End of the Beginning

HI EVERYBODY! Let me offer my sincere apologies for not being more on top of this- our internet has been very unreliable lately and we've been busy with our researh projects. Still, it's no excuse.

When leaving off last time, I forgot to mention that we had gone to Swan Lake at the Prague opera house on Sunday night. It was impressive. The Opera house, like so many other buildings in Prague, escaped damage during WWII and is as ornate as when it was built in the 19th century. The ballet itself was well done. I had complaints about the first violin, but evidently nobody else shared my snobby opinions (Hi Dan). The two lead dancers were phenomenal and its really interesting to see how swans are anthropomorphized through dance. Our favorite dance sequence was when four swan maidens linked arms and danced in synch; as beautiful as it was hilarious.

Monday, we headed out in our favorite purple-interior bus to explore second homes and tourism in rural Czechia.

Our first stop was this outlook over the Vltava river valley- the Vltava goes on to flow through Prague itself from here. This bend in the river was popular with so-called tramping communities of the 1930s who wanted to recalim the 'natural, wild' side of human existence by ditching the polluted urban setting for these more tranquil settings. They constituted the first wave of second-home building in Czechia and some tramping communities live on today. In fact some are 'themed' such as tramping communitites that dress up in Army uniforms (US and German uniforms are the most popular), communities that love their motorcycles and even special 'Storm the Castle' communities who are an intriguing blend of D&D nerds and medieval enthusiasts.

From there, we had a lovely ride through central Bohemia, encountering this castle along the way; it's evidently the best preserved 14th century castle in all of central Europe (and I don't have a clue what it's called ...). Next was Kutna Hora, yet again, and some more time with St. Barbara's cathedral. We finally ended up in the quaint town of Telc (the 'c' should have a hacek- pron. 'Telch') which is a UNESCO world heritage site because it has a lot of gabled buildings from the 14th century all in one row. Most have been repaired but some are still like they were during socialism.

Quaint. That evening our prof du jour, Wagner (pron. Vagner- most Czechs mix up 'w's and 'v's in English- which oftentimes leads them to say things like 'willages'), lectured on the phenomenon of second homes in Czechia and the general development of tourism since the Velvet Revolution. During socialism you could actually "own" two things: a car and a second home. Therefore, most peoples' second homes, most of which were located about a 30-90 minute drive away from the primary home, became bastions of individualism and privacy. Most people used their second homes as places to conduct their hobbies and make crafts because private industry was strictly forbidden by the state. They probably even dressed up in army uniforms and played D&D. After the demise of the Soviet Empire there was a wave of new second homes built, as those built during the tramping periods and those taken from the Sudetenland weren't enough to meet the new demand. Now, in most 'willages', second homes outnumber primary homes 2:1. Kind of a problem for local infrasturcture- both social and physical.

The lecture on tourism was mostly a list of stats on who's visiting, for what and how much they're spending; turns out Americans are more thrifty than your average tourist. No surprise here (I'm reluctant to pay more than 3.50 USD for lunch). It also turns out that all visitors to Czechia consistently rank 'poor service' as Czechia's biggest detraction. I couldn't agree more- see tomorrow's lunch episode.
The hotel we were staying at was actually an old monastery which had recently been converted- it was pretty cool. We had a big old Czech dinner with this square as our view. Afterwards, walking around town, Elsa and I came upon a speed trap- one of those digital boards that tells you how fast you're driving in your car. Ocassionally, it picked up on Elsa and I as we raced to see who could sprint the fastest. 45 minutes later, we finally gave up and agreed to still be friends as I eeked out 24 km/hr while Elsa did 23. Not our finest hour. That night at the hotel I got the single again (SWEET) and watched a Woody Allen movie subtitled in Czech. Evidently there's a lot lost in translation: 'How ya doin' babe?' was translated as 'Dobry den'= Good Day. Hmmm. It was still hilarious.

