Hairy Mustachio!

June 14, 2008

Prague is an absolutely gorgeous city. We woke up early this morning, at ate a very intereting breakfast, complete with baked beans and hot dogs and pasta salad. Weird. After class we all took the metro into the heart of the city and explored a little before our walking tour with Dr. Medina. We bought huge hunks of sausage for lunch, and then went to a little coffee shop for dessert.

During our walking tour Dr. Medina pointed out all the different types of architecture in the city, and we watched the turn of the hour on the astronomical clock in the town square. Everyone crowded around to see it, so we expected that something really cool would happen. At the turn of the hour, the bell started to ring and a small skeleton guy danced around mechanically. We were all slightly disappointed with the whole thing. Apparently the clock was a major feat back in the day, and the king was so proud of it that he had the clockmaker blinded so that he couldn’t make one for any other city. Poor guy!

We walked over the main bridge of the city and got a great view of the river and the city. From there we took the trolly to the Mozart museum, which was actually his summer home. It was neat for a little while, but at this point we are all pretty disillusioned with museums, and we were ready to head back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel with just enough time to grab some pizza from our new favorite pizza place and get all dressed up for the Opera. Everyone pulled out the same dresses that we wore in Rome, and rode the Metro to the opera house. Apparently large groups of nicely dressed people don’t frequent the metro, because we got lots of strange stares from locals. The opera was quite an experience. The opera house was similar to other ones that we’ve toured. We sat in the very top section, which was great because we had a good view of the pit and the stage. There were ornate carvings everywhere, and a huge chandlier in the middle just the Paris Opera House. The actual opera wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, but that might have something to do with the fact that they were singing in German and there were Czech subtitles, which made it slightly difficult to understand. Definitely a neat experience though. Everyone should go to at least one opera in their life!

We got back around 10:30 and some people went to a five-story disco tech that’s really popular in Prague. Liz and I weren’t feeling all that great, so we just stayed in for the night. It was great to just chill out for a while.

June 15, 2008

No two days have been remotely similar on our trip, but for some reason I seem to be falling into a routine when it comes to journaling about them. I always start off with “today was [insert fun-sounding adjective]” and then proceed to recount the day’s events in chronological order. That must be really boring to read about. Unfortunately, I am not a good writer and an extreme creature of habit, so you will just have to bear with me. I apologize J

Today was awesome! (How’s that for a lame fun-sounding adjective?) Class in the morning and then over to Prague castle for a walking tour of the area. The weather here is crazy, one second it will be warm and sunny, and the next minute it will cloudy with a breeze that makes you cold in no time. Our hike up to the castle was a good example of that. I got really hot climbing up, but as soon as we got to the top the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in and I was freezing. Its difficult to adjust to, that’s for sure.

We got to the castle just in time to see the changing of the guards. We all took pictures next to them, with their interesting uniforms and straight-faced dispositions. Dr. Medina lead as around the castle, the cathedral, and the surrounding courtyards. Being on the hill provided an excellent view of the city. It was neat to see the centuries-old architecture spread throughout the hills.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you are and how much you like museums…) the Dvorak Museum was closed for the day, so we had the rest of the day free. We went back into the center of town, and ate a café close to the metro.** From there we tried asking people where H&M was, and each time someone gave us different directions. We did stumble across a neat open-air market in the process, with lots of food, jewelry, and marionette dolls. After exploring the market for a while we took the metro back to the hotel and chilled at the pizzeria with internet for a while. Since it was Father’s Day we all tried to call our parents, but to no avail because, once again, it was Sunday and everyone was at church. The time change is a difficult thing to work with sometimes!

We headed back into town after resting for a little bit, and finally found H&M and another store that’s popular in Europe, C&A. We weren’t too impressed with either, but being next to the mall gave us a good choice of places to eat dinner, and we ended up eating at an expensive place that served lots of traditional Czech food. I had something with lots of dumplings, steamed red cabbage, and meat. I don’t remember at all what it was called, but I really enjoyed it!

After dinner we headed back into the square once again to watch the Czech/Turkey soccer game. We ran into some people from our group completely by chance, and they lead us to the rest of the group. We had to snake through a very packed crowd to get to everyone, and there were a couple uncomfortable confrontations. Our group was located right next to a crazy Czech man, probably homeless, who had about four teeth and was more into a soccer game than I’ve ever seen in my life. The guys we were with were awesome about separating all the girls from him and all the other crazy people around…it was definitely an experience, probably one of the coolest experiences I have had so far. Everyone was INCREDIBLY spirited, screaming “Czech-ee” all the time. (I’m sure that’s not how you spell it, but that’s the phonetic gist of the word…) When Czech scored the crowed went wild, there was a lot of jumping up and down and cheering and hugging and high-fiving. They were ahead 2-0 until about the last fifteen minutes of the game, when Turkey scored three goals. Everyone was devastated. Our homeless Czech friend got punched in the face for some reason (we aren’t sure if he instigated it or not…I wouldn’t be too surprised if that was the case) and within seconds the crowd separated and there were several huge bouncer-type guys separating them. After the game ended, everyone quietly walked out of the square. We were all so disappointed. Our little homeless man cried; he had a very rough night.

