A busy April

Another long gap in between posts and I apologize for that. Things have just been moving so quickly, I cannot believe May is nearly upon us. In the last few weeks I've been able to travel to Amsterdam and Italy, in addition to several awesome day trips within the Czech Republic.

The last post described the first few days of spring break in Italy and I will try and describe the rest of my time in the incredible country.

After leaving Napoli, we headed back to Rome to stay with our ZBT Wisconsin friend Ron (who subsequently spent the next weekend with us in Prague). Our remaining days in Rome were absolutely magnificent. We saw the rest of the sights, including the Vatican City (also it's own country). The Vatican was crazy, so many people looking spiritually cleansed. The inside of St Peter's church was so finely decorated and the church itself was massive. Probably my favorite thing in all of Rome was going to the top of St. Peter's basilica. It was quite the hike to get up there, all kinds of small spaces and spiral staircases, but the view from the top was quite worth it. We were graced with beautiful weather that day, and seeing such a beautiful and historical city from that vantage point was really something. The Vatican is so big and crowded that it took us two days to complete (and even then, we probably only saw about 25 percent of what was there). The following day we went back and journeyed through the Vatican Museum, with all kinds of paintings by famous artists such as Michaelangelo and also sculptures of early Greek and Roman Gods/historical figures. After making it through the endless museum, we finally arrived in what is probably the most famous chapel in the world, the Sistine. Not as big as I had expected, but with gorgeous paintings in every direction, it was easy to spend a cool hour or two there. The best part was the security inside the chapel with hardline security personnel intermittently yelling "NOOOO PHOTO" and shhhhing us every chance they received. The Sistine is famous for many things, including the location where the holy priests gather to discuss a new pope. In Rome we ate like Kings. Gelato everyday, incredible pasta and pizza, and great sandwiches. Old Bridge Gelato and Fabio sandwiches (we went there twice) were my two favorite places. Thursday afternoon we sadly packed up our things and went to the train station to meet Paige on our way to Florence.

I thought Rome couldn't be topped, but if Florence didn't, it certainly came close. Situated in beautiful Tuscany, Florence had one of the most picturesque locations in the world. Great weather and amazing architecture made this cute little town truly unique. Paige and I stayed in this awesome 13th century hotel overlooking the Duomo. Our room had paintings dating back to the 15th century. It was a great place and it was amazing to actually sleep in a place with so much history. Shockingly, we also ate tremendously well in Florence. Antico Noe sandwich shop had perfectly chewy and fresh bread with all the fixins for only 4-5 euros. Paige and I ate there 3 times, because every time we tried to find something else, it was either closed, too expensive, or unappealing. Our best meal of the entire trip came at Al Acqua Due with everyone on the trip (Blake, Ian, John, Paige, John's friend Melanie, Blake's friend Sebastian, and myself). We ordered the pasta sampler, with no less than 6 different kinds of authentic Italian pasta, and many bottles of house wine. Then came the main dish, steak with some sort of concentrated blueberry syrup. Sounds weird, but it might have been the best steak I've ever had. The syrup was thick and so full of flavor that I could probably even bear to eat a McDonald's burger with it. The next day Paige and I saw the former Palace and the gardens behind it. The gardens were great and very well maintained. On our last day we saw Florence from the elevated Piazzale Michaelangelo. The panorama of the city of truly spectacular. We left Florence on a late train for Milan Unfortunately NOTHING was available in Milan to sleep in (unless you wanted to drop 100 plus dollars). We got into the train station at 12 and had a 10 o clock bus to the airport. We found a bench and saddled up, alternating sleeping and looking out. Needless to say, not the best nights sleep. We got on an earlier bus to the airport, slept on the hour long bus. Got to the airport, slept an hour more on the ground before the Wizz Air desk opened, finally boarded the plane for Prague and upon arrival kissed the ground. Okay so maybe we didn't kiss the ground, but that's the level of satisfaction we gained from finally being home.

The next two weeks I was solely in Prague which was great. My friend Ron came for a visit and we showed him all the sights and some new ones we discovered. A couple of my new favorite spots, Vysehrad; a second castle on the Vltava River opposite from the Prague Castle. Vsyehrad gives you a different view of Prague, one that most don't get to see. Since I've discovered it, I've been at least 5 times and have showed all my visitors. Petrin hill and the Petrin observatory were also awesome. The Petrin tower is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and is the highest structure in Prague because it is perched on top of a huge hill. The view from the top was amazing and the climb up was nearly as enjoyable. The walk back down the hill (we took the funicular up) was filled with amazing views, beautiful apple orchards, and cherry blossom trees.

