RADstadt Day 2:

In the morning, we woke up early to catch the empty bus that would take us about 20-30 minutes down the road to a hiking trail. The whole bus situation threw us off a little bit, and we accidentally took it too far to a ski town called Obertauern. It was completely lifeless at 9:45 AM (off season), and we were stranded there for about a half hour before our bus driver came back to get us.

This time, we got off at the right stop Maria had told us about. We crossed the street and entered into a lovely little valley with some huts and cows. We followed the trail signs and walked a while on flat ground until we came to the base of one of the Alps. We came looking for some nature and some quiet — and It’s safe to say we got what we wanted because we didn’t see another person for the next two hours. We climbed up slowly, taking millions of pictures and gawking at the insane amount of unsupervised cows (although they were probably wondering why we were unsupervised). They were everywhere and all over the trails we were trying to walk on. We were kind of spooked at first, not knowing if they were aggressive or not (I’m sure the feeling was mutual). But we managed to sneak by them without any major incidents.

This was one of those hikes where everyone is all gung-ho in the beginning, and then as the hours drag on, we all become tired, hungry, and ready to just get to the summit already. Maria had promised there would be a hut at the top that would have food and drinks we could buy, and by 2 PM we were so ready for it. The problem was we saw the hut but no people; the place was empty except for like 40 cows that were roaming around. There was someone kind of creeping inside at the window watching us — so while I was having flashbacks to every European-set horror movie I’d ever seen,  Jim was brave and went inside to ask about food.  Thankfully there were no kidnappers, deranged doctors or Nazi zombies inside.. only a nice lady who got us all beer, goulash and this amazing pancake dessert called Kaisershmarrn? Maybe.

After a while, we realized we needed to get to the bottom of the mountain to catch the bus back to the apartment. It was 2:30-3, the bus we wanted would be there at 4 (the one after that wasn’t until 6). We left the cozy little hut and swiftly made our way down the mountain in what I believe to be record time. We literally ran up to the bus stop about a minute before the driver got there. Although we did stop to do this:

We gave our same bus driver from earlier 4 Euro and sat toward the back (even though the bus was entirely empty). We were all exhausted and fell asleep for the next half hour — it was during this fateful half hour that my wallet fell out of my lap and onto the floor. This, of course, started a whole chain of events once I realized it was gone back in Radstadt.  Thankfully, I had my passport, iTouch, & camera all with me.. just not the wallet with my ID and credit card. We went back to the station and saw that another bus was coming at 6:22, and hopefully, it would still be there.

In the meantime, a few people went to get groceries to make burgers for dinner, while I accidentally(?) fell asleep. Megan and I went to go catch the bus (again) and unfortunately, it was not our same driver as before. This driver barely spoke English, but somehow we were able to communicate with him that I had left my wallet on the bus from earlier that day, basically by pointing to my purse and yelling “EUROS!”. He knew the driver we had had, and called him. After speaking in German for a few minutes and laughing at us — he said that the driver from before remembered us (how could he not?), did have my wallet, and would bring it back at 9:30 the next morning — Thus confirming that I am the luckiest person on earth.

We got back and had delicious homemade burgers for dinner (Thanks JIm, Alyssa & Gary!). We invited our hosts up to eat and had a great dinner just as we knew we would. Werner brought up more schnapps and insisted that the real tradition was to sip on it after the meal and enjoy each others’ company. We talked about our hike, more Austrian traditions and world travels. I was sad that our last night here had come so soon; I could have happily stayed another couple days.. or a million.

We all slept well after the excitement of the day, and in the morning woke up to eat a quick breakfast before saying goodbye to Jim, Alyssa and Joe (who were preparing to travel around Germany and France for the next couple of weeks). We then went to the train station early to catch the bus and (hopefully) retrieve my wallet, which we did 🙂 If I would have done the same in Prague, I would have never gotten that wallet back. It really goes to show how different and wonderful Radstadt and its people are, and for that, I am forever thankful.

We caught the train to head back to Prague. We were sleepy and our hips hurt, but luckily we got an entire train car ALL TO OURSELVES, which meant sprawling out in ways that regular train-goers, I imagine, only dream of. Back in the city, we enjoyed Kmotra pizza for the last time, and discussed plans for our final day abroad.

