Exploring Turnov

Dobry Den again,

We've spent the last few days exploring Turnov. There are extensive hiking trails all over the region. Ben and I hiked up from the middle of town to some overlooks in the hills and a castle in just a couple hours. Today our hosts at the organization we're working with for the highway project took us on another day of touring. We climbed up to the Trosky castle ruins, then up to a tower that was used for military radio on the highest point in the region. The weather has been warm but last night a big storm came in and cooled things off. It was quite cold and windy up on the high overlooks. We also stopped at a mine and broke a few rocks to look for precious stones, finding just a few little crystals. Next we stopped by a huge Linden tree that is 800 years old. On the drive back, we pulled off to the side of the road and all of our drivers/hosts ran up to this non-descript window at what looked like someone's house turned snack stand. We found out that this place was known for making a local variety of little cake pastries and they bought us a few boxes as a treat. Speaking of new unhealthy local cuisine, I was excited to try a traditional dish that's actually vegetarian - breaded and fried cauliflower with potatoes on the side. All the dishes tend to be served with great garnish of cucumbers, tomatoes and other veggies, so my latest technique is to collect everyone's garnishes that the meat eaters ignore to get my veggies.

The project is moving along also. The group here seems to want more than anything else to document us agreeing with them that the highway in the northern proposed route would be a horrible idea and the southern route a much better idea. They were pleased when our analysis confirmed this and immediately after our presentation offered to plan a tour of the local beer brewery, telling us it looked like we were working too hard. They are interested in us making a documentary of our experiences and research here to rally some support. We had already been talking about making a website with our work which could be handed over to the locals as a forum about the status of the highway project. Another idea was to make some propoganda t-shirts with logos showing the historical castles getting ground up to pave the highway. We only have four more days here, so considering our busy schedule of brewery and museum tours, it looks like our product for Friday will be a storyboard mock up of work we will continue as part of our seminar class next semester.

I've booked a hostel in Berlin as a stopover on my way to Denmark on the 30th. Then I'll be in Copenhagen until the third or the first.

Ciao for now.

Nicole