Midway (MONSTER POST)
Welcome to another update from Prague. A lot has transpired since I basked in the glory that was Oktoberfest.
I feel like we have definitely transitioned into the part of the semester where things really start to speed up and slip into a blur which will stop when it’s time to leave where we will wonder where it all went. My law professor mentioned preparing for the midterm last week and I had to do a double take. But that just means we’re having a good time, right?
The work really isn’t too overbearing and as such I’ve taken on a few extracurricular activities. I’m on the writing staff for our student-lead publication called The Prague Wanderer. I recently wrote an article on the popularity of Foosball in the Czech Republic and Prague. Don’t laugh, they take it quite seriously. You can find that HERE. I also decided to join on with Student Council here which is planning some really neat events such as Open Mic Night for students, movies with local students, and a Halloween party for us Americans later in the month.
I stayed in Prague last weekend which was pretty nice. Because so many were at Oktoberfest that weekend, I got to hang out with some kids I might not have otherwise. After a successful night of bar hopping, we hit the Prague Zoo on a really great, sunny Saturday. The Prague Zoo really exceeded my expectations. It’s absolutely huge and houses quite a range of animals. You could walk around for two hours and not the see the same thing twice. The highlights were probably the elephants (whose cage my friend Andy had to dive into to retrieve a girls phone) and a donkey who charged at us when my friend Robert called him like he was Shrek (Oi, Donkayyy!)
(Baby elephant!)
After that I went straight to bowling with some kids that live in the dorm that is on the other side of Prague from the other two. Bowling alleys are quite different here. Whereas in America, you get a (usually) dimly lit room with 8-12 lanes and loud pop music with lights, the alley here had 3 short lanes in a well lit room with subtle music. It wasn’t a bad thing, just another one of those odd differences you encounter in Europe.
(Relaxed bowling atmosphere in Holesevice)
The week was tame except for Wednesday night. A group of us went to a really neat bar called U Sudu which is near Wenceslas Square for a few drinks. Yet, more than a few drinks later, it shrunk to about 4 of us sitting around a table, arguing, of all things, the merits of Chocolate with Mint vs just Chocolate. Throughout my life as a passionate individual, I have been involved in a number of heated debates, but perhaps none so much as this one. A girl named Zoë and I fought for nearly 2 hours against our friends Mike and Connor who believed that the Chocolate-Mint combination was better than just Chocolate (the peak of which I yelled incredulously that I couldn’t believe that Connor would choose Peppermint Paddies over a Snickers) . We went from debates over the merits of our palates, to long drawn out analogies between music, society and otherwise in comparison to our preference. At the end of it, we concluded that, indeed, chocolate was king, but chocolate-mint also works and is sometimes preferable. At the end of this discussion, it was nearly 3AM and thus the Metro was closed for the night, so I was left with the night trams to get home, which I am not that familiar with. I incidentally got on the wrong one which took me to who-knows-where almost on the fringe of Prague. With a dead phone and poor sense of direction, I started walking to find anywhere with a phone. After about a mile of walking, I came across a hotel who let me use theirs and I grabbed a cab back, but I only got home at 4AM, which was rough.
Anyways, after an eventful Thursday night as well, I left with 4 other friends on Friday afternoon for Budapest. Now, I didn’t have many expectations heading in, I’d never heard, seen, or read much about the city but figured it would be cool. Budapest WAY exceeded my expectations. One of my friends aptly described it as the love-child of Vienna and Prague with it’s architecture and charm. Much like the Czech Republic, Hungary kind of suffers from the bias us the US attaches to it from being on the “wrong” side of WWII and the Cold War, when it wasn’t really the wishes of the populace to be so. Yet, unlike Prague, it was heavily bombed in WWII and so, some of the original buildings are gone. This hardly detracted from the beauty of the city though as the rebuilding went extremely well. It’s a very clean, well-organized city with a few beautiful boulevards lined with elegant buildings.