Spice Up Your Life

This weekend was action packed, and ended with Megan and I watching Spice World. It was my first time seeing it, and probably my last time seeing it. Although the movie inside a movie inside a movie with 8 different plot lines was way ahead of its’ time.

Friday was spent kind of watercoloring and then an attempt to find a beer garden that overlooks the city in Letna Park. We kind of wandered around the park and ran into a giant metronome and a big concrete space filled with skate boarders and kids drinking beer. It reminded me of the brick yard (?), sort of. Anyways we got pointed in the direction of the beer garden and eventually ran into one, although it wasn’t the one we were looking for. It had a cool atmosphere though and we all got some brews with potato pancakes of course.

Saturday was CRAZY. We woke up at 8 and were headed to the gypsy market by 9. It was pretty much just a normal flea market, except with more sausages and Nazi paraphernalia than I would normally see. I got a Mucha book, and then we went to a Design market that was going on near the river. This one was definitely more clean and had lots of beautiful handmade t-shirts, jewelry, and bags.

Afterwards, we went to Dish Fine Burger Bistro. This place was recommended to my friends by their ID professor who is a food critic specializing in burgers, soo needless to say my expectations were very high. With my first bite, I knew that this burger was the best burger I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s been 3 days and I’m still thinking about it. Their professor said he rated these burgers at a 4.5 out of 5, right behind Chuck’s Burgers in downtown Raleigh.

This weekend was also the United Islands Music Festival happening in a park right outside of the city (it’s usually in the city on the islands of the river, but due to flooding this couldn’t happen). The park was awesome though, there were 5 stages with tons of green space for hanging out in. We got there at about 5 and listened to one band for a while until the heavens opened up and rain poured down for a good 15 minutes. It wasn’t that bad, but it was definitely enough to get my friend group split up for the next hour or two (One of the only times I’ve missed having my cell phone). Gary and I wandered around for a bit, got some beer and chicken, and then sat down and scanned the crowds. We eventually did find them right before the main headliner, Aloe Blacc, took the main stage.

Aloe Blacc “You Make Me Smile” from The Qualities of Light on Vimeo.

I’d never heard of this  man before or any of his songs, but he rocked it. He had us all singing along and dancing for the next hour. These are some of his songs, I think they were better live but they’re still pretty good on here.

  

After the concert ended, we took a long tram ride back to the city and hit up U Sudu and then Chapeau Rouge for some house music dancing, but Megan and I mostly just people watched and rested her ankle. A pair of Europeans were talking to us & were very easily convinced that we KNEW Michael Jordan simply because we were from NC…

We raced through the streets to catch the night tram (It only comes every 40 minutes) as it passed us on the road. We made it, and got back to the Pension safe and sound just before sunrise. We went to Radost for brunch in the morning per usual, and then to the Institute for some afternoon watercoloring and skyping. This is our last week of class! I’m 3 watercolors away from being done 🙂 I can’t wait.

 

More Mucha

This week has been mostly painting with a few trips around the city thrown into class time. Continuing with our slight obsession with Alphonse Mucha, our class went to go see his series “Slav Epic” in the National Gallery. It consists of 20 HUGE paintings that depict the history of the Czech and Slavic people which he gave to the city of Prague upon its’ completion in 1928. I honestly wasn’t aware that these even existed, and it was a great surprise and shock to see how amazing the pieces were.

This week our class was also taken to one of Prague’s design schools. We were able to go through the students’ studios and see what kids our age have been doing here. It was really cool, and the building sort of reminded me of a taller version of our own design building.. except with less strict fire codes. It was awesome to be able to wander around though, they had some beautiful glass and pottery work, and I did really like the graphic design studio. I felt like a total nerd because of how good it felt to be surrounded by typography again.

 

As with my own designing, here’s an update on my paintings, i still have 3.2 more to do for Thursday and then I’m DONE with classes! This series is supposed to be our reflection or Prague, and the pieces themselves need to each incorporate some sort of reflection.

 

Summer Showed Up

*Knock on wood*

It’s sunny and kind of warm and it hasn’t rained in TWO DAYS. I’m so happyyyyy.

