Prague Part VII: Jeden Svet

The week after our visit to Terezin and Lidice was the opening of Jeden Svet Film Festival. Jeden Svet, is two Czech meaning roughly One World. The festival, held under the auspices of former Czech President Vaclav Havel, is a showing of about 100 documentaries from around the world. These documentaries are linked thematically in that they are about issues relating to human rights. They are screened around the greater Prague, including, most fortunately, in the same location of the club so nice we visited it twice, Lucerna.

Well, Jeden Svet really couldn’t have come at a more auspicious time, as right about that same time, the Friday after the Film Festival opened, I was notified that I had been accepted to William and Mary’s Honors program to produce a documentary of my own. But that was all in the future on Monday March 8.

That was when I was notified that I would not be volunteering to help out at the opening ceremonies, at Vaclav Havel might have shown up, mainly because the Festival was not looking for English speaking only volunteers, and my Czech is just kind of awful. As the door prize however, we, the rejected volunteers, received free invitations to the same opening ceremonies. They were to be held at a place called Prague Crossroads, which being from way out of town, I had never heard of. I didn’t really have time on Monday to figure out where that was though, as I was spending that afternoon with my Czech Students, and then I had my really awesome MittleEuropa class, and then I headed home and was kind of lame.

So, then Tuesday, between my first film class(search for identity) and my second(Eroticism Power and Fate) I set out to find the place, armed with a map provided by the ECES office, and my canny sense of direction(I was lost inside of two minutes). Fortunately, the crossroads was not far from one of the most famous landmarks in Prague, the Charles Bridge. Named King Charles IV of Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor in the 12th Century, the bridge crosses the Vitva, near a Jesuit College (and the Medieval Torture Museum) and Prague Castle on the far bank. It is decorated with statues of a number of Czech saints. It is helpfully located in the center of the touristy and well marked parts of Prague, and so from the Bridge, I managed to get to the Crossroads, as it turns out an old, retired Catholic Church, and then back in time for class.

Armed with information about where to go the next night, after classes, I headed out to the Estates Theatre, located near Wenslaus Square. The Estate Theatre, was home to Wolfgang Mozart during his time in Prague(it served as the setting for the film Amadeus), and was where he premiered a number of his famous musical works, including Don Giovanni. That evening, the Estate Theatre was hosting a performance of the classic Marriage of Figaro.

The inside of the theatre was very pretty, and very large, with four stories, at least of seating. Despite this we could see the stage very well, and the sur-title machine. The Marriage of Figaro, like most operas, has a very convoluted plot about two servants, Figaro and his wife, and their masters, the Count and the Countess, all romancing each other, in song. Eventually everyone , except the Count, ends up happy, and married. It was also three hours ago, with two and a half intermissions (sometimes they would turn the lights on, but not let anyone leave, thus half an intermission).

Fortunately, my high school class was canceled on Wednesday, they were skiing or something (lucky…so and sos), so I could just put on my jacket and tie for the opening ceremony that evening. (this got some comments, but whatever). I had to leave MittleEuropa a little earlier, but whatever. The walk and subway ride only took ten minutes, especially because I knew where I’m was going. We had to wait a couple of minutes for the ECES staff, and the dean of the faculty of philosophy to show up, and then went in to the church.


What we saw when we got inside.

We were among the first people there, and easily got the translator headsets, that would enable us to understand, more or less, what was going on at the ceremony, and then find our seats. The place filled up pretty rapidly, until it was pretty much packed to the gills. Then a short, white haired Czech man got up on stage, and started talking in Czech, and then the voice in my head (aka the translator) started to make the Czech into English. And then just for kicks, the moderator started talking in English, which the translator turned into Czech. A moment later, everything was right with the world, and show rolled on. They, a couple of human rights presenters, got up on stage, and explained what One World was all about, how they hoped to improve human rights, and why it was important. They then gave an award, the Homo Homini Award, to several of the student protesters from last year’s near revolution in Iran. To top it off, they even gave us, free, Persian Food. What did happen was that Vaclav Havel didn’t show up. Apparently was vacationing in Spain, and wouldn’t be back until the festival’s closing night. Oh well.

I didn’t get to see any of the films that night, or the next night either. Friday night, with about half the crew in Krakow, I decided that I wanted to try and go see a couple of the films. I managed to convince Allie and Jack to come with me to the theatre at Lucerna, to see a couple of movies about Tibet. When we got there the theatre was kind of hot, and the previews before the film were all in Czech, so my friends left, leaving me to watch two films about Tibet, one about how the Chinese are using music and culture to control the Tibetans, and one about how the Dalai Lama is leading resistance efforts against the Chinese. The Tibet Marathon concluded at about 12:30, and so I hopped on the tram and headed back to my dorm.