(Famous Chain Bridge in Budapest)
The only bad thing I experienced about Budapest in fact was the first thing I experienced which were three metro lady officials. After getting off our first stop, we were approached by the ladies who asked for our tickets, when we produced them, one of them told us they were invalid, that we hadn’t stamped them. We tried to convey that we didn’t know we had to, and that we had JUST gotten here. I told the lady to trash the tickets, and let us be on our way (we were only going to use them once) but she insisted that we pay a fine. When we refused, she threatened to call the police, who would take us to the station where the fine would triple. Faced with the threat of that, we backed down and ended up having to pay about $25 each. Needless to say, we didn’t use the Metro again.
(Heroes Square, which was just sublime in the sunset)
Friday night we went to this area of town which houses what they call, “Ruin Bars”. They’re basically these old, run down buildings that were taken up by a few bars after the fall of communism that they repurposed to their liking. I know it sounds sketchy, but they’re not at all and it makes for a really cool atmosphere. Plus, it’s quite international, so it’s easy to meet other people and make new friends.
Saturday morning we woke up and went downtown for a “Free Walking Tour” that our Hostel organized. Our tour guide was super energetic, knowledgable, and cheerful and I can’t imagine that I would get any better of a tour if I had paid for it (I tipped her at the end, but you get the point). Budapest (which is split into sides Buda, and Pest) has some really neat history and architecture that I wasn’t privy to beforehand. After that tour which took about 3 hours, we decided to head for the famous Bathhouses of Budapest, but not before stopping for lunch. The rest of the day fell into place beautifully. We found a traditional Hungarian cantina which was situated on the main road, had a wonderful 3-course lunch, and enjoyed some of the special Hungarian sweet wine. From there we walked on towards Heroes Square where we sat on the main statue base and watched the sun set below the city. The baths were located in a large garden right behind the square so we went on from there. After spending a whole day walking around Budapest, the experience of the baths was just the perfect thing. It’s basically a big hot tub surrounded by a nice, historical building, but the transition from day to night while we relaxed in the tubs was amazing.
(Me, Avu, and Alex, sitting in Heroes Square)
After our big lunch, we didn’t feel the need to have a big meal again so we went light for dinner before heading out again. We all tried a traditional Hungarian liqueur called Palinka, which I thought would be light and tasty but was quite strong. That’s about all there is to say for Saturday night.
Our bus left at 3PM on Sunday so we decided we only had time for one museum and a nice lunch before heading back to Prague. We chose the aptly named, “House of Terror” which is a political headquarters turned Museum in downtown Budapest. It was the headquarters of both the Nazi (Arrowed Cross) and Communist parties in Hungary during their half-a-century long occupation. The museum was really really cool. Well-designed, informative and interactive. It’s one thing to read and hear about the experiences of people during that era and another to touch and feel some of it first hand. The most harrowing part was the basement of the building, where the prison cells, torture rooms, and gallows were kept in original condition for exhibition. While not exactly a cheerful experience, it was an educational one and we were glad we went. After a long lunch, we (hurriedly) made our way back to the bus station and got on our way back to Prague. I was actually so bored on the 7-hour bus ride that I got most of my homework done! Hooray!
(The “Iron Curtain” outside of the House of Terror)
Well, fast-forward a few more days and I was on the metro headed to the airport to pick up Colin. Originally, Colin, George and I planned on a trip to Amsterdam to celebrate our 21st Birthday weekend, but clearly that didn’t pan out. Instead, Colin few out here to celebrate and see the city. That Thursday night I actually participated in the Student Government run Open Mic Night for students here. There were a lot of talented acts, but me and 3 other guys (me on drums) played Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out” which you may recall. It was quite popular about 7 years ago.
Anyway, after a fun Thursday night, Colin and I went and hit a few museums around Prague that I had yet to go to either. The first was easily the most interesting yet least historical and crude - that was the Sex Machine Museum. I know, I know, it sounds immature but I had to see it once. I’ll spare you the details but it was odd to say the least. The oddest part was probably how old most of the devices were, you usually think of open sexuality as taboo in older societies but clearly that was not the case everywhere evidenced by some of the contraptions inside. Next, we went to the Communism Museum near Wenceslas Square. It was a smallish Museum but had lots of memorabilia (if it’s right to call it that) from the Communist Era in the Czech Republic as well as some neat descriptions accompanying them. My favorite thing was probably the below sign, it just encompasses so much about the era in one sign. After that, we went to St. Cyril and Methodious Cathedral which is home to an important event in contemporary Czech history. I won’t try to explain all of it but you should definitely read about it here, especially if you’re into WWII stuff.
