Suddenly I See

“And at last I see the light

And it’s like the fog has lifted

And at last I see the light

And it’s like the sky is new

And it’s warm and real and bright

And the world has somehow shifted

All at once everything looks different

Now that I see you.”

--Tangled, I See The Light

Our second day in Prague involved a bit of wandering again.  We had to change rooms in our hostel, so we packed and moved in the morning.  We wandered into one of the squares in town.  We knew there was a church and could see it but could not find the entrance.  After going completely around the building, we decided to stop and have a traditional Czech sweet—a breaded bracelet.  Of course, within the next ten minutes, we were directed towards the entrance of the church, which was celebrating mass.  Without our snack, we could possibly have received Communion, but no such luck.  It was strange to watch people walk in just as the priest began passing out the Eucharist and still receive it.  I don’t mean to judge them, but I wonder how often that happens.

We wandered through the Jewish quarter a little before realizing that if we wanted to go the Castle, now would be a good time.  We raced across town to the Prague Castle, where we saw two churches, the old castle, and a lane.  The main cathedral was very impressive, and the buildings all had very long and intricate histories. 

I finally had the goulash and dumplings I had desired ever since we first arrived in Prague.  Yummy!  We walked back across the Charles Bridge that night.  The Charles Bridge is this cool bridge with a large number of religious statues on either side of the bridge.  It really is incredible to see all of the religious symbolism in the town.  So different from the States, where almost no religious material can be seen anywhere public. 

The castle looks absolutely spectacular at night.  It is incredibly beautiful and picturesque.  That night we saw these little lights float up into the sky.  The clearly weren’t lanterns, but they still floated quite a distance into the sky.  I really wanted to know what they were.  They reminded me of Tangled because the scene was so similar to the one in the movie.  It also made me think of my first blog post and the end of the school year.  My worries about Europe seem so silly.  I did start to think about needing to find a new dream, since many of my dreams came true while I was in Europe.  I am so thankful that I was on the bridge at that point in time and noticed the lights.  We ended the night lying in the square with the Astronomical Tower and the church that we went to that morning.  It was such a chill night and a cool place to hang out.

We had to change hostels the next day.  We walked to our new hostel before taking off for Kutna Hora.  There is this remarkable ossuary in Kutna Hora.  There is an elaborate chandelier made out of bones.  The ceiling had intricate decorations made of bones.  There were four pyramids composed of long bones and skulls.  It was smaller than the Capuchin Crypt but just as interesting.  There may be as many as 40,000 individuals represented by the bones.  The bones have been rearranged, so there may only by 30,000 individuals still found in the ossuary.  It is said that the bones displayed serve as a reminder of the number of people who will be standing before Jesus at the Final Judgment.  The sheer number of individuals who are in the ossuary is unimaginable.  The difference between the living and the dead really isn’t that great—there really is only on average a 70 year difference, which when compared to eternity is miniscule.  The altar in the ossuary was separated from the bones, but all of the bones were surrounding it.  It was such a cool sight to behold.

We continued exploring Kutna Hora for a few hours and enjoyed more than our fair share of ice cream.  We walked past a cathedral in Kutna Hora that was quite impressive.  It was very tall and elaborately decorated, but we didn’t get the chance to enter.  We saw a couple from our train that morning four separate times that day.  We even saw them in Prague, which just goes to show how small the world is. 

Upon returning to Hostel Orange, we were informed that there was some sort of glitch in the computer system and that we had been rebooked at a nearby hostel.  We walked over to the new hostel.  We had gotten as far as handing them our passport, but I wanted to look a little more into them before paying.  We moved into a common room and checked out their rating on hostel world.  Their rating was in the low 70s, but they also had a location rating in the high 90s.  Hostel Orange had a rating of 90.  Instead of staying in Hostel AZ, we went back to Hostel Orange to request a different hostel.  At the end of the night, we ended up at a hostel that was about 100 koruna more expensive than the hostel we booked for the night and just down the street from the hostel that we had left that morning.  Which meant that we walked for about half an hour while carrying all of our bags, for nothing.

The airport really wasn’t that exciting.  With the exception of the fact that the passport control was a little annoyed by the fact that we didn’t have stamps admitting us into the Czech Republic (we came by train—not our faults) and the fact that Brianna hadn’t received a stamp in her passport yet.  They weren’t sure if she was legally in Europe, but ended up letting her through and giving her the first stamp in this passport!  The return to the English language is so exciting and strange.