The next day, Saturday, Jake, Ian, and I headed up to Prague Castle. We spent a bunch of crowns on the audio guides, and maps, and then headed into the Castle. Our first stop was St. Vitus Cathedral. Vitus is like a lot of Cathedrals on the inside, with high valuated ceilings, and ornately decorated chapels. It is home to the bodies of a number of Czech kings, including the famous St. Wenslaus(the good king, yes) and Charles IV(Holy Roman Emperor). Unfortunately, on the day we visited St. Vitus, the crypts where the kings are kept was closed for “technical issues”.(Was the crypt collapsing, where the lights not working, had all the Bohemian kings risen from the dead…the world will never know).



From St. Vitus, we headed over to another smaller, older chapel located next door to St. Vitus, St. George’s. The chapel contained some of relics from another Saint, but was much less ornate. When then headed over to the Royal Palace, which served as home to a number of Bohemian Kings, and to the Habsburg governors. It includes a book case that is among the oldest pieces owned by the Castle, and to one of the most famous windows in the world. In 1619, the Habsburg’s had just increased their power in Bohemia, repealing an Edict of Toleration. This rather annoyed the Czech Nobles, who entered the palace, ascended the stairs, and through three representatives out of the window. Yep, I saw the Defenestration Window. It was pretty assume.


View from Defenstration Window, or something like it.

After spending the day at Prague Castle, we came back, and with Allie, started to make dinner. Somehow or other, yours truly ended up by “in charge” (really Allie told me what to do, and I did it, but it felt like I was cooking). So, I can now officially make Stir Fry, more or less.

The next day, Sunday, we relaxed and slept in, and then headed out to a theatre in Prague to see another movie, Green Days. Green Days was the featured film of the One World Festival. It told the story of a female theatrical director living in Iran during the last Iranian Election. It captured a very eye on the ground view of what went on in that country in the led up to the election.

The next Monday was pretty much the same as a normal Monday, though I did stop by Lucerna briefly to buy a ticket for my fourth and last One World Festival Film, which would take place on Tuesday. The film was called Enemies of the People. It was about Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, and focused on the former killers and the quest of a crusading journalist to figure out why Pol Pot’s regime turned to mass executions. Like the other films, the narrator of the story, in this case the journalist, was also an important character. I think this tendency towards creating characters in a documentary is an interesting trend, it seems to be that it mirrors, in some degree, the tendency in history as a whole towards a focus on individuals, and cultural studies, and a move away from more political topics of the past.

Next: Prague Part VIII: TBD.

Prague Part VI: The Tragedy of the Jews of Central Europe Part I

The Monday after Budapest was pretty uneventful. I didn’t have the somewhat less interesting history class, so I got to sleep in a little later than normal, and the head out to High School. Monday is going to be my fairly long day of teaching English, from 11:30 to 2pm. Fortunately the classes we had were all at equal, or better skill levels then one on Wednesday, so other than some slight cultural differences, which one class insisted on exploring, it was pretty much like talking to Americans.

Monday became Tuesday surprisingly quickly. Fortunately Tuesday was a relatively relaxing day, with two more movies, Closely Watched Trains, about a small town Czech railway station during World War II and a young man, who is having something difficulty with the ladies, and ends up killing himself with a bomb as an act of Anti-Nazi resistance, and Pandora’s Box, about young women who is utterly dependent on those around her, who kills her husband, and is then killed by Jack the Ripper. (yes, death is an important part of Central European Cinema.)

Wednesday and Thursday were more of the same, get up, go to class, come home, and eat. It was not until Thursday night that something really interesting happened. That night, AIFS provided us with tickets to go so another Czech Philharmonic Concert. This time they were playing pieces by among others, Dvorak. Now, the concert hall of the Czech Philharmonic is called Dvorak Hall, so as you might guess, Dvorak was in fact a Czech. So, seeing a Dvorak Concert should have been something like seeing Beethoven in Vienna or Mozart in Salzburg. Well, it probably would have been, if I had enough musical talent to recognize Dvorak when I heard him, instead of depending on a program, which I didn’t have. Nevertheless, the concert was nice, and they played the music very well indeed.

The day, Friday, was a day of rest and relaxation. It was also one of Zee’s Prague walks, to the Jewish quarter of Prague. If I didn’t mention this before, Zee is basically the Czech Republic’s answer to Dr. Whittenburg, he knows everything about everything in Czech history, from the battle of Austerlitz to the fall of Communism, so he’s Prague Walk’s are supposed to be pretty interesting. Even though it was snowing, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I decided to check out this particular Prague Walk.

