6 cities. 9 days. 1 long blog post.

just got back from a long, awesome, tiring, beautiful, hilarious excursion that my study abroad program organized for us. we spent 9 days and 8 nights traveling through eastern-central europe on a rented bus, seeing new sites and trying weird food (accidentally ate LARD in krakow. gross). i'll try to be concise...

krakow
the first stop on our journey was krakow, poland's religious and cultural capital (warsaw is the actual capital). we arrived in the city in the afternoon, went on a walking tour through the old town square and castle areas. the next day we went on another tour of the jewish quarter, kazmierez. went to the galicia museum, and spent a lot of time walking around. the most interesting thing about being in the city at this time in particular was the fact that the Polish president, along with about 30 other political officials, had recently died in a tragic airplane accident. to be in a country where the head of state has recently died is a strange thing, especially in a super patriotic country, like Poland. we left the city for auschwitz the day of the funeral--taking place in krakow--which made getting out of the city very difficult. (shout out to ANNA for being in krakow the same weekend :)

auschwitz/oswiecim
we finally made it out of the city, and were able to visit 2 former concentration camps located in the city of auschwitz (german name)/oswiecim (polish name). it was my second time visiting these camps, the first time was when i spent a semester in israel in 11th grade, so it was a very strange feeling to return to such an eerie place. it was obviously incredibly moving, though, and i definitely learned a lot more about the holocaust and world war II. the next day we also went on a tour of the city and visited the Jewish museum there - i found it really disturbing that there are people living minutes away from a former death camp.

olomoc
the next day, we ventured to this city in Moravia, the eastern part of the Czech Republic. there's a huge university there, with about 50,000 students - i felt like i was in the Madison, WI of the czech republic :) lots of college students everywhere, we slept in a dorm, and went out to a bar/club at night. good times all around.

brno
the second biggest city in the czech republic, also located in Moravia. we were only able to spend a few hours there: visited the museum of Roma culture and then ate a quick lunch. then we hopped back on the bus.

mikolov
a gorgeous winery village, located right next to czech-austrian border. went on a walking tour with an ex-pat from Michigan, who showed us the castle and biggest barrel of wine i've ever seen. it was really awesome to get to see different parts of the czech republic, other than prague. this country has such a unique history and so much to offer.

vienna
by far one of the most beautiful places in the world. i felt like i died and went to architectural heaven. went on 2 walking tours of the city, got to go to the belvedere castle museum where Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" is housed. i went to the modern art museum there, where they had an exhibit about television (!!!!!) - got to watch some episodes from the Andy Warhol TV show that aired in the 1970s. very cool stuff. we went to a summer-castle that had amazing gardens and beautiful fountains, and got to lay out in some parks as well. we really lucked out with weather.

finally returned to beautiful prague. what an unreal adventure. more to come soon.

***CHECK FACEBOOK FOR PHOTOS!!!!!***

ciao,
julia

i am a tourguide and my apartment is a hostel

this weekend The Ross Twins and alexa rosenbloom invaded my living space, for 3 days of sightseeing and awesome times. we ventured to all the typical tourist destinations (old town square, prague castle, the john lennon wall, wenceslas square, etc etc.) and had some delicious food along the way. Radost FX for dinner one night (deeeeeeeelish vegetarian cuisine and also a club at night) and of course Bohemia Bagel for breakfast, plus awesome street food: langose, which is just like fried dough but better...mmm, smazeny syr = FRIED CHEESE on a hamburger bun, and many more things.

highlight of the weekend was definitely going to DOX Center for Contemporary Arts which, for the rest of April, is housing David Cerny's ENTROPA. Entropa is a massive sculpture (about the size of a 3 story house) that contains satirical depictions of every country in the European Union. the Czech Republic currently holds the presidential seat of the EU, and the sculpture was created for this reason. read this to get all the infoooooo. it is SO cool and huuuuuge!!!

the museum also had an exhibit of about 15 different Chess Boards, each hilarious, quirky, and weird in its own way. loved it.

after that we had lunch at cross club, which was delicious and CHEAP.

i love having visitors - they make me realize how much i really love in this city.

slezska's seder

happy passover, readers!!!!! last week we had a seder here at slezska 107 that was absolutely amazing. we had 15 friends come over, and everyone brought a delicious dish and a bottle of wine. some items from the menu included...

stuffed zuccini
garlic-balsamic salmon
mashed celery root
home made haroset
egg noodle kugul w/ cinnamon
israeli salad

we read the 4 questions, celebrated freedom, sang some songs and got a little tipsy :)

sHaLoM
julia

chilling in the netherlands

for spring break i made the pilgrimage to Amsterdam, home of everything you've ever wanted to do but are too scared to write about in a blog :) basically, this city is strictly business: if it's good for business and it's not harming anybody, it's legal. i journeyed with my 2 roomates, talia and emily, and my camp friend sara, and talia's friend sarah.

(also, because i'm the biggest jew in the world, i ran into like 5 people that i know. crazy crazy crazy small world.)

the city is just a beautiful mesh of canals and narrow streets, adorable buildings, and TONS of tourists. it's basically a city-sized disneyland for adults. on one street, you can probably find food from 20 different countries: indonesia, thailand, china, italy, spain, uganda (no joke, there was a ugandan steakhouse near our hostel), japan, argentina.....the list goes on.

i should probably take a minute to talk about our lovely hostel that we found on the internet. when you read that a place has "free breakfast," definitely find out what that entails, because ours consisted of toast and coffee :) our room didn't have a window. oh wait that's a lie, there WAS a window that opened up into the pantry where the owners slept/made the toast/kept all the towels and linens. i can say this though: when you stay in a shitty hostel, it forces you to stay outside and explore all day long!!!! Amsterdam Hostel Centre: i don't miss you.

