Copulating cousins and interests in feces (possibly NSFW)

14512 well today was rather unexciting, we had to get up for our Czech language class. we learned a few more terms, as well as numbers beyond 10. its a fairly simple system ten-seven, or one-hundred-and-eight. after that we sat in a class with a lady who studied czech culture, specifically music. she was talking about the prevalence of surrealism. she explained that the surrealism was so popular in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet satellites, because they needed in escape, and the absurdity reflected the absurdity of their real life. the art/music helps to portray how ridiculous communism is, the contrast between the ideals and the reality of its implementation. the class also discussed the chata movement. chatas are the czech version of those small cabins out in the country that lots of people have across Europe. the chatas were an escape from the hardness of communist life. the auspices of the communist aparatii werent as prevalent out in the countryside so people could get away, and be free, and relax their facade. this was at the same time as the hippie movement of the 60s and 70s. the best way i can describe it as a sort of bohemian movement, but that term is bad, because this is literally Bohemia... anyways they would go out to their cabin and sing folk songs, and play cowboys and indians. really, they were obsessed with cowboys and indians, as the american west was a symbol of freedom for them (much like it was us). after that many of us, myself included went home to nap. after the nap we tottered off to find food, my roomate sam, a few other guys and myself made our way up the hill to a small place, i had a "hearty bohemian soup, with thickening, in bread loaf" as the menu described. it was quite tasty, i believe i am having one of my infamous sessions of illness, so i only had a small Pilsner (cause it was cheaper than water), no need to put undue stress on my immune system with more alcohol. over dinner we had some interesting conversations. as noted in the title, we ended up on some odd subjects, throughout, the really weird stuff started out while talking about european royalty, specifically the congenital defects caused by incest. the hemophilia, essentially brought in by Queen Victoria, and how it contributed to the end of Imperial Russia and the rise of Communism, and all of its effects, you know, the Cold War n stuff. we got into the Austro-Hungarian inbreeding which ultimately killed them off in the 1700s. then one of us of the anthropology persuasion mentioned that incest and scatophilia are really the only two universally taboo sexual practices. so yeah, now ima read some more of our primary source book for class tomorrow, and hopefully get to sleep early.

inconspicuous border

13512 we woke up today in Berlin, and checked out of the hostel, and the bus took us over to the Museum Island area, which was cool, i love museums, and considering we had already hit the Brandenburg gate, i and the girls i was with yesterday chose to make our way through the German Historical Museum. This museum was really cool, as i have not been through it before. the museum had a meager early history section from 0-1000AD. some roman stuff, mosaics, and armor bits. the museum certainly got more interesting as we progressed. the 1100s through the 1700s isnt really my interest, but the rise of Austro-hungary, and the city states of Italy and all them had their fingers in the German pie at various points. and there was the Napolonic stuff, they actually had Napoleons hat from the battle of Waterloo.

so that was pretty bad ass. they had stuff from the unification of germany too. here is a bit of early X-ray equipment, im sure my moms will like this one.

then the WWI stuff started popping up, so here is a flood of pics, including Kaiser Wilhelm's uniform and revolver

here is some body armor (AND you wonder why the Germans manage to do well in 2 world wars within 30 years of each other?)

after that museum we walked around the Pergamon museum, saw the Ishtar gates again, and all the other things pilfered by the germans over the years. again ive been here, and while they have impressive stuff, their collection isnt all that extensive. after this we headed out for Dresden, we walked around the old area, i mean the city was bombed to shit during the war, but they managed to fix up a number of the buildings. we saw the opera house, and the Dresden Castle, which is more of a palace. both were designed by a guy by the name of Gottfried Semper, who went on to be kinda a revolutionary guy. as in he agitated against the goverment, not his architecture. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Semper ) we walked through a big Protestant church that was also rebuilt after the bombing, that left me unimpressed, i dont know if it is my mild affection for the Catholic Church, or the fact that this church was only finished 5 years ago or what. but it didnt inspire awe like catholic cathedrals of similar size tend to do. this place just seemed to lack the character of alot of the other churches ive been to. we then drove back to Prague, only noticing we were back in the Czech Republic because all the signs and adds changed languages. mk, so the part that is pertinent to my grade. i can see that Berlin, and Dresden are very much newer than Prague. i recognize they were bombed almost out of existence during the war, but due to their relative newness, they lack the character of Prague. that is in regards to the physical city itself. the intangible, the "feel" of the cities are very different. again religion comes into it the catholicness of Prague vs the Protestantness of Berlin and Dresden makes the architecture different (even the old-newly-rebult stuff). i hate to describe Germans and being very German, but they are, compared to Prague. i can see the differences of the Austro-Hungarian Prague and the German Berlin/Dresden, again it ties in religion and architecture, but i dont fully know how to articulate the differences without those very obvious divergences. maybe i should sleep on it.

