"How did we get to be here? What was the moment?"

Last weekend was my last trip of the semester. I travelled with 11 other people (yes...11...its cheaper to buy tickets in groups of 6) to Krakow, Poland. My friend/floor-mate Matt and I had been talking about this trip since about the first week of the semester, so for it to be actually happening seemed really crazy for us.

The only direct way to Krakow from Prague is via night train. It actually wasn't too terrible, because I was with my friends, and we got our own compartment. The train left at 9:30pm and we got into Krakow a little before 7am. The town was small, so it was only about a 10-15 minute walk to the hostel. We spread out and took naps on the lobby couches before we headed out. First stop: perogi place. I had cottage cheese and potato boiled perogis:



We had decided that we were going to tackle Auschwitz that day, so after that we walked around a little bit, and then went to meet the bus in some kind of memorial square (couldn't find any information about its significance, but it was really pretty!):



The bus to Auschwitz took a little less than two hours, during which time they showed a documentary about the camp with lots of actual pictures. I hadn't even seen all of the things featured in the movie, so I was glad to have seen it. We learned that Auschwitz was actually composed of multiple parts, with a sister camp, Birkenau, about a five minute drive away. Right after the liberation of the camp, all of the actual barracks of Auschwitz were cleaned out and made into museums, so none of those are actually still in existence for people to see, but each barrack is a different exhibit (some confiscated goods, some focusing on different parts of the camp's history, etc.), and we went into most of them on the tour.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, which made our visit even more painful, in a way. It was very strange to emerge from dark, emotion-evoking buildings learning about a very tragic history into one of the most beautiful days of the whole semester. Our tour guide spoke into a microphone and we all had headphones to hear what she was saying, which was great because we could kind of wander and see things for ourselves. It was a very individual experience, yet when I looked at my friends I could guess that their facial expressions at hearing the horrors of history were probably very similar to mine. It is shocking to think that humans are capable of doing such things to fellow humans. I have learned so much about Auschwitz, seen so many pictures, read so many books and articles, but actually going there and seeing it and taking the wonderful tour they provide was a complete experience unto itself. No movie or article can hit home as hard as seeing piles and piles of suitcases, or shoes (and they had a whole case of baby shoes), or especially real human hair. Walking through a gas chamber and emerging on the other side is a strange and unforgettable event. We decided that everyone should go through the experience of Auschwitz once in his/her life. Here is a picture of Auschwitz and a picture of Birkenau, and I am posting my whole album of pictures from the day if you want to see more:





We took our hour and 40 minute bus ride back to Krakow, and decided to have dinner at a Georgian restaurant (the country, not the state!) We then hung out at the hostel for a bit, and went out to a disco with multiple floors that played old and new music (even heard some Lady Gaga, which means that Krakow music is more advanced than Prague's!)

The next day, we slept in and then went to lunch at a Mexican place. It wasn't too bad for Krakow! The main attraction in the city is the Main Market Square, which has this clock tower:



There was a flea market going on, so we walked around the square for a while before exploring some more parts of Krakow. We went to the Wawel Castle, another famed attraction:



It had a nice view from the top and everything, but it definitely isn't the Prague Castle! There was a fair going on near the castle, which had Polish food including, of course, the famed Krakow staple cotton candy. It also had ballooons, music, and rides. We felt like we were back in America!

After the fair, we headed over to Kazimierz, the Krakow Jewish quarter. There are currently only about 200 Jews in Krakow, but there are 6 synagogues and lots of Jewish restaurants and museums and things still around. I dragged my friends through the entire quarter! Just to give you an idea, here's a route similar to the one we took:



After that we walked back to the hostel, relaxed for a while, and then went to an amazing Polish restaurant recommended by the guidebook my parents gave me for Hanukkah (which we used on practically every trip...well done, parents!) We took another night train back, and arrived in Prague around 7am.

Overall, the trip to Poland worked out perfectly. We didn't really need that much time there, so it was perfect to just go for two days, but it was extremely meaningful to go to Auschwitz, and interesting to see Krakow to round out the Central European experience.

