Prague and Berlin

Prague, Czech Republic:

Prague is a popular study abroad destination at DU, so I had heard many great things about the city. They weren't wrong! Prague is another one of those cities that feels like a fairy tale because it was the seat of the Bohemian kingdom in Medieval times. Also notably, the beer is super cheap. There are several castles in Prague, one of which was visible out the window of my hostel - Prague Castle itself. As luck would have it, there was a tour departing for Prague Castle departing just a few hours after I arrived!

Little did I know that the four-plus hour long "Castle Tour" did not actually go through the castle - we merely meandered toward the castle while our quirky tour guide gave the most thorough yet cynical account of a city I've ever heard. I'm not sure whether to call the level of detail painstaking or painful, to be honest. The only tidbit I remember at this point is that if you look above the doorways in Prague, you can see symbols which indicate who traditionally lived and operated business there. In a time when most of the population was illiterate, trades were concentrated in one part of the city so they would be easy to find. All people of that profession would have the same symbol over their door - for example, tailors would have scissors. In his rather extensive and detailed account of Czech/Bohemian history, our tour guide railed against religion as the greatest evil of all time and blamed it for all of the country's wrongs. Granted, the religious history of the region is full of strife, and religious factions were responsible for a lot of conflict. However, I remember my skin crawling with discomfort at the bile in his voice as he spat against religion.

Our tour guide praised David Cerny, a Czech artist who is responsible for bizarre statement pieces including giant metal babies climbing the TV station skyscraper in Prague, and for floating this beauty down the river in Prague when he was pissed off at the politicians:

Photo credit: Michal Cizek/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Cerny sculptures, and the leashed together roaming terrors (description to come)

(if you want to see more of Cerny's work, follow this link)

He took us to one of the oldest pubs in Prague, where the group sat down and drank beers for a good long time. This was actually pretty cool, if drawn out. He pointed out to us the brewery where the Czech claim that Pilsner was invented, although the Germans argue that they invented the Pilsner.

A very old pub

The icing on the cake is that he brought his two little dogs which he leashed to each other but not to him, and they ran all over in tandem and caused trouble. And, the grand finale: after hours of walking, we arrived at the edge of the castle, where he told us that we could wait in line to go into the castle on our own, without him. At this point I had become friends with the other people from the hostel, and we laughed at the absurdity of it all.

In Prague, I was also delighted to meet up with my friends Ian and Grace, who are Americans living in Prague. I met them in a castle in Romania, of all places. Ian's sister Molly was in town for the week, so I got to meet her as well (and got to meet up with her later in London, although that is a different story)! To make up for the awful walking tour I did the day before, we took one of my favorite walking tours ever with a guy named David Christof. Not only is he immensely knowledgeable about the city of Prague and Czech history, but he started a non-profit called Water is Life where he runs marathons and ultra-marathons to raise money to provide clean drinking water in impoverished areas.

Ian, Molly, and I got lunch in a neat basement tavern which served fantastic Czech food, and clearly just stuck a fresh candle on each burnt-down candle:

That afternoon, I waited to see the famous astrological clock of Prague. Some tourist websites have called it the world's most overrated attraction, but if you consider that it was built in the early 1400's, it was very advanced for that time. It features:
-a show on the top of the hour, with dancing puppet-like figures of the 12 Disciples and some of the Catholic church's least favorite sins
-Rotating Zodiac dials showing the position of the sun
-Rotating calendar showing traditional "name days" (each day of the year had a few names assigned to it)

We also saw the John Lennon wall, which locals began painting during the Soviet occupation to express their ideals:

And some swans:

And the night lights:



In case you're wondering, yes, I did make a point of listening to Bohemian Rhapsody on the bus ride out of Prague, even though Queen refers to a different Bohemian.


Berlin, Germany:

Berlin was a sobering city for me. It was a bit disorienting to be in a European city that is so... new. Most of the city was destroyed by WWII bombings and had to be re-built. Gleaming skyscrapers and ultramodern storefronts dominate the western, formerly Ally-controlled side of the city, whereas the formerly Soviet eastern side features dreary no-nonsense concrete-block apartments and offices. The dark recent history was just so palpable.

Trabant (Soviet issue cars)

One of the few old buildings in Berlin, and the Soviet TV tower

My first day in town I wanted to do a free walking tour, but decided to take a chance and do one in Spanish. Seems like a perfect way to practice, right? It had been a while since I spoke in Spanish, so it came out super rusty. The tour guide glared at me and curtly stated, "Look, you should just take the English tour. There is a lot of information, and I speak very quickly, and I don't have time to answer a lot of questions." I never back down from a challenge, so I considered swearing at him in perfectly offensive, correct Spanish, but instead just looked him straight in the eyes and said that I'd be fine. The guide was a Spaniard, but I can't help but think that he selected Berlin as home because he identified with the German efficiency and bluntness. Anyway, I understood a full 90% of what he said, despite his strong Spanish accent and incredibly quick pace, and only had to ask him one question during a break. I think I earned the man's respect!

