Prague Part IV

After our return from Moravia, it was time to get down to the studying part of studying abroad. For the two weeks between the trip to Moravia, and last Friday we attended our Czech Language Intensive classes. This class consisted of four a day of sitting classroom and having Czech words and rules thrown at us. In some ways, Czech is language that is similar to French or other romance languages. Like those languages, Czech employs six different pronouns, I, you(informal), he and her, we, you guys(or you formal) and they. Indeed, some numbers in Czech even sound like French(I swear the Czechs just want to BE the French).

Unfortunately, Czech is not all chocolate and surrendering(little French joke there, sorry couldn’t resist). Czech is not a romance language after all. It is fact descended from the Slavic languages spoken in Poland, and Slovenia, and shares some words with Russian. Like these languages, Czech is not strictly based on vowel sounds. Rather, it depends on different combinations of syllables to create words. As result of this oddity, there are some words in Czech with absolutely no vowels(or at least that’s my understanding of the language, or maybe I’m just making it up so I feel better about the random strings of consonants running around. Or maybe I’m not making it up, after all I did get the highest grade on the final in my class(A+ )

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your prospective, Czech class wasn’t all about the language. We spent a little bit of time delving into the word of Czech culture. One of our first activates, and one of my favorite was to watch a Czech film about an old Czech man who ends up basically adopting a young Russian boy in 1989 Czech Republic (right when the Czech’s decided that they REALLY didn’t like the Russians.), it was about the most heartwarming movie this side of Bambi (though Spoiler Alert: his mom didn’t get shot in the end). Next, we headed off to the National Gallery of the Czech Republic’s Modern Art museum. I never realized that a machine gun, and the model of the Prague TV tower counted as art, but overall it was pretty neat, and fortunately all the signs were in English. The next week, we hit up the Czech National Press Club’s photography exhibit, where they displayed what they considered to be the best picture that a Czech photographer had taken, this year. It turned out to be one of President Obama’s visit to the Czech Republic, with him at a podium staring at statue of Thomas Masaryk, the first President of the Czech Republic, with Prague and the Castle in the background, slightly obscured by fog. There were also some interesting pictures of President Klaus, of the Czech Republic, going about his daily routine, he seems much more relaxed then President Obama. On the last day we went to see another Czech Film, this one in the surrealist vein. It was about a Czech family that was unable to have children, and so adopted a piece of wood shaped like a baby that turned into a monster that ate everything, including the Postman, a social worker, a creepy old dude, and a cat, until it was killed by an old lady with a hoe (I told you it was surrealist).

Fortunately, though our lives were not completely dominated by the Czech language.(at least not any more than usual) On the Thursday after the start of classes, we once again managed to gather a “family dinner”, this time up to almost 16 people. In what may have prove to be a miracle, Jake and Walt managed to produce enough pasta, bread and desert to feed everyone, all for less than 50kc apiece(a pretty good deal). Unfortunately, the threat of a mid-term cast a long shadow over that dinner. The next night was slightly more relaxed however.

Most of AIFS spent that Friday, and the next one for that matter, venturing out to check out Prague’s nightlife. Apparently, and I have this mostly second hand, since the Fall of Communism, Prague has experienced something of an explosion in the variety and quality of its nightlife(I suppose none to a lot counts as an explosion.) My understanding is that there are lots of “cool clubs” spread across Prague. We went to check out one called Lucerna, located near the AIFS office. Lucerna, made the Leafe back in Williamsburg look positively tame (of course apparently so do visiting days at some retirement homes, but I digress). The club exists on two floors, one on which it seemed like a sea of people was dancing, and the other a balcony directly above that allowed you to take in the view. As it turned out, it was 80s and 90s night, so we heard a lot of familiar tunes, including It’s the Final Countdown, We Will Rock You, and other American favorites that I’m sure I can’t think of. Much as I, somewhat surprisingly enjoyed myself, I was rather happy, when Stef and Ryan appeared almost dragging another AIFSer, who had a had a bit too much and so will remain nameless, and announced that they were leaving. Unfortunately none of the four of us had any idea how to get back to the dorm via Tram, but we were able to discover a taxi(at 3:00 in the morning) and us are limited Czech to get him to drive us back to the dorm.

Apparently, we left the club not a moment too soon. When I got up the next morning(well, afternoon would probably be more accurate) rumors were spreading that at least one member of the AIFS crew had gotten drugged. At first some of the girls suspected that it was a rufie intended for one of the them, but that had ended up in the hands of guy, later Jake, my expert on all the things in my naivety I have missed out on, informed by that the symptoms were more like acid or E. Apparently, the victim of this incident believed, fervently, that 1) a sausage he had purchased from the Sausage stand near the couple was very precious 2) that Jake was trying to steal said sausage from him, and after he ate it from his stomach and 3) that Jake was not in fact Jake, but was either a very evil form of Jake or that Jake had been processed by yours truly, and that I was after his sausage(for the record my studies in evil wizardry have not advanced to the steal your soul and steal your food level, but will…soon…very soon, muhahahahahahaha). But seriously, as funny as it sounds though, it was a pretty serious thing, and a reminder to us all that we should be very careful, and look out for each other, as fortunately happened in this instance (and would in later instances that will not be making it into this blog.)

The next day, Saturday, marked the fulfillment of a long quest. If you remember, Allie from South Carolina had decided very early on in the trip that she wanted to go sledding. As it happened, Jake, Ian and I found ourselves in Wenslaus Square, waiting for Allie. We wandered into a sporting goods store just off the square, and amid the skis and snowboards, we discovered several small round pieces of plastic, with handles, that might charitably be described as sleds…for 200kc, or roughly $10. With our purchases in hand, and one for Allie, we set off to Petin Hill, on which Prague Castle sits. Now, Petin Hill could be better described as a mountain, but I guess Petin Mountain sounds funny. Anyway, we headed about half way up the mountain/hill, put our “sleds” into the somewhat icy snow, and rode down, with yours truly in the lead. Even though I ended up doing a good bit of the hill on my stomach, it was pretty exciting. Unfortunately we only managed to get in one very short run that evening, as Ian and Allie both lacked gloves, and their hands were somewhat frozen.

