Well dear readers, this seems like the end of the road. I’m back where I started from more or less: a Washington DC airport, thinking deep thoughts about what my trip to Prague meant to me. 116 days, thousands miles and countless memories is something that I will never really forget. It was great experience, probably the happiest four months that I’ve had in a very long time. I’ve gotten to know some very amusing and fascinating people, and explore one of the more interesting cities in the world.
To those of you that were there with me, if you reading this, Jake, Allie, Stef, Kate, Adrian, Steve, Tom, Tom, Tom, Ian, Walt, Alex, Kacy or any of the rest, thank you for making Prague so awesome. I’ll go back someday, I’m sure of it, but it won’t be the same without you guys or/and gals. I hope you enjoy your time back home and remember the time we spent together. As someone said to me the night we all parted in Prague, I hope to hear about your adventures, cause I'm sure you'll have them.
It's been real.
If you want more of me…join me on my next great adventure at chrisfilmprojectblog.blogspot.com, in which I will try and produce a 20 minute short documentary film about reenacting.
Goodbye.
Chris Oxenford
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Prague Part XII: Goodbye Prague
I would very much liked to have left things the way they were at the end of my last post…with me back from Berlin, studying for test with some of the best people I know, Walt, Ian and Ross that never comes…sort of a groundhog’s day scenario. To constantly be 21, and in Prague would be amazing.
Unfortunately every great story, every great adventure has to come to an end, and my sojourn in Prague over the course of the last four months is no great exception. The goodbyes, to my friends, to my professor and to the city itself would cover the entirely of the last week of the program.
These began even before I returned to Berlin. Kate left at some point that weekend…I don’t when because I was in Berlin. Monday, after easily passing Petr’s exam in history, I would see the last of Adrian, when we shared a meal at Bohemia Bagel and talked about our plans for the summer. I had already said goodbye to the high schoolers, and their teachers, as they were also entering final exams during my last week in Prague. I didn’t realize at the time that that would be our parting, but it was a finding end, since I first really met Adrian when he found us food in Munich.
Monday night would see me put to bed my final exam in Film Class, with a, hopefully, well written essay about Hitler and Stalin, and how they have influenced the films produced in Central Europe. I headed the paper in Tuesday morning…after some confusion about whether it had to be typed or emailed, there was no film. Next up was the last edition of Kevin Johnson’s film class. We watched a film called Grill Point, about a German man that owned a restaurant and his wife, and their family friends, who all ended up having affairs. After the film, Professor Johnson stuck around for a little while, and with me, Marnie(one of the girls from Minnesota) Jesse(a dude Ian and I met on the bus to Kutna Hora), and another had a brief review session. That review session would serve pretty much as the last time I saw Marnie, or Jesse either for that matter.
Tuesday would also mark the ending of ECES as a whole. That night they had a party for us on top of Strahov, the big monastery in Prague, which brews its own beer. The night was filled with conversation, and served as a sort of fairwell to Sarah Pilchek and Spencer and Jerry from the high school. It would mark the moment when I was given a certificate for my ten hours of volunteer work up at GJK. All of AIFS was apparently very impressed with that…I don’t why, all I really did was bother to turn in a list hours signed by the teachers, it wasn’t all that hard. The food at the party was nice (they had a whole roast pig and assorted other Czech foods. I got a few minutes to chit chat with my professor, Kevin Johnson. He seemed like a really interesting guy…I wish I had gotten to know him a little bit better.
ECES people at their party, which I basically crashed.
That was pretty much end of the party though, as Ian and I headed outside to hang out with Jan and Zee for a few minutes, during which time Zee explained both his own love of history(he came to it via art…I very diplomatically did not express my opinion of art history), and Jana told us that the weather was unusually cold for May. That night, some guys went out drinking with Jana, while Allie and I decided to stay in and finish up various papers.
On Wednesday I went out to lunch with my parents. We went to a small Italian place which was recommended to them by one of the people that worked at their hotel. It was quite good. From there, I headed to Professor Johnson’s exam. The exam itself wasn’t that difficult, though I do think I rushed a bit at the end, because I was running out of time, and I had to get to my next class…
Which was MittleEuropa. We got the finals back…three guesses as to what my grade was…I’ll give you a hint, I was very happy with it, as well as my overall grade for the course. We then watched a film about the early days of the Presidency of Vaclav Haval, at the beginning of 1989. It was really fascinating. They had lots of interviews with members of his staff, himself, President Bush(the first one), and Madeline Albright. Haval was, according to the documentary very important in bringing about the end of the USSR, and the fall of the Warsaw Pact, well as aiding the transition of the Czech Republic into a democracy.
After the film, I walked with Gabriel and Pueblo for a moment, and said farewell to them, as well as the other Erasmus students in my class. Then I headed back to the dorm in order to start preparing for family dinner with Allie. As it turns out, I didn’t need to hurry that much, because Allie was running a little bit behind schedule, so I got some work down on my paper for the last class that I had to worry about, Czechoslovak New Wave.
At it turned, Jake and Walt were later then Allie coming back from class, so we had enough time to cook some Tandori Chicken, make plans with my parents, and in Allie’s case change Jake’s computer background to a picture of Dave Groli, and sloppy potato him. Once he showed up, we took the food into the dining area for the last family dinner. Present were me, Jake, Allie, Walter, Kacy, Ryan, Jordan, Celia, Jenny, Sara, Sarah, and Alex Horn, it was almost like a rehash of the first dinner, minus Kate and Adrian, and with a slightly more maudlin feeling. After the ice cream, which Walt provided at great expense to himself, I could sense everyone’s reluctance to leave. It would be the last time I saw Jordan. But alas, I could hear my paper calling, and “I knew it was the only one” (yeah Wagon Wheel lyrics). I finished it before midnight, emailed it, and went to bed.
Thursday, was the second to last day before I left for the US. It began with Petr’s last class. He talked a bit about the break of the Czech Republic, and the Presidency of Vaclav Haval, but not too much, and then he gave us back our exams. They were good. Or at least mine was. Then it was Czechoslovak New Wave’s turn. After a presentation on the film we watch last week, The Party and The Guests, which was a very political film, we watched Closely Watched Trains…which to say the least, I did not closely watch.
After that I headed back home for a few minutes, and then left to meet my parents. We walked to Old Town Square, were we picked up Jake, Walt, and Kacy, and headed to Matria, The six of us ended up eating in the basement, where we were eventually joined by Allie. It was a good dinner and I think everyone really like my parents…and my parents really liked everyone.
After dinner we tried to get some drinks at the Hany Bany, or the Pub, Pub, but they were overwhelming crowded with Czechs watching a hockey game, and we had to go to one end of the metro system to catch a show, performed by the band Pavement. Instead we stopped in at the bar next to the venue and had a round, and then headed to the show.
Pavement was awesome. Like really mindblowingly awesome. I think they might actually have been the first Rock and Roll show that I enjoyed without any reservations. I think the good Czech Beer helped in that regard a little, but whatever. After the show, Jana showed up, and we hung out, and drunk a few more with her. After that, well I was done for the night, and headed back to the subway, and bed.
Pavement
Friday…was a both a really bad day, and a really good day. It was bad because well…it was my last in Prague, and I really didn’t want to go home. I spent most of it trying to avoid packing my suitcase. To do this, I first went to the AIFS office to return my ATM card(with only $3.16 still on it) and drop off some dishes. While there, I said a long goodbye to the Czech version of Dr. Whittenburg, Mr. Zee Benes. I hope to god I get back to Prague again, just so I can hang out with Zee some more.
After that, I had my last lunch in Prague, KFC. Then I headed back to the dorm, in time to pack up my suitcases. The room looked very bear without all my and Jake’s stuff in it. After packing, I headed out with Kacy, Walt, Allie, Elyssa, and Jake for our last dinner in Prague. We went to Clear Heads, another vegetarian restaurant. The food was awesome. Then we wandered around a little shopping for souvenirs. I bought a t-shirt(not one of the Prague drinking team ones though, I thought they were kind of tacky). We stopped briefly at a corner store to purchase some uniquely Czech Alcohol. Then Jake, Walt, Kacy and Elyssa went back to the dorm to pick up some other people, and Allie and I stayed down town. We shopped for a few more minutes, and then went to one of the fried cheese stands. We bought a couple, and gave them to some homeless people(it was something Allie said she had wanted to do on her last night in Prague, and I’m pretty much an enabler, so I went along with her. I ended up being the one who actually gave people the fried cheeses though). I also had my last sausage in Prague, spending pretty much my last couple of crowns on it.
Allie after feeding the homeless
But, I had just enough for one last beer at the Hany Bany. Allie and I were quickly rejoined by Jake, Walt and Kacy, and the five of us had a second round, and then headed back to the dorm. But not for very long, we all gathered In Walt’s room to listen to a rap about Prague he and Jake written and performed. It was really pretty awesome. And then, we all…and here I mean pretty much all of AIFS, me, Jake, Allie, Walt, Kacy, Stef, Diego, Bryan, all three Toms, Ry and John (Walt and Alex’s suitemates), Alex, Sarah, Sara, Jenny, Celia, Becca, Ross, Hadley, the California girls, Brittany, Rebecca Nieb and all their crew, Kim, who I hung out with London and of course Ian and Ross. It was like our own little impromptu farewell party.
And then it was nearly 2:30am, and time to go to bed, and that’s when the tears and the goodbyes really got going. I managed to stay pretty cleared eyed though, as I said goodbye, first Steve Thomas, then to the Toms, then to Ian, then to Alex, before heading inside with Walt, Jake, Allie and Kacy. Saying goodbye to Walt and Kacy, and Alex and Ian was pretty hard.
The next morning came rather sooner than I would have liked it to. Four hours of sleep was barely enough. We checked out of the dorm without a problem…except that our towels were all wet, but that was ok, and then headed out to Prague airport.
The Airport was a bit of a nightmare. For those you who haven’t been trying to travel anytime in the past couple of weeks, British Airlines, the airline that our tickets had been booked on had its cable crews go on strike. As a result, BA had to cut a number of flights from its schedule, including all of my flights back to DC, as well as many other people in the programs flights. Fortunately, they were able to reschedule us. Unforunatly, this meant instead of a nice straight through London to DC flight, I had to go Prague, to London, to JFK in New York, to Washington DC. On the bright side this considerable delayed the moment when I would have to say goodbye to Jake and Allie.
Anyway, this had all happened before we got to Prague Airport. The fact this though, that because of the strike, BA was only able to open their ticket counters at certain times for certain flights. As a result, Jake, Allie and I had to wait almost two hours until the counter opened to allow us to check in, and then to wait again in a long line, with some impatient Midwesterners to be checked in, and check our bags. After that though, getting to the plane, and getting to Heathrow was pretty easy.
Heathrow…was well Heathrow. It is the largest airport, or one of them at any rate, in the world, and we had to go from one terminal to another and get through security in under an hour and half to make it to Jake’s flight to Boston. We made…but just barely, the plane was already boarding, and had to run to grab a sandwich, and we had a fortunately abbreviated goodbye (any longer, and I probably would cried, and so would Allie).
Now that our trio was down to two (Lion King lyrics…yeah), Allie and I returned to the waiting area for our flights to New York. We both purchased some food with our left over pounds, and joined a couple of other people, Rebecca Nieb, Kim Phan, and Kristina for a brief chat session, until found out that Allie’s flight to New York had been delayed, and she might miss her connection unless we could move her to mine…which left slightly earlier. After saying goodbye to Kim, Rebecca and Kristina, Allie and I headed to the BA, Virgin (who was running her flight) and American (who were running mine) to try and get her changed. After some running around, we managed to get it done. Together, Allie and I headed to the gate to wait, and were joined by Jessica.
Seven hours later, at 7:30 New York time, we landed back in the USA, back in the USA (paraphrase of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA….yeah). The three of us cleared customs and the border without any sort of the problem, rechecked our bags, and raced for our gate. I spent a few US dollars…my first in four months, on a bottle of water, and then waited with Jessica and Allie for my flight home.
It came much sooner than I would have liked…so I said goodbye to the last of the people that have made the last four months so awesome and got onto my little tiny plane to Washington, while they waited for their flight to Raleigh.
In many ways, my trip to Prague ended as it had begun, with my on a plane by myself, and thinking. Wondering…what had (or would) transpire in the last four months…what did it mean...will I ever see any of my friends again?
Well, I’m home now…so that much concludes the story….I will post one more update…today or tomorrow as a kind of epilogue…and then…see were we go from there.
Next: Washington and Epilogue.
Unfortunately every great story, every great adventure has to come to an end, and my sojourn in Prague over the course of the last four months is no great exception. The goodbyes, to my friends, to my professor and to the city itself would cover the entirely of the last week of the program.
These began even before I returned to Berlin. Kate left at some point that weekend…I don’t when because I was in Berlin. Monday, after easily passing Petr’s exam in history, I would see the last of Adrian, when we shared a meal at Bohemia Bagel and talked about our plans for the summer. I had already said goodbye to the high schoolers, and their teachers, as they were also entering final exams during my last week in Prague. I didn’t realize at the time that that would be our parting, but it was a finding end, since I first really met Adrian when he found us food in Munich.
Monday night would see me put to bed my final exam in Film Class, with a, hopefully, well written essay about Hitler and Stalin, and how they have influenced the films produced in Central Europe. I headed the paper in Tuesday morning…after some confusion about whether it had to be typed or emailed, there was no film. Next up was the last edition of Kevin Johnson’s film class. We watched a film called Grill Point, about a German man that owned a restaurant and his wife, and their family friends, who all ended up having affairs. After the film, Professor Johnson stuck around for a little while, and with me, Marnie(one of the girls from Minnesota) Jesse(a dude Ian and I met on the bus to Kutna Hora), and another had a brief review session. That review session would serve pretty much as the last time I saw Marnie, or Jesse either for that matter.
Tuesday would also mark the ending of ECES as a whole. That night they had a party for us on top of Strahov, the big monastery in Prague, which brews its own beer. The night was filled with conversation, and served as a sort of fairwell to Sarah Pilchek and Spencer and Jerry from the high school. It would mark the moment when I was given a certificate for my ten hours of volunteer work up at GJK. All of AIFS was apparently very impressed with that…I don’t why, all I really did was bother to turn in a list hours signed by the teachers, it wasn’t all that hard. The food at the party was nice (they had a whole roast pig and assorted other Czech foods. I got a few minutes to chit chat with my professor, Kevin Johnson. He seemed like a really interesting guy…I wish I had gotten to know him a little bit better.
ECES people at their party, which I basically crashed.
That was pretty much end of the party though, as Ian and I headed outside to hang out with Jan and Zee for a few minutes, during which time Zee explained both his own love of history(he came to it via art…I very diplomatically did not express my opinion of art history), and Jana told us that the weather was unusually cold for May. That night, some guys went out drinking with Jana, while Allie and I decided to stay in and finish up various papers.