An interesting theme in the tour was the way in which Germany deals with its recent, dark history. One stop on the tour was in a parking lot outside an office building, which was the former site of the entrance to Hitler's secret underground bunker. The German government decided that they did not want to glorify or memorialize such an evil man in any way, nor did they want to create a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis, so the place is a run-of-the-mill parking lot. It is a strong statement via erasure, negation.

Site of Hitler's secret bunker

Conversely, the site of the former SS headquarters is now a museum called the Topography of Terror, which in detail describes the people who worked there and the plans which were orchestrated from that site. It's not an easy building to visit, but certainly important - I chose to go there on my own after the tour. A headquarters would be too public to merely erase, so instead a very honest museum was built on the grounds.

Also during the tour, we visited a memorial near the Humboldt University campus to commemorate the book burning which occurred in that location. There is a glass plate set among the cobblestones in the courtyard, and looking down, you can see a series of empty bookshelves - pretty self-explanatory.

One benefit of doing the Spanish-speaking tour is that I met Angelo, another solo traveler from southern Chile (which, of course, is why I struck up a conversation with him). When the tour ended, he and I ate some currywurst, which was my favorite Berlin street food - a sliced up sausage covered in hot ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder, served with a mound of french fries. Then we went and explored Museum Island, which is perhaps the neatest thing about Berlin. Museum Island is a collection of massive buildings, which quite frankly put the Smithsonians to shame. Apparently Germans have been highly interested in foreign and ancient cultures for a long time, and have methodically acquired many antiquities. For example, in one of the museums, they completely reconstructed a wall from ancient Babylon:

This was a palace wall, and it only takes up part of a wing in the museum

Yep, that's a mummy

Yep, that's a famous sarcophagus - and I got in trouble for taking this blurry photo 

I enjoyed my first walking tour of Berlin so much that I decided to do another which focuses on "Red Berlin", or the history of Berlin during the Soviet occupation in the eastern half of the city. We were a brave group - the skies began drizzling, and eventually pouring, freezing rain. No one complained, and none bailed out early. We were in it together, to learn something. Yes, we did in fact visit the Berlin wall memorial, and learn about the many people who died crossing it. The wall was built practically overnight and without announcement, meaning that countless Berliners were separated from families and friends for years. Parents couldn't get home to children, lovers never reunited, extended families were torn apart. As it was being built, a few East Berliners literally jumped out of windows onto mattresses on the streets below. Once the wall was built, it was difficult to escape. "The wall" may not be a correct term, insofar as it was actually a wall on one side, then a courtyard filled with sand and lined with sniper towers, and finally a wall on the other side - it was more of a strip. At the memorial, we saw a few sections of the original wall, and could peer at a short reconstruction to see what the original wall might have looked like. One of my favorite stories was a successful escape for 57 people through a tunnel dug under an abandoned bakery - they filled up flour sacks with dirt as they dug their way deep below and across the wall.

Memorial to those who died crossing the Berlin Wall

Part of the Berlin Wall

Speaking of tunnels, the subways were constructed before Berlin was split in two, and some of the routes crossed between the Western and Eastern halves of the city. Thus, some of the Eastern subway stops were walled closed, and the subways continued to hurtle past them. Armed guards waited along the tunnels to make sure that no one tried to get on or off a train.

I'll leave you with one other fun fact about eastern Berlin. To this day, it has a reputation of being home to the artists, the hippies, and the dreamers, as opposed to the industrious, hard-working western side. For a while there were quite a few abandoned buildings on the East side of the city because most jobs were in the west after the wall fell, so the government said that anyone who lived in a building could become its owner. This is no longer the case, but there are still commune-style communities where the rent is very low, so long as the tenants perform some type of regular community service, such as cooking dinner for the poor.

Nowadays, Berlin is perhaps most famous for its clubs. Clubbing in Berlin can be a multi-day long experience - people will go and not leave for days. You can party at essentially any time of day, if you're hard-core. I'm not, but I was curious to go out. I found a group of guys from my hostel who were going out, and decided to chance going with them since I really didn't want to go alone. Good thing I'm able to take care of myself, because I almost got lost from the group and they're pretty sketchy dudes. The club we went to was dark and loud, and just as I was starting to get into the music and enjoy dancing, one of the guys found me and I took him home because he was in a bad state. Never a bad thing to store up some karma, and pay forward the kind friends and strangers who have helped me when I've been in a bad way.