Properly equipped the next morning we set out for Petin Hill once again. This time, we managed to sled all the way down to the bottom from that same midpoint…twice. Slightly battered(Jake hit a bike path, Allie nearly took out a tree, my sled was stopped by Thomas Masaryk and Ian nearly took out a baby) we headed a small restaurant to rest for a little while. While there, I managed to finally have that great Czech delicacy, fried cheese. (Seriously, you would think you were in Wisconsin or something). As with almost anything fried, Smanzeny Syr(that’s Czech) turned out to be pretty good. After that, we headed back up the hill for one last run, while admiring a Czech man with the balls to do it on nothing more than a plastic bag.

With the sledding adventures over, it was once again back to the grind of Czech class. By Tuesday, my ego, never the strongest in Language classes, was feeling rather severely bruised, and I was feeling really tired, and rather frustrated with the whole thing. And then I saw the damned Colonel, and he called to me, and I…while, to make a long story rather short, I finally broke down and went to a KFC, and got some food. It tasted pretty much about how I expected, though the little taste of home did perk me up quite a bit. I got some coleslaw with my chicken(who know they had coleslaw on the far side of the world). Unfortunately, however, the guy who gave me my food forgot to give me a fork. So, I went to get one, figuring I could leave my food alone for about five minutes. But, I didn’t know the Czech word for fork, and the lady at the counter didn’t know what fork meant (I swear I would though more ignorant Americans would show up at a KFC). After playing charades, with a lot of finger pointing, I managed to get a small spoon that would be useful in consuming coleslaw. Expecting to dig in to the American goodness that is Coleslaw I returned to my table, only to discover another difference between the US and the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, if you leave the table that means you’re done, and my food had vanished. Slightly annoyed, and with a small spoon I had no idea what to do with, I headed back to my dorm, and resolved to ask my teacher how you say fork in Czech.

The next day pasted uneventfully, and then it was Thursday, and I had to ace a final. After the final, as a bit of reward our teacher took as to a Czech Restauran, which we had to pay for, but was still pretty neat. Afterwards, Ryan and I stopped by a bar for a little while, as we were waiting for a cultural event to start. That evening it was a performance of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. We had third row seats. It was, in a word, awesome. Dvorak Hall(of course) where the orchestra plays, was beautiful, with lots of colors(unfortunately they don’t allow pictures). They played some modern stuff, one especially interest piece, and probably my favorite from the evening which featured trumpets, and some Chopin, which featured an apparently famous, or a least respected Vietnamese pianist.

The next day, after spending the day watching a Czech Film, we headed out to, once again to Club Lucrena, It was pretty much the same as the week before, though thankfully no one was drugged this time. I went back rather early, as the next morning I had another AIFS event, a visit to Dobris Castle north of Prague. As has proven true on this trip time and again, when the Czech’s say Castle what they really mean is Chateau. And Dobris was quite the Chateau. It was built right about the same time as the palace of Versailles in Paris, and Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, in Rocco, style, so it was pretty opulent inside. After that tour, I was pretty much beat, so headed back to my room to chill out for a while. That night was another group excursion, this time to a bar a goodly ways away from the dorm. It was kind of chill, but the others decided they wanted to check out a hookah bar they had heard about, and I was tired, and I had quite enough by the point(when I start feeling dizzy, that’s enough) so I headed back to the dorm.


The ballroom in Dobris, their answer to the Hall of Mirrors.

The next morning (well, afternoon really), we headed out into the city once again, on yet another adventure. This time it was Stef who had found the idea, in this case bobsledding…well not really, more like go-carting in a metal tube on a sled with brakes, and…while not much else. For 40kc, or about $2, we could each take a run down the track. The first I did it rather slowly, remembering an unfortunate experience where I managed to get kicked off a go-cart track, on my birthday, for going around corners too fast. The next time though, after seeing how fast my friends were going, I let up on the brake. It was really exciting. After the two runs, we headed inside, to get a bit and (for some, not me) a drink, and the Stef, Kate, Adrian and I, headed back to the dorm, where the chilling out before the first day of classes commenced.
Next: Prague Part V, on Classes, and, well whatever happens next, this blog is now officially up to date.

Prague Pictures I

Because I'm being kind of lazy about posting pictures to Facebook, I though I would put some of these here, just to give you a better idea of who and what I am talking about


The Czech Eiffel Tower


My Bed in the Kitchen





Allie



Kate and Adrian



A Couple of Cool Cats, Jake and Ian



And of course, Stef.

Moravia: On Wine, War, and Faith(couldn’t think of a third W for that one)

Moravia is the South Western part of the Czech Republic. It is centered on the second largest city in the Czech Republic, Brno (Bruno, like the Sasha Baron Cohen character), though with only 400,000 people Brno is only half the size of Prague, and about the same size as Washington DC. Brno is also well past its prime. In the 9th century, it was near the center of the Great Moravian Empire that the invading Slavs craved out for themselves in the territory that is now the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. During the 30 Years War, Brno served as the key to the defense of Moravia from the invading Swedes of Gustavus Vasa, and during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, Brno was near the site of the Battle of Austerlitz, or the Battle Emperors, which pitted Napoleon against the Russian Emperor Alexander, and the Austrian Emperor, Francis II. (More on that later)

We left Prague about 10am on Friday, February 5, and headed south out of Prague. Our first stop however, was not the city of Brno. It was a monastery at Tisnov, about 13 miles from Brno. The monastery was constructed in the 13th Century. Currently the Monastery is home to an order of Nuns that have taken vows of silence, though currently there are only four. Like many of the castles of similar vintage, Tisnov lacks any sought of heating. Only the office for visitors is heated, and so everyone tried to crowd in there. Let me tell you, there was no way in hell that seventy people were going to fit in that office, so we all plowed back out into the snow, and the (beautiful) arched door way to the monastery. Inside the monastery was similarly ornate (I will say this for the 13th century Catholic Church, it certainly knew how to make an ornate building), with a lot of gold, paintings and stain-glass (unfortunately pictures were not allowed, about the only place in Europe were that was true.) Outside of the main church, the building became significantly less ornate however, more suited to a group that had taken a vow of poverty. Much of the tour focused on the architectural features of the building, which was a transitional structure between the Romanesque style practiced before the fall of the Roman Empire, and the Gothic style, which came to dominate churches and cathedrals. As a result, one of the features of the building is a column which the architect mis-measured, and had to fix.