Houses Of The Holy

“But you’re so far away.

Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?

It would be so fine to see your face at my door.

Doesn’t help to know you’re so far away.”

--Carole King, So Far Away

Talk about relaxing.  The Czech Republic was a very nice stop during our trip.  It was a very nice time to reflect on all of our time in Europe and our imminent return to the English speaking world.  The prospect of returning to London is both exciting and sad.  Understanding the culture (more or less) and the language will be thrilling, but a big part of the adventure and the culture will be different.  It won’t be the same challenge to order food or to communicate.

Instead of the constant movement that was Barcelona or Paris, we wandered through Prague a lot.  We didn’t always have an end destination; we explored much more.  We didn’t arrive in Prague until 11:30 pm, and our first challenge was to obtain Czech koruna.  In taking the subway to our hostel, we needed change, which ATMs don’t provide.  So we found a random shop open in the train station to get change.  After getting to the right metro station, we proceeded to find our way through unfamiliar streets to the hostel.  It really wasn’t hard with the exception of orienting ourselves once we left the subway.

We didn’t start our next day until later than most others, which was so refreshing.  We stopped at a bakery recommended by our hostel, which became a routine of sorts.  We started wandering with the intent of finding the Prague Castle, but we made a wrong turn (or, more specifically, didn’t make a right turn) along the way.  Instead we found ourselves outside of a church called Loreta, which we later found out to be considered one of the most holy places in Prague.  We had to wait for fifteen minutes or so for it to open after a short lunch break. 

Loreta was incredible!  It started with what I want to call a “Walk of Saints.”  There were portraits of saints (and a few of Jesus or angels) hung around the porch of this courtyard.  Along with each portrait was a sign that provided a short bibliography or summary of each saint and a prayer.  The walk was so peaceful, reflective, inspiring, and prayerful.  Reading about all of the inspiring lives of different saints and remembering so many issues that should be prayed for, both for myself, for others, and for the world created an indescribable mood.

In addition to the paintings around the wall, there were murals on all of the ceilings and directly underneath the ceiling.  Everything was painted in light colors and felt very bright.  In contrast with this feeling, there was a small chapel that was kept darker and decorated with plenty of gold and silver.  This chapel was small enough that there was only one row of benches inside.

Beyond the chapel was the church.  The church was absolutely spectacular.  The only way I can think of to describe it is that the church was much heavier than the outside courtyard.  Almost everything near the altar was completely covered in gold.  Everything was so elaborate.  I can’t actually imagine attending a mass there because I would be so distracted by all of the decorations around me.

Of course most churches in Europe are not complete without some tourists.  The closer to the altar I sat, the less I noticed them.  The second time that I sat in the church, I sat in the third row.  The tourists and their cameras were so distracting!

Loreta also housed a monstrance decorated with an insane amount of diamonds as well as other chalice and monstrance sets decorated with various gems and designs.  They were all sights to behold.

We eventually did leave Loreta.  From there, we wandered until we happened upon a library and a church that was only open for worship services –such a strange concept from what I have been experiencing in Europe.  We did find the castle but didn’t enter because it was late enough.  Instead we went to a little café and enjoyed some strudel while looking out over the beautiful countryside that is Prague.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that basically refused to let us leave without drinking a beer and a shot of some cinnamon liquor.  It was an interesting experience with some drunk guys in the corner requesting that the accordion player play the chicken dance.  Over and over and over again.

The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”

--G.K. Chesterton

I don’t feel like I experienced Paris.  I saw the sights, but I don’t think that I actually felt the French way of life.  There were just so many tourists.  We were only in Paris for under 24 hours after the train delay, though. 

Of everything that we wanted to do, we walked a lot more than expected, but completed almost everything else.

We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and mass at Notre Dame.  We walked around in the afternoon and got crepes (a must in Paris if you ask me) and saw the Eiffel Tower during the day.  We continued walking around and found the Arc de Triomphe and Champ-Élysées, which I was told was the second most expensive street in the world.  We explored until we were able to find Notre Dame, where we confirmed what time mass was.  Because we had over an hour, we figured that we could make our way back to the hostel to check in and move our bags from the lobby to our room.  By the time we got to the hostel, there was less than half an hour until mass, and it didn’t look likely we would make it on time.  We checked in, and I decided that I still really wanted to make it to Notre Dame for mass.  We raced back to the church.

