The End

      I have no idea how this happened so fast, but I'm currently on a plane back to the United States (no thanks to Heathrow airport. My flight was cancelled... again... with perfect weather).  I can't really comprehend that I'm leaving Prague, it hasn't hit me yet I guess.  I also can't wrap my head around the idea of seeing all my friends graduate and my family again.  I guess that will hit me soon regardless.

      I spent my last week mostly doing work to be honest.  I wrote two papers, took three tests, and did an art piece.  The art was cool, I tried my hand at graffiti for the first time ever!  The project was for dissent class, and I created a stencil piece based on a picture of a Roma girl in Auschwitz.  The piece is supposed to draw attention to the lack of remembrance of the suffering experienced by the Roma people in WWII.  I learned in my history class that there are two sites in the Czech Republic where the Roma were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered during the Holocaust.  However, instead of a memorial or museum like you would expect, one of the sites is currently a pig farm while the other was turned into a vacation resort.  I was so disturbed by this that I felt Roma remembrance a perfect topic for my dissent final.  I ended up spraying the piece onto a legal wall in Prague which was a total blast.  I also thought it was exceptionally cool to feel like I had left my mark in Prague, literally.

My Graffiti!

Me and my Piece

      The last day of the program I made the trip to Petrin hill which I had intentionally saved for the last day.  The day was the warmest most sunny day of the entire semester and I couldn't have imagined a better last day.  As I climbed bells rang throughout Prague celebrating Czech liberation day.  I basked in the lovely views and sunshine before heading to Wenceslas square for the last time.  I realized I had walked through the square everyday on my way to class but rarely stopped to admire the view or snap any pictures.  I bought my last few souvenirs and gifts for my family before heading home to pack.  It was shocking to see all my things from an entire semester condense into two bags in the matter of an hour.

Mini Eiffel Tower

View from Petrin Tower

View of Petrin Tower

Me at the Top

      The girls from my apartment and some other CETers went to our favorite spot: the Three Pigs for our last Kozel tmavy (my favorite beer) and bread dumplings doused in creamy gravy.  I headed to the airport this morning feeling like I had successfully seen everything in Prague I wanted.  It was amazing seeing Prague castle and Charles bridge fade away as we took off.  The plane provided the best view of Prague I've had thus far.  It was surreal to be able to see my home for a semester all in one sweeping view.

Three Pigs

My Favorite Czech Dinner

      Overall I really enjoyed Prague.  The city is absolutely beautiful and every street holds amazing architecture.  I fell in love with Mucha, Kafka, the Czech language, and Czech beer.  While the city was practically perfect, I'm not sure I would want to live in Prague for longer than a semester.  Honestly Central European culture is extremely different from anything I've ever experienced.  The strange sense of style, slightly conservative political views, and overt sexism had me reeling more than once.  I'm excited to not have to tell my program director why what he just said was inappropriate anymore.  The history of Central Europe is fascinating, and has clearly impacted the society today.  For example, in an effort to leave communism in the past, the entire country has shifted to the right.  If anyone strays too far to the left politically they risk being labelled a communist.  Even more shocking is that the communists promoted gender equality (you know, men and women work in a factory all day), leaving the Czech people slightly sexist today.  Though the Czech Republic was much more bearable than Poland in this regard, I still know I wouldn't want to live there forever.

      My semester abroad opened my eyes up to a new historical perspective, a completely new culture, and some really great beer, but I'm extremely happy to be on a plane heading home today. :)

      I'll see you all (and many of you graduating) so soon!  How shocking...

The Castle on my Last Day =)

Na schledanou Praha, nikdy nebudu zapomenout ty!

A Dobře den Ameriky a Grinnellu!

- Patty

Slovenia: A Bit of Paradise

      So this is a bit late I know, but these last weeks have been hectic as I'm sure you can imagine.  The weekend before last I found a few friends to go with me to Slovenia.  The rest of this blog will consist of mostly pictures (you'll understand why in a minute).  We took the night train from Prague to Vienna and tried to sleep a bit before the sun came up and we caught a second train to Ljubljana.  The whole morning ride my eyes were glued to the window.  The mountains and cottages were so beautiful.  The entire landscape felt secluded and natural.  I wanted to get lost in the woods and never come out (don't worry I didn't give in to the desire).  We arrived in Ljubljana and I was shocked at all the green growth in the city.  Actually I'm not sure Ljubljana could be called a city, more like a town.  It's small and beautiful.  We checked into our jazz themed hostel and headed out to explore.  Despite our exhaustion, we climbed up to the castle and admired the flowers before grabbing some pizza and a couple drinks.

