Prague Day 1

Out of all the cities we were visiting on our ten day, Prague was the city I was most excited for. And it ended up living up to its standards; it was my favorite city on our break, and probably ranks a high two or three on my complete list of cities. 

 

Prague was not only beautiful but it was so much fun and so many things to see. I wish we had more time there. And to top it all of the place we stayed at was amazing. Shelley ended up finding these apartments which were only 22 euro for three nights, in a great location, and nicer than most hotels. Me and Nichole had a whole room and queen bed to ourselves. We got into Prague around 6:45, it was about a 5 hour train ride from Berlin to Prague. We found our apartments, got settled in and went out to dinner without a sense of direction and found this incredible place. There were so many delicious things on the menu I didn't even know what to order. I ended up getting ribs and they gave me four racks, roasted potatoes, and cabbage for only 13 dollars. Every single one of us ended up staying in Sunday night, which says a lot. We were completely exhausted from being out until sunrise in Berlin and got a well needed rest. We got up early the next morning to do the walking tour. We met in the old town square which was filled with gorgeous architecture. You can see for yourself below.

We first were taken to the famous astronomical clock, which is actually rated as the number 3 more overrated European tourist attractions. But I didn't find it too disappointing. We didn't stay to see what exactly happened on the hour, but there is a very cool story behind it. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the sun and moon in the sky, a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. The story, however, comes with the inventor. The Prague officials didn't want him to create a like-clock anywhere else, so they decided to blind him by burning his eyes out. Nice thing to do to reward him for his genius creation right? Well didn't really go his way. But he was able to get his revenge by having one his students bring him into the tower, and he was able to take a piece out of the clock to make it stop working. It took them 400 years to find out how to fix the clock so it was out of commission for a while.

I'm going to have to separate Prague into two days simply because this blog would be massive. I'll continue with the walking tour and a couple of interesting things about Prague. This guy below is Franz Kafka, a famous author from Prague who wrote some really let's just say unusual books. I read Metamorphosis; I wouldn't suggest reading it; it's really creepy.

 This picture I snagged on a random street. It's a van with the Pilsner Urquell logo on it. Definitely one of my favorite beers I've had, comes in a close second behind the Weisbeer from Munich, so I had to get a picture of it. Funny thing is Munich is the city which brews the most average beer per person, but Prague is the city which consumes the most. I now for sure understand why. Behind the van is the Intercontinental Hotel, the hotel in which Michael Jackson stayed. Just a little fun fact.

 Here is the Metronome, which was constructed in 1991, when the Soviet Union finally left Prague, and thus so did communism. Originally on this plot of land a giant statue of Joseph Stalin stood, but now a metronome symbolizing a balance of power and democracy in Prague.

 Here lies a symbol praising one of Prague's former martyrs, Jan Palach.He was a Czech student who at the age of 21 set himself on fire as a political protest against the communist party. He is now regarded as a hero, and had many followers who them too lit themselves on fire to follow in his protect as a sign of anti-communism.

