Prague
Im not up and moving as quickly as I usually am. Got to cover a lot of ground. Going to start doing over night trains with just day trips in between, for a few days at a time. That's the point of backpacking right? See as much as you can, so you can be more selective later. I should have left last night to go to poland, because there is only an overnight train to Krakow. Think I may do it from budapest still. I'd like to see aid wits, or I guess I should say I feel like i should go. I also heard Krakow is a really neat city. I have a kid I had already lined up to stay with in Budapest though, who is leaving on Friday so I needed todo that first. Kind of backtracks a little,but sleeping on the train, will save me time and money anyways. Then back down to the capital of Slovakia just so I can see it, and from there an hour into Vienna where I have a place lined up with a young girl. She's only nineteen, but hosts travelers at her place all the time, because that is how she travels. Vienna to Slovakia fora night and day, shoot to Croatia from there. Two days in the capital, Zagreb and two on the coast, probably Dubrovnik May do the coast first, because the scenic train is renown from Slovakia along Croatia's coast. Down the line until I eventually reach Greece. Do the northern scenic route and stay a night in each city. Hopefully, fly to Istanbul for an early day, a night and leave the next afternoon. Fly back into Athens, because I have to get a flight anyways, so this way I don't back track on the train. Athens for at least two days, with some island trips in between. The eurorail includes free ferries to the two main islands. I'd like to see the smaller more remote ones, but again, I'm backpacking. I can devote that to another trip and time down the road. Greece to Italy, but I don't have anything planned from there. The ferry is included to Italy as well. Leaving Greece will take me up to probably the 18th of October. Im assuming in Italy, two days in Rome, two days, or at least one and a night in Naples, two in Florence and at least two completely full days morning until night in Venice. May try to find a couch out in tuscany for a night and day as well. So about a week at least altogether. I was offered a place to stay in a small northern italian town, which is very unique. It is in the alps, and they speak German, but the culture is still very similar to Italian. From there I have a place in Switzerland outside Zurich, and I will probably go to Geneva for a day. Get a night train out of there perhaps to northern France, or an over nighter to get to the coast to take the tunnel to London by Halloween. If I don't make it by Halloween, however, I will shoot for the fifth of November. Lianne's friends family throw a huge formal party for it, and set off fireworks. If that is the case I'll probably do the Netherlands after Switzerland for a couple days, or Paris. Hopefully both, because that'll put me at the 8th. Time is dwindling on my eurorail, so I have to find a way to do all of France, Amsterdam, visit Aleks in Cambridge, celebrate the fifth, see stone henge, Barcelona, and Portugal by the sixteenth. Probably cut out Geneva, random northern Italy town, only stay for a day in Bosnia, skip over Albania, and one day in Montenegro to not cut it to close. Two months seems like a long time, but it's really not. May decide against Poland too. Save that for an eastern European, Russia trip, someday. It's like an extra twelve hours on a train for only a day to visit. Well mom, you wanted my itinerary. That is about as good as it'll get. It has changed so much from week to week. I'm not connected to the Internet when I write this, but if you look at the time and place I submit it, that is where I have gotten to. I'll try to stay in touch, but the Internet is not at my disposal. Like I said. I have a lot of ground to cover.