On Wednesday I went out to lunch with my parents. We went to a small Italian place which was recommended to them by one of the people that worked at their hotel. It was quite good. From there, I headed to Professor Johnson’s exam. The exam itself wasn’t that difficult, though I do think I rushed a bit at the end, because I was running out of time, and I had to get to my next class…
Which was MittleEuropa. We got the finals back…three guesses as to what my grade was…I’ll give you a hint, I was very happy with it, as well as my overall grade for the course. We then watched a film about the early days of the Presidency of Vaclav Haval, at the beginning of 1989. It was really fascinating. They had lots of interviews with members of his staff, himself, President Bush(the first one), and Madeline Albright. Haval was, according to the documentary very important in bringing about the end of the USSR, and the fall of the Warsaw Pact, well as aiding the transition of the Czech Republic into a democracy.
After the film, I walked with Gabriel and Pueblo for a moment, and said farewell to them, as well as the other Erasmus students in my class. Then I headed back to the dorm in order to start preparing for family dinner with Allie. As it turns out, I didn’t need to hurry that much, because Allie was running a little bit behind schedule, so I got some work down on my paper for the last class that I had to worry about, Czechoslovak New Wave.
At it turned, Jake and Walt were later then Allie coming back from class, so we had enough time to cook some Tandori Chicken, make plans with my parents, and in Allie’s case change Jake’s computer background to a picture of Dave Groli, and sloppy potato him. Once he showed up, we took the food into the dining area for the last family dinner. Present were me, Jake, Allie, Walter, Kacy, Ryan, Jordan, Celia, Jenny, Sara, Sarah, and Alex Horn, it was almost like a rehash of the first dinner, minus Kate and Adrian, and with a slightly more maudlin feeling. After the ice cream, which Walt provided at great expense to himself, I could sense everyone’s reluctance to leave. It would be the last time I saw Jordan. But alas, I could hear my paper calling, and “I knew it was the only one” (yeah Wagon Wheel lyrics). I finished it before midnight, emailed it, and went to bed.
Thursday, was the second to last day before I left for the US. It began with Petr’s last class. He talked a bit about the break of the Czech Republic, and the Presidency of Vaclav Haval, but not too much, and then he gave us back our exams. They were good. Or at least mine was. Then it was Czechoslovak New Wave’s turn. After a presentation on the film we watch last week, The Party and The Guests, which was a very political film, we watched Closely Watched Trains…which to say the least, I did not closely watch.
After that I headed back home for a few minutes, and then left to meet my parents. We walked to Old Town Square, were we picked up Jake, Walt, and Kacy, and headed to Matria, The six of us ended up eating in the basement, where we were eventually joined by Allie. It was a good dinner and I think everyone really like my parents…and my parents really liked everyone.
After dinner we tried to get some drinks at the Hany Bany, or the Pub, Pub, but they were overwhelming crowded with Czechs watching a hockey game, and we had to go to one end of the metro system to catch a show, performed by the band Pavement. Instead we stopped in at the bar next to the venue and had a round, and then headed to the show.
Pavement was awesome. Like really mindblowingly awesome. I think they might actually have been the first Rock and Roll show that I enjoyed without any reservations. I think the good Czech Beer helped in that regard a little, but whatever. After the show, Jana showed up, and we hung out, and drunk a few more with her. After that, well I was done for the night, and headed back to the subway, and bed.
Pavement
Friday…was a both a really bad day, and a really good day. It was bad because well…it was my last in Prague, and I really didn’t want to go home. I spent most of it trying to avoid packing my suitcase. To do this, I first went to the AIFS office to return my ATM card(with only $3.16 still on it) and drop off some dishes. While there, I said a long goodbye to the Czech version of Dr. Whittenburg, Mr. Zee Benes. I hope to god I get back to Prague again, just so I can hang out with Zee some more.
After that, I had my last lunch in Prague, KFC. Then I headed back to the dorm, in time to pack up my suitcases. The room looked very bear without all my and Jake’s stuff in it. After packing, I headed out with Kacy, Walt, Allie, Elyssa, and Jake for our last dinner in Prague. We went to Clear Heads, another vegetarian restaurant. The food was awesome. Then we wandered around a little shopping for souvenirs. I bought a t-shirt(not one of the Prague drinking team ones though, I thought they were kind of tacky). We stopped briefly at a corner store to purchase some uniquely Czech Alcohol. Then Jake, Walt, Kacy and Elyssa went back to the dorm to pick up some other people, and Allie and I stayed down town. We shopped for a few more minutes, and then went to one of the fried cheese stands. We bought a couple, and gave them to some homeless people(it was something Allie said she had wanted to do on her last night in Prague, and I’m pretty much an enabler, so I went along with her. I ended up being the one who actually gave people the fried cheeses though). I also had my last sausage in Prague, spending pretty much my last couple of crowns on it.
Allie after feeding the homeless
But, I had just enough for one last beer at the Hany Bany. Allie and I were quickly rejoined by Jake, Walt and Kacy, and the five of us had a second round, and then headed back to the dorm. But not for very long, we all gathered In Walt’s room to listen to a rap about Prague he and Jake written and performed. It was really pretty awesome. And then, we all…and here I mean pretty much all of AIFS, me, Jake, Allie, Walt, Kacy, Stef, Diego, Bryan, all three Toms, Ry and John (Walt and Alex’s suitemates), Alex, Sarah, Sara, Jenny, Celia, Becca, Ross, Hadley, the California girls, Brittany, Rebecca Nieb and all their crew, Kim, who I hung out with London and of course Ian and Ross. It was like our own little impromptu farewell party.
And then it was nearly 2:30am, and time to go to bed, and that’s when the tears and the goodbyes really got going. I managed to stay pretty cleared eyed though, as I said goodbye, first Steve Thomas, then to the Toms, then to Ian, then to Alex, before heading inside with Walt, Jake, Allie and Kacy. Saying goodbye to Walt and Kacy, and Alex and Ian was pretty hard.
The next morning came rather sooner than I would have liked it to. Four hours of sleep was barely enough. We checked out of the dorm without a problem…except that our towels were all wet, but that was ok, and then headed out to Prague airport.
The Airport was a bit of a nightmare. For those you who haven’t been trying to travel anytime in the past couple of weeks, British Airlines, the airline that our tickets had been booked on had its cable crews go on strike. As a result, BA had to cut a number of flights from its schedule, including all of my flights back to DC, as well as many other people in the programs flights. Fortunately, they were able to reschedule us. Unforunatly, this meant instead of a nice straight through London to DC flight, I had to go Prague, to London, to JFK in New York, to Washington DC. On the bright side this considerable delayed the moment when I would have to say goodbye to Jake and Allie.
Anyway, this had all happened before we got to Prague Airport. The fact this though, that because of the strike, BA was only able to open their ticket counters at certain times for certain flights. As a result, Jake, Allie and I had to wait almost two hours until the counter opened to allow us to check in, and then to wait again in a long line, with some impatient Midwesterners to be checked in, and check our bags. After that though, getting to the plane, and getting to Heathrow was pretty easy.
Heathrow…was well Heathrow. It is the largest airport, or one of them at any rate, in the world, and we had to go from one terminal to another and get through security in under an hour and half to make it to Jake’s flight to Boston. We made…but just barely, the plane was already boarding, and had to run to grab a sandwich, and we had a fortunately abbreviated goodbye (any longer, and I probably would cried, and so would Allie).
Now that our trio was down to two (Lion King lyrics…yeah), Allie and I returned to the waiting area for our flights to New York. We both purchased some food with our left over pounds, and joined a couple of other people, Rebecca Nieb, Kim Phan, and Kristina for a brief chat session, until found out that Allie’s flight to New York had been delayed, and she might miss her connection unless we could move her to mine…which left slightly earlier. After saying goodbye to Kim, Rebecca and Kristina, Allie and I headed to the BA, Virgin (who was running her flight) and American (who were running mine) to try and get her changed. After some running around, we managed to get it done. Together, Allie and I headed to the gate to wait, and were joined by Jessica.
Seven hours later, at 7:30 New York time, we landed back in the USA, back in the USA (paraphrase of Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA….yeah). The three of us cleared customs and the border without any sort of the problem, rechecked our bags, and raced for our gate. I spent a few US dollars…my first in four months, on a bottle of water, and then waited with Jessica and Allie for my flight home.
It came much sooner than I would have liked…so I said goodbye to the last of the people that have made the last four months so awesome and got onto my little tiny plane to Washington, while they waited for their flight to Raleigh.
In many ways, my trip to Prague ended as it had begun, with my on a plane by myself, and thinking. Wondering…what had (or would) transpire in the last four months…what did it mean...will I ever see any of my friends again?
Well, I’m home now…so that much concludes the story….I will post one more update…today or tomorrow as a kind of epilogue…and then…see were we go from there.
Next: Washington and Epilogue.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Berlin: City of Museums
Berlin is the capital city of the Federal Republic of Germany. Like most European cities, it has a history older than the United States, serving first as the Capital of the Electors of Brandenburg, then of the Kings of Prussia, and finally of almost all of the rules of the United Germany. Of course after the conclusion of the Second World War the city was split into two parts, East and West Berlin. In 1989, obviously, the city was reunified, and since that time has once again served as the Capital of Germany.
My parents and I visited the city last weekend. Our train from Prague arrived at 9:45pm( 15 minutes late, for which I’m sure someone was shot). at Berlin’s Main Station(Hauptbahnhof in German). The Hauptbahnhof is an ultra modern structure made of glass and steel, and sits a markedly different tone then the older, and more worn looking, construction of Prague.
From the Hauptbahnhof, my parents and I headed to our hotel, which was located on the sight of the former Berlin Wall, near Check Point Charlie. After staying up for a few minutes, using the Hotel’s wireless internet, and then hit the, much more comfortable then my dorm bed’s, sheets.
We got up at 8 in the morning on Friday, just to be sure that we would have enough time to see everything we wanted to see. We started out be wandering to Unter De Linden, the main street of Berlin, and seeing the Brandenburg Gate. The Gate was a little bit smaller than I expected, and actually dwarfed by the US Embassy which is right nearby. Standing in front of the gate, we were surprised to see an imperial Stormtrooper. Apparently, Darth Vader’s embassy was nearby as well.
Brandenburg Gate...notice the Stormtrooper.
Across the street from the gate we noticed a giant picture of President Obama. Beneath it was the Museum of the Kennedys, which was built to honor JFK’s visit to Berlin in 1962, and his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner”(literal translation, I am a jelly donut, but they understood) speech. There were a surprising number of Kennedy related, including the phonetic spelling of that famous phrase. Also in museum were exhibits on Ted and Bobby, and the up and coming young Kennedys, their kids, as well as photos of many of Barack Obama’s closest advisers, and a photo exhibit from 1976 about the most powerful people in that time, including Carter, Ford, and their advisers (like the little known director of the CIA, some guy named George HW Shr…I mean Bush.)
See if you can guess what caught my eye.
After that, we walked over to the Reichstag building, hoping to see if we could get in to the dome, which is supposed to have a great view of the city. Unfortunately, the line was almost three hours long. Not willing to stand around for three hours, we walked down Unter de Linden again, and came to the German History Museum. The Museum chronicles all of German history, from the migrations of the 3rd century AD, through the middle ages, and the various wars fought in Europe between 1600-1800, to the period of the French Revolution(I was surprised to see George Washington and Ben Franklin hanging out here), to the Unification of Germany, and the beginnings of the First World War.
German History Museum
.
After a pause for lunch, we saw the other half of the museum, which was exhibits on the Weimer Republic, the Rise of Nazism, and the Second World War, the period of division in Germany during the Cold War, and finally reunification. Overall, the museum, which went into an amazing level of detail, was a good way to kill three hours.
From the German History Museum we headed to Check Point Charlie, and the Museum of the Wall. The Museum of the Wall is by far on the strangest museums I have ever been in. It recounts the history of attempts to escape from East Germany by going under, over, or through the Berlin Wall. But it was includes several rooms discussing human rights issues, one on Axel Spegel , a German publisher who disliked the wall, and one which(much to my mother’s disgusted) glorified Ronald Reagan for his role in bringing down the Wall.
My Parents at Check Point Charlie.
After that, we decided to try our luck at the Reichstag once again. This time we were luckier. The line to get in was much, much shorter. It only took us about an hour to get up to the dome. But, it was rather cold, so I bought myself a nice Berlin track jacket. The view from the dome was just as incredible as promised. The dome is made entirely of glass, so that you can see the entire city, and also down into the Bundestag’s chamber(they sit in purple seats). There is also restaurant on top of the building, which would be really awesome place to get something to eat. After about an hour on top of the Reichstag, we headed down again and back to our hotel, as it was now nearly 11pm.
Berlin at Night
Parliament Chamber.
The next morning, Saturday we got up fairly early to try and take in some more museums. At this point though, it had gotten much colder and begun to rain. We tried to head to what is called Museum Island, which is home to half a dozen museums covering ancient history. When we got there however, we saw that the lines were running out the doors of the all the museums and down to the streets. There was no way we would be able to get in for a least a couple of hours. So we hailed a cab, and headed to Potsdammer Platz, which is like the Times Square of Berlin. It is home to the German Film and Television museum.
Like its counterpart in German History, the Film and Television museum goes into exhaustive detail about the history of German cinema. It includes exhibits on early German films like the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the German film star Marlene Dietrich, the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, and the modern German cinema, including some of the films that I had to watch for class. It was a most impressive museum…and they had an Oscar…which I wanted to steal…I guess I’ll just have to win one...someday.
After that we raced across Berlin to reach the Jewish history museum. The Jewish History Museum was another intense and exhaustive exploration of history, beginning with Judaisms founding in the Holy Land and running up to the present day. Of course the museum is also kind of a memorial for the Holocaust, complete with a vast empty room, which is complete pitch black as a kind of memorial. It was really interesting. Unfortunately we got there so close to closing that we had to rush through the whole of modern Jewish history, and missed an exhibit on Jewish influences on comic books.
Superman outside the Jewish History Museum.
After that, the three of us were pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel, and grabbed a quick bit to eat at a restaurant run by a guy speaking Italian…in Germany. The next morning was fairly laid back. We managed to make it to the Train Station with plenty of time. The trip back to Prague was fortunately uneventful. As soon as I got home though, I had to start hitting the books for my history final on Monday.
Next: Prague Part XII: Na Sleddou
My parents and I visited the city last weekend. Our train from Prague arrived at 9:45pm( 15 minutes late, for which I’m sure someone was shot). at Berlin’s Main Station(Hauptbahnhof in German). The Hauptbahnhof is an ultra modern structure made of glass and steel, and sits a markedly different tone then the older, and more worn looking, construction of Prague.
From the Hauptbahnhof, my parents and I headed to our hotel, which was located on the sight of the former Berlin Wall, near Check Point Charlie. After staying up for a few minutes, using the Hotel’s wireless internet, and then hit the, much more comfortable then my dorm bed’s, sheets.
We got up at 8 in the morning on Friday, just to be sure that we would have enough time to see everything we wanted to see. We started out be wandering to Unter De Linden, the main street of Berlin, and seeing the Brandenburg Gate. The Gate was a little bit smaller than I expected, and actually dwarfed by the US Embassy which is right nearby. Standing in front of the gate, we were surprised to see an imperial Stormtrooper. Apparently, Darth Vader’s embassy was nearby as well.
Brandenburg Gate...notice the Stormtrooper.
