Vienna, Austria

12 April 2012




This morning we caught an early train from Prague to Vienna. Our first order of business (after wandering around looking for the hostel in the rain) was to get some lunch! We went to a nearby restaurant where I had a delicious goulash!

After lunch, we wandered around the city--exploring the old part of the city and eventually ending up in the market after a conversation with a incredibly nice Austrian lady. We walked into a store so that one of the girls could buy something and struck up a conversation with the owner of the shop. She gave us great advice of things that she recommended that we see and do--not just the main tourist gigs!



The Naschmarkt (from the German for "to nibble") is Vienna's largest open air market. We stopped at the market to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables to make a salad for dinner. It was really neat to see the market, but it was also a little depressing. I've gotten accustomed to getting amazing fresh fruit and vegetables in Spain for really cheap price. At Naschmarkt, some of the fruits were almost double the price I would pay in Alicante--probably since most of the fruits and vegetables imported to other countries in Europe actually come from Spain.



Later, we went to Stephansdom--Vienna's main cathedral. It's certainly an impressive site with it's roof! The roof is tiled with different colored tiles and designs--much like the cathedrals we saw in Wroclaw, Poland.

Czech-ing out Prague Castle

11 April 2012

We spent the morning exploring the Jewish Quarter of Prague. We bought a ticket that enabled us to visit most of the synagogues in this part of the city. A few of the synagogues had been converted into museums which detailed the history of the Jewish is this part of the world.

The Pinkas Synagogue has become a Holocaust memorial. Inside, the names--as well as the date of birth and last known sighting date--of Czech Jews who were killed by the Nazis are written on the walls. There are over 80,000 names written on the walls! It's an eerie experience seeing all those names of all those people killed in Prague and the surrounding areas. Even more disturbing are the names of the children. You read their names and their birthday dates, and you realize that the child only lived to be 6 years old.

Upstairs, there is a small museum filled with artwork made by children in Terezín--a transition camp. A teacher, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, used art as a form of therapy to help children deal with the atrocities they were seeing on a daily basis. In some of the pictures, children drew their old homes, some drew their hope of their return to their homes, and others drew images of daily life at the camp. Before she was deported, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis managed to collect over 4,500 drawings the children made and store them in a secret place  in the camp. Over 8,000 children were sent to Terezín--and later Auschwitz--with only 242 children surviving. After the war, the drawings that Friedl hid were found and are now on display at Pinkas Synagogue and at the museum in Terezín.



After lunch, we went on a tour of Prague Castle. It is considered the largest castle in the world--according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

It has an incredible view of the rest of the city of Prague. You can see Charles Bridge, the Powder Gate, the National Theater, and many other important sites from this viewpoint.  

We explored St. Vitus Cathedral. Work on the cathedral began in the 11th century, and continued in some parts until the 20th century. On the front of the cathedral, there is evidence of this period of construction in the form of an engraving of two modern architects on the front of the cathedral.

Inside, the cathedral has some amazing stained and painted glass. There is also a panel of glass painted by Mucha that is truly spectacular!

Later, we saw the changing of the guard. Like most castle/palace guards, they are supposed to remain serious and straight-faced throughout their shift. However, the guards at this gate got the giggles during the changing of the guard. I'm not exactly sure what happened to make them laugh, but they were desperately trying (and failing) to hold in their laughter.

By the end of the tour, we ended up at one of the highest points in the area--with a beautiful view into the old part of the city.

Czech out this city! Prague, Czech Republic

10 April 2012

In the interest of actually catching up on my blog, I'm going to mostly post some pictures of my travel adventures, and someday I'll write more about them.

To start our first full day in Prague, we decided to take a guided tour of the city--in order to see some of the sights and learn a little of the history of the city.


Our tour began in the Old Town Square. There, you can see the Church of Our Lady before Týn. This church is well-known for its uneven towers--called the Adam and Eve Towers. Nearby is the Astronomical Clock. It was commissioned to be one of the most impressive clocks in its day--and it still is! The clock has figures representing the virtues of humanity and the disgraces of humanity (greed, vanity, death , hedonism). On the hour, the figure of Death rings a bell and nods--signaling that it's time for death. All the other figures shake their heads in denial. Then, a trumpeter plays to signal that the clock is finished.


There are many legends surrounding the clock. Even though it isn't true, it's said that the king that commissioned the clock blinded the clock-maker in order to ensure that the clock-maker would not make another clock for someone else. 









Next, we walked around the Jewish Quarter of the city. There, we saw the Spanish Synagogue--which uses an Islamic influenced style of architecture. I'll write more about the Jewish Quarter tomorrow--since we plan on exploring it further tomorrow. 









Our tour ended near Charles Bridge--named after one of the Czech Republic's best loved Czechs. As my guidebook put it, most of the cool things in Prague were built by King Charles IV.

Later, we wandered around Prague--checking out the Powder Gate. It was once a gate used to mark the starting point for coronation processions. However, later, it was converted into a storage center for gunpowder.

For dinner, we went to a neat Czech restaurant--where I got to have some amazing comfort food! I had a meatloaf and bread dumplings. At the end of a long day, it was just great to have some warm food!

From Wroclaw to Prague...

9 April 2012


This morning, we woke up to explore a little more of Wroclaw before leaving early in the afternoon for Prague in the Czech Republic. (While it might seem obvious that we were going to the Czech Republic, in doing some research about buses/trains to Prague (Czech Republic), we discovered that there is indeed a Prague in Poland!)

