Cesky den!

This evening, I found myself amid the waves of several realizations. The first realization was that I hadn’t written anything on the blog for few days longer than I usually wait to update. The second realization was that I had a great many things to cover, and that there wasn’t a good time in the foreseeable future to do it all justice, or even to bullet-point it all. The third realization was that I’m going to Budapest in two days, and if I don’t write an update before then, it may very well be that case that the thought of summarizing this past week and a four-day trip to Hungary will be enough to make me throw in the towel on this whole blogging business. The fourth realization was that I am in a love affair with Prague. For date-keeping purposes (anniversaries and such), let’s just say it started today, even though I have a feeling it’s been going on for quite some time now.

So as I just mentioned, one of my realizations was that I don’t really have any time to blog right now. That’s why 12:50 in the morning seems like the best time to start, and if I type fast (ha. ha.) then I can be in bed at a relatively decent hour.

Let’s start with last Friday, which was, in many respects, a “Cesky den” (ches-kee den), as our Czech teacher put it. “Cesky den” is an expression used in the Czech Republic when something just doesn’t go exactly as planned, or things just don’t quite run on schedule. Like…  if your sink stops up for no apparent reason, causing your dishwasher to fill with water and your dual washer/dryer to do the same, you make a face, shrug your shoulders, and say “Cesky den..” Anyway, Friday’s Cesky den all started as a group activity for my Czech class. The original plan was to take a train to the north of Prague, take a small ferry across the river, walk 7 kilometers back towards Prague on a walking trail, and stop at the zoo for an hour or two (practicing out Czech there, of course). This Friday excursion, by the way, served as a substitute for Tuesday’s class this week. We got as far as taking a train to the north of Prague when Friday began turning into a Cesky den. Also, just to be clear, even though Friday was a Cesky den, it was not at all a failure, and as you will see in just a second, enough “Cesky den” moments have the ability to create an EPIC win of a day. We got to the river at about 11:15, and saw the ferry/dingy on the other side, so we sat down to wait 20 minutes for the next ferry to come across. After about 30 minutes, Christina, our Czech teacher, checked the timetable again just to be sure we had the time right, and it turned out that the ferry took a break at midday. The next ferry wasn’t coming until 1. Cesky den. Therefore, we decided to walk along the river to see if there was an alternate way across. We didn’t find an alternate way, but we did come across a lovely quarry that we assumed was probably for diamondgold (or gravel. It was a toss-up). Since there was no other apparent way across the river, we made the most of our remaining hour by walking to the Albert’s at the nearest village and buying pivos and bread for lunch. We got back with our purchases just in time for the ferry to come across. After all that waiting, the ferry took, I kid not, maximum two minutes to get across the river to our dock. We got to the other side (somewhat miraculously, since it felt like we were on the verge of sinking the whole way across) and had pivos, bread, and some traditional Czech pickled sausage that wasn’t half bad. Then the real fun began.

Christina had brought a bottle of wine with her to share with her friend (who had also come along) and whoever else wanted some. What she hadn’t brought was a wine corker. She tried a key. Sebastian tried using a key. She tried using a small twig. Sebastian tried using a highlighter, then a stick. At this point, things were getting desperate, so the focus changed from getting the cork out to just pushing it into the bottle. Christina and her friend got a very large stick and tried to accomplish this feat by balancing the bottle in some gravel near our picnic bench. Unfortunately for them, physics did not cooperate, and the bottle shattered. Cesky den.

Cesky Den

Cesky Den

We had walked about 4 kilometers toward the zoo when we came upon a trailer and picnic benches where pivo was being sold. Since Christina’s wine opening endeavor had epically failed, we stopped for pivo! Actually. Who am I kidding. We stopped for pivo because we were in the Czech Republic going for a walk, and someone was selling pivo. While we had pivo, Sebastian told a very entertaining story about a May 1 custom in his area of Germany, where men go dig up the biggest trees they can find and put them, decorated, in the yards of girls they like. Then, they, like, steal belongings or something, and if people in the town want them back they have to come to the spot in the town where all the stolen belongings have been placed and give the guys pivo if they want their stuff back. Tempted to move to Germany.

We then walked the final 3k to the zoo, but when we got there it was 4:15, and since the zoo closed at 5, tickets were no longer being sold. Cesky den. There was a general consensus in the group, though that this was probably all right, since we’d been walking off and on for the past 6 hours.

As if afternoon pivos and extensive walking were not already sufficient for fulfilling my habit of making poor life decisions pre-half-marathon-running (the Prague Half-Marathon was the next day), I ensured that this was the case by having Rosie (who had just gotten to Prague!), her friend Rachel, her aunt and uncle, and Renee over for drinks at our apartment that evening. We had a wonderful time, and everyone (sans myself, as I did care about my health for the marathon at least that much), went to the restaurant next door to my apartment for karaoke night! It sounded like a blast, so I’ll have to go next time. It was fantastic to see Rosie, and we had the first of many chats about how lovely it is to be abroad, and how much we’re sort of dreading going back to Richmond. Richmond is a great place, but Prague is, well.. it’s something else.