Across the street from the gate we noticed a giant picture of President Obama. Beneath it was the Museum of the Kennedys, which was built to honor JFK’s visit to Berlin in 1962, and his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner”(literal translation, I am a jelly donut, but they understood) speech. There were a surprising number of Kennedy related, including the phonetic spelling of that famous phrase. Also in museum were exhibits on Ted and Bobby, and the up and coming young Kennedys, their kids, as well as photos of many of Barack Obama’s closest advisers, and a photo exhibit from 1976 about the most powerful people in that time, including Carter, Ford, and their advisers (like the little known director of the CIA, some guy named George HW Shr…I mean Bush.)
See if you can guess what caught my eye.
After that, we walked over to the Reichstag building, hoping to see if we could get in to the dome, which is supposed to have a great view of the city. Unfortunately, the line was almost three hours long. Not willing to stand around for three hours, we walked down Unter de Linden again, and came to the German History Museum. The Museum chronicles all of German history, from the migrations of the 3rd century AD, through the middle ages, and the various wars fought in Europe between 1600-1800, to the period of the French Revolution(I was surprised to see George Washington and Ben Franklin hanging out here), to the Unification of Germany, and the beginnings of the First World War.
German History Museum
.
After a pause for lunch, we saw the other half of the museum, which was exhibits on the Weimer Republic, the Rise of Nazism, and the Second World War, the period of division in Germany during the Cold War, and finally reunification. Overall, the museum, which went into an amazing level of detail, was a good way to kill three hours.
From the German History Museum we headed to Check Point Charlie, and the Museum of the Wall. The Museum of the Wall is by far on the strangest museums I have ever been in. It recounts the history of attempts to escape from East Germany by going under, over, or through the Berlin Wall. But it was includes several rooms discussing human rights issues, one on Axel Spegel , a German publisher who disliked the wall, and one which(much to my mother’s disgusted) glorified Ronald Reagan for his role in bringing down the Wall.
My Parents at Check Point Charlie.
After that, we decided to try our luck at the Reichstag once again. This time we were luckier. The line to get in was much, much shorter. It only took us about an hour to get up to the dome. But, it was rather cold, so I bought myself a nice Berlin track jacket. The view from the dome was just as incredible as promised. The dome is made entirely of glass, so that you can see the entire city, and also down into the Bundestag’s chamber(they sit in purple seats). There is also restaurant on top of the building, which would be really awesome place to get something to eat. After about an hour on top of the Reichstag, we headed down again and back to our hotel, as it was now nearly 11pm.
Berlin at Night
Parliament Chamber.
The next morning, Saturday we got up fairly early to try and take in some more museums. At this point though, it had gotten much colder and begun to rain. We tried to head to what is called Museum Island, which is home to half a dozen museums covering ancient history. When we got there however, we saw that the lines were running out the doors of the all the museums and down to the streets. There was no way we would be able to get in for a least a couple of hours. So we hailed a cab, and headed to Potsdammer Platz, which is like the Times Square of Berlin. It is home to the German Film and Television museum.
Like its counterpart in German History, the Film and Television museum goes into exhaustive detail about the history of German cinema. It includes exhibits on early German films like the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the German film star Marlene Dietrich, the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, and the modern German cinema, including some of the films that I had to watch for class. It was a most impressive museum…and they had an Oscar…which I wanted to steal…I guess I’ll just have to win one...someday.
After that we raced across Berlin to reach the Jewish history museum. The Jewish History Museum was another intense and exhaustive exploration of history, beginning with Judaisms founding in the Holy Land and running up to the present day. Of course the museum is also kind of a memorial for the Holocaust, complete with a vast empty room, which is complete pitch black as a kind of memorial. It was really interesting. Unfortunately we got there so close to closing that we had to rush through the whole of modern Jewish history, and missed an exhibit on Jewish influences on comic books.
Superman outside the Jewish History Museum.
After that, the three of us were pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel, and grabbed a quick bit to eat at a restaurant run by a guy speaking Italian…in Germany. The next morning was fairly laid back. We managed to make it to the Train Station with plenty of time. The trip back to Prague was fortunately uneventful. As soon as I got home though, I had to start hitting the books for my history final on Monday.
Next: Prague Part XII: Na Sleddou
Prague Part XI: On the Last Days in Prague, and My Parents Arrival
A minor note: It seems that I forgot some things in the last update…to be fair it was written on a train to Berlin, so I can be forgiven. On Saturday, that May 1, two rather important events happened. First, we went to an anti-fascist demonstration, concert thing, at which we saw a couple of dudes rapping in Czech, and an awesome Canadian rock band. Then, we made our own music, at the dorm’s open mike night, which was of course dominated by the three people with musical talent, Jake, Walt and Kate.
So, with that out of the way, when I left off, we were standing on Pilsen’s main street, on the 2nd May, meaning that there were exactly 20 days between those events and my still impending departure. The Monday of that week pasted with an increasing sense of dread, at least on my part, as we were nearing the official AIFS Farewell Party, not helped, at all, by the fact that there were still finals to look forward to too (ha).
Tuesday proved to be a nice break however. After watching the reasonably comprehensible Stalker (just ask Sasha Prokov.) and the slightly less understandable but still enjoyable A Short Film About Love, AIFS out went for our first group outing in quite some time.
Jake’s performance the Sunday before had greatly impressed somebody at Red Room, and so they had invited him back to perform a show. Jake, being the creative person that he is, threw together a show, and a band, with Walter on accordion, and Kate on Ukulele. This not the first time this group had played together, on Saturday we had had the dorm open mike night, which mostly consisted of those three play, and my trying to figure out Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the piano. Those three sounded awesome, at Red Room, especially when they played together, and even more especially on the song that for me has become the theme of the trip, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel. Them play this was enough to basically annex Red Room to the United States for a couple hours, as about 50 people from AIFS showed up.
Jake and Kate perform...awesomely
Some of their adoring fans.
After the show was over, a bunch us, including the three musicians piled onto the last train of the night and headed for the Dorm. As it happened, the three of them decided to play Wagon Wheel one more time, and everyone else decided to sing along. At first I’m fairly certain that the Czech people on the train were convinced that this bunch of singing Americans were either very drunk, or very insane. But eventually they got into it. Some much so that by the time the Americans finished the song they all started clapping and making requests….which unfortunately Jake, Walt and Kate were unable to fulfill.
The next morning was another ascent to the Hrad…at least for me. You see, the Czech kids were having a test that day, and I had forgotten that the Professor told me not to show up…after that bit of stupidly, I went back down the hill to my discussion section with Prof. Johnson, not before stopping off in the AIFS Office to print out my assignment, and then off to MittleEuropa once again. Then it was back to the Dorm to get ready for the AIFS Farewell Party.
By this point it had started raining, and I didn’t bring an umbrella with me to the Czech Republic, something my parents would comment on when they finally arrived. So I got pretty good and wet going to the AIFS party…but that was ok. Once I got there it was a pretty lively scene. Jana had managed to produce a local band that was playing some Jazz music. They had good Czech food(loved the Goulash) and good conversation with my friends.
As the night wore on however, people started dancing…and I was getting a little bored. It turns out that some of the English Country dancing lessons I got paid off just a little, because I managed to swing dance with a couple of the girls….and then with Alex Horn…which was awesome because Alex is a much better dancer than I am…I pretty sure the pictures are on Facebook…and someone ,probably Jake or Walt has a video it too…which they should put on Facebook.
(sorry, no pictures of this...I was dancing so I couldn't take any)
After the dancing, there was a bit of toast making. Allie and Walt both made fairly moving toasts…and then yours truly went imitated Diego’s toast from fourth months ago. But it was all in good fun…and Allie, Walt, Jake, Kate, myself, and for a wonder of wonders Ryan Perry, head off to Usudu, another bar in Prague, where we seem to finish up the night fairly often. We were joined at Usudu, some minutes later by my dancing partner, Alex, and Becca as well. At this point though, Allie and I decided to head back to the dorm. After all, since it was a Wednesday I had a class I couldn’t miss the next morning.
And I didn’t miss it…though I might have been a little late (sorry Professor). In film class we watch a Milos Forman film, Fireman’s Ball which was far better than the run of the mill Czech New Wave film. I was very impressed. I hung out at the dorm for a while after my class, and then headed out with Ian, and some of the boys for a night of revelry in honor of the honorary member of AIFS, Sarah Pilchek(who basically moved into our dorm after she figured out how cool we all are…did that sound arrogant? Opps).
I headed back earlier then most…probably because I had to attend to make up class for Czechoslovak New Wave. We missed one earlier in the semester because the Professor was out sick. The make-up class was interesting though, because we watched a film from 2003, Boredom in Brno. The film pays tribute to the films of the Czechoslovak New Wave and some critics, including yours truly (in my final paper) have argued that it should be included in that august group.
That night was fairly quiet because Jake and Allie had headed out earlier to Liberec to plant trees. I managed to find some people to hang out with, the three Toms, Steve Thomas, Bryan K, and Tom Bearce’s little brother. At pretty relaxed crowd. We got some drinks and played some cards...in which I got utterly beaten by the other guys, and then Bryan and I folded and went back to the dorm...
With Jake and Allie gone, Saturday and Sunday were both pretty uneventful. With the except a day trip with Zee on Saturday. We, myself, Zee, Stephanie Woodward, and Brigitte(Zee's regular crowd) headed out to a garden on the outskirts of Prague. It is home to the Czech botanical society, and is absolutely one of the most beautiful places in Prague. We stopped for Pizza on our way back to the Dorm. After that, I crashed pretty hard didn’t do much of anything for the rest of Saturday, except stay in my room and watch Babylon 5(great TV show by the way, but now I’m going to have to shell out for four more DVD sets…damned things are like crack.)
On Sunday, I decided to check something I'd been meaning to see for a while, the Museum of Communism. The Museum chronicles the history of the Czech Republic from its take over by the communists in 1948 under the leadership of Klement Gottwald, to the end of Communism in 1989(its so weird that I was actually alive at that point) with the Velvet Revolution and the election of Vaclav Haval as President. I was very impressed with museum and I bought an awesome Lenin postcard to prove it.
Like everything else, some Prague streets were renamed to honor revolutionary "heroes".
On Tuesday, that is, the 11th of May, my parents finally arrived in Prague. And wonder of wonders what should happen but the weather turned nasty and cold. Zee blames it on the Volcano, but I think that the Oxenfords should never travel to Europe as a group…but it was definitely nice to have someone other than me pay for dinner those nights, and it was good to see my family after being away from them for four months.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I showed them around Prague a little bit. Then on Thursday afternoon, we headed for the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin….
Next: Berlin: City of Museums
Then: Prague Part Part XII: Na Sleddou.
So, with that out of the way, when I left off, we were standing on Pilsen’s main street, on the 2nd May, meaning that there were exactly 20 days between those events and my still impending departure. The Monday of that week pasted with an increasing sense of dread, at least on my part, as we were nearing the official AIFS Farewell Party, not helped, at all, by the fact that there were still finals to look forward to too (ha).
Tuesday proved to be a nice break however. After watching the reasonably comprehensible Stalker (just ask Sasha Prokov.) and the slightly less understandable but still enjoyable A Short Film About Love, AIFS out went for our first group outing in quite some time.
Jake’s performance the Sunday before had greatly impressed somebody at Red Room, and so they had invited him back to perform a show. Jake, being the creative person that he is, threw together a show, and a band, with Walter on accordion, and Kate on Ukulele. This not the first time this group had played together, on Saturday we had had the dorm open mike night, which mostly consisted of those three play, and my trying to figure out Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the piano. Those three sounded awesome, at Red Room, especially when they played together, and even more especially on the song that for me has become the theme of the trip, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel. Them play this was enough to basically annex Red Room to the United States for a couple hours, as about 50 people from AIFS showed up.
Jake and Kate perform...awesomely
Some of their adoring fans.
After the show was over, a bunch us, including the three musicians piled onto the last train of the night and headed for the Dorm. As it happened, the three of them decided to play Wagon Wheel one more time, and everyone else decided to sing along. At first I’m fairly certain that the Czech people on the train were convinced that this bunch of singing Americans were either very drunk, or very insane. But eventually they got into it. Some much so that by the time the Americans finished the song they all started clapping and making requests….which unfortunately Jake, Walt and Kate were unable to fulfill.
The next morning was another ascent to the Hrad…at least for me. You see, the Czech kids were having a test that day, and I had forgotten that the Professor told me not to show up…after that bit of stupidly, I went back down the hill to my discussion section with Prof. Johnson, not before stopping off in the AIFS Office to print out my assignment, and then off to MittleEuropa once again. Then it was back to the Dorm to get ready for the AIFS Farewell Party.
By this point it had started raining, and I didn’t bring an umbrella with me to the Czech Republic, something my parents would comment on when they finally arrived. So I got pretty good and wet going to the AIFS party…but that was ok. Once I got there it was a pretty lively scene. Jana had managed to produce a local band that was playing some Jazz music. They had good Czech food(loved the Goulash) and good conversation with my friends.
As the night wore on however, people started dancing…and I was getting a little bored. It turns out that some of the English Country dancing lessons I got paid off just a little, because I managed to swing dance with a couple of the girls….and then with Alex Horn…which was awesome because Alex is a much better dancer than I am…I pretty sure the pictures are on Facebook…and someone ,probably Jake or Walt has a video it too…which they should put on Facebook.
(sorry, no pictures of this...I was dancing so I couldn't take any)
After the dancing, there was a bit of toast making. Allie and Walt both made fairly moving toasts…and then yours truly went imitated Diego’s toast from fourth months ago. But it was all in good fun…and Allie, Walt, Jake, Kate, myself, and for a wonder of wonders Ryan Perry, head off to Usudu, another bar in Prague, where we seem to finish up the night fairly often. We were joined at Usudu, some minutes later by my dancing partner, Alex, and Becca as well. At this point though, Allie and I decided to head back to the dorm. After all, since it was a Wednesday I had a class I couldn’t miss the next morning.
And I didn’t miss it…though I might have been a little late (sorry Professor). In film class we watch a Milos Forman film, Fireman’s Ball which was far better than the run of the mill Czech New Wave film. I was very impressed. I hung out at the dorm for a while after my class, and then headed out with Ian, and some of the boys for a night of revelry in honor of the honorary member of AIFS, Sarah Pilchek(who basically moved into our dorm after she figured out how cool we all are…did that sound arrogant? Opps).
I headed back earlier then most…probably because I had to attend to make up class for Czechoslovak New Wave. We missed one earlier in the semester because the Professor was out sick. The make-up class was interesting though, because we watched a film from 2003, Boredom in Brno. The film pays tribute to the films of the Czechoslovak New Wave and some critics, including yours truly (in my final paper) have argued that it should be included in that august group.
That night was fairly quiet because Jake and Allie had headed out earlier to Liberec to plant trees. I managed to find some people to hang out with, the three Toms, Steve Thomas, Bryan K, and Tom Bearce’s little brother. At pretty relaxed crowd. We got some drinks and played some cards...in which I got utterly beaten by the other guys, and then Bryan and I folded and went back to the dorm...
With Jake and Allie gone, Saturday and Sunday were both pretty uneventful. With the except a day trip with Zee on Saturday. We, myself, Zee, Stephanie Woodward, and Brigitte(Zee's regular crowd) headed out to a garden on the outskirts of Prague. It is home to the Czech botanical society, and is absolutely one of the most beautiful places in Prague. We stopped for Pizza on our way back to the Dorm. After that, I crashed pretty hard didn’t do much of anything for the rest of Saturday, except stay in my room and watch Babylon 5(great TV show by the way, but now I’m going to have to shell out for four more DVD sets…damned things are like crack.)