With my program I went on a couple of different day trips. Kutna Hora is a small town not far away. It used to be the center of silver mining for all of Europe. They took us down old mining shafts that were so small and narrow that you needed special coats and helmets on so you didn't damage your clothes or head. We had an authentic Czech meal with wonderful home brewed beer before going to the Sedlec Ossuary. Someone took soil from where Jesus was crucified and sprinkled it around the Ossuary in Kutna Hora. This created huge demand for European elite to be buried there. With such a surplus of extra bones (they had an excess of 40,000 bodies), some artist was brought in to make art of the extra bones. Chandeliers, and other really cool things were constructed of actual human bones. Kinda creepy when you first walk in but it felt surprisingly normal for the most part.

Additionally with my program we went to the Labor Camp Terezin. A humbling experience to see the Holocaust firsthand. You grow up reading all about it, but until you actually see what the prisoners went through (not just Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, the mentally retarded, and other undesirables) you just have no idea. The rooms were so small and they were given so little food that many of them died at the camp from exhaustion, disease, or starvation. If they misbehaved at all, they would be shipped to Auschwitz for immediate execution. The Nazis treated these people worse than animals. Terezin was orinially a 17th century castle built to protect the Austria-Hungarian empire from the advancing Prussians of Germany. The Nazis took over the castle part as a work camp and the actual town of Terezin as the ghetto. Sometimes rooms the size of a classroom housed up to 100 people, sometimes with only one toilet. Horrible living conditions. A very sad day, but I'm glad I experienced it.

On a happier note, I went with Paige and her parents to the castle town of Cesky Krumlov. We had all kinds of trouble getting there with the train tracks apparently under construction. We narrowly made our train, before getting off and taking a bus, getting back on a train, taking another bus, to get on a train, to switch trains, to finally arrive in our destination. Truly a traveling nightmare. The city was marvelous and the castle and surrounded gardens were spectacular as well. It was just a small town, but it had wonderful charm and it was a great day with the Waterous's.

Two weeks ago, I went by myself to Konopiste castle, partly because my roommates Brian and Blake flaked that morning. I took a bus an hour away to Beroun before walking 2 kilometers through beautiful forest before arriving at the castle. Franz Ferdinand was the castle's last and most famous tenant. Ferdinand was a huge hunter and had every single one of his kills registered by date and name. He was a big fan of taxidermy (preserving and mounting animals on walls). His halls were filled with every animal known to man, from your ordinary deer to the exotic tiger he killed on his many African safaris. Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne so he had a lot of money and selected Konopiste because of it's excellent hunting forests. The lake in front was beautiful and provided as an excellent backdrop for the clouds in the sky. They had the bullet that killed Ferdinand in the infamous shooting in Sarajevo, effectively starting World War One. It was a relaxing day on my own, and I hope to show the castle again when my Dad and sister come to visit.

Finally, with our friend from Israel Ezra, we went to Amsterdam last Wednesday. Amsterdam's canals and buildings give it a charm unmatched by anything else. Thursday we went to the Van Gogh museum and took a canal tour on a boat. We were originally slated to go to London Friday night, but the bus was completely booked because it was Easter Weekend. All the buses anywhere out of the city were booked until Tuesday. We were then forced to stay in Amsterdam, but we had no hotel and it was already 10:30 at night. We searched for 5 hours and looked in at least 30 hotels before finally finding a dorm room bed for 50 euros a night. Not the best, but much better than the prospect of being homeless in a foreign city (didnt want to repeat Milan). Luckily we found a cheap flight Sunday morning out of Eindhoven, 2 ours outside of Amsterdam. We made it home on Sunday all completely broke after having to spend extra money on additional flights, trains, and hotels.

I'm meeting my Dad in Vienna tomorrow and then Yael in Budapest on Sunday. More good times to come!

Sam

the last month

First of all, I want to apologize for the lapse of time in between this post and the last.  Each trip has come and gone so quickly, and the few days I have at home in Prague have passed even more rapidly.  A lot has happened since the last time I updated the blog; namely trips to Barcelona, Copenhagen, and the first three days of a ten-day marathon trip up and down the coast of Italy.  First of course, came a trip in late February/early March to the coastal Spanish town of Barcelona.