We headed back to the hotel to pack after the game. We definitely weren’t in Prague for long enough!

**Let me take a second to say how awesome the metro system is in Prague. Not only is it clean and safe, its very quick, efficient, and gets you wherever you want to go. It’s really easy to figure out and enjoyable to use. Definitely my favorite so far.

June 16, 2008

Yet another day of travel. We were suppose to load the bus at 7:45am, and by 6:45 am there were people waiting outside the bus to make sure that they got the seats they wanted. I’m glad we only have a few days left…its getting pretty fierce on the bus early in the morning! There are rumors that Freddie can be persuaded to let people onto the bus the night before we leave to let people reserve the prime seats….the system has been corrupted! Since the seats we sit in are not considered prime real estate, we generally don’t have much of a problem getting seats together. We pulled out a few minutes early (no drunk people this time!) and I was asleep about two minutes into the trip.

We stopped at a concentration camp on the way to Berlin in Terezin. This camp was the one that Nazi leaders used for propaganda to tell the world that the Jews were being treated well…they prepared well-equipped rooms for red cross inspections and videos that were circulated around the world. Initially I was a little upset that we wouldn’t be seeing a more “realistic” camp, but I had no idea how powerful visiting this camp would actually be.

There was a steady, cold rain the entire time we were in the camp; it was very somber and fitting. We were lead through the camp by a little lady with a very thick accent who was incredibly difficult to understand. The first place that she took us was the entrance offices and original barracks. At the beginning of the war the camp started out being a place where prisoners were held, and then eventually became a location where many Jews were brought. The first barracks that we went into consisted of three levels of bunk beds that were fastened to the wall. People were meant to lay perpendicular to the wall, which allowed officials to place many more people in them than if they had regular bunks. The room that we were in was probably about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide and was meant to hold 100 people. Even the 50 of us that were on the tour had a difficult time fitting in, and it was incredible to think that twice that many people lived there for months on end.

We walked through more barracks and isolation chambers and saw were Arch Duke Ferdinand’s assassin was kept. The cells were originally intended to hold one person, but as over-crowding became an issue as many as 15-20 people were forced into a single cell with no light and very little ventilation. Prisoners in the camp were allowed to shower once a week and the shower facilities were unbelievable. There were several heads coming directly from the ceiling that five or six people were meant to share, with an incredibly limited supply of hot water, no matter the outside weather conditions. We saw a room full of comparatively nice sinks and mirrors, which our guide said was a room built solely in case of a Red Cross inspection and was actually never used by prisoners.

We went through a 500 meter stretch of tunnel through the perimeter of the prison that led to the execution area. It was a horrific place to stand, but what was even more terrible was the fact that directly on the other side of the wall was the home of the commander and other military officials, where families with children lived through the duration of the war. We saw larger barracks built by prisoners during the war next. These barracks were built to maximize efficiency and minimize cost, so they installed skylights in the roofs to save electricity. Aside from being horrible insulators, they produced a greenhouse effect in the room, and it would actually rain on prisoners in the night as the steam that collected in the room during the day condensed with the colder night temperatures. These rooms were relatively large, and held as many as 600 people at any given time. Clearly disease was rampant throughout the camp.

On our way out of the camp we walked through a memorial to the people that died in Terezin, approximately 80,000. There was a large Star of David and a cross overshadowing grave markers and a field of red roses. It was a breathtaking sight, and a very respectful memorial for those that suffered there. I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to visit the camp. It was an incredibly difficult thing to see, but something that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

The rest of the bus ride was a combination of sleeping and studying and preparing for the music test that we have tomorrow. We pulled into Berlin around 4, which gave us a couple hours to chill before the welcome dinner. Any chill time is very welcome and so enjoyable to have!

The welcome dinner was the best yet. We ate at a restaurant off the river, and it was just really good, familiar food. The chocolate mousse we had for dessert was probably one of the best things I’ve ever put into my mouth. We spent the rest of the evening studying for our music listening tests, which involved making a play list of about 18 classical pieces and putting the player on repeat, then identifying each piece as it came on. We were studying with our door open, and before long there were about 10 people in our room studying together, all listening to classical music. I’m sure the hotel personnel thought we were incredibly strange Americans. We had the window open the entire time, and you could hear crowds across the city cheering every time Germany scored a goal in the soccer game. It was neat to hear, even if we couldn’t be a part of it. Another chill night, but it was still a lot of fun to hang out with everyone, even if we were just studying.