View from the Castle

      The next day was the main event.  We bought bus tickets to Bled and hopped on for a gorgeous ride.  The alps loomed above us and I couldn't keep the smile off my face.  I've never seen mountains that powerful and awe inspiring, and anyone who knows me knows I'm already in love with the Rockies.  We arrived in Bled and somehow my smile grew larger.  We rented bikes and started out with a ride around the lake.  We stopped at Tito's villa, where any sane person would be happy to live aside from the huge communist mural.  After a quick lunch, we rented a boat and rowed out to the island where we attempted to ring the Cathedral bell three times with one pull to supposedly make all our dreams come true.  After a gelato break we rowed back and hopped back on the bikes.

Ride Around the Lake

Rowing around the Island

Unreal

View of the Castle

      We agreed to bike the 2.5 miles to the Vintgar Gorge.  Despite the completely uphill trek, the gorge was well worth it.  The water was as aquamarine as at a water park.  I could have sworn the river bottom was painted to create the clear blue color.  We biked back and I somehow convinced the group to make the hike up to the castle for the most spectacular view of the day.  As we sat waiting for the bus back, we kept going over our favorite sights and adventures of the day.  It might have been my favorite day of the entire semester!

Ride to the Gorge

Vintgar Gorge

Gorgeous Water

View from the Castle

      The next day we woke up to see the handful of sights in Ljubljana.  After the cathedrals, buildings, squares, and one museum we found a pretty fancy fish place to enjoy a nice dinner to celebrate a great trip and a great semester.  We grabbed a margarita at the only Mexican restaurant in Slovenia (just a guess) to celebrate cinco de mayo and the waiter was confused why we were celebrating.

Exploring

Triple Bridge at Night

      Overall the trip was spectacular.  It gave us a mental break which was just what I needed before the last weeks of class.  For the entire day in Bled I couldn't stop imagining my family making the trip.  Renting bikes and rowing around an island are the exact kind of adventures my family loves.  I think it would be a blast to go back and make the same trip again with my fam.

      As I sat in the train on the way back, I was sad to leave such a lush and peaceful place.  Nothing seemed to matter in the quiet town of Ljubljana.  Regardless, I was also excited to get back to finish the semester and get home to my family.  It's hard not to miss them immensely while picturing them enjoying the adventures I went on.
      The last weeks have come so fast, and I fully intend to make the most of them.  I'll finish my finals for class, see the last few sights, buy my last few souvenirs, and leave Prague feeling like I didn't miss anything. :)

Budapest: Last of the Traveling Seminar

      Unfortunately I left Budapest feeling like I had no grasp on the city. I think this feeling stemmed from poor planning done on my program's part and a lack of excitement on my part. This late into the semester most of my excitement is being poured into finishing classes and getting back to my family which unfortunately made it hard to keep my energy and excitement up for Budapest. Despite that the trip overall was nice and I definitely want to return to get a fuller experience in Budapest.

CET in Budapest

      We got off our bus to quickly get to our hotel and check in before heading to our first lecture. The lecture was somewhat entertaining I suppose, but the purpose was to give us a feel for the culture in Budapest. I thought this was strange seeing as we didn't have any similar lectures in any of the other cities we visited, but I went along with it. The lecture consisted of information easily found by doing simple research in a travel book or Wikipedia. Most of the students really enjoyed the lecture but I guess I'm so used to (and really enjoy) learning a little about a place before I get there that the lecture was pretty useless. We left the lecture for dinner at a restaurant with a great atmosphere but mediocre food that could not be deemed Hungarian at all.