We started at the Main Building of Charles University, which is located right next to the Jewish Quarter. The Jewish Quarter was based on the original Prague Ghetto, where for centuries the Czech required the Jewish inhabitants of the city to live. At one point there at least 20,000 Jews living in the quarter, but as a result of the Holocaust, that population has been reduced to only 5000 or so. The Jewish Quarter is home to six synagogues, the Jewish Town Hall, and the Old Jewish cemetery.

Our first stop on the walking tour was one of the synagogues, the Maisel Synagogue, which was built by an important Jewish family to serve as their private synagogue. Today, the Masiel synagogue is no longer used as a synagogue, but rather as a part of the Jewish Museum of Prague, to recount the history of the Jews in Central Europe. It explains how in the 10th century the Jews came to live in Prague, how they were subject to discriminatory laws by the Kings of Bohemia, and later the Austrian Emperors, laws which restricted them to one part of town, required them to register to be married, and to wear clothing which identified them as Jewish.(If this sounds familiar, its because the Nazis borrowed most of these for the Nuremberg Laws, you’re going to wish I didn’t say this, but more on that later.)

Our next stop on the tour of the Jewish Quarter was the Old Jewish Cemetery. Even in death, the Jews were not permitted to leave the ghetto. They were instead buried in a single cemetery located near the Maisel Synagogue, and the Pinkas Synagogue(more on that later). The cemetery is little more than two or three acres of land, which for centuries was home to Jewish burials in Prague. As a result, in some areas of the cemetery, people are literally buried on top of each other, in one case thirteen caskets deep. To mark these spots, the grave stones themselves are clustered very close together.

From the Jewish Cemetary, we headed to Pinkas Synagogue. Pinkas is another synagogue which is no longer in use. It has been given over instead as a memorial to the Czech Jews killed in the Holocaust. As a part of this memorial, the names of the dead, where they were deported from, and how old they were are written on the walls of the synagogue. It is not a small synagogue, and the names cover every wall in the place…some 78,000 in total.

From Pinkas, we headed to the Jewish Ceremonial Hall. Originally set aside to be used in certain religious ceremonies, today, the ceremonial hall is a museum that was originally constructed by the Nazis. They had determined to create a museum of the “extinct exotic race”, and as a result shipped Jewish artifacts from all over Europe to Prague.

After looking at these artifacts we headed to the oldest synagogue in Prague, the Old-New synagogue. Like the other Synagogues we’d seen on our walking tour, Old-New is no longer in general use, though on special occasions it is still used. It is among the oldest Synagogues in Europe, having been constructed in the 13th century. It many buildings constructed in that period, the synagogue is based on Gothic designs, with high vaulted ceilings and columns. The build is supposedly home to the Golem, a robot constructed out of clay and the name of god by a thirteenth century rabbi, buried in the Old Cemetery, to defend the Jews against the Christians.
The last stop of our walking tour was another Synagogue, the only active synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Prague. This synagogue is also built like a gothic church, indeed, like the one in Budapest; it looks like a cathedral decorated differently. We weren’t able to stay that long inside, as services were about to start.
That night was fairly relaxing, we went out to a bar, and got a couple of drinks and played some chess(I lost to Adrian after about 20 moves). We headed back fairly earlier though, as some of us had to get up at a reasonable hour for the trip to Lidice and Terezin.

First, though, a little background. In March of 1939, German troops invaded the Czechoslovkia, less than six months after Hitler had agreed to the Munich accord giving the Sudetenland to Germany. The Germans easily occupied Prague, and the rest of the country, and set up Slovakia is an independent puppet state. The Czech lands, Bohemia and Moravia were ruled as a province of Germany. From about 1940, they were ruled by a man that might be the very definition of evil in human form, Reinhardt Heydrich. Heydrich was the right hand man of Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestpo and the SS, and was one the chief architects of the Holocaust, chairing the Wannsee Conference were it was decided to exterminate the Jews. In the Czech Lands, he had mission to remove every Slavic citizen and replace them with Germans.
Heydrich’s rule would last until May of 1942, when several Czechoslovak paratroopers ambushed his car on the outskirts of Prague, and killed him.

Hitler was furious that Heydrich was dead, and order an investigation. The investigation linked the small town of Lidice, located just north of Prague, to the paratroopers. On night of June 10, 1942, SS forces surrounded the town. On June 11, they moved in, rounded up every male citizen of the city, and shot them in the town square. All of the women and children were deported to concentration camps, and most did not survive the war. The town itself was dynamited.

Today, a town has been rebuilt near the former site of Lidice, however, the old site of the town remains inhabited. Place near it, is a small museum and a memorial to the victims that includes a statue of the Children of Lidice looking the direction of the place where their fathers were murdered. Walking around the area, especially on a winter day, it is eerily quiet, with almost no sound except for the blowing of the wind.