SO Saturday I ran the Half-Marathon, and it was awesome. For a lot of reasons. List time!

1. I ran it without any difficulties, even though it’s hard to train here, and there were poor life decisions made on Friday. Also, running on cobblestone is no joke, man. It’s some serious business.
2. I’ve never navigated a race this large by myself from sign-up to starting line, much less in a foreign language (although there was plenty of English being spoken, so that last point isn’t really valid).
3. The race route went along the river, and Prague Castle was in sight for at least half of the race. It’s not every day that you get to run around castles
4. I saw a man running in his turban
5. I saw parts of Prague that I’d never seen, may never see again, and would definitely never run in without, say. 8000 other runners running with me
6. Jeannie, her friend Caleb, and Renee all came to watch!!!
7. Emotional, inspiring, movie soundtrack classical music played as we crossed the start line. Tik tok by Ke$ha played as I crossed the finish line. Just the way I like it.
8. In the Czech Republic, the race was big enough news that Vaclav Klaus, the current Czech president (and recent President of the EU), attended the race and was interviewed over the loudspeakers prior to the start-gun going off.

 My awesome suitemates and friends in Prague would also probably add to this list that running the race made me significantly less of a nervous wreck and a little easier to be around. Since I couldn’t train as much as I had hoped for this race, I was a little nervous about how it would go. Renee found me at the end and we celebrated by going to Paneria (sort of like a Panera, actually, even though it’s no relation), where I devoured a bagel sandwich and Fanta, and then getting stratticella gelato! I came back to the apartment and crashed for like the rest of the day before going out with Renee to our new fave Italian restaurant, Grossetto’s, for wine and pasta. Delicious.

At the race!

The next day, I was rather sore, but determined not to let that interfere with hanging out with Rosie and Rachel. Therefore, I made myself get up, I ran a couple errands, and then I met them at the Easter market in Old Town Square. We toured the Jewish Quarter, something that I had already done but didn’t really mind doing again since the Jewish Cemetery is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I took more pictures. Then, we came back and straight chilled for a couple hours before heading to Lemon Leaf Thai with Rhee-Soo and Jeannie. That trip was mostly uneventful (though fantastic as always) except for a 20-minute period when all the lights went out. It was a little weird, but you know.. Cesky den!

Monday, Rosie and I got sort of a late start because we made the mistake of trying to register for classes. Turned out our registration slot was not Monday, but Wednesday, so we didn’t really need to wait around the apartment until 1pm (7am Richmond time). No matter. We remedied this bump in the road with lunch at Radost, which is never a bump in the road. I got something called the “Avocado Dream Triangle” and it was deliciously dreamy. After lunch, we went to the Kafka museum, which was great- I thought it really effectively captured Kafka’s spirit, although I’m sure there are those who would disagree. We then searched and searched and searched and searched for the Lennon wall before giving up....then tried one more time and found it!!!! Rosie was a trooper for putting up with my impaired wall-finding skills and my still-not-quite-gone post race exhaustion. We followed our sightseeing up with Smazeny syr (fried cheese). This was a necessary dinner, because the day before when Rosie, Rachel, and I had tried to get smazeny syr in the afternoon, the lady working in the booth MICROWAVED an already cooked sandwich. Grosssss. It was like having microwaved French fries or something. There’s a reason you don’t do it… Anyway, this tragic situation was remedied by Monday night’s lunch. Rosie had to leave at 3:30 am for her flight.. sad sad sad, so we hung out for a while and talked Richmond, Rome, and Prague for a while before calling it a night.

Photo idea credit to Rhee-Soo

Just can't get enough of that Jewish Cemetery

Rachel and Rosie!

To be honest, not too much happened on Tuesday. I was mostly sleepy. I went to class, took care of some errands, and went to bed early. It was nice.

Today was probably one of the best days I’ve had in Prague to date, and I can’t even quite put my finger on why. Perhaps a summary will make it clearer. I went to my internship at the Fulbright office today at 9am. I had rescheduled from my normal Monday time, since Rosie was visiting. You know, it may have been the internship that made today such a great day. I feel like getting off to the right start is half the battle won, and being in that office today just really put me in a good mood. When I got there, Jakub was very excited about how well the conference had gone, and all the communications I’d had with the fair exhibitors had served their purposes and helped things run smoothly (a small role, but still a useful one). Lots of qualified students had shown up to the fair, impressing the representatives from the U.S. colleges, and the colleges had made inquiries about the possibility of attending future events in Prague. I saw a bunch of pictures from the fair and other events that the school representatives got to take part in, and it looked like a great time. The happiness at the Fulbright office today was infectious.

