Holland: Feb 20-21 (Carnival!!)

Here is the first of the Holland updates!

After getting back from Prague on Sunday night, Tiny and I organized our stuff and hopped on a plane the next morning to the Netherlands! Everything went pretty smoothly, except that our Graz to Munich plane was late, so we had to run to catch our connecting flight to Amsterdam. Nothing like speed-walking from one end of the terminal to the other to get your dose of daily exercise!

Once in Amsterdam, we caught a train to Roermond, a small city in the south of Holland. It took us a couple of hours, but we had lovely views of the countryside flashing by. Tried to get some decent pictures, but the train speed gave me some unexpected effects…

Tiny & Teddy! Click to enlarge.

The seats were so comfy...:-D

Leaving Amsterdam.

Tiny was in Holland 2 ½ years ago, and stayed with a number of host families over 6 weeks. We stayed with two of them on this trip, and they really made us feel at home. Thank you! The first night, we had a big dinner with the S family. Their two kids had friends over and it was so nice to get to know everyone.

The following morning, we got ready to celebrate Carnival! Carnival is a crazy celebration that occurs in the three days in February. People dress up and go to parties, celebrating the last few days before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Catholic season of Lent. We got access to a whole collection of different facepaints, and I was given permission to do whatever I wanted with Tiny’s face! (Well, she is my roommate, so there were some limitations on the creative license…;-) This was the finished product (I did my own face too):

Purple is her colour!

Any kids in Calgary willing to
sit still when I get back??? :-D

 Our faces, however, were nothing compared to our host’s:

Our host getting her face done.

Her daughter had fun spraying the glitter on their faces!

Just Tiny & me...again. :-D

In Roermond, we saw some really crazy costumes! And awesome face paint. I think some people sprayed it on, it was so smoothly applied. At the end of the afternoon we watched them drop the “prince” into the water, signifying the end of Carnival. (The prince is actually just a dummy – nobody got wet!)

In the streets of Roermond.

The church.

Interesting wall we passed by.

Carnival bar! Crazy streamers.

 

 

 

 

 

The prince was thrown off this bridge.
It would be pretty cold for a real prince!

Back to School!

Wow! Two posts in one day! I feel productive. Please check out my last Prague post below this one (Feb 18-19) – I put up new pictures. Holland will also be updated in the next week...ish...so please, stay tuned! J

After reading about all my travel posts, you may wonder when I ever go to school here. ;-) I am happy to say that most of my classes have started up this week, and I’m really excited for this semester! I have three philosophy courses, one German language course, a geography course (digital terrain modeling), a course on the aesthetics of the Alps, and a geology/paleontology field course.

Today, I had my Phil course on Locke’s “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” It’s a seminar, so there should be lots of discussion with our small class size. One of the new Canadian exchange students, C (from Calgary!), is also taking the same class. We met up with Tiny and another new friend from the Netherlands to have lunch today. I got a LARGE Almdudler. J

This afternoon didn’t go quite so swimmingly. I had my digital terrain modeling course, but this one is in German. You really come to appreciate the challenge of taking content courses in another language when you try it out for yourself. While I did get a bit of the material our prof was talking about, whole sections went right over my head. I only realized we had to do an exercise when everyone collectively ripped out sheets from their notebooks and started drawing a topographic representation of a mountain photograph. It’s a pretty startling experience, feeling at a complete loss for what to do… Fortunately, he explained the concept a bit further and drew a picture on the board, and my other course knowledge kicked in so that I could actually draw something half decent. But I’ll be asking a lot of questions for this one, I think. Quite a lot of the reading is in English, actually, so I think I should be ok, it’ll just be getting used to the lecture.

Afterwards, I went to the big bookstore in Graz, Moser, and sat in a chair for a while, looking at all the lovely books they’ve got there. It’s a dangerous place. They have so many great titles…and quite a few in English! But I really shouldn't buy too many books over here... ;-)

I bought balsamic vinegar today, too. A new ingredient for our next experiment!

Prague: Feb 18-19 (Walking, Cafés, Synagogue)

Feb 18: In the morning, we did lots of walking. We visited the Charles Bridge again, where we perused lots of jewellery and artwork. It was a very relaxed day, just playing things by ear and taking LOTS of pictures. We saw lots of Czech garnets . Some people were dressed up for Carnival, as well – colourful Renaissance costumes, masks, and painted mustaches. ;-)

The whole gang! Click to enlarge.

P & E.

One of the synagogues. The Jewish cemetery is behind.

View of the castle.

Charles.

Garnets!

P on the Charles Bridge.