Inside of Sagreda Familia

View of Sagreda Familia from Park Guell

Paige and I at the Barcelona game

Barcelona truly is a remarkable town.  It incorporates not only loads of history, but also fascinating architecture (namely by Antoni Gaudi) and a well-rehearsed nightlife.  The trip started off with a concert attended by virtually all American students studying abroad in Europe.  Afrojack is a techno DJ that has many big hits in America.  I’m not the biggest techno fan around, but I do really appreciate the added energy it brings to the night, and I am a big Afrojack fan.  The venue, Opium Mar, was on a strip of exclusive bars, clubs, and fancy restaurants dotted along a street hugging the Mediterranean coast of Barcelona.  It was a gorgeous venue inside, and it turned out to be a wonderful evening out with all my friends and Paige.  The following three days I spent in Barcelona was spent dining, hiking, and touring the wacky but impressive works of Gaudi.  Ron, Paige, and I took a free Gaudi walking tour where were toured several of his most famous works. Gaudi was a 19^th century architect born and raised in Barcelona.  He was commissioned to build numerous lavish apartment and other buildings throughout the city.  Each has unique charm and design.  His buildings are simply magnificent and were like nothing I have ever witnessed before.  He inspired many other architects in his day and also inspired the design for Darth Vader and the storm troopers in Star Wars (at least it was rumored so when George Lucas visited Barcelona in the mid 1970’s). My favorite spot in the entire city was his Park Guell.  It was a park up in the hills overlooking the city and the harbor.  But it wasn’t an ordinary park, it incorporated many of the same wacky styles we saw in his other works.  Probably his most famous building is the Sagreda Familia.  The building is massive, and still isn’t close to complete (he was granted the commission in the late 1880’s and isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2027).  We went inside (definitely worth the 11 euro entrance fee) and saw some of his work firsthand.  The view from the top (or the current top) was also incredible.  The building also has some history.  It was nearly destroyed in the 1930’s when fascists renounced all religion (Sagreda Familia is after all a church of course).  Sadly, Gaudi was killed by a streetcar while looking at Sagreda Familia. His death went relatively unnoticed (no one even identified the body as his until the following day) because in his later life he lived a quiet life where religion and work engulfed his life.  Although he’s gone, his legacy lives on and will live on in Barcelona forever.  Friday evening, we had probably the best meal of the entire trip at a tapas restaurant in the heart of the city.  Paige and I split six tapas, wine, a beer, and desserts for only 19 euros.  The meal was awesome and I loved trying many different things in one meal.  We finished out the weekend by attending an FC Barcelona football game.  The stadium was enormous, much larger to the naked eye than any football stadium I’ve seen in America.  Despite the extreme size, the stadium actually only holds roughly 90 thousand people (less than both the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rose Bowl).  We witnessed soccer in its purest form, a 1-0 thriller with very few combined scoring opportunities.  While I have warmed up to soccer in recent years (the world cup and being in Europe this semester), I still do not think its excitement level matches up with football.  There are simply not the same amount of meaningful plays in the game.  For example, when an offensive player turns the ball over at midfield in a soccer match, everyone stands and cheers even though the play likely had zero impact on the game.  In a football game, because of the constant field-position battle, every play matters greatly.  Even a dropped five-yard pass in football has great impact on the next drive for a team.  Regardless of which sport I prefer, the atmosphere in and around the stadium was incredible.  It was ridiculously loud the entire time, from singing songs before and after the game to the deafening sound of cheers following the one goal in the game.   Behind the goal, a specifically loud and rambunctious group of fans sang and waved flags throughout the match.  One fan even had a large bass drum that he led cheers from for the entire stadium.  Despite paying a hefty price for the ticket and the required Barcelona jersey, it was definitely a worthwhile experience to witness first-hand the world’s most popular sport.  Leaving Barcelona was bittersweet, and many of my friends felt the same feeling as we embarked back to Prague.  But all good things must come to an end, and for the sake of my thinning wallet, it couldn’t have come sooner.

The following weekend my high school friend Jon came to Prague for a visit.  It was a great opportunity to see more of the city and discover new places in my home city.  We did all the normal tourist activities (the castle, Charles bridge, Old Town Square) but also discovered a few new places.  The Golden Tiger is a famous local pub off the tourist trail near Old Town.  President Clinton was taken there by Vaclav Havel during a visit to the Czech Republic and the picture of the two of them proudly sits in the pub.  The beer, shipped directly from Plzen to the pub in only barrel form (meaning it’s unpasteurized and unpreserved in anyway), guarantees the freshest quality beer in the world.  The pub opens at 3:00, and has reservations starting at 6:00 until it closes.  So getting a table is a miracle in itself.  But Jon and I managed to find a place.  They don’t ask what you want or how you want it, but just throw two beers down at you when you sit down.  The beers were absolutely marvelous.  As fresh as they were when I tasted Pilsner from the actual factory.  When you finish your beer, you don’t wait longer than two minutes for the guy to clear your glass and send another beer your way.  A classic place that I will now be taking all my visitors to.  Another new discovery was drinks atop the Dancing House. I’m sure most of you have seen a picture of the Dancing House, one of Prague’s most famous buildings.  But only recently did I discover that you could go atop the building for drinks to see the view (previously I thought the only way up was to have an expensive dinner at the expensive restaurant).  The view was awesome, and a perfect place to see the river and the castle in the background.  Needless to say, we stayed up there a lot longer than we expected.  It was great to see Jon, and reminisce on some good times in high school (hard to believe that it’s already been three years since we graduated!). 

Copenhagen!