"As we stumble along on life's funny journeys": Spring Break Part 2

Hi everyone! So its definitely been too long since I've written, but I've been very busy, so that means once I finally get around to updating my blog it will be full of interesting stories and experiences. For now I'll finish up writing about Spring Break, and then, hopefully soon, will fill you in on everything I've been up to in Prague since then.

My friends Collin and Mike (with whom I spent the rest of break) and I left Paris around 8am on a train to Nice. First class tickets were only 4 Euro more than second class, so we had a very luxurious experience! The train was about 5.5 hours, and I had a single seat by the window, so I could look out at the beautiful views of France.

When we got to Nice, it was gorgeous out, and we headed to our hostel. The only public transportation in Nice is one tram with a single line, and that was only installed last year! The tram was kind of funny because some of the stops were extremely close to each other, and also because the announcements for each stop were made in different voices, and some of them even had funny music and sound effects played in the background! Our hostel was really nice, with great staff, and we dropped off our stuff and went to explore the town a little bit. It was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be, since it was still kind of the off season, but it was really open and pretty, a very nice spring break location! We saw the main square of Nice:



and then wandered down to the beach, just as the sun was setting. The beach was really rocky (and we picked up some rocks to take home...dont tell!) We walked along the boardwalk for a bit and enjoyed being on the beach:



We then headed to a restaurant that served provencal food, in order to try some local cuisine. We shared an appetizer of sardines (which were really gross) and then I was brave and ordered tripe (intestines!) as my entree. It was definitely an interesting experience that I'm glad I had, but wouldn't necessarily repeat :p After dinner we walked around outside some more, and saw the square all lit up. It was really interesting because its lights were lit up people sitting on top of posts, that changed different colors:



The next day, we decided to go to Monaco. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, and its between France and Italy. It is also the home of the most famous casino in the world, Monte Carlo. Moreover, and even more important, the bus to get there was only one Euro! We hopped on it, and after a brief stop in an old village, arrived in Monaco after about a half hour. It was indeed very small; we walked across it a few times in the course of the afternoon and evening. Here's a beautiful fountain, with Monte Carlo in the background:



We gambled in a casino across the street from Monte Carlo that didn't charge a cover to get in, but unfortunately none of us won any money. After finding somewhere relatively cheap to eat lunch, we walked up some very steep stairs to get to the castle. The royal standard was flying, so apparently the Prince of Monaco was home, but we didn't see him. We did see some very beautiful views of pretty much the whole country:



Yep, thats pretty much all of it. It was really cool and interesting to go to Monaco, and we enjoyed it very much.

However, that was pretty much the last awesome day of our trip. The next morning, as we were on our way to check out some of Nice's museums (it has the second most museums in France!), Collin got sick. We had checked out of the hostel since we had planned to take an overnight bus to Milan that night, so we went to the couches in the lounge to rest a little more. After a few hours we decided to venture out again, but that was not such a good idea, as Mike and I started feeling sick and Collin had not gotten any better. We went back to the hostel again and spent a lot of quality time on the couches:



At least it was a pretty room! Since the three of us could barely move, we had to change our travel plans and stay another night in the hostel in Nice before going to Milan. The next day after lots of sleep, we felt better, and got on a train to Milan.

We only spent about a day and a half in Milan, and it was really interesting to go to Italy. I'm glad I went, but Milan definitely wasn't my favorite city. Its known for being a fashion capital, but it just came off as really dirty and crowded to me. There were lots of Romas (Gypsies) who kept trying to sell us things, and the people seemed pushier than New Yorkers! We did see the Duomo, the third largest cathedral in the world:



We also got to have some pizza and gelato (even though I didn't really have much of an appetite from being sick) while we were there, so that was yummy! That night, and the next day, we spent some time at the castle:



It used to be an old fort, and it was complete with drawbridges and a beautiful courtyard. And also, lots of cats who hung out in the grassy moats. After some quality time laying out on the grass in the sunshine and reading (me) and napping (the boys), we headed to the airport and took our flight back to Prague.

Spring Break was fabulous and full of new experiences. I had a great time, but was also really excited to come back to Prague for my last month in the Czech Republic. More on that to come...

