Prog Blague

As our plane swayed and bumped in the early morning sky somewhere over Germany, I couldn’t help but think, “Amsterdam better be good.” And as we smashed on to the runway in perhaps the worst landing I’ve ever experienced, I thanked whatever being kept our seemingly drunk pilot from doing us all in and thought, “Really good!” If I were going to die for a city, I better be getting something more than wooden shoes, windmills, tulips, and stoned tourists. Fortunately, the last city on my European adventure ended up being one of my favorites, the definition of Old World charm and cosmopolitan self-confidence. Amsterdam is a city unlike any other I have ever been to and perhaps the most inviting I have ever encountered. The warm Dutch people, friendly liberal politics, and beautiful tulip-covered landscapes ... read more

…and back to Milan. It is hard not to feel an immediate hatred (or at least apathy) for Milan after being in one of the world’s most beautiful Old World centers, Florence, for a weekend. The two are impossible to compare. Fortunately, the immediate gut reaction can eventually be overcome when the city is explored with a more accepting eye. The metaphor has been totally overdone, but Milan is sort of like an onion: you have to peel back layer after stinking layer until you find something you like… and sometimes it leaves you crying (Easter dinner… yuck!). Luckily, just below the rough exterior is the heart of the city: the Duomo. While Florence’s Duomo is a colorful red-roofed spectacle, Milan’s is a grand, white marble behemoth. One of the largest cathedrals in the world, it ... read more

Easter weekend, a group of friends and I embarked on a rite of passage that all study abroad students must try before they return home: the roundabout trip. Step one of the roundabout trip occurs when a budget airline’s ridiculously cheap flights draw you to a city no one actually wants to go to. Case in point: fifty dollars round trip from Prague to Milan. Everyone must go through the motions of pretending to be excited about the cheap destination: “I mean… well… there’s a church there… right?” Step two of the roundabout trip occurs when the group comes to the sad realization that the city just does not have enough exciting places to warrant a full trip. Then, the scrambling begins: where can we get to quickly and cheaply from the nightmare destination? As we ... read more

For roughly the last month, my quiet, stoic Prague has been completely overrun by hordes of young Italian tourists. Like an invading army of the South, they have descended upon Prague wearing traditional uniforms (oversized sunglasses, tight jeans, fur-collared puffy jackets, pouty lips), brandishing threatening weapons (the flying hands that wildly accompany any and every conversation), and issuing forth their battle cry (harsh staccato laughter and loud soccer chants in the otherwise silent metro stations). Tan and trendy, they are - for better or worse - walking stereotypes. With this image of our Italian brothers in mind, we departed for Rome, expecting to find a city of boisterous hipsters. Rome has not disappointed in this regard. After a generally uneventful flight, my first real view of the city came in the form of a cross-city cab ... read more

With glamorous cities like Vienna, Rome, and Geneva practically on our doorstep, it is often difficult to skip these glitzy destinations in favor of one of NYU’s free trips to decidedly less cosmopolitan villages in the Czech countryside. In a strange way, however, these trips seem to always end up being even more fun than our whirlwind three day invasions of the famous cities. Without the pressure of having to see where this national hero was buried or where that revolution took place, these leisurely excursions offer us a chance to see how most Czechs actually live while solidifying friendships in a much less hectic environment. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to visit the region of Southern Bohemia, a countryside paradise of woods, castles, and man-made ponds. Our first stop was the city of Trebon. ... read more

When deciding whether or not to take a trip to Berlin, the thought that I had "done" Germany already definitely came to mind more than once. Spending a week in Munich last semester had made me an expert on schnitzel, sausage, Burger King (strangely, a German staple), and ordering pastries in Deutsch. Much to my surprise, Munich had in no way prepared me for Berlin, as the two cities could not have been more different. In fact, Berlin remains completely separated from any of the European cities I have encountered so far. In some strange way, Berlin feels more American than European - a sprawling metropolis of diverse modern architectural features and wide traffic-filled avenues. If Berlin must be compared to any city - although any comparison trivializes the strangeness of the city - I would ... read more

Being the only person coming back to Prague for the second semester made me a little worried, to be completely honest. I didn’t want to be that person: the cynical wise elder, the one who has seen it all and doesn’t mind bragging about it. And while I am probably known as “The One Who Knows Where Tesco Is” or “The One Who Understands Night Trams” in circles outside my own, I am glad to report that it is nearly impossible to feel jaded when you are surrounded by such great people and beautiful sights. My first week back in Prague has been a time for rediscovering hidden gems and exploring new ones. While much of the time has been spent doing the prerequisite orientation activities (many of which - like survival tours, meetings, and intensive ... read more

Last weekend, we went to Krakow, Poland. After weeks and weeks of seemingly non-stop traveling, ridiculously early sunsets, and gloomy, wet weather, I have to say that none of us were too excited to be going anywhere. The prospect of staying in bed or in a warm Czech bar was sounding increasingly more attractive, but we decided to go on one last trip before the end of the semester. Thursday night, we headed to the train station to catch the night train to Krakow. Obviously, like far more primitive species of mammals, we hadn’t learned from our experiences; the last night train we took involved switch blades and the fear of being gassed and robbed. Luckily our experience was much better this time, since we reserved our own sleeping car. The little cabins scream Marx Brothers ... read more

After driving through the Alps on our way to Salzburg, I was really eager to actually get into the heart of the mountains and explore an Alpine town. Gabby suggested going to Mittenwald, a town in the Bavarian Alps where she had hiked earlier this semester. It is actually just a few kilometers away from the town where the 1936 Winter Olympics were held. Even though we were pretty much dead tired from walking through Salzburg for hours and hours the day before, we decided to get up really early to get on the 9:30 train to Mittenwald. We stocked up on supplies because we knew we would be in the middle of the mountains for a good part of the day. I, of course, went straight for the loaf of olive bread at the bakery… ... read more

After two days of being crazy tourists in Munich, we decided to take a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg is a beautiful city which seems to be famous for two things: Mozart (it is the town where he was born and lived) and “The Sound of Music” (many parts of the film were shot there). We took the morning train to Salzburg, which led us through tiny Bavarian villages and the German Alps. The only mountains I have ever seen up to that point are the Poconos and the Appalachians in Tennessee, and somehow they just can not compare to the beauty or grand scale of the Alps. We liked them so much, in fact, that we decided to go to an Alpine town the next day. When we arrived in Salzburg, the first thing ... read more