(Modern Lidice)

From Lidice, we head north to Terezin. Terezin is a fortress city originally constructed to defend Austria-Hungary and Bohemia from Prussian invasion. It consists of a small fortress, and a larger fortified town. During the period of Austrian government, the Small Fortress was used as prison. Among those imprisoned in Terezin was Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who died there in 1916. When the Germans began to set up the Concentration Camp system, they turned the fortress of Terezin into a Concentration Camp.

Unlike most camps however, Terezin was not an extermination camp, though that did not mean that conditions there were terrible, and conditions in the Small Fortress were even worse. Terezin was instead a transportation camp, where deported Jews would live for a time before being deported to Auschwitz or some other extermination camp. Even at Terezin however, thousands of Jews, including most the Czech Jews to die in Holocaust perished either in Terezin, or on their way out of it. Despite this, inside Terezin, the Jews maintained some semblance of life. They went on educating their children, performing plays and musical works in an attempt to keep the horrors of what was going on around them at bay. The museum at Terezin includes a reconstruction of the Concentration Camp barracks, with all their harsh conditions and lack of any sort of personal space, examples of the works of art and music which were produced in the Concentration Camp, an a video based on Nazi propaganda about the camp.

If Terezin itself was brutal, the Small Fortress, was as close to Auschwitz without the gas chambers as you can get. The Small Fortress was home to Jews who had violated some law or other of the Nazis, and Russian Prisoners of war. Like Auschwitz, the Small Fortress has its “Work will Make You Free”, sign, which is never a good sign.



The Russians prisoners were kept in conditions that were similar to life in other concentration camps, no living space, little food, no access to showers and beatings. If anything, conditions for the Jewish prisoners were even worse. The cells in which they were kept were barely bigger then my kitchen, and they were packed in several to a cell, they were not given access to running water, the medical care was poor, despite the best efforts of the Jewish doctors, and life was short. Almost 2000 people perished in the small fortress, many from beatings and shootings, though certainly the most chilling image from our visit were the still standing gallows. The gallows were the last thing we saw at Terezin, before we started t o head back to the van. As we past a small stream however, we noticed a small family of otters, or some water born mammal living in the stream, that made us all smile.


Next: Prague Part VII: On the Opera and Jeden Svet.

Budapest: On Balios, Beauty, Baths, and Brutality

When I said early Friday morning, last week, I did in fact mean early. The bus left from Florenc(like the city in Northern Italy) station at 6:30am, and we, that is me, Jake, Walt, Ian, Alex Horn, Allie and Diego had to be at the bus station by 6am. So we had to leave our beds after all too short stay (12-4:30) really isn’t that much downtime. Somewhat groggy, we matched to navigate the Prague subway station, and get to the bus on time.

The bus from Prague is not straight through. Rather, it stops in the lovely cities of Brno(see Moravia Posts), Bratislava( Slovak Capital), and Gyor(no I didn’t make that it up, it’s a city in Hungary). From the way out, I don’t really remember that much of Brno, or Bratislava, cause I was pretty much unconscious. As we left Bratislava, though I started to wake up, at least enough to enjoy watching the end of the Prestige, dubbed into Czech. As the film was ending, more than six hours after we left Prague, we finally reached Budapest.

Budapest(pronounced Buda like the man, and Pest with an accent on the e, so not like pest), is the ancient capital of the Magyar state, and has been since at least the 10th century. The Arpad dynasty, which would created the Kingdom of Hungary had its seat of power near the fortresses of Buda and Pest. Gradually the two towns grew together, and some bridges were built over the Danube(think Minneapolis-St. Paul if it had been around to be sacked by Genghis(actually Batu) Khan)) and in 1371 Budapest became the official Capital of Hungary. Like Prague (and every other European City) Budapest is split into two quarters by a river, in this case the Danube. One side of the Danube, the closest to Prague, is called Pest, and is split into two more by a market street known as Andrassy. On opposite side, Buda, is the majestic Buda Castle (home to an art museum, and the Citadel, a fortress like area.

Budapest, is also in someway distantly connected with a bit of family history. My Great Grandfather, and Great Grand Mother for that matter, were both born and raised in Hungary, and both spoke the language. They left Hungary in about 1918, and the moved to the United States, were they had a daughter, my Grandmother who also grew up speaking Hungarian. My father apparently also tried to learn the language at some point, and failed. I know all of four words of Hungarian, not one of which proved useful on this trip.(for the record the four words are Omama(Great Grandmother), Opapa(Great Grandfather), Nokli(Noodles) and Poprecas(a type of food)).

The point of telling you this story, besides sharing an interesting tidbit about myself, is too highlight just how difficult Hungarian, or Magyar if you prefer, is as a language. When we arrived somewhat sleep deprived in Budapest, we had absolutely no idea what any was saying. Fortunately through some combination of gestures and guessing, we matched to find an ATM, and get about 10,000 forints(before you question my financial situation, you should realize that 10,000 forints is about $50). Feeling somewhat absurd carrying around 10,000 forints notes, we managed to find the subway.