After my internship, I headed to the CERGE palace to register for my classes and Rosie’s classes (she couldn’t register herself because she’s currently traveling in Milan). Not much else to say about that except that being a rising senior is a wonderful thing come registration time. We both got all of our top choice classes without any obstacles. I halfway expected Twilight Zone music to start playing when I finished registering both of us in less than ten minutes.

In case you haven’t guessed yet, today was also…. WTCD!!!!!!! So after registering and eating lunch, I went downstairs to the lobby of CERGE palace to meet up with everyone for the walking tour. Of course (Cesky den) I forgot my camera, so I am relying on the fine photography skills of Rhee-Soo to document this week's WTCD. Today’s topic was socialist architecture, and we spent the class visiting communist-style buildings. We even snuck into the meeting areas of the Congress Centre in Prague, which was built by communists, and apparently houses a theatre with wonderful acoustics. It is obnoxiously large. It also feels pretty stark inside, even though there's lots of open space. We congregated in one of these open spaces, and Pavel talked about the building until security found us and cut the party short. Sad times.

Then we went to some mass housing developments from the 30s, 50s, and 70s/80s. Housing on a mass production scale is “ugly”, inarguably, but I also found it a little eerie to visit the sites, maybe because mass housing on this scale feels a little weird to me. The housing units were, quite literally, built by laying down tracks of concrete with machines, and then just piling prefabricated concrete slab upon concrete slab. And these housing units were built not just for lower income workers, but also for middle class families. While it’s hard for me to imagine growing up in a huge, uniform apartment complex- or, more accurately, hard for me to imagine a scenario in which that’s the norm- it’s the case in many areas of the Czech Republic. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but 40% of Czechs live in these socialist-style buildings. While they solved the problem of a housing shortage in the 70s and 80s, they certainly contributed some problems, as well.  It is the norm in Prague to have shops and pubs on the first floor, the street level, of apartment buildings. In these socialist buildings, nothing of the sort was built into the floor plan. Therefore, people either made makeshift stores out of the first floor apartments, or, more commonly, shopping centers were set up in the vicinity of the housing units to house the shops and pubs that would formerly have been found in the apartments themselves. We went to a (sketchy casino) pub at one such center today after WTC, to get a feel for the area, and I’d say that not only did we definitely get a feel for the area, but also pivos after three hours of walking definitely contributed to this being one of the best days ever.

In fact, it was so much fun that I almost missed my concert date with Doris at Andel! That would have been really sad, since going to Andel was the closer on the “one of the best days ever” deal. I looked at my phone at 7:15, and realized I was supposed to be 40 minutes away in 15 minutes, so I texted Doris, and she was way more understanding than she needed to be. When I showed up at the venue (which was the same venue, be the way, as that for the huge film festival going on in Prague right now), I went downstairs to the Garages, which are actually parking garages that have been temporarily converted into concert festival venues. I found Doris, who was way nicer to me than she should have been, and we got henna tattoos and Ethiopian food, then watched a singer whose drummer was one of Doris’s friends. Pretty sweet. And the singer was really talented. I’m going to try to find her music online somewhere. Her name escapes me, but it’s written somewhere, so when I find it, I’ll just add it here. Also, I ran into Kate, who I haven’t seen in forever! So that was fun, and we’ve decided to make sure we see each other before my henna tattoo fades, which I think is a totally legitimate goal.

Phew. I’m done in, and it’s way, way, past my bedtime. Even on Prague-time. Sleep is in order. Love affairs like the one I’m in with Prague can wear a person out. 

St. Patty's Day and Krakow

Czechs don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which makes sense on the one hand because there’s not much of a history of Irish immigration in the Czech Republic, but doesn’t make sense on the other hand because it’s a lovely holiday and everyone should celebrate it. We decided to make the most of St. Patty’s Day, anyway. WTCD was even more fun than usual, and we toured Vinoharady, which is the area of Prague in which I live. It was great to become acquainted with some of the history of the area. We went to many places I hadn’t seen at all yet, even though they were within a few blocks of our apartment (ok, a few spots were maybe more like a mile or two, but still pretty close). It’s FINALLY STARTING TO GET WARM OUT IN PRAGUE, so I foresee lots of exploring in the future, especially around Vinohrady, because it’s beautiful. There’s a whole neighborhood of old “villas” a few blocks away (actually a few blocks away), and a constructivist church, an old water tower, and a really pretty park with a sweet looking playground.  Wednesday night we all dressed up in green and went to a club called SaSaZu for a St. Patty’s Day party hosted by the International Club. It was pretty sweet, and there was a U2 cover band that wasn’t half bad. Success. 

Church from the late 1920s

Vinohrady

One of the earliest constructivist-style houses, circa 1910 I think

Wearing green for St. Patty's Day!