Tuesday we experienced a tour of Telc Castle, from a tourguide who was just starting to learn English. She did an admirable job, but still ... a lot lost in translation. From there we were shuttled over to nearby Trebon. For lunch, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at a restaurant on the main square. While Tina's fish was clearly rotten and Rachel's salad had visible mold, after waiting nearly 50 minutes Renee, Karen and I still didn't have a meal. So, we had to leave without eating. Luckily we'd stocked up on the free breakfast at the monastery and were fine. But Czech service in rural towns is ... a little wanting. That afternoon we visited FISH FARMS! Some of the oldest in Europe; one tank dated from 1350. They mainly grow carp, which is not only fit for human consumption but also marketed as a local speciality- something that people who had encountered American carp had a tough time understanding. They also raised catfish and pike. From there it was a trip to a system of lakes that act as a retention system during floods. During the floods of 2002 (the 500 Year Flood) this system evidently held enough water to keep historic/downtown Prague safe. Even so, the floods wreaked havoc on most of Prague; for example our metro station, Florenc, was under nearly 20 feet of water. And that concluded the most epic of our excursions.

Wednesday, we had only one lecture in the afternoon on Czech industrial organization and the process of privitization. It's important to keep in mind that Czecho-Slovakia never underwent a 'revolution'- the 'velvet revolutin' kept power concentrated within the same hands as before. Therefore, except for the very tippy-top of the communist party, most powerful bosses kept their positions and were able to dole out privitization vouchers to their buddies. Therefore, crony-ization is a more fitting description of Czech privitization which significantly debilitated Czechia's emergence in the international market. Government corruption and cronyism still remain as significant challenges for the Czech government.

Thursday was our final excursion to the town of Most. The original Most was destroyed by the sociaslist regime in order to get at the loads of coal beneath it. While they knocked down lots of buildings wihtout a second thought, they just couldn't destroy the local gothic church with its unique inward suppport system which the party labeled as 'architectual heritage'. Therefore, they MOVED the church. They gutted it, braced it and put it on a set of tracks and moved it almost a kilometer at the staggering pace of 1-3 cm/hr. The thing was HUGE and it arrived intact- a triumph of Czechoslovakia's engineers.
You can kind of see the track it followed off to the left. We got to watch an awesome film from the '80s describing the whole process, with its even awesomer background music. The main point of the trip to Most was to see the brown coal mining that takes place here. Brown coal makes up almost 50% of Czechia's energy production and at Most its excavation has had a very visual impact. We first visited a man-made hill created from the over-burdened soil (ie waste soil) of various local open-cast mines.

They put a race track on top of it. In the background, you can see some of the hastily constructed social housing that was built to replace the original town of Most.

Open-cast mining. For every 1 ton of brown coal excavated, 4 tons of overburdened soil are produced. This mine is a 'parallel' mine, meaning that consecutive layers are dug out along the same line of excavation; there's also a 'circular' method of open-cast mining. The companies that run the mines predict that the supply in this mine will run out by 2045; at which time they hope to flood it and make a recreational lake. A nearby chemical plant actually sits on top of the next big supply of coal and some hope that when the plant reaches its expiration date in 2020-2030, they can knock it down and keep on excavating.

Friday was our last lecture on energy cosumption and the European context; Austria is getting upset over Czechia's continued use of brown coal (not the cleanest energy source) and wants Czechia to develop alternative and even nuclear forms of energy production. Something a lot easier said than done. That Friday afternoon we had a written exam over all of the lectures and readings; that night we went out with Prof Sneddon to a couple of our favorite haunts. Saturday and Sunday were spent preparing for our big 10-day break and on Sunday we met with a jet-lagged Prof. Wright to discuss the second half of the term and bid a fond farewell to Prof. Sneddon.

Yet another week down! Hopefully, our internet will stay up and I can keep posting. Until then, na schled!

Bratislava

Yikes. Lots to catch up on. I really meant to have this all written before I left on our break. But now there's even more to look forward too ... Here we go:

Ok, we left off on April 15th ... Hm, that Monday wasn't that notable. We had two lectures in the Albertov lecture hall (the entrance and building in general are really pretty- I need to take a picture of it). The first lecture was on Czech demography. Basically, Czech people are dying out and no one is having any kids. In 300 years, if current demographic trends continue, there will only be about 60,000 Czechs (there's 10.2 million now). Why? People are too busy persuing a career and its very difficult to obtain a living situation that would be conducive to raising kids. Bummer. But the government is brainstorming ways to raise the fertility rate, including debt forgiveness and building more day cares. We also had a quick lecture on medical geography (the study of how disease and health care are distributed). For the afternoon, Katie and I went to one of the islands in the Vltava river to do some reading and enjoy lunch. This was our view.