Group Dinner

      The next day we headed to a little town called Szentendre just outside of Budapest. After a quick description of the town we were told to explore for the rest of the day. The town was really pretty and quaint but exploring consisted of stopping in a few of the numerous souvenir shops before sitting by the lake for the rest of the day. I think the purpose of the trip was to relax, and it was relaxing, but again I could have done that anywhere. We got back to Budapest for another lecture focused more on history. The lecture was a bit more substantial and reinforced what we had already learned in class. It was interesting to learn that the Hungarian national anthem pretty much says "Because of all the crap we've gone through we can pretty much do what we want without retribution. Thanks god!" That was a funny tidbit of info for the day. We met up with a few Grinnellians and headed to a ruin bar for the night. This was probably the most Hungarian thing we had done yet and it was a blast. A while back there were several buildings that were set to be torn down and built into something new until they were taken over by creative and hip bars and clubs. The dilapidated buildings were reinforced and given a face lift with modern art and hip accessories. The ruin bar we went to had ceramic rabbits hanging from the ceiling and animals playing instruments on the walls. There are several of these bars throughout Budapest.

River by Szentendre

      The next day we finally got a tour of Budapest and I finally felt a bit more grounded. We hiked up to the castle to see St. Stephen's and the great views of Pest. We stopped by the Opera on our way back to the hotel for a break before heading to the baths. This was by far my favorite thing we did in Budapest for so many reasons! Getting to soak in hot water and catch some sun (there are few things that are better) would have been enough to make me love the baths, but the location also provided the most entertaining people watching I've ever done. There was such a mix of people ranging from three adorable Hungarian men in Speedos who clearly hung out there all the time to an American guy with long dreadlocks who had just moved to Budapest. There were people from every corner of the world and every possible age group. There were three drunk men making fools of themselves and groups of kids splashing around. We even found a gay man with his daughter who really loved Arsenal (well more he found us, or even more specifically he found Ben). By the end of the day I was pruney and totally relaxed. I tried to find some people to get a traditional Hungarian dinner but everyone was set on saving money. Fortunately I found a good compromise by eating the cheap Hungarian dish called Lángos. It consists of a dough much like funnel cake topped with anything from strawberries and Nutella to salami and ham. I ordered the most typical Lángos with sour cream, garlic, and cheese on top which I quickly devoured. I watched a bit of the NFL draft (thinking of Chris Jarmon as
I watched the clips) and headed to bed.

View of Pest from the Castle

Baths!

      Our last day was ours to do with what we pleased. Kylie and I grabbed a Hop on Hop off bus tour brochure and decided to save money by walking from stop to stop. We finally saw Pest (which we didn't get to in our tour) including the Synagogue, National Museum, and Grand Market. We walked down the river to see the beautiful parliament building up close which was by far my favorite building. We also saw the monument to Jews shot into the Danube during WWII which was moving and very well done. By this point we were pretty pooped so we hopped on the metro to return to the park the bath was in. We saw the Hero's Square which reminded me of Vienna and walked around the city park. The park came right out of any kid's dream. There was the zoo, a circus, a fun park, carnival games, candy stands, ice cream, peddle boats, and almost anything else a kid would ever want. We got some ice cream and enjoyed the sun and grass before heading back to the hotel to cool down and head out.

Parliament building

     

In Hero's Square

      Even though our Budapest trip was a bit of a disappointment to me, I mostly feel like I need to come back with my own itinerary so that I can really see the city. It surprised me that almost all of my class mates immediately fell in love with the city and even said they wished they had studied abroad there instead. I honestly think the city's draw had a lot to do with the 80 degree weather, but I don't think I could ever like Budapest as much as Vienna or Prague. I decided the city felt like a bigger Prague mixed with a dirtier Vienna. Seeing that I enjoy Prague's smallness and my deep attachment to Vienna had a lot to do with the lack of dirt and trash, maybe you can see why Budapest comes in third for me. I also realized I saw zero art in Budapest which is something that shaped my experience in Vienna and I've also enjoyed in Prague.
      Anywho, I'll definitely come back to Budapest, but in the meantime I'm currently on a train to Ljubljana! Almost every Czech has told me to go to Slovenia. I'm pretty sure it is the vacation destination of Czech people. I'm really excited for the weekend of fun, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Train View!

Egészségedre! (Cheers)
-Patty

ps. Hungarian sounds like a kid pretending they can speak a language...

A Series of Small Adventures

      The last few weeks have gone by in a blur!  It seems that after the travelling seminar time has sped up.  Therefore, I will try to briefly catch you up on my life here in Prague.

