Krakow Part I: City in Mourning

As I mentioned in my previous post, the week before we were scheduled to arrive in Krakow, the Polish President was killed when his airplane crashed in Russia. The President was scheduled to be buried in the Woclaw Castle, which was used as the Capital of Poland for several centuries and is the place where the great kings and national heroes of Poland are buried, on Sunday, the day we visited Auschwitz(More on that…in another post). As such, Poland as whole, and the city of Krakow in particular was in a state of mourning.

When we left Maraysova Kolej at a little past eight in the morning(nicely done Ian, nicely done), we didn’t know what to expect in the eight hours it would take as to reach Krakow, or what we would find when we arrived. It didn’t really matter to me at that point however, because my noise was buried pretty deeply in the virtual pages of my Kindle (it’s just the gift that keeps on giving). I would be aroused, somewhat from my reading, when we made a rather unexpected stop. You see, one of our follow travels kind of…somehow…passed out. In the front of the bus, apparently on his way to ask for a rest stop. A rest stop we got too....any way, if that excitement out of the way, it was nice relaxing trip to Krakow, one which the Barbara, one of the employees of AIFS informed us was the quickest they had made from the outskirts of Krakow into the center.

Krakow follows the Standard European City Layout to a T. Like Prague, Munich, Vienna, Paris, and Budapest ect, the city Is located next to a body of water, the Vistula river. It is dominated by a castle located on a rise above town, and has large central square, with the obligatory Cathedral, and most of the economic functions of the town are located. It was to this central square that the ever incredible, Zee led us. Here he explained the significance of the church; apparently it had one of the prettiest altars in Europe, and then told us some good places to eat. Myself, Jake, Allie, Ryan and Jordan, Ian, and Rachelle, a fellow Arlingtonian, set out to a Georgian Restaurant. The food was pretty good, cooked beef, and Coke Light that was actually cheaper than the beer(a first in any East Central European Country). After the restaurant, the group wandered around trying to find something to do. First, we found an alcohol store, and started to head back to hotel to partake. After we got there though, we decided instead to head out and find some Gelatto. It being 11 clock on a Friday night, in a country officially in mourning, we didn’t have a whole lot of luck with that. What we did find was a fellow American, Evan from Midgeville, Georgia(for those of you who are not Civil War freaks, Midgeville served, in 1864, as a temporary state capital, at least till William T. Sherman and about 100,000 of his closest friends burned the place, after enacting a mock session of the state legislator.) who desperately wanted to get a drink with some Americans. We obliged. (For the record, as my father and I can both attest, this sort of friendly openness is not at all out of place in the South, though rather odd to see in East Central Europe). We went to a little Polish Bar, and enjoyed some Polish beer, and a few hours of chit chat. As it was now nearly 1 in the morning, we head back to the hotel.

The church, the next day, but still.


The next morning was two tours of the City with our good friend, and the Dr. Whittenburg of Europe, Zee. Zee started out our tour with a monument to the Battle of Grunwald, in which, in 1410, the Poles and Lithuanians, broke and utterly beat the Teutonic Knights, effectively ending their power in the Baltic(yeah, I had to look up, I’m not Zee). Next, he took us through the town’s defensive walls, past the market square, and to the site of Church in which his Holiness, John Paul II preached before he became Pope. This church was also home to a copy of Shroud of Turin, purported to be the burial shroud of Christ Himself, complete with blood stains from where the nails were pressed in…did I mention that Poland is a very religious country, and then to yet another church, this one constructed by the Jesuits. This is where the tour finished up, at least for about two hours. This was long enough to go into another basement room, and get some food at a Ukrainian Restaurant. Good food, and a lot of interesting conversation(for anyone who was there: I was right, there is a Dunkin Donuts in Arlington County, on Lee Highway, across from the Safeway, down the street from Seven Eleven.)

Grunwald memorial.

After that pleasant little interlude we headed back to the Church to meet Zee for our afternoon tour. Zee took us up to the Cathedral/Castle were the President was being buried. Inside there was a monument to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a hero of three nations, Poland for leading its armies during a revolt against Russia, and the United States for help us out during the Revolution, and then leading armies for France in the service in Napoleon

Beyond Kosciuszko, we went into the Cathedral. Three Polish kings, and a queen and some saints are buried above ground in the Church, with placards that describe in English and Polish what they did, and why they are important. Also important in the Castle Complex was a site that according to Zee was important to Hindus. Apparently one of the gods, maybe Shiva, I can’t remember, throw a bunch of stones all over the world that serve as place to recharge your Chaka, or good energy, one apparently landed in Krakow, and had a castle built on top of it. Zee took us as close to that spot as we could get, because according to him Auschwitz would completely drain our Chaka otherwise.