The tour wasn’t just about all of the sites and the history of Prague, he also explained to us the currency. Prague’s money is the chrome, and about 200 chrome is equal to $1 USD. So you’re getting out thousands of so called bills, but it doesn’t actually equal that much in US dollars. He also told us to be careful, especially when getting a lot of things because the people will take advantage of tourists. The total bill won’t actually end up totaling all the items added together. This actually ended up biting us in the butt the last night when we went out to dinner. Funny thing was we went to the place we went the first night which had excellent service, but we ended up getting a jerk of a waiter. He wanted nothing to do with us, and when I went to ask him if we could pay separately which he wouldn’t let us do. The guy the first night let 20 of us pay individually, and he wouldn’t let the 5 of us pay separately. He dropped off the check and we added up the bill and his total was a good deal above what it was supposed to be. That kind of ticked us off a little bit, so we decided to leave what our food cost and no tip. As we were leaving, the waiter ran after us screaming in his language as if we were dining and dashing. We just kept walking out, but he grabbed me by the arm (I was last in line) and the only waiter locked the door. It was as if they were holding me hostage, which made me really scared. These people barely speak English, and they weren’t letting me out of the restaurant. Robbie and Sarah finally came back inside to sort things out. The waiter kept adding up the money saying it didn’t match the total bill. We asked him if he would add the bill up on the calculator sitting right in front of him, and he literally said no. So I took out my phone and added up the bill showing him directly that he was wrong. The other waiter was watching and was not saying anything, so I actually got heated. First of all these people were trying to rip us off for being Americans, and second of all he physically put his hands on me and locked me in the restaurant. That’s not acceptable. So I got pissed and raised my voice saying that they’re trying to rip us off and we’re not paying what they stated. The manager finally came over as what Sarah informed me later a large part of the restaurant was watching the whole thing go down. He looked at the bill and then my phone and said just go, leave. I was still shaking as I left mostly out of anger, but it was definitely quite the experience. At least the food was good.

After the walking tour a lot of us split up; some wanted to get food, others go drinking but four of us really wanted to see Prague Castle. Prague Castle isn't just the one main castle, it's a whole district of various buildings that were all differently structured, with beautiful views of the city. We didn't even try but the exact time we were walking up to parliament that the changing of the guard was taking place. It wasn't that monumental, but the castle was incredible. One of my favorite buildings in Prague.

 There was also this little structure in view, which I'm going to consider my Eiffel tower. I'm one of the only two girls not going to Paris, so this is as good as it's gonna get for me. I don't mind and too be honest I'm not too interested in going to Paris, since I hope that one day I can come back with my significant other (if I get lucky to have one in the near future).

 

 One of my favorite things about Prague besides Bohemia Bagels (i'll explain in a sec) was the Pub. It was a pub literally called "The Pub." The awesome thing about it was they had these big booths where large groups or just a couple could go two with a tap in the middle. Each person had there own number at the table which controlled their tab and you could pour however much beer you wanted to drink. It kept track of the amount, as well as your whole table's total which was then placed on a leaders board. So you could compete against other tables in the bar as well as with other tables across Europe. We went there for happy hour the first day as well as pregamed their the second night. The atmosphere was just a lot of fun along with the chance to just sit, talk and drink with your friends.

Now to get back to Bohemia Bagels, which ended up being a place where we spend a large portion of our time in Prague. We were shown this place for lunch in the middle of the walking tour the first day, went back for breakfast the next day and our last morning as well. Would you say we liked the place? I can say it was one of our favorites. They didn't just have bagels, they had amazing sandwiches, wraps, even baked goods. I got this amazing southwest chicken wrap that was so good I had to get it the next day for lunch as well. After The Pub we went back to the apartment for a quick cat nap and then got ready to go out. We went to a 5 story club that night which ended up being so much fun. There was an ice bar that I snuck into without paying and every floor had a different type of music playing. I stayed out dancing (despite my ankle condition) until around 4 in the morning, which is crazy for me, a person who likes to be in bed by the latest 11pm. But it was well worth it.

Berlin

This was the start of our second ten day break: Spring Break 2012 Lugano Style! We left Thursday around 6pm and took an overnight train to Berlin. It was our first experience taking an overnight train, and let me just say that it wasn't as nice as I thought. They were 6 person cabins, with three-tiered bunk beds so closely packed that you couldn't even sit up. A little problem for anyone with a slight dose of claustrophobia. I took some Dramamine and just passed out, but unfortunately the train ride we wanted was booked so we had to get the next one with 3 changes, the first one being at 5:30am. So didn't get a real full nights sleep but we ended up getting into Berlin at  around 11:15. We checked into our hostel, well our room couldn't and decided to go around and explore ourselves.  We kind of made our own walking tour up since we arrived to late to go on the guided one. We made the right decision though because with a map we pretty much hit all of the attractions the first day.