Last weekend, Paige and I ventured off to the Danish capital city of Copenhagen.  I can honestly say (at least so far) that this is my favorite European city.  It felt so comfortable, charming, and truly like home.  The architecture has a nice blend of old grand buildings and stunning modern marvels.  Everyone speaks English, and virtually everyone you meet in the city is incredibly nice.  The government really takes care of its people (can you imagine that?) and a recent survey named the Danish as the happiest people in the world.   Danish students get a stipend of a few thousand dollars per month just for attending college.  It is also home to the worlds first theme park Tivoli and is credited with being the inspiration for Disneyland.  The only downside was the inflated price of everything there.  Beers were eight dollars each, and a value meal at McDonald’s was 12 dollars.  Money was the only thing that kept me from studying in Copenhagen, and ironically, it’s the only thing that made me happy to leave.  Friday night, we took a train 45 minutes north with one of Paige’s high school friends Sophie, to visit her host school and enjoy a delicious authentic Danish meal.  Her school was really cool despite trekking 10 minutes through a dark forest to get there and the food was also very good.  Sunday, Paige and I saw most of what Copenhagen had to offer including the Little Mermaid statue named after Hans Christian Andersen’s book with the same.  Several times since leaving, I’ve found myself missing Copenhagen for its authenticity, charm of its people, and pristine natural beauty.

With only two full days back in Prague before embarking for Italy, I felt a little rushed, but now that we’re here it’s a welcomed adventure.  I flew with three friends to Rome Thursday morning.  We had Thursday evening and Friday morning/early afternoon to explore Rome before leaving for two days in Napoli.  Rome has a surplus of famous buildings and sites to see, but we managed to do a lot in our limited time there so far.  We’ve already seen the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and numerous ruins and other famous buildings I haven’t familiarized myself with yet.  Our train to Naploli left Rome’s Termini station at 4:45.  We got there plenty early, but made the mistake of waiting until 4:15 to go find a seat aboard the train.  There already weren’t any seats available (except the fold out ones in the place in between cars which we begrudgingly took), and people kept piling in.  Before we left there were so many people around us in the corridor that bags were laying on my lap from other people.  Eventually we had to stand up for sheer lack of space.  I’ve seen pictures of things like this, but never actually witnessed it.  Quite the experience, and something I would highly recommend any claustrophobic person avoid.  Eventually (about two hours into the ride) we found real seats. 

Coliseum

Trevie Fountain

Blake, Ian, and I at Pompei

Napoli is a seedy and gritty Italian town run by the biggest international organized crime syndicate in the world.  An already run-down dirty town was worsened by a strike of the waste-management facilities. Trash was literally everywhere, and dumpsters were overflowing so much that trash filled the surrounding 5 feet by 5 square feet around the actual dumpster.  There are also so many street vendors trying to sell stupid and stolen items. My friend Blake found that out the hard way.  The less than stellar living conditions did not affect the incredible pizza in Napoli.  Napoli invented pizza and continues to prefect it.  We ate at two pizza places (one founded in 1870 with only two pizzas; Margherita and Mariniara), and both ridiculously good.  The crust was soft and chewy, the tomato sauce was sweet and tangy, and the cheese was only the freshest mozzarella.  I can now confidently say I’ve had the best pizza in the world.  Saturday we went to Pompeii (only a 40 minute train ride away) and saw the demolished town.  Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and covered the entire town in deadly volcanic ash and magma within hours.  The town was much bigger than I expected (5-6 times the size of Machu Piccu) and had many impressive squares and half-standing buildings.  They even had real human skeletons preserved by the volcano on display.  Really an eerie place, but still something I’d recommend.  Today, we saw some more of the famous buildings Naploli has to offer including the Castel Nuovo and the Duomo Cathedral.  Napoli has its problems but overall a place worthy of a short visit for the pizza alone.  That being said, I’m glad we are currently waiting in the train station for our train back to Rome.

Okay so I may have just written the longest blog post in history, but like I said, I’ve done A LOT since my last blog post.  I promise to not let as much time pass until the next update.  Thanks for the few of you (Mom and Dad) that actually read through this entire post.  Can’t wait to continue with this Italian adventure!

Sam

Pilzen!

 This weekend, my roommates and I had the pleasure of hosting the entire North Shore of Chicago to our humble home.  Okay, so not all of the North Shore was here (although it certainly felt like it), and only two of them stayed here.  My roommate Brian is from Deerfield (if you guessed North Shore, you're right), and two of my other roommates Blake and David knew many of these same kids from Indiana.  Needless to say, Ian and I, the cast aways of this Midwestern themed weekend adventure, were left in many awkward situations as everyone reminisced over good times in suburban Chicago high school and/ or Indiana.  The two friends who stayed with us were both really interesting and nice, and despite only two rooms and one real bathroom, 7 people in the apartment not only felt fine, but rather comfy.