The chaka refilling castle.

After maxing out our Chaka, we drained some of it. From Castle, Zee led us down into the Jewish Quarter of Krakow. Once upon time, before the Nazis came, Krakow had a large and thriving population of Jews. More than 76,000 of them supposedly lived in the city, as in those days, Poland was one of the few countries in Europe that treated Jewish people halfway decently. And then the Nazis showed up, and sent almost all of them 60kms down the road to Auschwitz (more then you will ever want to hear about that, I assure you). Today, there are only 150 Jewish people in Krakow.(No, that’s not a typo, I wrote exactly what I meant to, 150.) The quarter itself looks pretty run down, and apparently was pretty much a no go zone until the fall of Communism, because almost no one live there.

The Jewish Quarter

After this, we were all a little bummed out, but fortunately Krakow had something to take our minds off the depression caused by mass murder, and where we were going the next day. That thing was a massive water park located just outside of town. The park had a pool into which at least half a dozen slides emptied, a series of lily pad type things, a balancing rope, water volleyball pools, and saunas. We, meaning Jake, me, Ian, Alex, and Alex’s crew, did just about everything for just about three or four hours. By the time we got back we were pretty tuckered out, but very hungry.


From our hotel we headed out to the center of town once again, finally to get some Polish food. This turned out to be some ravioli like dishes, stuff with meat, or fruit. They were pretty good and very filling. After that we headed back to the hotel, talked for a while…or something like that…and went to bed.

Next: Krakow Part II: Auschwitz

Prague Part IX: Things Fall Apart(not really)

N: Short post tonight, cause...well it is, deal with it...more will come...eventually:)

I don’t know if you heard, but things seem to be going to hell in a hand basket here in Europe. On Saturday, just after Barak Obama left Prague, we heard that the Polish President, several government ministers, and several survivors of a massacre during World War II had been killed in a plane crash outside of Smolensk on the way to commemorate the massacre. And then, about Mid-week, Iceland(or rather a volcano with more constants then vowels and I don’t really feel like trying to spell) exploded, causing a Europe wide shut down of Air traffic, and stranding people across the continent(more on that later).

These events didn’t really cast that much of a shadow on Monday however. We finally got our mid-terms back in both MittleEuropa, and Czech and Central European History. Turns out I was bellyaching over nothing…at least as far as my professors were concerned…As on both, god be blessed. MittleEuropa also brought a rather more unwelcome announcement…in less than a week myself and two others would have to make a presentation to the class about Hungary during the inter-war period (after finishing it, I’m pretty sure my Great-Grandfather got out when he did for a very good reason).

But that was Wednesday problem, and it was still Tuesday. Tuesday for me, was pretty much a rerun day. My first class, Central European Cinema, watched Ashes and Diamonds, a Polish film I watched in Eroticism Power and Fate, and EPF, watched Birds, Orphans and Fools, which I saw in Czechoslovak New Wave…now New Wave just has to show a film I saw in Central Europe Cinema, and the circle will be complete. After I made my way home from class, I discovered that I had received an email from one of my group members. He seemed a little bit concerned about getting the project ready for class on Monday, and so we arranged to meet on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday dawned pretty late, or at least I got up late, and headed up to GJK once again. After a conversation of a hour that involved more discussion of TV then art, but whatever. I basically had to run down the mountain, to get on a train, to meet my partner at a station five down the line from were GJK, and I had to do it in less than ten minutes. I made it…and then had to wait five minutes for my group member, a Frenchmen named Gabriel. As it turned out our third partner, a Spaniard named Pablo would not be joining us that day, as he had a class to attend.

The two of us then went up to Gabriel’s apartment (or flat if you prefer, he certainly does), and got down to work. We managed to split Hungarian History up into three subsections, with me taking the period immediately after World War I to 1920, when the Hungarian version of Versailles was signed, Gabriel taking the foreign policy of Hungary after that treaty, and Pablo being assigned(cause he wasn’t there) the domestic consequences of the treaty. So organized we declared ourselves done for the day. With only a hour or so before class, I got invited to stick around and hang out with Gabriel and his polish roommate. It was a pretty interesting experience I have to so. I was surprised to learn that the Polish President was being buried in the castle normally reserved for Polish National heroes…in Krakow and Gabriel’s roommate, and Gabriel too were not really all that happy about it.

