week 4 (Prague)

            I didn’t have my laptop with me in Prague, so I couldn’t update my blog. But here are the main details! Pavel and Martina (my host parents) were going to Moravia and had to drive through Prague anyway, so I rode with them and we met up with Marta, the girl from the Czech Republic who my family hosted as a foreign exchange student three years ago. She currently studies and lives in Prague, so I stayed with her there. Since I had been in Prague for a few days two years ago I had already seen all the touristy sites, so this time I wanted to do more of the real life type of stuff. Marta and her friends were just finishing up school and exams, so their summer vacation was just starting. I probably have some of these days mixed up, but the details are still correct!

            Marta and I walked around part of the city during the afternoon, and saw several churches and cemeteries. The first night I was there Marta was scheduled to sing at a private party, so I made plans to hang out with my friend Jakub who also currently lives in Prague. I met him when he was studying at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln a few years ago. We walked to a park area (called Letná) that has a great view of Prague, got some beers, and sat down to chat and look out over all the red roofs. Three other young guys (who spoke English!) came up and sat with us later in the evening, and it turned out that one was from Bohemia/Czech, one was from Moravia, and one was from Slovakia. I consider this to be beneficial to me because they (pretty accurately, according to Jakub) represented the different opinions and feelings of the people of their respective home areas. They explained the relationship between the countries since the split of Czechoslovakia and talked a little bit about the differences among people from the different areas. It ended up being a very fun night!

            In the morning we went to see her boyfriend playing double bass with a band on Charles Bridge, then got some lunch an hung out on Kampa Island (near the Charles Bridge) for the afternoon. When Marta was singing at the fancy restaurant in the evening I decided to tackle Prague on my own. I walked around Orloj and Charles Bridge, and then sat across the river from the Prague Castle to see it at sunset. I also tried to find the front entrance to the Týn church because the front looks really cool from a distance, but I walked around the block twice with no luck. At this time there was a World Cup soccer game showing on a big screen in the Orloj square, so I watched that with a few hundred fanatics for a few minutes, and headed back to the restaurant where Marta was singing. That night we ended up sitting out on the steps of the Rudolfinum (music hall/theatre?) for a long time before heading back to Marta’s apartment for the night.

            The next day we walked around Prague some more, met up with Marta’s friends, and hung out at another park. That evening we went to a nice restaurant and then met up with more people to go to a bar.

            On Sunday morning I requested that we go to Mass at St. Vitus cathedral, which is in the middle of the Prague Castle. After that, I walked around the cathedral for a while and took tons of pictures because it’s so beautiful! There was a small choir from Alaska, who had sung at an earlier Mass, singing in the center of the cathedral. After that we waited for some of Marta’s friends and for the afternoon headed to the gardens of Queen Anne’s summer palace behind the Prague Castle. We also later went to the Letná lookout place again, and I’ve decided that it is one of my favorite spots in Prague.

            Another band Marta sings with played at a funk/reggae concert in Turnov, near her hometown, Jablonec nad Nisou, in the northern part of Czech. We took the bus there and went to the concert, which I enjoyed the most out of all her concerts that week. Her mom met up with us there, and we stayed at her house in Jablonec nad Nisou that evening. We spent the next day in Jablonec nad Nisou as well. That afternoon we took a nice walk in the forest by their house, and I enjoyed Marta’s stories about going to the forest with her grandparents when she was younger. It was also really nice to be able to talk with someone who knows more about me and the things I say about home or how I feel about stuff, because for the last three weeks I didn’t have that. So thanks, Marta. J

            We headed back to Prague that night, and did some shopping the next morning. (I only got a skirt.) Then in the afternoon we met up with some of Marta’s girlfriends at a coffee shop for them to plan their trip to Spain. We ended up staying there for nearly all afternoon. Later, one of the girls came with Marta and me to drink some wine in the park near Marta’s flat, and then we went to an early evening concert of a band made up of classmates of Marta’s from the music school. From there we went back to the same coffee shop as before to hear some piano pieces by one of the girls going to Spain with Marta. After a few songs there we went to an underground pub for a good jazz concert. Toward the end of that concert I overheard some people speaking American English (which always excites me here), so I talked with them for a while. They were three young guys (younger than me!) from Pennsylvania who were traveling through Europe for the summer. I gave them some tips on what to see in Prague, and taught them some useful Czech phrases. It’s always nice to run into other Americans!