So as for Prague. It is gorgeous. Very old architecture, because the fortunately hitler had committed suicide, with troops just a day outside the city, leaving it untouched by the war. It is overwhelming crowded though. I couldn't even imagine visiting here in the summer. Charles bridge is like try to get through Disney world on spring break. There is something about the swarms of Rukeyser that makes it feel a bit superficial like Disney world as well. In some ways it is comforting being surrounded by tourist, because you don't have to deal with local resentment as often, but in other ways it makes it feel very unauthentic. I was satisfied seeing the castle, which is quite extraordinary actually, if you can fight you way to it, and the main sights like the astronomical clock, churches like saint Nicolas' and so on. Then I escaped up into the hills and to a park to admire from a distance. A massive river cuts through the city, which lends itself to architectural brilliance such as the Charles bridge and other stunning bridges, making Prague just that much more picturesque. Two days was plenty for me still. The first day I did the castle and walked around. Met up with a couple of people, who initially I was just going to have a drink with, but ended up going to the city square to try some different Czech food from the vendors that fill it. There are open fires and slickers just out in the streets. A beer also costs less here than a bottle of water. Escaped the crowd to find some of the more underground local spot. When I say underground, I laterally mean underground. Would could be a fruit cellar by day, turns into a cave bar by night. A bit strange, and a little unhealthy probably being that you are underground in a cave with no ventilation, but unlike any place I had been I to before. Went to another night club, which I'm pretty sure was majority gay, but I'm beginning to notice that there is a very open gay community in a lot o places ive been in Europe. This made me feel very comfortable of course, so I ended up staying put way past my own set curfew, and got to ditch the people I went with without the awkward well don't really want to hang out with you even though you were considerate enough to insist on treating me for everything i got all evening, which is next to impossible to put lightly. Got to bed by five. Dragged myself out in the morning, went on a walking tour. Czechoslovakia's history is pretty unique, but the guide was pretty terrible and did not do it any justice.
It wasn't it's own kingdom until almost the 1300 s if I can remember correctly. The way in which it looks today is contributed to king Charles the fourth. He had visited Paris a great deal. He used it as a model for renovation of Prague. This is why Prague is considered, along with Paris, to be the most beautiful cities in Europe. Prague castle had existed since 880 c.e. , but the town squares were newly renovated and the stunning our lady cathedral was built in 1353 and the Charles bridge in 1356. One of the most remarkable features of the city I thought, was the old synagogue. That is it's name, people were not that creative with names from the ninth to sixteenth century I havdetermined. It has existed since 1270 and is the oldest operating synagogue in all of Europe. Miraculously it survived the nazi occupation. Prague, had before the war, the largest Jewish settlement in Europe. This settlement however, was a fenced in ghetto in ghetto of the worst flood lands of all of prague.until 1890. The Jewish population managed to thrive here. At one point a quarter of the cities population was Jewish and they were all crammed into this tiny plot.
I visited the museum. The museum had a lot of unique artifacts. They had to be hidden and many were destroyed and liquidated when the museum shut down under nazi occupation. The graveyard is also very peculiar. There are probably more bodies legally buried on this one plot of land than anywhere else in the world. Judaism does not permit cremation, so they dug the graves extremely deep. Sometimes up to twenty bodies stacked in the same grave-sight. As you circumnavigate it the earth is raised quite a bit in some places where they had to stack graves up higher. The tomb stones have collections of names. You also couldn't possibly wok between them. They are only a few inches from eachother and some leaning on one another, jutting out in all different directions. People leave stones from places they have been and from home. I did not feel like it was appropriate to do so, but I did have a stone I picked up and had in my pocket for some reason in Dachau. This did seem like an appropriates place to leave that. They had added a holocaust exhibit and memorial.the memorial is a large open white room, with a balcony and some winding halls. There is nothing in it but names and dates of brith to death in black and red in small font. The entire surface area of the room was covered from ceiling to floor with names. They also had an extremely unique exhibit. I feel awful that I cannot remember her name, but a Jewish artist that had got restricted to the ghetto under nazi occupation felt moved to do something for the children that had been leftNd separated from the parents. The Jews in Prague had always lived in the ghetto, but it was not until the beginning of the second world war that they began to be imprisoned, taken away in high number to Tarazine concentration camp and not allowed to carry out there day to day lives. Those left in the ghetto were left there In upheaval and awaiting deportation. When this woman heard these children crying all night and day, she decided that she would assist them with the only type of therapy that she knew. Art. She smuggled paper, crayons, pen and markers from friends outside the ghetto. She would then go to the children's dorm, and give them lessons, and let them express there creativity. So e of the pictures are ordinary characters, or children playing. Many are quite disturbing though, if you consider that they are drawn by small children. There is a drawing of an execution by hanging, and the man hanging is in a striped suit with the star of David across his chest. There is another one where three people are on there hands and knees with there heads down and tears falling from there eyes, with a German soldier standing above them with a whip. Some are just dark and eerie, while others are drawings of palestine, and the paradise of the holy land that they had been told about since since childhood. You could see that for the children it was the escape in there own mind, and not just a place. It was unsettling. Before this woman was shipped to Aushawitz, from where she of course never returned, she managed to hide and save close to 4000 pictures which she buried just outside the ghetto in two suitcases. She told a friend outside the ghetto where she had buried them, and that is where they were found. The two suitcases sit inside along with the displays of pictures.