Cheers! 

I left for a weekend trip to Krakow, Poland, with the CERGE program on Thursday at 5pm. We rode on a bus (Greyhound-style, not PECPS style, thank god) for 8/9ish hours to get there. Along the way, we made several stops. Per usual, we stopped at McDonald’s, because it’s apparently the case that McDonald’s is a comforting, familiar place to eat. Oh, McDonald’s. At this rate, when I get home I’ll have been to McDonald’s more during 4 months in the Czech Republic than during the rest of my life in the States. We pulled up to Nathan’s Hostel at approximately 2am, I think. Or it may have been 3am. I’m not really sure. This sounds worse than it was, though, because Rhee-Soo and I were both super tired on the bus and ended up dozing most of the way there. I was only moderately tired until I heard the final score of the Richmond game, at which point I decided to drown my sorrows in Blink and take a nap. Poor Spiders. Great season, though.

At 10am the next morning, everyone met up in the lobby of the hostel for a tour of the city given by one of the CERGE professors. Like any good European city, Krakow was abounding in castles, churches, and old universities. There’s a legend in Krakow about a dragon that used to live under the primary castle (Wawel Castle, and the ‘w’ is pronounced like a ‘v’ so it’s really pronounced ‘Vavel’… I personally think Wawel is way more fun). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel_Dragon

In the afternoon, after a delicious lunch of a kebab/gyro wrap, I rented bikes with Nick and Zoe, and we rode around Krakow for a couple hours. I may or may not have held us up, since I think it’s been about 10 years since I rode a real bike. However, I think I got my speed back pretty quickly, and there were no major hold-ups as a result of my sub-par biking skills. ALSO, in my defense, Richmond is nor really an ideal biking campus a) because there is a lake in the middle; b) because the campus slopes up steeply on all sides of the lake; and c) because there aren’t many (any?) marked bike paths in our area. That is, you are taking your life in your hands when you bike off campus. But anyway, we went biking along the river and through some neighborhoods, and our main destination was this manmade hill built on top of what appeared to be the highest hill in the vicinity. The Poles built it to symbolize their unity and nationalism and stuff. There’s dirt form all areas of Poland in the hill. Pretty cool. I personally would have made the trip just for the view at the top. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kościuszko_Mound

Fire-breathing dragon

At the castle

Ohhhh Bike Trip.. So elusive.. 

Where the bikes were hiding

River from the bridge

Parking bikes at the base of the hill

Kościuszko Mound

We considered walking up backwards

Saturday, we spent the better part of the day with a tour guide at Auschwitz and Birkenau. I’m not sure that words can capture what it feels like to visit an extermination camp, and I don’t think I’m going to try.

Saturday evening, I went out for some city exploration and dinner with Rhee-Soo, Nick, and Kyra. I really liked the feel of Krakow. It’s a little more open than Prague. There’s just a little less going on, and not quite as many people. I love Prague, and I haven’t regretted coming here to study abroad once, but if I picked up some Polish, I could definitely see myself spending a little more time in Krakow. The European pace of life is, at least as much as I’ve experienced it in the Czech Republic, a little less time-oriented than American life, and it felt, perhaps, even more so in Krakow. I still get worn out very quickly in Prague, partially because I’m always on the verge of getting lost, and I liked that I had a hard time getting lost in Krakow. Also refreshing was the proximity and accessibility of so much nature in. I think it’s entirely possible to get to nature from Prague, but it just takes a little more work. Also, I usually like that I can “get lost” in Prague and find my way to a familiar place with relative ease. Most streets I’ve happened upon don’t seen dangerous or anything, and the way Prague can spin you around and send you down one beautiful street when you were just sure you were headed toward another is a little magical.

Coffee!

Favorite kebab place

Sunday, we went on a tour of a salt mine in Poland, not too far from Krakow, before heading home. I had no idea it existed before this trip, but it’s apparently really famous in Europe, and a hot tourist destination in Poland. We went something like 600 meters down (although an elevator took us back up), and it may have been touristy, but they were not kidding around down there. Our tour was an hour and a half, and we saw approximately 2% of the entire mining area. Some highlights:

1)     You could lick the walls because they were made out of salt. A little gross. Well. A lot gross, but I did it anyway.

2)     There were tons of sculptures made by the miners, including several chapels.

3)     There was really old wood that had been preserved for centuries very well, since salt  preserves things so well.

4)     Two men had taken the time to build a full-fledged high-ceilinged church in the mines. It’s still active, holding services every Sunday. People can also get married there.

5)     There are numerous gift shops… and a RESTAURANT in the caves. All those feet down.

Definitely worth the visit. I sort of alternated among feeling like I was one of the seven dwarves, caught in a LOTR book, and visiting the Horcrux cave in HP. Well, and sometimes I just felt like a tourist. I even bought a little metal tree with salt rocks on it in a gift shop downstairs, even though I am just sure it’s going to break before I get back to the States.

