La Vie Bohème

Oh, the Czech Republic.. where do I begin? Out of all the places I've been to so far on this trip, this is the first country that I seem to have a love/hate relationship with.  In some respects, the Czech country is very beautiful and intriguing, but this is the first time my frustration has reached such high limits.  Luckily my aunt was here to take over when I just wanted to give up.  To start with, nothing seems to work right (at least for me).  My debit card refuses to work in the ATMs... a call to the bank only told me that it had nothing to do with restrictions on my card.. just the Czech banking system.  My Spanish cell phone not only gets no signal, but also won't find a network to roam with, reducing its function to mere alarm clock.We also had difficulties with the room keys (more to follow), although that was more amusing than anything, but the single most frustrating thing here is the language barrier.
     I wrote a lot about language issues the last time, but before I never had any problems getting my point across, even if it meant waving my arms around like a fool to show what I meant.  And before, everyone seemed at least slightly willing to help me figure out whatever I needed.  Not in the Czech Republic.  I've had people yell at me, look at me and walk away, a bus driver shrug his shoulders at me and then drive off, and a train ticket seller basically refuse to sell me a ticket because I pronounced the name of the city wrong.   Writing the name down didn't do much to appease her.  Now, I've heard about the French being rude to people who don't speak French, but my short time in Paris a few years ago was met with no difficulty whatsoever.  Nothing like this at all.  I understand when people get frustrated when there is a language barrier.  I get frustrated too... but acting like I shouldn't even be in your country until I learn Czech is very off-putting to a tourist.  I understand too, that you don't speak English (even if I'm secretly praying you do), but with a little patience we can both get through our short interaction.  Sorry that Czech wasn't the first foreign language I studied, but I would still like to be able to travel without feeling ashamed to be here.
    That aside, I still had a great week wandering through Bohemia with my aunt.  We met up on Friday in Prague and stayed in a little hotel inside the old town.  Prague might just be my favorite city that I've visited so far, except for there are SO many tourists  The main square was PACKED full of people, almost to the point of irritation, because you can barely move down the street.  If it was that crowded in February, I can only imagine how horrid it must get in summer.  Ignoring the mass amounts of people though, downtown Prague has that feeling that you imagine when you think vaguely of "Europe."  Cobblestone streets, old buildings and churches on every corner, guards in antique uniforms patrolling around the castle gates.... It's got a nice vibe to it.

Prague main square

   So we spent two days roaming around Prague and went to an awesome black light theatre show- think ballet/Cirque de Soleil little skits all done under a black light.  It's hard to explain, but it was very fun to watch.  The next day we took a day trip to a town called Kutna Hora, home of the famous bone church.  Apparently, after the Black Death swept through Europe, they started to run out of places to bury the bodies, so they built a chapel in the middle of the cemetery to start stacking the bones, and someone decided to get a little creative.  They said the bones of over 40,000 people are in the church.  Creepy... but really cool.

   

  After Prague, the next stop was Cesky Krumlov, a little town in the southwest, close to the Austrian border. Just as we were about to miss the bus, we realized we had no cash, the ticket counter wouldn't let us pay with a credit card, and my debit card refused to work in the ATM.  Great. So after a painfully expensive cash advance on my credit card, we finally made it on board.  The Czech countryside makes me laugh a little bit... trees, snow, cornfields, and the occasional tractor.  It's like I never left Indiana!  After settling down in Cesky Krumlov and exploring the area and the castle on top of the hill, it was nap time.  Maybe a bad choice... my aunt and I had been planning on a romantic Valentine's dinner together :P, but when we tried to leave for dinner around 8:30, we found ourselves locked in...  The reception closed at 6 pm, we were the only guests in the entire hotel (at least I think..), and our key wouldn't open the front door.  Determined not to starve to death on Valentine's Day, I went and opened every single door without a room number in the entire hotel trying to find another exit.  No luck.  So I tried to jump out the kitchen window to try the door from the other side.  I got halfway out the window, looked down, and saw that below was a staircase to a cellar, making the drop about 2 stories.  I decided I didn't really want to break my leg in the Czech Republic, so I climbed back inside, and after another ten minutes or so of wrestling with the front door, we got it open!  Of course, when we got to the main square, everything was closed.  One of the disadvantages of traveling Europe in the off-season, but with luck we found an underground cave restaurant and had Valentine's hamburgers. Yum! :)
   The next day was a quick trip to Ceske Budejovice (chess-key bood-yo-veet-suh... I think...) to visit the REAL Budweiser brewery.  This is the Budweiser that has been caught in a legal storm for decades with our American Budweiser for the brand name rights.  (P.S. The Czech version is much better)  In our rush to make it to the tour on time, we accidentally took the tram in the wrong direction... We missed the tour.  Luckily, they still let us do our own tour later with a German couple who had undergone the same misfortune.  Then some yummy goulash and dumplings and the obligatory beer to wash it down.

