To the east....

Midterms are over and now I finally have time to write about eastern Europe. By the way, just the term, 'eastern Europe' is rather contested in the former Soviet bloc countries. Make no mistake, they consider themselves Central Europe. Ask them what eastern Europe is, and they'll respond with Ukraine, Belarus, maybe even one day Russia. The other day we met a Canadian who had just arrived in Freiburg. We had to explain to him that he'd need Swiss francs to pay for things in Switzerland, he responded with: But I thought everywhere in Europe had euro...? After travelling through eastern europe, I had to laugh out loud. At any given time I had at least three different currencies on me, all in different colors, and conversion rates.

First things first- my new favorite city in Europe (Mom: "you say that about every city"): Budapest. But hey, I really mean it this time. I loved Budapest so much. Hungarian is supposed to be one of the most difficult languages for English-speakers to learn, and I can believe it. I mastered 'yes' and 'no' and was corrected I don't even know how many times on 'thank you.' Hungarians are on a whole dark creatures... they favor magenta colored hair, chain-smoking and an expression on their face that reads: if you mention the euro or mistake us for being Soviet one more time, I'm going to stab you. They have scraggly dogs following them everywhere lovingly and they don't make eye contact.

We found the most amazing bar/beer garden. I spotted a tunnel filled with graffiti and my camera actually turned on (this was before it finally died), and as I wandered into this tunnel, it led me into a courtyard filled with graffiti, and then a beer garden filled with graffiti, with reggae music blasting everywhere. There was a car-sized skeleton hanging from the ceiling and a bar made out of an old car. The beer was cheap and delicious, and I was in love. Outside of our hotel we also discovered the amazingness of Gluhwein: heated spiced wine. This was on the way to the most exotic hookah bar I've ever seen in my life: birds in cages, belly dances and spicy hookah smoke coming from everywhere. Actually, Budapest felt very exotic and almost middle eastern. I also found some pretty amazing street markets. Of course, we did our usual thing as well: listened to intellectuals and toured the governmental buildings. During one of these speeches, we learned that the right-winged party is still obsessed with the Antisemitism, which I found very bizarre.

We were also given a tour at dusk on the Danube river. Let me tell you, it is a very humbling feeling to be on a boat with champagne at sunset over looking all the major sights light up. We were also treated to a tour of the house of Terror, a museum which commemorates the terror afflicted on the citizens during Nazi and Communist regimes, which was pretty moving. I'm dying to recover the only pictures on my SD card, which include my favorite grafitti yet- DONKEY KONG in Budapest! I know, it'd seemed too good to be true- but there it was. All in all, Budapest was really the city that blew me away the most, and I've determined that it's going to be the perfect place to live some day.

Next was Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. We arrived at dusk to an amazing view from the castle. My favorite part was actually being able to see one side of the river- covered in traditional houses, and the other side- tall slabs of concrete. I named it Commiville. There's a big round structure on top of the bridge, which I decided looked like a UFO. I'll let you decide. Though we only has one night in Bratislava, I made the best of it. I spent our bus-ride there researching a good cheap place to eat and found a student pub with an amazing traditional dish- dumplings in cheese, served with plumb brandy, supposedly so concentrated that it doesn't cause hangovers. Well, the brandy was disgusting, but when in Bratislava, do as the Slovakians do...

Also at that restaurant we were getting ready to leave when an old couple stopped us and asked where we were from, after explaining, she very quickly said, "I have family in America. They left before the Russians came in 1968. My sister died very young. Have a good night." We walked away stunned, left to ponder her remarks. It never fails to astonish me how real the historical conflicts still affect every day life, particularly in the older generations. Another surprising thing about the Slovakians- they're very happy people. An attempt to speak with them in German (they knew no English in the grocery store I was in) brought smiles instead of annoyance, and the lady who rang me up I thought was just about to have a heart attack from excitement when I successfully said 'yes' and 'thank you' in Slovakian. Sweet old lady.

Next came Prague, where we actually had an entire day free! People say that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Well, I don't know how else to put it- it's true. The city is thousands of years old and is one of those rarities in Europe where it was not completely destroyed by war. The city has three large squares, the most popular offers a sight of the cathedral, the astronomical clock, dozens of cafes and bohemian shops and fountains. We visited Prague during the off-season and it was still completely plagued with tourists. I can hardly imagine it during the summer. Charles Bridge is the most famous bridge- artists sell paintings, handmade crafts and prints amongst giant Gothic gargoyles which line the bridge on either side.

We decided, actually that night, while watching the city lights on the bridge that it would be amazing to see it by sunrise. We went to bed very late at night, and woke up a few hours later to see the sunrise. We raced to the bridge and sat there at 7 for about 40 minutes in silence, all of us realizing that it was going to be a foggy, overcast day. The 45 minute silence was finally broken by a rendition of "Here Comes the Sun," leaving us laughing and onto our next mission: coffee.

Prague was an incredibly diverse city- gypsies and artists were all over one street, and around the corner were designer shops. If I had more time there, I would've gone to the Blacklight Theatre- which is exactly what it sounds like- think blueman, but not so creepy, and naturally, more colorful. We also saw the oldest standing synagogue in Europe and a Jewish center which featured drawings featured from children imprisoned in Theiriesenstadt- one of these drawings is from Hanna Brady, whose story Delaney knows very well.

On that note, our next venture was to Auschwitz. It was mid-day by the time we got there, and it was pouring. It's difficult to explain being there, as one would imagine, but I'll try the best I can. As a German major, I cannot even begin to know how many pieces of literature I've read about the Holocaust, including several which focused on Auschwitz particularly. All of them reiterate how impossible it is to comprehend what happened there. Some even say that it's taboo to even try to write about it, as recreating the history there is impossible, so I won't try. The camps are still actually for the most part, in original condition, and perhaps this is what gives you the constant chills and keeps your mouth locked up tight. You can still smell whatever distinct smell is there, especially in the gas chamber we walked through, and near the ruins of the crematoria and larger gas chambers of the second camp. You can see small white particles on the ground- which are not small rocks, but human bones. You can see how black the ponds still are, due to all of the ash deposits. The misery you can just sense there is really overwhelming, for lack of a better word. I could probably talk or write all day about what I know and what I saw and still not really know what I felt, so I'll just stop here, and move on.

In Krakow I finally broke down and admitted that I was sick. Some rotten cold hit me hard, and prevented me from really enjoying Krakow. We also had to attend a lot more seminars in Krakow and the weather was cold and windy. It's described as one of the gems of Poland, and I wasn't expecting it to be so... ancient. We stayed in the Jewish Quarter, which is to say, the slummier parts of town, and I really enjoyed walking around late at night. We were treated to a traditional Polish lunch and dinner which consisted of spinach and cheese dumplings, potatoes, sausage, bread with cream butter and white Polish wine. I wish I could say more about it, but we wondered a lot

By the time we arrived in Germany, I was tired, sick and oddly incredibly comforted by the idea of hearing and speaking German again. I was also relieved to use the Euro again. And I really enjoyed a full day of laying around by myself. There's something about group traveling that just takes a lot out of you. It was nice to have the rest, because after that, I had my midterms week and that cold came back with a vengeance.

I only have a small handful of pictures that I swiped from a friend. Once I have more, I'll update. Including the ones I recover from my camera.... These will have to do for now. Also, actually go into the photos on the site to look at the captions, some of them tell a little story.