It was funny because I had a friend who studied abroad in Paris earlier this summer.  I had been reading his blog about a moment when he was trying to make it to mass.  He got lost, but showed up just in time to hear the Alleluia, which is the cut-off point to determine if you have fulfilled your obligation for mass.  Knowing this, we showed up at Notre Dame as they were finishing the second reading and took our seats right at the beginning of the Alleluia.  It was too funny not to laugh.

Therefore, we were able to celebrate a Sunday mass at Notre Dame, which is beautiful and so large.  There were a few strange aspects to mass.  The first was that there were television screens on some of the pillars so that you could see what was going on.  It is very rare for me to go to a mass with television screens and cameras present.  The second was that when we were sitting down, you could look over and see tourists walking around the church.  Normally, I view a church as a private, sacred place.  The abundance of tourists and the constant cameras and talking around the congregation was surprisingly not too distracting.  It was definitely an experience to have.  Unlike the Vatican, I really did feel like I was surrounded by tourists.  There was a boundary between us, but we were much closer to the edges of the church in Notre Dame.

That night, we went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  We took the elevator up, and can I tell you how much I was freaking out.  I am not always afraid of heights; it depends on how safe I feel.  I didn’t feel very safe in the elevator, because the sides were made of glass and you could see so much open space on every side.  I was gripping the railing of the elevator like it was nobody’s business.  And then we got off on the second floor.  Only to wait in the cold in a line for another elevator (really? another one?) that went straight up for a long time.  At the top, I felt more secure for some reason.  There was an inside area with windows that gave you a nice view of the city and the distance from other major cities.  You could also go outside, but you were basically in a cage.  Brianna wanted to try to fit her head out (I don’t know how serious she was about that), but I would have completely freaked out if that had happened.  I did see one kid up there fit his head through the netting.  We walked around for a little and saw a magnificent view.  Looking out is so much better than looking down.  And I can’t even imagine walking up the stairs all of the way to the top of the tower.  It must take forever!

We started to head down a little before midnight.  By the time we reached the bottom (we walked down the stairs from the second floor) it was just past midnight.  We asked a police officer for directions to the nearest metro, but I only understood so much.  We ended up going a little too far and then figured we would run into another metro stop.  We must have kept missing the stops, because half an hour later we were approaching the Louvre (which by the way looks really cool at 1 am.  And so much less crowded with cars and people than during the day.)  Of course, the metro stop there was closed.  We finally decided that we would hop in a taxi to the hostel, cognizant of the fact that we had to be back by 2 am.  The taxi ride took a total of maybe 10 minutes but did give us the opportunity to see a little more of Paris.  By taking the metro, you miss seeing some of the sights from the sidewalk.

The metro in Paris was kind of disgusting.  I don’t know if it is the most disgusting in the world, but I wasn’t impressed.  Especially after the air conditioned metro in Barcelona, Paris was not my favorite.  All of the walkways smelled of urine and other disgusting smells that I would prefer not to remember.  Many of the seats would sink when you would sit in them and did not look very nice.  As a means to get around the city quickly and cost effectively, the metro was quite helpful.  Some of the metro cars were a little nicer than others, but the metro system in general was not my favorite.

The French keyboard was kind of annoying as well.  The q, a, z, w, and m keys were in different positions.  It was also impossible for me to find quickly any punctuation marks.  I could use the keyboard, it just took a lot more effort.

We left this morning rather early and are currently somewhere in the middle of Germany.  I am using (very little of) my sixth language this summer.  I never learned Hungarian, so it is my sixth language.  I know absolutely no Czech, where I am headed, but I can’t even try to pronounce what I see written in my guide book. 

So far, we haven’t really had any problems with our first two trains (other than a five minute delay and change of platform).  Compared to all of the other trains we have been on, today has been a breeze.  Both in terms of how much we have walked and how stressful the travel has been, today has been so relaxing.  We are trying to take three trains today to end up in Prague, so it has been so helpful to not have the massive five hour delays like those for Barcelona and Paris.  Here’s to hoping that I make it to Prague and through my seventh language without too many issues!  Although returning to the cold weather will not be my favorite no matter how smooth the travel may be.

Barcelona

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door.  You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.’”

--JRR Tolkien

Barcelona feels like a long time ago.  I keep meaning to sit down and write about it but am either too tired or my computer is out of battery or too busy or too distracted.  Barcelona reminded both Brianna and I of the West Coast a little.  They both have a similar feel in that there is a beach and everything is very chill.  Until, of course, the night comes.  Everything becomes alive at night.