The first thing we saw was the Reichstag, or parliament building but didn't go inside because the line was way too long.

Probably the most famous and well known landmarks in Berlin is the Brandenburg Gate, the former city gate. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. It is much more beautiful when it's lit up at night. 

Next we went to the Holocaust Memorial, which is a national memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. It consists of a 19,000 square meters site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern. The architect specifically designed it actually modeled after the graveyard in Prague (which you will see later). Hitler had once planned to make the city of Prague an actual museum to the Jewish culture once the whole Jewish population was eradicated. The cemetery in Prague was the only place where the Jews were allowed to bury their people, and became so overcrowded that they even needed to start burying them vertically and in several layers. The graves were piled one on top of the other. 

 

 The architect specifically designed the memorial so that walking through it made you nauseous. The floor was sloped up and down and all of the slabs are different heights so you kind of feel like you're walking through a maze. 

The Berlin Wall’s remnants today of the 155km wall are scattered across the city, but you can follow all or sections of its former path along the 160km-long Berliner Wall Trail, a signposted walking and cycling path that follows the former border fortifications. The longest surviving stretch is the East Side Gallery. It was cool to just walk around the city and see random slabs of what used to be the wall. 

 The next spot on our make-shift Berlin tour was Checkpoint Charlie, which was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.

After our city tour, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out for dinner. We had MEXICAN, and it was incredible. I finally got to eat fajitas which I had been craving since the day I got here. They were amazing, even though I had to make due with chicken because steak was pretty expensive. Weirdly I have been able to eat peppers since I've come abroad which I used to not be able to stand back home. I guess I just miss vegetables so much that I'll take anything that I can get. The thing we didn't really know about Berlin was that it had a ridiculous night life. It has one of the biggest clubbing arenas in the world, and half of them are secretly hidden underground that you have to be on a guest list to get into. Most of the clubs don't even open until 12pm and don't even close until 6 or 7 in the morning. I stayed in the first night to give my ankle a rest, but the second night I did go out. We went to this club in a warehouse which was really cool, but apparently the main floor didn't even open until 5 am. We made it pretty late out but didn't make it that late. We stayed until 3 am because we were apparently in what looked like the gay floor. Robby and Adam swore that it wasn't a gay bar, but as soon as they said that, this guy started taking off his shirt and dancing with another guy. The next morning was a pretty chill day. We went out to lunch, which ended up taking about until 2 pm because the service and the food was so terrible. We made our way to the East Side Gallery where the famous part of the Berlin Wall is. One side was covered with graffiti while the other side was filled with these intricate artistically expressive murals. 

There were hundreds of these murals lined up, with the most famous being the famous portrait of Soviet leader Brezhnev kissing GDR leader Erich Honecker. 

We left Berlin the next morning and headed on our way to Prague!

Just my luck...

So one of the guys in our group found out that USI has intramural sports that are free to all students. They have all kinds of sports and activities that anyone can sign up for ranging from belly dancing to water aerobics. I signed up for volleyball, soccer, and basketball (even though they're not quite my sports of expertise I enjoy attempting to be adequate at them). Volleyball was the first sport on Monday, and there was five of us that went to play. We didn't really know the expertise level to expect, but the description said that all ability levels were welcome, even beginners. It was quite an adventure to just find the place where to play volleyball but we finally got there. It was quite the experience let me just say. The players were not kids, they were adults, men and women. The one girl I swear was a 6 foot tall transvestite. We were obviously out of our league, except for Lindsay who played volleyball in high school. It was definitely a bunch of fun though. I did pretty well considering we were playing with experts but did make a lot of comical mistakes. Tuesday was soccer, and I was really excited for that since I'd have to say it was my best sport out of the three. Again, we were surprised by their skill level. It was a bunch of 30 year old men in their full soccer uniforms. Val and I were the only girls, but it was a lot of fun. We were on teams of five and we rotated winners stay. The only problem was that one person had to be goalie, and no one wanted that job, especially me. The one time it was for like 5 seconds and they scored quite soon after lol. When we were cleaning up the field getting ready to go I saw one of the guys bring out what looked like a hockey stick. My eyes lit up and I asked him what sport they were played next. Found out from 8-10 was floorball, a sport played with a hockey stick with a plastic curved net at the bottom. The ball is like a miniature wiffle ball.