cold war action

12512 ok so pictures wont be happening while we are in berlin, cause the internet is garbage at our hostel, so ill update these posts with pics later. Still in Berlin, woke up had the hostel breakfast, yogurts, bread which i spread hazelnut spread and honey onto, but the most exciting point was the liverwurst which i spread on the rye bread. after that we hopped onto the bus, the bus took us to a berlin wall memorial, it had sections of the wall, and faux sections of the wall made of metal arty stuff. this bit wasnt all that interesting, but the exhibit did have a 20 min video documentary bit which we sat through, the documentary was entirely shot from a helicopter, in 1990, so shortly after the wall "fell". obviously they didnt tear down all 100 miles of the wall all at once. the "tearing down" was symbolic, but it was cool seeing all the aerial shots of the entire perimeter of the wall. after that me and a group of girls (how fitting to my character) wandered into the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which i managed to miss last time around on my Berlin visit. first off, i must say the museum was impressive, from the outside it didnt seem like all that much, but inside it had ALL kinds of cool stuff. Panels with pictures and history stuff, and stuff beyond the immediate Berlin Wall stuff, it had info on NATO, and the proxy wars, and Korea, and the Suez Crises. it had newspaper clippings from both sides of the wall describing escapes (and failed attempts) and they had both original and copies of the devices used to escape east germany. the private mini-sub, the underwater scooter type thing that you hold on to, was designed by an engineer trying to escape from the communists. there was a home made hot air balloon, and air plane, and some cars with modifications to hide people in, all kinds of cool things. this is outside the musuem, with the tourist trap guys in "uniforms" and a stranger paying 2EUR to take a picture with them.

after that we went to the Topography of Terror musuem, which prolly didnt even exist the last time i was here. it was very cool (and free). an exhastive museum on the Nazi party, and its security apparatus. chronologically it walked you through the rise of Hitler, and his consolidating power, and the development of the SS, SA and later the SD, and who was running it, and what they were doing, and who they were doing it to. it was clearly focused more on what thye were doing to run germany at the time, cause it was only at the end, the last 5% or so that went into describing the SS and whatnot in France, and Belgium and Italy, and Serbia and everything. the exhibit also went into what the US and British did to the SS after liberation, like putting them to work digging up and properly burying concentration/death/labor camp victims. and the final bit was on the Nuremberg trials. after this musuem we made our way to and through the Brandenburg Gates, took pictures, and off to the Reich-stag to meet the rest of the group, we were the only kids NOT to go bac to the hostel to get on the bus, we were out and about, and seriously wanted to see museums and such, it would have been a waste of time to go "home" and stuff. anyways, the reichstag was pretty cocl. we went up to the roof, and walked around this big dome thing that they had. of course it was super green friendly, it reflected the light into the building for heating and lighting purposes, and the water was used for grey water or whatever. it was mostly for the view, which you will get to see when i finally load the pics. (edit: now)

we went to a german place for dinner, i had Schwienerschnitzel and a litre of "bohemian dark beer" with those same girls and a few addons, the food was good, but not particularly spectacular, dunno if ive been spoiled by Milwaukee, but i have had schnitzel that was as good or better (and obviously for alot less than 12EUR). i hope to get to sleep soon, tomorrow on to dresden, and back to prague.

i am a jelly donut

11512 pretty sure i forgot to mention this, but i went to the opera yesterday, saw Tosca, by a guy named Puccini, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca ) it was obviously in italian, cause all operas are in italian, but it had english and czech subtitles. considering i couldnt read the subtitles very well, and my spanish only gets me so far with italian, i do not fully understand what happened in the opera. there was an artist, and he was in some way affiliated with some guy who was being chased by the police. but this guy was related to this girl the artist was painting, and the artists wife/girlfriend was very jealous and upset. and then the cops captured the wife/girlfriend, and she had to either sleep with the cop to get her boyfriend-guys freedom, or somthing, ultimately she killed him, but her boyfriend/husband died, so she killed herself? which is i guess how operas go? i dunno, it was entertaining, entirely worth the 55CZK. the opera house was beautiful, built a while ago, had all the gold guilt and velvet seats n all the whatnot that would make it ostentatious enough to be the national theater, (also the word for national theater: národní divadlo is one of our vocab words for our language class). TODAY on the other hand, we went to Berlin, much of the day was designated to the traveling, which i slept through, i slept real hard, it was awesome, we had to stop multiple times, cause i guess, Germany has special rules about how busdrivers need to take breaks every once and a while. we finally showed up to Berlin, dumped our stuff at the hostel we are staying at and started a bus tour. the tour was led by a British emigre. she seemed to know what she was talking about, she asked us questions, i could answer them, but being generally apathetic, and sitting in the back, she never really heard my answers. she took us around to all the classic Berlin Wall stuff. we walked through the new Holocaust memorial. i was sobering, ive seen it before, so it kinda lost some of its initial impressiveness.