      The first weekend after the travelling seminar was our long Easter weekend!  Most of the students in my program took this opportunity to travel, but I decided to save the money and spend Easter in Prague.  Eva had a friend visiting so we walked around to the typical tourist zones like new town, old town, and the castle.  It was our first taste of tourist filled Prague; the streets were full of foreigners and Charles Bridge was all but impassible.  Despite the hordes of picture snapping crowds, the mood was festive and I couldn't help but enjoy myself.  Old town was taken over by merchants and food venders all selling from little brown stands decorated with flowers, sheep, and eggs.  The decorations were complete with several huge living trees temporarily planted in the square covered by colorful ribbons.  We enjoyed some Eastern European treats (we thought they were specifically Czech but found out they are traditionally from Hungary) called trdelnik.  It consists of a slab of dough wrapped around a metal pole spun over hot coals for a few minutes before being doused in butter and rolled in cinnamon.  Needless to say it was delicious and I ate three in the course of two days.  The Czechs celebrate Easter with a large meal with the family topped off with a traditional cake that is usually made in the shape of a bunny.  The handful of CET students left decided to bring together our little family to have a large potluck feast.  I made corn chowder and others added mac and cheese, veggie salad, and some other goodies to the table.  After scarfing that down I pulled my dad's black bottom cupcake recipe out of the oven.  I attempted to make the brownies in a rabbit mold to be festive, but the gooey cream cheese collapsed every time.  We ate the remains of three bunny cakes and a few batches of mini brownies in record time.  Fortunately I avoided the main Czech Easter tradition where boys whip girls with branches until the girls reward them with chocolate and eggs.  Supposedly the whipping is supposed to keep us young... I think I'll pass.

Trdelnik in New Town

Easter Market in Old Town

Potluck Dinner

Black Bottom Bunny!

      The next weekend I joined another Czech table with one of the Czech buddies who lives upstairs named Pavel.  We took a train about 30 minutes outside of Prague for a beautiful hike to Karlstejn castle.  We hiked for about an hour before we hit a little town and grabbed some lunch.  We had planned to continue our journey from there but were tempted by a looming mountain.  The group optimistically agreed to climb to the top only to find a long stretch of treacherous albeit beautiful stairs.   We made it to the top and soaked in the spectacular view before hiking down and continuing on our planned journey.  We hiked for a few more hours until we finally found the castle.  Karlstejn is one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen.  My typical attitude towards castles and palaces is seen one, seen em all, but I'm glad I made the 10 mile hike out to see Karlstejn.  We didn't stay at the castle long, and ended up running the last quarter mile to make the train home to Prague.  A day in nature was exactly what I needed after beginning to feel gloomy in cold grey Prague.  I came back feeling rejuvenated and ready to go.

Top of the Mountain

Karlstejn Castle

      The next Wednesday a few of the other CET students and I jumped at the chance to do some community service with local youth.  We joined with about thirty kids ranging from ten years old to seventeen and created teams for a soccer tournament!  The guys on my team spoke almost no English, but they seemed excited enough to play.  I laughed in one of my teammates's face when he told me to play goalie so that the other team wouldn't shoot.  I asked why they wouldn't shoot on me and he responded with "they won't want to shoot on a girl."  I said "oh hell no!" which of course he didn't understand, and quickly replaced myself in goal with some other guy so I could actually play.  Though my team didn't win we had some fun kicking the ball around.  After the last game one of the program organizers came up to me and said in a shocked voice "you can actually play!" to which I responded "I've played since I was four."  It's like they've never seen an athletic woman before.  Ridiculous, but still fun.

My Team

      So now we're up to the most recent, and perhaps eventful, weekend.  On Friday I joined a group of other students to go on a CET sponsored trip to Kutna Hora.  The town is about 40 miles East of Prague and used to be a mining town in the medieval times.  According to our mine guide, the mines at Kutna Hora produced one third of all the silver in Europe during the medieval times.  The town was really beautiful and quaint.  It felt like a more authentic and less dolled up version of touristy Cesky Krumlov.  The main event of the day was a tour of the mines.  We dressed up in white robes, helmets, and grabbed flashlights before descending into the earth.  I couldn't help but quote Lord of the Rings way too many times.  The mines were really beautiful;  they looked much more natural than the mines I had imagined.  The walls were covered with limestone and clear water pools lay around every corner.  At some points our group had to shimmy through the tight corridors and duck under the low ceiling.  If there was any doubt before, I know now that I am definitely not claustrophobic after that trip.

