Beautiful Barcelona

Hi kids, here we are loving Barcelona. We have eaten and drank (or is it drunk, not the state, the verb) our way up and down La Rambla and have taken in as many sites as we can. Sorry for not posting. Let's face it, would you stay inside and blog or be outside in the sun along the Mediterranean? So expect a longer post of our travel and food adventures. Gotta say, love the tapas.

Sheeler European Capitals Tour 2010: Bratislava, SK

We had a great weekend in Bratislava. I’m still trying to figure out why my colleagues and even my students sort of dismissed Bratislava, saying it might be good for a day trip, but that’s all. Maybe the lowered expectations have something to do with it, but I’d definitely return if given the chance. Beautiful weather, lots of activity, friendly people, lots of sites. Did you know Slovakia is on the euro, but the Czech Republic is not? We didn’t know they had made the switch – actually it became official in January 2009, so not that long ago and prices are still listed in Slovak currency as well. I was under the impression that Slovakia was the economically disadvantaged of the two former Czechoslovakian states, and I’m not suggesting Slovakia is somehow a rich country, but Bratislava seems to be doing well. We happened to make the trip on what I can only call “open weekend.” This weekend, all of the local residents were encouraged to get out, shop, tour the sites for free. There were tourist people everywhere passing out pamphlets and local literature, but only in Slovak. I find it interesting that only pretty young women were employed to do this, all dressed in red skirts and even a red fur trimmed coat if working outside. It was quite stylish.

So, there were musicians, performers, booths with people selling local crafts, every site and attraction was open with no admission charges. Everyone was out and the town was bustling with energy. We even met the mayor—really. We went into one of the open palaces which now functions as a government building—just following everyone else really. People were just milling about touring these offices that didn’t seem to be anything special. So we went in. Imagine if all the government buildings, monuments, memorials, and other assorted attractions in Indianapolis, including Daniels’ office, was open for a day of “openness” to the Indianapolis public. That’s sort of what we walked into, I think. A well dressed gentleman was getting his picture taken with people and he walked up to us and said hello, asked us where we were from, and told us it was open weekend and there would be many events going on for the residents. We didn’t know he was the mayor at the time, but as we looked around, we noticed pictures of this dude hanging everywhere with all sorts of world dignitaries. We didn’t think about having our picture taken with him when we were shaking his hand, but suffice to say, we were welcomed to Bratislava by the mayor.

For the most part, everyone is very friendly, and wants to speak English to you. We didn’t have any trouble ordering or getting around. Service isn’t what it is at home, but hey, we’re not in any hurry. A lovely made-to-order breakfast was included in the price of our hotel room, right down to the espresso—two cups please. I am really getting spoiled on the coffee.

As we’re training back to Olomouc, looking out the window, it’s clear that the rest of the region, at least what we can see, is not doing as well as Bratislava. What houses there are, are tiny, maybe 10 x 10 with a roof and let’s face it, we might call them sheds or, generously, cabins, rather than homes. Some might be slightly larger with a stucco-like exterior, which is also what you see in the CR, but land plots, if there is such a thing, are long and narrow. People do landscape what they have and there are flowers, mostly tulips now or flowering trees, everywhere. However, graffiti is also everywhere, on any unclaimed public surface, and there appear to be a great number of abandoned or rundown buildings. It also appears the major industry here is some sort of logging (this seems to be the case in Eastern Czech Republic too). We train by large loads of cut logs, or see large areas where trees have been harvested and are in different stages of growth, or come across what appears to be processing plants with much sawdust in piles.

There are also vineyards—loads and loads of vineyards, in SK and southeastern CR. Now, I have read about Slovak wines, and you can even do a wine tour of the region, complete with tasting. But I was disappointed when trying to order a glass of Slovak wine. I assumed it would be in every restaurant and bar—wrong. I could get a French or Chilean wine. Guess they have a better marketing plan than the local folks. Maybe I should offer my services.

Otherwise, there are large open spaces between Bratislava and Břeclav, the border town into the Czech Republic, and also to Vienna the other direction. The open spaces are green with grass, yellow with some sort of hay fever instigating flower, or just dirt. And there are relatively few fences, making me wonder how people corral their animals. I know people raise goats here, for example, but maybe goats don’t need corralling. I did see one very small barn, well, shed really, for one cow. It was just the size of the cow, and there were fences. But that was it.