We also were taken to the spot where the hitler's death took place, the empty lot. the communists pumped the bunker full of concrete, and now its a parking lot to a housing project. and then it started pouring at one point while we were supposed to be hopping out to look at the Brandenburg gate, i elected to not get out of the bus and NOT get wet without my jacket, as i already have pics, on this very computer of the Brandenburg gate in less grey-shitty weather. tomorrow we should have time to wander around some, and see some museums, as i have already gone to the historical museums, with the Ishtar gate and whatnot, i hope to go to the checkpoint charlie museum during free time tomorrow. after such activities, me and a few other catz wandered around looking for dinner, we found a place that had pizza, and German food, and Turkish food. basically the Berlin equivalent of aw Greek diner back home. and after that we made our way (my stealing a ride from the Berlin U-bahn) to some place to find a bar, had a nice half-wiess, or whatever its called round here, and then finding ourselves eventually in an Irish pub like thing, where a coverband by the name of the Murphys Law (real original) was playing a Mumford and Sons song, so i was instantly satisfied, Chris (our TA) proceeded to dance and entertain all of us (and much of the bar) quite thoroughly, but hes from LA so he does things like that all the time we made our way home, and now off to bed

end on liver

10512 today we had our Czech language class early in the day, learned a few more phrases which i promptly forgot, todays class did however, reinforce the stuff from yesterday, which is good, cause i can actually say thank you and please now. we wandered around in that area again, looking for food, i had a basic chicken soup, and then i had a fantastic gastronomic experience; fried cheese sandwich. it was awesome, and cost about 1.75USD, also the cheese didnt upset my all too delicate tummy. i got to eat it while walking around, cause it was not at a restaurant, which certainly contributed to the enjoying of the food. we then watched a movie, Goodbye, Lenin! ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/ ). good movie, interesting, the story goes, late 1989, an ardent DDR (east german socialist) mom has a heart attack, goes into a coma, and misses the drastic shift of the fall of the berlin wall. she wakes up, her son in an attempt to keep her calm and prevent another heart attack (which will kill her) fabricates a different reality for his mother. this reality is one in which east germany never collapsed. so the movie about his attempts at preserving the memories of his mother, and help to atleast in his microcosm of a life, have the DDR progress the way he wanted it to. after that we went on a walk through the jewish quarter, we got the cool story of the Golem of Prague. A prominant Rabbi in the 16th century made a clay golem, and infused it with life to protect the jewish quarter of Prague. as the golem was designed to ONLY listen to this Rabbi, just before his death, he deactivated the golem and stored it in the attic here.

that is the Old-New Synagog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_New_Synagogue this place was real cool, a gothic synagog, which i guess ive never really seen before, built in the 1270s, however, it was destroyed at some point, and rebuilt in the late 19th century, so thats a lil less impressive. overall this was a classic european jewish ghetto, the neighborhood where all the jews were crammed into, to live their lives and be merchants, and commit usury. but this usury was ok, cause the king needed money, so they could damn themselves all to hell and it was cool with the people in power (read Catholic Church and King/Emperor). by the 18th century, the Czech/Austro-Hungarian kings began to reform, and realize that forcing the jews to live in one place was not very nice, so they were allowed to spread across the city, which meant all the people with enough money moved out, leaving all the poor to do what they do best, live in a shitty slum neighborhood. this slum was so bad infact, that the king stepped in again, demolished much of the neighborhood, including many of the synagogs, and rebuilt fancy new buildings. on the tour we also learned of the first jew to be given a noble title, Jacob Bassevi ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bassevi ) this guy was real good at his job (money lending) and got in real chummy with a number of the Hapsburg Emperors, they liked him so much they gave him a title, and he built a palace, (which was destroyed when that other guy decided to clean up the neighborhood) ironically he never owned this palace, as at the time, jews couldnt actually own property, so the noble title was in title only. we saw more stuff, a synagog with the walls painted naming all the Prague area jews killed during the holocaust, and we wandered through a few other synagogs. after that we got food, we went to this place, and it was a lil nicer than the fried cheese stand, well, it was alot nicer, but i had Deer Fawn and Wild Boar Pâté, goddamn that was good, i had the dark Krušovické, which well complimented the liver.

