Trips, continued (as promised)

Sooooo, back to the trips. Bratislava, Slovakia! Seems like a shady place, at least according to Eurotrip: (actually that Bratislava scene was shot in Prague...heh.). SUPER FALSE! Bratislava was really great, what with .50 euro ice cream and a really beautiful, if small historic downtown. Another bonus of Bratislava is that we stayed on a "botel" or basically an anchored riverboat with hotel rooms on it (and also a strip club?). We took a four and a half hour tour here, which was super great except for the unfortunate sub-zero weather...




























After we left Bratislava we departed to Vienna, which is the best city ever maybe (after Prague). Over the whole week most of the places we visted were pretty small and quiet...Vienna, definitely not. Tons of museums, tons of shopping (not that I had any money to shop...), tons of resturants, really great. The first place we visited was the Belveder, which is the Museum of Austrian Art. Both Klimt and Egon Schiele were well represented, and although I was much more impressed with Schiele, the main attraction seemed to be Klimt's "The Kiss." The next day we had a great tour with a young student and tour guide, Wolfgang (appropriate, I thought for Mozart's favorite city (after Prague)). After our tour, a few of us visited the Museumsquartier, a large plaza with three large modern art museums. We got a double day pass and visited the more experimental contemporary art museum first, MUMOK (Maria Lassnig and some permenant collections). Overall unimpressed by Lassnig but the other permenant collection was great. The next day we went on another more intense tour and then went to the Leopold Museum which has a huge Schiele collection and had a Kathy Kollwitz show on, both of which were amazing. That night, my friend Katie and I went out with a Austrian friend we had met in Prague.

I'm back...

So, after a long hiatus, I'm back in the blogosphere ready to give you an update. Life here is good, spring has definitely sprung and I'm pretty glad about that because it means walks in parks and beer gardens! But before spring sprung in Praha, I went on a few trips.

1). Amsterdam!: An interesting city, not sure how much I liked it in comparison to Prague. Went with my roommate Zach and did some fun site-seeing (saw the Richard Avedon show!!!), but it was pretty freezing so we spent most of our time running inside and eating fries and mayo (Pulp Fiction, anyone???). Interesting fact: EVERYONE in Amsterdam rides a bike!

2). Brno, Bratislava, Vienna: This was a group trip with most of the program, which was an interesting experience (30 American tourists is a lot for most places to handle). Brno was our first big stop and is a ho-hum (borrring) but second biggest city in the Czech Republic. Bruno was more of a jumping off point to make smaller trips out to tiny Czech villages. Before we even arrived in Brno, we visited Třebíč, where we saw a basilica and visited the Jewish quarter (where there really aren't any Jews since they were murdered during the war).


















Also, we went to Moravsky Krumlov and saw Alfons Mucha's Slavic Epic. From Brno we visted Kroměříž, where we saw the archbishop's palace, which was beautiful but very cold. The next day we travelled to the Punkva caves, which were great (sort of reminded me of the caves in MO, Dad), and hiked around a bit there. Picture below is of my good friends Katie and Kendra and I slipping on ice and getting hit by "cave juice" (dripping water) at a waterfall in the caves...














The next day we finally left Brno (where we were staying in the evenings), and went to Lednice, Valtice and Mikulov. At our first stop we got to traipse around a beautiful English garden, which was very Pride and Prejudice. Along with a huge palace type house there was a minaret, which at the time of its construction was sort of a jab at local Christians who didn't (and probably still don't) trust Muslims and their culture. The minaret was VERY high and it was VERY windy, so the experience was a little scary, but great.
































It was the first really gorgeous day of the spring at the park, so it was one of the groups favorite places. Mikolov was really interesting because during the cold war it was the last city between the Czech Republic and Austria, as it sits almost right on top of the literal fortifications of the Iron Curtain. From the castle in Mikolov, Czech citizens could look across the lights and fences of the Curtain right into democratic Austria. This was totally interesting to me, since I didn't know that the seperation between East and West was quite so real. Also in Mikolov we visted a wine cellar and did a tasting, which was pretty fun except that the wine maker was a male chauvanist and wouldn't let some of the girls taste certain wine selections...very middle ages if you ask me...

The next day we traveled to Devin Castle, which is an old military fortress and castle in Slovakia which looks like something right out of the Braveheart or Lord of the Rings sets. No pictures here since I took them on Mom's manual, but suffice it to say...the place was epic. We arrived in Bratislava shortly after we left the fortress. Bratislava was amazing, but I'll save this post for tomorrow since it will include both Slovakia and VIENNA! my favorite visit.

Post! Post! Post!

Per request and because I've been planning this epic post for quite some time...I'm posting. Woohoo! Not too much has been happening out of the ordinary (other than the fact that I'M IN PRAGUE!), so I'm going to write about a few of the smaller differences between Prague and the States that really make things feel different.