Anyway, here are a few snaps of our explorations in Bratislava. Unfortunately the castle was completely under construction, so we walked up there, but couldn’t go in. We did get some great views of the city—not as great as from the UFO tower, but pretty cool nonetheless.

From the Castle

From the UFO tower. They call it the UFO tower because on special occasions they light it up and it apparently looks like a UFO. See the funky looking tower over my shoulder above? That's the UFO tower. We had cocktails up there! Here I am with the castle behind me. But the cocktails are one of my favorite views!

Bratislava also has a sense of humor. Here are some of the quirky things they’ve put around the city. First is the Dandy. It's apparently modeled after an 18th century eccentric who liked to tip his hat to passersby.

Then there is the manhole cover of the "man working." There is a sign next to it that alerts drivers so that no one takes out the man, which apparently happened once. It's good luck to rub his hat, or at least that's the story I'm going with.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So that's it for now from our jaunt to Bratislava. We loved it, and if you ever are in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out. Until next time kids . . .

 

Sitting along the Danube

Enjoying a Zlatý Bažant. Beautiful Bratislava day!

I Met Captain Morgan

I bet you didn't know he spent so much time in Bratislava, Slovakia, or that he spoke English but with a French accent. Quite the character.

You should have seen the looks I got, mostly from women, walking around in his hat. I'm not sure how I'm going to get it home though. Night one in Bratislava a success.

Hotdog Technology

The last thing we had to do before leaving Vienna was have a street dog. But these aren't just any old dirty water dogs. No way, these are serious grilled specimens of highly spiced yumminess. Just look. I ordered the pikante, which meant spicey. YUMM. But, the best part. The Viennese have figured out a highly sought after device to solve the hotdog-bun conspiracy. You know, too much bun for your dog or too much dog for your bun.

Here's how it works. First, you take a yummy soft baguette and impale it on a huge spike so that there is now a hole in the center, which just happens to be the perfect size for a jumbo dog. Then, you fill the hole with spicy mustard. Then, insert dog. Perfect. No mustard leaks, no mess, the perfect street food. See how happy I look with my dog. Now that's the kind of dog I can live with. AMB and his ostrich . . . well . . . I'll stick with my dog. . .

I'll Have One of THESE!

Gotta love the Vienna goodies!

Vienna Day Zwei: Schönbrunn Palace

Hi Kids: What a lovely day today checking out the Hapsburgs' digs. Here's a web link. Just amazing. Here are a few pictures so you can see for yourself.

The Frontyard. Thank goodness no grass to mow:

The Backyard. How'd you like to be a groundskeeper?

Flower Beds

The Labyrynth. Everything is meticulously manicured.

The Fountion

Gelato, mmmmmm

What a great start to the day!

Bathroom Affirmations

Inside the stall in the Vienna Parliament bathroom.

Vienna: Day One

Hi Kids, what a wonderful day we've had here so far. Started out with a huge breakfast at the hotel, included with the room. So many interesting meats, cheeses, breads, and even champagne. Tomorrow I promise a picture.

So, we started out walking, which we did ALL day. Probably have five miles under our belt and walked off breakfast. So, you won't believe the chocolate stores here. This is just one picture to temp you! I think people must think I'm very strange for taking pictures of shop windows, but isn't this just gorgeous!

So, we decided we're going to find the Imperial Palace, also called the Hofburg. Apparently the Vienna City marathon had events on the grounds there this weekend, so the space didn't really make for great photo ops. Here's a link instead. We just walked through the grounds rather than the buidings, but what a magnificent space.

We continued our walk, this time ending up at parliament. It is this incredible Greek-esque building. The architect really liked Roman and Greek statues.

When we went in, we discovered that we arrived at the perfect time for a tour. Why not? So we learned all about the parliament, the architecture, and the goings on leading up to the election on Sunday. That explains all the election signs all over town.

Here is a picture of me in the old portion of the House of Lords that is no longer used. Can you imagine the magesty of being a member? The little chalkboard looking things are what someone used to get recognized. They would bang them to voice their opinions of the various motions being discussed. The history in this chamber has to be amazing. It also has a beautifully ornate glass ceiling original to the building--the only glasss ceiling original to the structure because the rest were bombed during WWII.

OK, so after all this walking and education, we were thirsty. We walked a bit more and found a wonderful beer garden. So we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine and had some very interesting beers. First, we started with what we knew--a basic pale ale and a wheat beer.