The Budapest Subway is among the oldest in Europe, and it kind of looks it. The trains are dark blue, or some cases yellow, and they make noise like you wouldn’t believe. Also, the doors slam with what sounds like enough force to tear someone’s arm off, and the fact that all the announcements are in a language you can’t understand adds up to a pretty surreal experience. Also, it stops running at 11pm, which will be important later.

Once we managed to figure out the subway, and also the tram system, which seemed to be of a similar vintage, we managed to find our hostel, Home Plus Hostel. If you ever happen to find yourself in Budapest, and are in need of a good place to stay, I can very much recommend Home Plus Hostel. Located right along the river, and just up from the Hungarian Parliament, Home Plus, feels very homey inside, with a living room, and accommodations for about twenty or thirty guests. It is run by an American Ex-pat, and her Hungarian (I think) husband, both of whom were just about the nicest people we could ever hope to meet. We also picked up the advanced scouts of the group, Stef and Kate(They had gone to Budapest the day before). The girls had been busy, and made up a plan for the rest of us, and given that we were all pretty much exhausted we agreed to it.

First on the plan, food, we headed back up to the main street, to a small Hungarian fast food like joint, were I got some chicken stuffed with…something and some potatoes(and no sour cream, my Hungarian Grandmother would be appalled). After that, we returned to the hostel to be briefed on the rest of the plan. With almost military precision (think the US Army, ca 1930) , we marched(stumbled) out of the Hostel to head down to Heroes Square, and the Hungarian Baths.

Heroes Square is a collection of monuments looked at the far end from the river of Andrassy St. It includes statues of a number of famous Hungarians included St. Istvan(Stephen), the patron Saint of Hungary. As we walked into the square, it started raining, and so those in the group with umbrellas pulled them out, and the rest of us, pulled on our coats, and soldiered on. Also at about this point, I turned on my camera, only to have it inform me that it was out of batteries, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from Budapest.


Well, not no, I have this nice one of St. Stephen(I think he's on the left)

After lingering around the square, taking pictures and poking ourselves in the eye(that one was all Stef), we started to wander in the direction of the Hungarian Baths. Apparently, Budapest is home to some of the largest and nicest baths in Europe, and I don’t mean bath tubes. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my swimsuit to Budapest, so I was not able to enjoy them, that night. Fortunately, I was alone in that, neither Alex, nor Stef, nor Allie were particularly inclined to go to the baths either. So the four of us headed back to the hostel, along the way, we got a phone call from Adrian, the tenth member of our little tour group who had failed to book onto the bus. After carefully reading the map, we managed to successfully direct him to the hostel, and the five us went out and got some pizza. Then we all pretty much collapsed and watch the Winter Olympics.

The next morning, rather earlier then I would have liked, we headed out to the Market Center. The Market is located in a single building the size of a small mall, is loaded with just about every bit of Budapest merchandise you could possibly imagine. On the first floor are aisles of meat and cheese, and wine (no Alex, not at 10:30 in the morning). On the second is basically souvenirs, they had shot glasses, snow globes, chess sets, pencils, Soviet Era hats, and gas masks(for one the enraged mob caused by your hat starts gassing you), t-shirts, more chess sets, marionettes, more chess sets. Really, it was all kind of overwhelming. So, if about an hour there, we decided to go to the place you unwind after shopping, the Terror House.

Ok, so let me be clear, the Terror House is not a nice place. It is not bar with a funny name, or some sort of bizarre club, it is in fact the former headquarters of the Hungarian Secret police, so this next little bit will be as serious as I can make it.

The period of Hungarian History from the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, was not at all a happy period in Hungarian History. It was ruled first by the Regent, Admiral (in a country with no Navy) Milos Horthy. Because of Hungary’s proximity to Germany, Horthy, in the 1930s, would bring Hungary into alliance with the Nazis. As result of this alliance, the Hungarians own home grown fascist party, the Arrow Cross, would gradually increase in power. So too would Hitler’s frustration with Horthy. In 1944, Hitler had Horthy removed from power and replaced with an Arrow Cross puppet. This puppet, willing delivered into Hitler’s hands much of Hungarian Jewish population, which had not suffered as much under Horthy as it would under Arrow Cross. As a result of the polices of Horthy and the his Arrow Cross successors, more than 600,000 Hungarians met their deaths in the Concentration Camps(believe me, this is not the last time the Holocaust will be mentioned here).

