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...