This week has been relaxing and wonderful: lots of reading, running, making omelets, watching chick flicks with Megan, and painting.

Here’s an update, I’m not in love with any of them but I’ll show them for progress’ sake.

For this series, we’re supposed to be inspired by graffiti around the city and play with layering. The top piece isn’t finished yet but it’s almost there, I still have the masking fluid drying on it right now that I’ll take off tomorrow. Below are some of my favorites from our mini graffiti tour we had on Monday. It was only a little sketchy.

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Below are from my last series about my found object from the museum we went to a while ago. We were supposed to use different means to emphasize the object through its color, shape, and placement.

This week has mainly been figuring out my paintings and catching up on sleep after Poland. Megan and I have been running a few times, and ventured up to Petrin Hill this weekend — It’s this huge hill in the middle of the city that has a beautiful view from the top. The run up was a pain but it’s flat on the top and I’ll most likely drag her up there a couple more times before we leave 🙂

This weekend I’m trying to get myself to Kutná Hora; it’s only about an hour away and has an entire church decorated with human bones. As my parents said — “Well, that’s Europe for you”. I’m really excited though. Probably too excited.

Proof That I Go To Class

Besides eating a ton of food, sight seeing, and having stupid amounts of fun with my friends, I have surprisingly also been going to class. We kind of got thrown into this project, but we’re slowly being taught how to do it? We kind of just try to paint something and then the teachers walk around and tell us what else to do.

The first assignment is a series of three paintings due on Tuesday — The first painting is of a piece of paper we shaped however we felt like (using only one color), the second is meant to be zoomed in on that form, revealing some kind of threshold there (inspired by the city, using 2 pigments), and the third is whatever we want to be behind that threshold (using all 3 pigments, yikes). I’ve done the first two, and just decided what my third will be. I sat in the tea shop downstairs today for a while sketching and soaking in the atmosphere. It was actually eerily quiet; the only thing making noise was my pencil. But oh well, I drank my plum tea and figured out the composition for my last painting.

 

Pinky Up

Yesterday was so classy I can’t even stand it.

In the morning our watercolor class went on a walking tour led by our Czech teacher, Andrea. Of course, we all got separated on the St. Charles’ Bridge and my friends Gillian, Meredith, Laura and I were left to give ourselves our own walking tour. The point of the walk was to explore different thresholds and doors around the city, which we did. We also found the palace gardens and decided to walk around there for a bit. There were some of the best views of the city yet. Also, why can’t I be a Czech princess?

 

It was beautiful and not even very crowded. We walked around the gardens and then began to walk back to class, stopping to get crepes along the way of course.

I worked on my watercolor for a while, but mostly just chatted with my roomie in Rals, Stephanie!! I miss you!

In the evening, the opera. We walked there from the Institute and had the best seats. We were right on the edge of the balcony with a view of the orchestra. The show was Rusalka: the more depressing version of The Little Mermaid. Thank goodness they had English subtitles because I would have been so lost otherwise. There was a lot of slow walking and falling onto the ground dramatically, also it was 3 hours long. I think my eyes were closed for most of the third act. Overall, I’m glad I went. It was a really cool experience.

The view from our seats

The ceiling above us; there was a giant chandelier but it was too bright to photograph.

FOOD

After our all night adventure, we slept for a couple of hours and then got up for an all-American brunch at around 3 PM. The place was called Radost and it was SO GOOD. Megen recommended the waffles with blueberry sauce and it was exactly what I needed after a long night. I also tried a bite of Gary’s salmon and cream cheese omelet which tasted a lot better than it sounds.

I went back to the pension and took a nap, then woke up to go back out and get more food. We went to Cafe Louvre out by the main tourist strip. While it was a little touristy, the building was beautiful and the food was pretty good. In an attempt to get something that wasn’t meat and potatoes, I opted for the spinach/potato and onion quiche (… ok still potatoes), and it was fine. I just stared enviously at the stuffed chicken, huge dumplings and club sandwiches at the table around me. Not to worry though, I balanced out my healthy meal by splitting a giant piece of chocolate cake with our friend Joe. Also: I love their typography:

It was cold and raining when we left the restaurant, so walking back was kind of a pain (thank God I wore my Tivas though).