The auntie and I :)

  To end our Czech excursion, we went to Plana to visit a beer spa! Warning: don't ever go to Plana unless you have some kind of ride arranged.  The train dropped us off in Plana, and we intended on taking a city bus to the village of Chodova Plana, just a few kilometers up the road, where the hotel was.  Not a large distance, but a little too far to walk in the snow with luggage.  Well, there were no city buses.  Then we tried a pay phone to call a taxi, but there were no taxis....  So we waited about an hour for a four minute train ride up the road, and it dropped us off literally in the middle of a cornfield, with a highway in front of us.  So we started walking... mud and snow and suitcases down the side of the highway.  It's funny now.. it wasn't so funny at the time :)  After a mile or two, we finally arrived at the hotel!  Then the next morning, we proceeded to soak ourselves in a bathtub full of beer (apparently it's very good for your health), and then have an awesome and very cheap massage.  Both of these involved two buxom Czech women ordering me to undress and me standing there naked trying not to laugh at the sheer awkwardness of it all.  After Plana, it was back to Prague for a night and a farewell to my aunt :(  Unlike me, she has real life responsibilities she has to get back to. :P Now I leave for a weekend in Munich, and then to Austria!! Cheers!

On the road again

Things have improved dramatically from my last post! My fever/flu has been cured and my leg is doing a million times better, so last Tuesday I left Spain for Berlin.  Spain had spoiled me with its "winter," so I was in for a bit of a shock when I got to Germany.  My first day there, I took a city tour to get oriented, and on my break I went to buy a hat so my ears wouldn't fall off! Other than the cold though, Berlin is a very beautiful and historic city, and I spent two days being immersed in Nazi and Cold War history.  There are a few parts of the city where the wall still stands, and it was hard to imagine what it was like when one day people woke up and found they couldn't go to the other part of the city for the next thirty years... It's like if they put a wall down Meridian Street.  And if you worked on the other side, or your boyfriend/girlfriend/family/whoever lived on the other side, then too bad for you.  It's hard to comprehend.

   Most of this part of my trip has kept my mind focused on language.  In Berlin, I met some girls from Switzerland and some guys from Brazil, but it's strange to see how English becomes the basis for conversation, because nobody's German or Portuguese was enough to understand each other.  This trip also has me stuck in an endless game of charades.. which can be very amusing, such as trying to pantomime "no onions," which the guy took to mean "lots and lots of onions."  Or it can be frustrating, such as when I was at the train station trying to buy a ticket and none of the staff understood me when all I wanted was just a ticket.  If I don't speak any German, yelling at me louder won't make me magically understand you.
   After Berlin, I went on to Sweden.  Now my Swedish is a million times better than my German! I know quite a few words such as: tack (thank you), hiss (elevator), infart (entrance), utfart (exit), femtifem (55), and nej (no), all essential words for a great conversation.  And sometime, ask a Swede why Brad Pitt gets made fun of in Sweden.... :)
   Anyways, I had an awesome time in Sweden!! I was so sad to leave :(  I went to visit my friend Marina that I haven't seen in more than two years and all her family and friends.  We had so much fun partying, getting kicked out of a bar due to a cat fight, eating lots of yummy food, having a Super Bowl party (home run!!), and driving around in her boyfriend Kristofer's Volvo.  His Volvo, by the way, deserves an honorable mention.  It's like my car, but worse.... His parking sensors consist of hitting the walls to know they are there, and the exhaust pipe runs up into the car, so we have to drive with the windows cracked so no one dies...  Luckily, we made it out alive, and on one of the days I went with Marina's dad and brother to the lake.  I love how Europeans are so much more active than Americans! Normally we just sit inside on our fat butts all winter and eat, but everyone was outside ice skating and skiing on the frozen lake and hiking through the woods.  So charming!