I had wanted to visit Wroclaw Palace this morning--which houses artifacts related to the history of Wroclaw. I thought this would prove to be interesting since Wroclaw has had a somewhat contentious history. In its history, it has been part of Poland, Austria, Germany, Prussia, and Bohemia. The reason it is now part of Poland is due to the borders agreed upon after WWII.

However, since it was Easter Monday, most places were once again closed.

We wandered around the main town square--known as the Rynek. In this square, we saw the Ratusz (town hall) with its almost gingerbread house style. In a nearby square, we saw a little market with people selling mostly flowers but also some souvenirs.


As we walked through the city, we saw a cathedral where people were walking across a bridge way between two of the cathedral towers. After speaking to an older Polish lady in a mixture of Polish and English, we were able to take the stairs up to the tower, and we were rewarded with this amazing view of the historical center of Wroclaw.







One of the things I liked best about Wroclaw was the architectural style of its buildings. Most of the cathedrals and other important buildings (like the town hall) had tiled roofs. But not just any type of tiled roofs! The tiles here alternated green and red--making each building seem like Christmas!

All too soon, it was time for us to make our way to the bus station for a nearly 5 hour bus ride to the Czech Republic!

Gnome-one's home in Wroclaw, Poland

8 April 2012

Full of ganas (excitement) for our trip to Wroclaw, Prague, Vienna, and Munich, I left my house singing the "So long, farewell..." song from The Sound of Music.

I arrived at Mercado (the market) to meet up with my friends (one American and two Spanish teachers who work at my school) before heading to the airport. I was both excited and nervous for our trip--excited because I was finally getting the opportunity to see Poland, but nervous because I absolutely can't stand flying.

Check out the Alps!

In the end, the flight wasn't too bad. I was definitely nervous--especially as we passed over the sea and the Alps--but I managed not to think too much about it while conversing with one of my friends and the father of a family in Valencia. The father from Valencia had traveled to a couple of the cities that we are going to visit and so he gave us some helpful advice.

In no time, we arrived in Wroclaw, Poland. Our first order of business was to figure out how to get to the hostel. We debated using the hostel instructions to take the bus and then a tram to the hostel. However, these seemed a little more complicated than we wanted to deal with. Ultimately, we decided to just take a taxi--which meant we wouldn't get lost!

Next, we had to decide what to do about money. Even though Poland is part of the European Union, it isn't a Eurozone country--meaning it has its own currency. The currency is called the zloty and one euro is approximately 4 zloty. Since we were only spending about 24 hours in Poland, we tried to take out the minimum amount of zloty possible. In fact, most places either accepted debit/credit cards or would allow us to use euros.


Even though we were in Poland, it almost felt like we never left Spain--given that we probably ran into more Spaniards than Poles. I figured that this was likely due to two factors:

1) It was a Sunday and most things are closed on Sundays;

2) It's also Easter Sunday so most people were probably with their families.

I thought about adding that it was a little chilly (nearly 32 degrees!), but the Polish people are more accustomed to cool temperatures.




Since everything was closed (and I mean just about everything), we wandered around the city--discovering its beauty.

In between passing groups of Spaniards and walking through the city, we encountered one unexplained oddity.

Gnomes. Lots of them.

The first one seemed random, but then we started noticing them everywhere. We knew that there had to be some story to explain their presence all over the city.












Apparently, the city commissioned them from an artist in 2005. Originally, there were only 25, but soon business owners wanted to have their own outside of their shops. Now, no one knows exactly how many there are within the city!

We saw gnomes at ATMs, holding flowers, riding a motorcycle, skiing, etc.

After a while, we sought refuge from the cold in one of the few bars/cafes that were actually open. There, I had some hot wine and one of the best pieces of carrot cake that I've ever had! Instead of a layer of frosting on top, there was dark chocolate--enhancing the flavor of the cake!

Preparations...

7 April 2012

I'm going to keep this post short since I still have a lot to do in order to get ready for my trip!

Tomorrow, I'm leaving with two of the preschool teachers from my school and another American friend for an adventure across Europe! We will see four countries in just 9 days! We'll use three different currencies. We'll see both Eastern and Central Europe.

We're going to fly from Alicante to Wroclaw, Poland. Sounds like a random place, I know. However, I'm excited to make my passport stamp from this fall "count" by spending time in Poland outside of the airport.

Then, we'll move on to the Czech Republic and the city of Prague. We will be dividing a majority of our time between Prague and our third city, Vienna.

After which, we are going to split up--with two of us going to Munich, Germany and the other two going to Budapest, Hungary.

Good Friday

7 April 2012

A picture is worth a thousand words. I'll let some pictures and video of today's processions speak for themselves.


A picture from the first procession I saw that day... Also, the only one during the day on Good Friday. Incidentally, while watching the procession, I realized that one of the costaleros (platform carriers) works at my school!

Video of the first procession of the day.

The poor band members don't get enough appreciation for the work that they do! I saw a number of them with bandages all over their hands from playing for hours.

Video of the second procession of the day.







Here the nazarenos line up in front of the Cathedral of St Nicolás as they await the arrival of the paso.

Here's the paso on its way into the church...

Video of the third procession of the day. This was the teenager paso. Poor kids! They look so tired!

Here is the paso of the 4th procession I saw that day.