Things did not get better for Hungary after the war. In 1945, Soviet troops liberated Budapest, and set up the People’s Republic of Hungary, which was a puppet state the Soviet regime. In order to repress dissent from this action, the Soviets set up the AVH, the Hungarian version of the Stasi in Germany or the KGB in the Soviet Union. Throughout existence, and especially in the period following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, thousands of people would be arrested, tortured and murdered by the AVH, and the Hungarian Regime.

Andrassy ut 60 was the Headquarters of the AVH, and also of the Arrow Cross Secret Police, as well as their Arrow Cross predecessors. The entrance to Andrassy 60 is decorated with the symbols of the Arrow Cross, and Hungarian Communist Parties. Once these exhibits, you reach the café, and the front desk. Once past the desk, and the small gift shop(something the Hungarians picked up from the West), you are greeted by a massive Soviet tank, and thousands of pictures. These pictures are of the faces of those that died or disappeared while in the custody of the Arrow Cross, or the AVH. The exhibit continues on the second and third floors of the building, discussion, pretty much as I did above, the histories of the AVH, and the Arrow Cross party. After a discussion of how those parties suppressed religion, you reach an elevator which takes you into the basement of 60 Andrassy.


(and this one of the tank, but that's really all I've got.)

The basement is probably the most chilling part of the entire museum. It consists of a full reconstruction of how basement would have appeared at the time of the AVH, when it was used as a dungeon. There several “normal” cells, which have pictures of some of the people incarcerated in them, and some which lack furniture, but are otherwise tolerable. And then there are the special cells, one which would have been filled with water to a prisoners ankles so he would also be wet, one that was too small for anyone to stand up in, and one that was too narrow to move, like a small wooden box. Beyond the cells, there is a room with electrical devices that were used as an instrument of torture. Beyond that is a room which features several reconstructed gallows. From there, you exit the museum, walking through a room which features the pictures, and dates of birth and death(if applicable) of various members of the AVH or the Arrow Cross Party(I was honestly surprised that any of them were still alive, after that museum.)

Feeling completely depressed, the group headed out to lunch, and then split up. Stef, Kate, Diego and Adrian, decided to head up to the Citadel, and the rest of us, Allie, Alex, me, Walt, Jake and Ian, headed up to Budapest Castle. Most of us were out of money for train, and so we walked, first the Danube, and then up the mountain to reach Buda Castle. Though we didn’t actually go inside the castle, the view from there was breath taking. After taking pictures (everyone but me that is) we headed back down the hill to go back to our hostel.

Once we were all back at the Hostel, the group once again split up. Stef, Adrian, Diego, Allie and I decided to head down to the baths again (I borrowed a bathing suit from Jake), while the rest would hang out at the Hostel, and find a club to go to that evening. It took us a while to get back to the baths, but they would prove more than worth it. The building in which they are located looks like a palace, and the baths themselves are more like very hot swimming pool then what an American might call an actual bath. The water was just this side of a hot tub. Being in the warm water was incredible relaxing, though after a while it started to feel like you were cooking a little bit. We spent a little more than three hours, just sort of swimming around, and hanging out, enjoying the warm water and the steamy air it created(steamy for some Hungarian couples too…and others… though not for yours truly…sadly.)

After our relaxing sojourn in the baths, Adrian, Diego and I headed to a Burger King(yes I know, its American Fast Food, but I hadn’t had a cheese burger in nearly a month, and it was better than in the States, and Budapest is the European Capital of Burger King’s(just like Prague’s got a KFC every block…sigh)). After that refilling meal, we headed back to the Hostel, picked up the rest of the group, and headed out to club Roxie.

Roxie is located far out in the boonies of Budapest, beyond the normal subway line, which had stopped running by this point anyway, and to make matters worse, they close the Margret Bridge. But we weren’t worried about that just yet. Roxie was a truly massive club, it looked like it was set up in an old warehouse. The line to get in was larger than the crowd at Lucerna( I exaggerate though only a little.) and everyone was pushing and shoving to get inside, it was miracle no one died. Inside, was kind of awesome, there were men and women dressed up as angels and devils, and the drinks were flowing rather freely(I had some, but not as much as some others.) We stayed pretty late, and then as a group headed for the door. This resulted some rather interesting moments, as with place so packed, we occasionally had to resort to violence to make our escape, mostly throwing elbows.(though apparently Jake had to punch some Hungarian guy, but I didn't see it.) Most of us were sober enough to walk back to the Hostel, but a couple had had a bit too much. (slight understatement, but whatever). So, while most of the group walked, two mostly sober people (me and Kate) and one rather drunk person (who will remain nameless) got in a cab and drove back. The sun was coming up by the time we got home, and so I went ahead and hit the sheets.

