First off all I am gonna letting you know that I am a native German speaker, so don't wonder when I am doing a lot of mistakes.
Last July I spent 10 days in Czeck Republik, mainly in Prague with my school, so now I am talling you about it...
In Prague I kept a diary, which I typed in, as I arrived at home. It has now around 32 pages (text part 12 pages), so I hope you understand that. So now I am going to do a brief summary of what I did and felt in Prague. If you are interested, I can send you the german original version with fotos, postcards etc. on a cd-rom, so please feel free to ask me.
On Thursday, 3 July we started our bus trip to Prague at 6 a.m., luckily I got, after sitting nearly 2 hours upstairs in our bigplan bus a seat downstairs, which was on a 4-people-desk. Next to us was another 4-people-desk, we played cards together on nearly all rides. It was real fun sitting there, as Yvonne and Zoi (I shared my room with them) sat there, too. The only problem was that my English teacher sat there too, as they had in the teachers cabin only 4 seats for 4 people and too much hand baggage. The accompaning teachers for us 70 students are: my history teacher we call her “Stufenmami”, as she is a kind of mum for us, as she is our guidance teacher; my German teacher who accompanies the Arts course and my former Chemistry teacher, accompaning the advanced Chemistry course. The trip was, until we arrived at the frontier ok, but there we had to leave 2 students and our Stufenmami behind. Filipe and Silvia are Portuguese, and they had neither a visa, nor a travelling passport, as the Germans said they don’t need it. But we looked forward that they could come with us, after spending there a night and getting the necessary documents. Arriving in the Cesk Republik we were shocked, it was more shocking as we imagined. We saw dirt and “Plattenbauten” (socialistic styled skyscrapers) whereever we had a look at, most of the cars were Skodas….. Arriving in the hotel, which was a Plattenbau, too, we were shocked seeing our rooms, but at least the shower and toilet worked…. The dinner –we got it in the hotel, which we would consider as youth hostel- consisted of Schnitzel, which was ok and oily potatoes. In the evening we stayed in our rooms and listened to music (Anyplace anywhere anytime, do yo know it?) or chatted.
On Friday, 4 July we had a guided city tour and saw all the sights. We got offered by our guide to exchange money,so we did, as we got 30 kc for 1 Euro. This day I was sort of sick, but I did the city tour never the less. We saw all important sights….. Later on we got the possibility to eat and drink at U Fleku, which is a famous brewery. After it I did some shopping with some mates, our famous
shop in Prague now seems to be Tesco, as we have been there nearly every day…. Returning from Tesco we used the Metro for first time, confessing that the escalator has a 45°C angel, which is optimal for people, who want to commit suicide, we call the escalator because of this “Selbstmordrolltreppen” Arriving at the “Andel” bus stop it was our first time using the bus, and it was a fast tip to our hotel…. In the evening we had a „Zimmersession“. On Saturday, 5 July we went to the Hradcany Castle and its area., having a look at the premonstaratension strahov monastery. Later on we saw the Cathedral of St Vitus and the building, where the Defenestration of Prague happened. In the noon we had lunch at Mc Donalds, which is really cheap in the Cesk Republik. Again we went shopping at Tesco and had a Zimmersession in the noon. In the time between Sarah and I have been in the snackbar, chatting with Doc (our German teacher) and Felix (one of Stufenmami’s good-looking 5 sons).He has been in the Hotel, since he brought his mum there. As I told you above we left them at the frontier. Filipe and Silvia haven’t been able to come to Prague, so Felix, who lives in Bavaria close to the frontier brought his mum to us and stayd until Tuesday. In the night it happened that one of our students was caught in the toilet, as the lock gave up working. He was caught for about 3 hours until the hotels security man rescued him by using pliers and screwdrivers.
