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 Posted October 29th, 2005 at 6:56PM
This trip summary is taking way too long to write. This Thursday, we leave for the second long trip, were we’ll travel throughout Germany, France, and Belgium. A little more local, but still highly anticipated.
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia
We got to Prague at about one or two in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel. And it was amazing.
Every set of students got one of the corner rooms. Meaning, it was a suite with a huge balconey.
* large entry room
- roughly double the entire size of your average hotel room (especially in Europe)
- full set of furniture, desk, table, TV, mini fridge
* balconey
- again, about the same size of your average hotel room, went around the corner, scenic overview of Prague
* bedroom
- Comfortable beds, nicely furnished, clean
* one and a half bathrooms!
- in a frigging hotel, we had a crapper, then we had a seperate bathroom with great shower, double sinks, foot washing thing.
This hotel was great. The continental breakfast was only so-so (lots of breads and pastries, no eggs), and it was about a half hour’s walk from the hotel to the city center (and it was uphill), but the hotel was worth it.
Anyways, back to the trip. Adter checking in, we had to leave the hotel for the city tour. Yes, unfortunate at first. But the tour guide was actually very informative and engaging. We got to see a few of the more interesting buildings, and eventually ended up downtown, where we split up.
If you didn’t know much about Prague, like me, you’d be in for a surprise when you got there. Tourist hellhole.
I mean, it wasn’t so bad. But there were a lot of tour groups circulating around during the day. And walking around on the streets you heard more English than any other language. It seemed to be a lot of Brits. The German tourists were in full force also.
Feeding off of the masses of tourists, were tons of tiny, single-aisle stores. They all sold the same things: postcards, Russian dolls (you know, those wood ones), Soviet hats, tacky t-shirts (“CCCP”), shot glasses, other more intricate glasswares, etcetera.
Although, truthfully, I found a diamond in the rough at one place. The guy maintaining the store was obviously a hardcore Russian commie. His hat selection was very good, and in the back of the store he even had full jump suits, complete gas masks, and other sweet Soviet schwag. He seemed well-accustomed to selling military-surplus gear to young idealistic Americans. I bought a really awesome hat, and an extra red star pin. You can never have enough red star pins, trust me.
I contemplated buying a Russian doll for someone (anyone) back home, but the sheer amount of them intimidated me. Every store sold them. Which one would I buy from?
There were also street stalls set up, and they also had some cool stuff. One stall I came across had a lot of very nice metalwork, little knickknacks. I was very tempted to pick up a necklace. I haven’t worn a necklace in probably ten years.
Thursday night I just walked around a lot. Eventually wandered out of the tourist center, into slightly shady parts of town. Still felt safe though. Safer than wandering around Bratislava, at least. Bought a CD (I think it was Prague, might of been Bratislava, doesn’t matter), the new Queens of the Stone Age.
Also checked into a sleazy internet cafe for a quick surf. I seemed to of wandered into some sort of ethnic, African section of town. The guys were smoking hookahs on the ground floor, while a dozen or so computers from the early nineties were hooked in upstairs. I felt dirty after using the keyboard. But the guy running the joint was friendly enough, so hey.
Another thing I noticed about Prague immediately: how every liquor store, bar, gift shop, and convenience store sold absinthe. This is probably partly due to the fact that the Czech Republic produces so much of the stuff, and partly due to the amount of tourists hogging the streets, ready for a taste. So I picked some up Thursday night, a bottle advertising 35mg/kg of thujone, the legal limit in the EU. Walked back to the hotel, drank a glass, watched some TV, went to bed.
Friday, October 7th, we woke up fairly early. Ate breakfast, and then departed for a few meetings. Unmemorable, something about the Czech Republic, or the European Union, or politics. Something like that. They lasted from 9:30am till 5:30pm, with a few short breaks. Then, we were free for the day. But, at seven, there was an opera that we were informed about — La Traviata. After the good ballet in Bratislava, I decided to check out this opera, a steal at 16 euro. It was in Italian, with a teleprompter in the rafters translating to Czech. Suffice to say, I was totally lost during the first act. But during the intermission, I snagged a glance at a summary, and it began to make more sense. In one sentence? Your typical love story. The set was very elaborate, with a revolving center. The singing was great as far as I was concerned, and all it all, it seemed to be a fine opera.
