Terezin Photos

You can see my pictures of Terezin here.

Poetry Excursion - Sat 1 Oct

Zlatka ended up inviting me and my roommate Sarah to spend a day with her and her friends on a day trip to the countryside of Southern Bohemia. Her friends had gotten the idea to trek out to the ruins of a castle called Točník while reading poetry (in Czech and English) along the way. Sarah and I, both constantly on the lookout for adventures, were excited to be included.

We met up in Prague at a train station we’d never heard of; once we arrive there, it was apparent why. Not even sign for the bathroom were in English, and, had we been on our own, we would have had a very confusing time navigating the station. We had enough people to buy a cheap group ticket (the equivalent of about $2.50 round trip per person!), and the five Czech girls steered us toward the right train.

On the train ride, I sat next to a girl named Lenka and traded life stories. She is a recent graduate of a Danish university, though she is a Prague native, and now works as a travel agent. She kindly pointed out places we passed, such as the Berounka river, and answered my questions about things like industry in the small towns that went by. About an hour later, we arrived at a station (marked by a one-room building that had fallen into disrepair and clearly hadn’t been used in at least a decade). After checking the schedule of return trains, we set out to make our way to Toc’ni’k.

The walk from the train to the castle turned out to be the main activity of the day, taking an hour and a half in one direction. We walked on a road next to fields, over hills that provided stunning views of a patchwork landscape with red rooftops in the distance. We got to a small village, at whose center there was a tiny mall and aging church, and walked from one end to the other in about fifteen minutes. We passed a football (soccer) field and found ourselves on a path through a wooded and hilly area, which took us to another tiny village where we found ourselves saying hello to sheep and goats behind low fences. We learned from our friends that Czech farm animals make pretty much the same sounds as American livestock.

At the end of the wooded path was the first castle, called Žebrák, a pit stop on the way to Točník. It was miniscule compared to the other castles I’ve seen in this country, composed of only a few rooms, and left today in ruins. We first climbed up the wrong way, unable to see the path, and found ourselves atop a precarious sort of peak without an entrance to the castle. Laughing at our mistake, we made our way back down and found the path, which we climbed up to get to the castle courtyard, where we read some Czech poetry, which our friends very kindly translated into incredibly good English.

After the first castle, it was time for lunch. We went to the only open restaurant (out of two total) in the village, where I had a delicious meal of salad and French fries. Then we started up the steep but short route to the main castle, which turned out to be at the top of a very high hill, giving us a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. We saw our first printed English of the day in a guide to the castle, as the site is more commonly a destination for Czech tourists from the city rather than international travelers. The place was built in the beginning of the 15th century and is currently being restored, and some rooms have recently been equipped with roofs and model furniture.

We spent some time exploring the castle, reading poetry, and taking comfort from the chilly and wet weather with hot drinks. (Mom, as I promised, I wore the matching hat and scarf you made me on the first day it was cold enough to do so.) Sarah and I discussed how lucky we were to have met such friendly people and to have friends who could show us such places that we’d never hear about otherwise.

On our long walk back to the train, I talked with two other girls, Olga and Veronika, about the differences between Czech and American culture. They had really interesting ideas about the problems in Czech society and how things are changing with the younger generation. The most interesting comment was made by Olga, who remarked to me how bored I must be by the unexciting view of the countryside around us. I told her that in fact it was incredibly exciting for me, as it’s something I’d never be able to see anywhere else. Funny how you can think of something as boring just because you’re used to seeing it all the time, no matter how beautiful someone else might think it is.

We got to the train station with over half an hour to kill and spent the time reading more poetry and trying not to freeze. On the train ride home, Sarah asked the Czech girls to share some traditional Czech folk songs with us, and they sang a few. We were prevailed upon to share one or two Jewish songs. We arrived home warm, safe, and completely exhausted.

My photos from this trip are here.

Marom Seminar - 22-24 Sep

The night after my birthday party was the beginning of an international seminar of Marom, the European youth group (ages 20-40) of Masorti, the Conservative Jewish movement. Thursday night, the program kicked off with viewing of an Israeli film called Ushpizin, which focused on the lack of dialogue between religious and secular people in Israel. It was written and acted by a secular-turned-religious actor, and it was very well done; I highly recommend you watch this film.

On Friday, there were a few lectures – most of which I missed by sleeping in quite late – and a large presence at Conservative services that evening, as well as a large table for dinner in the community center afterward. We all sang Hebrew and Yiddish songs for a long time, something I haven’t really done since high school in my Jewish youth group, and it was loads of fun. On Saturday, I joined the group again in the morning for services and lunch, and later in the day for a session about High Holiday melodies followed by Havdala, the service marking the end of the Sabbath. After Havadala, my American friends left while I joined the Europeans at a bar with dancing called Bombay not far from the Jewish Quarter. It felt distinctly refreshing to be the only American in a group of Europeans all close to my age, and I ended up having a terrific time dancing the night away. I made sure to get a couple phone numbers before leaving early to make sure I got enough sleep to be awake for Terezin the next day.