(Good ole Lenin)
Unfortunately, it was pretty rainy all day and we got quite wet, which was unfortunate because in the sun, Prague is a beautiful, charming European city with baroque, gothic, and art nouveau architecture. But in the rain, it’s a dragging, gray, post-communist city, or at least it seems more like that way. We took a break in the dorm before eating at one of my favorite places nearby, Parlament, which is a Czech restaurant owned by major beer company Staropramen and they have a wide assortment of their fresh beer on tap. Definitely a place you need to hit if you ever visit. We went that night to popular-among-NYU-kids bar U Sudu, which is amazing for it’s small outside appearance but monstrous indoor size before meeting some people at Lucerna.
The next day, we did the whole Charles Bridge-Lesser Town-Prague Castle deal because I thought it was going to be sunny… which it was not, at all. But it was still pretty cool, I got to see some things I hadn’t seen before including some cool armor replicas and the original prison tower of the castle and really, the whole castle complex and view from the top never gets old. That night, in order to complete the Czech experience, we got Smazeny Syr (friend cheese) and shared a small bottle of Becherovka in a park before meeting up with some or the RA’s and kids at a 90s party, which was pretty fun.
Low and behold, the next day, Sunday, was a perfect sunny fall day but of course Colin had to leave for France and I needed to prepare for midterms. Such is life.
Just a few days later on Wednesday evening, my parents (hey guys!) made their way to my new city and I met them that evening to show them around. We went back to Parlament so I could show them all that the Czech Republic has to offer in the dining department and called it a night since they weren’t sure how the jet-lag would effect them. Unlike Colin, they got a few days of stunning weather - including some awesome changes in the color of the leaves around here. Yet like Colin, we did much of the same stuff, which I didn’t mind since it’s neat to show people around a new place, see it through their eyes and watch as all misconceptions they had about this small central-European country melt away.
(The moon peaking over Old Town Square Wednesday evening)
Friday, we did a really cool bike tour throughout the city and I got to see some things that i had yet to see before as well as learn some new stuff too from our tour-guide. The lunch we had afterwards was awesome, but EXTREMELY filling, as we had to help my dad finish what was a iron plate full of meat (chicken wings and pretty much every part of the pig). What we did most of was just walk, which was really nice. Walk to this place, walk around, walk to get a beer, walk to dinner, walk to the hotel, etc. Since the weather was nice and the city so beautiful at all parts of the day, we didn’t mind at all.
Saturday, we went up to Vyšehrad, which is one of my favorite places around town, and walked the park admiring the fall colors and views before heading back to Old Town to take a WWII/Communism tour. Our tour-guide was fun and knowledgeable but the tour was long-winded and didn’t involve all too much since the Czech Republic was a participant but not really a player in either conflict.
(Dad in front of Wenceslas surrounded by some of the fall colors on display)
We ate great food each night and they’ll be back on Thursday to enjoy one last meal in Prague before heading back stateside. They’re in Vienna for the weekdays while I’m in class doing homework and what-not.
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Well, as I mentioned earlier, this is about the midway point and as such, I’m going to share my midway observations. What I have noticed about the country, culture and people since arriving here in late August.
1 - Czechs like Americans… kinda
On the surface, Czechs don’t really have a problem with Americans. They benefit from our inventions and enjoy parts of our culture, we helped liberate them in WWII and indirectly in the Cold War, so they certainly appreciate us. Yet, for those not involved in the service industry, I’ve found some of them to be a bit uppity about your presence in the country. That’s not to speak for everybody of course, and I’ve had a great time with the Czech RAs and some of their friends. And of course, I’m really enjoying it here, so that’s speaks a bit to the people, yet I can’t help but feel like they look at me with the “annoying-American-studying-abroad-here” look.
