Day 5: Of Kings and Queens (Scenes from the Ages Past)

Prague, Czech Republic

Our first true day in Prague was quite the experience. The morning has gotten to be fairly standard--waking up at 6:30 for breakfast at 7, though in Prague the setting is much less formal, so we were done in 15 minutes and went back to the room. I ended up falling asleep until class…foreboding quite difficult lectures. There might be a few reasons for this--Kuo and I have been getting to bed fairly late--by the time we are both done with dinner and blogging/journaling about the day, it's gotten fairly late the past few nights--around 12:30ish. I can only imagine those individuals who are practically pulling all nighters in bars. Speaking of drinking--lecture this morning was quite entertaining due to this very fact. I'll leave it at that.

Post lecture, I attempted to help B navigate the group through the subway across town to get to Prague Castle--luckily, there were quite a few people who had been to Prague before and knew there way around. Besides, the castle is located on one of the highest if not the highest hills in Prague, affording the panorama I had been unable to get yesterday:

After waiting for a while until tickets were arranged to go into the castle then waiting in line, we entered the main complex. After passing through an opening in an inner wall, we came upon our destination: St. Vitus Cathedral. The immensity of the sight…so incredibly enormous. My 10-20 couldn't even capture the entire front face of it!

Another ten minutes of waiting in line and we entered the interior. (Late) Gothic architecture is amazing. You really have to experience it. However, hopefully these will help you out until then:

St. Wenceslas Chapel -- this place was gold and jewels!

This was an adjacent building on the complex--I believe it was the King's Throne room--very awesome architecture!

Lunch was a fun affair. Due to getting ripped off last night in a tourist part of town (a 230 crown dinner becoming 520 crowns, or roughly $26), we were very wary about where we ate. From our early experiences, we have learned that hole in the wall restaurants generally don't add in lots of extras without you asking, so we traveled pretty far down the mountain/hill and off to side streets and ran into a very decent meal for 190 crowns. In comparison to the previous evening, it was delicious, especially due to its relatively inexpensive nature!

One problem still exists. Time. Even with an hour for lunch, once you add in travel time and waiting for food to be cooked, it's always a rush. Technically we were allotted an hour and a half, but I wasn't about to leave the castle a minute earlier than I was finished--we even debated skipping lunch. Then, there's the fact that fast service at a quality, cheap restaurant is non-existent when 8+ people show up. Even more so when the person that takes your order, makes and delivers your food, and brings the receipt are one and the same. She probably lived on the second floor of the restaurant/house!

Needless to say, we were cutting it close. However, there was a huge dilemma--Andrew and I had gotten the daily special, which included desert. Everyone else headed on while we waited, ate, and dashed out, though not before Andrew left the tip on the nose of a smiley face drawn on a napkin. The disadvantage to walking down the hill to eat was that we had to run up it. We went back a different way--a way that had more stairs than I'd wish to count, stretching out as far as the eye could see. As we gasped for air at the top (5 minutes late), we met roving bands of Oxfordians letting us know that the museum was closed on Mondays. We're going tomorrow, though!

Being free for the rest of the day, we hung out with our professors overlooking Prague, then trekked across the city instead of taking the subway. One of our band wished to visit an old, famous Jewish synagogue--when we discovered that it cost $7 to get in, the rest of us walked around while he went in, then we all headed back through the city to home. Camera bags get incredibly heavy after walking for nearly 6 hours!

After some rest, we headed out for dinner. After wandering around the city for quite some time and by accident going to the red light district, we finally found a cheap chinese restaurant. I'm not quite keen on going out at night--it's honestly pretty sketchy. We had people following us around, asking us to go into their businesses, as well as getting offers for illegal drugs. Food is food though. On another note--the lack of water in Europe is truly disturbing. Czech tap water is apparently not safe for us Americans, so we can't drink that--there are no water fountains, and buying water at restaurants is extremely expensive and very limited in quantity. I guess I need to stop by a store tomorrow and pick some up.

That's all for today--here are the leftovers:

The cobblestone streets up to the castle--notice the slant of the buildings in relation to the road to see how steep they are!

A cloudy sky over Prague:

Until tomorrow folks,

Joshua Longenecker

Day 4: Travel (On the road again!)

I'd been looking forward to this day for some time, as we only got a small taste of the bus on our few miles from the Berlin airport to our hotel. It's a pretty schnazzy Mercedes bus with huge windows. It's pretty full once you add in over 45 people, but decently comfortable nonetheless.

