Central & Alpine Europe

Budapest: Lost in Translation

It had already been an exciting day in Budapest for me and Annie. We had started off the morning with a visit to the chilling exhibits in the House of Terror, and had then ventured into the famed street market in the center of the city. While the market was fascinating with all of its vendors and activity, the stories of torture had stayed with us from the exhibits at the House of Terror. This in mind, you would think that we would choose an uplifting activity for the latter part of the afternoon. While we had originally planned to visit the Zoo near Heroes Square, timing issues forced us to improvise. Knowing that Annie would be up for anything, I decided to pick a site from the carrousel of traveling brochures located in our hotel’s lobby. I closed my eyes, gave the carrousel a good spin, (nearly knocking it over in the process) and grabbed a random card when it stopped. Praying that it wouldn’t be a pamphlet for a strip club, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that it was a coupon for the Labyrinth under Buda Castle. Annie was equally pleased and hurried downstairs for directions and a map. With our directions in one hand, and a ten percent off of the admission price coupon in the other, we set off towards the bus that would take us directly to Buda Castle. Finding Buda Castle wasn’t an issue, but we realized once we arrived, that we didn’t know how to get under the castle. Not wanting to miss yet another great opportunity because we were lost, I decided to ask someone for directions.

Our first victims were a pair of Hungarian Police sitting motionless in their van. Perhaps in hindsight, I shouldn’t have noted that both of the officers began to roll up their windows as we approached, but I was determined to find the Labyrinth. I began my interrogation with a rap on the window on the passenger side. He begrudgingly rolled down the glass and said something to me in Hungarian, I’d like to think that he said “Hello adventurous American! How can I help you on this beautifully sunny day?” but I feel like that would be exaggerating slightly. Nevertheless, I whipped out my handy dandy JBIB language guide and attempted to ask for directions in Hungarian. Of course he didn’t understand what I was saying so I simply handed him our coupon. He understood that immediately and began to fire off directions in Hungarian and gesture wildly. Thanking him again in a multitude of languages, we nodded our heads and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction of which he pointed, (Annie was convinced that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that we should ask someone else). After about ten more minutes of walking, we ended up exactly where we started. At this time, I reasoned that perhaps we should give the officer’s directions a try. So we did, and we ended up at toll booth for cars going into the village down the hill. With all of our dignity left long behind us, we then proceeded to go through the toll booth, as a car might, and ask the operator where the labyrinth was. Again, we had no idea what she was saying, BUT we discovered as soon as we cleared the booth that there was a rather large sign behind it saying “Labyrinth”. Apparently getting there is half the fun.

In the labyrinth

For anyone who has ever ventured into an underground cave, you know that feeling you get when you walk into a closed in area and realize that the space you have to move is only going to shrink the farther you go. This was my immediate reaction; the hair on the back of my neck prickled and the sweat began to bead on my forehead despite the chill that was drifting towards me from the entrance. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was half tempted to turn around. This feeling of suspense wasn’t helped when the ticket agent handed us a lantern that looked like it could be from the Gold Rush and told us to pay attention to our direction. Great. We began our journey into the caverns wandering from tunnel to tunnel. It wasn’t so bad at first. There was a multitude of other adventurous tourists and everything was well lit. That changed though, after about a minute. The lights began to dim to complete darkness and the large family of Germans we had been following, trailed off towards the other tunnel. We were alone, in the dark, with only a rickety lantern to guide us. To make matters worse, the oh-so ingenious planners of the Labyrinth tour thought it would be humorous to pipe creepy music through the loudspeakers; it truly felt like a scene from a horror movie. Each tunnel led to a sort of cavern where we would either find a statue or illustration from the Greek story of the Minotaur (the famed half-bull half-man monster that resided in the labyrinth). I’m not entirely sure if there were any specific stories associated with these labyrinths, but I had heard that they were used for everything from torture chambers to wine cellars. The Hungarians were quite fond of these hidden tunnels and utilized them in any way possible. After about twenty minutes of stumbling around, ( I was mostly the one stumbling) , we finally reached a well lit cavern where everyone seemed to be congregating. We soon found out why. Smack dab in the middle of the open space was an ivy covered wine fountain. That’s right, I said wine fountain. It was like seeing an oasis after days of traveling through the Sahara. We were both ecstatic. I ran over and stuck my face right up to the spout only to taste the best wine I’ve ever had. After drinking our fill, we wandered towards the back of the cavern to see if there was any information on the purpose of the fountain. We found our answer in a large sign that said “Wine - Not for human consumption.”

An inviting fountain??

With that in mind, we decided that it was probably best if we started to head towards the exit. We attached ourselves to a couple who looked like they knew where they were going, and also like they wanted to be alone, and followed them towards the exit. They may have been trying to shake us off; it seemed like we went in several circles, (why would they put the exact same statue in five different areas of the cave) and were led unnecessarily through the tunnel of hanging chains but we still managed to find our way out. And while it could have been partly from the undrinkable wine I consumed, I have never been so happy to see the sunlight in my entire life. For anyone who ever ventures into Budapest, I highly recommend the labyrinths, though I do recommend reading every sign you come across, especially the ones near wine fountains.

