral. She is the best coordinator that I could ask for. She is so sweet and is so willing to do anything that I or anyone else here needs, she is wonderful! 

A fantastic moment in the last couple days was when we got THAI food. I know, you're thinking Thai food in Ukraine? Weird? Sounds weird, but it was so good you would not believe it. I think we are definitely hooked. And so much food for so little, the food here in Ukraine is unbelievably cheap compared to home. 

We LOVE Thai food 

Wednesday was the first day that we took the metro and busses and everything all by ourselves. You could say we are getting pretty grown up or something like that, it's no big deal really. Nonika, Kyla and I got all the way to school today without getting lost once so it was a big accomplishment because their system can be confusing! Then I got to the hospital without getting lost and I almost got back without getting lost. I guess the good luck wore off and something bad had to happen! I got on the metro from the hospital and then got on bus 180, the bus that is supposed to go back to the front of our building. But I rode the bus and never saw my stop then we got to the final stop where everyone HAD to get off. I had no clue where I was, and great I don't speak Russian so I was pretty hopeless. I called Oleg, one of our coordinators who tried to direct me home, finally I had to stop someone on the street and give them the phone so he could explain it haha! It was too funny, but eventually I got home, turns out I was really close from the bus stop but the bus didn't take its normal route.. gotta love that. One day I'll get it! 

Today was my first experience at the hospital and I loved it. The doctor I am working with, Anastasia, is wonderful and speaks amazing English so it is so fun to be around her. She loves showing me things and teaching me whatever she can and is willing to let me help her with some procedures such as intramuscular injections, insulin shots, helping with the preemie babies, recording EKG's, doing vitals, etc. She even wants to move to Canada, so I love her even more! Unfortunately their health care system is in despair and doctors barely make minimum wage in state hospitals. They do not have modern technology and rely on equipment and some techniques from pre-Soviet times. After the hospital today I met Nonika and Kyla in the centre of the city and we went to this little pie shop that Nonika has been raving about for the last 2 days, and it was awesome. We definitely found a hot spot, we will probably keep it in business. They have all sorts of pies, cherry, cranberry, chicken, and RABBIT. We had a couple of rabbit pies and a chicken one. They were both so good, and the rabbit was especially tasty, I highly recommend it!

I've had a fantastic week so far and this adventure only gets better as time goes on! Love you all! 

Rabbit pie!!

Love this girl! 

Ми почасти подобається це місце

What a crazy busy weekend we had! Friday was packed full of running from required hospital exams, TB x-rays, orphanage visits, English school visits and meetings with the University! It was so busy we didn't have time to eat all day.. which is becoming a common occurrence with us! Saturday was a great day, and we had so much fun, despite the fact that it snowed so hard all day. It was so pretty out with all of the snow and wasn't even very cold, which was a nice change. We first met with Nastia, one of our guides here Kiev, and she took us to the History of Kiev Museum. It was great to get to learn a lot about the history of the city and the wars that took place here, so we can understand the magnificent city in which we are living. 

Typical gun from the wars here in Kiev

After the museum we had a Christmas party/concert to go to. Here in Ukraine, they go by the Orthodox calendar so Christmas is not celebrated on December 25th, but is rather celebrated in the New Year on January 7th. It's like we got to experience the Christmas spirit all over again! The party had lots of dancing, musical instruments, and singing. Every song had to do with Christmas until one 10 year old girl started to sing and it was a song in English. We were excited to hear an English Christmas song until we realized that it was Christina Aguilera's hit song Beautiful haha. It was hilarious for us because it was so random and everyone else assumed that the song had to do with Christmas! 

We had a great night later on because one of the girls helping us out while we are here came over to our apartment with one of her friends and we cooked and hung out together. We just cooked something simple - pizza and potatoes and salad. She has promised to come over and teach us how to cook vareniki (perogies), borscht (beet based soup), and holubutsi (cabbage rolls). The more people we meet the more excited we are about being here in Ukraine and on this study abroad. 

Cooking dinner with the girls!