It was our first checkout of the trip, so Jonathan and I packed up all our bags the night before just so we wouldn't be in a hurry. Turns out, I guess I hadn't made a last check through the room and assumed my iPod was in my suitcase--it's a huge blessing that the hotel found it, and secondly that they took the time to call our leader to figure out a way to get it back to me. Dr. B was amazing--she communicated with them and set everything up--I'm very grateful for all the behind the scenes things we rarely see.

 

We made our way from Berlin to Prague--I was hoping it would be a good, long, ride, and luckily it was! We left around 8:30 and stopped along the way for occasional breaks. Our lunch stop was at a McDonalds, and we went through the fun of dealing with our third currency--right now I have Dollars, Euros, and the Czech Crown in my pocket. Crowns are roughly 20 to one US Dollar.

I went through the line and got what I thought was going to be a good meal. The hamburger was the biggest I'd ever seen from a fast food joint, but I immediately regretted it. I don't know what was wrong with the meat, but it wasn't anything like what we have in the US.

Post meal we still had a few minutes before our allotted time was up, so Jonathan and I went to investigate an old, dilapidated tower on an adjacent hillside. The problem, however, was that it was surrounded by lots of overgrowth. I didn't necessarily plan on going up to the actual tower after I realized that there wasn't a particular path to it, but I kept looking around and ended up on a hillside overlooking the plains, then noticed a small opening in the woods. Jonathan stayed back, but I quickly investigated, realizing that the bus was most likely boarding! They have left people behind on previous trips, so I dashed through the overgrowth, ran inside the tower, shot a quick burst of photos, and then ran all the way back. Luckily, I had a minute or two to spare.

Eventually, we reached Prague mid-afternoon. This city is very different from Berlin. Besides having a hotel in the middle of the city, the streets are very tight and buildings tall, with very little to no open space. All sorts of power lines clutter the sky. Then, there are people. Large amounts of them, everywhere you turn. It's incredibly difficult to get down to the simplistic photograph without lots of extra distractions, so it wasn't quite as much fun. Regardless, here are some photos from Prague:

Day 3: Berlin (rest!)

I originally believed we had 2 concerts to go to today. Not quite sure where I got that, but I was very, very pleased to discover that this was not the case.

Today was the usual--7am breakfast, 8-10 music lecture, then museums and walking tours. Today we had a bit of a longer trek than usual; we took the train to Brandenburger Tor and then walked a kilometer and a half to the Altes Museum:

It has been recently restored, so the interior is beautiful--plenty of marble to be had!

Among the many works in this museum, we saw Abbey in an Oak Forest by Friedrich, The Isle of the Dead by Bocklin, Still Life with Flowers and Fruit by Cezanne, and The Thinker by Rodin.

Post-museum, we headed out for lunch just across the river from "museum island" at an Italian restaurant built into the arches of train bridge. As I'm always looking for places with water, I asked for some--I got my glass of mineral water and while my comrades quickly chugged their sodas, I slowly sipped it. Not the type of refreshing drink I was looking for, but we stopped by a mall later on and picked up some drinks. I ended up with a large bottle of off-brand Fanta that I've been working on, while Andrew and Jonathan both accidentally purchased bottled mineral water.

Next stop was the Pergamonmuseum (above)--quite stunning! It's basically an enormous building with life-sized features such as columns and multi-story entryways, as well as a life sized replica of the front steps of a temple building. It was quite the experience--especially attempting to shoot a group photo on the steps.

Our day ended with a walking tour passing by several buildings--such as the Altes Museum, as well as surrounding structures:

We were unable to go inside a memorial to the Jewish deaths during World War II due to so many visitors previously they shut it down, but it was, honestly for the better. Viewing the room from the outside without anyone allowed the full impact of the art to hit you.

The rest of the afternoon was relaxing--dinner, shopping, and homework in preparation for hitting the road to Czech Republic early tomorrow morning!

Tis all for now, folks!

Day 2: Let's get this (exercise) started.

Day 2 -- Friday, May 28th, 2010

Today was action packed--our first full day on tour here in Berlin. This morning I was terribly excited for breakfast after experiencing dinner yesterday--the chefs here at the hotel are absolutely phenomenal, even better due to the level of service shown here.

8am started our first lectures here, which were fairly interesting apart from the faint smell of throw up lingering in the room. My relaxation ended somewhat post-lecture--apparently, we were instructed that we needed to be changed around for the concert this evening at 11am--which meant walking all across Berlin in my dressy clothes. I guess I had trusted the list to only pack one pair of dressy clothes, but apparently I'll be in them a good portion of the time--we have 2 concerts tomorrow!