Prague is great. In the afternoon we wrapped up demography with a lecutre on demographic transition. On Tuesday we visited two places that, as Prof Sneddon would sat, "gave flesh to" Czechia's demography: a maternity ward and a senior center. The maternity ward was very beautiful, and was one of 12 such wards in Czechia. It serves all of Prague and only has eight delivery rooms- while we were there seven were being, um, 'used' to make new Czechs. The senior center, in the city center near the National Theatre, offered social services and physical therapy to seniors on a walk/call-in basis. The aging population is going to place a lot of strain on the economically active population (people aged 14 to 65) and places like this non-profit are trying to ease the transition and make life more enjoyable for an oftentimes undervalued part of society.

Wednesday we rolled out of bed early and boarded a bus to Slovakia. They didn't even bother checking our passports at the border. Overall, Slovakia seems like a ... milder version of Czechia: the food is less severe (gnocchi with sheep cheese and pork crackling is a typical meal) the language is easier to pronounce (no 'r's with haceks), and things just seemed a littled more laid back. How's that for broad sweeping generalizations? We stayed in communist-era dorms at the local university; I was lucky and scored the one single. After dropping our things by the dorm, we headed off to Castle Devin.

Originally a Roman depot, then as yet another castle from the 14th century this place was probably one of the cooler castle visits of the trip. It was situated right at a confluence of the Danube and from the tippy-top you could see over into Austria. (Just a little farther down the Danube from Bratislava is Vienna). The best part about the whole day was that it was Renee and Elsa's 21st birthday- ON THE SAME DAY.

They were pretty happy campers. After Castle Devin we took a quick drive-by tour of another car factory and some Slovak (should I say Slovak or Slovakian?) housing estates. After that we headed into Bratislava proper and straight to what Ivan (our prof du jour) called the 'Bratislava Beverly Hills'- a set of terraced rich-people houses which also included the US Embassy, housed in a building not so subtly reminiscent of the White House. Right at the very top of the 'Hills' was some sprawling WWII monument which must have been constructed post-1968 because everything was in Russian (and the whole point, it seemed, was to remind people who had liberated them from the Nazis).

It also offered a fairly decent view of downtown (old town) Bratislava.

The cross you can see in the foreground is the Slovak take on the Crucifix and has become such a distinctly Slovak symbol in these post-1993 days that it now adorns the flag and all the currency. After that we stopped by Bratislava Castle (which was so unremarkable that I don't want to waste any of Google's storage by uploading a picture of it) and then were set loose in the Old Town.We all headed to a guidebook-recommended restaurant to celebrate Renee and Elsa's joint birthday. The food was good and the beer as cheap (if not cheaper?) than Prague's. After that it was off to Tesco (the British equivalent of Wal-Mart) to stock up on breakfast supplies and cheap booze then off the a public square to continue the festivities. Unfortunately this is where I was a huge wuss and turned in early- Elsa and crew headed out to a bar and, before long, she was engaged to a Slovak gun-runner (named 'Archie') who also owned a yacht in Croatia. Right. Even though Archie got his fake 'green card' Elsa got a little antsy and sent her engagment ring to the bottom of the Danube. One of the better stories so far.

The next morning we set off in our super-van (an extremely compact bus which barely held all of us) to Gabcikovo- a really big dam on the Danube. Originally planned as a joint venture between Czechoslovkia and Hungary, the Hungarians went broke half-way through and pulled out of the project which left Czechoslovakia and eventually Slovakia up the proverbial creek (Czechoslovakia took Hungary to the International Court of Justice for the first ever international ruling about a dam on an international waterway). In the end, Slovkia managed to finish it on their own and now it boasts a whitewater course, an oddly out of place modern art museum (built by a Dutch philanthropist ... the Dutch have a special affinity for dams), power generators, and lone concessions stand which makes really salty popcorn. Even though the dam has eight generators they only run three of them at any given time because if all of them ran simultaneously the water would back up so far that it would actually flood Budapest- something Slovak politicians still threaten if Hungary ever tries to short-change them again. Prof Sneddon is really big on dams; their his main research interest. He's written extensively about dams in Southeast Asia and the faculty at Charles planned this trip because they wanted to align their excursions with our professor's speciality. After Gabcikovo we headed back to Bratislava for our last Slovak meal and then headed back to Prague by train.

