Prague & Munich Adventure

            What a week! I took a day to recuperate before getting to my blog because the past week was quite an experience. When I’m not following a tour-guide I think I tend to push the limits and overexert myself. I have to see everything! Poor Elizabeth was subject to my extensive sightseeing all week. I’m going to try to recap the week without writing another novel.

            We left early last Saturday for Prague. We took an 8am bus that lasted just under four hours. It was a beautiful ride into the country and then into the red roofed city of Prague. Elizabeth and I really lucked out with all of our hostels and train rides. Hostel ELF was right down the road from the bus station. I would recommend ELF to anyone. We originally booked it because I was being funny and thought that any hostel that welcomes you with an elf mask on is pretty dang cool. (They actually don’t. It’s just in the picture on the booking website. They do have the mask hanging in the lobby, though.) ELF was super cool and friendly though, very convenient. We settled in and went out for a leisurely stroll of the city. That first day we spent most of the time walking around near the St. Charles’ bridge and up to the Prague castle, which is actually a church. Unfortunately our first night in Prague was not the best. After walking around all day we decided to try and meet up with the rest of the IES students. (They were on an IES arranged excursion.) We knew that they were doing a “bar hop” that night and we had some bit of information on where to meet up with them. No problem, but then we run into the underground train police who fine us $40 for not having stamped our ticket. I could point fingers in all directions, but instead I will go on in life recognizing my own fault and hope it doesn’t happen again. So, that put us behind in our plans a little bit. We had ten minutes to make it to the meeting point. We actually did make it but then after another ten minutes of waiting around and re-reading the text message, we realized we had missed them. We walked around aimlessly for about an hour, thinking we could find them in random bars but ended up going back to the hostel with aching feet. I could have left Prague at that very minute.

Hostel ELF!

Prague Castle on the hill behind me

Inside the Prague Castle

            The second day in Prague had us running into IES people all over the place! Elizabeth and I started the morning walking through the town square. This is casually where I heard someone say, “That’s Abbey”, look over and see Molly! It was a scene out of a movie. Run and hug sort of deal. It was a great moment. We talked a bit and then went on our own ways. They were meeting for lunch and Elizabeth and I were off to the southern part of the city. We trekked up to a couple more churches that overlooked the Moldau (Vltava) River and then made our way over to Mozart’s Bertramka house. That was a neat little experience. Elizabeth and I were the only ones at the museum. It was a sad little museum though because the City of Prague had taken out all of the original belongings. Elizabeth and I then made our way back to the underground where we saw another IES person. Chris, an IES assistant, was standing there waiting for the train. He was just wandering around the city. We told him we were going to the John Lennon wall. He asked if he could join, we of course said yes and were on our way. He took us to some gardens along the way, where we saw real live peacocks running around. The Lennon wall was really cool. I was trying to decide how I felt about graffiti during the trip. I’m not usually a fan, but the idea of collective graffiti, as you can see on the John Lennon wall is very expressive and meaningful. I signed my name on a painting of Abbey Road.

Mozart's Bertramka House

Me, Chris and Elizabeth at the John Lennon wall

            Our last day in Prague was one of the more relaxing ones. We still did a lot of walking but the tourists had cleared out from the weekend. I definitely didn’t like touristy side of Prague. One of the highlights of the day was seeing the TV tower. I say highlights because it was probably the most confusing part of the trip. The Czechs once voted this building the 2^nd ugliest in the world. I might agree. I found it very ugly, but I was also very fascinated by it. What makes this building very odd are the giant babies crawling up along all sides of it. I tried investigating into this as much as I could, but I found no reasonable explanation of their significance. The babies were initially a temporary exhibit inside of the tower made by the designer, but the public supposedly liked them so much that he had them pasted to the tower. The babies’ faces are smashed in with vertical barcodes. After going back to the other side of the city to climb up the mini Eiffel tower, Elizabeth and I spent our evening sitting on the St. Charles’ bridge. We took many goofy pictures, watched the lightening over the city in the distance and listened to Smetana’s “Moldau.” The thirteen-minute song is based on Smetana’s inspiration from the very river we sat over.  Ask Elizabeth. ;)

The bizarre TV tower. Yes, those are crawling babies.

