Since I’m long overdue for a blog entry, I thought I’d start with our Christmas trip. But first I’ll give you all a quick update on my life so far: I’m still in Palma, Mallorca teaching English. I’m at the same school, same apartment, same everything as last year and it’s great. The people I work with are a really good group and they’ve taught me a lot about Mallorcan culture and the Spanish and Catalan languages.
This year I also decided to broaden my horizons and take a Catalan course. It’s just two nights a week for a couple of hours and so far it’s not too bad. It’s a little more relaxed than I would like, but we don’t have to memorize a bunch of verb conjugations either. I’m not sure if that is a high point or a low point.
Also new this year, I’m teaching an adult English class through a separate company here in Palma. It’s Monday evenings to a group of teachers at a local school. They’re intermediate level so they know quite a bit; I’m able to joke with them a little too, which is fun. The first day, when we talked about our weekends, one of the women asked me how to say “resaca” in English. Hangover. At least they’re not scared to ask questions.
I was also approached by the superintendant of our school to teach Infantil (ages 3-5) in a town called Campos. It’s about 45 minutes outside of Palma and it’s on Fridays. Goodbye three day weekends. I agreed and my first day was this past Friday. I work with a teacher who speaks English and basically we do crafts with them and I just talk like I would talk to any other preschooler. The only problem that I’ve had so far is they speak Catalan to me because the teachers only speak to them in that dialect so they assume that I speak it too. I don’t. It’s close enough to Spanish that sometimes I can figure out what they’re saying. I think it will be a good experience and I don’t work with Infantil in Palma so it’s something new.
Now on to our holiday trip. I didn’t make it back to the US this year for Christmas; instead Amanda; her sister, Paige; our friend, Neus; and I traveled around Eastern Europe for ten days. We started off in Budapest, Hungary for 4 days then bussed to Vienna, Austria for two and finished up in Prague, Czech Republic. It was a chilly trip, but, thankfully, there was no snow. We got really lucky, apparently, because this has been a very mild winter for that part of the world.
After almost a full day of traveling, we reached Budapest in the early evening. We found our hotel, set stuff down, and headed to dinner. One of my favorite things to do in new countries is check out the food situation for local grub. Typical dishes in Budapest (pronounced Bu-da-pesht) is goulash, but not the typical pasta dish that I was thinking. It’s more of a hearty soup/stew meal that has potatoes, pork cubes, vegetables, and lots of paprika. Budapest is known for paprika, which is used abundantly in many dishes and comes in two kinds: spicy and sweet. I like the spicy one better myself, probably because I’m deprived of a good fire in my mouth here in Palma.
The 27th was our first full day in Budapest, which we took full advantage of by heading out on a guided, walking tour of the city. The day was pretty terrible to be honest, weather-wise, as it was extremely foggy and cold. Wet cold. So about eight minutes into the walk we were complaining to each other about being cold.
The way the walking tour worked was it was free and then at the end, if you were impressed with the guides/information, you would tip accordingly. We’d done this before in Berlin and were very impressed. It’s nice because the guides are working for tips only and that usually makes the tour a lot more fun.
Budapest is divided into two sides: Buda and Pest. They used to be two different cities entirely but they merged some years ago. Pest is completely flat and known for its rich culture whereas Buda is very hilly and more industrial. Separated by the Danube River, the two are actually different tectonic plates; hence the difference in landscape.
Probably my favorite part of the tour was our guide pointing out a bronze statute of a little boy in what looked like an elf costume (tunic; large, pointed hat; and slippers) sitting on a railing by the river. He told us that the people of Budapest rub this child’s thighs for good luck; sure enough, the bronze was shining bright on the upper leg area of the statue. Extra bonus: the statue is a girl—the sculptor who created it wanted to include his son; hence the boyish charm. Yes, I rubbed his/her legs.
During World War II many Hungarian Jews were arrested and deported, however, a large number of them were taken to the river and drowned. The Nazis would make them remove their shoes before either shooting them or shoving them off the pier.
In commemoration of this incident, there is a memorial of different sorts of bronze shoes left in disarray on the riverbank.
