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Maria, Ernesto (one of my roommates), and I, just got back from Vienna and
Bratislava. The difference between the two cities is really the difference between black and white. Even though they are so different, they have very unique qualities that make it so fun.
Bratislava was like a ghost town, even though it was the capital of the city. The city seems to be a lot older than any other city I have seen. Since it is a poor country, I am sure that there is a major brain drain to other parts of the world. The best part of the city was the inexpensive food and drinks. Dinner for three in an exclusive restaurant – 18 euros.

 

Vienna (also known as Wien), is just 60 kilometers away, but parallels the excitement of Paris (the subject of my next post). One can see two tourists for one native. The city is amazingly rich, where some of the buildings just blow your mind. The front side of the building looks white and clean, but one can really see the age on the sides of buildings, which are brown and black. I think that the city of
Vienna didn’t clean the sides of the building for aesthetics.  With Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Haydn, and many more that have made history in
Vienna, makes the city the capital of classical music. In every corner, musicians are showing off their skills. Concert companies are dressed in affluent costumes trying to sell tickets to operas and musicals. We decided to go to a musical if the price was right, and business school students that we are we negotiated 40 euros per person gold tickets to 20 euros. It was totally worth it. The music of Mozart and Strauss is fantastic. The concert also included opera style singing and ballet. It was TOO GOOD.

 

We have all decided to go back to both cities after we get older to go to a real opera in the opera house. Have dinner at an expensive style restaurant, go to the opera, and then go have drinks after. I am sure we will do this in 5 to 10 years.

 

Next post:
PARIS!

I figured I’d drop in and offer up an update as to my whereabouts the past two weeks. Having finally gotten pretty much accustomed to the way things work at The Hague University, I’ve been hitting the books quite a bit harder the past few weeks. The whole “self study” bit is still somewhat of an adjustment, but it’s a good exercise in building discipline.

The city itself is growing on me, too. Surprisingly, the weather has been quite good to date (knock on wood…seriously, do it – rain and I don’t get along too well). One of the things I thought I was going to miss most about Louisville was the fall – it’s by far my favorite time of year. There’s nothing like waking up early on a September morning, stepping outside and breathing the crisp Autumn air on the walk to school, absorbing the electric, fresh feel of campus that first week, and knowing that football season is merely days away. However, since Louisville saw temperatures in the 90s and 100s in September and since football hasn’t quite gone as expected, I don’t really think I’ve missed too much anyway. I actually consider myself fortunate because I’ll be in town for the thrashing (hopefully that’s not putting it too midly) of UK in basketball.

In addition to ramping up the studies, I traveled to Luxembourg City and Antwerp (instead of Oestrich-Winkel) last weekend with a few newfound friends. We were planning on going from Luxembourg to Oestrich-Winkel to see Maria and Kartik but only spending basically one day there wasn’t quite enough to justify spending the EU150 or so it was going to cost us to get there and then back to The Hague from Frankfurt.

Actually getting to Luxembourg turned out to be quite the adventure, though. Within five minutes of leaving Den Haag Central Station, we were already headed the wrong way (we didn’t see that we had to switch trains in Hollands Spoor). A culmination of this and several other train errors, some our fault, some not, led to us spending about nine hours on the train that day en route to Luxembourg. The city was very beautiful and had plenty of history, though. After quite a bit of searching – something important must have been going on in Luxembourg this weekend because all the hostels were booked – we were able to find a nice, affordable hotel within walking distance of the city center and enjoyed a phenominal meal from one of the nearby restaurants. Since this was only a weekend trip, after figuring out that it was going to be too expensive and that we didn’t have enough time to visit Maria and Kartik, we made our way to Antwerp on Saturday night.

Traveling without booking a hotel beforehand, although plenty adventerous, generally isn’t a good idea. Of course, we weren’t aware that we were going to Antwerp until Saturday afternoon so I suppose this one wasn’t our fault. We arrived in Antwerp around 20:00 and tried to take Frommer’s advice about a cheap hotel in town. Unfortunately, it was booked. As was the next one we went to. And the next. And the next. And every other hotel we asked.

