Disco Roller Derby and Holocaust History

Anyone who claims to be my friend probably knows about my love of pancakes and my embarrassing fascination with roller derby (which admittedly began after seeing the movie "Whip It." Who wouldn't want to be as cool as Ellen Page in that film?) That being said, this Saturday was one of the best days I have had in Prague. I slept in until 12 then my friends and I hit up Globe for brunch. Although this place is attached to an English bookstore and is pretty Americanized, the atmosphere is perfect for a Saturday afternoon brunch with the girls. The music was the best mix of soul and motown- Aretha Franklin, Mary Wells, Otis Redding and the like- and they had free ice water (!), real filtered coffee (!), and chocolate chip pancakes (!). My weekend could have ended after that meal and I would have been more than content. But that night I put on a sparkly dress and we went to a roller-skating disco party at a big arts complex called the MeetFactory. Two girls known as Poxxoxo DJs provided music as we skated around the warehouse singing and trying not to fall, mostly successfully.

This weekend was characterized by opposites. The Friday before this wonderful Saturday, the USAC group took a trip to Lidice and Terezin. Lidice is, or was, a town systematically destroyed by the Nazis in retaliation to the Czechs' assassination of the Nazi leader ordered to preside over Czechoslovakia. Now all that remains is a park with some memorial statues strewn throughout. Terezin was one of the "nicer" concentration camps, where Jews weren't treated quite as badly. I don't want to spend much time describing either of these places, not because they shouldn't be talked about but because I know I could never describe the things I saw or learned accurately. As much as language is the only medium we have to describe a thing or act as a representation, it does not have the capacity to in some situations. There is no way to explain the sadness and heavy energies in those places, so I will not try. Instead I will leave those moments to my memory in order to commemorate the world's enormous loss, and encourage anyone who has the chance to visit the places of the Holocaust and feel the haunting past.

Field Study Tour: Austro-Hungarian Empire in 5 Days

There is so much to tell but I'll try to keep it fairly short so as not to bore you. On March 30th most of the USAC group in Prague took off on our field study tour of Český Krumlov, Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava. Our first stop was a few hours outside of Prague at Maiden's Castle. We had to hike through some woods and over some streams before we stumbled upon the ruins of the castle. It was a cloudy and chilly day, making the area even more intriguing. We continued to the medieval Czech town of Český Krumlov. The castle there is from the 13th century and has since been home to aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Rosenbergs lived there the longest but perhaps the most famous inhabitants were the Hapsburgs. The interior decor as well as the frescoes on the exterior are extremely well preserved, almost all the furnishings were originals. And bears have lived beneath the drawbridge for around 400 years. That night we ate at the Eggenberg brewery with the group then went on a night walk around the town. 

The next day we left for Vienna, our first stop was Schönbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the emperor. We strolled through the gardens for a while then had lunch and a historical walking tour of downtown Vienna. We were kind of rushed through the history and sites, I'd like to go back on my own sometime. After the tour, it was evening so most everything was starting to close, but we spent some time at the Easter markets. It started raining freezing rain and we were all pretty tired so we hung out in the hostel and ordered pizza that night. On Sunday, we walked around Vienna a bit more, through snow this time. Then we went to the Leopold Museum of art. Viennese museums are some of the best in the world and I really enjoyed this one. The main exhibit was Egon Schiele, on Melancholy and Provocation. There was also an exhibit on Gustav Klimt's life, but sadly, his painting The Kiss was not displayed there. After the museum, we got back not he bus and headed to Budapest. 

We stopped at a monastery in the Hungarian countryside and were given a tour by one of the Benedictine monks. The order has been around on the same hill for something like 1,000 years, and it was a very peaceful place. Next we arrived at our hotel in Budapest and I was immediately enamored with the city. The castle and Parliament building were lit up along the Danube, making this place look so majestic. Richard, one of our directors, is Hungarian and we very excited to be showing us is home. It was so cute- he was so proud of this city. We had a great dinner with really great Hungarian wine that night then took another night walk along the castle walls, looking out past the Danube and over all of Budapest. 

In the morning, we went to a bath at the natural hot springs. It was like a public swimming pool but mostly for old people in speedos. There were a few main pools in a the courtyard of a beautiful yellow building and more smaller pools inside. I had fun, but wasn't interested in staying there too long. My friends and I left the group and headed to the Easter Market. Seriously, these markets are so great all over Europe. There are tons of homemade crafts and antiques and delicious food and hot wine. Budapest's market was by far the best I've been to. After looking around for a bit, we met the group again for another walking tour. This time we climbed a huge hill with a giant statue on top representing the liberation of Budapest by Soviets from the Nazis. They kept the statue after the fall of communism but removed the Russian inscriptions. It really was a beautiful statue- it was of a woman holding a palm frond over her head, her dress waving in the wind behind her. That night I sat on some steps by the Danube with friends and shared a few bottles of wine. 

Tuesday morning, we drove to Bratislava and toured the city for a few hours. It looked a lot like Prague, but smaller. We stopped again on the way back to Prague at a castle ruin in Slovakia.