we visited the van gogh museum, Heineken "experience" (massive advertisement, but still fun and we got 3 free beers!), anne frank house, and rented bikes for a day - SUCH a good call. we also went on a walking tour the first day we got there and saw lots of awesome things.

basically i wish i studied abroad in the dam. but i'm happy to be back in prague for 2 weekends in a row, with visitors!!!!!

adios amigos,
jb

bbbbbuuuuddddddaaaaapppppeeeeeesssssstttttt

this weekend we ventured southeast to BUDAPEST...it was such a beautiful city that i really knew nothing about before going, other than the fact that anna is studying abroad there :) just like prague, the city is divided into two halves, Buda and Pest, by the Danube River. Buda is the older side, where the castle district is, while Pest is the "business" side. both sides are really special.

we took a tour of the Jewish quarter, which contains The Great Synagogue - the 2nd largest synagogue in the world and the largest in Europe. it was so grand and intricate and gorgeous. there's a relatively big Jewish population in Budapest. we walked around the city and got to go to a cute outdoor market, and walked along the river. the next day we went on a tour of the castle district and then ventured to the Turkish Baths, which was THE most relaxing thing i've ever done. there are swimming pools filled with hot water, saunas, indoor hot pools, and whirl pools. couldn't believe i was running around in a bathing suit in march OUTSIDE!!!! fabulous. the next day i went on a tour of the inside of the parliament building - unlike anything i've ever seen. so stunning, so ornate, and sooooooooooo LARGE! our tour lasted 45 minutes and we probably saw like, 1/39480 of the building.

i got to hang out with ANNA, who was a fabulous tour guide. the nightlife was unreal: went to 3 different clubs that were all so different, but equally fun. (in this kareoke area of one club, i may or may not have stolen a microphone from a hungarian attempting to sing "Thriller"...and performed the entire song myself, dancing included.)

oh and i can't forget to mention the fact that our bus broke down on the ride there, but we were in BRATISLAVA, so we went on a mini-tour of the city for like 2 hours. woohoo!

good times all over the world.

LOVE,
julia

"the more you learn, the more you forget" -zdenka, the perfect czech teacher

went to see Alice in Wonderland here in prague...we had to do a little extra work to make sure we were seeing a version with czech subtitles, rather than czech dubbing. i honestly didn't think that every major blockbuster would be coming out in the czech republic at the same time as in America - shows how much i know :p it was actually really nice to sit and hear the English language for 2 straight hours. i've always loved the alice in wonderland story and i think tim burton is fabulous, so the combination for me was great. definitely recommend!

some other girls on my program and i have started making brunch every saturday...its kind of adorable. this past weekend we made fruit salad (verrrrry limited fruit selection here) and potato latkes (potato pancakes, for my gentile readers)! the only thing we could find that was close to apple sauce was baby food...so we just used yogurt to eat them with, which was actually a delicious substitute.

last night i went to see a play called Money From Hitler (Penize od Hitlera) which was in Czech with English subtitles on an overscreen projector. after getting past the annoyance of watching a play with subtitles, it was a really great show. it was about a German Jewish woman whose family was living in the German occupied Sudetenland in, what was then, Czechoslovakia, at start of World War II. when she returns to her home after her concentration camp experience, she is faced with a new family living in her home and many other issues. the play takes place in 2005, when she meets the descendants of the family who took her house and must deal with a whole other set of issues. it's amazing how seeing just one play can tell you so much about czech history.

i think that's enough for now.

Ahoj!
julia

"zmerzlina": ice cream in Czech...

wow i really have been such a blog slacker. here's a recap of the last few weeks since pariiiii.

Feb 25-28: anna and ally came to visit!!!!!!! anna travelled all the way from BUDAPEST with her two roomates, and ally flew in from FLORENCE for a weekend of funfunfun. they brought sunshine and amazing weather with them, so it was such a good chance to walk around and really get to see the city. every day we did SO much walking, and at night went out to some of my favorite clubs (lucerna, radost, karlovy lazne). one night we had a Taco Night and about 25 people came over for tacos and drinking and fun! crazy story: Anna's guy-roomies were also in Praha that weekend, and happened to be staying with a boy from MY program, so we all hung out and ate tacos together. IT WAS NUTS!!! anyway. the weekend was fantastic, and so comforting to be with my Wisco Ladies :) --see you in Budapest next weekend, Shmanna :)

Last weekend, March 5-7, was a pretty moving weekend. that Friday CET took us on a day-trip to Lidice, a town about 45 mins outside of Prague that was completely wiped out during WWII. because a few resistance-fighters had been living in this small village, the Nazis decided to either kill or send away (to concentration camps) all the men, women, and children and burn the entire town to the ground. we had the opportunity to hear from one of the few surviving children of Lidice, and she shared her stories of living in the town, her experiences at Auschwitz concentration camp, and the feelings she experienced upon re-entry into the "real world." overall, it was such a moving experience and i'm so glad we got the opportunity to learn about this.

then on sunday we went on another heart-wrenching trip, this time to Terezin, a concentration camp/Jewish ghetto during the Holocaust that is just an hour outside of Prague. this time, we received a tour from a Holocaust survivor who had experienced Terezin firsthand, and had also been sent to Auschwitz later on. having Felix as our tourguide made the experience that much more moving: he was able to give us vivid details of the horrors that went on in this place, and enabled us to get a clearer idea of the tragedy that was the Holocaust. going to a place like Terezin really forces you to think about the Holocaust in a real way, and understand that it is an event that cannot be forgotten. my generation will be the last to meet Holocaust survivors firsthand, and this responsibility is something that we were all thinking about on our tour of Terezin. Felix's request at the end of our tour was to tell our friends and family about what we saw at Terezin, and to not let the memory of the Holocaust vanish with time.