Stairs down to the mine

One of the rooms- all were carved out of the solid salt

Chandelier made of purest salt

Ginormous chapel

More chapel

Manmade lake, better in person

By the time I finished my second 9-hour bus trip AND second trip to McDonalds (where I somehow ended up ordering and paying for two meals. Oh language barrier.. at least I knocked it down from what I think was originally 4 meals…), I was not feeling tip-top, and I’ve sort of been battling a headache all day. As long as I don’t get legitimately sick, though, life will be good. Sick would be bad not just for the obvious reasons but also because ROSIE IS COMING ON THURSDAY! And I’m running the half-marathon Saturday. Yikes. Could be ugly.

One final note. I’m familiar with the blog “Stuff White People Like,”  and I look at it occasionally because whether or not the author’s particular comment applies to me specifically, it’s almost always witty and on the money. Today, though, I clicked on two posts that were no less witty and no the money than usual entries, but were, nevertheless, not very encouraging for me as a study abroad student. The first one cited “Traveling” as something white people like, and the relevant part goes as follows:

“…Every white person takes at least one trip to Europe between the ages of 17-29. During this time they are likely to wear a back pack, stay at a hostel, meet someone from Ireland/Sweden/Italy with whom they have a memorable experience, get drunk, see some old churches and ride a train.

What’s amazing is that all white people have pretty much the same experience, but all of them believe theirs to be the first of its kind. So much so that they return to North America with ideas of writing novels and screenplays about their experience.

Upon returning home, they will also find an affinity for a particular beer or liquor from a country they visited. They use this as an excuse to mention their travels when at a bar. ‘Oh, I’ll have a Czechznlishiyush Pilsner. You see, that was my favorite beer when I was traveling through Slovenia and the Czech republic.’…”

Nothing like a blog post to bring you back to reality. Good times, good times.. Pilsner really is worth mentioning though, I swear. Not just because it’s foreign..  haha.

“#120: Taking a Year Off” and “#72: Study Abroad” are no more heartening. Enjoy. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

nighttime suits prague

Thursday, I got to listen to a Czech holocaust survivor speak about his experience during and after the war. CERGE hosted him, and we were all invited in light of our upcoming trip to Krakow. It was very moving to hear his story; he spent time in the Jewish ghetto and  in Auschwitz, saw Joself Mengela (he only realized who it was later) send his father to the gas chambers, and at one point was forced to  walk with thousands of other prisoners for days through the snow with almost no clothing. He lost his whole family and his faith in God. After the war, he learned how to make shoes and worked in the Czech Republic at a Ba’ta shoe factory for many years. He learned English while on the assembly line using flashcards when his manager wasn’t looking. He had been given the option of moving to Australia or Canada after the war, but because no one could tell him what he would do when he got there—where he would work, where he could live—he decided against it. He married a non-Jewish Czech woman (he only half joked that it was because there were no Jewish women his age left in Prague after the war) and has kids and grandkids. For years, he spoke about his experiences to no one, and it was only relatively recently that he opened up about the horrors he witnessed and survived during the holocaust.

Following the lecture, I went out for Thai food (again!) with the apartment, Rhee-Soo, and Greg. It was wonderful, as usual Then, we got gelato (YUM) and wandered around the Old Town Prague for a while. Prague is beautiful all the time, but it's especially breathtaking at night. The castle was lit up, and when we walked across the Charles Bridge lights from surrounding buildings reflected off of the water. When it gets warm out, I feel like wandering around Prague at all hours of the day is going to become the norm. 

Saturday, I went to Vysehrad, the oldest castle in Prague (founded in the 10^th century), with Rhee-Soo and Kyra. It was pretty chilly outside, but it was fun to get out and explore. The church at Vysehrad was stunning inside. It was built in traditional gothic style, but the oldest parts of the church were founded in like 1071 or something. It’s only been open to the public since the early 90s. No pictures, because cameras weren’t allowed and the lady at the door looked scary enough that I wasn’t about to take my chances. I’ll probably have more to write about Vysehrad later when we go there in a few weeks with Pavel on WTCD. Suffice to say that it offered beautiful views, had a nifty cemetery with lots of famous people, and there is now a very awesome playground built on the castle grounds. Totally wished I was like 7 years old.

After visiting Vysehrad we went to Rembrant Café off of Old Town Square and had some delicious hot chocolate. Hot chocolate here is actually like molten pudding. Czechs take their hot chocolate very seriously. It was delicious.  That night, we had a couple people over and celebrated Jeannie’s 6 month anniversary in Prague! I can’t imagine at this point in my trip, what it feels like to spend so much time in another country. Makes my 6 weeks seem like nothing.