Kutna Hora

In the Mines

      On Saturday Jeanette and I headed to a cinema called Bio Oko to see a film called Orator.  The cinema was hosting the Kiwi Film Festival which featured Australian and Indonesian films.  The film we saw was Samoan and was the first film ever shot in the Samoan language.  The movie was beautiful and extremely emotional and I came out wanting to know more about Samoan culture.  I definitely recommend it!
      Finally, on Sunday, I joined my last Czech table with my roomate Marketa to go to the Prague Zoo.  We took the metro to a train to a boat to a bus to the zoo.  I'm not sure if the goal was to use every method of transportation available, but I'm pretty sure we succeeded.  In fact we even learned the phrase "Do zoo jeli skoro všemi dopravními prostředky - tramvají, vlakem, přívozem, a autobusem i metrem" which means "We took nearly all possible public transportation vehicles to the zoo: tram, train, ferry, and bus and metro."  It was a really fun day, mainly because the weather had finally begun to feel like spring in Prague.  I shed my jacket when the sun came out and went bare armed for the first time in months.  Just feeling the sun on my skin made it hard not to have a good time.  Other than the beautiful weather the zoo was pretty much the same as any zoo anywhere: animals hanging out in cages for humankind's viewing pleasure.  I did get to see a tiger exceptionally close up and the polar bears were much more active than any I've seen before.  One of them even did two splash inducing belly flops!

Tygr

Lední Medvěd

      This week has been relaxing.  Jeanette and I finally made our way to the bar and darts place across from our academic building.  We were terrible at darts but had fun all the same.  Last night some of us went bowling which was a blast.  I got straight gutters for the first three frames but came back to be two ahead of last in the end.  Today I went to a student favorite for dinner called Huny Bunny.  The food was fine but the atmosphere was fantastic.  The walls were covered in funny signs, Mucha posters, and even a campaign poster for Vaclav Havel that depicted him in a head dress holding up a proud peace sign with a cheesy smile plastered to his face.  I went a little souvenir crazy and bought four small prints and a water color from a cute bookstore and a mini street sign from an even cuter antique store.
      So that pretty much catches you up on my life up to now.  This weekend I'm going to meander through the castle gardens which just opened up with the warm weather.  Next week we're heading to Budapest on Thursday!  I cannot wait to see the city and spend some time outside of Prague!  It's hard to believe we only have four weeks left here.  I feel like I spent so much time filling out applications, paperwork, getting a visa, packing, and mentally preparing for this trip and now it's all ending so soon.  It is with a bittersweet feeling that I look towards the last days of my experience here in Prague.  I intend to make the most of these last few weeks and leave nothing undone!

Last Legs of the Travelling Seminar: Moravia and Vienna

      So after having a few very intense and emotional days in Poland, our group loaded up the bus to head back through the Czech Republic to Austria.  The first night we stopped in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic.  We checked into our hotel and I pulled out Rick Steves to decide how to spend my one day in Brno.  I chose a few sights and headed out, but due to blizzard conditions made it only one block to a cafe.  That pretty much sums up my one night in Brno hah.  The next morning we checked out the Roma museum which looked very cool and creatively designed.  Unfortunately though the displays were all interesting to look at, there were no English translations and our tour guide didn't speak English very well so we didn't get a lot of information out of the experience.  We loaded the bus up once again to go a bit further on our journey.
      We stopped in the little town of Mikulov in Southern Moravia.  The sun finally came out and the temperatures broke the forty degree zone.  Needless to say my mood spiked and I fell in love with Mikulov immediately (sun will do that to you).  We went on a tour of the town to see the usual central square and castle grounds. Everything was so quaint and beautiful.  As we reached the top of the hill, home to the castle, we looked out at the spectacular view.  The sun bathed wine vineyards sprawled out along the rolling hills.  The view was breathtaking, and I became even more excited to go to Austria.  We spent the night in a wine cellar doing some Moravian wine tasting.  The experience was exceptionally strange and uncomfortable, but the wine was delicious, so I'll just leave it at that.

Mikulov Town Square

Looking out at Austria!