On Sunday, I decided to check something I'd been meaning to see for a while, the Museum of Communism. The Museum chronicles the history of the Czech Republic from its take over by the communists in 1948 under the leadership of Klement Gottwald, to the end of Communism in 1989(its so weird that I was actually alive at that point) with the Velvet Revolution and the election of Vaclav Haval as President. I was very impressed with museum and I bought an awesome Lenin postcard to prove it.
Like everything else, some Prague streets were renamed to honor revolutionary "heroes".
On Tuesday, that is, the 11th of May, my parents finally arrived in Prague. And wonder of wonders what should happen but the weather turned nasty and cold. Zee blames it on the Volcano, but I think that the Oxenfords should never travel to Europe as a group…but it was definitely nice to have someone other than me pay for dinner those nights, and it was good to see my family after being away from them for four months.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I showed them around Prague a little bit. Then on Thursday afternoon, we headed for the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin….
Next: Berlin: City of Museums
Then: Prague Part Part XII: Na Sleddou.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Prague Part X: Spring Days, Czech Government, and the Final Countdown Begins
The week after Krakow, which happened to mark four weeks until are return to the United States, was uniformly warm and sunny, something that has been unique in our experience in Prague. That was not however, the first thing I noticed when I got back from Krakow…the thing I noticed most was that we, me, Gabriel and Pablo, had two days until we had to present on the subject of Hungary during the inter-war period to our MittleEuropa class.
Monday…well not much happened with that on Monday…Gabriel was still in Poland, and the airlines were still shutdown because of some ridiculousness with a volcano with too many consonants (something Iceland and the Czech Republic had in common). On Tuesday…while not much happened with that on Tuesday either, expect for a exchange of emails on the subject, which concluded with a decision to meet on Wednesday to finalize the project, and for me to write up a brief timeline of that period on Hungarian history(a timeline that ran to two pages, and was done 45 minutes before the start of class, but that’s how things are done in Europe.) Fortunately…for me…my Eroticism, Power and Fate Professor had gotten himself stuck in Cleveland(a fate I’ve heard you don’t want to wish on anybody), so I was off the hook for the class that normally meets right before Mittleeuropa, so we had a chance to finish and be ready to present.
Of course, things never go off without at hitch, and the hitch, was that one of the my group members was running a little bit behind schedule, so that we had to go second the presentation. Fortunately, this meant that our deadline was the end of class. Unfortunately, we nearly busted this deadline…we probably used way too many details about the Treaty of Triannon(The Hungarian Versailles) Bela Kun, and the various Prime Ministers, and not enough about Regent Horthy, and his rather unique form of government(a kingdom without a king, a Admiral without a navy.), but what really mattered was it was done.
Then…well then it was time to go out and celebrate our success…and something about Alex Horn’s birthday….yeah that was actually the man excuse to go out and have a pretty wild night, and not make it back to the dorm until 3 in the morning….
Needless to say I did not exactly make it to class the next morning.(I’m proud of myself that was one of only two times I skipped my 9 in the morning history class. Next up was Czechoslovak New Wave, in which we watched a film called Cremator…about…well a guy who runs a crematorium before the second World War, and generally goes sort of insane. I volunteered to do a presentation on it, along with a guy from Villanova, because it was actually an interesting movie.
I then went home, and took a nap. As a result, Thursday was pretty much a lost day that week. But we made up for it on Friday. You see, Friday was our Czech civics lesson. Marketa, the resident director of our program had arranged for us a tour of the Czech Supreme Court, and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech Parliament that is responsible for electing the President, and from whom the Prime Minster and the Government receive their support(think US House of Represenatives, or UK House of Commons.)
The Supreme Court was the first on the docket (did you like my little lawyer comment…yeah, I watched too much Law and Order in my youth...and now its been cancelled, sob!). The Supreme Court building has been continuously in use since at least the independence of the Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary. The Nazis and the Soviets both used it for show trials and executions of political prisoners, and suspected political threats, as well as for executions. Today, the Court serves as the final court of appeal. Inside, the building is decorated with a number of statues depicting various important points of Czech History. The courtroom itself looks pretty like what you might see in Law and Order, except that there is no jury in the Czech justice system, everything is decided by a panel of judges.
The Supreme Court Room, note the random law students, and are tour guide relaxing on the rail.
After our morning tour of the Supreme Court we, me, Alex, and Jake headed to Malo Stranka, which is where the Chamber of Deputies is located. We had about an hour or so to kill, and paused to get some lunch, and see the John Lennon Wall, which is a wall near the French Embassy that has been heavily graffiti-ed as an act of protest against the communists, and the Lock Bridge, on which, Czech couples hang locks which symbolize their commitment to each other.
Alex looks at the locks
After that we headed back to the Chamber of Deputies, which is located inside of an old palace. The inside of the Chamber is suited to its history, which a fair amount of gilding, and a piano, that I’m sure the Deputies play when they are not voting. We were able to go into the gallery and see the actual chamber, though unfortunately because the Czech government is currently dissolved, we did not get to see the Czech government inaction (not a typo…a bad pun)
After that, I headed back to the AIFS office to pick up Zee’s tour of Prague for the day…the tour turned out to be just me and Zee, but was not less enjoyable for the experience. He actually took me back through Malovkanka, the area with the Lennon Wall and the Lock Bridge, explaining that the creek the bridge runs across is called Devil’s Creek…for reasons passing understanding. We also stopped at the church where I attended Easter Services, and the where the Infant of Prague is kept. Then we headed up to Pertin Hill, and back down to almost back to my dorm.
Saturday dawned beautiful and warm, so Jake, Kate, Allie, Walter, Kacy and I headed out to Divorka Sarka, a nature park located at the end of one of the Prague Tram lines. We walked all around the Prague, getting really great views from on top of mountains, and of the lake. It was really relaxing to be outside of urban Prague, and was really easy to forget that we were in a city.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day, we stayed out pretty late Saturday night, but that night was quite fun. Jake played his guitar at an open mike night at Bar Called the Red Room. He was really good, playing a couple of original songs and a couple of covers, including my favorite, Wagon Wheel. I headed back earlier then most of the crew this time, because I had a class Monday morning…and because I had already missed that class once I was determined not to have it happen again.
The rest of the week was pretty much par for course, Monday was history and more history with a little bit of conversation with Czech students, films on Tuesday...etc, etc. The weather however was incredibly beautiful, so warm you almost didn’t need a jacket anymore. I spent most of that weeks afternoon’s camped outside, reading Stephen King of my Kindle…as the week wore on however, this beautiful weather began to give way to a rather growing sense of dread…you see, I started to realize that it was only 21 days until I headed back to the United States….a prospect which does not make me happy.
This growing unhappiness was reinforced by Friday April 30, which in the Czech Republic is an annual witch burning festival. For record they don’t actually burn witches. What they do is build gigantic bonfires(perfect for roasting marshmallows) and drink wine…lots of wine.. As it was also Kate and Stef’s birthdays that week, Friday night got pretty silly…though I’m pleased to say that I was one of the last ones of my group standing by the end of the night.
On Saturday we, the usual suspects, me, Jake, Allie, Kate, Walt and Kacy, planned to head out to Cesky Krumlov, a town on the south of the Czech Republic…but unfortunately we failed to buy our tickets ahead of time…poor life choice. Instead we headed up hanging out in one of Prague’s nice green spaces, eating sandwiches we purchased from the bus station…they were actually pretty good. I headed back after a few hours to catch up with Zee once again, and learn a little bit about the history of Dejivcka the area we have been living in for the past 4 months. As it turns out, it was the site of some pretty intense fighting in the last week of World War II, between the Russians and the Soviets…
We got to experience some of this fighting the next day, Sunday May 2. We headed out that day to the town of Pilsen, which was one of the few in the Czech Republic to be liberated by the American Soldiers(Patton really really wanted some good Czech beer I’m sure, and Pilsen is where the brewery is). For almost an hour, Second War Vinatge Tanks, Planes and Automobiles rolled down Pilsen’s man street. I took lots of pictures and videos…something to work into my senior honor’s project…god willing. Then we head back to Prague, and back to the grind stone, now with only two weeks left…damn where did the time go?
At this point, I can see the end of the road, and the end of this blog…there will probably be four posts, one to be titled Prague Part XI: The Final Days, the next Prague Part XII: On Travelling with My Parents, Berlin: City of Museums, and then a final Prague Post, Part Thirteen, assuming of course the BA strike doesn’t strand me in Prague, and I’m forced to write more…I hope that happens, cause I’m really not ready to leave this city, or these people.
So Next: Prague XI: The Final Days Part I.
Monday…well not much happened with that on Monday…Gabriel was still in Poland, and the airlines were still shutdown because of some ridiculousness with a volcano with too many consonants (something Iceland and the Czech Republic had in common). On Tuesday…while not much happened with that on Tuesday either, expect for a exchange of emails on the subject, which concluded with a decision to meet on Wednesday to finalize the project, and for me to write up a brief timeline of that period on Hungarian history(a timeline that ran to two pages, and was done 45 minutes before the start of class, but that’s how things are done in Europe.) Fortunately…for me…my Eroticism, Power and Fate Professor had gotten himself stuck in Cleveland(a fate I’ve heard you don’t want to wish on anybody), so I was off the hook for the class that normally meets right before Mittleeuropa, so we had a chance to finish and be ready to present.
Of course, things never go off without at hitch, and the hitch, was that one of the my group members was running a little bit behind schedule, so that we had to go second the presentation. Fortunately, this meant that our deadline was the end of class. Unfortunately, we nearly busted this deadline…we probably used way too many details about the Treaty of Triannon(The Hungarian Versailles) Bela Kun, and the various Prime Ministers, and not enough about Regent Horthy, and his rather unique form of government(a kingdom without a king, a Admiral without a navy.), but what really mattered was it was done.
Then…well then it was time to go out and celebrate our success…and something about Alex Horn’s birthday….yeah that was actually the man excuse to go out and have a pretty wild night, and not make it back to the dorm until 3 in the morning….
Needless to say I did not exactly make it to class the next morning.(I’m proud of myself that was one of only two times I skipped my 9 in the morning history class. Next up was Czechoslovak New Wave, in which we watched a film called Cremator…about…well a guy who runs a crematorium before the second World War, and generally goes sort of insane. I volunteered to do a presentation on it, along with a guy from Villanova, because it was actually an interesting movie.
I then went home, and took a nap. As a result, Thursday was pretty much a lost day that week. But we made up for it on Friday. You see, Friday was our Czech civics lesson. Marketa, the resident director of our program had arranged for us a tour of the Czech Supreme Court, and the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech Parliament that is responsible for electing the President, and from whom the Prime Minster and the Government receive their support(think US House of Represenatives, or UK House of Commons.)
The Supreme Court was the first on the docket (did you like my little lawyer comment…yeah, I watched too much Law and Order in my youth...and now its been cancelled, sob!). The Supreme Court building has been continuously in use since at least the independence of the Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary. The Nazis and the Soviets both used it for show trials and executions of political prisoners, and suspected political threats, as well as for executions. Today, the Court serves as the final court of appeal. Inside, the building is decorated with a number of statues depicting various important points of Czech History. The courtroom itself looks pretty like what you might see in Law and Order, except that there is no jury in the Czech justice system, everything is decided by a panel of judges.
The Supreme Court Room, note the random law students, and are tour guide relaxing on the rail.
After our morning tour of the Supreme Court we, me, Alex, and Jake headed to Malo Stranka, which is where the Chamber of Deputies is located. We had about an hour or so to kill, and paused to get some lunch, and see the John Lennon Wall, which is a wall near the French Embassy that has been heavily graffiti-ed as an act of protest against the communists, and the Lock Bridge, on which, Czech couples hang locks which symbolize their commitment to each other.
Alex looks at the locks
After that we headed back to the Chamber of Deputies, which is located inside of an old palace. The inside of the Chamber is suited to its history, which a fair amount of gilding, and a piano, that I’m sure the Deputies play when they are not voting. We were able to go into the gallery and see the actual chamber, though unfortunately because the Czech government is currently dissolved, we did not get to see the Czech government inaction (not a typo…a bad pun)
After that, I headed back to the AIFS office to pick up Zee’s tour of Prague for the day…the tour turned out to be just me and Zee, but was not less enjoyable for the experience. He actually took me back through Malovkanka, the area with the Lennon Wall and the Lock Bridge, explaining that the creek the bridge runs across is called Devil’s Creek…for reasons passing understanding. We also stopped at the church where I attended Easter Services, and the where the Infant of Prague is kept. Then we headed up to Pertin Hill, and back down to almost back to my dorm.
Saturday dawned beautiful and warm, so Jake, Kate, Allie, Walter, Kacy and I headed out to Divorka Sarka, a nature park located at the end of one of the Prague Tram lines. We walked all around the Prague, getting really great views from on top of mountains, and of the lake. It was really relaxing to be outside of urban Prague, and was really easy to forget that we were in a city.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day, we stayed out pretty late Saturday night, but that night was quite fun. Jake played his guitar at an open mike night at Bar Called the Red Room. He was really good, playing a couple of original songs and a couple of covers, including my favorite, Wagon Wheel. I headed back earlier then most of the crew this time, because I had a class Monday morning…and because I had already missed that class once I was determined not to have it happen again.
The rest of the week was pretty much par for course, Monday was history and more history with a little bit of conversation with Czech students, films on Tuesday...etc, etc. The weather however was incredibly beautiful, so warm you almost didn’t need a jacket anymore. I spent most of that weeks afternoon’s camped outside, reading Stephen King of my Kindle…as the week wore on however, this beautiful weather began to give way to a rather growing sense of dread…you see, I started to realize that it was only 21 days until I headed back to the United States….a prospect which does not make me happy.
This growing unhappiness was reinforced by Friday April 30, which in the Czech Republic is an annual witch burning festival. For record they don’t actually burn witches. What they do is build gigantic bonfires(perfect for roasting marshmallows) and drink wine…lots of wine.. As it was also Kate and Stef’s birthdays that week, Friday night got pretty silly…though I’m pleased to say that I was one of the last ones of my group standing by the end of the night.
On Saturday we, the usual suspects, me, Jake, Allie, Kate, Walt and Kacy, planned to head out to Cesky Krumlov, a town on the south of the Czech Republic…but unfortunately we failed to buy our tickets ahead of time…poor life choice. Instead we headed up hanging out in one of Prague’s nice green spaces, eating sandwiches we purchased from the bus station…they were actually pretty good. I headed back after a few hours to catch up with Zee once again, and learn a little bit about the history of Dejivcka the area we have been living in for the past 4 months. As it turns out, it was the site of some pretty intense fighting in the last week of World War II, between the Russians and the Soviets…
We got to experience some of this fighting the next day, Sunday May 2. We headed out that day to the town of Pilsen, which was one of the few in the Czech Republic to be liberated by the American Soldiers(Patton really really wanted some good Czech beer I’m sure, and Pilsen is where the brewery is). For almost an hour, Second War Vinatge Tanks, Planes and Automobiles rolled down Pilsen’s man street. I took lots of pictures and videos…something to work into my senior honor’s project…god willing. Then we head back to Prague, and back to the grind stone, now with only two weeks left…damn where did the time go?