Today was the first day of class!! We figured out the syllabus and got our first assignment. We have to do a series of paintings by Monday that will help us to better understand color and how to use the paint and stuff. Didn’t really get much direction at all though.. should be interesting hah.  Here are some pictures of what studio looks like!

Here’s the view from one of the windows out onto the main road.

This is my studio space, there’s also a baby kitchen attached to it.  I wish there was a fridge, but at least there’s a sink as water fountains don’t exist here. There’s also a nice balcony space off of this room that overlooks the courtyard.

Here’s the courtyard from the entrance from the street, it’s adorable. There’s a little gallery, a tea shop, and residential spaces.

I Will Never Be As Cool As Europeans

Everyone knows I’m American. Even when I don’t say anything, they know I’m American. As hard as I try to not smile and look kind of bored all the time, they know. And they know that I know, that I will never be as cool as them. But you know what, that’s OK. At least for right now. One of the men who started this program twenty years ago said that if we can go to a coffee shop and order in Czech and have no one realize that we are American, then we have succeeded. Except the problem is, when we try to do that, they start speaking to us in Czech like we’re Czech. And then we have to admit that we know nothing and shamefully hand them back our cool card. Maybe someday.

Last night was by far the best night so far. In fact, it’s 6:30 AM and I’m still awake from it. A few more of our friends who were here last semester, Rachael, Amy and Taliessin, have stopped by for a few short days before returning to America. We met a larger group a few blocks away to celebrate, and then made our way to one of their favorite spots, Chapeau Rouge near Old Town. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and at first, I was not blown away. It kind of just looked like a dark, noisy bar to me. But two stories underground was a different story.

OK, it was still a dark, noisy bar, but it was also the wildest thing I’ve ever seen. I felt completely out of my element: There was this small room through an archway all made of stone, packed with kids thrashing around to ear-shredding dubstep music. I’m no good at describing music like this (and I’ll probably have Jasper help me edit this later), but it was like ultra dubsteppy/house music European style. The Scientist by Flux Pavillion is just an example of one of the songs the DJs had mixed in their set.

At first I was hesitant, I had never really seen dancing like this before. The space was crowded, but everyone had about 2-3 feet of space around them, and they were just going nuts. Lots of violent rocking back and forth, hair tossing, stomping and jumping around. I think the small group of us kind of stood and watched for a while, but shortly enough we were all doing it. It was so much fun. The music was great, and the DJs were having a blast, and everyone there was probably about our age. With their heads all in one way or another partly-shaven, they danced around not really caring about anything else besides the music they were hearing. And the great thing was, it was way too loud to talk, so maybe some people may not have automatically thought we were American. But then Taliessin did the stanky leg to some Skrillex. We were all cracking up though, it was a lot of fun.

This picture doesn’t really do it justice at all, but I didn’t want to look like a tourist and take a bunch of pictures… ?

By the time we emerged, the sun was about half an hour from rising. Instead of going back just yet, we decided to make a short journey to the St. Charles’ Bridge to watch the sunrise. The Old Town looked so mystical at dawn: Everything had a quiet glow, and the street lamps made the cobblestones sparkle. Everything was hushed, as if any loud noises would break the spell.

It was a beautiful start to the day, and a great way to end a night out celebrating new friends and old. There was excitement for this new adventure we are about to have this summer, excitement for waking up to this amazing city and its possibilities every morning. It was a humbling feeling to see that something so great could even exist, and it’s given me an unexpected reality check on what should be important in life. Already, less than a week of being here, I’m starting to realize it’s not about petty things or worrying about drama that will blow over in a few days. It’s about making the memories and relationships that won’t blow over, things that are important to us that will last us our entire lifetimes. These are memories that I will never, ever, forget, and I have a new appreciation and thankfulness for being given this opportunity.

No means Yes

Today was orientation. Bright and early, all 65 of us got led from the Pension from the Institute by one of the directors, Daniel. Wonderfully enough, he resembles Willy Wonka, and during the metro ride I could only think about that one scene where everyone is traveling through the dark tunnel on a ferry.

