The Past Month

Ahoj!

First of all, apologies for not getting a new post up sooner. As you know, my monitor blew out on Valentine's Day and I only got a new one about two weeks ago. It's sad how attached I am to my computer...

Anyway, I will try and to a quick recap of the past month without making this too long. The weekend before my computer crashed we went to Vienna, Austria with our program. It is a beautiful city, but very incomparable to Prague because most of it was rebuilt after WWII. The buildings look very historical, but strangely new--and the city screams ritzy. The people walking around town are very stylish and obviously come from money. Prada, Burberry and Valentino line the streets--for a minute I thought I was in Beverly Hills! Nonetheless, the city was beautiful and had a lot of history. We saw a beautiful church with an amazing "Last Supper" replica inside, the National Treasury with shiny crown jewels and vintage swords, the extravagant Belvedere Palace and the Spanish Riding center where they train horses to "dance." You can imagine how excited I was... On Saturday evening we went skating around the park in front of town hall listening to awesome music.

On Sunday we went to the spacious Schonbrunn imperial summer residence. We walked through the gardens, saw where Marie Antoinette used to sleep, and listened to the extravagant stories of the royalty that lived there. I might also mention I had the most delicious apple strudel there as well. I am addicted now!

That was a horribly abbreviated version of my trip to Vienna and if you have any other questions, please ask. But moving on...the weekend after Valentine's Day we all went to Paris! Luckily, my roommate has a friend studying there who not only speaks French fluently, but knows the city like the back of his hand. We spent Friday touring every major part of the city including the Eiffel Tower, Champ de Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, The Notre Dame Cathedral and more. We also managed to make it to the Louvre (free for students on Friday nights!) and saw the Mona Lisa. On Saturday we went to the Palace of Versailles, which was very extravagant. On Sunday we just walked around, had lattes and crepes and relaxed in the city until our flight out.

The following weekend we relaxed in Prague and did some touristy things we hadn't had the chance to do yet (ha!). On Friday, I went on a field trip with my history teacher to the St. Syril and Methodius crypt where Czech paratroopers had to hide out from the Nazis after assassinating Heydrich, the Nazi leader in Prague. Their location was ratted out to the Nazis by a traitor. The Nazis used fire hoses to try and drown them down out and finally stormed the church. The paratroopers ended up committing suicide, refusing to let the Nazis take their lives. It was a very sad story but I'm glad I learned more about it. If you want to read a better explanation, go to
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2773167-national_memorial_to_the_victims_of_the_heydrich_terror_prague-i.

After the memorial we went to the town of Lidice, which was leveled by the Nazis as part of revenge for Heydrich's death. The men in the town were shot execution style and buried in a mass grave there. Women and children were gassed unless the children were fit for "Germanization." I can't possibly do justice to the story so please refer to http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/default_en.aspx for more information. It was a very sad trip as well and it is hard to believe that all this happened.

On Saturday we walked across the Charles Bridge, got lost in the city and even visited the Medieval Torture Museum. It was very disgusting learning what people used to do to others in medieval times, it was almost laughable. All in all, it was a nice weekend in Prague.

I think that is enough for this post. In the next one I will tell you all about my trips to Bratislava and Krakow. Get ready for another long one!!! Hope all is well...

Love,
Steph