Yeah, I really can’t tell between a good and bad opera. Well, I might pick up if one is completely atrocious, but other than that…
After the opera, I headed back to the hotel. It was nearly 10pm, and since the next day was a Saturday, which we had free, it was decided that tonight would be a good time to par-teh. Especially with such free access to the green fairy. I showered, and showed up at the designated room. First to arrive, last to leave. Spent a lot of time on their balconey, smoking a cigar and talking to a girl.
I downed my bottle of absinthe. I was mixing it with Fanta, and it was damn smooth going down. And once my bottle was done, I started on someone else’s. I guess she either didn’t particularly like it, or had had enough. I didn’t ask why she had offered it.
I won’t begin to try to describe the difference between absinthe and your traditional high-potency alcohol, but it’s there. It’s damn subtle, but there. The problem is, is that people go into it with misconceptions. Expecting to trip. It’s not going to happen. At least as far as EU-legal, cheap absinthe goes.
The party winded down at about three, just as I began to feel a bit nauseous. Passed up a pipe, went back to the hotel room, made out with the toilet a bit. Drank some water, went to sleep.
Saturday, October 8th was a memorable day. I woke up with a unique hangover. My head was clear. My stomach didn’t have that ‘heavy’ feeling that it sometimes gets (especially after a lot of malts). But I felt very sick nonetheless. Almost flu like symptoms? Anyways. Threw up some more. I couldn’t make the noon checkout time, so I had the roommate check in my key card, and I took my time packing up. The maid actually showed up exactly at noon, which was really odd. So I hustled a bit more.
I checked my bag into the luggage room, and then made my way — slowly — out of the hotel. I walked down the hill. My pace was excruciatingly slow. I felt like throwing up some more, but that might of been a bit uncouth in the middle of the sidewalk (I wasn’t in Dublin, afterall). Looking back, it’s actually quite humorous. I made it to a cafe, and ordered a glass of orange juice. Mostly so that I could sit. It was your standard eight or twelve ounces of juice. And it took me a full hour to drink it, tiny sip by tiny sip. The owners had to think that I was an odd character.
After the juice, I felt marginally better. Decided to step up to some food. Walked a little further, found a pub-sort of establishment. It was only two or so in the afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. But packed at the same time. The only seating was at the bar, which was conspicuously vacant. They were busy, so my meal took a while to arrive. I ate slowly, keeping everything down. What a battle.
Eventually had to wander back up to the hotel. I was feeling my oats again by the time we left at five. To get to Tallinn, we were flying. We arrived at the airport, sat around for a bit. Decent-sized airport. At one point, to use up some excess local currency, I bought an ice cream and a soda at one of the stores. Two of my friends were in line ahead of me, buying similar trash. When I got to the front, the girl at the register rang up my items, and then pulled a CD from underneath the counter and surreptitiously handed it to me, saying, “This is a present for you.” I dumbly accepted it without a second thought. Once out of the store, I realized that no one else had gotten one. I looked back at her, smiled.
It was a sampler, of Czech and Slovak lounge music. Not traditional lounge as in Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, but new-age, laid back trance. I guess I just looked like I’d be a bit more into it than my two compadres. Although they are hep looking cats.
I’ve added it to iTunes, and do indeed enjoy it. Thanks random Czech girl who I met for all of two seconds.
Free music rocks.
After this, I ate my ice cream, and then boarded the plane, headed towards Tallinn. It was a smaller plane, Airbus, and our group made up the majority of passengers on board. I switched seats with someone who had a severe case of pre-flight jitters, needed a window seat. Oh, and we actually got a meal. The flight was only three hours. Pleasant surprise.
Posted October 21st, 2005 at 4:45PM
Sitting here on a Friday night, dreaming up schemes and drinking cheap wine, I decided to write about the second leg of my trip.
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia
We arrived in Slovakia on Tuesday, October 4th at about six pm. The hotel was a decent distance (and also uphill) from the part of town with stores, restaurants, and bars, but it was still a nice enough hotel overall. The only real drawbacks were that they only issued one key per room, and we were in doubles. And the shower was also woefully inadequate, so I ended up taking baths. Not entirely bad. The continental breakfast here was also very good.
