Advertisement
Published: November 18th 2010
Zverina
The sign for the game dinner I went to in Okrouhlice.Cześć!
I’m back in the Czech Republic, but have just spent five awesome days in Poland, which is the 20th (!) country I've visited in Europe, where I had so much fun and got to meet so many awesome new people. Idziemy! (Let’s go!)
Last Thursday night, I met one of the geography teachers from the Gymnázium, Hana, and we drove with her sister to a nearby village, Okrouhlice, for their annual zvěřina. Zvěřina means “game” in Czech, referring to hunting. We met three of their friends there, and sat down to a dinner of freshly hunted meat. Hana started to explain to me what each thing was, in a mixture of Czech-English-German, and I looked at her and said, “Honestly, it’s better if I don’t know.” I then ordered a soup and some goulash, and that’s how I tasted pheasant soup and wild boar goulash with plum sauce for the first time in my life! Both were actually quite good, and whod’ve thought I’d be eating that?
Friday night, before heading to Poland, I went to a ceremony held by each senior class at every school in the Czech Republic (and Slovakia). Its name is Stuzkovák, which
Christmas Decorations
Already going up in Havlickuv Brod. is sort of like our senior banquets, just in the fall. The evening is organized and paid for by the students, and so they choose which teachers to invite and which not to. One of my classes from the medical school invited me to theirs, so naturally I obliged. It was at a local restaurant/pub, and, after being mistaken by one teacher for the photographer, dinner began, which was very good. Afterwards, one of the students did impersonations of teachers from the school, and when he got to me, he walked into the “classroom,” looked at everyone, smiled, said, “Hi!,” and then said in Czech, “Crap, what else can I do?” It was entertaining ‘cause all the students were laughing and saying, “Yea, we like you, we don’t have anything to make fun of you for.” Afterwards, most of the teachers left, but I stayed to hang out and chat with my students. Hey, we even did a shot together (they were pretty insistent about it). All in all, we had a lot of fun, and they got a kick out of talking to me in Czech, and I didn’t end up making it home until about 2:30 in the
The Main Square
Without as much construction. There's also a Christmas tree there now. morning.
At 6am on Saturday, I was up and about frantically packing so as not to miss my train to Prague. I ran to the train station, barely catching my train, and then was on my way. I rolled into Prague at about 10am, and there waited for Alex. When he got there a half-hour later, we hopped on the metro, then changed to the bus, and voilà, we were at the airport. With four minutes to spare before boarding, we strolled up to the gate to meet Rachel and Sujin, two of our fellow Czech ETAs, and the four of us boarded the plane, destination: Kraków!
We landed in Kraków about an hour later, and set out into the city to try to find something to eat. Since the flight was so long, we hadn’t gotten anything besides a drink and some crackers, and so we found a small little Polish restaurant where we began our time in Poland with some pierogis. After that, we moseyed down one of the main streets of Kraków and found our hotel. Rachel and Sujin were going to couch-surf, meaning stay on somebody’s couch, but Alex and I decided to try
to play dumb at the hotel and see if we could sneak our way into our room for Saturday night. After confusing the poor man at reception who didn’t really speak English, we found out that we unfortunately either had to pay for the hotel room for Saturday night or go somewhere else, seeing as our reservation through Fulbright didn’t start until Sunday. We decided to try a nearby hostel, but since it was only about $3 cheaper than the hotel, just went back to the hotel and checked in. After that, Alex and I wandered the city by night, while Rachel and Sujin went to meet their host.
Kraków is absolutely beautiful. Its main square is one of the largest preserved medieval main squares in all of Europe, and it’s breathtaking. In one corner sits an enormous church, from whose spires a trumpet player from the fire department plays a song every hour on the hour in honor of a soldier who was shot through the throat while playing the trumpet during a Tatar invasion to warn the city, and then in the center stands a single building alone. It’s called the Cloth Hall, and is the medieval
4L
The entire class and some of the teachers. building where merchants went to sell their goods. On one side is a church seemingly randomly placed in the center of the square, and on the other stands a single tower, all that remains of the Old Town Hall, which was destroyed by fire, I believe. Since it gets dark here around 4, it was already quite dark by 5:30 when Alex and I were out there, and it was incredible to see everything lit up.