 All of us set off at a blistering pace--due to our professor's very quick stride. I thought I walked fast, but he walks fast...all the time. What makes it worse is that the pedestrian red lights spread us out--if you're not right with him, you can get a block or two back in a hurry.

Our first stop of the day was the Glemalderie (sp?)--a maze of Renaissance and Baroque paintings. The problem is that we have 6 essay type questions to write up on each of the important paintings we see each day--finding each one is trouble enough, but attempting to fill out all the info is practically impossible. At this museum I only covered 1 painting of the 7 we needed to do, which left me in a somewhat discouraged state.

Off to a blistering lunch break--1 hour is normally quite adequate. However, locating/traveling/ordering/eating dinner in a foreign city is quite a task. We barely made it back in time to start at the New National Gallerie (sp?), where we spent another chunk of time. I made the mistake here of not really trying to fill out the data about the 4 paintings--when we actually had much more time at this museum and I could have. Honestly, this art course is quite challenging for me--I can appreciate art, but analyzing art quickly is not at all up my alley. That, combined with my weak skills at memorization leading to a low score on a test most made 100+ on, and it's not looking like a very fun class.

After a quick walking tour which made us pass by a memorial to the Jews killed during WWII (above) and at the Brandenberg Gate where I got the group photo done (right), we were on our own. Andrew, Jonathan and I ended up waiting in line for quite some time to see the dome on the top of the German Parliment (two photos below). Security there was extremely strict--Andrew got stopped for a few minutes while he tried to converse with a German security guard who saw his multi-tool with a razor on the end in the scanner. It took a while for Andrew to know what he was talking about, and another bit for him to find it--entertaining, nonetheless!

After the dome we quickly stopped by a cart selling pastries with Nutella and bananas (in my case). Delectable. Then, off to dinner; we ended up eating at the same place we ate at for lunch--a hole-in-the-wall operated by one very nice gentleman. Very good, and best of all, decently cheap :). After running into some fellow Tech people, we walked a few blocks to the Berlin Philharmonic (photo below). The building was very stunning, and the music was amazing. However, after all the walking, lack of water fountains, and little rest, I struggled to not nod off--Andrew and I aided each other in this regard, and it worked quite successfully.

A train ride home with our professors, and we're back at the hotel after 11pm. It'll be another long journey tomorrow, but there's grace for another day. I just want to keep a handle on that Art class--it's intimidating right now, as I have one of the lowest grades in class. 

Over and out for now. Have a good evening!

Jonathan

Andrew

Day 1: Jumping the Pond

May 26-27th -- In Transit

Finally, after all the packing and details, I'm on the road. It's a weird feeling--considering I've only flown once in my life--to be heading out across the Atlantic Ocean. Security, etc. wasn't an issue at all--Jonathan, Andrew and I made it through quickly and then had plenty of time to kill at the airport. Having no internet gave me some time to show Jonathan how to use Lightroom and to do some photo editing, and then, yes, I did it. I officially have started on this quest of looking like an idiot while taking photos….the first photo is the result (I had to use my hand/arm to block out stray lights that reflected off the glass. It looked weird, trust me).

There is a wonderful dilemma carrying a camera bag and a backpack on a flight--the choice seems simple at first--my backpack has everything I need. However, sitting in the window seat (which Kuo graciously gave me on the flight over) locked me into whatever choice I make. So, at roughly midnight (EST), I regretted my choice of my backpack--we were blazing along at over 600 mph, and in between New York and Boston there was a spectacular lightning storm--something my point and shoot I have along in my backpack fails at miserably, so I had to sit contentedly and watch the show while my real camera sat miserable and alone.

Currently I am at Heathrow--and, luckily, I got enough sleep so it actually feels like it's roughly the correct time, even though back in America I'd just be waking up.

----jump and skip a few hours----

The first thing that hit me upon arriving in Germany is that the people have style. Second thing--that biking is faster than driving. We could barely keep up with an older gentleman and his somewhat leisurely pace, much less the younger man who went blazing by us, never to be seen again. This has much to do with stop lights, I'd imagine...bicycles have their own special signal. Pretty epic.

As the older gentleman passed our bus on his bike one last time, we arrived at our hotel. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Until tomorrow--(which shall be a very, very busy day--3 hours of lecture, 2 museums, a walking tour, and a concert!)--so long, friends. Enjoy your afternoon, and I'l cherish the thought of dinner in an hour.