After about an hour long stopover in Tisnov, we moved south to the City of Brno, and are hotel. As I said earlier, Brno feels like a city past its prime. Unlike jumping, partying Prague, there are few clubs or bars in the town, and it seems to generally have nightlife comparable to Williamsburg. Worse, in someways, it has retained far more of its Soviet Era buildings than Prague has, leading to the feeling of walking past the same or similar buildings over and over again. The disappointment among the AIFS group, especially about the lack of nightlife, was intense, many of us headed into our rooms to mediate, or something until time for dinner.

Dinner was an almost hour drive away at the Templar Order Restaurant in Cejkovice(very close to the Austrian Border). I swear you can’t go anywhere in Europe without tripping over something older than the US or the Americas, and the Templar Order Restaurant was no exception. The Order of the Temple Knights, or the Knights Templar was founded in Jerusalem just after the First Crusade to defend the Holy Land, and the Temple in Jerusalem from…enemies foreign and domestic. As the Crusaders were driven out of the Holy Land in the 1100s, and the Templars went with them, gradually relocating to France, where they took over much of the banking industry, and to the Holy Roman Empire, where they were given a castle in Bohemia. On Friday, October 13, 1307(I had to look up the date), Philip the Fair(not nicknamed for his sense of justice) of France, order the destruction of the Templars, accusing them of all kinds of Evilness, including worshiping the devil, being homosexual, and having the King of France being in Debt to them(never a good idea). Dozens of Templars were tortured, and executed, (though a couple escaped, some took the Holy Grail back to Alexandretta where it was discover in 1939, by Henry Jones Jr, some took the Holy Grail to England were it was discovered by Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon in 2001, and others took it to North America, where it was discovered by Ben Gates…never mind), and the lands of the Order were taken by various kings. The Castle that is the current location of the Templar Order Restaurant was among the lands taken by the Czech King. The food at the Restaurant was pretty standard Czech fair, some form of meat and potatoes, but we weren’t there for the food. You see, the Templars, and everyone who has owned the Castle since, has used it as a wine production center. It is one of the largest producers of Wine (or Vino) in the Czech Republic, and is home to the second largest single barrel in the Czech Republic, in which a band could play. Officially, we were there for a wine tasting…unofficially, well at some point, probably after the second glass, a tasting becomes more of a booze fest. Needless to see everyone, and I do mean everyone connected with AIFS had a least a little wine to drink, and some had more than a little. Between all seventy of us, I think something like 36 bottles of wine got killed. The bus ride back was quite…interesting. There was a lot of singing. And then, well it being Friday night, some people went to get more to drink, me, I was pretty blissed out at that point, and pretty much went straight to bed. And it was night…and we slept, more or less.


All the Wine We drank at dinner.


Our first stop that morning, after breakfast(omfg, I found Bacon in Europe), our first stop was the Battlefield at Austerlitz(not Auschwitz that’s the concentration camp, more on that in a, much, later post). Austerlitz is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest victories won by the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte. After moving his army from Normandy in France, where it was preparing to invade England before Nelson put the kibosh on that, to occupying Vienna, to just outside of Brno, Napoleon fought the battle in December of 1805. Austerlitz pitted Bonaparte, and 65,000 of his closest friends against a combined Austro-Russian Army of about 85,000 men, and under the command of the Russian and Austrian Emperors. Napoleon, by drawing the Russians and Austrians into attacking what they perceived as his weakest point, and then counterattack against their center, managed to completely defeat the Allies, send them running from the field, and capturing both Emperors with the loss of less than 10,000 of his own men. If only the battlefield matched up with the glory that was the battle.

Like every battlefield ever, and believe me I’ve been to a lot of them, Austerlitz prominently features three things, a cannon, a monument, and museum with a gift shop. The monument is suitably impressive, especially considering the Czechs were on the losing side of this battle. The museum was underwhelming. The one video that actual worked was a nice overview of the campaign up to the point of Austerlitz. The second video was an odd combination of reenactors in French and Austrian Uniforms reenacting the battle, to bizarre Sci-Fi style sound effects…and then there was pretty much nothing, just a hurried rush to the exit. Fortunately, Zee, AIFS brilliant tour guide, happened to know all the details of the battle, so I managed to find out what actually happened (and then describe it to you in the above paragraph.)



From Austerlitz we headed back to Brno to check out Gregor Mendel’s lab. Mendel was the grandfather of Genetics, through his work with cross breeding peas. Unfortunately, as it turned out, Mendel also doesn’t work on Saturdays(but a monk’s museum is open for business on Sundays…go figure), so we headed into downtown Brno for a bit to eat, and walking tour of the city. After some more Pizza, checking out the DVDs in a store, being herded out of the store because it was closing, and watching some other people feeding the pigeons French Fries from a walk-up Macdonald’s (American Fast Food stop taunting me, kthanksbye), we headed back to Central Brno for a tour of the city. We hit two more churches, one built by Germans(lots of Gold) and one by Czech(not so much gold, but really grandiose architecture), and an old Medieval Prison(were a whole bunch of people died). As the tour was wrapping up, Stef spotted what looked like an ice skating rink. She immediately decided that she wanted to go skating. Her enthusiasm quickly caught fired, spreading to Kate, Adrian, Diego, Ryan, Jordan, Jake and Me.

As we got to the tram stop to head to the rink, Stef, Diego, and I decided that we would rather not find out what happens if you break your leg in the Czech Republic, so we decided to head back to the Czech Church and climb up the tower to get what was supposedly an incredible view of Brno. Unfortunately the tower closed at 5, and we were there at 5:30. Somewhat disappointed, Stef, Diego and I decided to head back to our hotel on the outskirts. Unfortunately, being kind of stingy, we decided to walk rather than take the 15 Kc(about a dollar) tram. We had been told that if we followed the Tram tracks we would get back to the hotel. Half an hour later, we got a little concerned, but saw a sign that pointed to our hotel, so we kept going. 45 minutes later we asked the first Czech person we saw “anglicky?” and then for directions. 50 minutes later we found the tram and took it in the wrong direction. 55 minutes later, we hopped on the tram going back in the right direction, and about an 1 hour and 10 minutes later, much closer, and much colder we finally reached the Hotel. Needless to say we decided it would probably be a good idea to eat at the hotel restaurant. And then go to a nice warm bed.