We then continued down a side street and discovered the city’s castle, outside of which stands a statue of a dragon which actually breathes fire every few minutes. We walked along the river, and then headed back up towards the main square for some food. We noticed along the way, too, that there were a lot more nuns, priests, and even monks walking around, which is something you never see in the Czech Republic, given that the Czechs are the second least religious country in Europe (after Estonia). We found a Greek kebap place and got the biggest kebaps of our lives, which were quite good. While we sat waiting for our food to come, though, Amy randomly walked in, our fellow Czech
Honza
One of my students, Honza (which is the nickname of Jan, meaning John, so is like Jack in English), giving a welcome/introduction speech. ETA from San Diego! She was on a different flight to Kraków and her phone wasn’t working, so we couldn’t contact her, but luckily chance would have it that we found each other anyways! After eating and having a good laugh with each other, Amy headed out and Alex and I walked to Kazimierz, the old Jewish area of the city. It’s a really cool section filled with small cafés, in one of which part of “Schindler’s List” was filmed, and it’s full of old synagogues, etc. We found a little café and sat to sample our first Polish beer, and Rachel and Sujin came to meet us with their host, who was very nice and from Poland. We even met a girl from Australia studying in Poland and had a great chat with her. After a few strong Polish beers, though, we decided to call it a night and headed back to our hotel.
Sunday morning Alex and I were up early to see the sites. We followed the same path as the night before, though this time in the day. We ducked into a grocery store at one point and actually discovered Mountain Dew, which turned out
Dinner Tables
I sat at the end of this one with the teachers. to be pretty horrible and a bad choice all around. After a few hours, when it was humanly normal to be awake (Alex gets up usually around 6, having grown up on a small farm in Nebraska, so I got up at that time, too, every day), we met up with Amy, and then found Rachel and Sujin. Together, we wandered further around the city, ate another kebap, and all around took in all that is Kraków. In the mid-afternoon, JoEllen, another Czech ETA from Phoenix, called me, and so we met up with her. We went back to our hotel, where we met the head of the Polish Fulbright Commission, Andrzej, who was really cool and nice, were given our surprise stipend, which none of us had known about, and met the Slovak and Polish Fulbrighters. Everyone was very cool, and Alex and I were laughing that we’re the only two guys in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Polish. Not bad odds, eh? The five Czechs had decided we wanted Mexican food as soon as we saw a Mexican restaurant the day before, and so the Poles joined us for dinner à la mexicana. We had an absolute blast
Dinner Table
Where most of the students sat. just laughing and getting to know each other, attempting to speak Polish and teaching the Poles some Czech, and I tried my first margarita. After that, the Poles took us to a small pub they know, and there we grabbed a beer before calling it a night. Overall, things were looking like the trip would just keep getting better!
Monday morning Alex and I were up again with the chickens and roosters, and grabbed breakfast at the hotel before our conference began. The whole reason we were in Kraków was for an ETA training session with the Central and Southeast European ETAs. The countries present were the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The funniest part is that, even though we are all Americans, we called each other by our respective country’s nationalities, so we were making jokes with the Slovaks about being Czechoslovaks, turning our backs on the Poles, the crazy Hungarians, etc. Ironically, as well, one of the Hungarian ETAs is from Westerly…small world.
Monday’s training was pretty good, mostly just focused on the ways people learn and ways to approach students. We had a Hungarian lesson mixed in so as to show us
Katka
My student, Katka (Katerina), getting her pin showing she's a maturitant, a senior in high school. what it’s like to be in a foreign language class (though all of us have obviously already been in foreign language classes before). We had lunch at the hotel, where I got to sit and chat with Amy, the English teacher who was running the conference and who is based in Priština, Kosovo. Don’t confuse her with our Amy here in the Czech Republic. Anyways, we had an interesting chat, and then it was back to it. In the afternoon, we did more learning activities, etc., and then were free. The Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles headed out into the city and found a cool little restaurant for some Polish fastfood...which was still an entire meal. We ordered at the counter, and then a few minutes later had a huge meal put in front of us, which was quite good. After that, we headed to meet one of the Poles’ friends from Kraków on the main square, and ended up going to a bar there that had pool tables. While waiting to play pool, I got to chatting with some of the girls teaching in Romania, which was very interesting, and then it was time to play. Alex and I took
Me
With the principal of the medical school, right after the students gave me (and all the other teachers) a flower. on Rachel and Agata, one of the ETAs in Poland, and though we lost the first two games, we came back with a victory for the third. After that, we ran into some of the Bulgarians and went back down to Kazimierz for a drink at a little café there that had swings instead of bar seats.