We headed to class, and then I headed out to Don Giovanni, in the theatre in which it originally premiered, the Estates Theatre of Prague. Don Giovanni was a very interesting Opera, more so I thought than the Marriage of Figaro. It was also nice because while I was getting cultured, Matt was being a great friend and registering us for housing (nice going with Jamestown by the way dude).

Thursday started out pretty well. I got an email early that morning that made me rather smile…Marketa, the head of the program had sent one around that stated that we should avoid being rowdy and not be seen enjoying alcohol, because the Poles(and the far right) might take offense. I was informed later that this meant that we weren’t being allowed to have fun in Krakow(I had to smile…I love this country). After watching another movie based on a Kundara story(the Joke), I headed back to Jirho to meet Gabriel and Pablo. We fulfilled our objectives fairly rapidly, firming up everything that Gabriel and I had agreed to. We decided to head out for a bit of a drink afterwards…which reminds me of an old joke(well not that old) what happens when a Spaniard, a Frenchmen, and an American go to a bar? A: They go for a coffee, because its 4:30 in the afternoon and the bar is closed. We did get a coffee, it was pretty enjoyable. Then I came back, and hung out in the dorm for a while, and then went to bed because we had to get up by 8am to go to Krakow.

Prague Part VIII: The Study Part of Study Abroad

Yeah, I'm putting this up on Saturday instead of Thursday, oops. But, in compensation, this update covers everything from the end of the last one, to last Thursday, nearly two weeks of action.

The evening of our return from Vienna proved rather less relaxing then I would have preferred. You see, I had a midterm at 9am the next morning, and, like most people in my class, I was not nearly as ready for it as I would have liked. Fortunately, I think I managed to pull off a pretty decent grade, given my blow by blow review of the exam with Adrian afterward.

From there, I headed back to GJK, to hang out with smart Czech kids, which proved extremely relaxing after a rather stressful morning. I got three suggestions to visit the Prague Zoo, which, especially because it is nice and warm, I may have to act upon. MittleEuropa brought me back to earth a little bit, as the professor reminded us that we have an exam in a little less than a weak. Given the level of detail she throws out in each lecture, everyone was understandably a little bit panicked.

Fortunately, Tuesday would prove unexpectedly relaxing. You see, as I was getting to class, about a minute after 10 in the morning, one of my friends informed me that the class had been canceled, for reasons not explained. Somewhat nonplussed at being up at 10 in morning when I didn’t have to be, I realized that I know had three hours to kill, and it was a beautiful day in Prague.

I decided to wander down to the Charles Bridge, which as it happens is only about a block and change from the main building of Charles University. The Bridge has a commanding view of the castle, as it was designed by Charles IV in the thirteenth century to link Straromeska(Old Town) to Malostarska(really Old Town). The bridge, befitting its age, is lined with a number of states, including one of Jesus on the cross.


The Bridge


Jesus

The bridge is also home to a number of people selling various touristy items, including caricatures and pictures, as well as magnets and key chains. There was also a rather humorous Czech man with puppet he was making dance to various pieces of classical music. I got a funny little video of that. On the other side of the river I wandered around for a moment, and discovered a small group of buildings with an odd statue of men peeing in the center. As quickly discovered, this was the Franz Kafka Museum. The Museum was in the 1920s, one of the homes of that Kafka occupied in Prague.

Since it was relatively cheap, and in English, I decided to check out the museum. Somehow, I doubt the interior looks much like it did when Kafka lived there. The Museum s a collection of artifacts from his life and some exhibits about some of his stranger books, which include a rather disturbing mirror room from an unfinished story, and a seemingly endless rows of office drawers, with names like Kafka, Samsa(main character of the Metamorphosis) and K on them. Over all, it was a very interesting museum.

After finishing up there, I wandered around the banks of the river a little more, eventually coming to an English language book store, where I managed to pick up a copy of the Economist. The Economist was mildly different from the ones back home, in that it was organized with the United Kingdom and Europe before the United States and Asia. It was nice to get some news from home, but by that time I had to rather hurriedly make my way back to Charles University to be sure to be on time to my one remaining class of the day, Eroticism Power and Fate in the Cinema of Central Europe.