Church inside castle grounds

Our neighborhood (in the distance) from the castle 

View of Charles Bridge from the castle

On the positive side of people visiting is always showing them around and eating at your favorite places, which most visitors usually demand.  While I have tried to tour much of Prague in previous engagements, a visit to the castle, which probably should have been the first thing I did upon arrival, had eluded me.  Friday morning, we woke up, met a group of 30 plus people at Bohemia Bagels and went on a self guided tour of Prague.  The group started walking aimlessly as a giddy Ian and I decided to just follow them and see where we ended up.  They blocked the street, openly argued with each other on the appropriate direction, and also conflicted on where they wanted to go.  A lovely group, they really were.  After roughly 20 minutes of galloping around, the wide-eyed, the clan promptly turned to Ian and I, and asked us where we were, and where we were going.  Trying to contain our laughter, we told them casually how we had just been following them.  With a renewed sense of purpose, we set out to the castle. Luckily, Prague is a very walkable city, and despite a couple more minor setbacks, we eventually strolled through the castle gates.  The castle, the largest standing in the world, was absolutely magnificent, and provided me with some of the best views I have ever seen.  Hopefully the pictures can capture the breathtaking views for you, but unfortunately, this is something you probably need to see with your own eyes.

Entrance to Pilsner factory!

P

After a tiring first half of the weekend ( ya my weekends are that long), it was time to do some light traveling on Sunday.  So through my program various trips are provided through your tuition.  Yesterday was the first such trip as we visited Pilzen, home to the famous Pilsner-Urquell Brewery and the last city liberated by the American army in WWII.  Conveniently, all four of my roommates who had been previously been signed up to go bailed either the night before the excursion, or in Ian's case, the morning of.  In their defense, it had been a late night, but c'mon Ian, don't let sleep deprivation control your life!  We met at 9:30 (where nearly everyone had to control urges to puke), and made our way to Pilzen. Pilzen is obviously famous for it's beer, and the world owes the town to a certain model of beer called the Pilsener (how do they come up with these things!?) Breweries all over the world now produce their own Pilsner, none worse of course than our own Miller Light.  Only an hour away, Pilzen is prime for a nice day trip for Prague travelers.  The Pilsner-Urquell factory reminded me of the Willy Wonka factory with it's many charming buildings and wildly shaped buildings.  The company, now owned by a South African company (boo!), employs over 200 breweries, including over 20 American beers, but to this day has Pilsner-Urquell as the flagship beer.

My beer being poured!

Fresh

We toured the old brewery and the new brewery, the old pasteurization room filled with GIANT barrels of freshly brewed beer, before being directly served the freshest beer I have ever tasted (this includes the Heineken tour I took last summer).  Obviously so far the title of the blog has been a little misleading, but now I finally want to dissect this beer.  It was an amber brown color, with a little more foam than normal.  The foam is actually a good thing, because it protects the beer from invading air bubbles. They gave us unfiltered beer, which you can only taste at breweries around the world.  The beer was absolutely positively amazing.  Upon triumphantly finishing the beer, we made our way through the parking lot, to Na Spilce, the Czech restaurant owned/hosted by the brewery.  There, I had my first Czech goulash dish, and you guessed, 2 more free beers.  Everyone was great until they brought dessert. At first glance, this pancake looking dish, looked and smelt amazing.  It had what appeared to be whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and fruit on top of two fluffy warm pancakes.  Turns out, however, that the cream wasn't in fact whipped cream, but sour cream.  Somewhere, my Dad is cringing as he reads this.  I ate nearly half the dish before giving up, and nearly everyone around me did the same.  One of the few times I refused to finish dessert. Hopefully, the managers at the restaurant caught note and decided against uses such a awkward substance on a perfectly okay dessert.

The Great Synogague

America street/way

St. Bartholomew's Church

After lunch, and several stops to the restroom, we went on a brief city tour.  First, we visited the St. Bartholomew Church, which has the second highest spire in the entire country and what was the 3rd tallest building in the Czech Republic until 1981!  The gothic-style building is found in the main square of Pilzen, which also happens to be the largest perfectly mathematically even square in all of Europe.  Next on our list was the Great Synagogue just beyond the main square.  It is the second largest synagogue after Budapest in Europe.  Unfortunately the small Jewish population of Pilzen cannot currently afford to maintain the temple, so it remains there as a museum of sorts and a tourist attraction.  You may be wondering how the synagogue remained intact when the Nazis occupied the Czech Republic from 1939-1945?  It's actually an interesting story.  The building directly left of the synagogue (the yellow building in the picture) was the Pilzen SS headquarters for the Nazis during WWII.  They could not demolish the synagogue without also damaging their own building, and thus both buildings remain intact today.  Inside, you can clearly tell how beautiful the building could be in all it's glory, but without the proper work, the building is not currently suitable for prayer.  Hopefully one day, that will change.  Our last stop before heading home to Prague was the American Liberation monument.  As I said before, Pilzen was the last city the American troops liberated in Europe in WWII.  Our program director, who was born in Pilzen and still has family there, told us stories of tremendous jubilation over the victory over the Nazis on the second to last day of the war.  There were so many hugs and kisses going around that not all of the American troops could make it through the city to the main square.  The monument remains, and a on the one street was renamed "America way" in honor of those troops who forever changed the lives of those Czechs who were freed.