At this point, I can see the end of the road, and the end of this blog…there will probably be four posts, one to be titled Prague Part XI: The Final Days, the next Prague Part XII: On Travelling with My Parents, Berlin: City of Museums, and then a final Prague Post, Part Thirteen, assuming of course the BA strike doesn’t strand me in Prague, and I’m forced to write more…I hope that happens, cause I’m really not ready to leave this city, or these people.
So Next: Prague XI: The Final Days Part I.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Krakow Part II: Auschwitz
As a word of caution, don't expect to laugh to much during this one...is about Auschwitz after all.
The enormity of what happened at Auschwitz is very difficult to describe . More than a million and a half people, roughly equivalent to the population of Prague or Greater Richmond, or Washington DC during rush hour(this figures are from Wikipedia), died at Auschwitz. The kind of cruelty, or insanity do such a thing is difficult to matter, and to be honest, I expected…rings of fire, maybe a lidless eye, some sign that something so terrible happened...but in a way its much worse than that.
The extermination camp at Auschwitz was established in 1942 by order of a man that who would become infamous, especially in the Czech Republic, where he served as Governor, Reinhard Heydrich. In January, Heydrich chaired the Wannsee conference, which planned the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, the mass murder of the Jews. Under the direction of Heydrich, and Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, Rudolf Hoss was named the camps first commandant, and it was he, and Dr. Joesph Mengele, who were responsible for some of the worst actions at Auschwitz, including the use of Zyclon B as a way to murder human beings.
Auschwitz I, the first camp, and the one that is mostly intact, is located in a village, which if it hadn’t been the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history, would actually be kind of a nice place to live. Upon arriving at the camp, you pass through a visitor’s center, and then arrive at the actual entrance to the camp, with the famous or infamous gate. Inside, the gate the camp looks very much like a military compound, with a number of uniform structures surrounded by a wood and barbed wire fence, with signs in German that warn you not to approach, on pain of death.
Buildings
Barbed wire
The inside of the buildings have been turned into a museum. One contains images of many of the people that were sent to Auschwitz and never returned, another recreates the conditions in which prisoners would have lived, a third has some of the prison cells in which prisoners that broke the rules would be confined, and basically tortured, the last one contains many of the items that the prisoners brought with them to the camp. I found this one especially chilling; in one room in particular there were several thousands of pairs of eye glasses, and in another, suitcases with names and addresses, and artificial limbs, and crutches.
Beyond the walls, is probably the worst part of the camp. A small gallows sits there, where they hanged some prisoners and Rudolf Hoss in 1946(If it’s not the most deserved hanging in human history, I don’t know what is). Beyond the gallows is the one gas chamber at Auschwitz that is still standing (the Nazis blew up the others to try and cover their guilt…didn’t work, thank god.). The gas chamber is really chilling. You walk in, and there’s literally nothing except pipes, which were used to bring in the gas, and gouged pretty deep in the wall, scratch marks, were people tried to claw their way out. Past that, and you get to the crematoriums, which are still more or less intact…and then you pretty much run out into the fresh air.
That’s also about the time that noticed that Auschwitz is chillingly silent, and chillingly still, very few birds seem to sing inside the camp, and no one talks...but they have a book shop and a candy store, and wonder of wonders, they had Skittles in the candy store(the first I’ve seen in Europe), and a much needed Chaka boost, especially considering where we went next. We piled back on the bus, and drove across the village to Auschwitz II/Birkenau.
Birkenau is where most of the victims of Auschwitz were sent to die. Of the complex of camps that was located at Auschwitz, Birkenau was the pure extermination camps…most people who were sent there dead in something like three days, if they weren’t sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival, as many woman, children and old people were.
Unlike Auschwitz I however, anything the Nazis believed might implicate them in the Holocaust was destroyed. The crematoriums/gas chambers there are simply piles of rubble, blow up more than 65 years ago. The barracks at the camp still stand however, like silent witnesses. Like Auschwitz I, the camp is completely silent, and you can almost hear ghosts, wanting to speak. The Poles apparently say that nothing will grow at Birkenau, and having been there, I believe it.
We explored the ruins of the pausing briefly at the ruins of the gas chambers, a memorial to the victims, and one of countless barracks. Inside the barracks, some of the prisoners had written their names and/or the dates of their imprisonment. With that, we headed back to Prague...
If only 1.5 million people could have done the same 65 years ago.
Next Prague Ten: Spring Days, and the Final Countdown Begins.
The enormity of what happened at Auschwitz is very difficult to describe . More than a million and a half people, roughly equivalent to the population of Prague or Greater Richmond, or Washington DC during rush hour(this figures are from Wikipedia), died at Auschwitz. The kind of cruelty, or insanity do such a thing is difficult to matter, and to be honest, I expected…rings of fire, maybe a lidless eye, some sign that something so terrible happened...but in a way its much worse than that.
The extermination camp at Auschwitz was established in 1942 by order of a man that who would become infamous, especially in the Czech Republic, where he served as Governor, Reinhard Heydrich. In January, Heydrich chaired the Wannsee conference, which planned the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, the mass murder of the Jews. Under the direction of Heydrich, and Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, Rudolf Hoss was named the camps first commandant, and it was he, and Dr. Joesph Mengele, who were responsible for some of the worst actions at Auschwitz, including the use of Zyclon B as a way to murder human beings.
Auschwitz I, the first camp, and the one that is mostly intact, is located in a village, which if it hadn’t been the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history, would actually be kind of a nice place to live. Upon arriving at the camp, you pass through a visitor’s center, and then arrive at the actual entrance to the camp, with the famous or infamous gate. Inside, the gate the camp looks very much like a military compound, with a number of uniform structures surrounded by a wood and barbed wire fence, with signs in German that warn you not to approach, on pain of death.
Buildings
Barbed wire
The inside of the buildings have been turned into a museum. One contains images of many of the people that were sent to Auschwitz and never returned, another recreates the conditions in which prisoners would have lived, a third has some of the prison cells in which prisoners that broke the rules would be confined, and basically tortured, the last one contains many of the items that the prisoners brought with them to the camp. I found this one especially chilling; in one room in particular there were several thousands of pairs of eye glasses, and in another, suitcases with names and addresses, and artificial limbs, and crutches.
Beyond the walls, is probably the worst part of the camp. A small gallows sits there, where they hanged some prisoners and Rudolf Hoss in 1946(If it’s not the most deserved hanging in human history, I don’t know what is). Beyond the gallows is the one gas chamber at Auschwitz that is still standing (the Nazis blew up the others to try and cover their guilt…didn’t work, thank god.). The gas chamber is really chilling. You walk in, and there’s literally nothing except pipes, which were used to bring in the gas, and gouged pretty deep in the wall, scratch marks, were people tried to claw their way out. Past that, and you get to the crematoriums, which are still more or less intact…and then you pretty much run out into the fresh air.
That’s also about the time that noticed that Auschwitz is chillingly silent, and chillingly still, very few birds seem to sing inside the camp, and no one talks...but they have a book shop and a candy store, and wonder of wonders, they had Skittles in the candy store(the first I’ve seen in Europe), and a much needed Chaka boost, especially considering where we went next. We piled back on the bus, and drove across the village to Auschwitz II/Birkenau.
Birkenau is where most of the victims of Auschwitz were sent to die. Of the complex of camps that was located at Auschwitz, Birkenau was the pure extermination camps…most people who were sent there dead in something like three days, if they weren’t sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival, as many woman, children and old people were.
Unlike Auschwitz I however, anything the Nazis believed might implicate them in the Holocaust was destroyed. The crematoriums/gas chambers there are simply piles of rubble, blow up more than 65 years ago. The barracks at the camp still stand however, like silent witnesses. Like Auschwitz I, the camp is completely silent, and you can almost hear ghosts, wanting to speak. The Poles apparently say that nothing will grow at Birkenau, and having been there, I believe it.
We explored the ruins of the pausing briefly at the ruins of the gas chambers, a memorial to the victims, and one of countless barracks. Inside the barracks, some of the prisoners had written their names and/or the dates of their imprisonment. With that, we headed back to Prague...
If only 1.5 million people could have done the same 65 years ago.
Next Prague Ten: Spring Days, and the Final Countdown Begins.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Krakow Part I: City in Mourning
As I mentioned in my previous post, the week before we were scheduled to arrive in Krakow, the Polish President was killed when his airplane crashed in Russia. The President was scheduled to be buried in the Woclaw Castle, which was used as the Capital of Poland for several centuries and is the place where the great kings and national heroes of Poland are buried, on Sunday, the day we visited Auschwitz(More on that…in another post). As such, Poland as whole, and the city of Krakow in particular was in a state of mourning.
When we left Maraysova Kolej at a little past eight in the morning(nicely done Ian, nicely done), we didn’t know what to expect in the eight hours it would take as to reach Krakow, or what we would find when we arrived. It didn’t really matter to me at that point however, because my noise was buried pretty deeply in the virtual pages of my Kindle (it’s just the gift that keeps on giving). I would be aroused, somewhat from my reading, when we made a rather unexpected stop. You see, one of our follow travels kind of…somehow…passed out. In the front of the bus, apparently on his way to ask for a rest stop. A rest stop we got too....any way, if that excitement out of the way, it was nice relaxing trip to Krakow, one which the Barbara, one of the employees of AIFS informed us was the quickest they had made from the outskirts of Krakow into the center.
Krakow follows the Standard European City Layout to a T. Like Prague, Munich, Vienna, Paris, and Budapest ect, the city Is located next to a body of water, the Vistula river. It is dominated by a castle located on a rise above town, and has large central square, with the obligatory Cathedral, and most of the economic functions of the town are located. It was to this central square that the ever incredible, Zee led us. Here he explained the significance of the church; apparently it had one of the prettiest altars in Europe, and then told us some good places to eat. Myself, Jake, Allie, Ryan and Jordan, Ian, and Rachelle, a fellow Arlingtonian, set out to a Georgian Restaurant. The food was pretty good, cooked beef, and Coke Light that was actually cheaper than the beer(a first in any East Central European Country). After the restaurant, the group wandered around trying to find something to do. First, we found an alcohol store, and started to head back to hotel to partake. After we got there though, we decided instead to head out and find some Gelatto. It being 11 clock on a Friday night, in a country officially in mourning, we didn’t have a whole lot of luck with that. What we did find was a fellow American, Evan from Midgeville, Georgia(for those of you who are not Civil War freaks, Midgeville served, in 1864, as a temporary state capital, at least till William T. Sherman and about 100,000 of his closest friends burned the place, after enacting a mock session of the state legislator.) who desperately wanted to get a drink with some Americans. We obliged. (For the record, as my father and I can both attest, this sort of friendly openness is not at all out of place in the South, though rather odd to see in East Central Europe). We went to a little Polish Bar, and enjoyed some Polish beer, and a few hours of chit chat. As it was now nearly 1 in the morning, we head back to the hotel.
The church, the next day, but still.
The next morning was two tours of the City with our good friend, and the Dr. Whittenburg of Europe, Zee. Zee started out our tour with a monument to the Battle of Grunwald, in which, in 1410, the Poles and Lithuanians, broke and utterly beat the Teutonic Knights, effectively ending their power in the Baltic(yeah, I had to look up, I’m not Zee). Next, he took us through the town’s defensive walls, past the market square, and to the site of Church in which his Holiness, John Paul II preached before he became Pope. This church was also home to a copy of Shroud of Turin, purported to be the burial shroud of Christ Himself, complete with blood stains from where the nails were pressed in…did I mention that Poland is a very religious country, and then to yet another church, this one constructed by the Jesuits. This is where the tour finished up, at least for about two hours. This was long enough to go into another basement room, and get some food at a Ukrainian Restaurant. Good food, and a lot of interesting conversation(for anyone who was there: I was right, there is a Dunkin Donuts in Arlington County, on Lee Highway, across from the Safeway, down the street from Seven Eleven.)
Grunwald memorial.
After that pleasant little interlude we headed back to the Church to meet Zee for our afternoon tour. Zee took us up to the Cathedral/Castle were the President was being buried. Inside there was a monument to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of three nations, Poland for leading its armies during a revolt against Russia, and the United States for help us out during the Revolution, and then leading armies for France in the service in Napoleon
Beyond Kosciuszko, we went into the Cathedral. Three Polish kings, and a queen and some saints are buried above ground in the Church, with placards that describe in English and Polish what they did, and why they are important. Also important in the Castle Complex was a site that according to Zee was important to Hindus. Apparently one of the gods, maybe Shiva, I can’t remember, throw a bunch of stones all over the world that serve as place to recharge your Chaka, or good energy, one apparently landed in Krakow, and had a castle built on top of it. Zee took us as close to that spot as we could get, because according to him Auschwitz would completely drain our Chaka otherwise.
The chaka refilling castle.
After maxing out our Chaka, we drained some of it. From Castle, Zee led us down into the Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Once upon time, before the Nazis came, Krakow had a large and thriving population of Jews. More than 76,000 of them supposedly lived in the city, as in those days, Poland was one of the few countries in Europe that treated Jewish people halfway decently. And then the Nazis showed up, and sent almost all of them 60kms down the road to Auschwitz (more then you will ever want to hear about that, I assure you). Today, there are only 150 Jewish people in Krakow.(No, that’s not a typo, I wrote exactly what I meant to, 150.) The quarter itself looks pretty run down, and apparently was pretty much a no go zone until the fall of Communism, because almost no one live there.
The Jewish Quarter
After this, we were all a little bummed out, but fortunately Krakow had something to take our minds off the depression caused by mass murder, and where we were going the next day. That thing was a massive water park located just outside of town. The park had a pool into which at least half a dozen slides emptied, a series of lily pad type things, a balancing rope, water volleyball pools, and saunas. We, meaning Jake, me, Ian, Alex, and Alex’s crew, did just about everything for just about three or four hours. By the time we got back we were pretty tuckered out, but very hungry.
From our hotel we headed out to the center of town once again, finally to get some Polish food. This turned out to be some ravioli like dishes, stuff with meat, or fruit. They were pretty good and very filling. After that we headed back to the hotel, talked for a while…or something like that…and went to bed.
Next: Krakow Part II: Auschwitz
Friday, April 23, 2010
Prague Part IX: Things Fall Apart(not really)
N: Short post tonight, cause...well it is, deal with it...more will come...eventually:)
I don’t know if you heard, but things seem to be going to hell in a hand basket here in Europe. On Saturday, just after Barak Obama left Prague, we heard that the Polish President, several government ministers, and several survivors of a massacre during World War II had been killed in a plane crash outside of Smolensk on the way to commemorate the massacre. And then, about Mid-week, Iceland(or rather a volcano with more constants then vowels and I don’t really feel like trying to spell) exploded, causing a Europe wide shut down of Air traffic, and stranding people across the continent(more on that later).
These events didn’t really cast that much of a shadow on Monday however. We finally got our mid-terms back in both MittleEuropa, and Czech and Central European History. Turns out I was bellyaching over nothing…at least as far as my professors were concerned…As on both, god be blessed. MittleEuropa also brought a rather more unwelcome announcement…in less than a week myself and two others would have to make a presentation to the class about Hungary during the inter-war period (after finishing it, I’m pretty sure my Great-Grandfather got out when he did for a very good reason).