The next morning, are first stop was a return to the Gregor Mendel Museum. Mendel, worked in the latter half of the 19th century, and focused most of his research on Peas. On our way into the museum, we past Mendel’s garden, which, unsurprisingly, was a large snow bank, as it was the middle of February. Inside was an entirely different story. Most of the museum was given over to Mendel, with a bit of a pea theme. There were pea shaped lamps, a shirt with a soup can and the label Mendel’s Pea Soup, the original peas that Mendel worked with (which had long since faded to brown and crusty), and fresh pea plants. Also present were exhibits explaining how Mendel influenced the science of genetics, including Watson and Crick, discoverers of the Double Helix. A bought a neat t-shirt, but not the pea soup one.




From the Mendel Museum we headed North of Brno and headed high into the mountains, into the largest cave system in Europe. The walk from where the bus had to park to the actual entrance to the caves was one of the coldest of have experienced over here(and that’s saying something) almost everybody wiped out at some point, and we passed the body of a dead deer(which seemed like something out of a horror movie.) Once we got to the caves however, it was all worth it. Inside was about five degrees warmer, and the formations of rock and water proved to be quite beautiful. And then we got on a boat, and rafted down an underground river, which seemed like something out of a Disney world ride and was incredibly cool.




From the caves we headed back to Prague, stopping once more at Adamov. Adamov was home to yet another church, this one featuring an alter that was carved from one piece of wood, keep in mind this thing is almost 20 feet high. Adamov also doubled as bathroom stop, but with one bathroom for both girls and guys, it was kind of like something out of a horror movie. After this last church we headed back to Prague.
And thus ended our tour of Moravia. The next day we began our Czech Language class.

Next: Prague Part IV: On the Language Barrier, Partying, and Sledding.

Prague Part III: On Historic Prague and “Family Dinner”

The morning, all of us were very thankful that we got to sleep in, some I think more than others, as certain members(aka, most of the program) had headed out late at night to check out the nightclub scene in Prague(more on Prague Nightclubs later). Not being in much of a mood to party, I had headed off to bed, and enjoyed a restful night sleep.

The next morning, well it was probably closer to noon when we finally headed out, was a walking tour of Prague at 4pm. First though, we had to hit up Tesco and pick up a bowl and some silverware for me, and two large cook pots for general use, as when we had made stir fry several nights before, we had discovered that the dishes we had were far too small. With these goods in hand, I headed back to the dorm, dropped them off, and headed back to the school.

After freezing my tail off for a few minutes, two Czech tour guides from ECES showed up with microphones and headsets so that we could hear what they were saying, even if they were far away from us. From the school, we grabbed a number 9 tram that took us into the oldest part of Prague, Malostranksa(probably misspelled, what it means is literally old city).

Back before Prague was Prague, it was a number of small cities clustered around the Vitiva River, which now runs for the heart of central Prague. In at about the 10th Century, a ruler of Bohemia decided that he wanted to build a castle in what is now Prague, that was Prague Castle, and it was located in what is now the old city of Prague (of course the new city of Prague is not that new, having been founded by Charles IV in the 12th Century). Prague Castle sits on a large hill (or small mountain) that overlooks the Vitiva and all of modern Prague. Though the Castle was begun in the tenth century, it wouldn't be finished until the reign of Charles IV.

The tram dropped us directly in front of the mountain on which Prague Castle sets. In order to ascend to the Castle, we had to broad what is essentially an enclosed ski-lift. As we discovered, Prague Castle is not the only thing that sits on top of the Mountain. Also up there are a very high TV antenna and…the Eiffel Tower. Seriously...remember all the quips I made about the French and the Czechs? Well apparently, the Czechs saw the Eiffel Tower, the big one in Paris, at the 1884 World’s Fair and decided that they wanted on for themselves. So, two years later, Gustav Eiffel built the Czech’s their own(smaller) Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately because we got up there at like 5 in the winter, the Tower was closed, so we couldn’t go up and see the view(but I expect that you probably couldn’t see all of Paris from there).

At this point, we were all freezing, so we headed into a small café that was between the Eiffel Tour and Prague Castle. After having a little bit to drink(Coke Light), we headed off toward the Castle, and discovered that there far fewer safety regulations in Eastern Europe then there are in the United States. As it turned, since the tour guided had been up there the day before, all of the stairs between the Castle and the Café had turned to literal sheets of ice. After trying to stay upright and dignified for about ten minutes, and slipping and sliding all the while, most people just gave up, sat down, and slid down the mountain. It was a really exhilarating experience(especially for people like Allie from South Carolina, who had so much fun sledding down the stairs, that she went back up and did it again). With are rear ends slightly wetter, the tour resumed and concluded at Prague Castle, and anxillary buildings, which are today mostly home to the Czech government and foreign Embassies(in case you need it, both the Czech Foreign Ministry and the US Embassy are right on the Mountain.) We couldn’t go into the castle, but I did manage to get some pictures of the changing of the guard up there.(no Dad, not every time they took a step:)).



After that the tour group more or less broke up. Allie, Jake, and Ian headed off to go to Tesco to buy some groceries, and Kate, Adrian, Stef and I headed back to the dorm. After waiting for about an hour, and drying a little, Jake, Allie and Ian came back and set to work. Using the large pot on our stove, and some water, Jake made some rice, and in a kitchen down the hall, belonging to Walt (another cool Texan) and Alex, also from Texas, Allie started to make Mango Curry Chicken. Once again, while Jake, Ian and Kacy busied themselves with cooking, I did my best to follow, and not be in the way. After about forty minutes dinner was ready, and the “family” gathered. In addition to the Curry Chicken prepared by Allie, Jake and Ian, Stef and Kacy pitched in to produce a bagged salad, dressing, and desert, and Adrian and Kate supplied what might charitably be described as wine(vinegar would be more accurate). In addition to this six, Diego, Ryan and Jordan, also showed up, and like me provided funding for the meal. Despite the quality of the wine, the food was really good, and surprisingly managed to feed everybody enough.

