Michele Goes Dutch: Spring Break Soviet Style-Prague

So I just got back from an amazing, tiring spring break that was wonderful! Because there is so much to tell I’m breaking it up into three parts starting with Prague. I’ll try to include as many pictures as I can!

[Central Square of Prague]

Day One
We woke up at an ungodly hour to get breakfast and make our lunch packets before boarding the buses to Cologne Airport in Germany. My seatmate on the 1.5 hour flight was Rob my art professor which was awesome, he was making me laugh the whole time. He’s decided he wants to be queen of our upcoming castle prom. We landed in Prague and were bused to our hostel in the center of the city. While we were driving into the city I got my first taste of what the Czech Republic and eastern Europe would be like. Strangely, it was just what I thought it would be. Everything was pretty, don’t get me wrong, but there was a kind of depressed look to everything. I definitely got the feeling that I was in a former Soviet territory. When we pulled up to the hostel we were greeted by Amy (my roommate)!!! I can’t even explain how incredible it was to see her! After we threw our stuff in the hostel (where we had a gorgeous 4 room apartment with a full kitchen), we grabbed some bratwurst and mulled wine for lunch. The castle group was split up into different walking tours and I ended up with my history professor Ralph. The tour was wonderful because we got to see a lot of the city and Ralph is really interesting so he made the tour great. Ralph took us to the “John Lennon Wall” which is on the outside of a monastery. It started as a memorial to John Lennon after he died but then morphed into a form of protest against the soviets. It has this beautiful graffiti all over it with song lyrics and quotes. Aunt Marylyn you would have loved it!

[Hippie at heart!]

[John Lennon Wall]

["The Stones Rule!!!"-Aunt Marylyn, were you here??]

After the tour we went back to the apartments and split up for dinner. Amy, Joe, Roisin, and I grabbed a quick dinner because then we went to what is one of the craziest, unbelievable, and strangest experiences I have ever had: Cats in Prague. Cats in Prague is not just any normal type of show, no sir, it is a BLACKLIGHT show. Yes, that’s right, black light. And there weren’t actors, nope, HAND PUPPETS. HAND PUPPET CATS. We sat through the entire show with our mouths hanging open because we couldn’t believe it was actually happen. There was an entire song called “Cats like making love in Prague,” which is exactly how it sounds. We got to see where cat babies come from, witness a cat burlesque show, a cat bank robbery, and cat strip tease. ALL WITH NEON HANDPUPPETS. The two real people in the show were lip-syncing badly to an English recording of the songs. One of the puppets lost its head during the show and it went ignored. I should explain.. these puppets were literally just a hand in a white glove with a stuffed cat head above it. Great first night of spring break, WOOOOO

After we composed ourselves from the shock and awe of Cats in Prague, Amy, Joe, and I set off to find the train station to check about making reservations and buying tickets for our train to Vienna. We maneuvered across a six lane highway to find ourselves in a sketchy abandoned part of the train station. We eventually found ticket counter but not after scaring the crap out of ourselves. We met up with Cailin and took an epic walk around the city to find Amy’s hostel. She ended up cancelling it because a few of the apartments had extra beds for her to use. After a failed attempt to find the perfect bar, we came back to the apartments and hung out and talked for the rest of the night.

Day 2
I woke up semi-early and grabbed breakfast at a restaurant down the street with the rest of the castle. We were given metro tickets and caught the subway to the base of the hill that leads to Prague Castle. It had been snowing pretty hard so the roads and sidewalks were blanketed. Prague looked so gorgeous and picturesque covered in snow with huge, fluffy flakes falling lightly everywhere. The hill to get to the castle was more like a mountain that was slippery and took forever to get up. Once we got to the top we were split into groups and I went with my Art History class. After a failed attempt at getting into a museum, our class split up into two and I went with Dulcia into the cathedral that is part of the castle. Because it was freezing cold, we kept tap-dancing and doing the hokey-pokey to keep warm. The cathedral was baroque in style and was so gorgeous! The stained glass windows were done in a mosaic style that was unlike anything I had seen before. While we walked around the cathedral, Dulcia lectured us. Afterwards she took us to a café for hot drinks a little ways down the mountain. I had the most delicious hot chocolate. Also, Dulcia warmed up my hands for me, no big deal or anything. Oh, and she likes jungle print too. Yeah, basically I want to grow up to be her. Today in class we found out that she got to hold the Mona Lisa in her hands. SERIOUSLY?! She keeps getting more awesome each day!

[View from Prague Castle of snow covered Prague]

[Baroque Cathedral]

[Gorgeous silver altar piece of St. Nepomo]

After the café, Cailin and I met up with Amy for lunch because we had been split up. We grabbed a quick pizza-note to self, never eat the peanuts they leave on the table, you will get overcharged for them! We got a little lost on our way back to meet the group but thanks to Amy we found the meeting spot just in time to leave again. This time our art class went to an old convent that has been transformed into a museum. On our way there Dulcia and Rob made us all skip across the huge square that makes up the city center. The museum was really fascinating and made me realize that I really want to work in a museum or another place surrounded by art. Fun fact for you Dad because I know you love them: St. Sebastian is often considered the saint of homosexuals because he is depicted as very attractive (according to Dulcia and Rob). After the museum, Rob took us to a bar because he owed us drinks from class. Cailin, Jake, and I ordered Grog-a Northern European drink that came recommended by Dulcia. It is a hot drink made of pressed oranges (or a different fruit), boiling water, and rum. So delicious!