Well that's it for this edition of the blog.  Hope you enjoyed the sites from the castle, and some stories from the truly charming town of Pilzen.  I go to Barcelona this weekend, which is sure to provide many more exciting stories!


Best,
Sam

No dryers and a trip to Berlin

Of view of Old Town from our balcony

Ok so now that I've started to settle in a little (I've been here three weeks on wednesday!), a few negative things have started to come out.  Namely, there are no freakin dryers here!  So yes, the already mundane task of washing your clothes becomes that much harder.  We have one washer for 5 guys, and two giant drying racks.  The washer takes about an hour, then you need to manually take the clothes piece by piece to the drying rack to dry (we have no laundry basket of course).  After roughly 6-8 hours, the clothes are dry and you can fold them.  It seriously takes all day long or parts of two days...annoying.  I admire the Europeans for their energy saving ways, but don't they know they are now greener more energy efficient dryers on the market?

Also, as promised a few pictures from our first couple weeks in Prague:

Old Town Square!

On a positive note.  We all traveled to Berlin this weekend, well everyone except Ian.  

Berlin was an absolutely fascinating city.  So much history, and literally every type of political ideals have been in Berlin over the past century.  The city has seen it all, and it's still there, strong as ever.  

Berlin has very humble beginnings when it was settled in 1273 as a sleepy fishing village.  It grew slowly until the late 19th century when Otto Von Bismarck unified the Germans and created Berlin the new republic's capital city.  In the next half-century, the city grew exponentially with all kinds of Germans and especially Jews flocking to the city in search of new opportunities.  

The famous Brandenberg Gate

Seen on the right is the Brandenberg Gate, which used to separate the Royal Palace from the Tiergarten (Berlin's Central Park), which used to be the Royal hunting ground.  The Berlin Wall used to be just on the other side of gate.  

We took an awesome free walking tour which showed us much of the city on Friday.   The pictures you see are just some of the things we saw on that tour.  Our excellent tour guide who shares my name took us through the heart where we saw the American embassy, the Reichstag (German parliament) where Hitler's supporters started a fire in the 30's in order to gain national support, the Holocaust memorial, Museum Island and Checkpoint Charlie.

The US embassy, completed in 2008

 The Nazis started the fire and blamed a communist.  Hitler then approached the President (he was Chancellor in those days) about a power in which he could control everything for four years in case of emergency.  The President signed off on it, and the rest is emblazoned in an unfortunate chapter of Germany's history.

Germany does a very good job of educating their youth regarding the Holocaust.  The swastika is outlawed and the community shuns anyone with any sort of anarchist feelings.  They keep up many of the Nazi buildings as a reminder, but Hitler's former bunker they are clearly trying to forget.  Where the building once stood is now a very forgetful parking lot in the shadow of two apartment buildings.  The only source of remembrance is a plaque which shows the structure and some history of it, and even that was only placed there in 2006 for the World Cup.

All of us inside the memorial

The Holocaust memorial, more aptly named, the memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was incredibly eery and moving.  The memorial, designed by celebrated Jewish American architect Peter Eisenman, is meant to be abstract and confusing.  It is roughly 2700 grey concrete rectangles that could represent a number of different things, but I took it as gravestones.  A reminder to the German people how many innocent lives were taken.  It is right in the middle of the city and was meant to be a daily reminder to the German people of a grim part of their history.  One interesting tidbit is that a company was brought it to apply an anti-graffiti substance to the memorial.  No big deal right?  Wrong.  This was the same company that had supplied gas to the Nazis that was then used in concentration camps to murder Jews.  Obviously this outraged the Jewish community, and to subside the anger, the company decided to apply the substance for free.  It cost them 2.43 million euros.  A excellent gesture in my opinion that while mistakes can never be fully corrected, the next generation can always do more.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall were other amazing exhibits.  Really hard to believe that a wall separated a city for 28 years. The Wall was actually in place to keep East Berliners out of West Berlin, where they could escape to their freedom and not meant to enclose West Berlin as a prison (west berliners could actually leave if they wanted to). And it was even more amazing to discover that the wall was erected overnight.  Families and friends were split, and East Berliners were subjugated to a life of oppression until the wall's celebrated demolition in 1989.  