That evening and the whole of Wednesday were pretty much write-offs as far as anything fun or interesting that I can about or put pictures up of goes. I had to write a paper for my Czechoslovak New Wave class, and unfortunately, why New Wave filmmakers should have invested more money in plot or story was not an option (I challenge anyone to watch Birds Orphans and Fools, or Daises and tell me that they have a plot…of any sort.) I did manage to write a pretty good piece about how Birds Orphans and Fools, and the French New Wave Film Jules et Jim were similar, but it took two days.

Fortunately Thursday proved to be a relatively good day. We didn’t get our mid-terms for Czech History back (for which I was rather thankful) and the film in Czechoslovak New Wave, All My Good Countrymen, was a very interesting, if somewhat slow look, on how one Czech village experienced the revolution from 1948 to 1960. And then, thank god almighty it was the weekend. Unfortunately, because it was Easter weekend, most of my friends were scattered to the four winds. Jake and his family headed off to Paris, Kate and a friend from home went to Greece and Bulgaria, Kacy and her family went to Budapest, Alex was traveling with his family, and I didn’t hear anything from Adrian, Allie or Diego until Sunday.

That said, being me, I was not without people to hang out with, at least not on Friday or Saturday. I spent Thursday in a deeply relaxed state after finishing my paper for Czechoslovak New Wave. The next day, I got up late, as it was Friday, and did some wandering around Prague. I headed to the Old Town Square, and paid an arm and a leg for a slab of good Czech Ham. From the Old Town Square, I headed past Tyn Church into some of the back streets of Prague, noticing a couple of restaurants and things that I might have to check out later. From there, I headed to Charles University and across the bridge onto the other side of the river. I wandered around there, and came upon the ISIC store(who issued me an international student card) and a Catholic Church, St. Thomas’ which had services in English. Armed with the knowledge that I would be able to do my bi-annual duty to God (Christmas and Easter) at 11 on Easter Sunday, I headed back to the dorm to find out what people were up to for that evening.

Friday, a whole bunch of people, including myself, Ian, Steve Thomas who lives on my hall, and a couple of Ian’s roommates headed out to the old AIFS watering hole, Lucerna, with their once weekly 80s/90s night. We danced the night away, until about two in morning, when Walt, and some people he came with headed back to the dorm, with yours truly in tow.

On Saturday, I decided to once again wander around Prague. This time, I took one of the trams, a number 20 to a place called Divorka Sarka. At first I thought I had made a terrible mistake, since the place seemed to consist of a tram depo, and a local hangout…aka Macdonald’s. As I looked around however, I noticed a large patch of green, and what seemed to be mountains. Intrigued, I head down for a closer looked and discovered the Divorka Sarka is in a fact a national park located inside of the city limits of Prague. It was a very nice place to walk around, and I swear I spotted a couple of Czech Labradors walking with their masters. I wondered if Kira could have communicated with them any better than I could with their owners.


Divorka Sarka

After walking round in Divorka Sarka, and spotting what I thought was a Dharma Initiative Station(Nobody spoil lost for me, or I will time travel back to the seventies and killer your younger self, using Prague as my constant), I stopped briefly at the Macdonald’s a grab a Coke Light, and then headed back to the dorm to make some Chicken Teriyaki(may not be available for the home kitchen, but it certainly is for the Czech kitchen.).


Lost?

After my wonderful dinner, I met up with Ian, his roommate, and some of his friends, including one from my dear old home town of Arlington Virginia. As it turns out, it was one of games of NCAA tournament, so we headed down to Wenslaus Square and a bar called the Bear Factory to watch the game. I was kind of bored with the game, but did some dancing, so it was a good time. We once again headed back pretty late, but all and all it was worth it.

The next day, I got up rather earlier than usual, as I was hoping to catch some of my friends as they headed off to Mass. It turned out to be me, Steve, Tom, and Ian’s roommate Lucas, all Catholic, and a couple of girls. The service was reasonably interestingly and the homely was far better preached then some I have heard in my day. The pries t used Easter eggs as a comparison to Christ and his rebirth. Very effective I thought. Anyway, after mass the four us, Steve Tom, Lucas and I grabbed some food at a restaurant, and then headed back to the dorm.

