Spring Break Part 3 - April 1

Early on the 1st we left Prague - it was so cold it was snowing - and took a train to Berlin.  By noon we were there, but it wasn't much warmer.  We started walking around the city once we had checked into our hostel, situated on the third floor of some apartment building set apart in the middle of a plaza near a train station.

What I noticed about Berlin, and what made me love it, was the fact that more so than anything else the city as a whole stands as a monument to owning up to your mistakes.  There are monuments dedicated to every minority group that was prejudiced against in the Holocaust, and they redesigned the Parliament house for government transparency.  When the Reichstag was rebuilt after being burned down in the 1930s (supposedly by Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe in five different places at the exact same time) it was later rebuilt in the 1960s and completed in 1990 with a new addition - the dome above the meeting room of the Bundestag is a glass dome which people can walk in.  This is for two reasons: the first is to literally make the gears of government transparent, the second being as a reminder to the members of Parliament exactly who they work for, the people.  As you can see below, the German people are very open about their dark past and subsequently don't beat around the bush.

"Monument to Sinti and Roma Murdered in the Holocaust"

The biggest leaf in the "Germany Knows Exactly What It Did" book is the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe." This monument is actually just a few acres of variously placed cement slabs on a varying landscape.  You don't know this is for the murdered Jews of Europe unless you stumble onto the information kiosk midway on one side, and the architect has been silent on what it means.  Many people ask what it means, what it's supposed to signify.  Most people see tombstones, some see cattle cars, but a tour guide (more on him later) gave us an interesting take: as you walk through the monument the blocks grow and the ground falls beneath you, until such a point as you are in a veritable forest of cement slabs that block out all the noise and sights of the outside world until you are alone with nothing but the path in front of you and occasionally seeing someone else to your left or right only for them to disappear perhaps never to be seen again as long as you live.  Maybe the "point" of the monument is for us all to understand what it was like to live through the Holocaust, to be cut off from all that we've known and loved, by giving us our own personal Holocaust.

The Brandenburg Gate from Afar

Fun fact about the Brandenburg Gate, it's a remnant of the original Palace of the German kings, and originally had a goddess of peace being drawn by horses on top.  However, when Napoleon marched in he stole it, and when it was taken back it was given a scepter with the iron cross and an eagle and became the goddess Victory.  Some of the original meaning has been lost, and it's a nice reminder of how Germany was a nation of power and good intentions that was ultimately corrupted.


Now that we had most of the touristy stuff out of the way, we could actually enjoy Berlin.  This involved my living almost exclusively on soft pretzels; I got sick and it was worth it.  When not eating salted bread we also went to some German restaurants - there is no "authentic German food" in Berlin so we were told - but we got by with some goulash and German beer.  I know it will make my German ancestors turn in their graves, but I didn't see the hype about German beer, it still tasted like some Gulag ration.  But hey, the city awaits; more to come.

Spring Break Part 2 - March 30

After how much we had done the day prior, we only went to the Czech Communism Museum and back to the Old Town Square (and posed mocking strange statues).

As the museum likes to pronounce on their posters, the museum of Communism is above a McDonalds and next to a casino.

Really it's more so inside the casino

Propoganda

Czechoslovakia was under communist rule for forty years from 1949 to 1989.  They were not directly under Soviet rule for most of that time, but they were occupied for a little while to quell riots.  Here I saw a bit of what makes Czech people unique - according to my tour guide the day prior, the Czech people are known for their dark, sarcastic senses of humor (as you learn about your heritage you learn about yourself I guess).  An example of this was a giant statue of Stalin and the proletariat built in the 1950s to brown-nose the USSR.  When Stalin's crimes were exposed the statue was torn down and was later replaced with a giant metronome, which was meant to remind all who saw it that all things have their time.

Pseudo Propaganda

We returned to the Old Town Square, and rejoined the festivities. 

This Mary statue has been there "temporarily" since it was torn down from the Square by angry Protestants over a hundred years ago.

From there we returned to the hostel - again, it was freezing - and we slept until 7 pm the next day, that's how much we had done and how tired we were.

Spring Break Part 1 - March 29

Prague was the first stop of our Spring Break, which would then take us to Berlin and Amsterdam.  For the record, we froze the entire time as it's northern Europe and we clearly missed the concept of "spring break".

On our first full day there we took a tour through our hostel, Sir Toby's.  We were taken to the castle district, which is famous for the (you guessed it) castle there, but the tour specialized in showing the finer points of that touristy area.  We started on this hill and got a nice view to start the day.

Since the edges of city for a while were woods, they have these carvings on some of the buildings so that even the severely drunk could remember where they were and not stumble into the woods never to be seen again.

Those little blackheads on the side of that church are cannonballs.  From what I understand Prague was besieged with some regularity.

Loreta, a major pilgrimage site

Me being extraordinarily cold.

Deceptive Hotel

St. Wenceslas' Gate

St. Wenceslas Abbey

View from St. Wenceslas' Vineyard

John and Angie, my traveling companions

Hradcany Square

This pillar totally has priests force feeding communal wafers to heretics

The tour ended right outside the Prague Castle, the largest medieval castle in the world.  We walked around the free parts of the area - despite the fact that 1 koruna is equal to $0.05 we were being conservative.

Graphic statues

St. Vitus

The Czech people seem to choose a much simpler cathedrals than the Romans.

View from the Castle

Prague's Lock Bridge and Canal

We walked across the famous St. Charles Bridge - for whatever reason there were just rows upon rows of caricaturists - and made our way into the Old Town Square, where they were having an Easter celebration.  Apparently in the frozen north they use Easter as a marker for spring to get them really excited about the end of winter.  For that reason they had a month long festival in the square for Easter.

Astrological Clock

From there we started walking home, because it was actually literally freezing at that point.  We walked through Wenceslas Square which was witness to the anti-Communist riots.  It was a long day, and it was nice to warm up in Sir Toby's basement pub.

Lucca, the Italian Sayville

After Pisa, we boarded the bus again and went to Lucca.  The city still lies within the ancient medieval walls and is actually rather small.  Once we were inside, it was very reminiscent of home - Spring had finally come, people were outside walking dogs (or kids, as the case may be), and it was ultimately a very lively city.  Plus, whereas Sayville is in a metaphorical bubble, Lucca actually has walls to back up the concept.  Much of my time there was spent just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere.

Oh, and the bus had all of it's gas siphoned out, so while waiting we all went on a carousel in the main city square.  There was an ostrich.