With our bellies full, and our clothes mostly dry, Adrian, Ian, Ryan and I headed back into Walt’s kitchen, while Stef and everybody else started to set up Planet Earth. After the four of us finished, we headed back into Walt’s room, and watched the Caves episode, as narrated by a British man nicked named, Mr. Nature. There are some really crazy things living under the Earth, including mounds of Cockroaches, and tons of really pretty colors. After that, the group mostly split up and head back to our various rooms, after all we had to get up at least reasonably early as we were heading to Moravia, the Southern Part of the Czech Republic in the morning…

Up Next: Moravia: On Wine, War, and Faith(couldn’t think of a third W for that one)

Prague Part II: On Day Trips and Language Barriers

When last I left off, we had just discovered that there was a bar in the basement of Masarykova Kolej. We enjoyed that bar late into the night (almost 1am by my estimation). The next morning we had to get up very early. You see, as part of our orientation, we had to sign up for two day trips outside of the city of Prague. Since most of the options seemed to involve the most brutal dictatorships of the twentieth century being well…generally brutal to the Czech people my choices seemed fairly obvious...something else. In fact, I picked every trip that went to some sort of medieval structure.

These trips involved a dive deep into the history of the Czech Republic, a history that goes back almost two thousand years, to the age of the Roman Empire. At that point in time, the area that is now the Czech Republic was ruled by a Celtic trip called the Boii, from which the medieval name of the Czech Republic, Bohemia, is derived. The Boii were never actually conquered by the Romans, and it would not be until the coming of the Slavs in the 8th century, driven by the Magyars(my ancestors?), that someone else would take over the area. The Slavs formed the State of Great Moravia, more on that later, and ruled area until it became part of the Holy Roman Empire(aka the Empire of Charlemagne)in the 9th century, and was converted to Christianity though the efforts of the Patron Saint of the Czechs, one of the great heroes of their history, St. Wenceslaus(feel free to sing a verse from the Christmas Carol at this point, it is that Wenceslaus, I will wait). As part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Czech people would find themselves in competition with the Germans. Despite this, one of the other great heroes of Czech History is one of the Holy Roman Emperors, Charles IV, how in the 12th century made his capital in Prague, specifically Prague Castle, and helped to create and beautify the area. As the centuries wore one, the Czech grew increasingly restive under the Empire. In 1618, as every person who describes Czech history is proud to tell us, the Czechs defenestrated three Catholic priests sent by the Holy Roman Empire from Prague Castle(let me tell you, it’s a long way down). This event sparked the Thirty Years War, a event which devastated the Czechs, and turned them into good Catholics, at least for two hundred years. In the 1880s, the idea of Czech Nationalism began to reassert itself. This idea would reach fruition in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Successor to the Holy Roman Empire) in the form of Czechoslovakia, lead by Mr. Masary from whom my dorm gets its name. After World War II, and the betrayal of Munich, the Czech Republic fell under the dominance of the Soviet Empire. Following a coup in 1948, all castles in the Czech Republic were placed under the control of the government. Following the restoration of Democracy, the Castles were returned to their owners, though not without strings(no titles, and they were required to live in the Czech Republic).

The first two castles I visited had been constructed by the Lobkowitz family(yes that’s spelled right). The Lobkowitz family was a fairly important noble family in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor, to prove it they hung pictures of the Emperors in their castles (yes that’s castles plural). The two castles we visited were called Nelahozeves, and Melnik. Neither was what might be typically characterized as a castle, a better translation from what I’m sure is a Czech word with too few vowels, would be chateau. Now, these chateaus certainly weren’t Versailles (not that I’ve been there) but they were quite impressive. From armory at Nelahozeves you could arm the entire village that surrounds it, and Melnik is home to a wine cellar that is apparently world renown. Indeed, we got to try what was essentially a shot of some of the Lobkowitz wine, a red and a white.(the White was better but both were pretty decent, and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
But the Lobkowitz palaces were missing something,(other than heating, which would explain why the temperature was only a few degrees above 0 Centigrade in both). They just weren’t castlely enough, and certainly they didn’t have enough churches, which Kutna Hora, on the second day certainly took care of. The first stop on that trip was to Cesky Stanburg, a castle built by the Czechs to keep out those pesky Germans, and it certainly looks that way, though the inviting lady with the Sausages and mulled wine certainly detracted from the atmosphere. Filled with sausages, and wine (not me, but some) we head off to the actual town of Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora is a UNESCO site located about an hour away from Prague. It was a town that was split between the Germans and the Czechs as a result of the prescience of the Imperial Mint and Silver mine there. As a result, like many European towns, the city is overrun with churches, and I swear to…well god…that are tour guide stopped and talked in front of each and every one of them, for ten minutes, in 0 degree weather, with snowballs flying through the air. And to top it all off, we nearly managed to miss what was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip to Kutna Hora, The Bone Church(italised so you will understand I am speaking in a spooky voice). Unlike all those other churches, with their alters made of marble, or wood, or gold, the Bone Church is made of well…bone….human bone….40,000 human bones arranged in a variety of shapes and figures, pyramids, crosses, chandeliers, which you know…after a couple of minutes starts to feel like something Genghis Khan or Stalin would be proud of…words don’t really do it justice, so I will attach a picture or two at this point….





Alright, did you enjoy the pretty pictures of bones…good. After we finished touring castles, and bone churches we were kind of tired, and so wandered down to the circle near the dorm, which is packed with shops, and yet another KFC(I swear to god if the darned things keep popping up I may actually have to eat in one). We found a nice little pizza joint(see my comment on how those are everywhere here too), which was across the street from the grocery store. And here of course is where I managed to get myself into a spot of trouble. After the second we(here being used to refer to a whole group of people including myself, Jake, Adrian, Allie and Ian) realized that it would be cheaper to buy breakfast food from the grocery store, rather than from the small cafeteria in the dorm. So decided we headed into the grocery store and split up. I found butter, and bread no problem, got them checked out, no problem…and then I found a bag of grapes…which being the big dumb lovable American that I am, I grabbed, and did not weight…see were this is going yet?