On Friday Ivan lectured on land-use in Czechia and the changes the landscape underwent during the transition. The communists, with the goal of all things equal in mind, heavily subsidized agriculture and in fact used the profits from productive land to prop up production in less-productive pieces of land. The result was the heavy, heavy use of chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizer which had devastating effects on water-quality and the environment. The afternoon lecture focused on pollution in Czechia and tried to complicate the notion that the environment is 'healthier' under the market economy/ democracy/ open society. For example water quality has improved drastically, not only because farmers are no longer forced to cultivate unproductive pieces of land but also because people had to start paying for water- from at the tap to its use in heavy industry. Because it cost something people started conserving. However, air pollution, while MUCH cleaner by some measures (mainly due to SOx scrubbers in coal plants), could also be seen as getting worse as private transportation takes off- not only are the streets clogged with traffic but overall petrol-burning emissions are skyrocketing. We had learned in an earlier lecture, much to our dismay, that the metro stop we use to get to school (IP Pavlova) is the most polluted place in Czechia because of its poor air quality- I can't stand to be there for longer than 15 minutes or else I get a headache.


On Saturday, in preparation of Prof Sneddon's departure, 'the boys' got together to play soccer (or should I say football?) in Vitkov Park, the great park right behind our apartments. Prof Sneddon was an adept player and had some pretty slick moves. However, MVP definitely went to Eric, who not only scored the most goals but also had a massive nosebleed early on and used grass and leaves the clog it up. Eric Cates: Hard Guy. That night we had a 'progressive dinner' in our apartment building, where Eric and Dan made appetiziers (nachos and guacamole), the girls in room 33 handled the salad (mozz., basil and tomatoes), our room prepared the main course (stir-fry) and the girls in room 32 made desert: chocolate fondue. Pretty good. Each room also had a particular libation, progressing from ... well, some form of tequila to mojitos to beer to White Russians. We finished off the night with a trip to the club Lucerna, where a mostly international crowd enjoyed pop hits from the 80s and 90s, and when those songs ran out from the 70s. A great day overall. Sunday was spent doing laundry (as always) and cleaning up in the wake of the progressive dinner.

And that's one week down! Three more to come ...

IOU

Our internet connection has been really spotty lately which has foiled my attempts to blog about all that's been going on. This week doesn't make it any easier because we have an exam on Friday that determines 80% of our grade for our first class. However, on Saturday, I'm planning to spend some quality time with the blog and write about all that's happened. We've been to Slovakia, a ballet, and a fish farm in Southern Bohemia so I'll have a lot to go on.

Catch up

Sorry for the long gap between posts but our weeks have been pretty busy. When we're not in lecture we're 'out in the field'. Our fieldtrips this past week have been excellent.

Monday: We recuperated from the trip to Vienna and Karen made delicious pancakes. Vojta and Lubos (two of our host-students) took us to a hockey game between Pardubice (a provincial team) and Praha (whose team name is Sparta). Vojta wanted the provincial team to win because they were the clear underdog; at the same time he wanted Sparta to win because that would clinch the series and Sparta would be presented with the Cup ... and Vojta really wanted to see the cup. The fans were fairly rowdy but it was somehow all contained. Pardubice tromped Sparta and things got a little tense ... and Vojta was more sad than happy ... he had really wanted to see the cup. I enjoyed a klobasso (Kielbassa sausage served with rye bread, mustard and horseradish sauce .... so good but so bad for you) and a half litre of Budvar (Czech Budweiser) with the game. We also got these cool cardboard hockey helmets that were made for Sparta ... I foolishly wore mine for the rest of the night and later on was verbally acosted for it. Luckily, I didn't understand a word.