Sunday, was sort of a lazy day. I wrote about 10 thousand postcards (which I have yet to mail) and watched Amadeus. Amadeus is 3 hours long. It is a very good movie. Probably a favorite. But wow, it’s dark. After watching it, all I really wanted to do was pop in Caddyshack, and I actually might have, but that would have made for almost 5 hours of movie-watching in one day, so I decided against it.

Monday, I had my internship at the Fulbright Office. I was up to my eyeballs in emails, which was exciting, and I got to proofread a document. I also get to start making a sort of “How-To” made for requesting and writing Fulbright recommendation letters. Feel free to slip me suggestions. I love having so many projects there!

After my internship, I went grocery shopping, ten headed to the Hollar building, where the international club office is, to pay the rest of my fee for the Budapest trip. I’m super excited about this trip for a few reasons:

1. Budapest is an old, historic city, and was one of my travel priorities at the start of the semester, so getting to go there with a group is perfect.
2. We are visiting a museum of terror.
3. We are also visiting a spa.
4. We’re going by bus. Not quite as awesome as a train, but a road trip, nevertheless!
5. The guy from the international club who is in charge of the trip is really nice and well organized, definitely qualities you want in someone who is taking you to a foreign country for 4 days.
6. I haven’t actually been out of the Czech Republic yet (although I suppose I’ll have been to Krakow when we leave for Budapest). Oh well. Still currently excited.

Today, one Czech class down, Regionalism and Global politics and Economics of the Czech Republic to go! Not sure what’s on the docket for tonight. Tomorrow is everyone’s favorite day. 

Actually. 

It's like favorite day X 2 tomorrow, because not only is it WTCD, it is ALSO St. Patrick's Day! There is a good chance that St. Patrick's day celebrations will coincide with WTC. 

My life be like ooh ahh..

Wonderful news. I have now expanded my Czech vocabulary enough to seriously creep someone out. I can introduce myself, tell anybody who would like to know that I am from Farmville, VA, and that I think they are beautiful and smart (hezky, eleganti). I guess it’s actually not that creepy. It sounded creepier in my head. And it would sound creepy if I said it out loud.  Anyway..

Friday, the apartment went to go see “Alice in Wonderland” (in English) at a movie theater near Wenceslas. We couldn’t see the 3-D version, because that was only playing in Czech, but we COULD get popcorn and soda (I’d been curious about how movie-going worked here)! A quick aside: this was the second time in the past month, actually, that I seen a supposedly groundbreaking 3-D movie in 2-D. First, I saw “Avatar” in 2-D at Sunchase Cinemas in Farmville.  Sunchase has  (thank god) recently upgraded from 3 cinema rooms to 8, but it has not yet invested in 3-D compatible technology. Then, I came to Prague, where 3-D technology is certainly available, but 3-D in English is much harder to come by. Fun times.
However, even though it was in apparently totally outdated 2-D, I really liked “Alice.” It was, I thought, more whimsical than dark, and honestly, I think the New York Times needs to give their staff more vacation time because we were not watching the same movie. Dear New York Times, your movie reviews are often useful (even if you sometimes tend to favor artsy, long, and depressing movies), but seriously “It’s just hard to know why Mr. Burton, who doesn’t seem much interested in Alice, bothered”? Nope. The movie is barely an hour and a half long. Frankly, I don’t really care the plot doesn’t live up to your standards. Not all of us want to watch "Million Dollar Baby" every time we go to see a movie. Perhaps, you would have preferred a three hour version of the same story?

On the subject of movies, I often find myself saying that I’m not a harsh movie critic, and that I like most movies, etc. etc. This is not entirely true. I thought about it, and there are a few movie genres that I avoid like the plague, even if everybody else likes them, they're visually stunning, or, gasp, the New York Times  . These include: horror/scary, tragic love stories (not to be confused with sad movies like Killing Fields/Last King of Scotland. It’s the purely fictitious sadness that gets me. Add a failed romance, and it just kills the romantic in me), and sappy animal movies (this probably is not a popular thing to say, and it’s not that I don’t LIKE them. I just don’t like watching them. I’m thinking the Free Willy, Lassie, Babe, Whale Rider, Charlotte’s Web, etc.). Anything else is pretty much fair game. Bonus points if there is some deep character development. For example, I didn’t mind the 2-D, somewhat forced,  plot of Avatar because there was enough going on in the rest of the movie that the plot was sort of a secondary component, in a way. What was more important in the movie was the development of a few key characters and the presentation of an imagination In “Alice”, I think you’ve got something similar going on: Alice needs to slay the jabberwocky. Weird plot? Yes. Overly drawn out? Not really. The movie doesn’t get wound up in its plot more than necessar, and as far as fight scenes go, Alice’s is brief and to the point. This allows for some really visually interesting scenes, as well as entertaining character interaction. There’s some really insightful character development, particularly in the case of the Mad Hatter. The exception to “interesting character development” would be Anne Hathaway’s character, who had some good moments, but was for the most part very much Anne Hathaway awkwardly trying to make this role different from similar roles she has had in the past. Should have cast someone else. Oh well, these things happen. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on movies too much, but “Alice” got me thinking about what it is that makes a movie enjoyable for me. In “Alice” conclusion, I’m going to see it again on Thursday with Rhee-Soo, her friend Greg, and the apartment, so we’ll see if I still like it the second time around, or if I was overly influenced by couple pre-movie glasses of wine..