On a lighter note the fall of communism with Czech was accomplished at the cost of no lives. The twenty one year shadow was lifted, in large part do to relentless student demonstration. Czechoslovakia became completely communist in 1948. In the 1960 s there was a sort of hippie revolution, influenced the the political activism going on in the U.S. It was the first demands for political and social change that began to circulate. This resulted in soviet occupation of czechoslovakia. They restricted political freedoms and liberal thought, as well as monitored phone lines and had secret police swarming everywhere. In 1989 thousands of students marched into the square to demand that they soviets withdraw there security and restrictions. All the citizens of the city rattled there keys out there windows symbolizing that they wanted to be let out, and wanted an end to the repression. The police severely beat a large number of the students, but where eventually ran out. This was officially the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. It is known as the "velvet revolution", because despite the violence, no one lost there life. I suppose I say a lot of the city. It is very small, especially considering it is a capital city. There a gran opera halls,ornate architecture, saw the house Einstein lived in when he had developed his theory of relativity. A lot of stuff. Hot stuffy crowded. Erase all the people and it is a gorgeous place. The high number of tourists does make for a very lively city at night, however, as opposed to a lot of places I've been, where it is silent, other than the club or bar districts.
I suppose I could mention a little about the train. In Germany they were pretty nice. Set up like a table and both. You usually share with one other person on the other side. Leaving Berlin and going I to eastern Europe, they aren't so nice. They are like the six chair rooms in Harry potter, except you don't meet any Ron wisely s. All foreign strangers. Sometimes they're nice, some times they just stare. There are a few stops in between major cities so at times it clears out, or you get a new batch. The toilets don't flush, or at least they don't work, and no water comes out of the sink. It's pretty hot where I am now, so a bit stuffy. All good though. Gets you point A to point B. All that matters. And it's awesome to just flash a pass whenever the ticket checker comes around and just show up to the train station and find the platform. Not have to wait for tickets or anything. I'm pretty sure I was walking on a curb in the highway to get to the train station in Prague. Beautiful, but outside the center, there isn't the best urban planning. Public transport is spectacular though. There is tram and underground in nearly every major city. There is no way that you can't get somewhere pretty easily.
Alright of to Budapest. I've heard good things. Cheaper, far less people, friendlier residents, most of whom speak English, and still very pretty.I'm disappointed that I hadn't planned ahead for Poland, but I had to get out of Prague,and there's still a chance. Like I said, I'm going to be on the move, but I will at least email. Probably no time to chat this week, if I even get the internet in the places I'm staying. Im excited to be staying with some young locals places, to get out of the crowd and have some more beyond tourist experiences. I think thats important, and the whole point of traveling alone. Couch surfing is like being part of the wider global community haha. Alright. Love you and talk to you soon. Farewell.
In Budapest. Pretty excited for a little city and some more out door adventure. I can't handle the crowds. I managed to get through Slovakia with my Eurorail pass, the lady never came back to charge me for that part. Think I'll take the around the border route to go back to Vienna though. I honestly don't know how I managed.
Sierra Rae
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