I went up to the cash register, happy as you please, put down my items, and everything seemed to be going fine, and then she(the lady at the cash register) got to the grapes, and said something in Czech, something that was not, "all done here’s how much it costs". Czech's great language by the way, a nice language, I think the maybe the vowels caught the constants cheating on them with the accents, and have since refused to associate with either of them, but a great language never the less, except when someone is pointing and trying to tell you to do something, and all you can think to say is “wha…?” and then when you think you figure it out, and go over to the machine that looks like a scale, and can’t for the life of you figure out how to make it work because its labeled in a language with too few vowels, and then the seemingly irate Czech lady has to point you to another scale thing(I swear to god I don’t know why they had two, or what the first one was for) your respect for a language starts to diminish a little bit…or a lot. Anyway, I finally managed to buy bread, and run home with my tail firmly between my legs, put the bread in the fridge, and sought solace in beer(actually not, but it has a nice poetic ring to it, I think I actually just sort of read a book or watched Stargate, and slept) and it was night, and it was good.

Next: Prague Part 3: On Historic Prague and “Family” Dinner

Prague Part I: On Orientation, Eating and Drinking

Prague Part I: On Orientation, Eating, and Alcohol
So, to recap a little bit, we set off from the Pilsner Brewery after enjoying our first real taste of Czech food and headed off to whatever fate awaited us in the City of Prague.

Prague is a city of 1.4 million people that sits aside the Vitava River. Its dominating feature is Prague Castle, which sits atop a hill that overlooks the city. According to reliable sources (Wikipedia, and every tour guide we’ve had that was alive before 1989), in the last ten years Prague has undergone something of a revival. These has resulted in the development of a number of new nightspots, clubs, and restaurants, and a large increase in the amount of English that is spoken in the Czech Republic.

However, none of these nice facts were evident when we arrived at our home for the next four months, Masarykova Kolej. Masarykova is a definite example of Soviet era architecture, both inside and out. The building is roughly boxed-shaped, with the front and sides of the box on five floors given over to student housing and the back given over to a small hotel. The exterior is something like slate gray. The interior is some sort of mix between a maze and an insane asylum. The halls are all a pale white color, with no distinguishing features except the holes people have apparently put into the walls in frustration. To Americans, whose sense of direction is largely based on landmarks, this is madly confusing.

And once Jake and I finally found our room, we were in for what I sincerely hope is the shock of the trip. The room was tiny, and there was one bed. After a moment of stunned silence, we figured out that the bed was actually two that had been pushed together. We also realized that if we pulled them apart we would basically block all of our shelf space. Worse in some ways was the bathroom. There was no shower head anywhere in bathroom, and several fixtures had some sort of mold built up in them. Despairing about the livability of our housing, and the fact the we were in the ass end of no where, as far from the entrance to the dorm as was imaginable without being in hotel, we wandered downstairs and joined a rather large group of people that was getting ready to head out into Prague to find some food

Leading the group once again was the ever present Adrian. Adrian had apparently either already been to Prague, or was just an incredibly fast learner, because he lead seven or eight of us into the subway, and into downtown Prague. We happened to arrive at Prague’s Old City Square just in time to catch the hourly showing of the city's gigantic Coco Clock. Slightly amused by this, we headed off down the narrow medieval streets of Prague. After waking for about 15 or twenty minutes we found a small pizza place near Wenceslaus Square.

While eating there we managed to discover one of the differences between Czech and US cultures. Kate, one of the girls in group, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, didn’t really want pizza, so she ordered some bread. We didn’t eat most of it, so we asked to have it bagged up. We ended up being charged for three loaves of bread. So, having spent a couple of crowns(Czech Money) more than we planned to, we head back to the dorm.

Jack and I didn’t really want to go back to our room, so we wandered down the hallway, looking to see if anyone else had found a better way to organize their room. As it turned out, Ryan, one of Jake’s friends, and his roommate had decided to relocate one of the beds into the attached kitchen. This freed up some more space for the one that remained in the living space. Jake and I decided that was probably a good plan, and so I now have a pretty much private room in the kitchen.
With that sorted out, and feeling a little more at home, Jake and I headed to bed, and slept…

The next two days were orientation in Prague. The first day, Monday, was an AIFS lead tour of the important sites in Prague. We started at the dorm, took the subway to Charles University’s main building, which is located in a small square about two or three blocks from old city center. Also in the square are the Faculty of Dance, the National Theatre and the Jewish Cemetery. From the Main Building we walked back to the Old City Square, after passing by Prague Library and the Czech National Library. From the Old City square we walked through more medieval streets to reach the center of New Town, Wenceslaus Square, where AIFS, and ECES(Eastern and Central European Studies, the program that lets us study at Charles University) have their offices.).

From AIFS office, which is next to an old camera store I may have to check out once I learn enough Czech, if ever, we headed off to what I think will be a very important part of life here, Tesco. Tesco is Target and Safeway rolled into one, it has clothes, food, bedding, toys and electronics, toiletries, and cookware. Down the street are the big three phone companies in Europe, O2, Vodaphone and T-Mobile. During the stopover at Tesco, it seemed like just about everyone got a cheap pre-paid Vodaphone number for use in the Czech Republic(don’t try to call me on it, as the phone will give out after about ten seconds).

After Tesco, we had a brief orientation session at the Main Building. Marketa, the head of the program in Prague, talked to us for an hour or so and explained some of the differences between the Czech Republic and the US, warned us to guard our personal possessions against pickpockets, and explained some of the activities that as part of AIFS we could undertake, including trips to the Opera, the Ballet, and other parts of Europe, and concluded by taking our passports so that the Czech Police could confirm that we were legally in the Republic.

The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. A group of us, including myself, Jake and Adrian ended up walking down to the circle near our dorm, and having dinner in two different places, some went to a small sandwich shop across from a KFC (I swear I have seen more of them here then in the United States) and the rest of us, including me, Kate(from the night before) Adrian, Ryan(from down the hall), and two girls from South Carolina, Allie and Jordan, hit up a more authentic Czech restaurant down the street, which was surprisingly affordable(about 10 dollars for a meal, bread, and beer). That done, we headed back to the dorm, and slept, and it was good.