On Sunday, 6.July we went to Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg), seeing an ossary, whcih was really macabre. Having a look at the St. Barbara cathedral we had some free time, which some of us (the minority) used to visit a coin mint. I prefered going to a Pizzaria, but the Pizza wasn’t that good. The tomato sauce had no spice and tasted in a way as the bohemin beer…. Our next stop was Königgrätz, better said Chlum (Hradec Králové), where we had a look at a cute museum, which was not bigger as 30 m2. It was really interesting, although we didn’t understand the writings next to the exponats, as the were in Cesk language. Leaving the museum we went home and some of us attended a classic concert (Smtana, Dvorak….). As I knew all this stuff from music class, I decided to go with Yvonne to Tesco. Finishing our groceries etc at 8 p.m. I saw a stand which sold Palatschinken (Crepe), of course I bought one with choclat, which was excellent, confessing that is really cheap (20 kc), just 70 ct and about 3 Euro cheaper than in Germany…. In the evening we had a „Flursession“, confessing that the girls in the appartment opposite were really frightend that our teacher could come to control our rooms, because they consumed illegal substances…
On Monday 7 July we had a visit to the Jewish area, it was really impressive, emotional and interesting, but I can’t say that I felt ashamed in a way, as most people expect from us Germans, but I guess we acted in a respectful way. For me it was interesting to see documents, such as letters from daily life, which made it possible for me to recognize (I am not sure about the word, the German word I mean is “nachvollziehen”) the life. We visited some Synagogues, the most beautiful in my opinion was the Spanish Synagogue. Our teachers –they have been in Prague some time ago with other student groups said, that the distance is growing, so the students can behave in a different way and aren’t forced to feel sorry for something they haven’t done. Actually I don’t have any relation to WW II and the German crimes, as I never meet my great-grandparents, who lived at this time in Germany. My (other) grandparents were really small children, and as a part of my family is from silesia and had to escape from there, as they where attacked, too. Therefore I can’t say that I have any identification with my countries history. I hope you don’t understand it wrong. The only thing which annoyed me was, that many students wanted to go really early, so that we had to hurry a lot. But after complaining at my hisotory teacher some students, especially from our advanced history course got the permission to stay there longer. After finishing this, we went to Mc Donalds, having a proper meal and to a market. There I bought a S.Oliver Top for my sis. In the evening we had a Zimmersession and at 3 in the night a gitl from the opposite room cam eto tell us, that the police was in the room, they were frightend to be caught (and if you want my honest opinion I wished they would be caught) for consuming pot, but on the next morning it turned out that the police was just because of “disturbance of peace” there….
On Tuesday 8.July it was again time to be confronted with the dark chapters of German History, we went to the concentration camp in Terezín (Theresienstadt), which was again really depressing for us, as we were confronted with something we couldn’t change. The next station wa sthe “Ghetto-Museum” there, where we have been shown a movie. In the museum I feeled for the first time personal touched, as there was a commemorative plaque with names of murdered and deportated children. Some of them had the same (or one with an additional ending) family name as I, and althogh I never knew them, I feeled attacked. In the noon we went to Melnik, there we went out eating to a restaurant called „Vinára u Tomáše“, and I guess it is better when you forget the name, as the food was not that good. I ordered “roast meat with dumplings and bittercabbage”, expecting that it is similar to the silesian manner my grandma cooks, but the bohemian version is just “intersting” and cheap (just 2,30 Euro). The dumpling tastes like plastic, which was cutted in slices, the Sauerkraut like the typical “Ludmilla” vine and and the meat wasn’t really meat, rather fat. I ate a bit, as I didn’t want to be inpolite, but ordered later on, as most of the others some ordinary French frites with Ketchup. After finishing the meal we went to the vinathek to buy some wine. In the noon it was again as Zimmersession.
