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/