Vienna: A Night at the Opera (Attempt # 2)

Music anyone?

Anyone that knows anything about music will tell you that Vienna is the place to be if you want to see an Opera, or Concert. It doesn’t really matter which one, as long as you have some sort of musical experience. The best part about it is that you only need about four euros to have a great cultural experience in this city. As soon as we arrived in Vienna, Annie and I had been determined to go to an Opera. This desire for a story told entirely by song was fueled even more by our failed attempt in Prague. We set our sights on the third day and managed to cajole the rest of our classmates into accompanying us. Everyone dressed up to the nines and we all set out towards the box office with our student IDs in hand, (students always get better prices at these sort of events). Annie was the first to reach the box office and she quickly informed us that the cheapest seats for students were twenty euros. There was a unison of groans from the group. “BUT” she shouted, “ If we stand, we only have to pay four euros.” It’s amazing how a difference of sixteen euros can convince twenty college students to stand for three hours straight through an Opera sung entirely in German. We all agreed and quickly purchased our tickets. We had about an hour to spare before it began so everyone went there separate ways with the agreement to meet in fifty minutes. Annie, Andy and I decided that we would spend our pre-Opera time at the famed café at Hotel Sacher. We walked into the extravagantly decorated restaurant and were speechless for about a minute as we all stared at the lush decorations and mouth watering cakes displayed in the center of the room. Home to the notoriously “healthy” Sacher tort, this café was the one to come up with the recipe for the rich chocolate cake we were about to gorge ourselves on. We each ordered a different delicacy, and I, of course, picked the Sacher tort. For about five minutes, we were silent as we tasted and devoured each of the different cakes. We had just enough time to run back to the doors of the Opera and grab our seats/spots for standing.

The opera began pleasantly enough with a festive dance scene, but I could already see some of my classmates start to fidget. The standing space was crowded and hot, and the usher was quick to yell if she saw you try and sit. After about 30 minutes into the opera, the first students began to leave. It continued like this until the scene where one of the characters was shot. We all clapped energetically thinking that it was finally the end. I must point out here, that the Opera was thoroughly entertaining and beautiful, but you try standing for two hours straight in a hot, stuffy room. We all headed happily of off the balcony towards the door when we heard someone say, “Intermission ends in twenty minutes.” We all looked at each other with guilty expressions. After about two minutes of pleading statements and justifications of why we should leave, we guiltily filed out of the Opera’s double doors. We had walked a block away from the Opera house when we came across a crowd of people standing in front of a large flat screen. The Opera was being shown LIVE, on the screen. I was thrilled and quickly came up with a compromise for the rest of our classmates. All we had to do was grab some pizza and drinks from the nearby cart, and set ourselves down on the sidewalk in front of the screen. This is how we watched the remaining forty five minutes of the Opera. While we didn’t have the convenience of the subtitles screen, like we did inside, we were able to figure out what was happening by the actor’s facial expressions (which were impossible to see when we were standing inside). Overall, I think our experience was extremely cultural, and while we had to cheat a bit at the end, we still managed to sample some of the best of Vienna and we didn’t even get lost while trying.

Nicole and Annie getting a bit of a rest before their (mis)adventures

MUNICH

When you think of Munich, thoughts of lederhosen, bar maids and giant brats probably come to mind. You might even consider yourself an expert on Munich history if you can recognize places like the Hofbrau House, Olympic park and can figure your way out of the massive subway.
Well, I’m sorry to say that you have only just sipped the deep brew of culture that is Munich.

To begin with, Munich is a rich and expansive city and it is quite near impossible to explore all of its nooks and crannies in only three days.
And being the adventurous free spirits we are, Annie and I decided that we would try to find a way to see as much as possible. The solution to our problem arose after a long morning at Dachau. Having just returned to our hotel after spending 4 hours at the Concentration Camp, we stumbled across some of the other students who were going to take a bike tour.
We were hesitant at first, what with our lack of money, my lack of coordination and Annie’s habit of stopping to buy pashminas, but once we learned of the reasonable price of … FREE, we signed up!

On the bridge in the English Gardens

We both knew right away this would be well worth its price when our tour guide introduced himself in an Australian accent as Travis. All joking aside though, he began the tour with some unknown facts about some of the sights we had been passing every day. He even taught us a Medieval dance thought to keep away the plague, which we all performed gratefully, hoping it had equally repellant powers against the swine flu. After ushering us around the main attractions of the city, Travis, took us to the English Gardens. Now, the English Gardens may sound like a place with elderly bourgeoise ladies sipping teas and twirling parasols, however to think this would be a dire mistake. We entered the lush gardens only to find ourselves face to face with dozens of naked people, no parasols or tea. As disturbing as it might sound, one can not fully appreciate Munich until one meets a tall, dark and wrinkly naked people sunning themselves on the lawn.  After the nudes, we all meandered to the end of the park only to find fully clothed park goers surfing. Ja, I said surfing. At the end of the tour, we had covered a lot of ground, learned a lot of facts and had seen a lot of bratwursts. All in all it was a great day, and if you are ever in Munich it is definitely worth it to wait in Marionplatz for the Australian man giving bike tours. 