Saturday, I went to Brno with the Charles University International Club.. ON A TRAIN! I love trains. Spending three hours riding on a train through the Czech Republic with my iPod and a window seat was perfection. Of course, I also tried to take pictures. Marginally successful. I miss trees and grass while I’m in Prague, especially right now when it’s cold enough outside that parks aren’t all that appealing, so the next best thing was attempting to photograph forested hills from a train window. I also got some lovely shots of track-side socialist architecture, which is not very lovely at all. It wouldn’t be quite so terrible if socialist architecture merely existed  here and there as a reminder of communism’s legacy. However, I learned a very disturbing fact today in Walking Tour Class (yes, today is WTCD! More details in a hott second): About 40 percent of the Czech population CURRENTLY live in apartment buildings built under communism. While you’ve got to give props to whoever suggested that a few coats of brightly colored paint might make the structures a little less hard on the eyes, no amount of paint can make those buildings happy.

Ah, trees. 

Some good old socialist architecture behind the trees. 

Brno was pretty cool. It’s the second largest city in the Czech Republic, and it’s not all that far from Bratislava and Vienna. Our itinerary was strange, but I thought it worked quite well. We took a very brief tour of the city, and while I’m sure I saw many sites of cultural importance, not too much was explained in great detail. Then, we went to a crypt that housed a lot of very old, well-preserved bodies of what I THINK were for the most part monks (but I’m not entirely sure, because everything was written in Czech. I may be able to creep out a passerby with my Czech, but read detailed information plaques, I cannot). Then we went to a beautiful church and climbed some stairs to get to the view at the top, which was totally worth the hike. After the church, we went to the Spilberk Castle. I was quite mistaken in thinking I was in for a tour of ornate castle rooms. Au contaire! We toured the infamous castle dungeons with a tour guide who I would love to make my adoptive Czech grandfather. The original castle was built in the 13^th century. Starting in, I think, the 17^th century, the castle began seriously functioning as a fort/prison. Casemates were built into the castle moats, and Spielberk became known as the cruelest prison in the Austrian monarchy. On the anniversary of their crimes, inmates would be taken out and beaten, and they were fed mostly bread and water (three hot meals a week, I believe, and they sounded gross). During the reign of one ruler who did not favor the death penalty, inmates convicted of particularly heinous crimes (eg. Multiple or brutal murders) were sent to the lowest story of the casemates, where they were chained up in wooden solitary confinement cells in complete darkness. Not one person condemned to imprisonment in these cells survived a full two months. This policy only lasted about 5 years, until the next ruler came to power and abolished it. More about that, if you’re interested: http://www.spilberk.cz/?pg=zobraz&co=casemates. Later on, the Nazis built rooms in the same area to serve as bomb shelters. We saw some old Nazi telephone set-ups when we toured the casements. They have replicas of the old wooden cells in the casemates, and it was sort of spine chilling to be in the room and imagine what it must have felt like.

Cool looking statue (Europe is represented by the figure on top, and then three countries-Czechoslovakia, Greece and ?- are inside the part below) and my face.

German Restaurant advertisement fail. 

A room in the crypt 

The church

A view from the church tower

Another view from the church tower.

Another view from the church tower

Example of a typical room in the Spilberk Castle Prison. The wooden structure on the wall is a bed. I didn't take any pictures of the really terrible rooms, because it just didn't feel right.

Nazi telephone hook-ups

Our tour guide!

After the castle, we went to dinner at a medieval restaurant, where we got lots of food. I sat with Kate and Renee, and we met lots of fun people. On the train ride home, I met a girl from Germany and a girl from Finland. We had a great time talking about things like potential travel destinations, housing situations (I am more grateful daily for living in an apartment instead of Charles Uni dorms), and education systems in our respective countries (it’s more interesting than it sounds). Then, since it was dark outside, and I couldn’t see anything through the window, I got some quality chick-lit reading in before we got back to Prague.