Hitler's speech steps

The 3.5 hour tour seemed to drag on a little, but after a coffee break we were back on the trail.  We walked around Museum island (yes mom and dad we did visit two museums in Berlin).  And saw several of the older historical buildings in Berlin, they were gorgeous!  Probably the most surreal moment in Berlin came when we saw the steps where Hitler delivered most of his propaganda speeches from.  I went up to the spot he most likely stood and soaked it in.  While the space below looks calm and peaceful now, it is crazy to think that only 65-70 years earlier, this was a square filled with so much hate and deception.  Really was wild.

What Hitler saw

We finished our tour and after a few beers at an awesome restaurant, we went to the Germany History museum and back to our hostel to rest.  

Saturday was a little more low key.  We walked through the Tiergarten and did the Jewish History museum, the biggest in europe. 

The nightlife was great. Friday night was a relative bust, but Saturday night we did the biggest pub crawl ever (over 200 people) and ended up at Club Matrix, which was a lot of fun.

 Brian, Dblock, and Blake left early Sunday morning, but Paige and I had a bus that left at 3 p.m. so we were able to walk around the city Sunday.  I promised to take Paige shopping then but everything was closed haha.  She took it in stride and I promised to go shopping with her next time we travel together.

When we finally boarded the bus, I was exhausted and ready to go home to Prague.  But it was a fantastic trip, and I highly recommend Berlin to any traveler who finds themselves in Europe.

Ok so this was the longest post ever and I thank you all for reading it all.  I had some catching up to do, especially on the pictures, and I hope now to more regularly update the blog as to not make posts that take 20 minute to sift through.

Until next time,

Sam

Super Bowl, classes, and birthdays

First I wanna apologize for having such a large absence of posts, been roughly 2 weeks since my first post. Unfortunately CEA placed us in our own apartment building on the other side of town from where over 50 percent of the group lives.  Thus the program cares very little about us and our problems.  The internet didn't work for a solid week, with very little effort put forth by them to fix the problem despite our best attempts (we contacted them multiple times a day for the week). But we finally have internet now, so I can do the basics such as call my parents and check basketball scores on ESPN.

Prague is an amazingly beautiful city with a tremendous history. Although most of the history is rather dreary, especially in the last century.  This probably translates to the Czech people's mentality.  They don't speak on trams, they rarely smile, and often you see them give Americans or anyone who looks like they're having a remotely good time dirty looks.  It's certainly an adjustment, one which I don't think anyone I know has fully accomplished.

The public transportation here is the best I have ever seen.  And that includes cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, and London.  The Soviets built the unmatched system to transport themselves around and Czechs maintain it's the best thing the Kremlin did for them during their 41 year occupation.  They have a wonderful metro system that takes about 2 minutes to learn, and then a slightly harder tram system that literally gets you anywhere you need to go.  While the metro and day trams do shut down at around 12:30 a.m., night travel is still relatively reliable although much less consistent.  There are night trams that run the same routes just at a far less frequency.  Nevertheless, I've had little to no problem transported myself around, and I'll leave wasting money on cabs to my friends.

What did I do for the Super Bowl?  Well obviously I watched, I will never miss watching a Super Bowl in my life.  We first went to this bar near the river called Belushi's but it was too crowded and filled with too many people not really interested in watching the game as we had hoped (girls, guys who *gasp* don't actually like football).  My roommates Brian Blake and I left to find something a little more accommodating.  We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe near Old Town Square which promised us an "authentic American experience" on their advertisement.  While food was a little pricey, the atmosphere was actually pretty good, and I won 15 bucks and a meal on various bets I took the Packers in (the 10th time in 14 years I have correctly picked the Super Bowl winner).

As the game dragged on in the 3rd quarter, it donned on us we had class registration in the morning which opened at 9 a.m.  They would really do that to you Sam?  Well this is another one of those head scratcher moves by CEA.  They only gave me 3 classes out of the required 4, and only gave Brian 2!  We have a finite list of classes which transfer back to UW, so this was quite the concerning matter.  Thus we made the decision after we got home from the Super Bowl (about 5 a.m.) to just stay up and go to school early.  Being first in line felt astonishingly great, but exhaustion began to creep up and Ian fell asleep on some stairs outside the office (no surprise there however).  After the internet went out for another hour, we finally registered at roughly 10.  The morning was abysmal, but my schedule is anything but.  CLASSES ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY ONLY!  That's right, I have successfully swapped my normal 2 day weekend and 5 day work week to the much more appropriate 2 day work week and 5 day weekend.  The classes are 3 hours each, so it is actually somewhat comparable to the classtime in Madison but just much more compact.  I went to 3 of my 4 classes last week, and they seem pretty interesting and significantly easier than anything taken at UW.