Present at the seminar was an interesting mix of people. There were five CET girls, one or two other American students, three Israelis (one living in London, the other two in Berlin), one English guy, one German girl, and a handful of local Czechs. The people I ended up befriending were mostly Czech, and one girl, Zlatka, has become someone I’ve even spent time with on my own. That’s right, I now have Czech friends.

Birthday Party - Wed 21 Sep

Back in Prague, it was time to celebrate my birthday again with the other girls of CET. My roommates had taken it upon themselves to organize a small party in our apartment, and they bought lots of yummy pizza (one without cheese just for me!) and Pilsner beer. Kim brought me all sorts of special vegan pates and snack foods. We sat around, eating and schmoozing, for a while. A few people, not including myself, played a short game of Beirut. I decided to bring out the game The Great Dalmuti (a fancy version of the card game Asshole) and teach it to everyone. It was really fun to be able to play the game with a big group, which I haven’t done in a long time, and most everyone seemed to enjoy it. Things began to wind down around midnight, and our friends left to go back to their apartment on the other side of the river. I had a very nice time, thanks to all my lovely friends.

Amsterdam - Sunday 18 Sep

On Sunday morning, Emily and I woke up early to go see the Beguinhof, a medieval complex for Catholic women who lived a semi-ascetic life without taking monastic vows. I had learned about the Beguines in a medieval history class last semester, and both of us were interested to see one of the few remaining centers of the unique group. However, when we got there, we found that we were unable to enter the buildings and photographs of the small courtyard were forbidden. We explored the outside of the small chapel, which was converted to a Presbyterian church during the Reformation in exchange for permission to keep the Beguinhof in existence, and found out that services in the Catholic chapel were scheduled too late for us to wait around, so we enjoyed the peaceful mood of the courtyard and continued on our way.

On our way to the tram stop, we spotted an interesting-looking church on a nearby street, and having time, we went to take a look around. The place turned out to be the 19th century church called De Krijtberg, and by far the most interesting interior I’ve ever seen. It was painted all over with beautiful bright colors on the walls and ceiling. Unable to take pictures, I bought a postcard on our way out.

We then went back to the hostel to pick up Sam, and soon we were on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. The place is quite huge for a museum devoted mostly to one artist; it houses over 200 of Van Gogh’s 900 paintings. We saw all our favorite works, minus Starry Night (which, ironically, is currently on loan to the Met in New York). I learned a lot about Van Gogh’s earlier work and bought a poster of one of his first big paintings, called The Potato Eaters. I also looked around the top floors, which had a small collection of work by Van Gogh’s contemporaries, especially Impressionists and Fauves.

After Van Gogh, Emily and I ate lunch at Brasserie Van Gogh (a few blocks away) while Sam went back to the hostel feeling very ill; she ended up seeing a Dutch doctor later that day who diagnosed her with bronchitis and supplied her with medication. Emily and I continued to Amstelkring, known in English as Our Lady of the Attic, a hidden Catholic chapel from the Reformation era and the only major tourist site where I was allowed to take pictures. Far from being an attic, however, the church occupied the top two floors of the building and the rest of the house was historically occupied by the caretaker of the church. Check out my photos to see what this place was like.

We left Amstelkring to go our separate ways, Emily to the Dutch Resistance Museum (history of the Dutch resistance to the Nazis) and myself to Rembrandthuis, the extravagant house purchased by Rembrandt and inhabited by him for several years until finally he was unable to pay off his mortgage any longer and it was repossessed. I was a little disappointed; I had expected to see a large collection of Rembrandt’s painting, but instead the rooms had works by his contemporaries. I did get to see a detailed (and bilingual) demonstration of how he created his etchings in the room where he once made them himself. Attached to the house is a small museum with a large collection of his etchings, which were interesting. Most fascinating was one particular image from his series of Old Testament scenes: called The Victory of Mordecai, it depicted the triumph of the Jews over the anti-Semite Haman in the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim. I found a postcard of this in the bookstore. It is the only depiction of this subject that I have ever heard of by a major artist.

Emily and I met up again after visiting our respective museums and headed back to the hostel, stopping on the way at the Old Church (Oude Kwerke), which was closed all weekend for a private affair; I at least got a photo of its steeple. We joined Sam for dinner at an amazingly good restaurant called Soup Kitchen, which serves only soup and a few other hot foods, followed by desert at a pancake house, where we had special bite-sized Dutch pancakes and stuffed ourselves completely. With full bellies and good experiences all around, we went back to our hostel and to bed, ready to wake up early for our flight back to Prague.