By jfbarszcz
logorrhea, n. An excessive and often uncontrollable flow of words.
Wow. Where to even begin?
So I've been in Prague for about a week now, and I feel like I already have enough to write about for an entire semester. I've been so busy all week meeting people, seeing the sights and generally immersing myself in the local culture (or attempting to as best I can, at least) that the question is less what to write about than it is what not to write about. I guess the least I can do is an overview of what I've done each day. So, let's get started.
Monday, 3 September
I took the red-eye out of Newark on Sunday night. This was my first transatlantic flight, which was sort of exciting, I suppose. I was definitely surprised by how immediately I became exposed to European culture. On the first leg, from Newark to Zurich, I sat next to an Italian girl, and during most of the time I wasn't trying to sleep I made conversation with her about America, Italy and the various differences in culture between the two countries. On the (much shorter) Zurich-Prague leg, I sat next to a Spanish couple who, believe it or not, spoke almost no English. This was a fun exercise for me; I haven't taken Spanish since junior year of high school, but as it turned out, I remembered much more than I thought I did. Much to my surprise, I was able to carry on a decently advanced and nuanced conversation with the couple. It was a bit of a challenge (I was pretty good at Spanish in high school but by no means fluent), but I had a lot of fun doing it.
At around 2 PM local time, I landed in Prague. Fortunately, my program provided a shuttle to my dorm. Unfortunately, since my first flight landed in Zurich late, my suitcase got stuck there. So I arrived at the dorm safely but missing most of my stuff. Thankfully the airport delivered the suitcase to the dorm when it arrived in Prague, so I didn't have to schlep back to the airport. Still, it was sort of a pain.
Very little time was wasted meeting my fellow students. At 6, all of us went out to dinner at a local café/pub. I ordered a bowl of goulash (sorry, gulaš) and a glass of beer (pivo). Goulash, for those who don't know, is a type of beef stew native to central Europe. It's most commonly associated with Hungary, but it's popular in the Czech Republic as well. It's also delicious. The beer was the famous Pilsner Urquell, brewed in the Czech city of Plzeň (Pilsen in English). Of course, Pilsner Urquell is sold in the United States, but it really doesn't taste anywhere near as good imported and bottled as it does so close to the source and on tap. NOT THAT I'D KNOW, because I OBVIOUSLY have never had a sip of alcohol before in my life, since I'm under 21 and that's ILLEGAL in the United States, and of course I'd NEVER do ANYTHING illegal, not even jay-walk. Totally was my first time ever having a beer, guys. But in all seriousness, the beer here is amazing and cheap. In restaurants it costs less than water (Europeans don't really do the free water with your meal thing; you have to order it and they bring you a bottle. Lame.) and is almost universally tasty.
Anyway, after dinner we wandered the general area and found another pub. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it (something Czech with a lot of awkward consonant clusters), but it was designed to look like a medieval tavern. Very, very cool. It made me feel like I was in Lord of the Rings or something. This afforded me more opportunities to get to know the other people in my program over a couple of (again, cheap and delicious) beers. After some time of this we walked back to the dorm and I went to bed.
Tuesday, 4 September
The next morning Zuzana, the dorm mother, took us on something of a walking tour around the Old Town, Malá Strana ("lesser town") and the Prague Castle. This was the first time we really got a good look at the city's major attractions. The castle especially was impressive; it's the largest castle in the world and consists of dozens of separate buildings, including the massive St. Vitus' Cathedral. As an 1100-year-old castle in the heart of Europe, a huge amount of history has taken place there. It's the sort of thing that just doesn't exist in America, and if you visit Prague this is definitely a must-see.
Wednesday, 5 September
I realize that this post is getting a little long and over-detailed, and that if I write as much about each day as I did about Monday, I'm never going to finish this. So I'm going to write a lot less now, about a paragraph on the major event of each day.
On Wednesday we took a boat ride down the Vltava river. It was a gorgeous day, and it was a great way to take in a lot of the city without having to walk around so much. In particular, we got good views of the different bridges designed in various architectural styles (gothic, baroque, modern) that cross the Vltava. Plus, we got free food and beer.
Thursday, 6 September
Here's where things get interesting again. On Thursday we took a bus to the town of Kutná Hora, about 50 miles from Prague. Kutná Hora is known for a few major attractions: an old silver mine, a few cathedrals, and, perhaps most notably, the Sedlec Ossuary. This is a church which is decorated extensively with human bones from bodies previously interred in the adjacent cemetery. I'd never seen anything like it in my entire life; it was kind of mind-blowing to look at the thousands of skulls and think about how each one came from a different person. Totally weird and macabre, but fascinating nonetheless.
Friday, 7 September
The trip we took on Friday was to the village of Lidice, about 10 miles outside of Prague. Lidice was a village that was razed to the ground by the Nazis in 1942 as a reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, ruler of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. All men in the village were killed, the women were sent to a concentration camp, and children were sent either to concentration camps or to what effectively were foster families whose job was to "Germanize" the children. A new village was built after the war to house the woman and children survivors of the camps, but the land where the old village stood has been turned into a memorial to the massacre. Needless to say, it was a pretty sobering experience. Still I'm glad I went; I've always read about Nazi atrocities, but actually visiting one of these sites gives me a new appreciation, if that's the right word, for the terror Hitler wrought on Europe.
So that was kind of a downer, but later that evening some friends and I went to a jazz club. The club was called the Jazz Dock; it was literally on a dock on the Vltava. Again, a wonderful view, and the band playing there that night was superb. They were a blues band with some American and some Czech members, and they were all super-talented musicians. The guitarist in particular was amazing. He played and actually looked kind of like Hendrix (in fact, at one point the band played a killer rendition of "Little Wing"). So while this isn't exactly an experience unique to the Czech Republic, it was still tons of fun, especially because I got to hang out with new friends.
There's so much more I can write about, but I'm apparently at over 1300 words now, so I'm going to wrap up. In summary, basically everything about Prague has been amazing so far. When trying to explain just how much I've enjoyed the last week, words fail me. And right now, after almost 3 (non-consecutive) hours of writing this, words are starting to fail me altogether. So I think I ought to quit this before I become completely incoherent. Maybe once I start class this week (intensive Czech; I'm excited but a little scared) and settle down a bit, I'll find it easier to organize my thoughts in next week's post. With any luck I'll choose a prompt that allows me to write a more focused post.
Bye for now,
Jake