Last thing I want to talk about right now is my birthday which fell this past Wednesday.  Going out Tuesday night was a lot of fun at Chapeau Rouge and Wednesday was a good day as well.  Really didn't get the birthday feeling at all which I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about, but still overall a good day.  Paige took me out for a nice dinner, and we went out to Club Mecca which was fun as well.  In between we got in trouble for being too loud (very tame noise levels compared to any pregame back in the States).  There is a Czech law which mandates quiet hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. which several people have already been in trouble for.  The landlord, who unfortunately lives on our floor knocked on our door as we were about to leave, and promised to evict us the next morning if it happened again.  Haha okay Mr. Czech landlord, not sure the legality of that but either way we will have to curtail our habits.  It's weird to be 21, and it's even weirder to have the day come and go without much jubilation.  Obviously a 21st birthday here means nothing, but it still came and went much quicker than I expected.

Paige and I booked a trip to Berlin next weekend and some of our friends may join us.  Looking forward to my first travel experience.

Hope you all enjoyed reading this and I will try to make the next post sooner and filled with pictures.

Sam

First post

Hello everyone!

Well after drifting through a seemingly indefinite winter break (everyone 22+ is outraged right now while reading this), I am finally on my journey into the unknown.  I left home Thursday morning only to delay my flight to NY until Friday because they overbooked the flight and were awarding volunteers with 400 dollar vouchers.  Cha-ching, easiest money I've ever made.  The long weekend has been great in New York so far.  My sister and I have eaten well, and have had a good time.  But tomorrow we all leave for Prague.  I have been anxiously awaiting this day for weeks as Paige has been there for two weeks now filling me in on how awesome the city is and all has to offer.

I might as well answer the questions that everyone has asked me upon learning of my study abroad destination.

1. Why Prague?

The most popular question for obvious reasons.  Well if you know me (and hopefully you do if you're reading this), you know that I never like doing what people in the past have done.  I didn't want to be the 20th person people knew going to London or Paris.  I didn't want to go to Australia because the travel opportunities were limited, and I couldn't do Africa.  I briefly considered Asia before finally deciding North Central Europe was where I wanted to be.  It basically came down to three cities for me; Prague, Copenhagen, Denmark, or Stockholm, Sweden.  All three were solid choices, and I believe I would have been happy no matter where I ended up.  The deciding factor?  Money.  The other two cities are known as two of the most expensive in the world, and Prague is consistently ranked as one of the most reasonable.  Prague is not on the Euro yet, and employs a generous exchange rate to the US dollar (roughly 17 Czech Crowns to 1 US dollar).  O and it doesn't hurt that Prague is one of the few places in the world where beer is cheaper than bottled water.  I also had a couple of really good friends who had intentions of going to Prague, which made the living situation much easier.  People who have studied in Prague or visited have all gone out of their way to RAVE to me how amazing the city is.  No other destination did I receive such encouragement to go. For all those wondering, Paige going to Prague had nothing to do with my decision.  I chose Prague before she even knew if she was going abroad.  That being said I am very happy she will be there sharing the same experiences as me.  The central location, enchanting history, and familiarity with with those alongside me made choosing Prague an easy decision.

2. What classes am I taking?

Good question.  Our program  CEA is an independent study abroad broker that pairs us with the Anglo-American University in Prague.  While we picked classes back in November, they won't tell us for some stupid reason what classes we are taking or when.  However, if I get my desired schedule, I will only have 4 classes once a week Monday-Wednesday.  That means I can travel for 11 days while only missing one week of class, which I definitely plan on doing haha.  I'll keep you updated on my actual schedule upon receiving it.

3. Where am I living?

The program provides us with an apartment conveniently located in the city center.  Prague is divided 11 sections (maybe more) with 1 being the absolute center of the city.  I will be living in Prague 3 so pretty central to everything.  I'm living with two of my friends from school Ian and Brian who are both my roommates for next year in Madison as well.  We're either all gonna be friends for life or hate each other by the time we graduate next year haha, hopefully the former.  Our other two roommates are two guys from Indiana who I'm very excited to meet.  Also excited to remind them how irrelevant their school is athletically (83-20 anyone?)  They both seem reasonable and nice from the limited amount of communication we've had through email or facebook.

4. Why is this blog called Beers of Europe?

This was actually a suggestion by my Dad so don't go assuming I'm some alcoholic.  The beer in Europe is unequivocally better than it's American counterpart.  Prohibition in the early 20th century killed the American beer-making industry and now we're left with 3 awful main distributors and a handfull of up and coming very good microbreweries.  Maybe American beer will make a comeback, but for now, Europe is way better.  Thus, I plan on tasting various types of beers in every country I travel to.  I'm also extremely excited to try the original Budwesier in the Czech Republic.  They actually sued the American Bud because they were around first, but obviously the Busch company fought this.  I'm very excited to keep you all updated on which beers I find most enticing.

Well that's just about it for now. I have one more night and a half day tomorrow in New York before we take off for a direct flight to Prague.  Please pray that the lovely NY snow storm tonight doesn't delay us.

Thanks for sticking through all the way to the end of this post.  And thanks in advance for following me and keeping up with my adventures abroad.

All my best,
Sam