Finally, after wandering around for some time, we found a cheap um…”hotel”. It was immediately and painfully obvious that the hotel wasn’t in the best part of town when I noticed that the window of the bar on the ground floor of the hotel had a rock thrown through it. I entered the building and was greeted not by a receptionist at a nice desk with posh lighting, but by a dimly lit hallway leading up the stairs to the left or into the bar on the right, an elderly African woman who was from Kenya, and her son (both of whom, I might add, were as sweet as can be). The place was actually a place of residence that I assume she (or they) bought and turned into a hotel. Unfortunately, the inside left a little to be desired. The light peaking through the door of our second floor room was the only one in the building to light our way up the steps, past the peeling paint, past the make-shift bathroom, and into our not-so-pleasant smelling room with peeling linoleum floors and no way to lock the door. I think the girls I was traveling with were horrified, but I was already relishing both how great of a story it was going to be and the low price. Predictably, we made it out alive and well and have now have a great story out of it.

Anyway, Antwerp was a magical, old-feeling city situated on the Scheldt River with cobblestone streets, guildehouses that date to the 16th century, the obligatory impressive Catholic cathedral, and even a castle. We were fortunate to witness some sort of parade through the city (one of the gentleman in the parade had an amazing handlebar moustache, I might add), drink beer in a bar that has been in operation since the late 1500s or early 1600s, walk through the diamond district, see authentic Belgian lace, and naturally, indulge in some fantastic Belgian waffles. It was great to get back on the road again.

I suppose it’s time to exercise some of that hard-earned discipline and continue studying for my Finance-5 test that’ll be administered tomorrow. My travels during fall break will take me to Geneva, Switerland for about five days where I’ll get to see among other things, the UN, the Alps, and hopefully some quaint Swiss town, and then up to Ireland for about a week where I hope to travel all over the island. Until next time…

On our return from Munich we decided to visit Dachau, the first concentration camp used under Nazi Germany. It was also a surprise to learn that less than half of the prisoners were Jewish, the rest were political prisons and mostly Christian. It was depressing and emotionally draining to walk the 2 hr audio tour. It was surreal to walk into the camp and feel like we could have been on the set of Schindler’s List or Life is Beautiful and to have dramatic scenes from those movies reeling in my head as the speaker described life at the camp. The crematorium with a gas chamber was even opened to the public. Personally I like doing service work and helping those less fortunate, but I’ve never had my heart break in such a way from human suffering. The most amazing thing to me though, was a photo of the prisoners on the camp’s liberation day. Everyone was ecstatic, smiling ear to ear, waving merrily from tortured, starved bodies having only known darkness and despair. An unexpected perspective was gained that visit for sure.

On Thurs. of this week I found out I was going to Munich for Oktoberfest! 5 of us, 1 French, 2 Spanish 1 Bolivian and me, made the 4 hour drive in a VW Polo, which is even smaller that a Golf. Getting tables in the tents is either really expensive or on a first come first serve basis. So, since Oktoberfest opens at 8 a.m., we left little Oestrich around 3 a.m Friday morning with another car full of tauschies. By 9 we had lost the other car but were parked in Munich in the pouring rain. But we made it and thankfully some other friends were already at a table, so within 15 mins we had 13 people crammed around a table drinking liters of beer from the biggest glasses I’ve ever seen. By noon, nearly everyone in the tent is standing on their tables singing traditional German songs toasting at every other drink and dancing to the German folk band playing. Oh, and about half of the people there had on traditional Bavarian attire, suede shorts, suspenders, pointed hats. It was amazing.

Once it started getting dark, the rain had let up and several of us rode festival rides, like the Frisbee, and ate wurst afterwards. All of the tents were becoming absolutely packed and we’d lost our table when we came outside, so the 5 of us went back to the car to sleep. It was absolutely miserable. There is however, a certain type of bond that forms when you spend over 24 hours sharing your personal space with 4 others. And we still had the drive back! That was one of the best weekend trips I’ve ever made!

I was as Dutch this past Wednesday as I have been since arriving here. Since we’re learning how to pronounce Dutch words (dipthongs, the combining of two or more vowels to form a different sound, have given the Americans trouble), I read some simple Dutch phrases for a hour and a half or so. At one point during class, the professor was talking about how easy ordering drinks at a bar was and he proceeded to go over some of the bar vocabulary. We learned how to ask for, among other things, Coke, coffee, tea, beer, and gin. The professor began to describe some of the alcoholic beverages and when he got to gin, he pulled out a bottle of Dutch gin and a shot glass.

“No freaking way,” I thought.

Sure enough, he poured shots for everyone in class who wanted one. Who am I to refuse a free drink from a professor during class? Although he only served half-shots for us to get a taste of the gin, I can still say that I’ve been served alcohol in class by a professor. Good story. Cool guy. Naturally, he rides a motorcylce to school.