"I Love Paris in the Springtime": Spring Break Part 1

It's been a week since I got back from spring break, so I need to get in a blog post about it! It's weird because spring break always seemed so far away...when we got to Prague it was January, and we knew that when we got back from spring break we'd only have about 6 weeks left in Prague. Well, break has come and passed and its now April, which seems so strange to me.

I had a very excellent time! My friend Collin and I went to Paris, Nice and Milan together. We saw two of our other friends for a few days in Paris, and then our friend Mike joined us at the end of Paris and continued to the other destinations with us. Unfortunately, especially because you know how much I love photos, my camera broke in the Prague airport on the way to Paris. Fortunately, though, Collin happens to be an excellent photographer! All the following photos I show from Spring Break are his.

Paris was absolutely fantastic, and the second Collin and I stepped out of the Metro at Montmarte, the neighborhood in which we stayed, we both fell in love (neither of us had been there before). It had been raining when we landed, and my camera broke, but in a very cliche moment, none of that seemed to matter. Montmarte is such a beautiful neighborhood, despite its numerous hills, which we were required to climb every time we travelled in it (I got so much exercise on this trip!) Here's the view from the stairs above the Metro stop:



After checking into our hostel, we decided to try to walk to the Seine. Despite Collin's iphone skills and the map in my guidebook, we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Oh well, at least we got to see some French neighborhoods, and even a Gypsy market. We then took the Metro in the right direction and ended up near Notre Dame, falling in love with Paris even more. Its so beautiful and it has a certain charm about it that I'd never experienced before. Notre Dame was gorgeous, too:



We got to go inside, and it was huge, with a large open middle sanctuary, and then lots of little rooms all around the sides, with stained glass windows and artifacts and things. They even had confession rooms where you could go inside and talk with a priest. I thought it was funny because the rooms were sorted by the languages the priests inside them could speak.

We then got some lunch (baguette sandwiches and a glass of wine) at a cafe, and enjoyed that because it was so cheap, and so typically Paris! Our friends were at the Eiffel Tower, so we finished up and decided to walk to go meet them. All the way at the other end of the Seine. That hour and a half gave me blisters, but we got to see tons of things along the way! We finally got there, and of course had to take a picture of all of us in front of the Tower:



It was awesome to see it up close...it looks a little redder than I thought it would be, and I really liked the intricate designs on it. Then, we met up with our friends' friend who is working for a year as an au'pair. She took us to the Invalides, which is a beautiful garden in front of a museum dedicated to Napolean, including his tomb. Now, EU citizens between the ages of 18 and 26 can get into museums for free. We all happened to have Czech "ID's", aka our Metro passes. These are all in Czech, with our names, pictures and birthdays. Being the cheap students that we are, we decided to try to use our Metro passes to get into the Museum for free...and it worked!! That was awesome. After seeing the musem, we sat in the gardens for a bit and took in all the French people (including two boys and their dad playing rugby, who hit us with the ball), before going back to our hostels to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was an experience unto itself. We went to this amazing French restaurant, and the food was delicious. The boys had three course meals, but I stuck to one course, beef bourginon.



It was SO good. We then went out for a bit, but were really tired so soon called it a night. Collin and I had to make three transfers on the Metro to get home, thanks to Paris' odd hub and spokes system, which looks comprehensive since it has a lot of lines, but thats deceiving because none of them really connect in convenient places.

The next day we went to the Louvre, where again used our Metro passes to get in for free! They were a little more suspicious of us there, but gave us the tickets anyway. The Louvre itself is a beautiful building, not to mention all the artwork. Here's me with a woman who's pretty famous:



Here is the museum from the outside (the clouds look really ominous, but luckily it only rained on us once during our time in Paris, so we got pretty lucky):



After the Louvre, we went to the Arc D'Triomphe, and the Champs Elysees. There's the Champs with the arc in the background:



We decided to buy bagettes from a boulangerie (bakery) for dinner, and then had some wine on the Seine. It was a pretty beautiful experience, very quiet out and all of us just sitting and looking out on the water. However, we didn't realize that the Metro closed at midnight, not 2am, so we had to walk back to Montmarte. It was pretty far and pretty interesting, but we made it! And also ended up finding the Moulin Rouge on the way, so that was cool. Collin and I took a picture in front of it:



The next day, we wanted to go to Versailles, but it was closed. Instead, we went back to the Notre Dame area, walked around a bit, and had an amazing lunch of paninis and crepes on the Seine. We saw the Bastille, and then went to Sacre Couer, a church on a hill in Montmarte that has an absolutely exquisite view of Paris:



That night, we went to a place in Montmarte that serves fondue for dinner, and also wine in baby bottles. It was a tiny, crowded place, where some of us had to climb on top of chairs to get to the benches on the other side of the table. So fun!

