Ahoj McDonough, I haven't posted in a little over a month and I've been pretty busy since then. It's spring in Prague and the weather is fantastic.
March 8th, the day after my last blog post, was inauguration day in the Czech Republic. President Miloš Zeman was re-elected for a second term in January and got inaugurated at the Prague Castle. He's a controversial character here and a lot of people call him the "Czech Donald Trump". He won with a very narrow margin of 51.5% percent of the vote and most people in Prague don't like him. I'm don't know a ton about Czech politics, but I think it's interesting to see the similarities between Czech and American politics.
The inauguration day included a bunch of festivities throughout Prague. My art class actually went to the Prague Castle to see the St. Vitus Cathedral, but we didn't realize it was closed for the inauguration until we got there. We still went to an art exhibit nearby and then walked around the city. While we were walking back they started shooting off cannons at the castle to celebrate. I didn't know that this was going to happen or what was happening, so it was very startling. They fired off 20 cannons and it was super loud even down into the city center where I was. Everybody kind of slowed down and seemed confused, but everyone just kept moving along. I thought it was something violent going on especially with the timing of the inauguration. I know this sounds pretty extra, but I was pretty freaked out by it. I've also heard a couple other American students talk about similar experiences they've had in other countries thinking something violent had gone on while all everyone else didn't seem effected by it. I'm not sure if its because we've had a lot more attacks in the United States or if its just because we're all a little more on edge because we're abroad, but I think its interesting that is something that many of us go through.
The second weekend of March I went on a trip with my study abroad provider to Terezín and Lidice. Terezín was a military fortress constructed by Joseph II of the Habsburg empire during the Austro-Prussian War. During World War I it was a political prison that held thousands, including Gavrilo Princip who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and helped start the war. Then, during World War II it was concentration camp and ghetto. More than 150,000 people were held there, most of which were Czech Jews. Thousands of people died there and even more were shipped off to exterminations camps like Auschwitz.
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| (I did not take this picture) |
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| (I did not take this picture) |
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| (I did not take this picture) |
After touring Terezín we drove about an hour to Lidice. Lidice was a village in present day Czech Republic. In 1942 the high ranking Nazi Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in Prague. In June of that year Hilter ordered that the village of Lidice be destroyed to make up for the assassination, although there were no ties between Lidice and the assassination. On June 9,1942 the SS arrived at Lidice and leveled the village. All 173 men were immediately rounded up and executed. The women and children were separated and the 203 women were all sent to concentration camps. Of the 105 children, 82 were sent to Chelmno extermination camp and gassed to death. Six of the children who were seen as the most German looking were sent to German Lebensborn orphanages and died there. Only 17 of the children returned home. The village was totally destroyed and today its a memorial.
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Lidice memorial today
(I did not take this picture) |
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Lidice children memorial
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Seeing both Terezín and Lidice was a very sad and eye opening. I studied World War II and the Holocaust a lot in school, but I have never really learned about the Czech role in all of it.
The next week I went on a tour "Prague through the eyes of the homeless" with my study abroad provider. It was a really interesting tour because it took us to a lot of different parts of Prague that I've never seen before. I also don't really know a lot about homelessness even in the United States, so it was intriguing to hear about it from the perspective of someone homeless. He talked quite a bit about how he had everything in his life together then just had some unlucky events cause him to become homeless. He showed us a few of the different places he has lived, including where he's lived for more than 5 years under a ramp to a bridge. He lived with 6 other people, and they established rules and a sort of community. The tour really opened my eyes to another side of Prague and a new perspective on homelessness I had never heard.
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One of the stops on our "Prague through the eyes of the homeless tour"
This is a place that some charities come to provide food for the homeless.
It's also one of the spaces in Prague where you're free to spray graffiti. |
The next weekend I stayed in Prague and the weekend after that I left for spring break! I went with one of my roommates to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
After leaving Oslo, I flew to Tromsø. Tromsø is the largest city in Northern Norway and the 9th largest city in Norway. We went mainly because it's in the arctic circle.
Map of where Tromsø is in relation to Norway and the arctic circle.
Tromsø was really cold and it was crazy being in the arctic circle. As soon as we got off the airplane, even the airport was covered in snow. As soon as I stepped outside, snow was just falling everywhere and it really sunk in like, shit I'm really in the arctic circle.
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| This was the view from the edge of city center to another island |
The city of Tromsø was really cool. I wasn't sure how large any city in the arctic circle would be, but there was quite a bit there. I even noticed a couple offices of Big 4 accounting firms, which I thought was pretty funny.
After walking around the city center a bit, my roommate and I decided to go looking from reindeer. So, there aren't any wild reindeer in Tromsø, but a waiter in Oslo told my roommate and I that you could see some at the University of Tromsø. We wanted to see reindeer but did not want to pay to go on a tour, so we headed to the university.
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| View of Tromsø from the bus to the University of Tromsø |
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| View of Tromsø from the bus to the University of Tromsø |
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| View from the University of Tromsø |
So, we didn't really know where the reindeer were, but our waiter told us they were near the woods so that's where we headed. After looking around for about 2 hours, we finally found the reindeer. We actually had to walk up a trail with a bunch of cross country skiers and then walk through a bunch of snow to get to the fences.
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| Reindeer at University of Tromsø |
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| Reindeer at the University of Tromsø |
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View of the woods from behind the University of Tromsø. This was just behind the reindeer.