Tuesday we had a lecture on migration in Czechia and a lecture on the history of Czech industry. I feel like I now know a lot more about Czech geography than I do about US geography. Hmmm. Tuesday afternoon we took a trip to the household of friends of Professor Dusan's. They're a Czech-American couple- the wife is originally from Boulder and went to UNC for college (small, small world). She spoke about how she now feels like a foreigner wherever she goes. He used to be a civil engineer, trained under the Socialist state, and, after he met his wifte and moved Colorado to be with her, helped to build DIA (small, small, small world). But now he's ditched the engineer thing and is pursuing a career in film. They were great.

Wednesday we had our first full-day excursion. We visited a Chandelier factory (complete with glass blowers! Your favorite, Dad!), Prof. Dusan's second home in the countryside, and a former Soviet tank training ground. Prof Dusan's home has a very interesting history: after WWII (1948) all ethnically German people (especially members of the Nazi party) were forced to immigrate to Germany. Since vast numbers of Germans had settled in the borders of Czechia (the Sudetenland), there were entire towns left vacant after their departure. The Czech government seized all of the vacated land and houses (most of which were looted after the German's hasty departure). Dusan's father-in-law was a decorated war hero and was granted his pick of houses in the town of Kytlice. And that's how it became Dusan's summer house. Because of its well-kept condition it was recently declared a historic monument, which Dusan's father-in-law is very proud of. The mass exodus of Germans in 1948 had a monumental impact on Czech geography that is still being felt today.

The Soviet tank training ground was very peaceful- the Soviets only blew up 10% of it, leaving the other 90% in a pristine condition- in fact it is one of the best preserved environments in all of Czechia (one of our Profs keeps repeating that 'the environment was the biggest loser under Socialism'). Today it's something like a national park. It was originally built as a Nazi airbase in WWII, then as a Czechoslovak Army base but after 1968 it became a major Soviet institution. Brezhnev even paid it a visit. It was also home to an airfield that served as the base of about 40 MiGs. We got to go into one of the abandoned hangars. Pretty cool.

Thursday we visited a refugee camp in Northeast Bohemia. A social worker gave us a tour of the grounds- which used to be army barracks. People who make it to the Czech border and declare assylum are shipped here until a decision is made on their application. Only 5% of applications are accepted.

Next, we visited the Skoda (the s should have a hacek- pron. 'Shkoda') Car factory. Skoda is now a part of the VW Group but is a very Czech product. The factory itself is (one of?) the most modern in all of Europe. We got to visit three assembly lines- the gear box, engine, and final assembly lines.

Friday we had a lecture on Czech demography and then a trip to a pharmaceutical plant. Where they make sterile gels, liquid dosage products and ... suppositories. Yeah, yeah, one day I'll grow up and not laugh about suppositories, but that day definitely wasn't Friday. I had a hard time keeping a straight face as our guide explained the finer points of manufacturing suppositories. We even got to see them being packaged, along with athlete's foot cream, and children's cough syrup.

Saturday, we came here: Kutna Hora. A fairly tourist place, but still fun. We went on a tour of a 14th century silver mine that was pretty neat- it was a little to touristy for me but the mines themselves were amazing- especially the crawlspaces where the 14th century miners worked and the low-level of light they had to work in.
St. Barbara's church was also quite impressive.

It also has a really neat roof. The weather was definitely the best we've had so far- so, so, so beautiful.

The strangest thing at Kutna Hora was, by far, the 'Bone Church'.

Normal enough on the outside huh? Evidently sometime in the 19th century, a particular woodsmith got the great idea to decorate the interior with bones from the mass graves of plague victims. Initially it was legitimated by calling it a way to remind people that Christ's communion is made up of both the living and the dead ... but then he obviously got a little too carried away- as evidenced by the chandelier and huge 'bone crest'.

Yes, those mounds of white things behind the crest are also human bones, mostly skulls, in the shape of a pyrimad. Gross. So, that was our disturbing end to an otherwise fairly normal touristy day.

Today I did laundry and cooked some good ole American goulash ... which was a moderate success. This upcoming week we take a fieldtrip to Bratislava, capital of Slovkia. Na schledanou!