Prague has many really interesting cafés, so when lunch approached, we headed over to the Café Slavia. Opened in 1881, it was a popular meeting place for artists and intellectuals. Very fancy, although not all guests seemed to agree with the non-smoking sign…;-) My coffee was truly a work of art. I never knew mint would be such a delicious addition…

Cafe Slavia.

Examining the menu...

Mint coffee!

Just Tiny & me. :-)

We also visited a market near the centre where we found lots of Czech souvenirs. Many were quite commercialized, but there were some beautiful hand-made items. Painted eggs, artwork…I fell in love with some of the wooden boxes they were selling and brought one back with me. J

Some food-related shots:

Very nice informal cafe. I did a lot
of writing here before the others arrived.

Waiting for supper.

Czech beer!

I liked the dark stuff. :-)

Feb 19: Our last day in Prague! We decided to visit the Jewish Quarter. There are a lot of really fascinating museums, but since we didn’t have so much time, we only went to the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Europe! It was completed in 1270 and is still active today. One interpreter was very informative and answered all our questions. The entrance has a molding design with twelve vines and grapes to symbolize the tribes of Israel. There was a beautiful curtain hung in front of the Torah ark (a kind of ornamental closet), which contains the Torah scrolls (the first five books of the Jewish Bible). The ark is placed against the eastern wall – the closest wall to Jerusalem.

The Old-New Synagogue.

Another synagogue down the street.

The Old Jewish Cemetery. I'll have to come back
to see it another time. :-)

According to legend, in the late 16^th century the chief rabbi of Prague created a human-like creature out of clay. This was called the Golem, and became animated to protect the Jewish people against anti-Semitic attacks. When the persecution stopped, the rabbi deactivated the creature. However, its remains are said to be stored in the attic of the synagogue, waiting to be brought back to life at the next hour of need.

Interesting building down the street.

Back of Old-New Synagogue -
see the rungs of the ladder to the attic?

 Just before leaving, we stopped by a rustic cellar café/pub. It was SO cool! Even the bathrooms! ;-)

Hot chocolate.

An accordion for decor.

The bathroom...;-)

Prague: Feb 17 (Strahov Monastery)

Just wanted to say thanks to S from choir who posted a really nice comment a few days ago. Seeing "Die Moldau" in person was really awesome - so often you hear music without ever being able to see what inspired it. And thanks for following my blog! :-)


Visited the Strahov monastery today. I decided to walk through the park to get there. “It’ll be good exercise,” I thought, “and I can probably skirt around that enormous hill.” Well…45 minutes later, I was there…but not after climbing straight up the hill. Carrying all my things. However, I got an unparalleled glimpse of the city from above…:-D


(Some of the pictures are a bit dark, but if you click on them, you can enlarge them and get a better view.)

Walking through the park (after the hill! ;-) Click to enlarge.

Someone on the path was nice enough to take a photo for me.

The city of Prague.

The Strahov Monastery.

Passing through the gate.

The library!!! :-)

 After taking about a million shots of the city and the monastery from the outside, it was time to tour the library. J Anyone who knows me well has probably picked up on the fact that I’m rather taken with medieval manuscripts. This probably has something to do with the fact that I’m slightly obsessed with calligraphy…I don’t really want to know how much I’ve spent to date on pens and inks. ;-) Anyway, they had some original manuscripts on display AND they allowed non-flash photography! Other highlights were the cabinets of curiosities and the library rooms themselves, which we could look into from the hall.

One of the manuscripts.

Close-up.

The library.

This was really cool. Each book is a guide to a particular tree. Guess what the spine is made of? The bark from the tree the book is about! You can still see the lichen...:-)

I had never seen this before -
a music score with a drawing of the
monastery itself in the first letter!

One of the cabinets of curiosities.

Shells.

Afterwards, I visited the monastery’s brewery, where they make their own beer! It’s really delicious! I also had a sausage and mustard while I worked on my paper (miraculously, they had a power outlet right beside my table…). It was very nice to stay there, away from the cold, until I met up with E, P, Tiny, and P’s mother, who came to meet me later that night.

Ornamental door.

Gate looking outwards.

I took WAY too many photos. :-)

Mass was being held here later that evening.

FOOOOOOOD!!! (Are you surprised? ;-)

The bad news was that rest of the crew had a rather challenging trip getting to Prague. It’s a difficult city to navigate, so they were pretty hungry by the time we met up. The good news was that we went to a great restaurant where we tried traditional Czech cuisine. I got beef svíčková (beef in cream sauce with cranberries and dumplings), which was really awesome. The great part about dining out with friends is that you get a chance to sample everything! J

Monastery by night.

Tiny and E!

P & his mom!

Another food pic. My supper. :-)