Bohemia!

Ahoy! (that's hello in Czech. Anyone else feel like a pirate? Or some chips ahoy cookies?!)

After visiting Berlin, I took a bus to Prague. Let me just say that the ride over made me excited for all of my future train/bus rides. Germany's countryside is beautiful! They grow mustard so there are bright yellow areas all over the hills which contrasts wonderfully with the vibrant green grass. I can't wait until I get to the alps and see those views!


The Czech Republic has a very different and constantly changing history. In the past century, someone that lived here and didn't move once would have lived in 8 different countries! That's because Czech republic is constantly being overthrown and then finding its independence. I semi knew about this before coming here, well I know Czech Republic used to be Czechoslovakia. So for those of you that knew that as well, way to go!


Czech Republic, way back when, was referred to as Bohemia. So whenever you eat bohemian food, that's what you're eating. It's probably rye bread, sausages, duck, etc. and is very heavy and meaty. When I was growing up, this is exactly what my grandmother would cook. I thought this is what "old people food" was. Turns out it's just Bohemian! I have to say, going to the Czech republic, which is where my Grandpa's parents are from, was so much fun! Mostly, I loved it because walking around Prague made everything about my grandparents make sense. Every store was crammed full of souvenirs and this gaudy crystal and chachkis (what most people call nick nacs), exactly like my grandparents home. Now that place was FULL. Also, I got some kielbasa (Czech Sausage) and it was fantastic. A little bit spicier than Polish sausage, and it was served with rye bread. I hadn't had rye bread in years, since my grandma was making holiday dinners, and it took me way back. 


The best part though was this old man in the main square. He set up shop and would play his saxophone and sing to his tape player. He was dancing around and having the time of his life. For those of you that have met my grandfather, Sarah Leibach in particular, you know he loves the harmonica. He chased us around the house playing "You are my sunshine" when Sarah and I were kids, but not before taking out his teeth. Scary experience when you're a kid and don't know teeth just come out like that. I have a video of the old man in the square (not my grandfather, sorry) up on facebook. Feel free to check out the Czech musical stylings. 


While I was in the Czech Republic, I was obviously still there alone, as I will be until June 1st when I meet up with my friend Anna. The advantage to traveling alone is that you can do whatever you want! Never needing to compromise or do something you don't care for. Also, you are never late. On my last morning in Prague, I was going to wake up early and go to the Karlstejn castle. It was refurbished in the 1800s and now is a bit more Eastern German style. It is much like Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle and is gorgeous from the outside. However, in the morning before leaving to catch the hour train ride, I was moving slowly and ended up taking around 3 hours to slowly get ready and make a plan. You know what's great?! When you travel alone, it doesn't matter. Take all the time you need :)


Once I made it to the Karlstejn castle, everything is amazing! The view is gorgeous. It is on top of a hill about .5 km up and while it is a tiring walk, it is well worth it. The inside of the castle isn't as glamorous. There are a few different tours you can take, one includes the Holy Rood Chapel, a chapel that has precious gems in the walls and is gilded in gold. Now, I don't know what you are picturing, but I am picturing a church with old stone walls and small, shiny jewels in the wall, and flecks of gold, almost like pirates gold, in the wall. Beautiful! Well, turns out that what actually is there are large 4"x3" squares of Jasper placed in a repetitive cross-like pattern all over the walls. Also, it is only a room of around 20'x20' with half of it blocked off. While it was really cool to see, and I don't want to say it was bad, it wasn't what I imagined. The really cool part though was that the ceiling was covered in gold and had green Venician glass stars.


After seeing Karlstejn castle, I walked back down the hill and stopped in the 100 souvenir shops or so along the way. For it only being a 30 minute walk to the castle and being in a town of only a few thousand, they have more souvenir shops than they know what to do with. Bohemia is famous for their glass however. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_glass


Often times it looks just like Venician glass, so of course I spent some time wandering through shops and checking it all out. 


The main sights in Prague are St. Nicholas' Cathedral, the Prague Castle, and Charles' Bridge. The Cathedral was of baroque nature and was great to see. The best part was that they let you up onto the second level to overlook the entire cathedral. It was a whole new perspective from up there! The Prague Castle is on top of a hill and overlooks the entire city. It is something else and is filled with cathedrals, and royal palaces. Personally, I round it to be a bit disappointing, but that may be because I had already been touring Prague for 7 hours by the time I got there and I just wanted to be done... Finally there is Charles' Bridge. It runs over the Vltava River and connects Old town and Lesser town. (Great name right?) The Bridge was built in the 14th century by King Charles' IV and has a beautiful view of the city. This was something I really enjoyed, but of course it was covered in people selling chachkis. 


While in Prague, I went on the free walking tour. It was great! They gave out so much information, as always. I normally take notes on my phone because over a 4 hour tour I always forget names and dates. This time I did my usual thing and took notes, but there is so much history and everything has such odd names I missed a lot. Not to mention, I did get a bit confused at times with all of the conquering. What also didn't help was that I met some really great people, and talked during a lot of the tour lol. I met a girl from Ireland and her friends that live in Cali. Two of the guys I met are going to be in Munich while I'm there, so we might meet up and go to a beer garden together. Sounds like a success to me. 