Wien II

Day two! Here's the only group photo I have of the three of us ... for more group photos see Karen's excellent selection of photos on her blog (listed below ...). We awoke fairly early (on Easter!) to an absolutely beautiful day. We immideately headed for the Opera, since Renee's 'one thing' hadn't panned out the night before.

The opera building was originally built in (if I remember correctly) 1869 for guess who?? The Habsburgs. Unfortunately, a stray bomb fell in the backstage area in 1945 and the gigantic 'iron curtain' designed to prevent the spread of fire crashed into the auditorium. The only part of the building that survived was the very front. The rest was reconsturcted in the 1950s on a shoestring budget- so the front of the building is very ornate and the rest is very ... 50s.
But it's still gorgeous. The Opera runs 7 nights a week from September to May. Each night is a different production to the point where a particular performance will only run 3-5 times a month. Saturday night had been a Vivaldi ballet, Sunday night was going to be a Wagner opera (they only do ballets and operas here- drama is at a different theatre). So it's a BIG deal. The opera employs 300 stagehands to change the set between the different performances, which takes all day. We were there as they were moving off the set of the night before.

They also had Mahler's baby piano that he took with him wherever he went (you know, to tinker on his lastest symphony). Mahler did a significant amount for the Vienna Opera and is still considered to be the best conductor the institution ever had. Despite the fact that the Opera is sold out every night, it struggles to keep afloat- 50% of its budget is subsidized by the state.

Next was Karen's 'one thing'- the art history museum. It kicked ass. Again, it was built (we speculate as one of the many palaces of the Habsburgs and its interior is absolutely gorgeous.

They had everybody from Carvaggio to Bosch. I definitely got my fill of 'Madonna and Child'- which was evidently THE thing to paint for hundreds and hundreds of years. Then came these enormous still-lifes depicting lots and lots of seafood, with all these bizarre fish and crustaceans- each of these paintings also contained a hapless baby seal. Poor baby seal. When we'd finally glutted ourselves on all of the art we could take, we headed out in search of lunch.

This lady is Maria Theresa- a 'Habsburg who mattered' according to travel guide writer Rick Steve (oh, Rick Steve). Unlike the more worthless Habsburgs (like Empress Elizabeth- I forgot to mention that Franz Josef's nickname for her was 'Sissy'), Maria Theresa did a significant amount to reform her empire and strengthen it by (again Rick Steve's words, not mine) 'making love, not war'. That is she married off her children to other important houses of Europe. Most memorable was her poor daughter, Marie Antoinette, who arrived to marry Louis XVI at probably the worst possible time in French history. Oops.

We headed to a little square that was having a traditional Easter fair, with the obligatory millions of intricately painted egg shells (Prague had a ton of them, too). We bought brautwurst and sauerkraut from a stand and then headed off to the much anticipated St. Stephen's.

Finally. (We'd actually found it the night before, but none of those pictures turned out well). We went inside and admired the beautiful sculptures and the thousands of other tourists crammed in there with us.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped by another palace-turned-art-museum, the Belvedere. Again, lots of over manicured gardens; but this one was really striking.

After touring the Belvedere's gardens, we climbed on our train and were whisked back to Prague (we realized that we'd been in Vienna for exactly 48 hours as the train left). Here's the sunset from our compartment. It's good to be back in Prague- it's not as flashy, wealthy, or well-planned as Vienna, but its starting to feel like home. AND, last night, I had a .5 litre beer, a bowl of garlic soup, two pork cutlets and bramboracky (potato dumplings) for only 153 Czech crowns (Kc) which is only about 7.50 USD. It's good to be back.

Wien

Karen, Renee and I recently returned from our first excursion outside of Czechia (which is the Geographic term for the Czech Republic, mind you) to Austria and its capital Vienna (Wien, 'veen', in German). We left right after class on Friday and after a very comfortable 4.5 hour train ride arrived safe and sound at Sudbanoff (spelled something like that) Station. Our hostel was a good ways out from the city centre (Karen, in spite of all her efforts, couldn't find anything closer because of the busy weekend) but it was right at the end of a subway line (or more appropriately 'U-Bahn' which is a subway/train mix) so it was easily accessible. The hostel was very nice, and we had two very polite Finnish roommates to make it even better. After setting up in the hostel we went straight back to the city centre and instantly were lost. The fountain above was the first landmark we came to. Even though we didn't know it at the time, we'd stumbled upon the Hofburg Palace which served as the main palace of the Habsburg (sometimes Hapsburg) family who were the rulers of Austria for a good deal of its history. It seems like everything we visited was in one way or another built by/for the Habsburgs.