Sweden ♥

   Unfortunately, I had to leave Sweden (although I'm sure I'll be back!), but my next stop was Dresden, Germany.  I fell instantly in love with this city... this is a slight problem I have... everywhere I go I absolutely adore!  Anyways, the town is split in half by a river, and you cross a footbridge to get to the old city.  Every building is just gorgeous and even though the town has about 500,000 people, everything is very quiet and no one ever seems to be in a rush.

Dresden

    After Dresden I moved on to Wroclaw, Poland.  If I thought German and Swedish were tough, Polish is on a whole different level.  Apparently the town is pronounced 'frot-suave'?  I didn't even realize this until I got here... and the only two words I've figured out how to pronounce are Dziękuję (jay-kwee-ay), which means thank you, and piwo (beer).  This has led to the charades game getting even more intense.  Yesterday I tried to order a slice of pizza... the whole time I was thinking, "Ok, $4 is a little steep for a slice, but I suppose it's really big..."   Then the lady gives me an entire pizza.  I stood there halfway mortified, but mostly trying not to laugh, so I left with my pizza.  The most embarrassing part was that I went home and ate the entire thing!!  Someone is going to have to roll me home from Europe...
   Speaking of food, I am trying to understand the obsession they have with kebabs in Europe.  I thought it was just a Turkish thing, but apparently not... Kebabs are everywhere! I've had kebab in a box, kebab as big as my head, kebab slightly bigger than my head... and the best part is they are usually only $3-4.  And it's enough food for about a week!

Wroclaw

   Another happy moment outside of my various food comas was the fact that I got to wash and DRY my clothes yesterday!  If you've never experienced the lack of a dryer, it's hard to appreciate this, but drying your clothes on a line in winter sucks.  Now my clothes resemble clothes again instead of burlap sacks!  It's like a small miracle!
  I should also mention a few minor changes I've made to my travel strategy.  When I was in Spain, I switched out my backpack for a carry-on size suitcase.  I feel so much less hardcore, but my back and shoulders are thanking me for this decision.  Normal size people don't have as many problems with a backpack I think, but when you are as small as me, it's hard to get around with a small monster hanging off your shoulders.  If I fall down, it's like a turtle on its back... I'd be stuck there until someone picked me up.  I also didn't do any Couchsurfing on this part of my journey (minus Sweden.. but I stayed with friends, not strangers).  Mostly this is because my plans have changed a million times at the last minute, but it's also nice to not have to be so dependent on anyone else's work/class schedule.  If I want to take a nap or go back to eat a snack, I can just do it and not feel like I'm intruding on anyone's space or time.  Besides, with the exchange rate, my hostel in Poland cost about $8 a night.  You can't ask for anything better than that!  But perhaps in a week or two, I will try surfing again, because it's a great way to get to know a local and see how they live.
    Now I've just arrived in Prague and met up with my wonderful aunt!! Traveling alone has been great, because I've met so many cool people, but it's nice to see a familiar face from back home.  We will spend a week together in the Czech Republic, then I think I will go on to Munich and Austria... although it's always subject to change.
  Until next time! Na shledanou!