I don’t even know where to begin. Friday began our 10-day break between intensive classes and the start of the normal semester. It was also the day those of us who signed up set off for the IES organized tour of Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. It’s nine days, with three days in each city and there are about 50 of us on the trip.
The bus ride from Vienna to Prague took about five and a half hours, so we arrived at our hotel at around 7pm on Friday evening. It was very obvious once we hit Eastern Europe because all the colors were immediately muted. The sky even turned grey, in recognition of our arrival, of course. We should have been there a few hours earlier, but “on time” is not a concept many of these kids understand. Regardless, we made it to Prague without incident and headed from our hotel to dinner. Now I will sum up the food in Prague: potatoes, bread, meat, bread. And potatoes. And meat. And soup. But only potato bread meat soup.
We went out to a restaurant, ate our soup, potatoes, bread, and meat, and headed to a DISCO BOAT on the Vltava River to dance the night away and see the beauty of Prague all lit up. It was absolutely FABULOUS.
Saturday morning we went all over, visiting churches, bridges, monuments, and the like. I couldn’t even tell you everything we saw. Eastern Europe is something I really never had any desire to see because I didn’t know much about it. I can say now that it is beyond beautifully breathtaking. They call certain parts of the city that were built in the 1300s the “new” part of town. Yeah. I know.
(Inside one of the Cathedrals)
After a hearty lunch of soup, meat, potatoes, and bread, we continued on our whirlwind walk-through of the city. We passed by the John Lennon wall, which is famous for its graffiti and the significance of all things anti-communism and free-lovey (not a word, I know). Seeing that next to things like the Charles Bridge creates an awesome cross-section of new and old culture.
(Leaving my mark on the John Lennon wall!)
We had a few hours of free time before dinner so a few friends and I shopped around and grabbed some coffee. OF COURSE, I found the one store in Prague that smelled like incense and had little Shiva statues. Too predictable. But I bought a gorgeous scarf, so I have no regrets.
After a dinner fit for Vikings, we went back to the center of town to watch a light show projected on the side of the clock tour about the history of Prague.
Then we went to a bar/club on the water called “Jazz Dock” for a special Latin music performance. This trip is insane because all of our hotels and meals AS WELL as some of our club entries are completely pre-arranged and taken care of (I mean, we paid beforehand, but STILL, 500 Euro for all this and traveling? I think YES.). The club was pretty cool and the music was fun to dance along to for a bit, but we were all so wiped from being on our feet for the entire day and having danced so damn hard the night before, that a bunch of us headed back to the hotel around 11:30 and were conked out by 12:30. Nothing like a Latin swing lullaby.
Sunday morning we got up early yet again, ate our meat and bread breakfasts, and headed straight for the Jewish Quarter of town. As our guide described the hardships faced by the Czech Jews, I really started to feel a strong connection to my Jewish heritage. It was extremely powerful to be there.
We walked from the Jewish Quarter to the center of town and looked at more old buildings, none of which I could tell you the name of. We saw one of the houses where Kafka lived, as well as where Mozart lived while he was composing Don Giovanni! He lived across the street from the Librettist and apparently they used to yell at each other out of the windows about the music. We also saw the theater where he premiered the opera! TOO. FUCKING. COOL.
After lunch, (WE COMPLAINED ENOUGH AND HAD VEGETABLES! Buttttt also potato soup…), we had about three hours of free time, which was PERFECT, because it was just enough time to head back to the Jewish Quarter and buy a ticket into all the Jewish Quarter attractions. We went into the building where they have all the names of the Czech Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. It was haunting. I lost track of my friends for a while because I was so engrossed in the wall that when I looked up, everyone was gone. We also got to walk through the Jewish cemetery, which is the only place that the Jews were allowed to bury their dead for something insane like 500 years. They buried them vertically, one on top of another, so the ground is actually like four feet above street level. They also kept moving the tombstones to make room, so the result is a clusterfuck of old tombstones for as far as the eye can see. It was deeply moving. We also went into a few museums with artifacts and paintings and stuff like that. Originally those things were stolen by the Christians to create a museum of “Extinct and Inferior Races”. Whoa. I was chilled to the bone.
After the Jewish Quarter, we made our way back through the city to the outdoor market to buy fruit and even more souvenirs. We have been on a constant quest for fruit, vegetables, sugar-free redbull, and souvenirs. We found all the things.
For our evening program, we went to this really weird event that was like an outdoor rock concert “in memoriam” of 9/11. It was really misplaced and people were hanging out and drinking beer while looking at pictures from that fateful day ten years ago. It was a little upsetting, to be honest. I felt odd not being in New York, yet alone America, on the ten-year anniversary. I didn’t need awkward, non-related rock music. Needless to say, we were happy to head to a late dinner, although dinner was another drama-filled night of soup, bread, meat, and potatoes. By drama-filled I mean that I have had to be the assertive voice for my lactose-intolerant, glucose-intolerant friend, Shelby, and you wouldn’t BELIEVE how difficult it is to explain that to people in Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Our chaperones try their best to help and set stuff up beforehand, but it’s always a battle. Battles are also hard to fight when no one speaks the same language, it’s 10pm, and everyone is starving and exhausted. But, seeing as we've been hearing so much about the "Velvet Revolution" these past few days, we figured it's about time for a revolution of our own. Equal rights and respect for people whose bodies can't handle regular food!
Last night, although it was our last night here in Prague, most people went back to the Hostel to get to bed relatively early and pack up. We leave at 9am this morning for KRAKOW! The drive is about nine hours so we’ve got to get an early start. ONE CITY DOWN, TWO TO GO!
THINGS WE ARE NOT: NOT EXCITED!
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