Budapest and Krakow

Budapest, Hungary:

Budapest will always stand out in my memory for the wonderful people I met, more than anything else! My hostel roommate Kaytie and I both arrived in town the same night, and we instantly connected, on a profound level. We also made friends with Sean (American) and Harry (Australian). We spent hours just chatting, and laughing until I could hardly breathe.

Another memorable thing about Budapest is the food! Oh my goodness, Hungarians know how to cook.

Beef goulash, with goulash soup

Chicken paprikash

Hungarians have a distinct and long-lived ethnic identity. They descend from the Magyar people, who have been living in Hungary since the 9th century. Their history is also unique in that they have hardly been independent in centuries - they were ruled by the Ottomans, the Austrians, and the Soviets, with only fleeting moments of independence until the last few decades. Budapest is unique in that it originally was two cities, not one - Buda was on one side of the Danube river, and Pest was on the other. About 150 years ago, the two cities were connected by bridges and unified into one. This facilitated its role as the capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire. 

Buda (left) and Pest (right)

Yes, I did sometimes learn things on free walking tours!

Beautiful church - this style of roof became very popular in this region of Europe after it was put on this church

I call this one "sunbather"

Mid-run selfie, with the statue representing liberty

Budapest has a storied past, but it also feels quite modern. Hipster culture is notable. Every corner you go around, there is a well-decorated restaurant with a quirky theme and a creative menu, or a public art display, or a ruin bar. Ruin bars are perhaps the hardest to describe, coolest concept for a bar that I've ever seen. Basically, someone took an abandoned warehouse, and filled it with the most random and somewhat dilapidated pieces of furniture and decoration. If it's weird, it's going in the bar. They're open all day and much of the night. Kaytie and I went to Szimpla, the original and most famous ruin bar, but there are many others in the city as well. Below is the one photo I got that didn't turn out too grainy - if you want a better idea of the absurd wonderfulness that is Szimpla, look at these Google image results. Whilst at the bar, we sampled pálinka, the traditional Hungarian spirit. It was supposed to be fruit flavored, but it literally tasted like drinking nail polish remover - this stuff is strong.

Some things in Budapest are a lovely mix of old and new, most famously the bathhouses. Budapest is situated among many natural hot springs, and it also has a Turkish heritage, so of course bathhouses are a central aspect  of social life, even today. I chose to visit one of the oldest and most beautiful bathhouses. Upon arriving, I left my things in a locker, changed, and walked out to soak with a few hundred friends.

I can't write about Budapest without writing about the tangible effects of World War II. This beautiful museum was absolutely destroyed, and had to be rebuilt.

Then there's the Shoes on the Danube memorial. In 1944-45, the militia lined Jewish families along the Danube and opened fire, allowing the bodies of the murdered to fall into the river. In 2005, an artist commemorated these Holocaust victims by sculpting 60 pairs of shoes, one for each year that had passed since the massacre. The shoes are clearly from 40's-era fashion, and there are shoes belonging to men, women, and children. It was chilling to stand beside the shoes. Some of them have an untied lace, or a tongue sticking up to one side, forcing you to consider just how alive these victims were, and how their tragic deaths caught them right in the middle of their vibrant and ordinary lives. Seeing this memorial was just the beginning of a couple heavy weeks for me, as I continued seeing the effects of WWII on Eastern and Central Europe.

Krakow, Poland:

I know that I've said this about a few of the places that I went, but truly, Krakow is like a fairy tale come to life. The streets were so charming, and I truly enjoyed walking around.

I like to call this one "Juxtaposition: Which is the Anachronism?"

Pope selfie! Pope John Paul II was from Krakow

One of my favorite things about Krakow was the Wawel castle. Inside they serve Wawel chocolate, which I think is well-known throughout Poland. I was feeling particularly homesick this day, so maybe that was a factor in really needing something comforting, but I think this hot chocolate was among the best I've ever had. It was so thick that you had to eat it with a spoon, and it came with little chunks of hazelnut inside and a generous whipped cream topping. Delightful. Also within the large castle complex is the Wawel cathedral, where most of Poland's kings and other dignitaries have been buried for centuries. I didn't feel that I was classy enough to be inside, but it was kind of cool to see such famous dead people that I had never heard of. Best of all, though, was the dragon cave under the castle! There are several myths, which you can read here if you're curious, but all relate to the idea that a dragon once lived in this cave and had to be conquered.