The food here is delicious, it really gives Germany a run for its money. That, and it rivals portion-size in the US. Double bonus. One meal I ate goulash soup followed by beef/veal stuffed in cabbage served with cream sauce. Coupled with a few of local Hungarian beers, it was a dinner fit for kings. The next day we went to a restaurant for lunch where I ordered cream cheese (not Philadelphia cream cheese) soup with bacon accompanied by mushroom risotto. Both of these options were on the appetizer menu but were humongous! We found the food and lifestyle in general in Budapest to be very inexpensive; we always got a ton of food for a very reasonable price.
During the evening we ventured around the Christmas markets. Our guide had told us earlier in the afternoon that Budapest’s markets had won “Best of Year” in 2008 so, of course, we had to check them out. We saw a lot of handmade crafts and many food and beverage tents. One of my favorites was the kiosk that sold rum-spiked hot chocolate. It was rich and delicious; you couldn’t even taste the rum!
We left Budapest of the 30th to take a bus to Vienna, Austria. The bus was only about 2 hours, so it wasn’t that bad. We arrived in Vienna in the afternoon, checked into our hostel, and went to find coffee. We landed at this quaint café in the center of the city where I ordered coffee (which turned out to be a shot of espresso and sugar) and a pastry with a shit-ton of meringue. I guess I can’t get too used to my ‘cafes con leche’ (coffees w milk) that I have all the time in Palma. Though my dessert was meringue-laden, it didn’t destroy the taste of cookie and raspberry, thankfully.
After we put our stuff down in our hostel, we went to the Freud museum. We figured we had to use our time wisely in Vienna as we only had two days to fully appreciate the Austrian-ness of the city. Let the touring begin. The museum was Freud’s old apartment in the center of Vienna and it was a self-guided tour, which was nice because you could look through things at your own pace.
Later that night we decided to go to an opera. We were definitely underdressed, but it didn’t really matter as we got tickets last minute and were in the top most seats. In some aspects, the top was better; you didn’t have to worry about seeing over anyone’s head; but at the same time, we couldn’t really see in general. I got pretty lucky and was able to watch in between two peoples’ heads. The opera was only about an hour and a half long; it was in German so I couldn’t understand anything, but let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have been able to understand if they were singing in English.
The opera house was enormous and very beautifully decorated with frescoes and all sorts of statues and chandeliers.
The next day we went to the Royal Summer Palace. Most of it was close because it was winter, but the grounds were still nice to walk around. From the palace we walked around the city some more and saw the main squares of Vienna. We had a pretty short time in Austria but were able to spend New Year’s Eve there, which was fun, though there were way too many people in the plaza for my liking.
On January 1st we took a bus to Prague! I slept most of the way, it was about five hours, and was ready to be done traveling when we arrived in the Czech Republic. Amanda had organized a taxi pick-up for us when we got to the bus station (around 10:00 pm) but we waited for about ten minutes and the taxi wasn’t there. Luckily, there were other taxis waiting and we just grabbed one of them. We asked the driver before we got in if it would be about 10 euros for him to take us to our destination (we showed him the address) and he said, “Yes, 10 euros”. Perfect! Looks like this taxi worked out after all.
Well, we finally get to the street that our hotel is on, after the driver getting turned around a little bit in the city; and we get out and he says 20 euros. We tell him, no, you told us that it would be 10. No, no, 10 for going through the first plaza, 10 for the second. Hm… We all go to argue and then he starts yelling at us in Czech so we decide, whatever, to cut our losses and give him the 20 euros, the jackass.
Our hotel is a bit more of a nightmare. By the time we get there, it’s about 11:00 pm and we just want to go to bed. Well, there’s a sign on the door saying reception is closed that we have to go to some other hotel around the corner and get our keys for this hotel. Um…this is a little sketch. After we get our keys, we’re able to get to our room, which is a dingy disaster, to put it lightly. Amanda and Paige’s sheets/pillows looked dirty, there were still used dishes from another tenant, and just overall, it looked very grimy. All we wanted to do was shower. And not get a disease…
We spent one night at the “hotel” and the next morning found new lodging. It was successful as we found another hotel across the street for a similar price.