The next day, after another failed attempt at Versailles, we had a lovely picnic of baguettes, brie, and strawberries in Luxemborg Gardens. They were so beautiful, and it was very nice to have sunny, warm weather. Mike's cousin, who runs a study abroad program in France, provided us with one of their dorm rooms for our last night, which was so generous of her, and very fortunate for us as it was practically across the street from the station where we had to catch our 7:45am train to Nice the next morning! We had a lovely French dinner courtesy of her (I had duck and creme broulee!)

Overall, Paris was absolutely fabulous, and there is no doubt in my mind that I want to go back there and spend lots of quality time wandering around the city and seeing the many things it has to offer. It even made me want to learn French! It was a terrific start to our break.

Also, my friend Roni Beth, who lived there for years, gave me lots of advice and tips about Paris, and they were really very helpful. Thanks so much Roni Beth!

"Ease on down the road"

After this entry, I will be all caught up and ready to write about Spring Break when I return on the 28th.

A week ago, I went on another NYU-sponsored day trip to Pilsen, Czech Republic. My friends wanted to go to this town because it is home of the Pilsner-Urquell (best and most famous beer in the Czech Republic) beer factory. I wanted to go to this town because it houses the second biggest synagogue in Europe, which is the third biggest in the world! Here I am outside of it:



It was interesting to tour the beer factory, which has been around for a while, and the underground cellars of which were windy underground tunnels we got to tour that actually connected into the basements of peoples houses. My favorite part of the underground tour was that the ceilings were so low that they handed out hard hats, but I rarely had to duck (unlike my tall friends!) Being short does have its benefits...

On our assorted town and beer factory tours, we learned about how beer is made, partook in free samples, and watched three documentaries about barrel-making (fascinating, to a point). Despite the fact that it was March 12th, it was snowing throughout our outdoor tour:



It finally got warm (meaning high 40s-low 50s) here in Prague at the end of this week, just in time for Spring Break. Hopefully I've worn my winter coat for the last time this semester? Anyways, it was cool to go to Pilsen, because of the varied history of the tiny town, and to keep exploring different parts of my host country. Another fun fact that is Pilsen was liberated by American troops at the end of WW-2 in May, 1945, and they have a monument to commemorate that, which says "Thank you America" in English, and "Diko, Ameriko" in Czech...Diko is a very informal version of thank you, so its basically like saying, "thanks buddies!"

Last Saturday-Monday, a friend and I journeyed to Budapest, Hungary. My cousin is there for work, so we had a very nice weekend courtesy of him. The first night we walked around a lot, seeing a courtyard with a castle constructed around it that was all different architectural styles, the Budapest equivalent of 5th Avenue which has lots of foreign embassies, and a cafe that used to be secret SS headquarters (where we also shared some yummy desserts!) We also saw Hero's Square, which was really gorgeous lit up at night:



The next day, we saw the biggest synagogue in Europe! It was a coincidence that I saw the first and second biggest in the same weekend, but it was really cool that it worked out that way. Here it is:



I hadn't known that Hungary had such a big Jewish population pre-WW2, but apparently there used to be 1.5 million there. Now there are only about 1.6 million Jews in all of Europe. We got to go inside the synagogue, and had a wacky tour guide who told some very... creative... stories about Judaism. Because of the liberties she took with Jewish history (probably no one else noticed, since many of them had never even been inside a synagogue before!), we left the tour early, but stopped to take some pictures of the gorgeous interior:



After a fabulous all you can eat sushi lunch (so good!!) we ventured across the chain bridge from Pest to Buda, and up a large hill to the Buda castle. The view on the way up was beautiful!