Prague by night

            Perhaps my favorite part of the entire week came about when Elizabeth and I accidentally sat in the first class section of our train to Munich, were told we were in first class, crossed the loud train compartments to second class, and happened upon the two Australians who were sitting in our seats. Theresa and Brad, as they were called, were probably in their early seventies. After awkwardly asking them if they spoke English and why they were in our seats, Elizabeth and I continued to talk with them for the next three hours until it was time for them to switch trains. They were so funny. Imagine this seventy-year-old little man, after the train inspectors have checked our passports, yelling, “Germans!” and his wife gasping, looking at me and saying, “We don’t know him.” They certainly kept us entertained. I miss them. Well, we got into Munich and our hostel was another easy find. We had dinner at McDonald’s, where I was overjoyed at my Happy Meal toy: a book entitled “Der Kleine Drache Kokosnuss und seine Freunde (The Small Dragon Coconut and His Friends).” I didn’t take any pictures that night so I can’t really remember well what we did. After walking around the city center for a bit, I think we stayed in the hostel lobby the rest of the night on Wi-Fi. It was much needed.

            The next day we had an amazing tour from Lisa at the Dachau concentration camp. The Dachau camp was the first one to be opened and remains one of the three original ones left standing today. Walking around the camp put me into all of those movies I had watched about the Holocaust. Of course there was no way I could have imagined what it was like, but hearing the gravel crunch under my feet as I walked through the solemn camp reminded me of the sounds I’d heard in the movies. It was eerie. We walked through the actual bunkers and also the original gas chamber. It was a very strange feeling. The rest of our evening was spent in contrast to the camp. We went to the Augustiner for dinner where we had our try at the local beer and traditional Bavarian food.

Dachau

At the Augustiner, our lovely server behind me

            Our sixth day was spent travelling through Bavaria to the Neuschwanstein Castle. The name literally translates to “New Swan Stone.” The castle was built by the mad King Ludwig II in the late 1800s. I was so interested in this man’s life. I’m sure I had heard his name at least once in my life but I never knew how crazy his life was, or how crazy he was. He was obsessed with the story of the Holy Grail and in turn began constructing this fairytale castle to emulate it. He was so certain that he was the late Percival reincarnated, that he spent eight generations of his family’s inheritance in building the castle, complete with a cave and everything! You must see this place once in your life. The weather was not so perfect for us the day we went, as it sleeted on us, but it was still an amazing sight to see.

The beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle

            By the last day of this trip I was very ready to go back to Vienna. Please don’t get me wrong because I had a very wonderful time. Travelling can be very tiring, though. We had to check out at 10am but our train didn’t leave until 11 pm. You guessed it – we spent the whole day, probably walking more than any other day, with all of our stuff on our backs. We took a city tour with the same Lisa from Dachau, climbed St. Peter’s church for the best view of the city, trekked to the 1974 Olympic stadium and ended our night with a sunset over the Nymphenburg Palace. All of that didn’t even take up the whole day. By the time we got back to the train station we still had two hours until our bus left. But it doesn’t stop there. Our bus was twenty minutes late and we got back to Vienna two hours later than we were supposed to due to an hour wait at the border while two unofficial looking police checked all 43 passports, eventually taking away the lady sitting next to us. When I finally got home I put my laundry in the wash and fell asleep for the rest of the day.

Relaxing on a tree, overlooking the 1974 Olympic stadium

Nymphenburg Palace

So, there you have it. The longest blog post you will ever read.

In case you’re wondering if I’m actually over here to study, you will be glad to know that my classes officially start tomorrow! I start tomorrow with my music class and my public service class, but not until 3pm. Can’t wait!