After moving my stuff into the room, I headed into town alone. Found the center of town without any effort, and walked about. The downtown area of Bratislava was very nice. There was, on one side of a major thruway, the ‘old city’, complete with the requisite cobblestone, pedestrian-only streets. On the other side, was the more modern section. I’m sure there was a high-scale area somewhere, but the modern section that I walked about was fairly dingy, filled with second-rate, dubious shops. My sort of area. In one spot, there was a narrow alleyway that I wandered into, and throughout the entire way there was a sort of market that had sprung up, mostly used clothes and cheap jewelry.
I walked around for a few hours, and finally settled onto a bench in a large, well-lit square with two impressive churches on either side. There were choirs singing from both, and it was really a lovely atmosphere. I slowly smoked a cigar and sipped jager from my flask for nearly an hour, people-watching. Afterwards, I ate a quick wrap, and then stumbled upon a group of Americans. I joined them for a bar or two (or three), and then departed. Walked back to the hotel, fairly early, and called it a night. We had gotten in so late, that there was not a whole lot that we could have done that day. On the way back to the hotel, I tried to take a new way, and got a bit lost. I mean, I knew where the nice city center was, so I eventually backtracked. But outside of the shop / restaurant area, Bratislava was pretty sketcky. Especially late at night. A few times I questioned the wisdom of walking about alone (which is forbidden according to the higher-ups in the study abroad program. But I’m a rebel).
Wednesday, October 5th, we left early for three educational seminars. These were alright, nothing to write home about. Including a quick lunch break, they lasted from 9:30am till 4pm. This was also the evening on which we had the chance to go to an opera on the program’s dime. It was at 6pm — Swan Lake by the Slovak National Theatre. There was not enough time to go back to the hotel, so I wore business-formal attire the entire day. It killed my feet, wearing my dress shoes all day.
The ballet was great, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to, being my first ballet. But it certainly was a dash of culture. I think that I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Originally, I was pretty much only going out of some sort of obligation of seeming cultured. Oh, and it was free. But I genuinely enjoyed myself. Some of the moves were amazing, and the orchestra was grand (there was one lead clarinet that I could see from where I sat; she seemed to get many important parts, and the music reminded me of when I use to play). The only thing worth mentioning that was not particularly impressive, was the spot-lighting. It was pretty so-so, but I think that the only reason I noticed was because I had to deal with shoddy spot-lighting in high school, when I did the lighting for a few plays.
Afterwards, I went back to the hotel since it was getting a bit late, and I didn’t really feel like drinking. Not sure why. Watched some TV.
Thursday, October 6th, we ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel early, bound for Prague, via bus.
Posted October 15th, 2005 at 11:16AM
Hungary
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Saturday, October 1st, I spent packing up my belongings for the trip. The day before I had bought another set of dress clothes and a duffel bag (a nice medium size between my backpack and huge suitcase) for the trip. We were leaving at 9pm, and besides a quick meeting in the morning to discuss expectations / etcetera, I had a lot of free time. I decided to pack light, and partially succeeded. A few changes of clothes, my camera, and some reading material.
The bus was a few minutes late, eschewing (stereo)typical German punctuality. A quick stop at the other student housing, and we were on the road.
For sixteen hours.
It was a decent-sized bus — nearly everyone got two seats to spread out upon — but there was a general funky smell that only got worse as the trip progressed. Also, someone was sick starting out, and all of us being in such close quarters, meant half of the group came down with it sometime during the trip (myself included).
Who was in this group? Roughly twenty students (all political science or international relations majors), an administator of the study abroad program, two professors, and two teacher’s assistants.
But so the ride was not all that bad, and we arrived in Budapest (Hungary) on schedule, in the early afternoon the next day. We checked into the hotel and had about two hours or so to relax. The hotel was centrally located and quite large. The room was small, but nicely furnished and clean. Every floor had a shoe waxing machine, which my roommate and I used at every available opportunity.
My roommate and I walked in a straight line from the hotel, and eventually found a decent little restaurant tucked in the back of a small alley. Supposedly goulash is the national soup / food / what the tourists are suppose to eat, so we had two bowls. It was good, although I had to fish large chunks of beef out of it. Forgot to specify which type of goulash on the menu. Doh.
After settling in and getting our bearings straight, the entire group headed out for a boat tour of Budapest on the Danube. For those who don’t know, Budapest was originally two cities — Buda and Pest. They sat on opposite sides of the Danube River. Eventually, the two cities grew and consolidated into one, split up the middle by the Danube.
