I woke up this morning to a howling the wind. It was the
kind that whistles down the streets and makes window panes vibrate as it blasts
through.
Late last night, as I was getting into bed, I’d gotten a
note from Karel (the Czech student who studied at my university last semester)
inviting me to join him and a guest of his at the Castle to watch the changing
of the guard ceremony at noon. I told him I’d love to and he sent me directions
to meet him at a statue of Tomas Masyrk just outside of the Grand Courtyard.
I got up and caught the 9 over to the castle, giving myself
about 50 minutes to get there. Everything was going smoothly until the tram
came to the sixth or seventh station. After everyone got on, it just didn’t move.
This happens occasionally when the tram is ahead of schedule or one of the
other lines is behind schedule. Normally, it only takes a few seconds or a
minute to correct. This time, we just kept sitting there.
Soon, a few police cars with their lights on pulled up
alongside the tram. A few officers got out and walked around the tram. I couldn’t
see exactly what they were doing. I don’t know if they got on the other tram
car or not. The conductor opened the doors and announced something in Czech. I’m
assuming he told people they could get off if they wanted. Some did while
others remained seated; a few others just walked about the car.
After about ten minutes or so, the doors closed suddenly. A
man who had stepped outside for a cigarette shoved his foot in the door so his
bag would not depart on the tram without him. We continued down the line from
that point, but by the time I made it to the station to transfer to the 22, it
was already the time I was supposed to meet Karel. By the time I got to the
castle, I could hear the trumpets signaling that the ceremony had started.
Walking into the main courtyard, I had the same matrixed
view I’d had last time. I noticed however that there was a small passage
through the castle wall. Squeezing through it, I found myself in the Grand
Courtyard where the ceremony was taking place. I still couldn’t see a thing
through the wall of people, but the music was spectacular.
I saw the statue of Tomas Masyrk just across the street. On
a whim, I walked over to see if I could find Karel but I didn’t. Since my last
trip the castle had skipped this courtyard, I’d missed the amazing view of
Malastranska. I took a few pictures of it, before returning to the crowd to see
if I could find Karel.
Tourists really are a unique species. Since no one in the crowd
could really see over anyone else, they all had this same idea to just lift
their cameras over their heads, push the buttons, and see what they captured. I
decided to give it a try. I raised my camera, pushed the button, and lowered it
to see a shiny picture of a bald man’s head.
I tried a few more times and actually got some decent
photos. I also got a great shot of the marine band performing out of some of
the windows overhead.
When the ceremony ended, I still couldn’t find Karel in
crowd. Having already spent a few cold, windy days at the castle, I decided to
head back to town for lunch.
The first restaurant I found in Malastranska had a great
menu but the prices were almost doubled what I’d been paying elsewhere. I
decided my cheapest bet would be to go back to the Easter festival in Old Town.
Walking towards the Charles Bridge, I had an idea. I’d
brought my GoPro with me to try and film the ceremony. I figured I could still
capture a video while I was out. The Charles Bridge was normally crowded and
filled with atmosphere (not to mention the beautiful statues and great views)
so I decided to try and capture some of that excitement on film.
I will try to get the video online soon. It is my first and
it is definitely a little rough. In watching the footage back, I found that not
only was the wind very loud, but my breathing sounded like the respirations of
a dirty phone call. I dubbed most of it with music to drown out the sound
effects however, my fingers occasionally made guest appearances on camera.
It turned out to be a rather light day on the bridge, but footage
of one street performer actually turned out quite well. I’ve seen him almost
every time I’ve been to the bridge and every time he’s playing a different
handmade instrument. This time, it was
champagne glasses filled with water and gold coins. He played them by dipping
his fingers in hot water and then sliding them across the rims of the glasses.
It’s pretty impressive to watch.
After I crossed the bridge, I walked into town, dodging tour
groups (who are becoming increasingly popular and annoying.) At the festival in
Old Town, I looked for something to eat. I found one woman grilling some food I
didn’t recognize and went up to order one. She asked if I wanted it “traditional
or plain.” I ordered traditional.
It turned out to be literally grilled cheese. She was
grilling the slices of cheese, and then putting them on a single slice of bread
with jelly. It tasted amazing! The bread was heavy and definitely of a whole
wheat variety. The cheese was very rich and bitter. The jelly was a sweet,
berry aftertaste that completed the blend.
Noting the time, I remembered I had an appointment with
Katerina (the study abroad coordinator) in an hour. I started heading over to
Wenceslas to catch the tram so I could print my forms before I met with her.
At school, printing was a whole new adventure. I remembered
how Zuzana taught me to load money onto my account for printing (an ATM like
machine in the corner of the computer lab that I swiped my ID card and then
added coins to.) I also figured out how to log in as a guest student to the
network. Those things had made me nervous, but they were easy compared to the
rest of the process.
The entire format of the computers was in Czech. Word, Excel, the Internet…everything was in
Czech. I played guessing games using familiar icons to navigate to my Hotmail account.
Logging in was another challenge since the European keyboard in different. “Y”
and “Z” are switched. This wouldn’t be that difficult for most people, but most
of my usernames tend to include a “Z” or two.
Additionally, the symbols on the top row above
the numbers are not present on European keyboards. I wasn’t sure how to type
the “@” symbol for my email address.
I felt like MacGyver when I came up with a solution. Opening
word, I clicked around to figure out how to insert a symbol. Scrolling through
the symbol library, I inserted a “@” sign. Then, using ctrl+c, and ctrl+v…I copied
it into the field.
I printed the forms I needed, and realized that my next
mistake was forgetting to bring a pen to fill them out. Using my iPod, I looked
up and saved the information I needed to complete the form. I then went up to
Katerina’s office, where I borrowed a pen to complete it.
She signed it and notarized it, and kept a photo copy for
her records. Now, I just need to figure out how to scan it back to school.
Back at the dorms, I started working on editing the video. I
had to stop after about 30 minutes to go work with my group on our supply chain
project. This presented more technical dilemmas when I knew how to use Excel,
but their laptops were all in Swedish. Together, we played guessing games of
how the formulas would work.
After working on it for about 3 hours, we decided to re-meet
on Monday before class to finish it up. I returned to my room to make dinner and
continued working on the project. The changes I’d made before hadn’t saved, so
I started over. After about half an hour, when my soup was ready, so I stopped
to Skype my friend James. After trying to call each other several times, we found that the calls couldn’t get through. When I Skyped my parents later in the evening, I found that I had the same problem. It just wasn’t my day.
I finished editing my video and got it saved to YouTube (I will link to the blog at some point…my internet has been having problems and keeps shutting down when I try to set up the link. I wound up uninstalling and reinstalling Skype, and finally got through to my family. I talked with each of my parents before heading to bed.
As we hung up from chatting, and I started closing the files on my laptop, I noticed on my calendar that today is the 1/3 mark of my trip! It has FLOWN by! The next "third" is goind be exciting, with trips lined up for the next five weekends.
Off to Berlin in the morning…can’t wait to share the stories with you when I get back!
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