Medieval restaurant

Sunday, I was very lazy. I did nothing worth mentioning until approximately 9pm, when the apartment went to a nearby brewery called Pivovarsky Dum for drinks. Kyra and I each got the beer sampler and potato pancakes, Michaela got sour cherry beer with potato pancakes, and Jeannie got the light/dark mix beer with a delicious looking mixed vegetable entrée that I am totally trying next time. The beer sampler included light, dark, sour cherry, wheat, coffee?, banana?!, nettle?!?!?!, and  “Flavor of the month” beer. Coffee beer tasted.. like coffee. But I prefer coffee OR beer, I think. The banana beer tasted like someone had dropped one of those banana candies from the quarter machines outside grocery stores in it, but it wasn’t unpleasant. The nettle beer was green. I just pretended I was drinking a potion from a Harry Potter book and went with it. The beer of the month wasn’t bad, either, but I’m not entirely sure what it was.

Pivovarsky Dum

Nettle Beer

Monday was internship day! I did more emailing correspondence, and I felt accomplished. There is a large graveyard/park across the street from the hotel that houses the office that I need to visit. It’s very old, and probably very beautiful inside, so maybe I’ll make that a priority next week. My internship doesn’t start until 1pm, so there’s really no excuse for me not being able to get ready in time to go check out the park for a while beforehand. So far, though, I’ve found myself dashing out of the apartment with about 20 minutes to make a 25 minutes trip. There’s a first time for everything.

After my internship on Monday, I went with Kyra to the International Club Office in the Hollar Building, by the river, to pay our deposits for the Budapest trip. The trip is April 2-5, and we’ll get to do fun stuff like visit the Terror Museum and go to a spa. I’m excited. When we came out of Hollar, we were greeted by a freak 5-minute snow blizzard. Super fun. I sang the raindrops and gumdrops song, complete with dance moves (mostly so that I could catch snowflakes on my tongue). We went to go get Thai food with Rhee-Soo and Greg at a cute Thai restaurant that was a little hard to get to (up a staircase and across a porch.. ), then I came back and studied Czech adjectives.

Prague Castle

Kyra and the freak snow blizzard

Greg and Rhee-Soo at the Thai restaurant

Tuesday was my “busy” class day, so I was in class with Renee (we have the same Tuesday class schedule) from 8:20-6:30 with one three-hour break. I ended the day with a visit to the huge bookstore on Wenceslas, which was perfect for unwinding. I scoured the pens and pencils section, and found some (probably overpriced) Stabilo pens. I fell in love with them when I went to Frankfurt for a couple weeks after sophomore year and stayed with my friend Friedi (who had stayed with my family when she visited Farmville earlier that year as part of an exchange program between her school and mine).  She sent me some in the mail following my trip to Germany, but I didn’t bring them with me to Prague. SO, I picked a multi-color 10-pack for writing postcards…and class notes and stuff.  I also got a bunch of postcards. I figured that if I bought postcards, there’s a small chance I’ll actually write some in the near future. I like writing mail, but it’s one of those things that I keep not getting to here. I was going to pick up a couple books, too, but I’m pretty sure my ISIC card gets me a discount, and when books worth reading are selling for MINIMUM ten dollars a pop, then I’ll take all the discounts I can get. Tuesday night I watched all three hours of Masterpiece Theater’s Wuthering Heights. I’d never seen the movie, and I had read about half of the book freshman year before realizing that I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I haven’t tried to read it again, which I’m not proud of, but now, at least, I have seen the movie. I think I liked it, and, regardless, I appreciate the historical significance of the book’s subject matter.

Today was WTCD! There wasn’t much walking involved today though (which was fine with me, because I finally dragged my butt to the gym this morning). Instead, Pavel presented a power-point on different styles of architecture found in Prague/other random historical facts. I think we are supposed to memorize the power point for the final exam, and if that’s the case, I’m not too worried about the final exam. After the power point, we caught the 24 tram to the Florence stop and visited the museum of Prague. There is, in this museum, a complete paper replica of the Old Town of Prague and the castle side of the city that was made in the 1800s. It took the guy 11 years to construct, and it’s particularly interesting to view today because some of the buildings are no longer standing. Prague has been remarkably well preserved, so there is not that much in the Old Town that has changed, but some of the differences are striking. For example, a huge portion of the Jewish Quarter in Prague was demolished between 1893 and 1913 and remodeled to make Prague look more like Paris (WTF). Also in an attempt to make Prague look more like Paris, building were torn down between the river and Old Town Square so that a large road could be built directly connecting the two. Seems like a large sacrifice to make for a road that’s less than a half-mile long. This model survives as a timeless image of what mid-19^th century Prague looked like.

Paper model of Prague

After WTC, Rhee-Soo, Greg, Gina, Pranadhi, a Spanish girl named Mercedes, and I went to a wonderful desert place near the Mustek metro station. I got a banana split that was covered in chocolate, vanilla gelato, whipped cream, and slivered almonds. Yum. I postponed going back to the apartment by exploring a little bit, and headed home when it started getting dark. I’m not sure what it was about today, but for some reason it just felt really great. Prague is starting to feel like home. 

Yum.