Prague is home to the oldest working Astrological clock, said to be made in 1410. It’s very impressive. On the hour it rings and the 12 disciples march around while a tiny skeleton ticks the hours. The four figures flanking the sides of the clock represent undesired characteristics during the time period when the clock was made: vanity (symbolized by a woman holding a mirror), greed (a man holding a bag of money), death (obvious reasons), and pleasure (a man playing an instrument). I’m not sure why the last one was a ‘despised quality’, but he’s next to ‘death’ so we’ll go with it.
The next stop on our tour was the Dorotheum; a large music hall that had four musicians’ statues on top of it: Mozart, Handel, Bach, and Beethoven. It used to have other people but the Nazis knocked most of them down. They were originally supposed to find the Jewish composers and only push their busts off the roof but they didn’t know which ones to choose. In the end, they craftily thought that the one with the biggest nose would be the Jew. It turned out to be Hitler’s favorite composer; he was Austrian and not Jewish…
We continued walking around the city on our tour. I really like the guided walking tours because you usually see things that you wouldn’t see on your own. And there’s not getting lost in the city and having to whip out a map. We visited another sculpture made by Czech artist, David Cerny, who is known for creating the unusual. One of his sculptures is a bunch of black babies crawling up the TV tower in Prague, another is Freud hanging by his hand from a pole in the center of town, and the last is what we visited: two urinating men.
According to our guide, these two men are Hitler and Stalin urinating on the Czech Republic (the area they’re standing in is the outline of the country). You used to be able to send a text message to a phone number by the statues and they would pee your message. Now they just write quotes from famous Czech residents.
Our next stop was the John Lennon Wall. It’s just a large wall in central Prague that is filled with graffiti of messages of love, peace, and songs from the Beatles. It’s the only wall in Prague that can be graffitied and the designs change almost daily. It’s funny to see the wall next to it, as it’s completely blank. If the security cameras catch you painting the wall next to the Lennon Wall, have to do hours of community service and clean the wall that you painted. Just paint the Lennon Wall…
After the Lennon Wall, we ventured through Old Town Prague. Our guide told us that many people long ago used to be illiterate, to the point that they couldn’t recognize street addresses and house numbers. To solve this problem, people put a symbol above their doors; so instead of living at number 23, you would live at the house with violins. Some of them are very intricate, like this Medusa:
Marionette puppets are very popular here; there are a ton of shops with all different kinds of them. Some are people, witches, dragons, Harry Potter, you can pretty much find anything you want. They reminded me of The Sound of Music when Maria and the kids put on a puppet show for the Captain.
We also found a lot of places that sold Matryoshka dolls. I asked a woman if they were typically from Prague, as I’d always thought of Russia. She said, no, they’re Russian, but there are a lot of Eastern European immigrants to Prague and they bring these dolls with them. Some stores we walked past just sold these dolls and the entire store would be filled with them in all different sizes. I really wanted one, but I think that’s the type of thing you need to purchase from the country of origin. I guess I’ll just have to go to Russia!
As many of you have heard me complain, there’s not a Starbucks on the island of Mallorca. At all. Now, at home, this doesn’t really bother me because I don’t go to Starbucks that often or if I’m in the mood for coffee I go to local coffee shops around us. However, the whole fact that I can’t have it makes me want it so when we travel one of the first things I Google is if there is a Starbucks even remotely close to where we’ll be. Lucky for me, there were Starbucks in ALL THREE CITIES! I managed to hold myself back until Prague, because, let’s be honest, it isn’t even that great of coffee, BUT I needed my seasonal peppermint latte. Which I got, though it wasn’t in its normal red holiday cup. I guess you can’t have everything in life.
By the time our ten days were over, I was ready to go home. Or at least not have to wear four layers. I forgot how much of a hassle it is to go inside and take off your hat, coat, scarf, gloves, etc. Not to mention, I looked like that little kid in A Christmas Story when he can’t put his arms down properly because he’s in a snowsuit. Palma has really softened me to the elements of winter.
We arrived back in Palma on the 5th of January and had a few days to relax before heading back to school. We had a great trip and it was really fun to see three places that I’d never been before.
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