The next day was the ECES orientation, which was held at the Czech National Library, in what they called the Hall of Mirrors, or something like that(apparently the Czechs like the French a lot, they stole Versailles and the Eiffel Tower, more on that later). This orientation was rather less informative then the one before, though the ECES people did outline some nice volunteer activities that I may have to check out(planting trees, or speaking English primarily). From the Orientation, Adrian, Kate, Stef (a girl from Notre Dame), Allie, and myself head off to the AIFS office to sign up from some activities, to Tesco and Vodaphone so that Adrian and Allie could get working phones, and to an adopter store so that Kate and Stef could plug things from the US in. Along the way to AIFS, we stopped for some Czech fast food, Sausages. Now, keep in mind that Sausages ARE NOT Hot Dogs, like you would get in the states. For one thing they taste a hell of a lot better(I don’t if maybe there is something different in them, because there two things you don’t want to see being made…laws and sausages) and they are a hell of a bigger, and come wrapped in baggets and are generally a tasty treat. After a stopover at AIFS(damn that camera store calling me like a siren), and Tesco(no adapters, sorry), and a visit to the adapter store(thank god my parents gave me some, cause these were like twenty bucks, each) we headed back to the dorm once again.

While me, Adrian, Kate, Allie and Stef had been wandering around Prague, Jake, and Ian Saha, a fellow student of history from Texas, had been on a quest of their own. They spent most of the day wandering around Prague looking to spend the stipend that AIFS gives us to purchase some guitars, which they were finally successful at doing, after what was apparently four hours of fruitless searching. Along they way, they had discovered that one stop down from us on the metro was a Tesco Express, which is essentially a grocery store. Determined not to spend any more money(the guitars cost a pretty penny, even in crowns) me, Allie, Jake and Ian, headed to Tesco and bought the ingredients to make stir fry(while, Ian and Jake found ingredients, I sought of watched and was generally useless). With these in hand, we headed back to the dorm, and with Jake directing, Ian slicing, and me generally trying to avoid being useless or in the way, we managed to make up a pretty mean stir fry, for about 100Kc( roughly $5).

Having filled our bellies, we decided to seek some drinks (trans. find some booze). This turned out to be surprisingly easy, as much to our surprise, there was a bar in the basement of the dorm (so much for no drinking in the dorms). Furthermore, drinks at the bar were pretty damn cheap (20 crowns, or about a dollar for a beer). And then, it was night, and we slept…

Next: Prague Part II: On Day trips and Language barriers.

Week One Part II: Of Munich and Beer

Ok, so, to recap, when we left off, it was the second night in London, and we had just gone to bed, after seeing the really cool performance of Wicked.

The next day, well technically it was still night as the sun hadn’t come up yet, we got up before the crack of dawn, 5am to be exact. You see London’s Heathrow airport, the second busiest in world, is located about 30 miles from anything. It is literally in the back of beyond. So between London’s abysmal traffic and the fact that after Chicago O’Hare Heathrow is probably the worst run airport in the Western World you have to get that at least five hours before your flight, especially if you are traveling internationally, which technically we were.

Getting seventy people and their luggage onto a bus is quite a production, and in our case it took almost half an hour because we couldn’t find someone. But, at 6am we rolled out of the door and made it to Heathrow. Fortunately at that early hour, there was absolutely no one in the terminal so we moved through security relatively easily, though some people had their liquids confiscated. And then we sat around Heathrow and got to know each other a little bit better. I got to be the expert Kindle salesmen as everyone seemed fascinated by the handy little tablet device.

The plane was really tiny, barely more than a puddle jumper, especially compared to the flight I was on to the United Kingdom. The hope over to Munich was blessedly short, less than 2 hours, and then the wait at customs and the bag claim was virtually non-existent. After that we got onto a bus and headed into downtown Munich.

Upon arrival at the hotel we got to meet our roommates in Prague for the first time. Mine’s a pretty chill dude named Jake. After discovering that we would be spending the night in a roughly postage stamp sized room, Jake and I, and most of the rest of AIFS headed, down to the lobby to wait for our 5pm tour of Munich.

Munich and London literally couldn’t have been more different. London has to be one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Walking down the streets, you hear people of all hues and shades speaking a dozen languages, every kind of food, beverage, money exchange house, and historical site you could possibly want is located within a few blocks of your hotel. Munich, at least when we got there, was a kind of gray and shabby, especially compared to London. The city seems to have suffered from an almost comically tragic history. As the guide pointed out to us, the location where Hitler started his career, the Hofbrau House (the beer hall of the Beer Hall Putsch), the city hall where he first met Himmler and Goring and ordered Kristallnacht(when all the Jews windows were broken) and the Olympic Stadium were all the Israeli athletes were murdered by Black September all reside within Munich’s city limits. In addition, beyond these wonderfully cheerful sites, there really wasn’t that much to do in the city itself(except maybe go to the place with the gigantic Boobs sign down the street from the Hotel, but I certainly didn’t want to do that) . I was lucky in that my roommate (Jake) and I managed to find a guy (Adrian) who know about a great restaurant in Munich…which turned out to be a little whole in the wall Chinese joint where eight or ten loud Americans stood out like a sore thumb. With that out of the way, we headed back to the hotel.

And then it started snowing…kind of a lot, and we had a twenty minute walk back across the Marionplaze, which was kind of Munich’s central square. When we got home, I was pretty much done for the night, though I did stay up playing cards(spoons) and had a beer(Pilsner, more on that later) at the Hotel Bar with a couple of other AIFS people, including my roommate (the afore mentioned Jake) and Adrian.

And it was night, and I slept.