After relaxing for a few hours, I was beginning to wonder what I should do for Easter dinner, when Allie and Adrian answered the question for me. They got me, Diego, Walt and Ian together to go to the Pizzeria for Easter dinner. Yep, that’s right I had pizza for Easter dinner. It was pretty cool. And then, like good Czechs, Adrian, Diego, Allie and I, headed out to a bar to celebrate in a Czech fashion, beer, darts(which I’m ok at) and Foosball(which I suck at) . Then the four of us headed back to the dorm, because the next day was going to be a marathon study session for the MittleEuropa Mid-Term.

Ian, Allie, Walt, and I met up the next day to head out to Coffee Heaven, a little café just off Wenslaus Square, where the people speak English. After grabbing some sausages for lunch, and some hot chocolate from downstairs, Ian and I began the Bataan Death March of learning that would occupy the next four hours. We were joined by Diego, about two hours in. After those four hours though, it felt like our faces might very well melt.

As I was walking back to the dorm, I noticed several Czech people engaging in one of more amusing Easter traditions I have heard about .Apparently, it is traditional for Czech men to acquire willows or reeds and fashion them into a sort of whip thing. They will then walking up and strike/mildly flirt with, young women, who are expected to give them alcohol and other prizes. The one woman I saw this happen to, did not seem particularly amused, and did not give the young men anything.

After that, my study group promised to get back together on Tuesday and then headed back to the dorm. Later that evening, after a little more studying, I was feeling a little hungry, when Allie once again anticipated my desire, and announced that she wanted Cinske(Chinese food). I was game, so we walked down the street. As we were eating, this strange Czech man walked into the restaurant and proved to be my roommate, Jake. After that, the three of us, headed down to the student pub, and then off to bed.

Tuesday was a relative return to normalcy, with classes, and a short essay that needed to be written for Eroticism Power and Fate, but nothing particularly difficult. That evening, Walt, Allie, Kacy, Jake and I were treated to one of the best meals I have had in Prague, at a vegetarian Restaurant, courtesy of Jake’s mother(Mom, sorry to tell you this, but when you’re here in May, you’ll have to take us all out too). It was amazing to have food, and salads, that didn’t have some form of cooked meat, or potatoes in them. I had to hit the books right after though.

Then Wednesday came, and after teaching some English to the Czech kids, and handing in my essay in Eroticism Power and Fate, it was time for the big event, my Mid-term in MittleEuropa. Being the clever people that we are, it seemed that Ian, Tom, Diego and I had studied that the right things, as I knew at least something about all of the questions, and a lot about some of them. In fact, I think the worst part of the exam was my pen running out of ink half way through, at least I hope so.

That night, feeling that I had earned a bit of celebration, I headed out to one of the many American food restaurants, KFC, and treated myself to a Chicken sandwich and French Fries, and then returned home to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, with Jake, Walt, Allie and Kacy.

Thursday would be pretty much the height of my week. As it turned out, the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation were both in Prague signing a nuclear disarmament agreement. After class, I headed up to Prague Castle, were the two leaders, plus some others were meeting. After about an hour standing around shooting the breeze with some girls from AIFS, and an American Teacher, we were all excited to see a motorcade shoot by, until we realized that the red, white and blue striped flags were those of the Russian Federation, and Medvedev would not be showing us his face. About forty five minutes, and more chit chat later, we were rewarded for our patience when a motorcade with American Flags drove by. Right in the middle of it were two limos, one with an African American body double staring resolutely ahead, and other with a very familiar smiling face as the crowd cheered for him. That’s right; I was close enough to the limo to see Obama smile. It was amazing.
Next: Prague Part IX.

Vienna: Imperial City

For those of you trying to keep tracking of the timeline, and not quite convinced that my adventures in Prague are more complex than a French New Wave film, the next couple of paragraphs will gloss over the week between the end of Jeden Svet, and our trip to Vienna. The reason? Cause not a lot that I choose to report on happened.

The day after the last Jeden Svet film festival was of course St. Patrick’s day. Let’s put it this way, you could really tell who was an American or Irish person on that day 'cause we were all wearing green. Obviously the other thing that St. Patty’s day is known for is as an excuse to drink (like study abroad students need one of those). This St. Patty’s, my first as a fully legal adult, was no exception. Most of AIFS went out to a club called ZaZaZoo, which turned out to be a lot more chill then I expected, of course it was a Wednesday night. There was green beer, and a really bad Bono cover band (I recognized a couple of the songs from when Bono, the real thing, performed for Obama’s inauguration). We stayed pretty late for a Wednesday. Overall I had fun inspite of myself.