2 - Dog friendly city
Is it ever!? It seems like everybody’s got a dog. Dogs on the sidewalks, dogs in the parks, dogs in the metro, DOGS IN RESTAURANTS, DOGS IN CLUBS (I’m not kidding about those last two). I’m not complaining, not at all, I love seein the little guys around. It’s fun because, I can see that while humans have many differences around the world, dogs are dogs everywhere. They’re still the hyper, loyal, balls of fur that we recognize at home.
3 - Politically interesting country
As a Political Science Major, the Czech Republic has been intriguing to me. As a post-communist state, it’s doing quite well. They have a healthy (if a bit inflated) currency, part of NATO, part of the EU, and yet, the Communist party is the 4th most popular party in the country and you can still hear support for it among some of the older populace. I can understand though. For some, it made life better and easier - it erased income equality and still today, the Czech Republic is one of the best countries in the world when it comes to social equality. It gave people jobs and access to all kinds of different capitol. Clearly though, a vast majority of the country admonished it and threw it over peacefully in 89.
4 - Helps me understand America
Being away from America has helped me understand America. Whenever I see a black person here, I can easily go, “that person is NOT Czech”. It’s easy. Czechs are a small, old, homogenous nation. In America, I could look at any single person and have no idea where they came from, but they’re still Americans. Which is one of the great things about America. Also, being in a smaller country has helped me to grasp some of the American-exceptionalism. If Czechs can be somewhat proud of their history which contains mostly being dominated by neighboring powers, then we can definitely be proud of history of progress, growth, and basically winning the 21st Century between being on the winning side of WWI, WWII and the Cold War as well as claiming all of the major inventions (plane, internet, car, TV, cell-phone, etc.). I still don’t like our cockiness though. It has also helped me see how America is the king of capitalism. Our service industry, our corporations, our options, the sizes, the ads, all of it, absolutely dwarfs anything the Czech Republic has. I hate myself for it, but at first, all I really wanted was a Target or Wal-Mart where I knew I could everything I wanted/needed available and cheap.
5 - Adaptability
I think I’ve learned a lot about adaptability while being here. While the Czech Republic isn’t THAT much different than the US, there are a lot of things to get used to and I’ve learned the value in that. Just like when you start a new habit or routine, the first few weeks are weird, the next two you don’t think about it really, and the next thing you know, you don’t even remember what your life was like before. Changing your routine, getting used to knew products and food, learning your way around a new place and trying so many different things let’s you open your eyes to knew views as well as understand your old ones better. For instance, walking more than 5 minutes used to seem like a lot to me. Now I can walk for 30 and not mind at all. It also gives you belief that you can handle new factors in life, important for the future.
6 - Prague is just the right size
Prague is a European capitol, but not major by any means. Nothing really passes through here, and you wouldn’t put it on your must-see’s. But that’s perfectly okay. Prague has everything you could want, the preserved history, the culture, food, sports, it’s big enough to offer variety but not too big to be overwhelming. It’s not crowded, which means the city stays clean, traffic isn’t bad, it’s not loud and busy. It’s just right.
7 - Crossroad Country
Like I said earlier, the Czech Republic has been a participant of most of the major events in the Western World (Holy Roman Empire, Austro-Hungarian, WWI, WWII, Cold War) but hasn’t really been a prominent player in any of them. As such, the country has all of the history and intrigue of being a part of such events, but has remained intact throughout. It gives a sense of continuity and pride to the Czech people. It’s also smack-dab in the center of Europe. Despite it’s unwilling connection with the losing sides of said major conflicts of the 21st century, it gets grouped in with those “Axis of Evil” and “Communist” states. Yet, Prague is actually WEST of Vienna and you’ll get some bad looks if you call it an Eastern European nation.
Well, that’s about it folks. If you’ve read this long, you’ve trudged through 3500 words. Which is a lot. Thanks for keeping up, hope America is doing okay without me.
-Thomas
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I miss LOST. Badly.
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This is such a cool photo. A man skateboards through NYC in 1960, much to the curiosity and excitement of the onlookers.
Josh Romney came to tonight’s debate and greeted the president on stage afterwards.
Dun. Dunnn. Dunnnnnn.