We later discovered that the beer on the right, what we thought was a wheat beer, actually was brewed with hemp leaves in it. You could taste it on the finish.

Then we got a little more adventurous. These were good, but would have been better with food. We tried a chili beer, the Marz, and a smoked beer. Really. The chili really had a kick to it and our friend Dan would like it. It would be great with Mexican food. The Smoked beer really had a smokey taste and aroma and would be outstanding with my baby back ribs. The Marz was really smooth and delicious.

Then there was more walking. We found one of the main shopping streets and walked all the way up and down. It was packed . . . on a Monday afternoon. I'm not sure when people work here. People were buying things in high end stores and the sidewalks were literally packed. Interesting experience.

One our way back, I had to take another picture of a store front, this time, high end apps that you can buy for your dinner parties, including cavier, smoked salmon, whatever you want. We just took a picture.

So, those are the highlights of our day, so far . . . oh, and being able to stand up to shower! If you've traveled in Europe, you know what I mean.

Hello from Vienna

Hi Kids! We decided to hop on a train today and wound up in Vienna. Well, it wasn't that spontaneous, but it was time to get out of Olomouc for a few days. Vienna is only a 4 hour train ride away, so we made it by early afternoon. We're staying at a great little hotel in the center of the city near the subway. In fact, we have an entire apartment. I gotta say, can't wait to fall asleep in the king size bed.

Vienna, at least where we are, is full of pe-destrian areas. Lots of cafes outside, and everyone was out today on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We went out for a snack (pizza again!) . . .

and just wandered around to get our bearings. There are lots of museums and music-related things to do here, so check back to see what we discover.

I Met my Class Friday--Finally!

Sitting outside the Herna Nonstop, or as we say, Hernia Nonstop. Ha Ha. Enjoying the sunshine--almost forgot what it was like. Herna means Casino in Czech for those keeping score. They are everywhere. Usually it's just a bunch of slot machines. The one across the street from our apartment has a nice cafe and outdoor patio, so we decided to have a pivo in the sun!

I met my class yesterday--finally. For a 2 month trip, I'm not going to have many responsibilities here. 4 hours yesterday, 4 hours next Friday, and then a couple lecture in Krakow. My class consists of  9 Euroculture masters students, 6 of whom were in class yesterday. We were scheduled to begin at 9:00. We actually got started at 9:30 when 4 of them showed up--not bad. But we hung around longer than the scheduled ending time--they stiill wanted to talk. Imagine American students wanting to stay longer? Not really.

So, I'm teaching on intercultural communication as part of their required Eurocompetence course. Me--teaching intercultural communication to a group of students who have been doing intercultural communication since last September. They all speak English--the language of the program--and travel to a new Euroculture university each semester. They told me I would meet a couple students in Krakow who will be in Indiana next.

Meet my students, so far: Jessica from France who has already studied in Prague for a year. Felina from Belarus, Oresta from the Ukraine who has already sent me a draft of her thesis proposal for comment. She is the social coordinator of the group. Antonina from Poland, who is probably the most academically serious of the group. She is very insightful in her observations and isn't afriad to disagree with her colleagues. Nicola is from Italy--the only male in the class and unfortunately his English is the weakest. He doesn't seem to be able to follow along. And Aditi from India who is probably the most respectful of the group. Not that the rest aren't, but when I gave them a break, she wanted to know if she could bring me a coffee. They all thanked me afterward and I received an email of thanks too. Imagine.

So, we had a good discussion yesterday--they called it "guided talk." I had an outline prepared but we ended up skipping around because of where their comments took us. So they laughed at my overplanning and thanked me for allowing them to participate in "guided talk." I'm looking forward to our next "guided talk" next week.

Beware the stinky cheese

See that piece of cheese that doesn't really look like cheese but a dried or candied lemon wedge? Go on, look closer. It's hiding to the right of the triangle wedges. I'm only gonna say this once. Just leave it alone. Back away now. I made the mistake of touching and tasting it. Won't make that mistake again. The Czech Republic has some scarey damn cheese.

Czech Food: Part čtyři

We've been eating a lot of pizza here. Not sure why pizza is so prevalent, but the Czechs do something interesting with multi ingredient pizza. Let's say you order a 4 cheese pizza like we did yesterday for lunch. Instead of mixing up the cheese and sprinkling it over the entire pizza, they put one ingredient on a section of pizza. Here you can see the blue cheese section, the brie section, the parm section, and the Czech cheese section. And then peppers cover the top of course. They did the same thing the other night--a ham section, a basil section, etc. etc.