I will say that getting up about four hours after I went to bed to go to two of the most boring classes I have was no fun at all, but I was very proud of myself, I managed to make it through both without going back to sleep, through a combination of sheer force of will and large amounts of Coke Light and Pepsi. The rest of Thursday was pretty much of a write off, I slept from about 1 to 6, and then just sort of chilled out.

That weekend, we got to experience some more or less authentic Czech culture that didn’t involve large amounts of alcohol, at least for me. We went to see a Sparta Praha hockey game…make the 300 jokes now I’ll wait…finished…good. Praha was playing another Czech team, who they pretty much creamed. It was pretty interesting; expect that, of course, I couldn’t understand the play by play. Fortunately the word for goal are pretty much universal.

The weekend over, we got into the week before Vienna. Monday night was another normal day, plus a trip to the National Theatre. That evening’s performance was Bartered Bride, a Czech Opera about peasants in the past. Aside from being able to lose the entire second, and really most third acts and still have the story work, Bartered Bride was pretty good for an opera.

Tuesday, after another invigorating day of classes, Jake, Allie, Kate, Ian, Walt and I headed out to a small club near Tesco were we saw a Czech rock group, Plastic People of the Universe perform ,and played some Fuzball. I suck at Fuzball, but Plastic People were pretty good. Apparently they started as a sort of Anti-Soviet group, and have just kept going since, and they had awesome rock violin thing. Anyway, they were cool.

Wednesday and Thurday were pretty much nothing, and then Friday it was time to head out to Vienna.

Vienna is an ancient city of 1.6 million people, almost twice the size of Prague. It was first founded by the Romans, almost two thousand years ago as a base of operations in the Danube basin. During the middle ages, and the early modern period the city flourished as one of the leading centers of art and architecture in Central and Western Europe. For almost three hundred years, from 1526 to 1918, it was the seat of royal House of Habsburg, which at one point ruled close to a third of Europe.

Vienna is about 6 hours drive from Prague. We left for the city at 9am. We stopped twice on the way to Vienna. One at a gas station just side of Brno, and then once close to the Austrian border at a place called Excalibur World. Like some hellish combination of every fantasy world ever made, and some sort of monstrous tourist trap, Excalibur World has a every bit of cheap stylish junk you didn’t know you needed, and they have a dragon, a big one, that breaths, and bumper boats, and bumper cars, so basically the most awesome thing ever. We only stopped there forty five minutes before pressing on to Vienna.




To say that Vienna in spring is the prettiest city is probably very unfair to Paris and Prague, but if it is not, it is certainly one of the top three. The downtown area, inside the so called Ringstrassa which is built where the city walls used to stand, is dominated by several of the old Habsburg palaces, particularly the Hofburg, the Austrian Parliament, St Stephen’s Dome(German for…I’ll give you guess…its church) and the Vienna Opera House. Between these beautiful buildings, there are a number of expansive, and well maintained, parks as well as easily accessible (if you’ve got 20 Euro or 30 dollars) bike trials. The first thing we did once we got settled into our hotel, just off the Ring, was to take a short walking tour from our hotel, past the parliament ,which is built in a style similar to, and of the same stone as, the US Capital, through part of Hofburg, down the Stephenplatz to the Cathedral. After that we were pretty much on our own for Friday night, so Kate and Adrian, Stef and Diego, Jordan, and myself set off to find some cheap Wiener Steinze (the national food of Austria, breaded and fried veal…can I move to this country?). We found it, and then walked back to the Cathedral. Here our little group split up. Diego, Stef, and Jordan headed back to the hotel, while Adrian, Kate and I headed out to find a place apparently called the Bermuda Triangle, which apparently earned this nickname because drunk college students go in, but never come out…and Zee, the incredible Czech tour guide told us it was a bad idea to go there…so of course we had to check it out. Unfortunately it was pretty much deadsville at 8 o’clock at night.




A Sampling of some of what Vienna has to offer.

So we headed back to the hotel. I read my book a little, but I was feeling kind of restless, so after Adrian and Kate and some other people headed out to a bar, I decided to wander around the area outside of our hotel a little bit. I walked a couple of blocks, and came a church dedicated to Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of the Habsburg Empire. After hastily snapping some photos, I wandered around the surrounding area, noting some bars and restaurants that I made have wanted to check out later. After about 45 minutes to a hour I came back to the hotel, and fell asleep.