– Nicole and Annie

PRAGUE

The Charles Bridge--by Annie

Along with the abundance of clubs, bars and the general college appeal of Prague, Nicole and I thought we would take in some culture, along with a life lesson or two. We decided that the Opera, The Phantom of the Opera to be precise, would be a perfect way to get a dose of opera, ballet and the big C, culture - the trifecta of entertainment. Having passed an ornately decorated opera house on the way back from the hotel, we decided that it must be same one where the Opera would be taking place that night. Nicole and I were bound for the opera- pashminas and all—and in the true native fashion we walked the whole way. This seemingly harmless choice ultimately defined the rest of the night.
After walking rather briskly in heels on cobblestone, Nicole and I finally made it to the Opera house from earlier with 10 minutes to spare. We walked up to the opulent building only to find that we were at the wrong Opera house, (who knew there would be more than one?). It seemed that we were at the National Opera house, not the State Opera house. The ticket taker informed us that the State Opera house was a good 20 minutes away from were we currently were. With our egos a little bruised and our feet a little blistered, we decided to pull out a map and book it to the other building. . We managed to arrive at 7:02, two minutes after the performance began, but the ticket lady had apparently gone home and we were denied our cultural experience.
Thankfully though, after about 10 minutes of sulking, two mad dashes across busy Czech highways and one minor wardrobe malfunction, we decided to try out a restaurant we had heard about in our handy dandy tour book. By some miracle of the Czech food gods, we found the restaurant and enjoyed the best and cheapest food thus far on the trip.
While it was WAY off the beaten path, it was well worth it.

–Annie and Nicole

Tamp, Patrick, and Travis at the John Lennon Memorial Wall

This wall was created as a memorial to John Lennon after his assassination in 1980.  It began with pictures of him and meaningful lyrics from his songs.  These expressions of grief were whitewashed daily by the police.  The art and poetry continued to reappear.  Over time this wall beacame a place for broader expressions of dissatisfaction and dreams for the future.  It was a peaceful gathering place and the contents of the wall were allowed to remain.

 Today we visited the Dauchu concentration camp. Coming in I did not know what to expect because I have only read about places such as Warsaw and Dauchu. I knew that it was going to be a horrific site, but I could not foresee the actual feelings that I had after the visit was over. This camp was originally designed for only 6000 people and during its peak in the 1940’s it held around 40,000 people. The way that these people were treated was horrible. They were starved to death in many cases and could not receive medical attention from anyone with experience because the “doctors” really were not doctors at all. The inmates had to do all of the hard labor in the camp such as clean, cook, and build all in a days work. The pictures of some of the individuals that starved were extremely gruesome because they were skinnier than anyone that I have ever seen. The most powerful moment thing that I will take out of this experience was viewing the crematorium. They would take their dead and burn them to ashes. There were so many dead that they could not even find the time or coal to cremate them all so the bodies started to build up. The Nazis wanted to hide this entire camp from the community because it would in no way be supported. After viewing this camp I believe that at least once in every individual’s lifetime they should visit one of the concentration camps in order to get a real appreciation for the life we live. Sometimes I feel that my day was rough because I had to work a few hard hours in the sun, but when compared to the work and life these brave people had to go through, it will be much more difficult for me to complain. These people that were subject to this kind of abuse and torture for years are the real heroes and I thank God that I was able to visit this now.

Patrick S.

Today was another cool and drizzly day.  We decided to postpone our visit to Dachau in hopes for better weather tomorrow.  Swapping activities for the day meant that we went to the Alte Pinakothek (Old Art Museum).  It was amazing to see some of the original works of Rubens, Durer, Rembrandt, Breugel, etc.  Everyone seemed to have a favorite and the reasons overheard by this faculty varied from subject content to philosophical view to use of color and style. 

The rest of the day we were free to explore the city.  Some students had definite plans for museums and tours while others chose to hop the subway and see where it took them.  So far all reports have been positive.  One of the best things that we have been hearing is about substantive conversations with locals and reflective discussions of cultural differences. 

Next time we really will have been to Dachau.  We will try to post some pictures and get some students to contribute.

Dr. Engen, Dr. Kelso and Dr. Neal

Greetings from the Central & Alpine Europe tour!

Today we went to the Deutsches Museum, which is a huge science and technology museum here in Munich.  There were lots of exhibits on everything from aeronautics to the history of photography and lots of interactive exhibits to help the learning process. We tried to get through the whole museum, but there was just too much stuff. 

After the museum, a group including the three professors, Annie, Nicole, Nina and Leah headed to Schloss Nymphenburg,  home of the Bavarian kings.  We saw the impressive ornamentation of the various rooms and King Ludwig’s “Gallery of Beauties” and had fun taking pictures on the grounds.   After that, we headed to the Lowenbrau Haus for a traditional German meal of pork, sauerkraut and beer.

After dinner, we decided on a whim to head up to the Olympic Park.   We noticed huge crowds heading with determination in the direction of the park and wondered what was going on.   To our surprise, we were right in the middle of an AC/DC concert crowd!

More later on our continued adventures.

Dr. Kelso and the students