We've also been enjoying the salad. Usually we order a salad made of peppers, tomatos, cheese, cucumbers, and whatever else they want to throw on--maybe olives. Isn't it pretty, and colorful. It might be referred to as a Balkan salad, and it does remind me of the salads I'd get in Macedonia.

And there's not a day that goes by that we don't buy some kind of bread. Here is a shot of one of the cases. Before we leave, we are going to get a shot with the ladies at our favorite bakery. They know us and smile whenever we walk in and are good sports with our feeble attempts at pronouncing what we want.

Rainy Days and Wednesdays . . .

OK, I've had it. And if I'm losing patience, imagine how fun Mr. Crankypants is to be around :)

Today is at least day four in a row of rain. It might be more. I have to check what day it is about every 15 minutes. We still went out, this time to the Archdiocese Museum of Olomouc which is on the grounds of St. Wenceslas Cathedral. Since both my colleague Antonin and my translator Jana recommended we check it out, we decided to go.

So, we set out from our dreary apartment. Here is a picture from our windows of the lovely sun-less day. We took the tram up the street, always an adventure for an Indiana girl. We went one stop too far, of course, so we got off and got right back on another tram and went back to the right stop. We'll figure it out eventually. As we walked up to St. Wenceslas Cathedral, there was organ music playing, so we went inside and sat for a while. It was still raining. It was quite lovely and I think I read that St. Wenceslas catherdral has the largest pipe organ in Europe. Even if I'm making it up, it's a good story for now.

So, the archdiocese museum--today was free day. We didn't know that, so we saved a whole 50Kc each, which is $2.50 to you and me, kids. So we tried to splurge on the English audio thingys for a whole 20 Kc, but of course the woman couldn't get the English to work, only German. That would have been just as well. So, we walked in and the layout leaves something to be desired. Here's how it worked:

First, there's a giant heavy black closed metal door. We're Americans; we don't just walk through doors that look like they lead to a prison cell. But that was the entrance. We were told to go through and there was a woman in there who asked for our tickets--on free day. So we gave her our tickets and proceeded to walk back through 3 or 4 rooms of 700+ year old documents, books, jewels, carvings, statues, etc. Ok, something that was made in 1380 and you can touch it? That is pretty amazing. But we don't really know what we're looking at. So, we get to the end of the last room, and there's no where else to go. So, we backtrack, back to the first room, the door lady, the giant door. You see what's going on here? Not a great sense of flow.

Second part, this is sort of an excavated part that has ramps and stairs down, so you can see the original walls of the cathedral; the original building was consecrated in 1141. Anyway, more mysterious doors with elderly ladies pointing, smiling, and giving us their blessing to go ahead, so we did. At one point, we went the wrong way and they told us to go a different direction. After that, they sort of followed us around to make sure we saw everything. Literally, they kept an eye on us, opened doors for us, pointed us up or down stairs, around corners, until we reached the end of this section. And guess what? We had to backtrack again.

Final part, the paintings, dating from 1400+. Of course lots of dark colors. Here we had to wear slippers. Not sure why we had to wear slippers to look at room upon room of painting, but we did. And here they almost had the traffic flow thing figured out, but we still had to backtrack a bit to find the slipper lady and return our slippers. But why wasn't she wearing slippers. In fact, no one was, but us . . . joke's on us.

Thank goodness for this museum. I don't know how many elderly ladies are employed as door docents, but every door had a lady positioned, just waiting for some silly non-Czech speakers who didn't know the rules or how to navigate their way through a perfectly wonderful museum. And yes, we saw it all. They wouldn't let us leave until we went through every room. By that time, we were ready for a pivo. And it was still raining.

And then it was time for an espresso and chocolate.

And it was still raining.

Meeting the "Capitalist Infiltrated"

Ian and I had coffee today with my translator; today was the first time we've met her. We've only corresponded over email so far. She is a 62-year-old grandmother who was born in Olomouc, has permanent resident status in the U.S., and was labelled "capitalist infiltrated" in 1968. What an interesting life this woman has had, and what great stores she told us. Having lived through the various regime changes in her lifetime in this part of the world gives one incredible perspective.