1). People in Prague speak and write in Czech: Maybe the biggest difference between life Stateside and life in the Czech Republic is that everyone here (minus the half of the population that is foreign) speaks Czech. Yeah, that's right. They speak Czech in the Czech Republic. Meaning most things are written in Czech. Making some things fairly difficult...like making cake.



















2). Praguers are grumpy and nuts: See example below.































3). Toilet paper is multicolored!: To quote my Czech buddy..."You only have white!? How sad for you!" Also, the toilet is in a closet that is entirely disconnected and far away from the sink and shower. Sort of annoying, sort of cool.















4). The light switches are large and rectangular: This may seem like a small difference, but it's actually sort of disconcerting when it's 3AM and you're sleepy and wandering to the bathroom. Which is in a closet. And there's trippy neon toilet paper all over the place.


















5). Street signs are attached to the sides of buildings and are red and script-y: Yeah, that.














6). Students use graph paper: Very cool, instead of boring horizontal lines, Czech students enjoy lines that are BOTH horizontal AND vertical! And form teeny, tiny little blue boxes of joy. This encourages copious notes (the graph paper or the fact that sometimes teachers lecture for so long that notes are completely intregal to the staying awake process).














7). Military time is en vogue: It's not just for generals anymore! Everybody in Prague uses military time when writing or looking at the time. In conversation, however, usually Europeans use REGULAR time. A.ka. clock=17:00, speech="I'll see you at the cabaret at five".















8). Coke comes in WAY smaller containers: And isn't available for bulk purchase in aluminum can form. Huge problems for Kendra (my coke addict roommate) and I (I know I said I would stop drinking coke here. Didn't happen. Isn't ever going to happen, probably).

9). The little man on the crosswalk sign is different: Yep, different. Also, there aren't crosswalks at every corner, there are crosswalks on two of the four corners on every street. Reallllly annoying, because you have to wind down the street like a drunk giant OR cross illegally. Lame!


















To be continued!

Additionally

After reading the post below, check this out...News Article

Dresden...An Experience.

So impulsively this weekend my roommates and I decided that we'd like to take a day trip to Dresden, as we had the entire weekend free from scheduled events. Most apartments took longer trips, but we've been planning some bigger trips and I wanted to save my money. We got really inexpensive round trip tickets ($26) on Friday and left this morning (Saturday) at 8:40.

The day began pretty epic-ly, when we were within 30 seconds of missing our train and had to sprint and jump on it practically as it was leaving. We though this would be the most traumatic experience of the day...we were wrong.

The two hour train ride went smoothly with a little last minute brushing up on our German and quick naps. When we arrived, however, we were greeted with a train station full of police in full riot gear. Initially we thought that Germany might be stepping up border control...again, we were wrong. Our program directors told us that a passport wasn't really necessary in traveling between Germany and the Czech republic. They were so, so, so wrong! Luckily we didn't listen to them and all had our passports.

We exited the train station and there were still more riot police EVERYWHERE. One greeted me with a customary "Guten tag," one of the few words in my German arsenal, so of course I responded enthusiastically with a return "Guten tag." Upon this greeting we were surrounded by riot police yelling in German, pretttttttty intimidating. To this, I started saying "English? English???? Englishhhhhh!??!?!" and they backed off and laughed a little and checked our passports.

At this point we were pretty confused and I couldn't stop laughing hysterically at the sheer ridiculous-ness of our position, stuck in Dresden until the end of the day, with no language skills (other than "Ich bin in der Bibliothek") and completely ignorant to what was going on. Beyond these obstacles, it was freezing. Like, so freezing that at the end of the day when we returned to Prague, I felt like I was coming home to a tropical paradise. We figured the best plan of action was to get to a cafe and figure out what the hell was going on. To do this we text our Czech buddy, Petr, a message that might be summarized as "What the F is going down in Dresden today? We're surrounded by riot police." To this text, he responded, verbatim "Holy shit! Apparently the neo-Nazis are marching through town today. Make sure you look non-aligned (no anti-fascist chants, etc) and you should be fine."

So we go to Germany on a day trip and walk into the center of a Neo-Nazi gathering. What. The. Hell. (sorry about the language, but this is literally what was going through our minds).

At this point we're all a little spooked, but figure we have to see what's going down. We walk back towards the train station where the fascist groups are gathering and hear some Nazi guy screaming in German about something (horrible, I'm sure). This is sobering and gross and horrible and awful and the tension in the air is palpable. There are hundreds of Neo-Nazi's wearing all black and carrying Third Reich banners and flags standing around cheering (see horrible far away picture above). This is something I never thought I would see.

We decide that we should peace out before stuff gets really bad and we get lost in a crowd or worse. It's freezing so we walk around a bit, halfheartedly taking pictures, before we decide to go to the Staatliche Kunstsammlugen (Dresden State Art Museum). The museum is gorgeous and filled with all sorts of amazing paintings, like Vermeer's and Raphael's and Titian's, but its pretty hard to concentrate when you hear drums banging outside, in what we assumed was some sort of Nazi gathering. We stayed at the museum for about two hours, but eventually decided to brave the cold and the fascists to go walk around again.