The next big pretty thing we came to was this building. We never found out what the Habsburgs used it for but today it serves Austria as the national library.

Again, we didn't know it at the time, but this is the Parliament building. Better late than never.

Haha- we thought this was St. Stephen's church. It's actually the town hall- rather drab, huh? All of the preceding buildings sit facing each other across a huge, beautiful park with lots of lilacs and big trees. Vienna (or at least so we're told) is really unequaled when it comes to green space, and from the little we saw I'd agree. We spent the rest of the night trying to find some nightlife or affordable bars (apparently an oxymoron in countries on the Euro) but once we finally stumbled upon a hub we were too tired and ended up going back to the hostel.
After a not-so-hearty but FREE breakfast of bread, yoghurt and water at the hostel we set off to find this palace- Schonbrunn. It served as the Habsburg's summer home. One of our guidebooks said that its possibly the only palace in Europe to come close rivaling Versailles. It has huge grounds and overly-manicured gardens.

See what I mean? We all liked it but agreed that it will be a lot better in about a month when all the trees leaf out.

Climbing up the hill at the back of the gardens, which is the roost of a structure called the Gloriette, you get a great view of the rest of Vienna. I think the church on the right is the actual St. Stephen's ... but don't take my word for it.

Renee, Karen and I each chose one thing we absolutely had to do in Vienna. Renee chose the Opera. Karen chose the Art History museum. I chose the Leopold Museum, which houses the largest collection of Egon Schiele in the world. Since Schiele was taken by the flu epidemic of 1919 (at the age of 28) he didn't get around to making all that much art; so by 'largest collection in the world' they meant 2 and a half galleries. Still, I was in heaven. My favorite gallery here was one that was very dimly lit, and although it only displayed reproductions of his originals, there was still something enchanting about them. I know NOTHING about art. Absolutely nothing; but I feel like I know all about it when looking at a Schiele. Someone said that Schiele had a very unique way of 'spatialzing' his subjects; he was a master of color; and, as one art historian put it, he was probably the most talented artist at capturing the human form since Michelangelo. Above is one of his more modest self-portraits.

I learned that Schiele was obsessed with the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov- there were several paintings from the time he spent there in one of the galleries. He said that at Cesky Krumlov you can 'learn to look down upon the world, as if seeing it from above'. Cesky Krumlov today is one of the top tourist destinations in Czechia (second only the Prague) and we are going there soon on a field excursion to study its geography. Unfortunately, Schiele's habits were a little too much for the locals- between his illicit relationship with his favorite model (a woman nicknamed 'Wally') and his rather peculiar habit of sketching nude young girls in his garden, Schiele only spent three months there before being driven out. What a guy. Beyond Schiele they had some great Klimt and a special exhibition of Herman Hesse's artwork.

After that art we were starving; we stumbled over to the Nachtmarkt for a quick, cheap lunch. The market was great- loads and loads of sauerkraut, olives, dried fruit, produce, sushi, and weiner schnitzel. We decided to splurge a whole 3 Euros on some enourmous kebab sandwhiches. Then we were off to spend some more times with the Habsburgs.

Back at the Hofburg, we payed the heftiest entry fee yet for a look at what Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth called home. The first part of the museum (which sadly did not allow photos) was the gold/silverware colleciton of the Habsburgs. They had the gaudiest candlesticks you can imagine. There was one gold-gilted centerpiece that stretched 30 feet, but it could be extended to 90 feet for big shindigs. The audio-guide also emphasized, as frequently as possible, that the Habsburgs only ate soup and desert on porcelain; silver was used for everything else. VERY important ...