But that was Wednesday problem, and it was still Tuesday. Tuesday for me, was pretty much a rerun day. My first class, Central European Cinema, watched Ashes and Diamonds, a Polish film I watched in Eroticism Power and Fate, and EPF, watched Birds, Orphans and Fools, which I saw in Czechoslovak New Wave…now New Wave just has to show a film I saw in Central Europe Cinema, and the circle will be complete. After I made my way home from class, I discovered that I had received an email from one of my group members. He seemed a little bit concerned about getting the project ready for class on Monday, and so we arranged to meet on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday dawned pretty late, or at least I got up late, and headed up to GJK once again. After a conversation of a hour that involved more discussion of TV then art, but whatever. I basically had to run down the mountain, to get on a train, to meet my partner at a station five down the line from were GJK, and I had to do it in less than ten minutes. I made it…and then had to wait five minutes for my group member, a Frenchmen named Gabriel. As it turned out our third partner, a Spaniard named Pablo would not be joining us that day, as he had a class to attend.
The two of us then went up to Gabriel’s apartment (or flat if you prefer, he certainly does), and got down to work. We managed to split Hungarian History up into three subsections, with me taking the period immediately after World War I to 1920, when the Hungarian version of Versailles was signed, Gabriel taking the foreign policy of Hungary after that treaty, and Pablo being assigned(cause he wasn’t there) the domestic consequences of the treaty. So organized we declared ourselves done for the day. With only a hour or so before class, I got invited to stick around and hang out with Gabriel and his polish roommate. It was a pretty interesting experience I have to so. I was surprised to learn that the Polish President was being buried in the castle normally reserved for Polish National heroes…in Krakow and Gabriel’s roommate, and Gabriel too were not really all that happy about it.
We headed to class, and then I headed out to Don Giovanni, in the theatre in which it originally premiered, the Estates Theatre of Prague. Don Giovanni was a very interesting Opera, more so I thought than the Marriage of Figaro. It was also nice because while I was getting cultured, Matt was being a great friend and registering us for housing (nice going with Jamestown by the way dude).
Thursday started out pretty well. I got an email early that morning that made me rather smile…Marketa, the head of the program had sent one around that stated that we should avoid being rowdy and not be seen enjoying alcohol, because the Poles(and the far right) might take offense. I was informed later that this meant that we weren’t being allowed to have fun in Krakow(I had to smile…I love this country). After watching another movie based on a Kundara story(the Joke), I headed back to Jirho to meet Gabriel and Pablo. We fulfilled our objectives fairly rapidly, firming up everything that Gabriel and I had agreed to. We decided to head out for a bit of a drink afterwards…which reminds me of an old joke(well not that old) what happens when a Spaniard, a Frenchmen, and an American go to a bar? A: They go for a coffee, because its 4:30 in the afternoon and the bar is closed. We did get a coffee, it was pretty enjoyable. Then I came back, and hung out in the dorm for a while, and then went to bed because we had to get up by 8am to go to Krakow.
I don’t know if you heard, but things seem to be going to hell in a hand basket here in Europe. On Saturday, just after Barak Obama left Prague, we heard that the Polish President, several government ministers, and several survivors of a massacre during World War II had been killed in a plane crash outside of Smolensk on the way to commemorate the massacre. And then, about Mid-week, Iceland(or rather a volcano with more constants then vowels and I don’t really feel like trying to spell) exploded, causing a Europe wide shut down of Air traffic, and stranding people across the continent(more on that later).
These events didn’t really cast that much of a shadow on Monday however. We finally got our mid-terms back in both MittleEuropa, and Czech and Central European History. Turns out I was bellyaching over nothing…at least as far as my professors were concerned…As on both, god be blessed. MittleEuropa also brought a rather more unwelcome announcement…in less than a week myself and two others would have to make a presentation to the class about Hungary during the inter-war period (after finishing it, I’m pretty sure my Great-Grandfather got out when he did for a very good reason).
But that was Wednesday problem, and it was still Tuesday. Tuesday for me, was pretty much a rerun day. My first class, Central European Cinema, watched Ashes and Diamonds, a Polish film I watched in Eroticism Power and Fate, and EPF, watched Birds, Orphans and Fools, which I saw in Czechoslovak New Wave…now New Wave just has to show a film I saw in Central Europe Cinema, and the circle will be complete. After I made my way home from class, I discovered that I had received an email from one of my group members. He seemed a little bit concerned about getting the project ready for class on Monday, and so we arranged to meet on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday dawned pretty late, or at least I got up late, and headed up to GJK once again. After a conversation of a hour that involved more discussion of TV then art, but whatever. I basically had to run down the mountain, to get on a train, to meet my partner at a station five down the line from were GJK, and I had to do it in less than ten minutes. I made it…and then had to wait five minutes for my group member, a Frenchmen named Gabriel. As it turned out our third partner, a Spaniard named Pablo would not be joining us that day, as he had a class to attend.
The two of us then went up to Gabriel’s apartment (or flat if you prefer, he certainly does), and got down to work. We managed to split Hungarian History up into three subsections, with me taking the period immediately after World War I to 1920, when the Hungarian version of Versailles was signed, Gabriel taking the foreign policy of Hungary after that treaty, and Pablo being assigned(cause he wasn’t there) the domestic consequences of the treaty. So organized we declared ourselves done for the day. With only a hour or so before class, I got invited to stick around and hang out with Gabriel and his polish roommate. It was a pretty interesting experience I have to so. I was surprised to learn that the Polish President was being buried in the castle normally reserved for Polish National heroes…in Krakow and Gabriel’s roommate, and Gabriel too were not really all that happy about it.
We headed to class, and then I headed out to Don Giovanni, in the theatre in which it originally premiered, the Estates Theatre of Prague. Don Giovanni was a very interesting Opera, more so I thought than the Marriage of Figaro. It was also nice because while I was getting cultured, Matt was being a great friend and registering us for housing (nice going with Jamestown by the way dude).
Thursday started out pretty well. I got an email early that morning that made me rather smile…Marketa, the head of the program had sent one around that stated that we should avoid being rowdy and not be seen enjoying alcohol, because the Poles(and the far right) might take offense. I was informed later that this meant that we weren’t being allowed to have fun in Krakow(I had to smile…I love this country). After watching another movie based on a Kundara story(the Joke), I headed back to Jirho to meet Gabriel and Pablo. We fulfilled our objectives fairly rapidly, firming up everything that Gabriel and I had agreed to. We decided to head out for a bit of a drink afterwards…which reminds me of an old joke(well not that old) what happens when a Spaniard, a Frenchmen, and an American go to a bar? A: They go for a coffee, because its 4:30 in the afternoon and the bar is closed. We did get a coffee, it was pretty enjoyable. Then I came back, and hung out in the dorm for a while, and then went to bed because we had to get up by 8am to go to Krakow.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Prague Part VIII: The Study Part of Study Abroad
Yeah, I'm putting this up on Saturday instead of Thursday, oops. But, in compensation, this update covers everything from the end of the last one, to last Thursday, nearly two weeks of action.
The evening of our return from Vienna proved rather less relaxing then I would have preferred. You see, I had a midterm at 9am the next morning, and, like most people in my class, I was not nearly as ready for it as I would have liked. Fortunately, I think I managed to pull off a pretty decent grade, given my blow by blow review of the exam with Adrian afterward.
From there, I headed back to GJK, to hang out with smart Czech kids, which proved extremely relaxing after a rather stressful morning. I got three suggestions to visit the Prague Zoo, which, especially because it is nice and warm, I may have to act upon. MittleEuropa brought me back to earth a little bit, as the professor reminded us that we have an exam in a little less than a weak. Given the level of detail she throws out in each lecture, everyone was understandably a little bit panicked.
Fortunately, Tuesday would prove unexpectedly relaxing. You see, as I was getting to class, about a minute after 10 in the morning, one of my friends informed me that the class had been canceled, for reasons not explained. Somewhat nonplussed at being up at 10 in morning when I didn’t have to be, I realized that I know had three hours to kill, and it was a beautiful day in Prague.
I decided to wander down to the Charles Bridge, which as it happens is only about a block and change from the main building of Charles University. The Bridge has a commanding view of the castle, as it was designed by Charles IV in the thirteenth century to link Straromeska(Old Town) to Malostarska(really Old Town). The bridge, befitting its age, is lined with a number of states, including one of Jesus on the cross.
The Bridge
Jesus
The bridge is also home to a number of people selling various touristy items, including caricatures and pictures, as well as magnets and key chains. There was also a rather humorous Czech man with puppet he was making dance to various pieces of classical music. I got a funny little video of that. On the other side of the river I wandered around for a moment, and discovered a small group of buildings with an odd statue of men peeing in the center. As quickly discovered, this was the Franz Kafka Museum. The Museum was in the 1920s, one of the homes of that Kafka occupied in Prague.
Since it was relatively cheap, and in English, I decided to check out the museum. Somehow, I doubt the interior looks much like it did when Kafka lived there. The Museum s a collection of artifacts from his life and some exhibits about some of his stranger books, which include a rather disturbing mirror room from an unfinished story, and a seemingly endless rows of office drawers, with names like Kafka, Samsa(main character of the Metamorphosis) and K on them. Over all, it was a very interesting museum.
After finishing up there, I wandered around the banks of the river a little more, eventually coming to an English language book store, where I managed to pick up a copy of the Economist. The Economist was mildly different from the ones back home, in that it was organized with the United Kingdom and Europe before the United States and Asia. It was nice to get some news from home, but by that time I had to rather hurriedly make my way back to Charles University to be sure to be on time to my one remaining class of the day, Eroticism Power and Fate in the Cinema of Central Europe.
That evening and the whole of Wednesday were pretty much write-offs as far as anything fun or interesting that I can about or put pictures up of goes. I had to write a paper for my Czechoslovak New Wave class, and unfortunately, why New Wave filmmakers should have invested more money in plot or story was not an option (I challenge anyone to watch Birds Orphans and Fools, or Daises and tell me that they have a plot…of any sort.) I did manage to write a pretty good piece about how Birds Orphans and Fools, and the French New Wave Film Jules et Jim were similar, but it took two days.
Fortunately Thursday proved to be a relatively good day. We didn’t get our mid-terms for Czech History back (for which I was rather thankful) and the film in Czechoslovak New Wave, All My Good Countrymen, was a very interesting, if somewhat slow look, on how one Czech village experienced the revolution from 1948 to 1960. And then, thank god almighty it was the weekend. Unfortunately, because it was Easter weekend, most of my friends were scattered to the four winds. Jake and his family headed off to Paris, Kate and a friend from home went to Greece and Bulgaria, Kacy and her family went to Budapest, Alex was traveling with his family, and I didn’t hear anything from Adrian, Allie or Diego until Sunday.
That said, being me, I was not without people to hang out with, at least not on Friday or Saturday. I spent Thursday in a deeply relaxed state after finishing my paper for Czechoslovak New Wave. The next day, I got up late, as it was Friday, and did some wandering around Prague. I headed to the Old Town Square, and paid an arm and a leg for a slab of good Czech Ham. From the Old Town Square, I headed past Tyn Church into some of the back streets of Prague, noticing a couple of restaurants and things that I might have to check out later. From there, I headed to Charles University and across the bridge onto the other side of the river. I wandered around there, and came upon the ISIC store(who issued me an international student card) and a Catholic Church, St. Thomas’ which had services in English. Armed with the knowledge that I would be able to do my bi-annual duty to God (Christmas and Easter) at 11 on Easter Sunday, I headed back to the dorm to find out what people were up to for that evening.
Friday, a whole bunch of people, including myself, Ian, Steve Thomas who lives on my hall, and a couple of Ian’s roommates headed out to the old AIFS watering hole, Lucerna, with their once weekly 80s/90s night. We danced the night away, until about two in morning, when Walt, and some people he came with headed back to the dorm, with yours truly in tow.
On Saturday, I decided to once again wander around Prague. This time, I took one of the trams, a number 20 to a place called Divorka Sarka. At first I thought I had made a terrible mistake, since the place seemed to consist of a tram depo, and a local hangout…aka Macdonald’s. As I looked around however, I noticed a large patch of green, and what seemed to be mountains. Intrigued, I head down for a closer looked and discovered the Divorka Sarka is in a fact a national park located inside of the city limits of Prague. It was a very nice place to walk around, and I swear I spotted a couple of Czech Labradors walking with their masters. I wondered if Kira could have communicated with them any better than I could with their owners.
Divorka Sarka
After walking round in Divorka Sarka, and spotting what I thought was a Dharma Initiative Station(Nobody spoil lost for me, or I will time travel back to the seventies and killer your younger self, using Prague as my constant), I stopped briefly at the Macdonald’s a grab a Coke Light, and then headed back to the dorm to make some Chicken Teriyaki(may not be available for the home kitchen, but it certainly is for the Czech kitchen.).
Lost?
After my wonderful dinner, I met up with Ian, his roommate, and some of his friends, including one from my dear old home town of Arlington Virginia. As it turns out, it was one of games of NCAA tournament, so we headed down to Wenslaus Square and a bar called the Bear Factory to watch the game. I was kind of bored with the game, but did some dancing, so it was a good time. We once again headed back pretty late, but all and all it was worth it.
The next day, I got up rather earlier than usual, as I was hoping to catch some of my friends as they headed off to Mass. It turned out to be me, Steve, Tom, and Ian’s roommate Lucas, all Catholic, and a couple of girls. The service was reasonably interestingly and the homely was far better preached then some I have heard in my day. The pries t used Easter eggs as a comparison to Christ and his rebirth. Very effective I thought. Anyway, after mass the four us, Steve Tom, Lucas and I grabbed some food at a restaurant, and then headed back to the dorm.
After relaxing for a few hours, I was beginning to wonder what I should do for Easter dinner, when Allie and Adrian answered the question for me. They got me, Diego, Walt and Ian together to go to the Pizzeria for Easter dinner. Yep, that’s right I had pizza for Easter dinner. It was pretty cool. And then, like good Czechs, Adrian, Diego, Allie and I, headed out to a bar to celebrate in a Czech fashion, beer, darts(which I’m ok at) and Foosball(which I suck at) . Then the four of us headed back to the dorm, because the next day was going to be a marathon study session for the MittleEuropa Mid-Term.
Ian, Allie, Walt, and I met up the next day to head out to Coffee Heaven, a little café just off Wenslaus Square, where the people speak English. After grabbing some sausages for lunch, and some hot chocolate from downstairs, Ian and I began the Bataan Death March of learning that would occupy the next four hours. We were joined by Diego, about two hours in. After those four hours though, it felt like our faces might very well melt.
As I was walking back to the dorm, I noticed several Czech people engaging in one of more amusing Easter traditions I have heard about .Apparently, it is traditional for Czech men to acquire willows or reeds and fashion them into a sort of whip thing. They will then walking up and strike/mildly flirt with, young women, who are expected to give them alcohol and other prizes. The one woman I saw this happen to, did not seem particularly amused, and did not give the young men anything.
After that, my study group promised to get back together on Tuesday and then headed back to the dorm. Later that evening, after a little more studying, I was feeling a little hungry, when Allie once again anticipated my desire, and announced that she wanted Cinske(Chinese food). I was game, so we walked down the street. As we were eating, this strange Czech man walked into the restaurant and proved to be my roommate, Jake. After that, the three of us, headed down to the student pub, and then off to bed.
