Hola Espana

Simply put, Madrid was an incredible city, overflowing with energy, culture, and good seafood. Of the cities I've had the opportunity to see, Madrid is second only to Istanbul in beauty and culture. It's grandiose architecture and construction are almost pompous showcases of Spain's powerful past. Europe has always had an obsession with building majestic buildings to flaunt their capabilities and power, but Spain takes the cake in this interminable competition with a number of palaces, cathedrals, parks, and castles that stand as reminders of powerful Kings and empires. The city itself is massive. In comparison to Prague, which has three humble metro lines, Madrid boasts close to a dozen. It was fun to use our Spanish and we found ourselves being able to communicate more of our thoughts than we had expected. Comprehending a native speaking at mach speeds, however, was a different story. We were all thankful that Molly was there to navigate the city with us and talk with store clerks and servers. I don't know how many times she intervened to salvage conversations our high school-level Spanish just couldn't handle.  

Molly facing off with her eternal foe, pigeons, on one of Madrid's numerous squares.

The Spanish people are very warm and fun, love their music and food, and were very receptive to Americans. The most striking contrast between Spanish culture and the rest of the world is their biological schedule. The Spainards have somehow figured out how to function and operate on half the sleep a normal human is supposed to get each night. Everyone, even small children, eat dinner after 10:00 most days of the week, and use a ciesta in the afternoon to briefly recharge their batteries. The kids in the city go out until the Metro system begins its daily operation at 6:00, despite the fact that the sun has fully risen, because cabs are too expensive. Spanish preteens seem to party harder than even the craziest kids at St. Lawrence. They eat lunch about the time my Grandparents eat dinner and sit down for dinner when the rest of the world is fast asleep. Molly brought us to a rather upscale restaurant on Saturday night. We arrived at 11:00, were not seated until 12:00, were served our main dishes at 12:45, and left around 1:30. It'd be like about Olive Garden hopping at 1:30 a.m. 

Molly purged us from our slumber around 10:00 on Friday morning, and with her cracking the whip, we started exploring the city. Unlike Prague, whose sites rarely hide much historical substance, Madrid's architectural phenomena were also interesting places to visit. They contained not just beauty and romance in their appearance, but hosted fascinating tours or art museums. We saw the Royal Palace of Madrid, which has a dozen large reception rooms and over 250 bedrooms. Overlooking much of the city, it was quite a spectacular sight. The Almundena Cathedral, situated right next to the Palace, only added to the enormity of the panorama. Completed in the late 20th Century, it married Gothic architecture with more modern flavored art and decor. Both were astounding examples of what humans could construct without modern technology and machinery. Also, we had to do the Prado, although Molly was the only one with any substantial knowledge of art history.

I really stumbled into this chance to be a chivalrous, caring boyfriend by buying my lady a flower. We even got a picture with the guy who came into the bar selling the flowers after he blew my cover..

A Portrait on Prom Night. Matt, Caroline, Molly, and I in front of the Royal Palace. About a fourth of the Palace is visible behind us; the massive structure extends far back and to the left.

Again, rallied after an inadequate sleep, we left for Toledo, a smaller, Medieval city 70 km south of Madrid. Our train departed from Atocha, the largest metro station in the city where commuter trains and subways connect to carry an army-sized workforce into the city. It was the site of the 2004 terrorist attacks that killed 190 people and wounded close to 2,000. Being in the same corridors and terminals that saw such carnage six years ago coupled with the recent, prevalent threats to European cities made for an eerie experience. Nevertheless, we took the train to Toledo, which turned out to be an awesome decision because although it is only a quick ride away, it is markedly different than Madrid, evidence of Spains incredible geographic and cultural diversity. In addition to its beauty, Toledo featured the fourth largest Cathedral in the World, an enormous Castle, a Mosque, and a Medieval wall that encompasses the city. The whole city was enveloped by an almost fairy-tale ora that emanated from the buildings, landscape, and bastions that once protected what used to be the capitol of Spain. The city is famous for its swords, and despite our urge to return to the States sporting some badass Medieval weapon, Matt, Tucker, and I gave in to reason and stuck with buying marzipan, another trademark of the city. After Peter Pan in Munich, Aladdin in Istanbul, and Vlad the Impaler from Bratislava, we decided we had adopted enough hero personas.

A view from above Toledo, with the castle dominating the skyline. The city is surrounded not only by stone walls and towers, but also on three sides by a river. There is not much development beyond the little peninsula, so whatever historical society is protecting the city from commercialization has been really successful.

We took a double-decker bus tour in Toledo, which ended up being the perfect means to experience the city in one day. The weather was rather foul so the bus was empty and unfortunately, no one was there to see us all get slapped in the face by a number of trees. I guess that's why we were supposed to sit...

Tucker and I on our trip back early Sunday morning, still in our same clothes from the previous night. It was the Eve of Halloween, so the club we went to, which was a converted opera house, put on an awesome performance of the Thriller dance. Some people just can't handle Vegas... 

This week in Prague is mid-term week. I've got one under my belt, European integration, which I hope will prove to be my most difficult. The EU is so complex and bureaucratic; I don't think many of the officials working within its complicated framework understand it, let alone 10 American students trying to understand a teacher with a heavy Czech accent. So, we'll see how that fares...