There was a little town on the top, so we wandered around for a while, browsing at the craft shops and admiring the cute architecture and the fantastic views. My cousin insisted that we hang around until nighttime to see the city all lit up, and we were not disappointed:



It was a very busy weekend, but very worth it!

"This very minute has history in it"

Ok, so I'm still a week behind in entries, so pretend this is from March 8th, the day after I got back from my March 5-7 trip to Berlin.

I loved Berlin. Its such a fascinating city, because not only is it a cultural and economical center, everywhere you go is linked to something historically significant. Each place has its own ghosts left over from the totalitarian regimes that ravished Germany. Whereas to me, Prague seems to be rebuilding itself so that the dark parts of its history are hidden behind the beautiful facades and angry-looking natives, Germany's history felt more on display, ready to be accessed by anyone who only takes a second to look.

My friends and I took a 7am bus to Berlin Friday morning, so we arrived in the middle of the afternoon. We were immediately greeted by Dunkin Donuts and Burger King (and ended up consuming both during the course of the trip, unfortunately). We managed to find our hostel, despite the fact that the map key was covering the exact spot on the map we needed to find. A five minute walk from our hostel was the Reichstag, the German Parliament building. Hitler used a fire there as an excuse to come to power, as supposedly a communist had set that fire, which gave Hitler fodder to argue against the Communists in general, convincing the German people that he was better.



Today, you can go inside the Reichstag, which happens to be entirely solar-powered, walk inside it, and see a beautiful view of Berlin. My friends and I did just that, and were especially happy because it happened to be sunny. Here's the view from one of the spots inside the top dome of the Reichstag:



From the Reichstag, we headed over to the Brandenburg Tor (Brandenburg Gate), the site of Reagan's famous speech to Gorbachav, and one of the sites that used to be very near the wall. The Tor is located in Pariser Platz, one of the numerous spaces on a tour we went on the next day where, only about 20 years ago, it would have been very dangerous, even fatal, for us to stand. That's my lifetime! I still can't get over the fact that such a short time ago, communism still reined over places that I've actually been.



The first night, since we were tired, cheap students, we decided to cook dinner in the hostel's communal kitchen, which was lots of fun. We then wandered around Berlin a bit, not doing anything too strenuous, as to be prepared for our 3.5 hour free walking tour of the city the next day! We started the tour, which happened to be lead by an American from Georgia, in Pariser Platz. He pointed the Hotel Ardon out to us...not only does it have 12,000 Euro a night rooms with bullet-proof glass windows, it also was the site of the famous Michael Jackson baby-dangling incident!



One of the next things we saw on the tour was the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. Our guide pointed out that the Memorial is located on prime real estate, right in the middle of Berlin, and how admirable it is that Germans dedicated this spot to the most atrocious event in their history. Would the US do that?



As you can see, it just looks like a bunch of grey block things. However, when one actually walks through it, its a very interesting experience. The blocks start of small and get taller and taller as you walk through, and then get smaller and smaller again as you emerge from the other side. Architect Peter Eisenman stated that the Memorial was "whatever you wanted it to be". To me, it felt like it was alluding to how Jews must have felt as the Holocaust started: little prejudices and restrictions towards the Jews kept occuring, and then all of a sudden those things were built up into the atrocities of the concentration camps. Some Jews emerged from the other side, but the horror of the experience must have stayed with them. That's just my interpretation.

From the Memorial, we ventured to a parking lot. Well, at least it looks like a parking lot, but its actually the site under which Hitler's bunker was built, the place in which he got married and committed suicide. They've collapsed the bunker, but the floor and walls are apparently still underneath. They didn't want to put any sort of marker at the site, in case it attracted the wrong kind of attention.



We then saw the Luftwaffe, a building that hasn't been able to catch a break, as it was the German Air Force Headquarters (architecturally designed to make anyone standing near or entering the building feel small), the Ministry of Ministries during Communist Times, and is now the Tax Center. Aka, no one has, or will ever, like this building!

Right next to it was the second largest stretch of the Berlin Wall that's still standing. Again, I experienced another crazy moment in which, if I had been standing in that exact place 20 years ago, I would have been shot by snipers or blown up by land-mines, since I was in a forbidden zone.