After that the currators felt the need to dedicate a lot of space and money to the historically insignificant but very narcissistic Empress Elizabeth. Well, she did champion the cause of Hungarian nationalism. But that's about all she did. Aside from that one foray into politics, she liked to keep to herself and her bizzare beauty and fitness regimen. She invented a leather face mask which she strapped raw veal into and wrapped around her face for sleep. She also drank the pressed juices of meats and washed her ankle-length hair in a mixture of egg yolks and cognac. Sadly, her only son, crown-prince Rudolf, committed suicide which really sent her over the deep end. She took to traveling a lot, and on one excursion to Geneva was assassinated by an Italian anarchist. Her husband, Emperor Franz Josef, was a little more practical. His rooms in the palace were more 'utilitarian' than the others- if silk damask paneling and ivory doorknobs could ever be construed as 'utilitarian'. Nevertheless he was an efficient Emperor, dedicated family man, and loved Elizabeth in spite of ... everything.

After that, we decided that we hadn't seen enough gaudy things. So we set off for the treasury which housed the REAL deal.

That's right. From there, it turned into a photo frenzy. They were all related to the Habsburgs in one way or another; whether the vestments of the Holy Roman Empire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was all there.

I don't even know what most of these were ... everything was in German.

Mmmmmm ... gold.
The crowns looked like they weighed a ton ... but still, I bet it was totally worth it. Ok, I'm done. Then we set off to find a traditional Vienesse meal- we stopped by a recommended restaurant and dined on Wiener Scnitzel (breaded pork cutler in this case, although traditionally its veal) which was quite tasty. Karen has a bacon/potato dish which also looked good.

After dinner, we stopped by the memorial against war and fascism- which seems like something that most people can agree on. We tryed to get into the standing room of the opera, but it was all sold out. We tromped back to the nightlife 'hub' of the night before and enjoyed enormous gelatto cones for only 2 euros each. Karen and Renee were very patient as I struggled to find a particular bar recommended by Renee's guidebook- but after our third unsuccessful attempt we gave up and returned early to the hostel. We were able to have a very spirited 'whining' session with our Finnish roommates about how expensive the Euro was and how much we missed the cheaper Eastern European countries.

And that's just a tip of the iceburg- of the first day. I'll have to write more about Sunday, tomorrow. Sblohem.

Na shledanou

This weekend being Easter, we have a big ol' three-day break headed our way and I'm going to Vienna along with Karen and Renee. We'll be there until Sunday night when we hurry back to Prague to make sure we can go to a hockey game on Monday.

So, not much new to say. I'd post a picture of the night-time skyline but my camera doesn't do too well in low-light. I'll post a day-time skyline shot soon. Sblohem!

Field Trip!

We had our second field trip for the term today, led by urban Geographer extraordinaire Prof Ourednicek (again there should be lots of haceks in that name, but I'd be lucky to find out how to write in haceks here). These fieldtrips will eventually constitute an entire class, Geography 81: Field Research in the Czech Republic. As Ourednicek spouted information, we furiously scribbled in our notebooks. We visited three places today and this is the castle from our third and final destination.

We first visited Prague's 'Hollywood' and the expensive villas that surround it. This building , on the edge of 'Pollywood', was originially constructed in the 1930s as a swanky restaurant and swimming pool but has long stood vacant since the socialists closed it down. However, the Havel family (of Vaclav Havel fame) has plans to restore it to its former capitalist glory.

Haha. These billboards are everywhere. The gentleman here, the current Premier, recently flipped off Parliament and the opposition parties want everyone to know about it. The Premier is a member of the Civic Democratic Party which currently runs the show and we were told the ad is meant to look like a mock-up of an election-time poster.

We then took a trip to the countryside to take a look at what the suburbanization we've been hearing so much about actually looks like. Urban sprawl here has occured very rapidly since the fall of socialism and everyone who can has headed to the 'burbs to build their very own massive prarie palace- in what our Profs call the 'Baroco' style. These people even built their own observatory.

I also was struck by how similar central Bohemia looks to Northern Colorado ... We also stopped by the independent munucipality of Ricany (with two haceks- pronounced 'Jichany'), but I couldn't take any pictures while writing so furiously ...


Last but not least was this quaint little Castle town between Ricany and Praha ... whose name I have completely forgotten. But it was really, really pretty and I took lots of really, really pretty pictures like this, but I have to go hang my laundry out to dry; so that's all for now! Sblohem!