Finally, I was going to go on this beer challenge. It is run by the same company as the free tour. The beer challenge starts at 6 and goes to around 4 different pubs and you get to try 3 really good beers while on the way. They tell you about the history of Czech beer and what it is all about. What I learned before going on the tour is that Czech makes Pilsner and that Budweiser was actually first made in Czech Republic in a city named Buswein or something of that sort. The Budweiser here is a bit different however and definitely tastes better: It isn't Bud Heavy or Diesel. However, when I went to go buy my tickets, I bought it for the challenge, and then was informed it wouldn't be going on. It was only Thurs-Saturday, and I leave on Wednesday... So I sold my ticket back. Then someone said that it is tonight, just it is only in Spanish. Well lucky me! I studied in Spain and speak Spanish!! So I bought my ticket back. 


Then I went to the meeting place at 6 and there were 5 other people there. None of us spoke Spanish as a first language lol. Everyone was like me, cooperating with the Spanish aspect since English wasn't offered. Well the tour guide spoke Spanish, but wasn't certified to give tours in English. To do that, he would need to go to Berlin and be tested. So, he said he would have to do it in Spanish. That's ok, I can practice and use my language. The guy asked everyone if it was ok, and 4 of us said Yes, and the last couple left. Only one of them spoke Spanish. Once they left, the guide said we need 5 people to do the tour and it wouldn't happen. He tried to be nice about it and showed us where the pubs were so we could go on our own, but the whole point for me was to hear about the history and have a group to go with. Solution: I would go on the next night, my last night in town. 


So I did, I went again on Tuesday. And guess how many people showed up? Guess. Yup. 4... Oh well, I guess it wasn't in the cards. Luckily I got my money back after some arguing and then went to a beer garden with people from the hostel. All in all, it was a great night and an excellent stay in Prague. I would highly recommend it to anyone, and definitely suggest you go to the Karlstejn castle over the Prague castle. 


Off to Vienna! Can't wait to once again be back to using the Euro. 

The Wall that Divided a City

Halo! (that's hello in German)

I have officially begun my month of backpacking through Europe. After all of the worrying over what to pack and where to go, I'm finally here! No turning back!

I arrived in Berlin on Friday afternoon and after settling in, I went around town and saw the Jewish historical museum and checkpoint Charlie. They both were great. The museum talked about the lives of Jews and the prejudices they have been living with since the middle ages. All those stereotypes of Jews not being as athletic and favoring being doctors and saving/managing money make sense now! Jews used to not be allowed to be craftsmen or athletes. Since the middle ages they've been restricted. Plus, it was illegal for Christians to lend money, but not for Jews, so they would become bankers quite often. Just the beginning of being bankers, doctors, and lawyers. Additionally, Jews had higher taxes, and were sometimes even given a body tax, normally only used on cattle. This encouraged Jews to hide their money. See, it all makes sense now!

Checkpoint Charlie is the last 'remaining' checkpoint from the Berlin wall. Since it is entirely a reconstruction, I gave it air-quotes. Even though the history of the Berlin wall is very recent, even in my lifetime (only by a few months), I knew very little about it. I thought it was a wall the simply went north-south to separate the 2 sides of town. Little did I know, it was actually a wall that encircled west Berlin. It did this because west Berlin was an island completely surrounded by the eastern powers. The east built the wall because people were trying to escape from the east and to do that they either needed to flee all the way to west Germany and cross the iron curtain, or just walk into west Berlin. I'm sure you guessed the latter was easier. So, the soviets decided to construct a wall to encircle west Berlin to stop this. On August 13, 1961 at 1 am soldiers surrounded west Berlin and did not allow anyone to leave or enter the city. People worked and went to school and dated people on the other side of the city, but after 1 am on August 13, 1961, they would not be allowed to see one another for 28 years...

Also, checkpoint Charlie was very important because the Americans ran the west side of the checkpoint and the soviets the east. This meant that during the cold war, the 2 opposing powers would be within yards of one another. One day, tension was especially high and the 2 powers brought out tanks and all the firepower imaginable. There was a standoff for 17 hours, as each side was ordered to not open fire until the other side did. After 17 hours, a negotiation was reached. Not a single shot was fired, but I'm sure if one had been, WW3 would have ensued.

My other favorite part of Berlin was the Reichstag or parliament building. This building was completely ruined in WW2, as many buildings were. Some were lucky and only have bullet holes, while the Reichstag needed to be completely reconstructed. The amazing part is how environmentally friendly it is now! The concept of the building is the same as before: old stone exterior with a glass dome ceiling, BUT the dome now is used to help power the building. There are over 300 solar panels and the dome has 1000 mirrors which reflect the sunlight into the parliament chambers. To reduce glare, they have a huge steel blind that circles the dome, parallel to the sun. Plus, at the top of the dome, there is an oculus which is completely open so there isn't stale air in the dome. How cool is that?! Over 1,200 tons of steel comprise this dome! Oh and best part: it's free. Yup, excellent start to my second day backpacking.

Also while on my trip, I went on a guided tour. It was fantastic and taught me so much about Berlin and germany's history. If you wanna know more, just flip through my facebook photos, I tend to include all of the historical info for each photo.

Now I know in the past I have tried new food on each trip. This time I did not, I just made my own meals, but I am going to Munich in a week and am going to have bratwurst and goulash and plenty of beer. Beer gardens here I come!

Next I am off to Prague. My grandpa on my mom's side is from Czechoslovakia, so it will be interesting to see some of his history. Wish me good luck!