Tuesday was a relative return to normalcy, with classes, and a short essay that needed to be written for Eroticism Power and Fate, but nothing particularly difficult. That evening, Walt, Allie, Kacy, Jake and I were treated to one of the best meals I have had in Prague, at a vegetarian Restaurant, courtesy of Jake’s mother(Mom, sorry to tell you this, but when you’re here in May, you’ll have to take us all out too). It was amazing to have food, and salads, that didn’t have some form of cooked meat, or potatoes in them. I had to hit the books right after though.
Then Wednesday came, and after teaching some English to the Czech kids, and handing in my essay in Eroticism Power and Fate, it was time for the big event, my Mid-term in MittleEuropa. Being the clever people that we are, it seemed that Ian, Tom, Diego and I had studied that the right things, as I knew at least something about all of the questions, and a lot about some of them. In fact, I think the worst part of the exam was my pen running out of ink half way through, at least I hope so.
That night, feeling that I had earned a bit of celebration, I headed out to one of the many American food restaurants, KFC, and treated myself to a Chicken sandwich and French Fries, and then returned home to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, with Jake, Walt, Allie and Kacy.
Thursday would be pretty much the height of my week. As it turned out, the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation were both in Prague signing a nuclear disarmament agreement. After class, I headed up to Prague Castle, were the two leaders, plus some others were meeting. After about an hour standing around shooting the breeze with some girls from AIFS, and an American Teacher, we were all excited to see a motorcade shoot by, until we realized that the red, white and blue striped flags were those of the Russian Federation, and Medvedev would not be showing us his face. About forty five minutes, and more chit chat later, we were rewarded for our patience when a motorcade with American Flags drove by. Right in the middle of it were two limos, one with an African American body double staring resolutely ahead, and other with a very familiar smiling face as the crowd cheered for him. That’s right; I was close enough to the limo to see Obama smile. It was amazing.
Next: Prague Part IX.
The evening of our return from Vienna proved rather less relaxing then I would have preferred. You see, I had a midterm at 9am the next morning, and, like most people in my class, I was not nearly as ready for it as I would have liked. Fortunately, I think I managed to pull off a pretty decent grade, given my blow by blow review of the exam with Adrian afterward.
From there, I headed back to GJK, to hang out with smart Czech kids, which proved extremely relaxing after a rather stressful morning. I got three suggestions to visit the Prague Zoo, which, especially because it is nice and warm, I may have to act upon. MittleEuropa brought me back to earth a little bit, as the professor reminded us that we have an exam in a little less than a weak. Given the level of detail she throws out in each lecture, everyone was understandably a little bit panicked.
Fortunately, Tuesday would prove unexpectedly relaxing. You see, as I was getting to class, about a minute after 10 in the morning, one of my friends informed me that the class had been canceled, for reasons not explained. Somewhat nonplussed at being up at 10 in morning when I didn’t have to be, I realized that I know had three hours to kill, and it was a beautiful day in Prague.
I decided to wander down to the Charles Bridge, which as it happens is only about a block and change from the main building of Charles University. The Bridge has a commanding view of the castle, as it was designed by Charles IV in the thirteenth century to link Straromeska(Old Town) to Malostarska(really Old Town). The bridge, befitting its age, is lined with a number of states, including one of Jesus on the cross.
The Bridge
Jesus
The bridge is also home to a number of people selling various touristy items, including caricatures and pictures, as well as magnets and key chains. There was also a rather humorous Czech man with puppet he was making dance to various pieces of classical music. I got a funny little video of that. On the other side of the river I wandered around for a moment, and discovered a small group of buildings with an odd statue of men peeing in the center. As quickly discovered, this was the Franz Kafka Museum. The Museum was in the 1920s, one of the homes of that Kafka occupied in Prague.
Since it was relatively cheap, and in English, I decided to check out the museum. Somehow, I doubt the interior looks much like it did when Kafka lived there. The Museum s a collection of artifacts from his life and some exhibits about some of his stranger books, which include a rather disturbing mirror room from an unfinished story, and a seemingly endless rows of office drawers, with names like Kafka, Samsa(main character of the Metamorphosis) and K on them. Over all, it was a very interesting museum.
After finishing up there, I wandered around the banks of the river a little more, eventually coming to an English language book store, where I managed to pick up a copy of the Economist. The Economist was mildly different from the ones back home, in that it was organized with the United Kingdom and Europe before the United States and Asia. It was nice to get some news from home, but by that time I had to rather hurriedly make my way back to Charles University to be sure to be on time to my one remaining class of the day, Eroticism Power and Fate in the Cinema of Central Europe.
That evening and the whole of Wednesday were pretty much write-offs as far as anything fun or interesting that I can about or put pictures up of goes. I had to write a paper for my Czechoslovak New Wave class, and unfortunately, why New Wave filmmakers should have invested more money in plot or story was not an option (I challenge anyone to watch Birds Orphans and Fools, or Daises and tell me that they have a plot…of any sort.) I did manage to write a pretty good piece about how Birds Orphans and Fools, and the French New Wave Film Jules et Jim were similar, but it took two days.
Fortunately Thursday proved to be a relatively good day. We didn’t get our mid-terms for Czech History back (for which I was rather thankful) and the film in Czechoslovak New Wave, All My Good Countrymen, was a very interesting, if somewhat slow look, on how one Czech village experienced the revolution from 1948 to 1960. And then, thank god almighty it was the weekend. Unfortunately, because it was Easter weekend, most of my friends were scattered to the four winds. Jake and his family headed off to Paris, Kate and a friend from home went to Greece and Bulgaria, Kacy and her family went to Budapest, Alex was traveling with his family, and I didn’t hear anything from Adrian, Allie or Diego until Sunday.
That said, being me, I was not without people to hang out with, at least not on Friday or Saturday. I spent Thursday in a deeply relaxed state after finishing my paper for Czechoslovak New Wave. The next day, I got up late, as it was Friday, and did some wandering around Prague. I headed to the Old Town Square, and paid an arm and a leg for a slab of good Czech Ham. From the Old Town Square, I headed past Tyn Church into some of the back streets of Prague, noticing a couple of restaurants and things that I might have to check out later. From there, I headed to Charles University and across the bridge onto the other side of the river. I wandered around there, and came upon the ISIC store(who issued me an international student card) and a Catholic Church, St. Thomas’ which had services in English. Armed with the knowledge that I would be able to do my bi-annual duty to God (Christmas and Easter) at 11 on Easter Sunday, I headed back to the dorm to find out what people were up to for that evening.
Friday, a whole bunch of people, including myself, Ian, Steve Thomas who lives on my hall, and a couple of Ian’s roommates headed out to the old AIFS watering hole, Lucerna, with their once weekly 80s/90s night. We danced the night away, until about two in morning, when Walt, and some people he came with headed back to the dorm, with yours truly in tow.
On Saturday, I decided to once again wander around Prague. This time, I took one of the trams, a number 20 to a place called Divorka Sarka. At first I thought I had made a terrible mistake, since the place seemed to consist of a tram depo, and a local hangout…aka Macdonald’s. As I looked around however, I noticed a large patch of green, and what seemed to be mountains. Intrigued, I head down for a closer looked and discovered the Divorka Sarka is in a fact a national park located inside of the city limits of Prague. It was a very nice place to walk around, and I swear I spotted a couple of Czech Labradors walking with their masters. I wondered if Kira could have communicated with them any better than I could with their owners.
Divorka Sarka
After walking round in Divorka Sarka, and spotting what I thought was a Dharma Initiative Station(Nobody spoil lost for me, or I will time travel back to the seventies and killer your younger self, using Prague as my constant), I stopped briefly at the Macdonald’s a grab a Coke Light, and then headed back to the dorm to make some Chicken Teriyaki(may not be available for the home kitchen, but it certainly is for the Czech kitchen.).
Lost?
After my wonderful dinner, I met up with Ian, his roommate, and some of his friends, including one from my dear old home town of Arlington Virginia. As it turns out, it was one of games of NCAA tournament, so we headed down to Wenslaus Square and a bar called the Bear Factory to watch the game. I was kind of bored with the game, but did some dancing, so it was a good time. We once again headed back pretty late, but all and all it was worth it.
The next day, I got up rather earlier than usual, as I was hoping to catch some of my friends as they headed off to Mass. It turned out to be me, Steve, Tom, and Ian’s roommate Lucas, all Catholic, and a couple of girls. The service was reasonably interestingly and the homely was far better preached then some I have heard in my day. The pries t used Easter eggs as a comparison to Christ and his rebirth. Very effective I thought. Anyway, after mass the four us, Steve Tom, Lucas and I grabbed some food at a restaurant, and then headed back to the dorm.
After relaxing for a few hours, I was beginning to wonder what I should do for Easter dinner, when Allie and Adrian answered the question for me. They got me, Diego, Walt and Ian together to go to the Pizzeria for Easter dinner. Yep, that’s right I had pizza for Easter dinner. It was pretty cool. And then, like good Czechs, Adrian, Diego, Allie and I, headed out to a bar to celebrate in a Czech fashion, beer, darts(which I’m ok at) and Foosball(which I suck at) . Then the four of us headed back to the dorm, because the next day was going to be a marathon study session for the MittleEuropa Mid-Term.
Ian, Allie, Walt, and I met up the next day to head out to Coffee Heaven, a little café just off Wenslaus Square, where the people speak English. After grabbing some sausages for lunch, and some hot chocolate from downstairs, Ian and I began the Bataan Death March of learning that would occupy the next four hours. We were joined by Diego, about two hours in. After those four hours though, it felt like our faces might very well melt.
As I was walking back to the dorm, I noticed several Czech people engaging in one of more amusing Easter traditions I have heard about .Apparently, it is traditional for Czech men to acquire willows or reeds and fashion them into a sort of whip thing. They will then walking up and strike/mildly flirt with, young women, who are expected to give them alcohol and other prizes. The one woman I saw this happen to, did not seem particularly amused, and did not give the young men anything.
After that, my study group promised to get back together on Tuesday and then headed back to the dorm. Later that evening, after a little more studying, I was feeling a little hungry, when Allie once again anticipated my desire, and announced that she wanted Cinske(Chinese food). I was game, so we walked down the street. As we were eating, this strange Czech man walked into the restaurant and proved to be my roommate, Jake. After that, the three of us, headed down to the student pub, and then off to bed.
Tuesday was a relative return to normalcy, with classes, and a short essay that needed to be written for Eroticism Power and Fate, but nothing particularly difficult. That evening, Walt, Allie, Kacy, Jake and I were treated to one of the best meals I have had in Prague, at a vegetarian Restaurant, courtesy of Jake’s mother(Mom, sorry to tell you this, but when you’re here in May, you’ll have to take us all out too). It was amazing to have food, and salads, that didn’t have some form of cooked meat, or potatoes in them. I had to hit the books right after though.
Then Wednesday came, and after teaching some English to the Czech kids, and handing in my essay in Eroticism Power and Fate, it was time for the big event, my Mid-term in MittleEuropa. Being the clever people that we are, it seemed that Ian, Tom, Diego and I had studied that the right things, as I knew at least something about all of the questions, and a lot about some of them. In fact, I think the worst part of the exam was my pen running out of ink half way through, at least I hope so.
That night, feeling that I had earned a bit of celebration, I headed out to one of the many American food restaurants, KFC, and treated myself to a Chicken sandwich and French Fries, and then returned home to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, with Jake, Walt, Allie and Kacy.
Thursday would be pretty much the height of my week. As it turned out, the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation were both in Prague signing a nuclear disarmament agreement. After class, I headed up to Prague Castle, were the two leaders, plus some others were meeting. After about an hour standing around shooting the breeze with some girls from AIFS, and an American Teacher, we were all excited to see a motorcade shoot by, until we realized that the red, white and blue striped flags were those of the Russian Federation, and Medvedev would not be showing us his face. About forty five minutes, and more chit chat later, we were rewarded for our patience when a motorcade with American Flags drove by. Right in the middle of it were two limos, one with an African American body double staring resolutely ahead, and other with a very familiar smiling face as the crowd cheered for him. That’s right; I was close enough to the limo to see Obama smile. It was amazing.
Next: Prague Part IX.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Vienna: Imperial City
For those of you trying to keep tracking of the timeline, and not quite convinced that my adventures in Prague are more complex than a French New Wave film, the next couple of paragraphs will gloss over the week between the end of Jeden Svet, and our trip to Vienna. The reason? Cause not a lot that I choose to report on happened.
The day after the last Jeden Svet film festival was of course St. Patrick’s day. Let’s put it this way, you could really tell who was an American or Irish person on that day 'cause we were all wearing green. Obviously the other thing that St. Patty’s day is known for is as an excuse to drink (like study abroad students need one of those). This St. Patty’s, my first as a fully legal adult, was no exception. Most of AIFS went out to a club called ZaZaZoo, which turned out to be a lot more chill then I expected, of course it was a Wednesday night. There was green beer, and a really bad Bono cover band (I recognized a couple of the songs from when Bono, the real thing, performed for Obama’s inauguration). We stayed pretty late for a Wednesday. Overall I had fun inspite of myself.
I will say that getting up about four hours after I went to bed to go to two of the most boring classes I have was no fun at all, but I was very proud of myself, I managed to make it through both without going back to sleep, through a combination of sheer force of will and large amounts of Coke Light and Pepsi. The rest of Thursday was pretty much of a write off, I slept from about 1 to 6, and then just sort of chilled out.
That weekend, we got to experience some more or less authentic Czech culture that didn’t involve large amounts of alcohol, at least for me. We went to see a Sparta Praha hockey game…make the 300 jokes now I’ll wait…finished…good. Praha was playing another Czech team, who they pretty much creamed. It was pretty interesting; expect that, of course, I couldn’t understand the play by play. Fortunately the word for goal are pretty much universal.
The weekend over, we got into the week before Vienna. Monday night was another normal day, plus a trip to the National Theatre. That evening’s performance was Bartered Bride, a Czech Opera about peasants in the past. Aside from being able to lose the entire second, and really most third acts and still have the story work, Bartered Bride was pretty good for an opera.
Tuesday, after another invigorating day of classes, Jake, Allie, Kate, Ian, Walt and I headed out to a small club near Tesco were we saw a Czech rock group, Plastic People of the Universe perform ,and played some Fuzball. I suck at Fuzball, but Plastic People were pretty good. Apparently they started as a sort of Anti-Soviet group, and have just kept going since, and they had awesome rock violin thing. Anyway, they were cool.
Wednesday and Thurday were pretty much nothing, and then Friday it was time to head out to Vienna.
Vienna is an ancient city of 1.6 million people, almost twice the size of Prague. It was first founded by the Romans, almost two thousand years ago as a base of operations in the Danube basin. During the middle ages, and the early modern period the city flourished as one of the leading centers of art and architecture in Central and Western Europe. For almost three hundred years, from 1526 to 1918, it was the seat of royal House of Habsburg, which at one point ruled close to a third of Europe.
