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June 29 2009

I can’t believe I’m back home in North Carolina. I also can’t believe it took me about three weeks to update my blog — but Prague just kept me so busy, and in the greatest way possible. It’d be a lie to say Prague was about the buildings or the landscape or the history. It’d be even more of a lie to say it was about the classes. Prague was about the people, the greatest group of 50-some students who, now, I can’t imagine my life without. But the experience didn’t lie wholly in ridiculous conversations at the zoo or those run-ins with crazy Czechs on the tram or laughing for hours about nothing or napping on a blanket in the park. So, in an effort to sum up the cultural and visual experience of the past three weeks, I’ll attempt to highlight a few things. And I think I left off at… Vienna. We went to Vienna with no real agenda, so when we got there with, basically, only a map and Charlie’s memorized directions to the hostel, I didn’t know what to expect. But our weekend was amazing. We spent most of it just exploring — choosing a direction on the metro and going that way until we came to an area that might be near something we wanted to see. Although we got lost (including a two and a half hour effort to find a World War II monument that was under construction that day) a lot, we also had a glorious time just walking around and seeing the city. Our feet hurt, but we saw way more sights than we would have had we just taken the metro everywhere. Some of these included: the opera house, where we stood outside for a bit watching a live projection; a glorious park with a butterfly house; the national library; a fountain near some government buildings; some government buildings. Everything was so gorgeous, and had it not been for the awful conversion rate from dollar to Euro, we wouldn’t have minded studying here. On our way to Europe’s second largest ferris wheel we found an amusement park, the likes of which I’d only seen in movies. It was so old, with a few new rides strewn in, but the atmosphere was very Vienna — still, beautiful and slightly eerie. Like kids in a candy shop — or at an amusement park? — we ran from ride to ride, throwing coins at the ticket booth attendants and buckling ourselves into rollercoasters that may or may not have passed contemporary safety regulations. We were sad to leave the city, partly because it was a wonderful experience we didn’t want to end and partly because, in Vienna, people are actually nice to you. Let me just say that if I got even a twitch out of a Czech person, I felt accomplished. The opera. Cesky Krumlov. The zoo. Prague.

I can’t believe I’m back home in North Carolina. I also can’t believe it took me about three weeks to update my blog — but Prague just kept me so busy, and in the greatest way possible. It’d be a lie to say Prague was about the buildings or the landscape or the history. It’d be even more of a lie to say it was about the classes. Prague was about the people, the greatest group of 50-some students who, now, I can’t imagine my life without.

But the experience didn’t lie wholly in ridiculous conversations at the zoo or those run-ins with crazy Czechs on the tram or laughing for hours about nothing or napping on a blanket in the park. So, in an effort to sum up the cultural and visual experience of the past three weeks, I’ll attempt to highlight a few things.

And I think I left off at…

Vienna.

We went to Vienna with no real agenda, so when we got there with, basically, only a map and Charlie’s memorized directions to the hostel, I didn’t know what to expect. But our weekend was amazing. We spent most of it just exploring — choosing a direction on the metro and going that way until we came to an area that might be near something we wanted to see. Although we got lost (including a two and a half hour effort to find a World War II monument that was under construction that day) a lot, we also had a glorious time just walking around and seeing the city. Our feet hurt, but we saw way more sights than we would have had we just taken the metro everywhere. Some of these included: the opera house, where we stood outside for a bit watching a live projection; a glorious park with a butterfly house; the national library; a fountain near some government buildings; some government buildings. Everything was so gorgeous, and had it not been for the awful conversion rate from dollar to Euro, we wouldn’t have minded studying here. On our way to Europe’s second largest ferris wheel we found an amusement park, the likes of which I’d only seen in movies. It was so old, with a few new rides strewn in, but the atmosphere was very Vienna — still, beautiful and slightly eerie. Like kids in a candy shop — or at an amusement park? — we ran from ride to ride, throwing coins at the ticket booth attendants and buckling ourselves into rollercoasters that may or may not have passed contemporary safety regulations. We were sad to leave the city, partly because it was a wonderful experience we didn’t want to end and partly because, in Vienna, people are actually nice to you. Let me just say that if I got even a twitch out of a Czech person, I felt accomplished.

The opera.

Cesky Krumlov.

The zoo.

Prague.