Tuesday morning we were up bright and early again, and the conference continued. We talked about different activities to do with students, how to encourage group-work and speaking in English with one another, etc., and were finally relieved by lunch. I sat with the girls from Romania and we chatted all about Romania, which was really interesting to hear about, given that two were regular Americans, but one was a Romanian-American, her parents having escaped Romania before the revolution. After lunch, the Romanians snuck out, but the Czechs were studious and returned to more, fairly boring, lectures. It was Rachel’s birthday, though, so we all sang to her and then were finished for the day. The Czechs, Poles, and Romanians went out to dinner at another Mexican restaurant, which could hardly be called Mexican, and so decided to return to our earlier
The Pin
It says the name of the school and that they'll be taking the maturita. Mexican restaurant, where we knew they’d sing to Rachel, etc. Since it was her birthday, Rachel (and several others) decided to get the margarita grande, which was one of the biggest drinks I’ve ever seen, and then the funniest thing happened. While Rachel was coincidentally not at the table, the music suddenly got louder, all the lights in the restaurant went out, and three or four señoritas dressed in flamenco dresses came with sparklers and a little donut-type thing singing happy birthday. After cutting them off halfway through their song, and seeing them look so sad as their sparklers went out, they went off to hide and wait for their cue again. When Rachel returned, they came out again, though this time without music and with the lights on, sang happy birthday, and gave Rachel her donut. Overall, it was pretty hysterical. After that, though, we just headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday morning we started an hour earlier than usual, so that then we’d be able to have more free time mid-morning and early afternoon before everyone had to leave. After finally being done, we checked out of the hotel, and the Czechs, Poles, and Slovaks headed into
Krakow!
From the sky. We actually flew right over the main square. Kraków one last time. I bought myself a pretty cool shirt that says POLSKA on it (given that I still had almost all my money from the stipend), and then we grabbed a final kebap. We walked to the train station so as to see Alex off. He was supposed to fly with us, but his city is so close, practically in Poland, that it was easier for him to buy a train ticket and sit on the train for four hours, rather than go to the airport, wait, fly to Prague, then take a 5-hour train across the entire country. We saw him off, and then hurried back to the hotel. JoEllen, Amy, Rachel, Sujin and I then clambered into the airport shuttle, and a half-hour later arrived at the airport, where we found out we were actually on the same flight as about half of the Slovaks, who had to fly to Prague and the fly to Bratislava. After hopping onto our little prop plane that had maybe 25 people (and I’m being generous), we finally landed in Prague, though had to circle Prague a few times due to such heavy fog. JoEllen ran to catch her connecting
Krakow Glowny
The main train station of Krakow. flight, as she was being flown to Ostrava, the city I visited Martin in and close to where Alex lives, and we said our farewells to Sujin, who was taking the bus straight from the airport back to her town, Ostrov. Amy, Rachel and I hopped on the airport bus, transferred to the metro, and then in the heart of Prague said so-long to Rachel, who was spending the night in Praha. Amy and I continued together to the train station, and there we said our farewells, as I was coming back to Havlíčkův Brod and she was headed in the opposite direction to Hradec Králové.
The trip to Poland was overall awesome. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to visit Auschwitz, which is close to Kraków, and I didn’t get to go to Schindler’s actual factory, which is also in Kraków, but that will definitely not be my last trip there, since it’s such an incredibly beautiful city (and country). The most exciting part of all was meeting all the other ETAs. Not only were Alex and I laughing that we’re about 5 guys and 25 girls (good odds), but just being able to talk to everyone from the different
Old City Walls
Surrounding the Old Town. countries, swap tips, get new couches to sleep on during my travels, and simply meet so many cool and interesting people. The Czechs and Slovaks are also already talking about trying to do an internal exchange, where the Slovaks would come to our cities and live in our apartments/teach at our schools, and we’d go to their cities in Slovakia and live there/teach there for a week, which could be very cool!
I hope you enjoy my pictures and that they capture some of the beauty of Kraków and show some of the fun we had over the last five days. Tomorrow I’m headed down to Brno to stay with Libor and see a bunch of my friends there, so that should be fun, and next weekend up to Prague for Thanksgiving!
Cześć!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0532s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
"Oh Crap" love the swings.......looks beautiful and glad you had a good time!