And then we got up for the six hour bus trip…at 10am, hallajuh thank the lord. After a hurried breakfast, I got my suitcase down the stairs for the 10:30 bus departure, which actually happened at about 10:45, but that’s OK. Most people on the bus slept some because they had a massive hangover from the night before, and others just because they were exhausted. We stopped once at a nice scenic truck stop in Germany, with well…lots of trucks, and Germans, spent the last of our Euros and crossed the broader into the Czech Republic…

And by crossed a border, I mean literally just drove across a line on the map. Thank god for the treaty with the impossible to spell name that means you don’t have to have a passport to cross borders between EU Countries. Anyway, after that nice little border crossing, we reached the city of Pilsen(not how its spelled in Czech, but as I’m not actually Czech I’ll use this spelling). Pilsen was wear they brew, surprisingly enough, Pilsner, the beer I had the night before in Munich. Pilsen is also home to some really fabulous examples of Soviet Era architecture aka really big square shaped buildings with not a lot of color. We stopped for lunch at the Pilsner factory, where I got my first real taste of Czech food, which was pretty good I have to say. I also got to know my fellow travelers a lot better, as lunch lasted for almost an hour. As it turns out, in the Czech Republic you own the table at the restaurant until you ask for the bill, and pay it. So that was pretty relaxed.

Full of Czech food, we got back on the bus, and headed off to Praha(Prague)…

Week One Part 1: Of Jetlag and London

Yeah, so, I’ve been meaning to start a blog about this whole crazy Prague Trip/Study Abroad experience for a couple of weeks now, and have just never gotten around to it. Yah for procrastination! But, I have finally gotten some free time, almost a week to the day since I left Washington Dulles. It seems like a whole lot longer.

We’ve been having a blast though. The AIFS Group, about 72 of us from all over the country (that is the US, not the Czech Republic) spent two days in somewhat gray and overcast London, and then flew to somewhat gray and overcast Munich, before busing ourselves to somewhat gray and overcast Prague. I can’t wait for spring.

Getting out of DC was great. There was very little waiting in the security line at Dulles, and then I discovered that they put a Five Guys in the International Terminal…my last American Hamburger for four months. The flight to London was almost completely deserted. I got an entire row to myself. I might even have been able to stretch out and sleep, if not for the vicious turbulence over the Atlantic. I probably dosed off for an hour, but I don’t really remember it.

And then we got to London, which was also really awesome, but was also kind of hurry up and wait. First we spent twenty or so minutes waiting to clear the border crossing, then we waited for our luggage, then we waited for the rest of our group's flights to come in, then we waited in the London traffic, which makes rush hour in DC look like a drive in the country. And then when we finally got to our hotel we discovered that we would have to wait almost four hours until our hotel was ready.


So, determined to make the most of it, the other four people from DC and I headed out on a mission of exploration. First, of course, we had to get some British Pounds, and then we hit up a Starbucks in London…a nice taste of home, though because it’s a four Pound cup of coffee, I paid nearly eight dollars for the privilege. Fleeing somewhat refreshed, or at least enough with enough caffeine in our systems, we decided to cross Hyde Park and check out South Kensington, and two of the museums there the Victoria and Albert and the Natural History Museum. First though, we had to cross Hyde Park. Despite the lack of anything green, the park was pretty neat. We walked right past Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana used to live, and the tall buildings of the city were surrounded by the fog so it looked really pretty.

Thanks to our map, we managed to reach the Natural History Museum, which was awesome, in part because it was free. It also had some interesting exhibits, one about bugs, that showed all the places they lived, and some extinct mammal fossils. To be honest, by that point the jetlag had started to get to us, and we sort of just breezed through it. We then headed next door to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V and A, as the British call it, seems a somewhat oddball collection of stuff. There were paintings, statues, suits of armor, and medieval nick-nacs with little to no overall all theme, expect maybe that the Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert, would have liked it.

After we finished up there the five of us decided to head back to the hotel, and see if maybe the rooms were ready. As it happened, they were. So, I headed upstairs…about three hours later, I realized that I taken a rather unplanned nap and that I was really really hungry. So my roommate and I headed down to the street and out to a small restaurant near the hotel. After running into three other people from our program, Americans have to stick together after all, we had a nice authentic British meal...chicken and chips(that’s French Fries), so basically just like home, just more expensive.

With some nice British Food in our stomachs, we headed back to the Hotel and had the welcome to London drink. Which turned into a marathon session of “hello my name is…I go to…my social security number is…oh wait, that last one didn’t actually happen. But it could have, since we all seemed pretty exhausted. After that, the group split up again, and me and two others headed down to Queensway to walk around. After about an hour of that, the jetlag really caught up to us, and we headed back to the hotel and basically collapsed.

And there was night…and sleep…and it was really good.

The next morning, we awoke, went to breakfast and got one a coach(bus). For three hours, a nice British lady took us around to the major sites of London. We stopped at Buckingham Palace, saw the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abby, and Number 10 Downing Street, were so close to Nelson’s Column that if the windows had been open we could have touched it, saw Fleet Street and the economic heart of the United Kingdom, explored the original Wren building; St. Paul’s Cathedral, and took pictures of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

The coach (bus) dropped us off at Covent Garden, which was basically an outdoor shopping center. From Covent Garden, the two people I hung out with on Tuesday night and I decided to check out Westminster Abby. We walked down the Strand, past the ministry of Defense and Number 10, and reached the Abby, only to discover that it would have cost us each thirty dollars to get into it. After wrestling with it for a while, after all when is the next time we were going to be in London, we decided that it was too expensive. Somewhat dejected, we headed to the Westminster tube (subway) station and headed up to something that was completely free, the British Museum.

I think it is safe to say that the British Museum is essentially the warehouse of all of all the material that the British took from their colonies, back when they had an empire. There were gigantic statues from Greece and Egypt, tapestries from the Near East, Jade work and Buddha statues from China, Japan and Indian, The Rosetta Stone, that helped to translate Ancient Egyptian, thousands of books from King George III(the only that lost the American Revolution) and mummies(I do wonder what the people who were mummified would have thought about being put on display in three thousand years). Best of all, they let you take pictures in the museum.

After we saw all the British Museum stuff we could handle, we headed back to the hotel. From there, a much larger group ventured out into London’s West End. The West End is essentially London’s answer to New York’s Broadway, and in this instance it did not disappoint. We went to see Wicked. Which, pardon the pun, was wicked assume.

After that me and some others headed back to the hotel, as we had a 4am wake call.

And it was night, and the next day we flew to Munich…