Moravian Wine Tasting

      We got up the next morning to more sunshine and warm (well warm to us) temperatures excited to get to our last destination.  We loaded up the bus and hopped on only to hear the wheels spinning as our bus stood still.  We hopped off and proceeded to watch our bus driver and program director try to dig the bus out of mud for half an hour.  They went to a nearby construction site for help and received a pick axe.  It was hard not to laugh as we watched our scrawny program director hitting mud with a pickaxe.  I offered to push but he had too much pride or something.  Anyway our bus driver finally pulled out to loud cheers from us!
      As we drove along the Austrian country side I was reminded of Iowa.  The rolling hills and windmills could have been taken straight from my drive to college if the grape vines were replaced with corn stalks.  We arrived in Vienna and I was shocked at how urban the city felt.  I guess I didn't realize how small and quiet Prague was until I got to Vienna.  The walls next to the river were covered in amazing graffiti and tall imposing buildings rose up around us.  I hopped off the bus already feeling a connection with the city.  We met up for a tour of the city, and I was practically jumping up and down with excitement.  I had read about some of the architecture of the Ringstrasse in my Intellectual History Class and I couldn't wait to see all the buildings I'd read about.
      So I suppose I should tell you a bit about the Ringstrasse so you can understand my excitement.  In the mid 1800s many European cities were tearing down old fortifications around the city centers.  Many of these cities had expanded beyond their walls and with larger empires like the Austrian Empire, attack of large central cities like Vienna, Prague, and Budapest became unlikely.  These fortifications were torn down and replaced with large boulevards.  Large boulevards surrounding the city center are common to most European cities, and Vienna is not special in this regard.  However, the Ringstrasse stands out among these great avenues due to the immense amount of planning that went into the building.  The placement of each building was decided and the architecture chosen according to the purpose of each building.  Instead of picking one style for the entire avenue or letting the buildings pop up on their own, the entire city of Vienna feels like it was created from a detailed blueprint.  The University building is in a Renaissance style, the parliament is in a Greek style, the city hall is neo-Gothic.  Maybe now you understand my excitement to actually see the city... or maybe I'm just a total art and history nerd and you're still confused.  Either way I'm moving on.
      As we started our tour I was blown away by how grand the city is.  Every building feels tall and important.  The city is also the cleanest city I've ever been in; Vienna is cleaner than Prague which is amazingly clean.  What blew me away the most was the amount of open space and sky visible inside the city.  Cities can feel a bit claustrophobic and grey which is why, despite the fact that I am a total city girl, I'm also exceptionally crunch granola and need a good hike, camp out, horseback ride, or ski trip every few months.  But Vienna felt wide open and clear.  The Habsburg Palace sprawls out on the Western side of the Ringstrasse and is home to a sprawling expanse of grass, trees, and a rose garden.  I cannot imagine ever feeling claustrophobic in this city.  I also got to see my favorite building: the Parliament, which was more powerful, strong, and beautiful than I imagined.  It was really amazing to look out across the horizon and spot at least five different architectural styles that were all built during the same period.  While most European cities are a hodge-podge of different historical periods and artistic styles, Vienna has all the historical and artistic diversity but feels completely unified and organized.  No wonder I love this city, it fits with my history nerd, art lover, and OCD planning and organization freak all at once.

The Parliament Building: Greek Style

Hero's Square in front of the Habsburg Palace

      Most of our time in Vienna was unplanned so we could explore freely and I turned to Rick Steves for help (duh).  I picked out the four things he gave three stars to and decided to see however many of them I could.  I asked around but most people from my program only wanted to go to one cheaper museum and then shop.  I debated backing out of my grand tourist plans to join them, but decided that I am fully capable of seeing a city on my own.  I'm so glad I did!  I started with the Habsburg Palace which was really beautiful, though not much different from all the other palaces I've seen.  Mostly the collection of table settings was insane.  The museum starts out with a whole floor of plates, pitchers, candlesticks, utensils, and the like which I fully intended to breeze through to get to the good stuff.  This would have worked out perfectly if I hadn't gotten lost in the maze of Habsburg extravagance no less than four times.  I moved from the palace to the treasury which was just a continuation of luxurious items from the Habsburg times.  I saw several sets of crown jewels, quite the collection of coronation robes, a few swords, and some other mostly gold knick knacks before I needed to escape the royal luxuries for something more my scene.