Hotness

9512 Morning class with professor Holub from Charles University. this was a very interesting guy, started his schooling during the Prague Spring, so he remember all that stuff, became a full on professor under communism, and was eventually appointed as ambassador to Malta and Italy. Poli Sci prof with lots of hands on life experience, both professionally, academically, and incidentally. he gave a brief history of the Czech lands, definitions and labels, talking about the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Czechoslovak republic, the transition to communism, life under communism, and the transition towards liberal democracy. while i didnt pick up too much novel information due to my capstone being this very subject, it was very interesting for his personal anecdotes, talking about his memories of the student discussions prior to the Prague Spring, and being an academic during the Soviet crackdown. He spoke a lot about collective memory, and how far it stretches back, in that he knows his parents were born as Austro-Hungarian subjects, and lived through the empire’s collapse, the establishment of a soverign republic, the occupation by the nazi’s and the communist takeover. I certainly agree with his assertions on collective memory, I don’t think for the most of us it runs that far back, my grandparents were born at the very beginning of the interwar period, and my parents during the post-war period, so I, and those of my generation lack any connection to the time of empires. on a side note, the classroom was quite warm, it reminded me very much of the HELL that was many of the classes on the Balkans Dialogue. We also had our first lessons in Czech, that was cool, my Russian certainly helped with identifying vocabulary, but I still get confused, in that Czech uses the latin script with extra squiggles and accents, but makes Russian sounds, so letters like “Y” are misleading, in Russian “Y” is an “uuu” sound, while in Czech it is more like the Spanish “eee” sound. But I noticed my Spanish helped too, as I can more easily pronounce the vowels, and get the rolling “R”s and soften consonants. I didn’t do all that much at night, got to sleep early, read my book, im writing this a day late, so there is likely details im missing, and no pictures, tomorrows post, (which I will write later tonight) will include some pictures that I shouldn’t have taken, and more history type stuff.

REVIVIVED, Prague

6512-7512 Ok, well im on another dialogue, and we are expected to do this again, so 'ere we go. this is the Communism and Post-Communism in Europe dialogue, so far, things are better organized then my previous experiences, which is neither here nor there, but Harlow knows what he is doing, it will be real cool to see all this stuff again with someone who knows what they're talking about so far all we really have done is travel. Frankfurt airport was as big as it always is, and once again our flight was moved to a gate on the other side of the airport, though no delays and no one got lost. We got a brief walk around, a local, who also lives in Massachusetts (is she a local anymore then?) pointed out good cafes and pubs and restaurants for eating and fun having, we ate lunch at some place with john legend? or davy jones, or someone ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennon_Wall ), they died, and a wall was filled with graffiti proclaiming Czech love for the guy. the lunch was a sandwich, and i added a Pilsner Urquell, it was from a bottle, and onle a 330ml, and waaaay overpriced as seeing the prices of draft beer elsewhere, anyways, walked away from lunch including a beer for exactly 10USD, no southern european 2.50USD lunches, but still inexpensive. we then had dinner at a Monastic Brewery, with probably far more history than we were given, if you are interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strahov_Monastery the food was fantastic, and the beer was also awesome, i had the Amber Lager, and the IPA, both of which produced merely 25 meters from where i sat. this monastery was also at the top of a very big hill, full of fancy gardens and greenspace in the middle of the old part of Prague, think Central Park, at 30+ grade, the monastery, had a commanding view of the city.

everyone is pretty beat, by the end of this post i will have decided whether i will wander around and find a place to hang out, or crawl in bed. the bed, isnt great but the place we are staying is far-and-away better than Belgrade was, besides the 40 degree Fahrenheit difference, we have more space, and a refrigerator, which is great, because foodstuffs (read: beer) is very inexpensive, and can be appreciated when cooler. shower is also not confusing and scary, we are staying at the long-term dorms for visitors of the Charles University Conservatory of Music, my afternoon nap was eased into my day through listening to someone practice classical violin solos across the courtyard. once we start going on tours and classes and whatnot, i will have notes to inform all of my avid readers what it is i am up to. youll have to wait till tomorrow to hear about what i ent up doing tonight (i gotta keep you coming back)