After that we saw Checkpoint Charlie, the passage from East to West Berlin. Apparently its gotten really commercialized now, but it was cool to be there. After a short coffee break (since it had started snowing!) we saw the square where the Nazi book burnings were held, Humboldt University where Lenin and Marx studied and Einstein taught, the Opera House, the Neue Watch which contains a Nazi solider and a concentration camp victim buried together, the Berlin TV tower (apparently in the sunlight, a cross shows up on the tower, which the communists couldn't get rid of, so people called it the "Pope's Revenge"), the Berliner Dom (Berlin cathedral), and Museum Island. It was a really fabulous and very thorough tour!

That night, we went to get authentic German food. Unfortunately, most of that happens to be pork. At least my Jewish friend and I enjoyed our broccoli soup and baked potatoes!

The next day, we returned to Museum Island, to visit the Pergamon Museum, which houses a lot of ancient Greek and Roman architecture and statues, and pieces of the Ishtar Gates. A little bit of classical history in Berlin! At my request, we also found the Neue Synagogue, which was somewhat damaged during Kristallnacht (but saved due to the efforts of the local police chief), and then also damaged during bombings in the Second World War. It was built to hold over 3000 congregants, so is too big for the current Jewish population to use, but hopefully someday in the future it will become a functioning synagogue again.



I really loved Berlin, and greatly enjoyed visiting a place with so much rich history. I'd love to go back and see even more, because as exhaustive as that tour was, there is tons left to explore!

"Oh, if Life were Made of Moments"

Yesterday, I finally got affirmation that I'm not just a girl wandering around a foreign city with a big flashing arrow and a sign that says "American" floating over my head. I was walking into my favorite little grocery stop on the corner near the Metro station, and a Policie (police officer) was walking out. Of course, I stopped to let him out, but he gestured with his hand and said "Prosim" (please). I smiled and said "Dekuji" (thank you), and went in, and as he was leaving he said something in Czech. Someone thought I was Czech (or at least speak it)!!! What a milestone.

Yesterday was also my half birthday. 6 months until 21...I feel old.
Berlin entry to come!

"The Choice May Have Been Mistaken, the Choosing was Not"

I haven't updated in a couple weeks now, which is unfortunate both because as time goes on, I remember less and less details about my adventures, and also because then everyone else misses out on hearing about them! I mean to update every week, but between trips and a bad internet connection in my dorm, I didn't make enough time for it two weeks ago.

Just pretend this entry is from March 1st :)

That week, I hosted my friends and my weekly potluck in my room. It was a particularly good spread:



The next night, we went to the ballet. We saw Romeo and Juliet at Narodni Divadlo, the National Theater. The tickets were only 30 crowns...less than two dollars! They were high up, which I didn't mind, but oddly enough the theater has really terrible sightlines, so our view was blocked by poles. The theater is gorgeous though:



That weekend, some friends and I went on an NYU-sponsored overnight trip to Cesky Krumlov, a small but beautiful town 3 hours away from Prague in the Czech countryside. Now, when I say NYU-sponsored, I mean that NYU put us on a bus there for free, paid for our one night in a hotel, gave us a tour of the castle, and paid for the one dinner we had there. We were still responsible for the two lunches we had there and any other sightseeing. Luckily, since Cesky Krumlov is so small, there was very little other sightseeing to do. The main town square is a lot smaller than Prague's:



The scenery was very beautiful, and to me that's what really made the town worth it:



On the second day, the sun even came out, which was fabulous! The castle was really funny, because it is presumably the main event of Cesky Krumlov, yet the exterior is completely painted on:



On our tour, we got to see a room on the inside of the castle, as well as the Baroque theater and 18th century costume repository. Overall, it was fun to go somewhere in the Czech Republic that wasn't Prague, just to see what it was like. However, the town was small so it was good we were only there a night, and the views/scenery were its main redeeming quality to me. That and the restaurant we ate in for lunch the first day, where the room was like a dungeon (complete with bear skin on the wall!), there were mounted weapons behind our heads, and the food was amazing.