Wawel Cathedral

The dragon cave

A dragon statue outside the mouth of the cave that breathes real fire on the hour

As charming as it was, Krakow was also a really difficult part of the trip. Part of the reason I chose to go to Krakow was to engage with the Holocaust in a meaningful way, since Poland was one of the countries which suffered the most during WWII. While in town, it seemed nothing could go smoothly. For example, I was still trying to get over a cold, and I had been unknowingly using gluten-containing cough drops for about a while at this point, meaning that I had recurrent stomach cramps so sharp I could hardly breathe. I got really lost the first day, and spent way too much time walking and trying to figure out the public transportation system. In a weird way I appreciated the setbacks I experienced, because compared to all of the human suffering I was drinking in, my own issues seemed completely trivial. My own slight taste of physical pain and confusion reminded me of the unfathomable pain of others.

My first day in town, I went to the Schindler's Factory. Yes, the Schindler from Schindler's List - the one who saved Jews by hiring them for his factory. I had a difficult time finding the factory, because it is off in an industrial part of town (which makes sense, obviously). When I got there, the line was enormous - a good thing, because it means lots of people are observing and remembering, but also tough because it was a really cold day to spend a few hours to stand waiting outside. Again, makes you think about how terrible it must have been to endure a death camp during the winter, with far less adequate clothing.

Pots produced by Schindler's factory

Schindler's office

Schindler's office is still preserved and is pretty close to its original state, but the rest of the factory has been transformed into an experiential journey to Poland, circa 1930's and 1940's. There are photos, videos, songs, and letters from the era with firsthand accounts of the hope and optimism people had felt after WWI, the initial disbelief and subsequent horror when Hitler rose to power and took Poland, and the struggle of occupancy and war. The museum led you through the exhibits, so that you felt as if you were there. They actually built a mini-ghetto, so that you could see what it was like behind those tombstone-shaped walls, in cramped quarters. I was struck by how alive, how near, how human these memories felt - there were aspects of these memories that felt so like my own, like building a career and falling in and out of love and cherishing family and friends. And yet, all of these shocking, horrifying, unimaginable things upturned that normalcy completely.

The following day, I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was obviously a very somber experience, but also something that everyone should do. I had learned about concentration camps from a young age, but I don't think I ever fully comprehended the scale of them. Auschwitz-Birkenau is actually a complex of several camps which were built in phases, to accommodate more and more prisoners over time. We actually had to take a bus between the camps because they are so large and spread-out. The sheer quantity of humans who were subjected to the horrors within becomes readily apparent when you walk through the museum and see the enormous heaps of belongings found on the site: eyeglasses, combs, mirrors, toothbrushes, luggage, shoes. We passed through the housing sheds, peering into the wooden slatted bunks where multiple people would sleep, and imagining the pooled human waste and scampering rats which were present when far too many prisoners were forced to share the rudimentary huts. We huddled into the crematorium, where ovens could burn a few hundred bodies in a single day. We walked along the old railroad tracks, where masses teemed out after long journeys in stock cars and were sorted into two lines: those who would be gassed immediately, and those who would be forced to work.

Camp entrance

Eyeglasses

  

Chemical showers

Crematorium

Tracks of arrival

Bunk house

Perhaps the most nauseating piece of the experience was passing through a room with an enormous display case piled with literal metric tons of human hair, which time had turned a uniform color and texture. No photos or spoken words are allowed when passing through the space, out of respect for the deceased. I felt as though a heavy weight were pressing against my chest. You might wonder, why save the hair? You see, the goal of the camps was not only to exterminate, but also to profit. The Nazis wove human hair into cloth fabric, mixed human ashes into fertilizer, and extracted metal from human teeth. The valuables of the Jews, gypsies, Communists, Socialists, homosexuals, disabled, and other undesirables transported to the camp were ransacked and redistributed. The Nazis found even the items prisoners had tucked away in concealed compartments in hopes of keeping just one thing out of the Reich's grasp. Aryan children played with the toys that Jewish children brought to the camps. It was not only the military and war effort which gained financially, but also the broader business sector. Many companies found cheap labor by producing their goods in camps. Other companies found a market for their products by supplying the camps. All throughout Auschwitz there are shallow pools of water because the insurance company which underwrote the camp understood that there was a high fire risk with so many people crammed into a small space, and mandated that such pools be installed. Carrying insurance - what is better proof of a full-blown business enterprise? It's hard to comprehend the calculated, ruthless brutality, the way in which evil built such a well-oiled, efficient machine. As I wrapped up my time in Poland, I was left thinking about the ways in which we are all complicit in systems of evil. We may not live in the Third Reich, but the world is still a messed up place. A very real question, and one that should not be brushed off lightly, is how we engage with this reality, and whether we are doing our part to try to make things better.

Insurance pools

The cans which contained the poison used in the chemical showers