Change du cavalier!

I went to a senior club the other day for a ball.  Okay, it was a guy playing guitar and a bunch of people dancing, but it was called a ball.  It was really great to see them all having such a good time!  They were excited about the songs and dancing with each other, and it was a really festive atmosphere.  I had a lot of fun dancing too, although I’m pretty horrible at following people.  One person called me out on it and said “what are you doing?”…I think it was clear I was dancing.  It was also awkward because I was taller than most of them, so spinning around required some flexible moves on my part. 

There were a lot of line dances which were pretty amusing, including a Spanish one that talks about a grandmother who drinks and smokes all the time (la abuela bebe la abuela fuma), and one dance where the singer would announce to change partners (change du cavalier!).  It made me kind of sad that our generation doesn’t dance like that, and I wonder what it will be like for us when we’re older…will we learn that style of dancing and listen to classics?  Or will we be grinding to Get Low?  (I hope not…that sounds weird). 

They also had a snack in the afternoon (so cute!) where they distributed small croissants and pastries.  I said I didn’t want any because I wasn’t hungry, but this one guy was pretty insistent.  And after I said no several times, he asked the director of the club if I could put them in my purse.  And she said sure.  I didn’t even want them in my purse…but he said “it’s okay, everybody does it, put it in your purse!”  I was pretty embarrassed, so he took me into the hallway and wrapped it in napkins and gave it to me to put in my purse.  And I noticed a lot of other people did it as well, which made me kind of sad.  I’ve definitely done it before (yay for dining halls), but for some reason it felt worse seeing older people do it…like they weren’t sure where or when they’d get their next meal.  It’s good not to waste food though!   

Beer and Pretzels (Berlin)

We took a 5-hour train to Berlin from Prague.  It was a really good deal (29 euros)! We bought it on a Czech site and didn’t see an option to reserve seats, so it was a little stressful when people would come in and say we were in their seats, but it worked out, and we only had to move a couple of times.  It was also stressful when the conductor was mad at us because we had folded our papers and ruined the barcode.  The paper says don’t fold the barcode (and we didn’t! we folded at the midpoint of the paper), and she couldn’t scan our tickets.  Other passengers told us we were very lucky because in the olden days, they would have kicked us off the train.

Eventually, we got to Berlin and met up with my friend Alette.  The first day was pretty low-key: we went up the TV tower to have a panoramic view of Berlin, and then we went to a beer garden to drink beers and eat pretzels.  It was delicious!

The next day, we walked around the city, went to the Berlin wall, Museum Island, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Holocaust memorial.  We had trouble (once again) identifying the important monument…the Berlin Wall wasn’t what we were expecting.  There wasn’t a sign (ok, it was clear that it was a giant wall), and there was a lot of graffiti and paintings on the wall.  The art was really good, and it seems like it’s a nice way to draw attention to all the events surrounding WWII.

The Holocaust memorial was very interesting (and depressing).  It seemed industrial and had lots of large concrete blocks of varying sizes arranged in a grid pattern.  Underneath the memorial, there was a museum which recounted the history of WWII and told the stories of many Jews killed in the Holocaust.  One room was all dark and just showed the person’s name, year of birth, and year of death on a big screen and then told their story in a few sentences in German and then in English.  It was pretty moving.

We also visited the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, and it was overwhelming and packed with information (and tourists).  Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  The museum had lots of stories about the history of the wall, how people escaped East Berlin and the lives of those who helped escapees.  It’s definitely one of the best historical museums I’ve visited.

Museum Island was not very exciting.  There was a lot of construction going on, and it was a bit hard to navigate.  But we did find an amazing pizza place nearby, 12 Apostel, which had pizzas named after the apostles.  Delicious!