On Wednesday, 9 July we went to Karlštejn, but the trip there which took 3 hours to go wansn’t it worth. After wandeing 2,5 km (!) we arrived the castle and got a guide, which told nearly the same as the other ones before, at leats concerning the Cesk history. The chapel, we liked to see was closed, but that was every second building we wanted to see. Most time they used the flood as a pretext…. After having a delicious icecream there, called “big choc”, we returned to our bus, and it was raining….. In the noon it was “(Tutor-)Leistungskursgebundenes Programm”; which meant that every student had to do something with his/her advanced course and teacher. In my case it was History, as English isn’t my Tutorleistungskurs. We were left out of the bus close to the charl’s bridge and decided to have something to eat. In „U Karlova Mostu“ –it was a 3*restaurant with European niveau and Cesk prices- we sat in a really cool garden, having a really excellent meal. After a walk along the Vlatva (Molda-river), our teacher asked us to go to the “Café Slavia”, which is akind of in-café. In former times many important people met there. We agreed, and with around 20 people we went there. I sat on a table with Steffi, Katharina, Felicitas, Zoi, Hatice, Kathrin and my history teacher, who invited us all. It was really funny. Our teacher, the Stufenmami told us about her 5 sons and we saw really cute fotos of 5 good-looking guys…… I guess all the other people of our course have been gone before, so our table was the last, who had gone around 9 p.m. The otheres have already been at the disco, but as I’m not a disco-fan, I just had a look there to be polite and joined our Zimmersessions (we did them most time with Janina, Yvonne, Zoi, Sarah (other room) and Jenny)
On Tuesday 10 July it was our last day to spent in Pargue, the offcial programme was visiting the national museum. Arriving there our teachers told us about “Praguer Frühling”, “Wenzelsplatz”…. and said that the people, who like could enter the museum, but the could understand if wed prefer to visit any other museum, which was in “expressis verbis”: Hey, we are doing some shopping and having some fun now, you can do the same, but be back at 17:30 p.m at the hotel…. Yvonne, Zoi, Sarah and I went along the Wenzelsplatz, having a stop at Mäckes to have a kind of 2nd breakfast and then direction Havel Market. There we bought some reallly cheap “brand (T-)shirts” and other stuff. Continuing the shopping we entered a really huge shopping centre close to the bus stop andel, recognising a super marked called “Carrefour”. We just wanted to buy a Cola can, but later on we bought really much… the only odd thing was that we had to show our passport by buying alcohol (I organized some typical beer for my dad), but than we decided to bring all the things to the hotel before continung shopping. Being again in towncentre I bought a hair slide, which looks really great. Although I only exchanged 75 Euro (I took there more as twice as many), I had much money remaining. So I bought a picture for my parents and some other souveniers. While the others returned to the hotel to prepare for our trip to Melnik at 17:30, Yvonne and I bought some Souveniers for her friend at the Charly’s bridge and some palatschinken after doing groceries at Tesco. Arriving at 17:25 in the hotel I meet occasionaly my teacher, who finished her shopping at the same time. She told us that we have enought time to go to our eoom etc, because we would start going to Melnik at 6 p.m. In Melnik our teachers had reserved at „U Rytířů“, for having a 3 course menu dinner. The sopu was really good, but the main dish, consisting of roast beef (I hate beef) with berrys ( I hate them, too) and whipped cream (hey, that’s one of the things I am allergic on) and Knödel (again this plastic stuff) was awful. The dessert was small pancakes, which were hidden below whipped cream and berries, so I am sure you understand that I didn’t like the food. Luckily I had some fruit at my room…. After finishing the dinner we did a Fotosession on the river, all wearing our Prague Shirts.
Friday, 11 July After a funny 12.5 hours trip with stops at sunny sides we finally arrived at around 20:30 in Viersen. Finally we listend to the song “Aicha” by Outlandish, which was in a way the song of our trip….. I was really happy and the first thing I did was eating a “Currywurst with French Frites”. Coming to a conclusion the trip was a great experience, and I guess I would return there, altough it sounds in some parts of the diary a bit different.
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Advantages: Cheap food, beer, lovely scenery in countryside and cities Disadvantages: Hard language to learn, some people not tolerant of non-Czech speakers
Itssteps 05.02.2001 (05.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of General: Czech Republic
Advantages: value for money, easy to get by in prague ,good for sightseeing Disadvantages: pickpockets in underground stations, some taxi drivers will overprice you
sansilver 30.07.2008 (30.07.2008)
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Review of General: Czech Republic
Advantages: value for money, easy to get by in prague ,good for sightseeing Disadvantages: pickpockets in underground stations, some taxi drivers will overprice you
sansilver 30.07.2008 (30.07.2008)
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Advantages: Fantastic city, plenty to do and see, beer still relatively cheap Disadvantages: City is loosing some of its authencity by becoming Westernised with the likes of McDonalds popping up
Oct 5th, 2003
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