We walked to the beach any number of times in Barcelona, but we never actually went into the water completely.  The one day we were planning on going to the beach for a morning or afternoon, we got distracted by the soccer field or shopping or the Olympic Village.  We didn’t get to the beach until close to 7 or 8.  We spent a couple hours there, but it was so cold that I didn’t even want to think about getting in the water.  We also had no beach towel.  Wearing our swim suits all day seemed a little silly afterwards, but it would have been even worse if we had gone to the beach and wanted to swim.  During our time in Barcelona, we spent a good three hours sitting at the beach and chilling.

I don’t think I mentioned that our train to Venice was delayed.  Somewhere around three hours delayed.  The train to Barcelona?  It was delayed by five.  We got on the train and left Milan at the right time.  But we didn’t arrive in Barelona until 2 pm when we were supposed to arrive at 9 am.  We found out when we left Barcelona that we were able to get a partial refund because the train was so late (hello 25 euro). 

Barcelona involved a lot of walking and wandering.  We would often just start walking until we found something that looked interesting and then would go try to find it.  This method helped us find a little sky tram that showed us Barcelona from the air.  It was beautiful!  There were three towers connected to the sky tram.  Our buggy got to the middle tram, and it slowed down and seemed really shaky.  Approaching the tower wasn’t too bad, but as we left it the buggy descended.  I did not like that part.  It seemed like it would be way too easy to fall.  Either way, the ride was still spectacular.  It was so fun to explore to find where the tram started and how to get on. 

There was a harbor tour of Barcelona, so I took the opportunity to look at Barcelona from the water as well as the air.  We didn’t take the harbor tour until our last day, and the sky tram was on our first, so it was a nice opportunity to reflect on Spain and on Europe in general.  It was also so relaxing to be on the water and to see the city from a different perspective.  There was one building in particular that I noticed from the water and am really curious as to what it is.

We also stumbled upon Las Ramblas, which are avenues that connect and go through a part of Barcelona.  There are five altogether, and they are very different during the day and at night.  During the day, they are filled with stands selling souvenirs and some restaurant tables.  At dinner time, the souvenir stands disappear for more restaurant tables.  After a night of going out, Las Ramblas becomes a little more sketchy.  It is filled with men selling beer from six packs (you can’t buy alcohol after 11 from grocery stores) and just creepy men in general.  I only experienced that once, and I wasn’t alone.  The men seem harmless, just a little creepy. 

We did go to a club in Barcelona for one night, but we were only there for two.  It seemed like something that we were supposed to experience while we were there, although it was very touristy.  I would have enjoyed experiencing more of the Spanish culture as opposed to the tourist culture in Barcelona.  The club and the dancing here was much less sketchy than some of the dancing common in the States.  It was weird not to see everyone grinding all night, but it was very refreshing.  Of course, there were still some strange old men in the club, but it was easy enough to avoid them.

The hostel in Barcelona was interesting.  It was one of the cleanest hostels I had ever been in.  It also seemed a little strict.  They turned the lights out, which was nice unless you got back anytime after 11 pm.  You also weren’t supposed to shower after, which made the bathrooms that much more crowded in the morning.  The receptionists all seemed like interesting characters, but they also seemed like they were full of life.

My first night, I was in a room with five Irish kids.  When I first moved in and met them, they told me a little about the city and the hostel.  It was nice to know what to expect.  That night, when I returned to the hostel, I looked around the room to see if anyone was there.  I thought I was alone and was about to turn on the light when I heard a sniffle.  Apparently, the guy in the bed above me had been there the whole time.  Somehow I started talking with him and ended up talking for a solid few hours.  It was a really strange conversation in the sense that it was very happenstance, but I enjoyed it.  When one of the other Irish kids came home, I went out onto the balcony and called home for a little while before going to bed. 

On our final day in Barcelona, we went to the beach to take in the water for the last time.  The sky had looked a little scary most of the day, but it started to get pretty bad.  We had been planning on going to the market and tapas after the beach all day.  By the time we were actually leaving the beach, it started to rain.  We found ourselves a door stoop to try to wait out a sudden downpour.  The rain slowed down a little, so we chanced moving on and trying to make it to the market.  We made it about a block down before it started to absolutely pour.  This time, we were under the porch of a restaurant.  And we also thought that our bags were still outside in the courtyard of our hostel where we left them, getting drenched.  The restaurant was chaos, with all of the diners taking pictures of the massive downpour that had just started and the waiter trying to gather all of their umbrellas and tables and chairs outside.  One of the waiters came in completely soaked, and all of the waiters were at least a little wet.  I took out my phone and called the hostel to ask them to bring our bags inside (they already had) and then we decided we may as well eat since we were pretty much trapped inside.  That made the waitress very happy.  And we got our tapas.