Seeing the reindeer was really cool and I was stoked to find them after we had been searching for them for a while. While we were looking at them there were also a bunch of Norwegian skiers around also watching them.
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| Tromsø from the bus |
Another thing that we really wanted to do was take the Fjellheisen cable car up to the Storsteinen mountain. So, we took the bus to the other island and then rode it up.
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| View of the island from just the start of the cable car |
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Tromsø from atop the Fjellheisen cable car on the Storsteinen mountain
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| The Tromsø city center from the Storsteinen mountain |
You can't really tell from the pictures, but the road from the city center up to the bus stop at the Fjellheisen was steep and covered in snow. It blew my mind that even with the road constantly covered in snow and hilly, but they were still able to have buses running with no issues. It made me realize how much I'm going to miss all the public transportation systems when I get back to America.
On the last day I was in Tromsø, we decided to head to the Arctic Cathedral before catching our flight out.
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| Arctic Cathedral |
Tromsø was a ton of fun and it was crazy pretty being in the arctic circle. I think Tromsø is probably my favorite city so far, and I'd love to go back and visit another city in the arctic circle again. It was snowing off and on almost the entire time I was there and there was about a yard of snow where, but surprisingly not that cold.
After leaving Tromsø, I flew to Stockholm.
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| Gamla Stan from Stockholm City Hall |
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| I went to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm which was cool because they had a couple pieces by Matisse |
I only spent two days in Stockholm, but I saw quite a bit. It's a really nice city, but also really expensive like the rest of Scandinavia.
After Stockholm, I flew to Copenhagen. Copenhagen was another beautiful city with a ton of really nice people. It was Easter weekend when I got to Copenhagen, so a lot of places were closed. It was strange because on Friday everything was closed, but opened up again on Saturday then closed on Sunday. I wasn't really bothered by this because I was just sightseeing, but it was strange to see literally almost everything closed.
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| Amalienborg Palace which is the winter residence of the Royal Family. |
When I was in Copenhagen, the Queen's husband had died about a month before so all the flags were at half staff. My roommate that I traveled with actually had a friend living in from Denmark living in Copenhagen, so we met with her. It was really interesting hearing her explain Danish things.
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| Nyhavn |
One really interesting thing I saw in Copenhagen was Freetown Christiania. Christiania is an self-proclaimed autonomous anarchist community established in 1971 on old military barracks in Copenhagen. It's a super interesting community because they're independent of the Danish government and there is an open marijuana market. Their history is also really fascinating and I had no idea there was anything like it before I visited.
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| Christiania |
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| Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen |
Copenhagen was my last stop on spring break and after a week and a half traveling I headed back to Prague. It was a lot of fun getting to travel around and see Scandinavia. In all three countries I went to everyone was super nice. Everything was also way more expensive there than it is in Prague. After spring break, I was glad to be back in Prague where the cost of living is so cheap.
I spent a week in Prague before heading to Poland for the weekend. I went with my roommate to Warsaw then Kraków.
Warsaw is the capital of Poland and the largest city in the country. During World War II Warsaw was razed to the ground and had to be completely rebuilt. It was strange being in a city that was really pretty but also relatively new.
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| Warsaw Old Town |
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| Warsaw |
After a day in Warsaw, I headed to Kraków. I really enjoyed Kraków and it was super pretty. The combination of the beautiful city and really low costs made Kraków one of my favorite cities that I've visited.
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| Old Town Kraków |
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| Kraków |
After a day in Kraków, I went to visit Aushwitz. It was a very somber experience but I'm very glad I went. I have heard people before say everyone should visit Auschwitz at least once in their lifetime, and I understand it now because it was a very moving experience. I went in feeling like I knew a lot about the Holocaust, but it's totally different actually walking through a concentration camp.
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| Auschwitz I |
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| Auschwitz II-Birkenau |
After leaving Auschwitz I went back to Kraków to catch a bus back to Prague,
While I have been traveling around a lot, I have also been enjoying living in Prague. Like I mentioned earlier, its spring and feels great here. It's been in the 70's or 80's the last couple weeks and it's fantastic. I've been able to go on a ton of really cool field trips with my classes lately,
Last week I went with my art history class to take a tour of the National Theatre. It is a source of national pride because it was built with the funds from a nationwide collection drive. In 1881, the theater burnt down just days before it was supposed to be opened. Then, all the funds were raised again by the Czech people to rebuild it and it was opened 1883. It was built during the Czech National Revival when an emphasis was placed on reviving the Czech language and national identity. So, I was really excited to visit a place that was not only beautiful but also so important to the Czech Republic.
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The stage of the theater. You can't see it well in this picture but the top says "Národ Sobě" which
translates to "the nation for itself" and is in reference to how it was funded by the Czech people. |
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| The inside of the theater |
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| The view of Prague from the top of the National Theatre. That's the Prague Castle in the background. |
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| The top of the National Theatre |
With all the great weather, I've also gotten to visit a lot of the gardens around Prague.
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| Vrtba Garden |
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| Vrtba Garden |
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| View from the Palace Gardens |
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| The Royal Garden |
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| View of the Prague Castle from the Royal Garden |
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| The Royal Garden |
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| Wallenstein Garden |
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| Wallenstein Garden |
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| Wallenstein Garden |
I've been having a lot of fun traveling around and living in Prague. I've only got one month left in Prague and I know it's going to fly by. Thanks for reading!
Nashle,
Ashley
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