Vienna is about 6 hours drive from Prague. We left for the city at 9am. We stopped twice on the way to Vienna. One at a gas station just side of Brno, and then once close to the Austrian border at a place called Excalibur World. Like some hellish combination of every fantasy world ever made, and some sort of monstrous tourist trap, Excalibur World has a every bit of cheap stylish junk you didn’t know you needed, and they have a dragon, a big one, that breaths, and bumper boats, and bumper cars, so basically the most awesome thing ever. We only stopped there forty five minutes before pressing on to Vienna.
To say that Vienna in spring is the prettiest city is probably very unfair to Paris and Prague, but if it is not, it is certainly one of the top three. The downtown area, inside the so called Ringstrassa which is built where the city walls used to stand, is dominated by several of the old Habsburg palaces, particularly the Hofburg, the Austrian Parliament, St Stephen’s Dome(German for…I’ll give you guess…its church) and the Vienna Opera House. Between these beautiful buildings, there are a number of expansive, and well maintained, parks as well as easily accessible (if you’ve got 20 Euro or 30 dollars) bike trials. The first thing we did once we got settled into our hotel, just off the Ring, was to take a short walking tour from our hotel, past the parliament ,which is built in a style similar to, and of the same stone as, the US Capital, through part of Hofburg, down the Stephenplatz to the Cathedral. After that we were pretty much on our own for Friday night, so Kate and Adrian, Stef and Diego, Jordan, and myself set off to find some cheap Wiener Steinze (the national food of Austria, breaded and fried veal…can I move to this country?). We found it, and then walked back to the Cathedral. Here our little group split up. Diego, Stef, and Jordan headed back to the hotel, while Adrian, Kate and I headed out to find a place apparently called the Bermuda Triangle, which apparently earned this nickname because drunk college students go in, but never come out…and Zee, the incredible Czech tour guide told us it was a bad idea to go there…so of course we had to check it out. Unfortunately it was pretty much deadsville at 8 o’clock at night.
A Sampling of some of what Vienna has to offer.
So we headed back to the hotel. I read my book a little, but I was feeling kind of restless, so after Adrian and Kate and some other people headed out to a bar, I decided to wander around the area outside of our hotel a little bit. I walked a couple of blocks, and came a church dedicated to Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of the Habsburg Empire. After hastily snapping some photos, I wandered around the surrounding area, noting some bars and restaurants that I made have wanted to check out later. After about 45 minutes to a hour I came back to the hotel, and fell asleep.
The next morning we got up reasonably early, and took another walking tour of Vienna. This time we were guided not by Zee, but by a local, who was very knowledgeable about Austrian history, and culture. She took us not only to the sites Zee had shown us the day before, but also to a Church that was dedicated to the Teutonic Order, and were Mozart had lived, to the Church were Habsburgs are buried, and to the area just outside of the Vienna Opera House. After the tour, Jake, Ian, Ryan, Marnie, Ellen, Kacy and Walt, Katie and Adrian, and I headed back to the Stephenplatz to find a gulatto place that one of us had seen earlier. We ate there, it was only five euros, so about 7 bucks, and then wandered back to the Hofburg.
We hung around at one of the parks near the Hofburg for about an hour, and then decided to check out one of the museums, which contained knight’s armor, musical instruments, and quite possibly the most impractical weapon I have ever seen. It was a shield, with spikes, and a short sword, and a little lantern for blinding people. The armor was really awesome, though it showed just how short medieval people were.
After wandering around the museum, we head back to the park to wait for Zee, and our tour of Belvedere Palace. Belvedere was the home of Prince Eugene of Savoy, an ally of the Habsburg Dynasty. In the early part of the 1700s, Eugene was one of the Habsburg’s most successful military commanders and one of the best commanders of that era. He fought in several wars against the Ottoman Turks, as well as in alliance with Winston Churchill’s ancestor, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlboro, against the French. In retirement he built Belvedere, which with large Rocco styling’s, and extensive gardens was one of the nicest palaces in Vienna until the Habsburgs under Maria Theresa built Schonbrunn.(More on that later). Unfortunately, the interior of Belvedere has since been turned into an art gallery, but the outside was most impressive.
After walking to Belvedere, our group considered renting some bikes, but decided that they were too expensive. Instead, we headed back to the Hofburg to visit the Imperial Treasury. The Treasury is home to some of the most important and beautiful artifacts of the Habsburg Dynasty. These including Bohemian, Hungarian and Austrian coronation robes, the crowns used for Charlemagne and his successors as Holy Roman Emperor, and Rudolf II and his successor as King of Bohemia, and a piece of the true cross.
Charlemagne's Crown
From the treasury we headed back to the hotel. A couple of hours later, feeling pretty hungry I headed out to a restaurant located just down from the hotel. The night pretty much went downhill from there. A lot of people had a bit too much to drink there, and then, six or seven of us, me soberest of the group, headed to a Mexican bar near the ring. I didn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure the tequila flowed like water. I had a Marguerite and quit while I was ahead.
Sunday morning brought an early departure from the hotel, though not as early as the AIFS crew would have liked, as some people failed to note that Europe starts daylight savings time two weeks after the United States. Once we got everybody loaded and on the bus, we headed to a house on the outskirts of Vienna that was designed by a community of artists in the 80s. Words cannot describe and bizarre looking it is…so I’ll just post a picture.
From the 1980s we head back to the 1880s, and the Imperial Habsburg Palace at Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn was first built by the Empress Maria Theresa in the middle part of the 18th century as a summer retreat from the hustle and bustle of Vienna. In many ways the palace was the Habsburg’s answer to Louis XIV’s Versailles. The palace was remodeled in the later part of the 19th century during rule of the Maria Theresa’s Great Grandson, the Emperor Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph conducted much of the Imperial business from Schonbrunn, but he preferred a much more relaxed style then Maria Theresa. I headed into the palace to take what they call the grand tour, 22 of palaces 40+ rooms. The inside was very fitting for an Imperial residence, some gilding, some pictures, and lots of impressive mirrors.
With the audio guide, and the wait, it took nearly an hour and half to get through the entire palace. After that, we had about 45 minutes to get lunch at the Schonbrunn Café. The Café had be far the best Hamburger I think I’ve gotten since I left the United States, which isn’t saying much, but is totally true. We then had to run for the bus to be sure we got back to it in time. After another stopover at Excalibur World, and then the gas station in Brno, We made it back to Prague at about 8 o’clock in the evening. And then I hit books to study for my Czech and Central European History mid-term. More on that…later.
Next: Prague Party VIII: The Study Part of Study Abroad.
The day after the last Jeden Svet film festival was of course St. Patrick’s day. Let’s put it this way, you could really tell who was an American or Irish person on that day 'cause we were all wearing green. Obviously the other thing that St. Patty’s day is known for is as an excuse to drink (like study abroad students need one of those). This St. Patty’s, my first as a fully legal adult, was no exception. Most of AIFS went out to a club called ZaZaZoo, which turned out to be a lot more chill then I expected, of course it was a Wednesday night. There was green beer, and a really bad Bono cover band (I recognized a couple of the songs from when Bono, the real thing, performed for Obama’s inauguration). We stayed pretty late for a Wednesday. Overall I had fun inspite of myself.
I will say that getting up about four hours after I went to bed to go to two of the most boring classes I have was no fun at all, but I was very proud of myself, I managed to make it through both without going back to sleep, through a combination of sheer force of will and large amounts of Coke Light and Pepsi. The rest of Thursday was pretty much of a write off, I slept from about 1 to 6, and then just sort of chilled out.
That weekend, we got to experience some more or less authentic Czech culture that didn’t involve large amounts of alcohol, at least for me. We went to see a Sparta Praha hockey game…make the 300 jokes now I’ll wait…finished…good. Praha was playing another Czech team, who they pretty much creamed. It was pretty interesting; expect that, of course, I couldn’t understand the play by play. Fortunately the word for goal are pretty much universal.
The weekend over, we got into the week before Vienna. Monday night was another normal day, plus a trip to the National Theatre. That evening’s performance was Bartered Bride, a Czech Opera about peasants in the past. Aside from being able to lose the entire second, and really most third acts and still have the story work, Bartered Bride was pretty good for an opera.
Tuesday, after another invigorating day of classes, Jake, Allie, Kate, Ian, Walt and I headed out to a small club near Tesco were we saw a Czech rock group, Plastic People of the Universe perform ,and played some Fuzball. I suck at Fuzball, but Plastic People were pretty good. Apparently they started as a sort of Anti-Soviet group, and have just kept going since, and they had awesome rock violin thing. Anyway, they were cool.
Wednesday and Thurday were pretty much nothing, and then Friday it was time to head out to Vienna.
Vienna is an ancient city of 1.6 million people, almost twice the size of Prague. It was first founded by the Romans, almost two thousand years ago as a base of operations in the Danube basin. During the middle ages, and the early modern period the city flourished as one of the leading centers of art and architecture in Central and Western Europe. For almost three hundred years, from 1526 to 1918, it was the seat of royal House of Habsburg, which at one point ruled close to a third of Europe.
Vienna is about 6 hours drive from Prague. We left for the city at 9am. We stopped twice on the way to Vienna. One at a gas station just side of Brno, and then once close to the Austrian border at a place called Excalibur World. Like some hellish combination of every fantasy world ever made, and some sort of monstrous tourist trap, Excalibur World has a every bit of cheap stylish junk you didn’t know you needed, and they have a dragon, a big one, that breaths, and bumper boats, and bumper cars, so basically the most awesome thing ever. We only stopped there forty five minutes before pressing on to Vienna.
To say that Vienna in spring is the prettiest city is probably very unfair to Paris and Prague, but if it is not, it is certainly one of the top three. The downtown area, inside the so called Ringstrassa which is built where the city walls used to stand, is dominated by several of the old Habsburg palaces, particularly the Hofburg, the Austrian Parliament, St Stephen’s Dome(German for…I’ll give you guess…its church) and the Vienna Opera House. Between these beautiful buildings, there are a number of expansive, and well maintained, parks as well as easily accessible (if you’ve got 20 Euro or 30 dollars) bike trials. The first thing we did once we got settled into our hotel, just off the Ring, was to take a short walking tour from our hotel, past the parliament ,which is built in a style similar to, and of the same stone as, the US Capital, through part of Hofburg, down the Stephenplatz to the Cathedral. After that we were pretty much on our own for Friday night, so Kate and Adrian, Stef and Diego, Jordan, and myself set off to find some cheap Wiener Steinze (the national food of Austria, breaded and fried veal…can I move to this country?). We found it, and then walked back to the Cathedral. Here our little group split up. Diego, Stef, and Jordan headed back to the hotel, while Adrian, Kate and I headed out to find a place apparently called the Bermuda Triangle, which apparently earned this nickname because drunk college students go in, but never come out…and Zee, the incredible Czech tour guide told us it was a bad idea to go there…so of course we had to check it out. Unfortunately it was pretty much deadsville at 8 o’clock at night.
A Sampling of some of what Vienna has to offer.
So we headed back to the hotel. I read my book a little, but I was feeling kind of restless, so after Adrian and Kate and some other people headed out to a bar, I decided to wander around the area outside of our hotel a little bit. I walked a couple of blocks, and came a church dedicated to Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of the Habsburg Empire. After hastily snapping some photos, I wandered around the surrounding area, noting some bars and restaurants that I made have wanted to check out later. After about 45 minutes to a hour I came back to the hotel, and fell asleep.
The next morning we got up reasonably early, and took another walking tour of Vienna. This time we were guided not by Zee, but by a local, who was very knowledgeable about Austrian history, and culture. She took us not only to the sites Zee had shown us the day before, but also to a Church that was dedicated to the Teutonic Order, and were Mozart had lived, to the Church were Habsburgs are buried, and to the area just outside of the Vienna Opera House. After the tour, Jake, Ian, Ryan, Marnie, Ellen, Kacy and Walt, Katie and Adrian, and I headed back to the Stephenplatz to find a gulatto place that one of us had seen earlier. We ate there, it was only five euros, so about 7 bucks, and then wandered back to the Hofburg.
We hung around at one of the parks near the Hofburg for about an hour, and then decided to check out one of the museums, which contained knight’s armor, musical instruments, and quite possibly the most impractical weapon I have ever seen. It was a shield, with spikes, and a short sword, and a little lantern for blinding people. The armor was really awesome, though it showed just how short medieval people were.
After wandering around the museum, we head back to the park to wait for Zee, and our tour of Belvedere Palace. Belvedere was the home of Prince Eugene of Savoy, an ally of the Habsburg Dynasty. In the early part of the 1700s, Eugene was one of the Habsburg’s most successful military commanders and one of the best commanders of that era. He fought in several wars against the Ottoman Turks, as well as in alliance with Winston Churchill’s ancestor, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlboro, against the French. In retirement he built Belvedere, which with large Rocco styling’s, and extensive gardens was one of the nicest palaces in Vienna until the Habsburgs under Maria Theresa built Schonbrunn.(More on that later). Unfortunately, the interior of Belvedere has since been turned into an art gallery, but the outside was most impressive.
After walking to Belvedere, our group considered renting some bikes, but decided that they were too expensive. Instead, we headed back to the Hofburg to visit the Imperial Treasury. The Treasury is home to some of the most important and beautiful artifacts of the Habsburg Dynasty. These including Bohemian, Hungarian and Austrian coronation robes, the crowns used for Charlemagne and his successors as Holy Roman Emperor, and Rudolf II and his successor as King of Bohemia, and a piece of the true cross.
Charlemagne's Crown
From the treasury we headed back to the hotel. A couple of hours later, feeling pretty hungry I headed out to a restaurant located just down from the hotel. The night pretty much went downhill from there. A lot of people had a bit too much to drink there, and then, six or seven of us, me soberest of the group, headed to a Mexican bar near the ring. I didn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure the tequila flowed like water. I had a Marguerite and quit while I was ahead.
Sunday morning brought an early departure from the hotel, though not as early as the AIFS crew would have liked, as some people failed to note that Europe starts daylight savings time two weeks after the United States. Once we got everybody loaded and on the bus, we headed to a house on the outskirts of Vienna that was designed by a community of artists in the 80s. Words cannot describe and bizarre looking it is…so I’ll just post a picture.
From the 1980s we head back to the 1880s, and the Imperial Habsburg Palace at Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn was first built by the Empress Maria Theresa in the middle part of the 18th century as a summer retreat from the hustle and bustle of Vienna. In many ways the palace was the Habsburg’s answer to Louis XIV’s Versailles. The palace was remodeled in the later part of the 19th century during rule of the Maria Theresa’s Great Grandson, the Emperor Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph conducted much of the Imperial business from Schonbrunn, but he preferred a much more relaxed style then Maria Theresa. I headed into the palace to take what they call the grand tour, 22 of palaces 40+ rooms. The inside was very fitting for an Imperial residence, some gilding, some pictures, and lots of impressive mirrors.
With the audio guide, and the wait, it took nearly an hour and half to get through the entire palace. After that, we had about 45 minutes to get lunch at the Schonbrunn Café. The Café had be far the best Hamburger I think I’ve gotten since I left the United States, which isn’t saying much, but is totally true. We then had to run for the bus to be sure we got back to it in time. After another stopover at Excalibur World, and then the gas station in Brno, We made it back to Prague at about 8 o’clock in the evening. And then I hit books to study for my Czech and Central European History mid-term. More on that…later.
Next: Prague Party VIII: The Study Part of Study Abroad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)