My favorite set of Crown Jewels

      I practically skipped across the road to the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum.  I knew what art laid inside and I was holding my breath as I bought my ticket.  I forced myself to look at every piece and read Rick Steves as I went, but I knew what laid ahead so I'm sure I went a bit faster than normal.  As I entered something like the seventh room I squealed.  Yes ladies and gentlemen... I, Patty Murphy-Geiss squealed and I'm not ashamed.  I had finally come to my favorite painting of all time: Caravaggio's David and Goliath.  I came across the painting for the first time in my high school art history class, and decided I wanted to paint.  This work started me off on the path towards my art major.  I admit I've squealed once before, and it was also in front of a piece of art: Raphael's School of Athens.  Again, I'm not ashamed.  If I can't squeal at art what reason is there to squeal? None I tell you. None.

My Post Squeal Face

      I spent the rest of the day perusing the other great paintings, many of which I knew from my classes.  I found a few by Raphael, Velázquez, Jan van Eyck, Durer, Rubens, and Rembrandt and couldn't have been happier.  I even ended the day with some extra time so I sat in the museum and read a book.  I read a book sitting in the sun in an art museum, it really doesn't get any better people.

Tiny Piece of the Habsburg Palace

      The next day I visited another art history museum called the Belvedere.  This museum is home to several Klimt pieces including his most famous: The Kiss.  These works were beautiful and much larger than I had pictured them.  My favorite was Wasserschlangen which portrays two women and some truly beautiful vines.  Though I came for the Klimt, I browsed the rest of the museum quickly before heading to my next stop and came across an unexpected surprise: David's famous portrait of Napoleon.  I absolutely love David, and though I really like his revolutionary pieces (google The Death of Marat... just do it), and think he totally sold out to Napoleon, he's still pretty great.  It was awesome to see another of his works, though I've still failed to find one from his revolutionary years.  I got back up to the city center to catch the tram around the Ringstrasse to complete Rick Steve's Ringstrasse tour (so amazing, I almost did it twice).  I finished off my last day at the Naschmarkt to buy some dried kiwi and a teapot to take home.  I finally hopped on the bus feeling extremely sad to be leaving what might just be my favorite city ever.
      The second leg of our trip was definitely my favorite, and I want to return to Vienna to see the plethora of things that I missed.  I'll need to learn either French or German to go into the field of politics I want to do or the field of History I'm interested in.  I kind of blew off German thinking it was a little ugly and after being kind of cold to Berlin, but after visiting Vienna I'm rethinking.  Even the German in Vienna is more light and beautiful than the German in Germany.  I love love loved Vienna and I want to live there someday.  The travelling seminar really was amazing.  Though a lot of the trip was rushed and planned out for us, I had some amazing experiences and a lot of fun.  I'm excited for the last trip we're making to Budapest in a few weeks!  Again sorry these blog posts came so late, I'll have to catch you up on my regular life in Prague (hah regular) soon.
-Patty

Auschwitz and Birkenau

      Sorry this is coming so late!  I thought I had avoided whatever was going around during the travelling seminar only to wake up the day after feeling terrible.  I'm finally starting to feel like myself again, so I'm back to the blog!
      After we left lovely Krakow we drove to Auschwitz.  The nervous pit in my stomach formed the night before and built as we drove.  I've never experienced anything as real, if that's the right word, as Auschwitz.  I've seen movies with brutality, movies about the holocaust even, but I'd never actually experienced anything this wholly sad and cruel up close and personal.

Entrance to Auschwitz I

      As I got off the bus and laid eyes on the camp my breath got caught in my throat.  The barbed wire fences and dilapidated brick buildings gave off an eerie feel.  I felt like I was stepping into a horror house (though I've only been to one and seem to have wiped the entire experience from my memory).  I found myself constantly repeating "but this is real" in my head the entire tour.  The first set of blocks were about the daily life at the camp.  A model showed the food given to each person daily including two bowls of brown water called coffee, a bowl of "soup" which was really just more water, and a piece of bread.  They would drink their water, then go to work for the entire day.  When someone moved too slowly, or couldn't go on at all, they were brutally punished and killed.  The prisoners were forced to carry their dead and dying companions back to camp at the end of the day.