Upon arrival, we got our first hour-long lesson of the Czech language. Damn. This stuff is crazy. They have a million different endings for words depending on how you use them, and one of the letters I can’t begin to pronounce. Our teacher, Lenka, was wonderful though. She taught us all of the letters and accents, so that even if we didn’t know what something meant, we could still pronounce it. She did go through some important words like “help” and “thank you”, and also that the word “ano” means “yes”, and “ne” means “no”. That’ll get confusing later hah.

After our lesson we went over rules with the head director and found out a little more about the Institute. The building itself was built in 1250, the walls are made of mud and horse hair, and it’s absolutely beautiful. There’s a great courtyard outside with a type of tea shop? and also an art gallery downstairs, along with local residents who live there year-round. For lunch we went to this kind of aggressive Russian restaurant (they DID NOT like it when we tried to split the bill), but I did get an awesome bowl of chicken noodle soup for like $2.

We then went on a small tour of the surrounding area. It’s quite near where Americans accidentally bombed Prague at the end of WWII, and also this cool looking cubist style building. We saw St. Charles’ University and the German opera house (we’re going to the Czech one on Tuesday!), and also the Church of St. James? I think. There’s a legend attached to it that once a man reached to take some flowers from a statue of the Virgin Mary, and his arm fell right off his body. To this day, there is a gross looking part of an arm hanging from the wall. I assume as a reminder not to steal from sacred statues, but ew.

Afterwards, a small group of us walked around a bunch of street vendors and bought small amounts of any and all foods. I’m not sure what the first dish was that I tried, but I know it had potatoes, sower kraut, and cheese (no surprise there). I also had a sausage hotdog and something called a trdelník that was totally delicious (and what we all refer to as a turtleneck).

It was a long afternoon, but I learned so much about the language and my surroundings. Can’t wait for class to start on Monday!

Day 1: I’m Definitely a Tourist

OK, so I hateeee looking like a tourist. It’s kind of easy to do when traveling in America (?) but over here we stick out like sore thumbs, so at this point I’m not really trying to hide it yet. There is so much to see, and while a lot of it is where all of the tourists go, there’s a reason. Because it’s awesome. And we might as well get it all out of the way in the beginning so we can begin to orient ourselves & exploring more off-road parts of the city.

Today started off early, I was up at 4 AM to say a rough goodbye to Will before he left to field training for a month, and after that, I just couldn’t sleep. The sun was rising and the birds were already chirping for whatever reason. The girls I was rooming with woke up extremely early to leave for Vienna, so I took a shower and kind of wandered around the place before breakfast. Jasper, Edward, Joe, Rob and myself were the only ones here today from NCSU, so we ate our light breakfast and went on our way. First stop, Old Town.

 

The place was breathtaking. There was so much movement and color that I was completely taken aback. I don’t know the significane of any of these places yet, but I know that I’ll learn soon enough. And that I probably should have done more research before coming here..

We walked around the church of St. Nicholas for a bit before heading to St. Charles’ Bridge. There, we were bombarded with all types of tourist-y things to buy, live music, and a beautiful view of the river. Disclaimer: it was sunny, so I’m squinty in this picture. And every other picture of me taken today. And there will probably be many, many more where that came from.

 

We got across the bridge and then began to hike up what felt like a mountain. There were tons of little shops and restaurants along the way, but once we got up to the castle and the cathedral, the views were amazing.

The castle and the cathedral were right next to each other. They were both insanely crowded but definitely worth a visit. I really loved the cathedral. I might go back one day and pay money to get a closer look at everything.

It was only lunchtime at this point, so we wandered further up the hill and went to lunch at this little pizzeria. We thought we had gone far enough away from the main road to not get scammed, but we definitely did. It was still good though, and my whole meal I think cost around $15 (after a day of spending money I’m finally starting to figure out crowns, Thank God).

We had plans to go farther up the hill, but at this point our bellies were full and it was time for a nap. We stopped by the Institute where we’ll be having our classes just to look around, and it’s lovely 🙂 I have no idea how I got there, but I think it’s going to be a great location and seems to have a lot going on around it. We found our way back to the Pension and now, it’s truly nap time.