"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.