By the time we were finished with our tapas, the rain had ended.  We began making our way to the market.  The street and sidewalk was so flooded, and trees were down everywhere.  They even had to block off a main street for a tree.  We had walked into the market earlier, but since we were closer to the end of the day, there were so many deals.  I got the most delicious chocolate-coconut-banana smoothie juice drink for less than it had been earlier in the day.  There was plenty of fresh fruit to choose from and everything looked delicious (with the exception of the meat, but that is a matter of personal preference).

Because we had nothing else to do with the time we had left, we returned to the hostel and walked over the train station.  We ended up getting to the train station about an hour and a half before our train was supposed to leave.  Wouldn’t you know that the train to Paris would be delayed?  By two hours.  We ended up making friends with a couple from Canada who worked on a cruise line and were going on vacation to Paris for six days.  We talked to them on and off while we were waiting.  A couple of guys sat down on the bench with us as well, and somehow we all got to talking.  The Scottish boys pulled out some beer and started drinking, so we decided to follow their example.  Bri went to a supermarket and grabbed a bottle of wine, which we proceeded to drink while we waited.  It is still strange that it is legal to drink, but it isn’t like I take advantage of it to excess by any means.

We finished our bottle of wine in the train station, but the Scottish boys decided that we needed more.  One of them ran over to the same supermarket before the train left to buy us another bottle of wine.  We boarded the train and decided that we needed to share the wine with the boys.  We met up in the bar on the train, where we found out that they had booked their train for the wrong month.  So they had all of their bags still with them and were trying to hide from the train conductors.  It turned out that there were two beds that they were allowed to take, so they were safe.  But it was still an interesting night.  With the boys’ help, we finished the second bottle of wine. 

At this point in time, Bri was tired, so she went to bed.  She remembered in the morning that she had promised a friend to leave me in a bar at some point in time in Europe (jokingly), but that she had fulfilled that promise.  Success!  At the end of the night, I had to return a hat to one of the Scottish boys much to the dismay of the other.  He had been trying to help me steal it all night.  And we exchanged names so that facebook stalking can happen.

Europe is always an adventure.  It never seems to lead you where you think it should.

It Belongs In A Museum

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

--Howard Thurman

Because I am still on a night train, I have some free time to write about one afternoon in Crete that I had forgotten about until now.  We were invited to tour the research center in Crete, which was spectacular!  To give you a sense of the center, there were multiple buildings, rooms, an entire stoa of artifacts, plenty of people, and libraries.  We weren’t able to take pictures inside because the artifacts were so new that they hadn’t been published yet. 

The center is large and accounts for a fairly large percentage of academic research on Crete done by Americans.  For me, I was very interested because I could see myself being involved at this site in some way in the future.  They accumulate all of the archaeological evidence at this site, clean it, organize it, analyze it, and hopefully publish it.  I saw some of the techniques that I may someday use in my career.  The center was so expansive and covered so many different areas of research.

There were students at the center that we saw in the field the following day, and seeing how they worked was kind of remarkable. 

Evidence is collected in a dig in large bags and organized based on the size and classification of the material.  Small pieces of material are cleaned and collected through a sieve, net, and an agitator.  Large pieces of clay are separated based on the type of object they were a part of.  The pieces are then laid out where they would be on the original object.  After all of the pieces are arranged, a puzzle begins where any pieces that can be fitted together will be.

The reconstruction room involves gluing the pieces together, filling in the gaps, cleaning the material, and finishing creating the piece as much as possible.  The people in the room were so interested in their work, and that passion is something that I want to have every day I go to work.

We saw the storage facility, and I saw bones on display.  I really wish that I had the required knowledge to be able to analyze the bones fully and to understand everything about the lives of the individuals.  I know that my education is only so good at this point in time, but I hope that the future will allow me the opportunity to be able to pursue my dream. 

There was an incredible amount of money that had been invested in both the buildings and the technology at the center. 

We saw some of the results of the work done at the center, which was amazing.  Really, it was something to see and behold firsthand, but I was so impressed.  It was one of the coolest afternoons and lessons from Crete.