I think I was most struck by her story of being a university student in the U.K. in 1968. She used the word "escape," that she was able to "escape" to the U.K. on a scholarship. However, had she emmigrated permanently, she was told that her family would be persecuted--especially her parents. They were teachers and they would not have been able to keep their jobs and would have a very hard life if she made the decision to leave. Her siblings similarly would have been in danger. And so she returned home, but in doing so was labelled "capitalist infiltrated." In other words, she had been exposed to ideas that would actively undermine the communist government and was a danger to society. She had trouble getting into school and finding work. However, her studies in medical ethics (interesting choice) preceded her and a faculty member at the Palacky University Medical faculty took her under his wing and she was able to continue her education and gain employment in the Medical faculty, where she worked until her retirement in 2004. She did research and published on linguistics, especially computer languages, and has great proficiency in languages--speaking at least 6 and understanding many more. Her latest language acquisition is Dutch. Now she does medical translation in her retirement. That's how I found her.

She is here in Olomouc for a long visit--but she can't stay here for more than 12 months at a time because she has permanent resident status in the U.S. So during the day she takes care of her 2-year-old granddaughter and her aging hunting dog and is in the process of writing a cookbook. She promised to send me some recipes! She is widowed twice. And I think she really enjoyed talking to us--two hours later we realized we should probably take our leave. She offered to show us around, take us on a train trip to see a nearby castle (a nearby castle!). And she told us where to get the best beer in Olomouc. Now that's my kind of capitalist infiltrated!

Saturday's Discoveries

The weather held out in spite of the forcasted rain and I talked Ian into doing some Olomouc siteseeing. So here are the three best discoveries of the day.

#3 Wenceslas Cathedral. The original building was built on the site in the 1100s. It has been built and rebuilt several times to reflect the architectural style of the age. The outside is amazing. Just imagine walking up the street and when you turn the corner around a building, this is the view that greets you:

Unfortunately the picture pales in comparison to the real thing. It really takes your breath away, especially if you're not expecting to see that around the corner.

We walked inside, and the windows are all huge stained glass, and there is intricate painting decorating the walls and ceiling. But the real view is from the outside.

Discovery #2: St. Michael's Church: This is just the opposite--very unassuming from the outside, but when you walk in you are struck by the huge gold front alter area. We didn't take any pictures, but you can see what I'm talking about here. Click on the video.

But that's not the only cool thing about St. Michaels. First, you can walk up the spiraling stone steps to the bell tower and stand within feet of the new bells which weigh somewhere around six tons, or so Ian tells me. From there you get a great view of Olomouc.

Then you'll want to find your way to the back of the church and go underneath. Legend has it, this is where Olomouc was founded--the top of the highest hill around a fresh water spring. The spring is still located under the church.

I'm apparently standing in the spot of the Roman encampment in front of the spring.

Discovery #1 Fast Food Stand: We live two minutes from the best gyros and fried cheese on the planet. Great spice. I won't need to eat dinner tonight.

Trying out this remote posting thing

If all mornings were like this, I might not have such a problem...

with this view from the window booth at Cafe Mahler.

Sent from my iPhone

Random Thought Thursday

I've temporarily lost the ability to sustain any sort of thought for any length of time. So, here are my random thoughts of the day:

1. Best line of the trip (so far):

Kristy [at Olomouc train station]: "Praha, první třídu, dvé jízdenky prosím."
Woman behind ticket window: "You want two tickets to Prague?"

2. Second best line of the trip:
Kristy [at pub]: "shopský salat prosím." [while pointing to the menu]
Waitress: "ne salat"
Kristy: "This salat then" [while pointing to another on the menu]
Waitress: "ne, no vegetables."
Apparently Anthony Bordain was right (see earlier post)

3. Best garlic soup of trip:

with cheese, egg and sausage, and it really had a great garlic flavor.

4. Best picture of garlic soup (notice the egg . . . Zach, look away)

5. Biggest beer of the trip (a full liter):

6. Best sausage stand of the trip:

and cheese

7. Scariest Children's Entertainment of the trip (Let's do the hokey pokey")

8. Scariest Adult Entertainment (see absinthe minded boy's post about laundry)

9. Favorite Prague picture of the trip (yes, we took it ourselves):

10. Favorite Olomouc picture of the trip so far (there is a model of the city in the main square):