            The next day we met up with Marta’s dad and half-brother in the morning for a while, then walked around Prague again. We, again, met up with friends and hung out in a park. I guess that’s a favorite thing to do in Prague. Drink and smoke (not me! But I think I inhaled enough second-hand smoke this week to have smoked a pack myself. L) in a park. So that’s what we did. Then in the afternoon we went back to Marta’s apartment and got ready for a salsa party for her music class. Then we met up with Marta’s friend Vít’a to drink some Sangria in the park before going to the Salsa club. I enjoyed that Marta and Vít’a made a game out of trying to one-up each other with history facts about Prague to determine who would be a better tour guide, and I just tried to remember everything they were saying, like a history lesson. Later, while Vít’a and I went to meet up with people at the Salsa club, Marta went to pick up my older brother, Andy, and his wife, LeAnna, from the train station. (They were traveling around Europe for a month.) They joined us at the pub/club, and we danced and drank and talked for quite a while that night.

            In the morning we headed out to show Andy and LeAnna the sights in Prague, including Wenceslaus Square, Rudolphinum, Charles Bridge, the Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Queen Anne’s summer palace, and, well, I don’t remember what else, but I’m really glad I didn’t have to figure out the tram system through the city, I just had to follow the people who can actually read the signs! That afternoon we met up with another one of Marta’s friends who was also a foreign exchange student in the US, and we hung out at Letná again. It really does have a great view of Prague! After that we went to the store to buy some wine and things to make for dinner, and hung out at the flat for the night. We listened to music and talked and enjoyed each other’s company for a long time, and when we finished the wine Andy brought out the Hruškovíce, which is an alcohol like Slivovice, but made from pears instead of plums. It’s better, in my opinion. However, I also learned later that night that wine and hruškovíce don’t mix very well! Haha…live and learn. But it was a fun evening of just hanging out with friends! J

            The next day Marta, Andy, LeAnna, and I headed to Jablonec nad Nisou, Marta’s home town, for some real Czech life outside of the big city. We spent a lazy day there, and had some great authentic Czech food. Lída, Marta’s mom, is an amazing cook! Marta’s brother, Viktor, also came home for a while in the afternoon, and Andy enjoyed talking with him about computer stuff. In the evening we went to a restaurant that Marta sings at about once a month for a barbecue and a concert of two bands- one classical, and one jazz (Marta sang with them), and went back to her home afterwards.

            Andy and LeAnna had planned a side trip to Terezín, a Czech town that was the site of a Jewish concentration camp during WWII, the next day, and I went along. We took the bus there and followed Rick Steves’ guide to the town. I don’t think I could accurately describe everything in the town, so here’s a great website with lots of information on it. http://www.pruvodce.com/terezin/history.php3 LeAnna had been to the Dachau extermination camp in Germany some years ago, and said Terezín was a lot different because it just went back to being a town after the war, and is still a working town today, just with some museums and memorial spots of the war. When I was in the Czech Republic two years ago we went to the town of Lidice, which was supposed to be totally liquidated and swept off the map because of some anti-Communist people from the town. There was a great museum there with eye-witness testimonies, pictures, a memorial walk with a garden, statues, etc., and I enjoyed learning about the town’s story. I’m not sure what made me like Lidice better than I liked Terezín, but here is some information on Lidice so you can compare for yourself if you wish. http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/history_en.aspx We took the bus back to Prague in the afternoon, and then split off on the trains- I went back to Klenčí pod Čerchovem, and Andy and LeAnna headed back to Jablonec nad Nisou to spend some more time with Marta and her mom. When I got back to Klenčí that night, Jan (my host brother) met me at the train station and kindly biked my bag up the hill, where we met up with his parents and some family members at the pub (which you can see from my house’s terrace…so its like a pub in our back yard…sweet!) for some music and dancing. It was a long day with a fun evening, and I was so happy to be back “home” after the week away!