But first, a few updates. Life has been pretty normal, with university classes progressing as usual and the internship application process taking up a lot of my time. Since nothing too crazy outside of hanging out a lot with new friends has happened recently, I'll just relate some fun facts I learned in the last week or two.
Anyone who has been to Europe probably remembers that public bathrooms are never free. But sometimes, bathrooms in restaurants and stores are free - as they should be, in my opinion, since I am already a paying customer. Well, this is not a universal attitude in Europe, it would seem. Twice over the past week I've experienced having to pay for a bathroom inside a store or restaurant at which I was already a paying customer! So frustrating. And how, you ask, does the store or restaurant ensure that you actually pay the 50 cents (63 American cents) to use the restroom? Simple - they HIRE a bathroom attendant who does nothing but stand around and make sure you pay the fee to use the bathroom! How dumb is that? Here's a concept - stop paying a useless bathroom attendant, and instead make the bathrooms free. Problem solved. I'm destined for a great business career.
Next, guess how much it costs to get a driver's license here in Germany? Over 1,200 euros! No wonder hardly anyone drives. Gas, of course, is also horrendously expensive: here it is about 3 times the prices in the U.S.
Next, select Germans (namely, my tandem partner and her friend) find the pronunciation of the word "orangutan" in English highly amusing. I always love hearing foreigners' perspective on English. You never really know what words in your mother tongue sound funny or are hard to pronounce.
And finally, several Germans I have met who have studied in the U.S. have had some interesting encounters with clueless Americans. Please don't be like the Americans in the following examples! Exhibit A: a few years ago, my tandem partner's friend studying in California had a birthday. His American host family baked him a cake and adorned it with... a swastika. They didn't even mean any harm by it, they were just completely ignorant of the meaning and ugly history behind the symbol. C'mon, guys. (If you had any doubt, any public display of support for Nazism here in Germany can get you arrested.) Exhibit B: Another German who studied at a high school in Wisconsin was asked some interesting questions. Among them: "What language do you speak?" Really? She's from GERMANY. Furthermore, she was also asked "Do you speak European?" Yikes.
Anyway, back to the Prague trip. The Czech Republic is one Germany's 9 neighbors. Prague, the capital, was only a 5 and a half hour bus ride from Berlin, but the city and culture are radically different. We'll get to the cultural differences in my next post. First, let's look at some pretty pictures. Much of the city was not destroyed during WWII, so lots of fascinating original architecture remains.
We arrived pretty late in the day and dinner took forever, but that didn't stop me from getting some nighttime shots.
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| Streets of Prague |
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| The Church of Mother of God in front of Týn has been the main church of the city since the 14th century and is the burial place of astronomer Tyco Brahe. The towers are 80 meters high. The building in front of the church is the Týn School. The school was there before the church, so the church was simply built behind it |
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| Prague's Old Town Square dates from the 12th century |
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| Old Town Hall by day |
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| Old Town Square, looking in the other direction |
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| The statue in the Old Town Square depicts Jan Hus and was installed in 1915 |
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| As mentioned above, this wing of the Old Town Hall was destroyed in WWII and not rebuilt. You can see how abruptly the building cuts off |
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| Wenceslas Square is a huge open boulevard dominated by the National Museum, seen here, which was built in 1885. The statue in front of the museum is St. Wenceslas, the main patron saint of the Czech lands. The square was the site of major demonstrations against communism. During such events, the entire square was overflowing full with fed-up Czechs, including our tour guide. The day after we left Prague, the Czech Republic celebrated the 25th anniversary of being Communism-free. These days, there are actually still a small number of Communists in Parliament (voted in by old people), but they are sidelined by all other politicians since working with Communists would be political suicide |
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| Prague has dozens of architectural styles all mashed together right next to each other. Also on Wenceslas Square, just down the street from the neo-Renaissance National Museum I just mentioned, is this Art Deco building from the 1900s. It reminded me of downtown Los Angeles, whose historical architecture is nearly exclusively in the Art Deco style |
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| Another example of different architectural styles right next to another- this is a 1920s modernist structure, right next to the Gothic Powder Tower. Also nearby is a monumentalist building and the Neo-Baroque Municipal House. |
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| The Powder Tower once more, or Prašná brána in Czech. It is one of the original city gates leading into the Old Town |
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| Yet another architectural style - cubism! Cubist buildings are found nowhere else in the world except Prague |
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| On the streets of the Old Town |
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| Lunch and beer break! |
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| Cheers! Or "na zdraví," as the Czechs say |
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| A statue of Franz Kafka, who grew up and lived in Prague |
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| Way up on the top of that hill is a huge metronome. That wasn't always there - until 1962, the world's largest Stalin statue graced that hilltop |
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| Jews in Prague experienced their first pogrom in 1096 and were eventually confined to a walled ghetto. Today, that area is the Jewish Quarter |
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| The Jewish quarter was demolished around the turn of the 20th century. On the right, the road slopes down until it reaches the entrance of the beige building. The beige building escaped destruction and thus shows where the original street level was (compared to the current street level on the left) before the razing of the quarter |
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| Our first look at Prague's enormous castle complex |
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| (American) travel buddies |
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| Here, the Charles Bridge leads into Prague's spectacularly beautiful historical district. The Charles Bridge was built in the 14th century, making it the oldest bridge in Prague. In fact, it was the only way to cross the Vltava River until 1841 |
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| Kampa, Prague's biggest island |
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| Fall colors |
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| Once a normal wall, the Lennon Wall was filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti starting in the 1980s. Historical note: "In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of Gustáv Husák. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism" and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism." |
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| The Church of St. Nicholas looms in the background |
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| Malostranske Square |
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| Malostranske Square and the Church of St. Nicholas, a Baroque church built from 1704 to 1755 |
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| This is the National Monument, which is on top of a big hill above the apartment we were staying at for the weekend. It honors Jan Žižka's victory in 1420 on this hill over the army of the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary. The equestrian statue is the third largest bronze statue of its kind in the world! |
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| View from the National Monument. On the left is the Church of Our Lady with its signature spires. To its right is the Church of St. Nicholas, which is also pictured above. And the huge complex on the right is Prague's enormous castle |
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| View from the National Monument |
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| The Žižkov Television Tower is a communist-era transmitter tower built between 1985 and 1992. These days, it sports some statues of crawling babies (those are the bumps on the tower's legs in this picture) installed by artist David Černý |
That was a lot to take in for one blog post! Hopefully you are still with me. If so, there are more shots from Prague to come. Bis bald!