When people say the sidewalks and roads here are icy, they are not lying!! So far the score is ice 5 and us girls 0. It's really getting the best of us! The local people are always running to our aid... especially when we take a huge spill (Nonika... haha)! The people are awesome and so friendly for the most part. Lots of them speak English and love talking to us so that they can practice. We had the opportunity to go to an International Ward for church today, and as I was outside in the hall I started talking to a man who was wanting to practice his English. So we started talking and he even promised to teach us to play the guitar and other instruments while we are here some nights at the church as he is a music teacher at the University. We are getting very well acquainted with the local busses and metros, pretty soon we might even be able to do it without getting lost! It takes at least an hour to get from one place in a city to another and each bus or metro costs about 2 grivna, which is cheap - only 25 cents! The exchange rate is 1 dollar to 8.08 grivna, and food here is dirt cheap! 

This has been an eventful weekend and we cannot wait to start our program tomorrow - at 6am! Talk to you all soon! 

Graffiti walls!

I just love the look of this cathedral with all the snow, so pretty!

Beautiful Temple!

Kyla, Me, Nonika, and Nastia - such a sweet girl!

You could say it was a little snowy today.. 

First Day, New Love

Today was my first real day in Kiev, and the 9 hour time change is killing me! My body doesn't want to sleep when it should, so I ended up getting up at 4am and talking with my mom on the phone and skyping with a friend. It's awesome to be able to stay connected to people at home even though I am half way across the world, and I feel very blessed to have such amazing people in my life! Today I started out by going to orientation with the girls and our coordinators here in The Ukraine. Our coordinators, Anna, Oleg, and Kirrill, are amazing to work with and such great people. We went over our rules and how to stay safe, etc etc. got our schedules for the upcoming week, and went over some activities we wanted to do here like snowboarding, museums, the ballet and opera, and whatever else we decide! It was overhwhelming to say the least, but I am so so so excited for it all to begin! After orientation we had a walking tour of the city around the main square. When people say it is cold here, they really mean it! -25 and wind does not make for a nice stroll around the city, but it was so fun and the city has some amazing architecture and sites to see! The coolest buildings in my opinion are the onion domes that are throughout the city. Onion domes are the old buildings, mainly cathedrals, which have spiral gold rooftops and intricate designs. 

Orthodox golden Onion domes of St. Michael's Cathedral

Another site that was interesting was The Golden Gates of Kiev which is a major landmark of Kiev and a historic gateway in the ancient city fortress. After our tour we were taken to a Ukranian restaurant and introduced to typical Ukranian food - I was clueless as to what anything was! But I ended up with good food despite the fact I didn't know what I was ordering! We all ate borscht, a staple soup in most Central and Eastern European countries, and Vareniki, basically a dumpling filled with meat or potato, very similar to a pierogi. 

Borscht and Vareniki

I had a great day learning about the city of Kiev and even managed to learn a few words:

Pryvit - hello

Na na (pronounced pa pa) - goodbye 

Diakuiu - thank you

I can already see the charm of Kiev and the history it has to offer. I am so excited and blessed to have this opportunity to study abroad, nothing could beat this!

Chilly day in Kiev, but so so pretty! 

St. Sofia's Cathedral - breathtaking!

The girls - Kyla, Sarah, Me, Nonika

Europe Study Abroad

Everyone who is reading this probably already knows that I am doing a study abroad based in Kiev, Ukraine! I'm doing a blog so that everyone back home can keep up date with what I'm doing! I'm so excited to have this amazing opportunity to be here and meet new people and have crazy adventures. For the program I am doing a few different things; I am taking Russian language and history classes at the local university, volunteering in an orphanage, working at different settings teaching English, doing an internship at a hospital, and travelling to about 10 different countries throughout Europe! I live with 2 girls who are both so awesome and fun, Sarah and Nonika, and we are also travelling with another girl, Kyla, who lives with a host family. I'll be updating my blog a few times a week while I am here in Kiev and travelling abroad. I hope everyone enjoys my blog and can keep up with what I am doing on this side of the world! I love you all! 

Me, Kyla, Nonika, Sarah at the airport once we arrived to Kiev!