The next morning was a hurried frenzy of check out and then grabbing lunch.(did I say morning, I meant the next afternoon). Between the time we finished lunch, and the time we had to catch the bus, we had enough time to visit Budapest’s synagogue. This synagogue is the largest in Europe, and the second largest in the entire world. It was built in the Gothic style, and so the inside looks a little like a Cathedral, though of course decorated a little differently. There was also a small museum, which discussed the Jews and their history, and to some degree the Holocaust, and a memorial to the 600,000 people that lost their lives in the Holocaust.

From the synagogue, we got on the Metro and headed to the bus back to Prague. (This time I was awake the whole time, Bratislava looks even more boring when you’re awake.)

Next: Prague Part VI: The tragedy of the Jews of Central Europe, Part 1(Prague’s Jewish Quarter, Lidice and Terezin )

Prague Part V: On Classes

Prague Part V: On Classes
Well, so much for this blog being officially up to date. It’s been a week since I last wrote an update, which seems to be just about the right amount of time for some things to happen. This last week was the first week of classes for all of us here at Charles University.

My first class was a history course focusing on Central Europe and the Czech Republic. The Prof for that is Czech man who clearly knows his stuff, but his delivery could do with a little work. Nevertheless, the class seems will be relatively interesting. That class let out at 10:30, and I immediately hopped onto the metro to get from the Main Building of Charles University to Jindriska, which is located down the street from the AIFS office, and is hope to the Central and Eastern European Studies program. It also houses classrooms for number of classes. One such class was Body and Ideology, a class which at first glance seemed to be rather interesting. After an hour of the professor doing nothing but showing clips of an insane Slovak man talking about ideology and toilets, I decided that the class was simply not for me. I retreated as quickly as humanly possible to The AIFS office on Vodokova St.(about a block from Jindriska) and dropped that class like a hot potato. Instead I picked up a course called MittleEuropa, which focused on Central Europe and its relationship with Germany. As the class had its first meeting at 5 o’clock, I decided to grab some lunch, and head back to my dorm. As I prepared to do so, I noticed that I had received an email from ECES, informing me that at 9pm there would be a meeting for people interested in volunteering to teach English at a Czech High School at Komenskeho Kolej, the other dorm in which ECES students are housed.

At the appointed hour, I headed back to Jindriska. The professor was a French woman, with a sharp wit, and a pace like she was hopped up on speed, after all she has to cover a 1000 years of history in 12 weeks. After about an hour of lecturing, she took us down to the old town square and pointed out some of its significant features, including a statue of Jan Hus, and crosses on the sidewalks were the Habsburg executed 23 Czech Nobles after the Defenestration of Prague, and the Battle of White Mountain (Bila Hora in Czech, it is now the location of Komenskeho Kolej and the Czech Ministry of Defense…more on that later).

Thoroughly convinced that I had made the right choice about which class to take, I left the old town square, grabbed a bit to eat, and prepared to find Komenskeho Kolej. The first part of this voyage provided easy enough. I simply had to cross the bridge from the Main Building of Charles University, across the river, and grab a tram and take it to the end of the line. That was accomplished in about twenty minutes. And then I actually had to find Komenskeho. First, I went down the hill from the station, and found that the only think that way was Prague Castle. So, I went back to the tram station, and took a road that forked off from the one that lead to the Castle. Again, no joy, a little annoyed now I headed back to the tram station, and noticed a sign that said Komenskeho Kolej. I attempted to follow it, only to discover that that lead directly to the highway out of Prague(maybe a sign I though). More than slightly annoyed now, I headed back to the Tram station. This time, I managed to find an ECES student, and with them as a guide managed to find my way to Komenskeho, only about five minutes from the start of the meeting.

The meeting went relatively smoothly, and with the help of some of my fellow AIFSers I managed to find my way back to my dorm, and slept.

The next day was Tuesday, and I had two film classes, one at 10am and one at 2pm. The first was a pretty much generic Central European Film class, that will broadly cover from the 60s, and the Czechoslovak New Wave(more on that later) to more modern fare from the region. This includes one Russian film called Stalker. Surprisingly enough, I have heard the cinematographer of this film talk at William and Mary. The film this week however was The Shop On Main Street (I keep wanting to call it Little Shop On Main Street, but since it doesn’t involve singing and man eating plants, that just doesn’t work). The Shop on Main Street focuses on a small Slovak village during the Second World War. At that point in time, Slovakia was a puppet state of Nazi Germany under Josef Tiso(not the same guy as the Yugoslav communist dictator). Much like Hitler, Tiso was out to get the Jews, indeed according some sources (yes I actually research this blog posts) he had almost 50,000 of them sent to Nazi Germany, and the death camps. The film focuses on a Carpenter, who is named the “Aryan Controller” of an old Jewish Woman’s shop. She doesn’t really understand what is going on, but gradually she grows on the carpenter, until the towns Jews are shipped away. The Carpenter is split between trying to get rid of her, and protect her, and only ends up killing her, before dying himself. (It won an Oscar, so it’s better than it sounds).