Cailin and I made our way back to the apartment to collect Amy and Jake. The four of us went to the grocery store around the corner to buy food to make for dinner. We made a delicious pasta with red peppers and tomatoes and garlic bread. We also had really cheap white wine- “You can taste the money we saved.” We cooked the dinner in Jake’s apartment and while we ate, Nick came in and joined us. It was great just sitting around and talking. After a while a ton of people started to filtered in and we found ourselves in the center of a party complete with cheap, yet delicious, peach vodka and gingerale. There were tons of sing-a-longs, with a rousing rendition of American Pie by Jake and yours truly.

[Amy, Cailin, Jake, and I with our delicious dinner]

A note about the money in Prague: The currency in Prague is the Kroner which has a ridiculous exchange rate, 1 US Dollar= 18 Kroners. All of the prices were in the hundreds and it was a little shocking to have a dinner bill come to 400 Kroners. It took a little while to get used to the adjustment in prices and currency. Everything seems expensive but it was actually really cheap.

Day Three-
The day started off with breakfast down the street again. Afterwards the group was split up and Chester Lee and Robbert took us over to the old Jewish Quarter where we had a walking tour. The tour guide was so quiet and could barely speak English. Her voice kept lulling us all to sleep! From what I could gather, we saw the oldest synagogue in Prague, the Sephardic Synagogue (which was beautiful), and the Pinkus Synagogue which acts as a memorial to the 80,000 people from Prague that were sent to concentration camps. It was a beautiful sight to see because the names of all 80,000 people were written meticulously on the walls of the synagogue. The tour consisted of a lot of standing around which was tiring so Robbert snuck me some chocolate while we were at the back of the group to keep me awake. The Prague excursion has been great because I really feel like I’m connecting with the staff, like Robbert, more and I’m getting to see my professors as “real people” who are fascinating. We also got to see the oldest Jewish cemetery in Prague where over 10,000 people are buried.

After an odd vegetarian lunch with Holly and Jake, our art class met back up to try to go to a museum on top of the huge hill again. We only had a half hour before the museum closed so we ran in to look at a few paintings. After feverishly taking notes on paintings from different styles, we went back to the same coffee shop from yesterday to discuss as class. Dulcia convinced me to order some grog which was lemony and stronger than the day before. She downed her drink in no time and began lecturing the class semi-drunkenly. Seriously, every castle experience just keeps getting stranger and stranger. After the “lecture” we trekked down the mountain to get to the hostel. Amy, Jake, Cailin, and I wanted to go out for a traditional Czech dinner and stumbled upon the perfect restaurant. It was in the middle of a narrow alleyway lined with cobblestones and seemed perfect. The waiter was the stereotype of an eastern European man and we were serenaded by an accordion during dinner. I had roast duck with red cabbage and dumplings (which were straight gluten I’m pretty sure). So delicious! Everything was washed down by a local Czech beer. We stayed for two hours just talking and relaxing which was so nice. We went back to the hostel and stayed up talking for a while with Wynn.

[View from Prague Castle in the sunshine]
Day Four-
Monday in Prague was a tiring day both physically and emotionally. We woke up really early to board the buses for an hour and a half ride to Terezin, a town on the outskirts of Prague. It was the model Jewish ghetto and the home of a prison were many Jews were sent on their way to Auschwitz. On the way, Amy and I got to catch up and talk which was much needed and really great. Once we arrived at the fortress/prison we were split into groups and this time I was with my history class led by Ralph and accompanied by Dulcia. We were taken on a tour through the SS barracks and some cells. We saw the cell where Princip was kept-the man who assassinated the archduke Franz Ferdinand and effectively started world war one. The entire time it was lightly snowing, adding to the eeriness of the entire experience. We saw a room where Jews slept with the bunks still in them. They looked exactly like they do in all of the holocaust movies and it was unnerving to be standing there. I cannot articulate the feeling you get from standing in a place where such atrocities happened and where hate ran rampant. I still cannot wrap my mind fully around the experience. It was just a heavy feeling in every part of my body. Ralph took our class down to the cemetery where tombs were erected in memory of the people who died in Terezin. There were no names, only numbers on the tombs. In the Jewish tradition, a stone is placed on a grave in place of flowers to honor the dead. He had a girl from my class place a stone for our class on the tomb and had a moment of silence to honor those who were killed. Everyone was crying and emotional. It was such a raw experience. Ralph broke the silence by saying that we can never let something like this happen again, that we can never let hate and prejudice transform a society like this again. It was especially effecting because Ralph is from Germany so he talked about his feeling of responsibility and how he became a teacher so he can educate others to not be like this again. The professors were really great with all of us and kept coming up to those of us that were upset and hugged and comforted us.

After the fortress we took a bus to a museum to see a Nazi propaganda film. After the film we went to the crematorium. Again, words cannot describe the horrible feeling that comes when entering a place like that. The smell of diesel is still strong in the building. It was emotional and incredibly heart-breaking. I walked into the autopsy room and had to leave because it was just too much. We boarded the buses back to Prague. On our way I realized just how much the ghetto still looked depressed. Amy and I kept saying how we couldn’t believe people still live in the town because of the downtrodden feeling of the whole place.

Once we were back at the apartment we grabbed our bags and officially ended our academic excursion. Cailin, Amy, Joe, Lousia, Amanda, Zara, and Martika and I walked around to a flea market where I bought a painting and walked over the Charles Bridge back to the John Lennon Wall where we took pictures. We went to the train station and because our train was an hour late we decided to make the best of it by laughing and hanging out. The train was about five hours long and was really cool because we were in Harry Potter-style compartments. Once we got to Vienna, Cailin, Amy, Joe, Louisa, Z, and I wandered around for thirty minutes before we were able to find our hostel (which ended up being literally 1 block from the metro stop). Of course, our hostel was located next to a “Live, Exotic Peep Show.” Woo.