When we were walking around Berlin, we paused at a kebab place to get some waters and consult our maps before taking the metro.  We were under a bridge and walked into the metro station when Lisa said “Ew, what is that?” because something dripped on her shoulder. Alette said “It’s probably just water,” but then Lisa said “No…it’s brown.”  We looked up, and a giant evil pigeon was staring down at us.  And Lisa had a lot of white and brown poop on her jacket and in her hair.  I had always thought bird poop was all white!  Anyway, I went back into the kebab store and asked if I could have some water and napkins because my friend got pooped on.  The owner was confused and only spoke German.  Luckily, the amused man next to me translated (I wonder if it was a direct translation?) and we got a cup of water and paper towels.  Lisa was a very good sport about it!  And she didn’t wear her jacket the rest of the day.

There was a positive turn of events when we found a Ritter Sport chocolate shop.  I had never had the chocolate before, but it is so addicting! Be warned.  They had an area where you could make your own chocolate bar and come back in 30 minutes after it set.  We were tempted but decided to buy the premade flavors instead.  I bought a couple of bars for myself and a box to give to my roommates.  But I ended up eating the bars and the box for my roommates before I could get back to France.  It’s dangerous I tell you. 

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Is that the castle?

Lisa came to visit me last week!  We spent a couple days in Paris and then traveled to Prague and Berlin.

Prague was pretty grey and rainy while we were there, so it seemed a little depressing.  (You would think I’d be used to that by now!) But it was a great city to walk around, and the buildings were very cool.  It’s actually the 6th most visited city in Europe after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin.  I guess that explains all the tourists who were walking around. 

Our plans for the first night were foiled – we tried to go to a Mexican restaurant that had really good reviews (I haven’t had Mexican food in so long! Papagayo when I get home?), but we didn’t have reservations and were told we could try again at 9pm.  Obviously that’s far too late for Americans to eat, so we stumbled upon a delicious Italian restaurant serving fresh pasta (and aptly called Pasta Fresca).   We had more ethnic food the next night at a really good Indian restaurant.   Basically, we were just trying to avoid Czech food.  Goulash and pork knuckle do not sound appealing.

We walked around a lot and saw the old town square, the Charles Bridge, the astronomical clock, and the castle.  It was tricky to find though.  We took the metro to the closest stop and walked a bit until we found the Royal Garden.  There was a nice looking building, and I asked Lisa what it was, and she said, “I think it’s the castle…but there better be some damn cute animals in the zoo if this is the castle.”  It turns out it was the Belvedere – the Royal Summer Residence.   We spotted a tall majestic building in the distance and decided that was the castle, so we walked through the gardens to get there.

There was another building called the Ball Game Hall that was beautifully decorated on the outside.  A bunch of tourists were outside taking pictures, but the guide said that they couldn’t linger too long because the guards were about to change at the castle.  I decided that we should see the guards changing too, so we hurried along, found some guards, and waited outside the entrance for them to change.  I figured it would be at noon, but nothing happened for five minutes, so I thought we might have the wrong guards.  We decided to leave and explore the grounds instead.  Of course we get to the plaza and then see guards marching back towards the entrance.  I debated chasing after them, but they probably wouldn’t have been happy.  I snapped a picture instead.

The guards were very serious and didn’t move (like the British ones).  They had a small railing barrier around them with an opening in the front, and one Asian lady walked into the opening, stood extremely close to the guard, and smiled for her photo.  The guard looked very uncomfortable and told her (I assume) that she couldn’t be there.  It made me laugh.

Anyway, we bought our tickets for the castle and I asked Lisa “Is this the castle?” to which she responded “No, that’s a cathedral.”  We walked around the cathedral, which was very pretty.  It also had gorgeous stained glass windows (difficult to capture in pictures).  After we left and walked around outside, I pointed to the cathedral and asked whether that was the castle, and she said, “No, that’s the other side of the cathedral we just went into.”  It looked different from the side.  To be fair, there isn’t one building that is a castle.  It’s more a royal complex.  Anyway, there are lots of interesting buildings to visit, the grounds are very pretty (there were lots of people taking wedding pictures), and there’s a beautiful view of the whole city.  If you’re in Prague, go to the castle!

There was also a bar right outside our hotel, but sadly we didn't visit it.  Their drinks seemed tempting though.  I've never had sex on the bench.

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