Kutna Hora

My friend Julia and I went to Kutna Hora last weekend.  Just a short train ride from Prague.  We went with the intent of seeing the Bone Church - and did we ever:

The ossuary holds the bones of 40,000 dead - mostly due to the plague.  So many people were dying that they had no where else to keep their bodies.  So they were arranged inside of this church, mostly just stacked up in piles of bones, some strung from the ceiling, and others making up a giant chandelier in the center of the ossuary.

A very strange experience.

Budapest

I spent last weekend in Budapest with Bennett and Martha.  Our hostel was in a residential building near the center of town.  We had a gorgeous courtyard and a wonderful view of the Music Academy just a building or two down.

The weather was extremely cold and it snowed most of the time we were there, but thanks to my Smart Wool socks and the mulled wine being sold all over town, I survived just fine.  We enjoyed our first European snowfall walking the grounds of an unknown (to us) castle near Hero's Square.

Our last night was spent eating marzipan sweets and drinking mulled wine out of funny gift shop mugs we bought at the Christmas market.  We found this funny thing in the middle of the market - a balloon over the assumably old/famous/weather sensitive statue.

It was great to have Bennett around for two weeks - though I would have been happier with two more.  I didn't get to show him much around Prague -  hit the basics, that's about it.  We had big plans to do a million other things, but two weeks doesn't seem to be enough time to do much at all.  I'm feeling so antsy to get home now that he's gone.  School is wrapping up in a couple weeks - then Martha and Pete will be here for my last weekend in Prague!

See you soon Minnesota!

p.s. Thanksgiving was great.  Especially the three kinds of pie (of which I had a slice of each).

Makeshift Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving buffet in Prague.

We'll see how this goes.

Berlin

Bennett and I made it to Berlin a couple weekends ago.  We were greeted by hoards of German soccer fans celebrating a victory and a young German boy doing a dance of sorts down the isle of the S-Bahn (while trying to hit on the punk girl sitting near him).

Visited the Bauhaus Archive.  Saw some beautiful tapestries and even more beautiful chairs.

Visited (of course) the Berlin Wall.  Saw a lot of shitty tags, but also saw some pretty neat art.

Went to a couple markets and found some old maps of the Bohemian lands for 3 euros.  Worth it!  Found the most perfect one-of-a-kind, hand-made bracelet.  Regretfully I pass it by.  I hope the lucky someone who snatches it up will take the time to appreciate it's perfection.  

I ate the most perfect food while I was in Berlin.  A warm flour tortilla with spinach and feta folded inside, then rolled up with lettuce, cabbage, onions and other unknown veggies.  SO DELICIOUS!!!  I wish I had a name for it, so I could find out where it comes from.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Graz, Austria

The roof of the art museum.

The train station I was stranded at for three hours.

I went to visit Martha last weekend in Graz, Austria.  Took the train - took nearly twelve hours.  I'm not even sure what happened, but we were just one train station outside of Prague and the train sat there for three hours.  The man in my car was saying that it's pretty common for that to happen on this particular route - yuck.  I found it pretty funny that almost immediately after crossing the Czech/Austrian border you could feel the difference in the landscape.  The Czech Republic is beautiful, but it's got nothing on Austria.  

By the time I made it to Graz, I was exhausted and terribly cranky.  Martha picked me up at the train station and we headed over to her place.  That night we wandered the streets of Graz with Theresea trying to find tickets for a music festival that was going on that night.  We walked up and down the city - seriously, the whole city.  We found no tickets, but we did find the wildest club in town.  I wish I could tell you more, but we didn't go in.  Instead we went to a music bar and watched music videos - I think we made the right choice there.

We had big plans to check out a market down the street from Martha's place on Saturday morning, but instead we spent the morning sleeping.  By the time we got out of the house it was already mid-afternoon.  We went to the art museum and some some crazy fetus art by Xiao Yu.  Crazy - really.  Then we hunted down some tickets for that night of the music festival - the music could have been better!  The venues were nice though - it was good to see those.  We also visited the Gyro stand in the center of town twice.

Sunday we spent the day hoofing it around Graz.  We climbed the mountain in the center of town (climbed = took the trolly car).  Walked down the art street.  Visited the university.  Walked through the city park.  Sunday was Austria's National Day, so there wasn't much going on - everyone had the day off.  Then we went home and had burritos for dinner!!!!!  So good.

Monday we woke up early and headed to town - visited a few shops and waited for my train.  The ride home was 8 hours - only one hour longer than it was supposed to be.

Elections '08

Today my czech roommate asked me if I thought George Bush will win the election.

Weekend in Krakow

I spent last weekend in Krakow.  It was amazing!  The city moves at a different pace than Prague, a pace that seems to fit well with my own.  Spent most of the weekend in the Jewish Quarter - there's a lot going on around there.  Outdoor markets and beautiful details.  

Stumbled upon this gem of a tea house.

This Church was gorgeous!  The Church of St. Francis just a few blocks from the Old Town Square.  I could have spent hours inside admiring these walls.