Endless Fences

      The next blocks were dedicated to the prisoners deaths.  This was the most striking part of the exhibit to me.  The first room we walked into had a model of a gas chamber that was destroyed by the Nazis before liberation to hide their crimes.  The model was truly a piece of poignant art and was horrifying to look at.  In the next room, behind a wall of glass were piles and piles of hair.  Human hair.  The Nazis shaved the heads of their prisoners to sell and make cloth out of; in fact, some of the nazi uniforms were made of human hair.  When the camp was liberated, 7 tons of hair were found at the camp, and while an entire room was filled with it, the hair shown was less then half of the hair found.  The rest of the rooms were filled with other possessions of those murdered including glasses, suitcases, clothing, and toys.  Each room was just as shocking as the last, and they seemed to go on and on.

Blocks

      Just when I thought it would never end, we moved on to the last set of blocks: the camp prison.  There were multiple kinds of cells the Nazis used to torture and kill those who broke the harsh rules in the camp.  There were starvation cells where people were kept with no food until they starved to death, suffocation cells where groups of people were stuffed into rooms with no windows until they ran out of oxygen, and standing cells where a few people would be forced into a tiny box of a room with no room to move or sit.  The halls and rooms were small and claustrophobic and I felt like I was running out of air as we moved from one to another.  Needless to say, I was happy to get out of that block.
      My happiness did not last long as I learned the last destination of our tour: the one remaining gas chamber.  I was extremely nervous for this portion of the tour.  I wasn't sure if I could handle such an experience.  I didn't want to block out the emotions I felt at Auschwits, but at the same time, I saw no other possible option.  I wasn't sure I would be capable of handling whatever I was bound to feel in the gas chamber.  I took a deep breath and entered the three rooms.  The first room was extremely small and was meant for changing.  Prisoners were told to remember which hook they hung their clothes on so they could retrieve them after their shower... The next room was the gas chamber.  It was much smaller than I expected, and didn't have the shower heads that are depicted in movies.  Instead the poison, a German cleaning chemical, was dumped into holes in the ceiling.  Because the room was so small, I didn't fully realize where I was until I entered the next room: the crematorium.  The huge oven looking devices were used to burn the bodies of the dead.  As I left the gas chamber I took a huge gulp of air and realized I had been holding my breath the entire time.
      I was happy the tour was over as we drove towards our lunch break which was much more light and at least semi-happy, though everyone was in a somber mood after the morning. We quickly wrapped up lunch and loaded on the bus for the second tour of the day: Birkenau.
      Birkenau was huge.  Much much larger than I ever imagined.  The entrance was extremely creepy, though I've seen it in pictures many times.  The platform inside was something from a horror movie.  I could picture the prisoners unloading the train anxious and happy to resettled in the East like the Nazis had promised.  Instead they found two pillars of fire rising from the gas chambers only meters away.  According to testimonies from survivors, fire was constantly pouring from the chimneys, and the stench of death clung to the camp like a disease.  The prisoners were separated into two groups: those fit for labor and those fit for death.  The prisoners that were not lucky enough to be sentenced to hard labor and brutal living conditions were marched straight to the gas chambers.  Some unlucky Jewish prisoners, called the Sonderkommand, were forced to remove gold teeth and shave the heads of the corpses.  Occasionally a Sonderkommand worker would recognize a neighbor, friend, or even wife or child among the dead.

Platform

      As we stood by the destroyed gas chambers our tour guide read testimonials of survivors.  The most horrifying of which described how a member of the Sonderkommand found a child still alive among the dead.  He brought her to the Nazi commander to beg for her life.  Instead, the commander threw the child to the ground and snapped her neck with a stomp of his boot.
      Birkenau is mostly a sea of ruins today.  All that is left of almost all the blocks are rows and rows of chimneys from unused heating systems.  The entire camp feels like a huge grave yard.  After spending the day walking around the camp we finally headed to our hotel for the night: a Monastery (a unique and bizarre experience in its own right).

Ruins

      The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again. - George Santayana.  This quote hung in one of the rooms in Auschwitz I.  Though there were many similarly touching quotes throughout the exhibit, this one in particular struck me.  This quote explains perfectly why I love history and decided to become a history major.  I have always believed that we can learn so much from history and that one is a fool to look forward without looking back.  I'm extremely thankful for the experience I had had Auschwitz and Birkenau and will never forget how I felt that day.  Though as I left Oświęcim it struck me how cruel humankind can be, my final thought was not one of shame or sadness, but amazement at how strong, brave, and full of love humanity can be when facing such cruelty.

- Patty