When we left we were immediately in the center of some sort of black clad crowd listening to a concert with an angry sounding German metal band, complete with the electric flute. This accident, however, was a godsend as we had ended up in the middle of the counter demonstration to the Nazi march (see the picture with red banners). We stayed for awhile, taking pictures and listening to the band, but soon started walking back towards the train station, as we had decided to leave a bit early due to obvious unforeseen conflicts.

As we walked back, however, we basically walked directly across the line between the anti-facists and the Nazis; this was obvious as we walked into a group of boot-wearing skinheads blasting traditional German music out of a black van and waving skull-covered flags around. At this point we tried to hightail it out of there, but were soon surrounded by riot police AGAIN yelling at us in German. By this point we had seen hundreds of different groups of police wearing different uniforms and all wielding tear gas and night sticks, but it wasn't until now that we were completely surrounded and unable to get out. I tried to explain that we were tourists and we needed to go to the train station but they were having none of it, so we basically ran away and navigated an alternate route to the train station.

I should mention that ALL day people had mistaken me for one of the agitators (hopefully the counter-fascists). I was stopped no less than three times by the police while all my roommates were able to walk by unnoticed. We decided this was because I look German (people in Prague speak to me in German constantly) which was obnoxious. I sincerely hope they didn't think I was a Nazi. Gross.

Finally, we managed to make it back to the train station, which, of course, was surrounded by dozens of card carrying Nazis. Walking through crowds of violent a-holes with backwards moral attitudes was really scary and foul, but when we finally made it to the train it was such a relief.

During the day I really never felt unsafe, because the crowds were well controlled. The experience was sobering, however, because although similar attitudes exist in the US they're not as close to the surface. Also, it was a little ridiculous that we had such a stereotypical German experience; I'm willing to give the country another chance, though, because I still really want to go to Berlin but maybe in the spring when its less cold. At the end of the day I was really, really happy to get back to regularly grumpy Czech people, instead of violently racist, grumpy German people.

P.S.

A better picture of the roommates to prove to certain mothers that I was not "falling down drunk."

Cesky Krumlov...aka the Dirty K

So this weekend our entire group took a trip to Cesky Krumlov, a small town about three hours outside of Praha proper. The town is pretty picturesque and is home to a huge castle and lots of tourist-y type attractions.

We drove there on a big bus, pretty uneventful, lots of sleeping as we had to wake up at about 7AM (always a bummer). When we got there we immediately checked into our pensions (small, bed and breakfast type hotels, except unlike the B&Bs in New England, these buildings are older than our country) and got lunch. Then we took a long (long, long) tour of the castle and the village, which would have been amazing, save for the fact that it was snowing. Really, really snowing. And because our program is so amazing we got to take a private tour of the castle, when normally the castle isn't open in the winter. It isn't open because its cold. Very f-ing cold.

Regardless, the tour was really interesting, when I wasn't thinking about how, if I were inclined, I might break off a toe and eat it as a popsicle (should have worn those boots, Mom). The castle holds one of the only intact Baroque theaters in Europe, complete with costumes and sets and everything. Very neat. We then headed to a cozy coffee shop for a lecture about the town by our Floridian tour guide (ha!).

After the tour a few of us went to a really strange underground dungeon restaurant for (expensive) beer and then headed over to the official dinner which was (surprise, surprise) at a beer hall. The dinner was AMAZING, the food might have been the best I've had so far. Then after our mandatory and free beer, a gypsy band played for us and we all danced and drank until midnight when everybody promptly went back to the pensions and fell asleep, maybe the earliest I've been to bed since I've been here. The dancing, debauchery was quite fun because our program directors were dancing and drinking with the best of us, pretty hilarious. Also, there are two 50+ year old women on our trip who mayyyy have made out with our tour guide (hence, the Dirty K). Regardless, one of the best nights I've had so far. The picture is of all my roommates, not a great one of me, but cute of them...

The next day we had about 6 hours free to wander the city, so a few of us checked out the local church, which was beautiful, and went to the Fairytale Museum aka creepy puppets museum. Very cool, very creepy. Then we went and had some pastries that we followed up with a HUGE Czech lunch. I think I've never been so full, particularly because I had a HUGE HUGE HUGE chicken steak covered in ham and cheese and creamy broccoli (see picture below). Phew! Then, alas, we left the Dirty K to return to Praha. Extremely fun trip that I probably wouldn't have gone on without the guidance of the program.

On an unrelated note, yesterday I went to a HUGE ska show with my Czech roommate, Petr, and a few of his friends. It was really, really fun, and just like ska shows in America except the band was Spanish, so...they spoke Spanish. I wasn't the only one who didn't understand them, though, as when they asked "Are there any American Latinos in the house?" the whole stadium cheered. Definitely some anti-American sentiment, as they're a pretty leftist band. One song was all about how they didn't like President Bush, and I was like "time to take that one out of the line-up, guys." Even though I was a little afraid to reveal my nationality, the show was a great time...Check out Ska P below...