June 17, 2008

Our first full day in Berlin was absolutely beautiful. Berlin is very different than any other city we’ve visited…its buildings are much more practical in their design and a lot less ornamental, especially in the East portion of the city, which was controlled by Communist for about forty years. We had out music class at a hotel pretty far away from where we are staying, but it gave us a great opportunity to see some of the city and get our bearings. Our test ended up not being difficult at all; all our studying paid off!

After class we went back to the hotel to regroup and get ready for the day. We took the train to the first museum we were visiting, with was the Old National Gallery. There are two kinds of train in Berlin, the S and the U. The S is the above ground track, which is a lot more enjoyable to ride on than anything underground because you get to see so much of the city. There is a wide variety of architecture visible; there are old, ornate, domes and modern, sleek buildings painted with bright primary colors…its quite a contrast! The museum itself was built in a very interesting style, portions were very ornate and beautiful while other portions were pretty bare. There were quite a few interesting pieces of artwork to look at.

We had about an hour break before we had to be at the second museum, which gave us just enough time to get some ice cream and enjoy it next to the river. The weather in Berlin is very strange. When the sun is outside its pretty warm, the kind of weather that shorts and a t-shirt are good for. But if a cloud or a breeze comes around, the temperature drops significantly. Its difficult to plan for!

Our second museum of the day was the Pergamon Museum, which houses lots of Ancient Greek works, including the original face to the Pergamon Chapel. During the 19th century the Germans went crazy and tried to collect as much art as possible from all over, including Greece. They brought a lot of amazing works back to the city and rebuilt portions of huge buildings indoors. They are fascinating to look at! The museum was located behind the Berlin Wall, and Dr. Medina said that it was incredibly exciting for the art world when the wall fell because it meant that they could once again go and see so much fascinating artwork!

After the museum a lot of people decided to head back to the hotel, but a couple of us decide to walk around Berlin for a little longer. It was just too pretty a day to head back to our rooms. We walked down one of the main roads of the city, window shopping and admiring all the buildings and scenery. We saw many important buildings, but the most memorable thing was the memorial to the 6 million Jews that were murdered during WWII. The memorial wasn’t built until after the fall of the Wall, and it is a very simple, bold statement. They made over 2700 rectangular cubes and placed them in a grid pattern along two city blocks. It’s a very ominous, bare reminder of what happened.

We came back to the hotel after our Berlin exploring, and decided to go get some dinner at the train station. I wanted some traditional German fast food, so I went to the Weiner Worst stand, of course. I was looking over the menu trying to figure out what to get, when a really cute guy with a little bit of a Swiss accent came up next to me and asked if I needed any help ordering anything. I was very happy to get any recommendation, and he described something that sounded good, so I was in. He asked me if I would like him to order for me, which I gladly took him up on. The meal, which ended up being a Reisencurreyworst combo I believe, was great. It was a whitish sausage looking thing cut up and covered in spiced ketchup and paprika. He also ordered me fries with mayo and ketchup…a surprisingly good combination. I love meeting locals! After dinner we came back to the hotel, wrote our music papers, and watched the soccer game for a little bit. A good European evening for sure!

June 18, 2008

Today was everything Berlin. We started the morning off with a bus tour led by none other than Freddie himself. He drove us through a lot of East Berlin (the Communist side) and we got to see the Berlin wall, which was absolutely fascinating. It’s neat to think that a lot of the changes that have happened in the country have been in my lifetime. We also drove out Checkpoint Charlie, which was the only gateway between East and West when the city was divided. We drove out to the Olympic Stadium, a palace in the city, and the Brandenberg Gates and the Reichstag building. Our tour ended at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum, which is a very modern art gallery. We saw lots of really “out there” pieces, including a large gallery room full of nothing but huge chunks of tallow and a felt suit hanging on the well. It was amusing to watch everyone’s reaction. Combine our feelings for the art with Medina’s appreciation for it and we had some interesting discussions in that museum for sure. I can’t say it was my favorite, but it is definitely one that I will remember for a long time!

After the museum some of us headed to the Reichstag building to climb the dome. (Its what we do when we get somewhere; we have to climb something!). The Reichstag building was fascinating to me because of how recent a large portion of its history is. The dome, completed in 1990 after major damage throughout the course of WWII, is made completely of glass and sits directly over the meeting place of the German parliament. It is suppose to symbolize the fact that the German people will always be “above” their government. To get up we didn’t actually have to climb anything, which was nice. Just a quick elevator ride up and then you had an incredibly view of the city.

We took the train home, and grabbed some dinner at the train station on our way back. We had about an hour to get ready for our final concert of the summer, which no one was very excited about. There is a pretty nasty flu virus going around, and about half of us feel nauseous and feverish. So far I haven’t been to sick, but I think its probably just a matter of time….

The concert ended up being pretty good. A little on the longer side, but it was still neat. The concert venue was some sort of very old city hall building, and the actual room it was in gave it a very “chamber orchestra” feeling. Afterwards, pretty much everyone went back to the hotel to pack and sleep. We are all pretty tired now and a good night’s sleep seems very appealing!