The next morning we got up reasonably early, and took another walking tour of Vienna. This time we were guided not by Zee, but by a local, who was very knowledgeable about Austrian history, and culture. She took us not only to the sites Zee had shown us the day before, but also to a Church that was dedicated to the Teutonic Order, and were Mozart had lived, to the Church were Habsburgs are buried, and to the area just outside of the Vienna Opera House. After the tour, Jake, Ian, Ryan, Marnie, Ellen, Kacy and Walt, Katie and Adrian, and I headed back to the Stephenplatz to find a gulatto place that one of us had seen earlier. We ate there, it was only five euros, so about 7 bucks, and then wandered back to the Hofburg.

We hung around at one of the parks near the Hofburg for about an hour, and then decided to check out one of the museums, which contained knight’s armor, musical instruments, and quite possibly the most impractical weapon I have ever seen. It was a shield, with spikes, and a short sword, and a little lantern for blinding people. The armor was really awesome, though it showed just how short medieval people were.



After wandering around the museum, we head back to the park to wait for Zee, and our tour of Belvedere Palace. Belvedere was the home of Prince Eugene of Savoy, an ally of the Habsburg Dynasty. In the early part of the 1700s, Eugene was one of the Habsburg’s most successful military commanders and one of the best commanders of that era. He fought in several wars against the Ottoman Turks, as well as in alliance with Winston Churchill’s ancestor, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlboro, against the French. In retirement he built Belvedere, which with large Rocco styling’s, and extensive gardens was one of the nicest palaces in Vienna until the Habsburgs under Maria Theresa built Schonbrunn.(More on that later). Unfortunately, the interior of Belvedere has since been turned into an art gallery, but the outside was most impressive.

After walking to Belvedere, our group considered renting some bikes, but decided that they were too expensive. Instead, we headed back to the Hofburg to visit the Imperial Treasury. The Treasury is home to some of the most important and beautiful artifacts of the Habsburg Dynasty. These including Bohemian, Hungarian and Austrian coronation robes, the crowns used for Charlemagne and his successors as Holy Roman Emperor, and Rudolf II and his successor as King of Bohemia, and a piece of the true cross.


Charlemagne's Crown

From the treasury we headed back to the hotel. A couple of hours later, feeling pretty hungry I headed out to a restaurant located just down from the hotel. The night pretty much went downhill from there. A lot of people had a bit too much to drink there, and then, six or seven of us, me soberest of the group, headed to a Mexican bar near the ring. I didn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure the tequila flowed like water. I had a Marguerite and quit while I was ahead.

Sunday morning brought an early departure from the hotel, though not as early as the AIFS crew would have liked, as some people failed to note that Europe starts daylight savings time two weeks after the United States. Once we got everybody loaded and on the bus, we headed to a house on the outskirts of Vienna that was designed by a community of artists in the 80s. Words cannot describe and bizarre looking it is…so I’ll just post a picture.



From the 1980s we head back to the 1880s, and the Imperial Habsburg Palace at Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn was first built by the Empress Maria Theresa in the middle part of the 18th century as a summer retreat from the hustle and bustle of Vienna. In many ways the palace was the Habsburg’s answer to Louis XIV’s Versailles. The palace was remodeled in the later part of the 19th century during rule of the Maria Theresa’s Great Grandson, the Emperor Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph conducted much of the Imperial business from Schonbrunn, but he preferred a much more relaxed style then Maria Theresa. I headed into the palace to take what they call the grand tour, 22 of palaces 40+ rooms. The inside was very fitting for an Imperial residence, some gilding, some pictures, and lots of impressive mirrors.



With the audio guide, and the wait, it took nearly an hour and half to get through the entire palace. After that, we had about 45 minutes to get lunch at the Schonbrunn Café. The Café had be far the best Hamburger I think I’ve gotten since I left the United States, which isn’t saying much, but is totally true. We then had to run for the bus to be sure we got back to it in time. After another stopover at Excalibur World, and then the gas station in Brno, We made it back to Prague at about 8 o’clock in the evening. And then I hit books to study for my Czech and Central European History mid-term. More on that…later.

Next: Prague Party VIII: The Study Part of Study Abroad.