We had a long weekend on behalf of Saint Wenceslas, and I took full advantage of it. At the moment, I'm worrying about a broken computer, lost camera, and unplanned fall break, but the memories of this past weekend are keeping me smiling. It was wonderful.
Crazy as this sounds, the weekend sort-of started on Wednesday. My literature and place professor got us tickets to a jazz concert at the Polish embassy. Piotr Wylezol was playing with his trio. Since I have friends in both that class and the Polish class that also went, I ended up enjoying the concert with wonderful friends, buying the CD after, and (thanks to Byron) getting the musicians to autograph it.
We actually went out for pizza after the show and then had classes the next day, but the weekend-esque feeling continued because I went with some of the same friends to Wylezol's show that night at the Jazz dock. I was much more relaxed for this concert (because I hadn't just sprinted from another class or discovered that I was underdressed) and again really enjoyed the music. While we were there, however, one of my RAs was leading a club tour that some of my friends were on. Sooooo when the jazz was finished we went to meet up with the club tour group for the last stretch of their night. I always worry about going to such things; I just don't find drunk people to be much fun. I shouldn't have worried though. We found the small group in a Hawaiian bar dancing to 80s and 90s pop songs. The RA who was leading everything is such a fun person, and by that point in the night the people who were left were all people I'm friends with who were there to go dance with him. Even though the music wasn't quite as good as that from the beginning of the night, we still had a good time.
In case I haven't explained before, NYU organizes weekend trips for students at their abroad sites. Initially we are only allowed to sign up for two each, but there are waitlists for most trips and so far I've had a pretty easy time getting onto the ones I want. Including the Cesky Krumlov trip this past Friday and Saturday. Early the morning after the concert and club tour, we got on a bus and slept the whole way to the town. We woke up refreshed in beautiful Cesky Krumlov, ready for food and adventure. The school had organized a castle tour with a guide who took us into the old theater space, the hall of masks (check out the pictures), and the royal gardens. She was a very interesting guide because she shared her personal research and philosophies with us as well as explaining the history of each place.
NYU paid for dinner, which was nice, and then let us go explore for the night. We found our way into a gypsy bar (to be more politically correct, it was a bar with bands playing Roma folk music) where we enjoyed the music and local Eggenberg beer for a while. We strolled around for a bit after that, but I ended the night watching a friend skip stones across a stream before returning to the cute bright yellow room that Becca and I shared at our hostel.
Saturday we had a morning tour of the Eggenberg brewery and then took a few hours to explore. From the castle the day before, I had seen a building on a hill that looked intriguing. It turns out that it's this (the Chapel on the Mountain of the Cross). The chapel wasn't open, but the building, the view from the hill, and the joy of taking a walk with a friend outside of a city space all left me completely elated. The walk wasn't as long as it had originally looked, either, so we had time to return to town and spend time there too. We watched children folk dance and sing folk songs to celebrate the holiday. We ate sausage and drank Burcak, since it's still in season. We even met up with another friend and walked through the torture museum. That sort of thing isn't usually my cup of tea, but this one was so touristy enough to almost be humorous. And of course, all things are improved by the presence of good friends.
After that we got on the bus back to Prague, where we stayed just long enough to cook some pasta and do a load of laundry before heading back out. Brianna, Becca, Byron, Sam and I met at the train station and boarded a night train to Slovakia. Yup. As the rest of our program headed off for one and two day trips to Oktoberfest in Munich, we set out for the Lower Tatras at the suggestion of an RA friend who has family there. Her cousin's husband owns Penzion Baltazar in Liptovska Luzna and she suggested we stay there. The trip involved a restless sleep on a night train, some down time in Ruzomberok, and then a bus to the hostel itself. The weather was pretty bad so we didn't do too much our first night there. We had a home-cooked dinner with local ingredients, walked around the town, explored the church and cemetery, listened to the sheep's bells, and warmed up from the cold rainy day in a sauna. I have to confess, I fell asleep around 8 or 9 pm, exhausted but happy.
We got up pretty early the next day, had a breakfast that included home-made jam!!!!, and set out to hike the trail that our incredibly helpful host suggested. We climbed through fields, evergreen forests, and up the rocky trail to the top of a mountain. Even with the fog and rain, the views were stunning. Hopefully I'll be able to put pictures up soon. We returned to the Penzion for another warm dinner and an early night. The following day was the journey home and a celebration vegetarian dinner together, and suddenly I'm back on campus taking a German quiz and wondering where my architecture class is meeting today. What an adventure!
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