Yikes, I digress. Later that night, I further solidified myself as a psuedo-Dutch individual while riding my bike in the rain to the Centrum to meet a few friends for dinner. Having a foot at most between cars passing me on my left and the parked cars on the right is still somewhat intimidating for me, though. However, my bike skills are somehow such that I was able avoid face planting when writing a text message while riding my bike. Let me not overstate anything though, my bicycle skills still leave quite a bit to be desired.

Anyway, all’s well in Den Haag. Tot ziens!

Paige and I arrived in Den Haag early on the 27th August and made our way to the Haagse Hogeschool (The Hague University) to collect our luggage from Lieke, a very friendly and helpful employee in the International Center who allowed us to store our luggage in her office while we backpacked. She was even kind enough to let the airport deliver my luggage (since it was lost somewhere between Charlotte and Philadelphia) to her house and she subsequently brought it to the school. We made our way to DUWO, the rental agency, and received the keys to our apartments. Our apartments are reminiscent of Betty Johnson at U of L in that each student has his/her own living space with a bed and a desk, but the inhabitants share a bathroom and a kitchen. The quality and proximity to the school of one’s apartment is pretty much luck. After seeing some other student’s apartments, Paige and I have realized that we were fairly lucky in the apartments to which we were assigned despite the 25 or so minute walk to school and the fact that neither one of us has a washing machine (this has left me doing laundry in the sink with a sponge and hanging it outside my window on clothleslines because I refuse to pay the EU5 – EU7 that it costs to do laundry at a laundr-o-mat). I am living with two other students – a 20 year-old Belgian student from the Walloon region (so French is his native tongue, though he does know some Dutch) who is on a one-semester exchange and an 18 year-old Bulgarian student who will be studying at The Hague for the next four years.

Our IBMS orientation of The Hague University was a three day experience in which the school organized a tour of the building, a tour of the city, bought us a Strippenkaart (which is used to take the tram around the city), a trip to the beach (Scheveningen), and dinner at an Italian restaurant the first day. On the second day, the school bought us return tickets to Amsterdam and took us to the Museum of Amsterdam to familiarize us with the most important city in the Netherlands. We were also treated to the Heineken experience, a sort of Heineken museum and explanation of the brewing process. Part of the tour is that three free beers are included, as well as a souvenier bottle opener. We were treated to lunch at a restaurant called the Pancake Factory, taken on a canal tour of Amsterdam, and then allowed to remain in the city to our vices as long as we promised to be back the next morning to determine our courses. I was amazed and appreciative of the fact that all expenses for these two days were covered by the University. The third day, Friday, was a bit hectic. Apparently, the American students’ mentor would be unable to perform this role due to prior obligations as the MBA co-ordinator and ambassador of the IBMS program. We weren’t alone, though; pretty much everyone was in mass confusion over their schedule. Knowing that we had the full support of the Business School put my mind at ease a little bit and I chose classes as best I could, confirming with the Business School as I went. After about a week or week and a half, things ended up working themselves out, despite some early frustration on my part. As warned by Max though, the building is an interesting, massive, and impressive construction that houses the majority of the courses offered by The Hague University, so familiarizing oneself with it is vital – especially since classes tend to switch rooms from time to time for some reason still unknown to me.

I’ve found it very easy to meet people here, especially the exchange students, and I feel like I’m cultivating relationships that will last a lifetime. I’ve been told by various people that studying abroad truly is a life changing experience. I’m happy to report that through three weeks of my actual study abroad, I think this certainly is the case. Sharing this experience with Paige, though her and I have done a remarkable job of separating ourselves and making this a unique experience for each of us, is a blessing that I can’t put into words.

I’ve had quite a bit of time to reflect on myself – who I was, who I am, and who I want to be, both personally and professionally – and have been taking some steps to making these changes come to fruition. In a rare philosophical state of epiphany, I realized something that I will always be grateful for – that one of the most important things my parents ever taught me was how to laugh. After a few minutes of reveling in this realization, I smiled to myself, relived the entire backpacking trip in my mind, flashed through the past three weeks, and realized that I am in the Netherlands and I literally am having the time of my life. This is the pinnacle, the “good ‘ole days”, and I don’t want to forget a second of this experience. Living in constant awareness of this makes it that much sweeter because, to use a cliche that I’ve been trying to put into practice as long I can remember, life is about the journey.