After grabbing some lunch, I headed off to Eroticism, Power and Fate in the Cinema of Central Europe. The professor, my only American Professor, is young, and seems very interesting. He was a bit late to class, and so didn’t lecture very much the first day, instead we watch The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Three hours, a couple of brain cells, and a bunch of naked bottoms and a little power and fate later, I was convinced of two things 1)some books should never be made into movies and 2) I think I’m going to like that class.

Not much happened Tuesday night. And then it was Wednesday.

Wednesday was the busiest day of the week. First thing in the morning, was my first day of “teaching” English to a group of Czech kids. To get there, I once again had to find my way to the other dorm. But since I wasn’t actually going to the other dorm, and the high school is literally right next to the tram line, it was a lot easier. Once I got to the high school, I met the woman running the volunteer program, and my two co-participants for this lesson, Ellen, an fellow AIFSer from Minnesota who wants to be a dentist(I’ll try not to hold it against her) and Jerry, an ECES person from New York (lucky fellow doesn’t have to go as far to get the high school, on the other hand, he doesn’t have a bar in the basement). Anyway, we headed into the school, and met the teacher, and then the students. Considering that English is their second language, the students quite frankly amazed me. I took French for five years after all, but I can barely put together a complete thought, these kids (who have admittedly been taking it for a while longer then I took French, some for 8 or 10 years) can not only carry on conversations in English, largely without any sort of grammatical or structural errors (at least not that I noticed), but they can apparently read it as well, at least to some degree. If only my Czech was as good. There was a lot of discussion of American movies (note to self, don’t mention you’re a film minor) and sports (note to self, don’t mention you don’t play sports), and apparently some of the boys tried to convince Ellen to teach them how to swear in English (as funny as that would have been, I don’t think the teacher would have approved).

After that, I headed back to Jindriska to buy a text book for MittleEuropa, and then back to the AIFS office to check my email, and get a ticket to the Ballet Romeo and Juliet (which I had not planned to see, but they had a spare ticket), and then back to the Main Building, for a little more Eroticism Power and Fate. (oh yeah, I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of that course title). From their I headed back to Jindriska for MittleEuropa. This time, we learned about the unifying dynasties of Central Europe, The Arpads in Hungary, the Premyslids in Bohemia (aka Czechia, aka the modern day Czech Republic), and the Piasts and Jagiellon’s in Poland. That lasted up till 6:30, after which I literally had to run to the tram to make it to the theatre in time for the Ballet Romeo and Juliet(yes, its a play too).

The Ballet was held in the Czech National Theatre, which is about a block up from Testco, and is really pretty on the inside. We were pretty high up in the balcony, so we could really see the stage. And it was a good thing too, cause the ballet(as I suppose ballet’s are want to do) had absolutely no dialogue. To be honest, at first I was a little weirded out by this, after all Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare and 80% of what is awesome about Shakespeare is how he uses the English Language. But then I got into it, and I started to realize that they way they were doing it was really interesting. It definitely helped to have read the play before, and hearing Stef, who is one of our resident Theatre experts who was a seat over from me, explain the plot and characters of the play. After the end of the show, the group kind of split up, Stef and a bunch of others, headed back to the dorm, a small group led by Alex, Walt’s roommate, and Jenny, who was having her 21st birthday headed out to have a wild night on the town, and yours truly and Adrian decided to take a long walk, that ended up back at Mustek, where AIFS and ECES are, and a dinner of sausages and French fries(which were awesome, and only cost $4, yah for a good exchange rate).

Thursday, was one more day of classes. At 9, I had Czech and Central European History. The lecture focused on the pre-historic period of Czech history, and I never thought I would say this about a history lecture, but I really found it kind of boring. Fortunately, my next class, half an hour later, in the same room, was the Czechoslovak New Wave. The CNW as I will call it, as a film movement in the 1960s, led my Czech directors like Milos Forman, that was strongly influenced by Italian Neo-Realism and the French New Wave(Italian Neo-Realism is pretty self explanatory, but the French New Wave was a movement in the early sixties, towards a more cinematic, and realistic form of filmmaking, examples of New Wave films including anything by Jacques Tati, Truffcaut, Goddard, this school of Film making also influenced US films like Bonnie and Clyde). Our first new wave film was called Black Peter(Cerny Petr in Czech) which is about a supermarket assistant who rebels against the oppressive father figures in his life(and it is exactly as bad as it sounds).
We took it pretty easy that night, because early (and I do mean early) the next morning we headed off to Budapest.

Next: Budapest: On Balios, Beauty, Baths, and Brutality.