Just a few days before we got to Krakow it was the anniversary of Pope John Paul II becoming Pope (he was from Krakow) so there were memorials for him all over the place.  We would be walking down the street and turn the corner to find a brick wall covered in these candles - they were EVERYWHERE.  This was one of the reasons that Krakow felt so real to me - evidence of people living their lives all over the city.

Wondeful Weekend

Sitting in my living room in the middle of Prague.  Windows open - enjoying the last couple hours of peace and quiet.  My roommates have all been gone for the weekend and I have been enjoying the time on my own.

Went to the Trafo Gallery on Saturday for the remnants of the NAMES Festival.  Street artists from around the world were invited to Prague to create installations on (and in) buildings around the city.  Felt strangely familiar with this piece:

EAMES!

The Solar Do-Nothing Machine

One of my professors happens to be a curator at the Museum of Decorative Arts here in Prague, and this afternoon she took us behind the scenes of the Eames exhibit that opens there tonight. 

Charles and Ray Eames pined by the bases of their furniture

It was amazing!  How wonderful to view a furniture exhibit with a furniture expert!

LCW chair

We also had the opportunity to hear a lecture given by the Eames' grandson who now works with the family business - 0f course I took the opportunity.  He spoke very candidly about life with his grandparents and their approach to design.  So inspiring to see images and here stories of these two creating together.

More from CZ

Czechs love wafer snacks and I am very thankful for that.  Think of those orange, pink and brown wafer packs that we used to get as kids - and then think of them "all grown up".  Hazelnut are my favorite.

My father was here this weekend.  So nice to have family in town.  He was very lucky to be here on the nicest weekend we've had in the last few weeks.  The weather has been very rainy and cold, but the sun was shining this weekend.  We mostly just spent the time wandering around finding whatever it is that we could find.  We happened upon this:

They pee quotes from various well known Prague residents.  Right in front of the Kafka museum.  

Mushy Brains

Spent the weekend in Pavla's village.  It was nice to get away from things before school started.  Her ma made us some delicious traditional Czech dishes, including this delight:

Really really thick mashed potatoes.  One plain, one with cheese and (of course) one with powdered sugar and poppy seeds.

Spent some time with Pavla's granny and granddad.  The two sweetest Czech's you'll ever meet:

Both are in their 80's.  Lived through some crazy times.  If you don't know much about 20th century Czech history - it's worth looking into.  There's been a lot going on here in the last 100 years.

Granny tried to speak some English with us.  She learned a bit when she was real young, but when the communist era came around that was the end of English.  That she remembered any is remarkable.  She speaks German very well and was quite surprised when I was able to respond to her.

When we weren't busy eating, we were busy hiking.  That's how Czech people stay so thin.  They eat gravy, dumplings and potatoes with sugar for every meal - and then they go climb a mountain.  I've got the eating part down.  I still need to work on the whole mountain climbing thing.  They make it look so easy.

"Some News Good, Some News Bad"

Today was the last day of our intensive Czech class - I'm very glad to see the end of it.  We've been sitting in a classroom all day for the last two weeks, with just one day off.  And it has come to an end.  We did, however, have the best teacher in the program, Jana Cerna, and today we said goodbye.

We went the whole two weeks thinking that she would be our Czech teacher for our whole semester in CZ, but she found out yesterday that she will be unable to teach us due to scheduling conflicts.  When she broke the news to us, she told us how we were the best class she's ever had and she's enjoyed her time with us more than any other class (that's my own interpretation anway - her English can be difficult to understand).  As she was explaining the situation to us, she started crying and naturally, in a classroom with nine girls that love Jana Cerna, we started crying as well.

She promised to come visit us.

Stomping Grounds

Allow me to introduce you to my neighborhood.  Friends, meet Vinohrady.

New Neighbs

I think my neighbors are hiding form me.  I've only seen one woman that lives in my building and she's a bug-eyed old lady with the most adorable dog.  Everyone has a dog here.  

If you like pork and gravy, Prague is the place to be.  They call it "Candle Sauce" . . . ?

I started learning Czech yesterday.  If you'd like a challenge, I dare you to try it.  

I've been tired every minute since I got here.  I fell asleep in the airport while I was waiting for other flights to get in and woke up to these two young Czech men standing over me, laughing.  I'm glad they thought it was funny.

I'm here, ya'll.

Hello ladies and gentlemen.  I arrived in Prague a few days ago and am starting to get settled into my apartment.  I'll post some pictures once I can.    We've just been getting ourselves familiar with the city, so not much to talk about yet.

More later.

Countdown Begins

So, I didn't write about China. That time has come and gone. I'll just say that China is not for the faint of heart.

I head off to Prague in two weeks and my days in Minneapolis are dwindling. There will be a goodbye party on friday night - bring me cupcakes because my diet starts on saturday (not!). Also, I'm having a rummage sale this weekend (more on this in a couple days), so stop in and fund my trip by buying my junk. After that I have nothing planned, so I have a whole week of free time. I will be busy saying goodbye to this Minnesota Summer the only way I know how - beaches and BBQs.