Praze, Sweet Praze: SLU in the CZ

Unfortunately, we had to postpone the trip to Paris we had planned for the weekend of October 15, opting to heed the warnings from friends and the media alike that that particular destination was especially unsafe for American travelers. The message from the State Department and a family friend was that Paris, London, and a number of German cities have been identified as potential targets for terrorist attacks in the near future. That realization, and our eventual decision to call off our trip, drew our attention to an important topic we had not yet encountered: terrorism and being Americans overseas. The ability for an attack of any kind to shut down a city, a country, a region, or the entire industrial world is a scary prospect, one that has become a glaring reality to us. It was a tough decision, but we eventually decided that the potential costs of traveling to France that weekend outweighed the benefits. We were going to Paris to see all of the major tourist attractions-The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Pompidou, among others-and being in those types of locations with flocks of American tourists at a time of high security alert was not the most sensible option. Europe is enormous and Paris will always be there. We still feel incredibly safe in Prague and, until now, have not been hindered by reluctance in our travels.  

Our reservations about visiting The City of Lights didn't necessarily stem from the fear of an attack (we didn't even want to consider that), but from the real possibility of getting stuck in France with the French people for more than three days, which was just too intimidating. In addition, the country is also up in arms over a proposed change in the retirement age and unions had scheduled paralyzing strikes for that weekend. Terrorists and angry, mean French people constituted a one-two knockout combo enough to deter even the most confident traveler.

Instead, Molly, who was to meet us in Paris, came to Prague for a relaxing weekend in our home city. Our roommates were all traveling, so Molly, I, and our trusted third wheel, Tucker, got to spend some time really getting acquainted with Prague. Having not seen each other since August when she left for Madrid, some time together was perfect. She, of course, loved the city and all of its beauty and dove fearlessly into the Czech culture: eating a pork knee, ditching her smile, and shopping at H&M.

Molly, I, and our Third Wheel at Duplex, a 6th story club on Wenceslas. Tucker pulled some V.I.P. strings and got us a balcony booth.

Molly just couldn't get enough of Praha and was determined to try pork neck (the Czechs don’t hold anything back when it comes to identifying what part of an animal comes with a certain dish) and returned this past weekend. Emma Heuber, a close friend from SLU flew in from Florence, where she is studying for the semester. We all got to spend some more quality time with the Czech people, who have yet to warm up to us, or each other for that matter. As tolerant and understanding as I try to be, its frustrating when the entire country seems to be in a bad mood all of the time. Third Musketeer, Caroline Carpenter, also in Prague, completed the trio. The reunion in the airport was quite a spectacle, as Caroline and Molly went scrambling in chaos towards her general direction. Molly ended up sprawled out on the ground in the middle of the terminal with a few dozen spectators and I think the SLU D-Line has a new D-end. Needless to say, we spent the weekend eating cookie dough and reading Cosmo in the apartment. Not quite, but close to it...

The next day, we trekked to an observation tower on a hill above the city and enjoyed breathtaking panoramas of the city. It was a vantage point from which I had never seen the city; the weather was gorgeous and the visibility was incredible. Caroline's boyfriend Matt, also in Prague for the Fall semester, tilted the gender scale a little in my favor and the five of us walked around Old Town together, although Matt and I continually found ourselves in pubs waiting for the girls to finish their shopping. There are innumerable jewelry and scarf stores in this part of the city and apparently, they are all different because the girls had no problem visiting each one. After a long day of walking, we retired to the apartment to relax for a bit. Matt and I prepared dinner (although we revealed our true colors when Matt cut an entire zucchini instead of a cucumber for the salad and I melted the brie down into a slosh of molten cheese) while the girls video chatted with three other girls back at SLU in what proved to be the most unsuccessful, unproductive interaction between people I've ever seen. Imagine six absolutely elated girls screaming through one 13-inch computer screen...

The ladies on top of the observation tower. Matt and I spent the day warding off cheesy advances from sleazy Italian men, not enjoying the city.

We went to a restaurant on Saturday where each table of six has its own tap. A computer tallies the number of ounces poured at the table in a competition not only between individual tables at the restaurant, but between a number of restaurants all over the country. After weeks of training and an exhibition appearance at Oktobefest, the SLU Women's Drinking Team took first place.

The five Larries overlooking Old Town. From the left: Matt, Caroline, Emma, Myself, and Molly.

Between the hot, mulled wine and the pork knee, Molly had her fair share of Czech culture. I was proud considering she won't even try seafood back in the States. If you look closely, you can see in knuckles...

Comrade Molly at H&M looking for some headwear worthy of the North Country.

Caroline showing off her firm grasp on European fashion. With a few minor changes, most notably dying her hair black, she hopes to turn this same outfit into her Halloween costume for our trip next weekend to Madrid: Trinity from the Matrix.

Everything on the home front continues to go well. The academic intensity of my classes has increased a little, but after a four month summer some intellectual activity isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've started to explore the second of 40 cases in the Czech language, so we're making light work of the grammar. We have a cleaning lady that comes weekly, before any of the spore colonies in the boy's bathroom have enough time to multiply into a real problem. Brisk days now vastly outnumber their warm predecessors as Autumn has set in. The leaves are in full color and the only thing we are missing to bring full circle the fall atmosphere is some warm cider and pumpkins. Hot wine (a Czech thing) may have to do for now, although it is utterly disgusting, somewhere between hot cough medicine and flat Coke...

Vayamos a Espana en el proximo fin de semana!