I’ve pretty much been a slacker on the blog due to schoolwork, trying to complete the adjustment to living in Den Haag, and to trying to develop social relationships, so I’m going to wrap up this backpacking trip.

Paige and I spent the 24th through the 26th exploring Prague. What a beautiful city! Prague was not nearly as badly damaged in World War II as some of the other surrounding cities so most of the historical features of the city were preserved. Depending on where one is in the city, the architecture can be distinctly different from Renaissance, to Gothic, to modern – Prague really has quite a variety. Paige and I took the opportunity to rent a Segway (the motorized, stand-up scooters) and take a tour of the town. Once switched from “tourist” mode to “expert” (or whatever the next level was called), these things really moved! I believe our guide told us they got up to almost 20 MPH and their agility was actually quite impressive, as well. Our guide explained to us that students played quite a big role in the fall of communism in the former Czechoslovakia. He didn’t go into too much detail so this is per Wikipedia: ” On November 17, 1989, a peaceful student demonstration in Prague was severely beaten back by the riot police. That event sparked a set of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December, and a general two-hour strike of the population on November 27. By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million…the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28 they would give up their monopoly on political power.” Cool story.

Paige and I were able to see the four formerly indepedent citires that currently make up Prague’s historical center, including: the Old Town and Old Town Square (the original place of settlement in Prague in the 9th century), the New Town (founded in the 14th century), the Lesser Town (which was home to a number of noble palaces due to its proximity to Prague Castle), and the Jewish Quarter.

We saw the Astronomical Clock, which hundreds of people gather around each hour to listen to the clock chime and to observe the four animated figures that emerge from the clock every hour, on the hour. Each figure represents something that is (or was) despised – Death (represented by a skeleton), Vanity (represented by a figure holding a mirror), Judaism (a figure holding a bag), and the Turkish (a figure with a turban). Again, this is per Wiki since the square was bustling when we observed this and our guide did not fully explain it.

We also saw the Lennon Wall, the National Museum, the Petřínská rozhledna (a 1:5 copy of the Eiffel Tower), the Žižkov Television Tower (though we didn’t go in it), the Dancing House (an interesting construction that is supposed to represent a man and woman dancing), and of course, the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge.

One morning, we took a guided day trip to a town around 50-70 km outside of Prague called Kutna Hora. Kutna Hora was once the second most important city (behind Prague) in Bohemia due to the discovery of vast silver mines there in the 10th century. However, the city didn’t start rapidly growing until the publication of a legal document by the king outlined specifications of the operation of the mines. Once the silver mines were exhausted around the end of the 18th century, Kutna Hora ceased competing with Prague economically, politically, and culturally. It is a quaint, beautiful little city though and is home to the Saint James Church, the Saint Barbara Church, one of the more famous Gothic churches in Central Europe, and the real reason we elected to go to Kutna Hora, the Ossuary. During the Black Plague in the 14th century, many thousands of people were buried in the Cemetary of All Saints, causing it to be greatly enlarged. When a Gothic church was built on the site around 1400, the lower chapel of the church was used as an ossuary for the mass graves that were dug up during the construction. The bones were subsequently stacked in the chapel in the 1500s. In the late 19th century, the Schwarzenberg family commissioned a wood carver to artistically arrange the approximately 40,000 skeletons as decorations for the chapel. This was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life. Among the many bone decorations constructed by this wood carver, was the Schwarzenberg coat of arms and an enormous chandelier made of bones and skulls that greeted us upon descending the stairs into the lower chapel. Various other bone decorations hung from the ceiling and adorned the walls. The lower chapel was not very large, but it was extremely impressive and well worth the trip.

By the end of the 26th, we were excited about flying back to Den Haag and finally having a place to call home for a few months rather than sleeping on people’s couches or in hostels. I can’t overstate though, how incredible of an experience backpacking all around Europe was. It enabled me to experience different people, different cultures, different foods (some good – the Italian food, some not so good – the “traditional Czech meal” I tried in Kutna Hora that was basically uncooked meat and cucumbers drowned in vinegar), see and do things I never would’ve dreamed I’d have the opportunity to do, and forge close friendships with our hosts and with my traveling companion. When we returned to the hostel on the night of the 26th, I was a little depressed that the backpacking was over until I realized that I’d only been in Europe for three and a half weeks and that the adventure was really just beginning.