Of course the sport is completely different from field hockey, but I was definitely going to try. I was the only one of our group to stay, and the only girl in the whole program. I was asking some of the guys the rules and how to play. There weren't really any rules to the sport, but we played 3 v 3 with one goalie. The goalie position blew my mind. The guy played on his knees, and stopped the ball with his hands. It reminded me of a monkey trying to stop the ball, but required so much talent. It took a while to get the hang of the sport, especially since you can now use two sides of the stick, kick the ball, and do pretty much whatever you want. It was a whole lot of running with only a total of three members on your team, so you literally sub yourself out about every 5-10 minutes. My first couple of minutes in the game I was a little timid because I was getting used to the stick and the sport. Although, after I got the hang out of it, it just kinda clicked. I wasn't just playing with amateurs either, this one kid looked like he was 16 but was sick at the sport. I ended up scoring two goals and had some assists, and a bunch of steals. It felt really good to be a part of something, and I made friends with all of the guys who would cheer when I would score. They were all so friendly telling me where they were from and other stuff. They were completely shocked that I had played soccer for two hours before and were in better shape than most of them on the floor. That was the biggest problem with defending was speed. I had to drop a couple steps so I wasn't beat every time. The next day it was so nice out in Lugano that a bunch of us went to play basketball after school. We were playing 5 v 5 and Miles stole the ball and dribbling down the court for a fast break. I went after to go steal the ball, and we ended up getting tangled. My ankle was bending toward the opposite direction, and Miles ended up falling on me the other way. My knee was gushing blood, but the only thing I could feel was the pain in my ankle. I knew I did something to it, and they carried me off the court. I had to call Julien to drive me back to the Montarina and my ankle was the size of a soccer ball. He couldn't even take me to the hospital because they wouldn't even be able to take an x-ray with the swelling so high. The only thing I could do was elevate and ice and pray that it would get better. The only major problem was that I was leaving for Berlin for my ten-day the next night. Just my luck right. We decided to see if the swelling went down the next day and go from their. I got to stay at the Montarina and take my final instead of walking all the way to USI. The swelling definitely went down the next day even though I could barely walk on it. Julien and Brinberg took me to the pharmacy to get a brace so I could walk easier. The brace definitely did help me walk, but I was still in a lot of pain. I had no other choice though because I was so excited for this break. They were some of the cities I was most looking forward to going. So I brought lots of Tylenol, band aids. ace bandages, and braces, and decided to tough it out.

Dachau Concentration Camp

We took a 20 minute train on Sunday to the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was the first official concentration camp opened in Germany. We arrived early on Sunday morning, a cold gloomy day which well suited the mood seeing this site. It was not only morbid, and depressing, but at points nauseous, as to think that humans were capable of doing something so horrific.

 

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps. Over its twelve years as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and 31,951 deaths, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. Dachau lives in public memory as having been the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces. Accordingly, it was one of the first places where these camps were exposed to the rest of the world through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.

The entrance gate to this concentration camp carries the words "Arbeit macht frei", meaning "work liberates".

Built after the camp, were several memorials dedicated to the jews and what they went through.

 This was the main area where the barracks were located. These barracks were 10 by 100m supposed regulated to hold around 200 people. However, they became so overcrowded that they eventually held approximately 2000.

 The most horrific part of the whole site was by far the cremetory. This was where the gas chambers were located. The pictures and descriptions here are pretty self-explanatory.