So from the Danube, we could see many of the feature attractions of Budapest. Huge civil, religious, and governmental buildings dominated. The boat tour was alright — it was definitely the way to see many of the landmarks. However the weather at this point (Sunday evening, October 2nd) was getting chilly, compounded by the fact that we were on a boat in open water (windy). The pre-recorded tour in half a dozen different languages also wasn’t that memorable. But we got a free drink with our tickets, so who’s complaining?
After the boat ride ended, we were let loose. I split off from the group, and tried to find some food. Eventually found another lone student wandering around, and we settled on a shady-looking Chinese restaurant. This place was hilarious, because after a person picked out everything he wanted from the buffet sitting out, the hostess plopped the plate into a microwave to warm it up. Not that good. But it was cheap and edible. After eating, the two of us headed back to the hotel. I relaxed and watched a bit of TV for an hour, maybe two. Most of the programming was either in German or English, usually with Hungarian subtitles.
A couple people showed up, and we decided to wander about Budapest a bit. Had a drink at a sleepy bar, walked around some more. Afterwards headed back to the hotel and watched some TV, smoked our pipes, and drank a little. A quiet night.
Monday, October 3rd, (after an incredible continental breakfast) we had our first lectures. The first was alright but unmemorable — a general overview of the transformations that Hungary has gone through since 1989. The second talk was pretty sad. The speaker was not prepared at all, nor did he even seem to know what the general topic was (Hungarian civil society) until he showed up and was told. The only upshot of all of this was that they had free food, which I stocked up on.
By six o’clock, we were again free to do as we please. Which illustrates a major gripe I had with the entire trip. We were typically busy with seminars, mandatory tours, and the ilk, from morning to evening. This meant that we didn’t have time to do a lot of sightseeing. It basically limited us to seeing the cities through their respective bars. Case in point: there was in Budapest both a museum of torture and a famous statue park that half of us wanted to check out, but none of us were able to. Because they close at sunset, the same time we were just getting done. The statue park sounded especially great — after 1989, all of the Soviet-era communist statues scattered around Budapest were gathered up and relocated to this park. A missed opportunity. Maybe next time I’m in Budapest, eh? pff.
Anyways, our second night in Budapest we went to a cool little jazz bar, modelled after a 1920s speakeasy. There, we listened to jazz, and met a conservative American that we debated for a bit. Eventually, we ended up toasting “To America!” I shit you not. It was hilarious. At the end of the night, half of us ended up leaving huge tips, for two main reasons. First off, at the time of our trip, the exchange rate between the Hungarian currency (the Forint) and the euro was nearly 250 to 1. This made all of the prices laughably high, and made our perception of the cost of things.. change.
Secondly, the bartender in our section was this cute Hungarian redhead. Rawr.
Afterwards, a group of maybe six or seven of us went back and drank for a bit longer in our hotel room.
The next day, Tuesday, October 4th, we only stayed in Budapest for as long as it took us to attend one more lecture and a tour of the Hungarian National Parliament. It was a nice building, and the lecture wasn’t even that bad. At two in the afternoon, we left Budapest and headed towards Bratislava, by bus.
Posted October 1st, 2005 at 8:41AM
Tonight at 9pm (3pm EST (note: I never bothered to change all of the times on this site, it’s still EST)), I leave for the longest official trip this semester. The Central and Eastern European field trip. An eleven day extravaganza.
First, we drive sixteen hours to Budapest, Hungary. We’ll spend three days total in Budapest, attending lectures and seminars, touring governmental institutions and the city. From there, we drive to Bratislava, in Slovakia. Here we attend more lectures, tour more institutions, and along the way will see Swan Lake at the Slovak National Theatre.
After two days in Slovakia, we drive to Prague (Czechoslovakia). Here we once again tour the city and attend seminars. Three days in Prague, then we fly to Tallin, Estonia. We’ll spend two days in Tallin, doing the same old gag, before finally flying back to Freiburg on Tuesday, October 11th.
It was my sincere hope to get my digital camera back from the shop (they sent it out to be cleaned) for this trip, however it’s still not back. I will be photographing this journey, but it’ll be with my trusty 35mm Canon. This is regretful, since if the pictures from this trip ever get online, it will be months from now when I have time and access to a scanner.
Even so, when I get back I will try to provide a description of the events as they unfolded. As well as some sort of map detailing my route, since it’s hard to visualize now.
Till then, comrades.
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